Decor

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A refinishing job 3 years in the making.

When Chris and I first got married and bought our house I made the ‘new homeowner’ mistake of beginning about 50 projects simultaneously. Some projects were a necessity to us actually being able to live and function in the house {like fixing up a table so we didn’t have to eat on the floor and painting over the blood red walls in the kitchen – if you saw the walls, you’d realize it was a necessity}, other projects were just my creative genius getting away from me. The chair in our office was one of the latter. I had taken it apart before really knowing what I wanted to do with it. It sat in a dilapidated state in our garage for almost 3 years until this past week as I was getting our house ready for our resource parenting home study.

I wish I had a ‘before’ photo of the chair because it’s always very satisfying to compare with the ‘after’ photos. This chair is one that my mother re-covered to match my room when I was younger, and I’m sure she salvaged it from the thrift store. It took quite a bit of muscle to peel away the 5 layers of fabric/pleather stapled to the seat over the years.

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My apologies for the blurry photos, but here are some of the previous coverings.
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The fabric I chose is some of my favorite. I actually purchased it before Chris and I even closed on the house. I came across it at the fabric store, fell in love, and bought every yard and scrap they had. I am very selective with which projects I use it on. It’s currently on our kitchen chairs as well. I also added additional padding to the chair – a necessity since the previous padding was practically nonexistent {or so old it had been squashed into nothingness from the weight of 10 previous owners}.

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The chair itself was originally white but was very easy to spray paint a pretty teal color {it looks blue in the photos because of the poor quality of the pics but really has more of a teal/green tone to it}. I honestly don’t remember the name … ‘sea’ something and I don’t care enough to go digging in my trash to recover the canister, but if you want to know I’m sure I can find it online! image-62

I am loving the finished product and am so glad this space is starting to come together.

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Finally, a look at Charlotte’s nursery

So it’s been almost a year since we started working on Charlotte’s nursery, haha. I guess it’s about time I posted some photos. Sorry for the quality, I used my iPhone {I’ve even read several tutorials on how to take better iPhone photos and I still can’t get it right!}

At 28 weeks the walls were painted gray and I hand painted polkadots on one accent wall.

Surprisingly, looking at this photo makes me miss being pregnant

– All other pregnancy photos make me instantly queezy though, ha!

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I can’t seem to find the photos of Chris putting the crib together :/ hopefully they are just misfiled.

The view from the doorway. Just last week we had her crib to the left of the window and the rocker to the right of the window, but now that she is sitting up, which will snowball into crawling, which will snowball into pulling up… I decided it was time to move the crib away from the curtains.from door 2

Bow organizer {made from an old thrift store frame, spray painted, then fitted with some chicken wire provided by my dad}

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A look at her closets. Yes, she has WAY too many things already! I wanted to have as many things showing as possible, though, so that I can easily take inventory. We got a lot of hand-me-downs and were gifted with so many adorable outfits that I didn’t want to accidentally  pass over any and find them when she’s already outgrown them {that was something I read is very common with baby clothing}.

To prevent this, I have a system that seems to be working well – all clothing sorted by size/season and placed in a designated spot:

  • Current sizes {size 6 months right now, still some size 3 months} are in the dresser.
  • Sizes coming up next {currently size 9 months for us} are in the hanging sweater rack.
  • Any subsequent sizes are boxed and labeled but kept in plain sight so a) they can easily be added into the rotation, and b) I can plainly see that she has PLENTY for the next month so I am not tempted to buy her a completely new wardrobe.

Once a size is outgrown, I sort those items into 3 piles:

1. Hand-me-downs from a friend {boxed away in the attic, ready to be given back or broken out again, depending on who has the next girl}

2. Keepsake clothing or clothing items gifted to Charlotte that I can’t bear to part with just yet {like her baby Vans}

576864_658890730968_1124657836_n3. Donation pile {items that, if I’m totally honest with myself, I either didn’t LOVE on Charlotte or I probably wouldn’t choose to put it on a baby again because of wear/style,etc}.

The left side of her closet:

Closet - L side

The right side of her closet:

Closet R side

Her dresser:

  • The dresser is one from craigslist that I painted white – it holds: jammies, socks and tights, onesies/rompers, pants, and shirts.
  • Diaper pail with liner for cloth diapers
  • Breast pump fits perfectly into this little nightstand and is a great place to stash all the necessities for pumping {even middle of the night water and snacks… I find that I am not able to go back to sleep until I drink a glass of water and eat something}
  • The mobile above the chair was made by a sweet friend and Charlotte loves to look at it when we snuggle.

Dresser 1

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mirror above changing table

Audio and video monitors {reviewed here}, some hair accessories in the little yellow drawers, and anything else I may need at my fingertips while changing her diaper/getting her dressed for the day. My two ‘must-haves’ for this spot are her comb {I have to comb the hair on the back of her head several times a day or else she would have dreadlocks} and a jar of coconut oil {for diaper rash, as lotion, to put on cuts… anything and everything}!

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I LOVE this mushroom nightlight. It’s not too bright, but gives plenty of light for an early morning diaper change or nursing.
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The pump is tucked away nicely in this nightstand.
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The yellow and white glider/ottoman is by far my favorite thing in her room and I am SO glad we splurged on it {with the help of my parents, Charlotte’s Papa and Honey!!}.

A comfortably nursing mama is a happy mama.

Chair and ottoman

Several quilts are tucked away in a gray and white reed basket, within reach for tummy time or snuggle time.
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The bookshelf is full of books, teethers, rattles, and puzzles
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The iPod dock for white noise is something we use for all naps and bedtime. As far as stuffed animals go, she seems to favor her hippo rattle and her pink bunny lovey at the moment.

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The mobile I DIY’d here.

And if you look closely you can see the outlets that have no covers on them {I know, BAD mommy!} – I took them off during painting and didn’t want to put them back on because they were cream and I wanted to get white ones. Well, obviously that isn’t going to happen because it’s been almost a year, but when I went to go grab the cream ones to put back on so they would at least be safe I couldn’t find them, ha!
From door

The view from the bookshelf corner towards the door.

I’d say the only thing I don’t like about her crib being on this wall is that it is SO close to the door {making it VERY difficult to sneak in and out of her room}
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And the BEST part of the nursery…. Charlotte

TADA… Charlie Grace!

Again, I apologize for the photo quality; while writing this post I kept rubbing my eyes and trying to blink my contacts back into place because the pics are so fuzzy!!!

 

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DIY Crib Mobile {Grey and Yellow}

Yes, It’s been over 3 months since Charlotte was born and way more than that from the time we first started on her nursery. No, her nursery is not finished yet {still waiting on a few shelves to be hung by someone other than me}.

There are quite a few DIY projects in her nursery and I will share them all soon, but today I’ll just share how I made her mobile.

I started with one of the hanging paper lanterns we used in our wedding {you can see them in the background here}

Technically, the lantern I used for Charlotte’s nursery was in the ‘wedding bunch’ but not actually hung that day because it was yellow and it was the only one {I didn’t want one lone yellow lantern}. Anyway, I followed this tutorial {which I found on Pinterest, where else?!} to make the mini bunting using some fabric scraps that match her nursery. It turned out alright, but certainly wasn’t as cute as the tutorial girl’s turned out. And I was also thinking that the purpose of a mobile is to be eye catching for a bambino laying on his/her back in the crib. Well, the bottom of the lantern is just a hole that lets you see all the way through to the ceiling. Not very ‘eye catching’ if you ask me! So I decided to add some pizzaz. I covered a cardboard circle with some scrap yellow fabric.

Then I sorted through some sequins to find the ones that would fit with my white/grey/yellow color combo {I don’t believe in being perfectly matchy-matchy so I used orange, yellow, white, opaque, gold, and silver}. I also added a sparkly yellow butterfly to dangle from the bottom of the lantern.

Once it was dry I affixed the bedazzled cardboard circle to the bottom of the lantern and hung the whole shebang from the ceiling with a little white eye hook. It’s not quite as gaudy as the picture below makes it out to be, but it is fun and sparkly!

I really like how it turned out and, after testing it out during her afternoon nap, Charlotte gave a squeal of approval. I also like that it probably doesn’t even weigh a 1/2 pound so if by and chance it falls on her it definitely won’t leave a mark.

Stay tuned for a complete look at her nursery {with or without those shelves, because that could take another year}.

- Oh Happy Daze

C is for Cookie

October was full of celebrations for our family. Baxter’s first birthday and our first wedding anniversary (you can find the excitingly detailed photographic recount of these events here and here). My nephew’s 2nd birthday was at the end of the month and I am sadly just now getting to this post.

Bare with me, I’m trying out writing this post in my actual WordPress page… it’s a bit difficult and I’m struggling to get words into the places I want them – which seems simple, but somehow is not. So, as usual, I will just let the photos do the talking. The party was Sesame Street themed and my sister made everything (food, decor) using her own crafty DIY mind. It was a great day, and I am so glad my brother was able to celebrate with us before he went back to boot camp.

Happy Birthday Sweet Nephew!!!