time to hang it up...

Despite feeling like I've been hit by a semi, I finished the mobile today, and it looks fantastic! After hours of cutting out circles, a few more hours of using a straight pin to poke tiny little holes in said circles, and more hours of trial-and-error guessing at how far apart the circles should be on each strand, I finally nailed it. And then after many more hours of lazily laying in bed, drinking hot tea for my throat, and listening to the sound of chainsaws and falling tree branches (don't worry, we had some guys out today to cut down some trees), every single dot was strung and all 9 strands were on the top piece.

Baby's view from below

Obviously, as he gets bigger I'll raise it up higher - the string that suspends it from the ceiling is pretty long right now. And of course, the balloons from the baby shower won't be there either.

But for something that I threw together after seeing a couple pictures of something similar, I think it turned out waaayyyy better than I expected. Looking back at the whole process, once I finally figured out the best way to string and knot each circle, it was actually a pretty quick process. Most of my wasted time was spent cutting out far too many circles; I was originally going to mix the solids and the patterns that I used in the name letters, but after seeing a test string of those, it just didn't look right. So now that I know just about how many each strand needs and how far apart to knot them (two finger widths, by the way) I could probably crank another one out in a couple hours.

I hope the Bug loves to look at it as much as I do, it kind of wiggles if a breeze hits it... it's kind of cute.

glide away with me...

Shut the front door. I am trying really hard not to scream right now because.... THE GLIDER IS HERE!! AND THE OTTOMAN!! AND THEY ARE OFFICIALLY AT HOME IN THE NURSERY!! Okay, I'm screaming now! And happy dancing! I'm so freaking excited because this means that the baby's room is almost done! Okay, enough screaming-dancing-freaking-out-exclamation-usage.

Don't mind the weird look to the fabric, this was before I got the vacuum out and cleaned it up a bit.

And just for hilarity, yes, I did capture Bibbs in mid-leap up to check out the new glider. =]

The little "mommy nook" next to the crib... I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time here.

The view from the glider; I finally got a changing pad up on the changing table and found some cute little baskets and a matching hamper.

Now the question is, where are we going to put the Bug when he gets here? =D

So. It's officially official. The Bug's room is almost finished. We've got all the big stuff done and out of the way; the painting, the crib, the combo unit, the glider, that's all finished. Now it's on to the little details, such as the mobile, the bookshelves, the toy storage, the wall art. Well, I've already started on the mobile... last night (and the night before, who am I kidding?) I sat in front of the television with my momma's Cricut machine and cut out a billion about 300 two-inch circles for my mobile. And then tonight I parked in front of the TV, yet again, and worked on the top piece, which consists of a paper-covered 9" chipboard circle. Truthfully, I've been kind of winging it with this whole mobile project, so I haven't been very good about taking pictures as I go. But here are my "in-between" pictures, one of my top piece with some of the fishing line run through, and the other of my ginormous stacks o' circles:

Here's the top piece with the "leveling" lines run through and knotted together; the "hanging" line (to suspend it from the ceiling) will be attached last...  I think.

My billions tons of circles - solids on the left, patterns on the right

Obviously, my 9 inch top piece is not going to have room for all of those circles, both solid and patterned, but it gives me lots of room to play and experiment with how I want them arranged. At first I was just going to use solid colors, but the more I looked at my scrap pile from making his name banner and pennant, the more I realized it would be more fun to incorporate the patterns I've already used elsewhere in the room. Pretty smart thinking, eh?

As you may have noticed in some of the pictures above, the crib is currently stuffed full of blankets and baskets of toys and books and other stuff and junk. But now that the futon is outta there and we have the glider in place, I can see where I want my bookshelves, and now it's just a matter of making it all happen! I originally saw these bright green boxes that I love, but I had trouble finding a tutorial on how to actually make them. Until I remembered that the Petersiks over at Young House Love built some for their daughter's nursery. And then I showed the Hubs, and he liked 'em, so he's going to build them!

aforementioned bright green shelves

aforementioned Petersik shelves

I suppose once we get bookshelves made and up on the wall, that will free up some baskets and tubs to put the Bug's toys in. Or maybe I'll look for some sort of stack of drawers, maybe with canvas bins or something of the sort. Who knows. All I know for sure as of now is that my little "mommy nook" looks fantastic and now I need to buy/find/make some sort of side table thing for my "mommy nook" so I have somewhere to put a book or glass of water during all those late night feedings. And now it's time for bed.

let there be light...

I was really hoping to have more things done in the nursery by today, but we decided to just chill this weekend. But the Hubs was productive! We ran out to Lowes yesterday and picked up the semi-mount pendant light that I've been eyeballing for the Bug's room. I love love LOVE all of the Allen + Roth lighting at Lowes and this baby was only 59 bucks, and came with the CFL bulb, too. Even though I really wish I had gotten more done in the room this weekend, I keep turning on the light and staring at it every time I walk by. So maybe I'll get more accomplished this week, or maybe I'll paint the paneling in the family room. Or maybe I just won't do anything... we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

guinea pigs and busy bees...

I've been a slow-moving, but fairly busy bee lately. Obviously, I still haven't gotten very good at updating the blog like I should, but I've just been getting little tiny things accomplished, so I figured I would save them for a big update... like this one, duh. So here goes.

The baby's room is where the most progress has been made. In fact, I think it's safe to say that I'm almost finished in there. Of course, the Hubs still has lots of work to do in there, like putting up a new ceiling light fixture, putting a dimmer switch on said fixture, building custom bookshelves, and maybe a few little things, but we're nearing the end of projects in the Bug's room. (But of course, I'll be all, "On to the next one! Which room is next?!" when the Bug's room is finished) Let's just take a look at what we've gotten accomplished so far and what we have left to do:

• Paint walls
• Paint ceiling
• Paint trim
• Paint door and closet door
• Buy crib
• Buy dresser/changing table
• Buy glider and ottoman
• Find large area rug
• Make/buy mobile
• Make/buy "Mason"
• Make/buy wall art < more details to come about this soon... hint: tissue paper art
• Construct book shelves < more details about this soon, too
• Find cute organizing baskets
• Find hamper
• Make liner for hamper? < decided we didn't really one
• Buy/make curtains
• Line dresser drawers
• Refinish floors?
• Find new light fixture < found one tonight, now it's just a matter of running to Lowes and getting it
• Install dimmer on light switch < and we'll pick this up when we get the light
• Paint inside closet?
• Organize closet
• Find end table/nightstand for glider

As I mentioned earlier, I painted the trim and the doors white (you can see it in the pictures above), to match the white paneling out in the hallway and kitchen, and we simply love it! If you look at the "before" pictures of when the nursery was the office, it looks so much cleaner and brighter now with the lighter walls and that wonderful pop of crisp semi-gloss white on everything else. We went to Target last night and got a rug, and I must say, not only do that cats love it's shagginess, I love it too! Even though it's still a little stiff - it is brand new, by the way - it's a more plush kind of rug than the Flor tiles I was originally looking at; and I think it "warms up" the room a little bit, while still showing off our beautiful hardwood floors and being easy to vacuum. Oh! and we finally bought ordered a glider and ottoman to put in the corner; I cannot wait until it gets here! I sat in every single one on display on the sales floor at BRU and I did not want to get out of this one, made by Newco; it's the "Serenity" glider in "chocolate chenille"... and it's a little slice of Heaven on Earth, in my opinion. So whilst looking at the slew of photos above, just use your imagination and picture this delightfully cushy piece of furniture in lieu of the giant black futon.

The closet is still kind of a work in progress. I had my baby shower for the Hubs' side of the family two weeks ago, and the shower for my side of the family last week, so after finally getting just about everything put away, the closet looks like this, and we still have quite a bit more stuff we need to buy and store:

Also keep in mind that when - yes when, not if - WHEN I get back into my pre-preggo clothes (which I am dying to do, I really really miss my jeans. And I must get back into them, because I added it up and I own over 1200 dollars worth of American Eagle jeans and pants, but I digress) those two buckets of clothes on the floor to the left will no longer be there, which will make room for more storage solutions as he gets older and his collection of toys grows exponentially. And I'm thinking about rearranging some things and putting his convertible car seat on the top shelf, or maybe we'll just put it in the Hubs' car, since it fits newborns all the way to toddlers, we'll see. I decided to hang some of his clothes like nice button down shirts, overalls, and all of his sweaters and jackets; my OCD self  even got some cute little closet divider tabs to separate the different sizes of clothes. Once those buckets of my pre-preggo clothes are outta there, that will give me room to add a closet extender to get a second hanging bar. Instead of trying to screw a whole second rod into the wall itself, I figure adding one that hangs from the existing pole would make it easier to work around the hanging shelves on the right, without bunching them up and losing the bottom shelves. Said hanging organizer on the right holds all of his extra crib sheets, extra changing pad covers, multi-use pads (like sheet savers), flannel receiving blankets, burp cloths, and bibs. And for about 14 bucks from BRU, that was quite a steal for that much storage space. I'm still trying to work out where I want to keep his bath stuff... I'm thinking I might just clear off a spot on one of the towel shelves under the bathroom sink to put the Bug's towels and washcloths; I mean, he doesn't really have that many, and they don't take up that much room. The Petersik's over at Young House Love painted the inside of their daughter's closet and it was amazing how such a small little detail can totally change a room; I'm still toying with the idea of painting the inside of the closet, only because it means I would have to pull every single thing out of it, after spending weeks trying to figure out how to organize/fit all of it in there. So anyways, the closet is still a little bit of a question mark. I'm not sure if I am totally happy with it yet, because we still have so many little necessary things left to buy and things are going to be unpredictably different once the Bug actually gets here. Cause that's just how life goes with a newborn baby.

If you can remember far back enough to my little "sneak peek" at the end of my last post, I also got the paneling in the hallway painted. And might I add, it looks just fantastic! After seeing the white paneling continue so smoothly into the hallway was all it took for me to take a stab at repainting all of the trim in the house white... starting with baby's room. Yes, I used my unborn child's nursery as the guinea pig for this slightly intimidating project, but it totally paid off. The crisp white trim around the windows and doors, the baseboards, and the room and closet door all look wonderful. Like they were meant to be white from the beginning. The Hubs was a little leery of my taking on of this project, actually, I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy for wanting to do what would turn into quite a hefty load of work, but he even admitted that it looked awesome. In fact, he said just the other night that he couldn't wait for me to get the paneling in the family room painted because it made everything look so clean and fresh. And it really does; the areas that now have white in lieu of oak wood trim, etc look so much lighter and airier, it brightens up the whole entire area. So even though I have the daunting task of repainting the trim in the rest of the house, I am thoroughly pleased with the results and cannot wait to see how it all looks when it's finished. But enough chit chat, here are the goods (I'll upload more pictures tomorrow when I can take them in better light, it's too dark to do it tonight... but for now, here's another "sneak peek" shot, please don't be mad at me)
 
Tomorrow I'm hoping to make progress with making some wall art out of tissue paper (God knows I've got plenty of extra tissue paper laying around, especially now after all these baby shower gifts) and maybe even getting somewhere with making a mobile to hang above the crib. And who knows, maybe I'll even surprise you with the book shelf plans... shoot, it's not really a surprise anymore, is it?

woot woot...

 That's right kids... my combo unit is in the house! (I realize that sounded way lame, but I just couldn't help myself). After a frustrating two weeks of thinking that it hasn't come in yet, I called today to be told that my order was canceled due to "lack of payment". Well, you little poop heads, I'm sitting here looking at the receipt, so I find that a little hard to believe. Then they go looking for it only to discover that not only has it been sitting back there for two weeks with my freaking name on it, they apparently have a second crib back there for me. I suppose if I were having twins that would help me out but there's definitely just one bug in there. So. Hubs picked it up today and we got it in the room. And yes, it's full of clothes already (a big thanks to our awesome family and friends who have given us hand me downs and "couldn't resist buying its")

And I finally got the pennant done with his middle name on there. I originally was going to embellish each of the letters (aside from the cute border stickers that are already on there) but after looking at them the past couple days, I think I like them just the way they are. Fun and bright and full of texture and pattern, but not too busy. I loves it.