Alphabet Art

Alphabet art is a lot of fun! This was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to stay pretty strict to his room color scheme for this piece.

Belly Button Ring Officially Removed.

It was starting to hurt a little so it had to come out. Last picture with the belly button ring.

27 weeks front view:

More Artwork

I got pretty ambitious last night while Ryan was playing Call of Duty. I made a Name picture of baby B's name to go over the crib. Since we're not revealing his name till he's born that one will have to wait. Here is another I made last night. I like the look of collage/cut out art, so I made something like that. Keeping the color scheme of his room in mind this is what I came up with.



I have a few more ideas for the remaining pieces, nothing too concrete yet though.

Waiting

I keep getting this feeling like I'm very quickly running out of time to get everything I need to get done around here done before baby B is here. His room has been on hold for a few weeks for me for several reasons. I have it all planned out, I just need to start! There are a lot of things that need to happen and each thing is waiting on something else to be done before it. I need his crib before I can color match the paint to paint the chair and dresser. I need room to have somewhere to put the dresser while we're waiting, I also need to get the crib so that I can measure it and start making all of the bedding and crib accessories. I also need to paint the room. I'm really anxious to get my whole house organized, not just his room. Wonder if this is the "nesting" I've heard so much about? I'll be 27 weeks in a few days. Where is the time flying away to?!?! There's only about 13 weeks till he's here!

24 Weeks Pregnant

I've been a massive slacker in taking belly pictures. For a few weeks it seemed nothing changed, but I can definitely tell a difference between week 20-24!


Front/Side View

Vintage Irmi Lamps: I can't choose!

I love the look of vintage Irmi lamps. There's nothing I hate worse than matchy-matchy generic nursery decor, and lamps and bedding are tied for the matchy-matchy prize. Don't get me wrong, there are some really cute baby bedding sets out there, they just aren't what I'm looking for.

These lamps are very unique and one of a kind and I like that a lot. Here are the Irmi lamps I'm leaning toward the most. I really need help deciding which one to get. The train and trolly definitely fit the color scheme best, but there's something about the ark and animals I like on the other lamp. HELP, I can't choose! Which one do you like best?



The ark comes with a plain white lamp shade (not original) but is missing the trolly driver part of the lamp. The train comes with the original shade. It has orange trains on a white and yellow checked background. The tolly doesn't come with a shade.

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UPDATE: I just purchased the Orange Caboose lamp. I think it fit more of the criteria than the other two. I like that it still had it's original shade. Can't wait to get it!

Kewpieville Framed Pieces

I LOVE how these turned out. These are postcards adapted by Florence Baker in the style of Rose O'Neill. They are from the 1950s and I love them. I really like the rich colors in them, and I think they will look great on the seafoam wall. I was initially going to paint the wooden frame gold to match the triptych frame, but I really love how the rich wood looks with the postcards.



Yes, I typed the word "love" three times in this post. But it's true, I love these (okay, now four times).

Mockup on Seafoam wall:

Rocking Chair Drama

I think my brother is totally cursed when it comes to hauling furniture (especially chairs!) for me. Back when I was moving into my first place, my Grandma bought me a table and chair set and one of the chairs fell out of the truck and shattered on the highway. When he was moving an overstuffed living chair back to Libby to my mom's house, that took flight as well.

As you might remember from a previous post, my mom gave me a rocking chair that's been in the family for quite some time. I was going to refinish and reupholster it. My brother was doing me a favor by bringing it to me and guess what happened? Yep, it grew it's wings and took flight and shattered like glass on the highway. Dang!

Tim and I decided to go look around a few second hand stores, and what do you know, the first one we go to I find the PERFECT glider rocking chair! And it was only $30! Not bad, not bad at all. I plan use the existing cushions on it as a pattern to make new ones. I'm going to sand this bad boy down and paint it to match the crib and dresser (An antique off-white color).

I don't think I mentioned how PERFECT this chair is! It matches the crib ( I don't have the crib yet, but that's in the works!!!) almost perfectly. see...



Here are the pictures of it with and without the cushions:









I can't wait to get started on it. RIP old family rocking chair, you will be missed!

Rugs

I really like the look of the light grey on white zebra rugs. With the colors we're doing in his room I think one might look cute. Most of them range from expensive to expensiver (yes, I know that's not a word). Here are a few examples:

So Far...(Frames)

Here are the second hand frames we got. Most of these will be painted white. I'm replacing all of the artwork with my own and others I find that I like.

The Kewpie Doll picture is an old Kewpieville postcard by Florence Baker. I'm getting a few more and putting them in the gold frame with this one. I'm not painting the gold frame. I actually kinda like the real subtle gold color of it as is. The two bigger frames on each end will house the Walter and Judy Collection lol.

So Far...(Toys)

Most of these are used and were bought for next to nothing! I don't even want to say how much all of this stuff cost because it's pretty pathetic how inexpensive!





Notice the Sophie the Giraffe...I just had to buy her! I'm going to repaint the hook shelf a bit to make it a little less girly.

So Far...(Newborn Clothing)

Here are the used newborn-3 month clothing we've accumulated so far. Most of them you can't even tell they've been used and they were all very inexpensive (bonus!).





Here are the NEW clothes we've purchased. We got all of these before we even knew we were having a boy. But most of them are boyish lol. Also here are a few other random things that have been purchased.

So Far...(Books)

Here are some of the books we accumulated so far. Most of these are from Goodwill.

I LOVE Little Golden Books!








I love these old vintage library books.


I didn't get pictures of every book we've gotten so far, but this is most of them.

I can't wait to paint

I have the colors picked out and I just can't wait to paint the baby's room! I chose to do 2 walls one color, and 2 walls another color. Here are the colors I've chosen for the walls and accents:


Colors will look different on different computer monitors.

Nursery Wall Art

Being a designer, I have a lot of plans for the nursery wall art. I want to make a great deal of the pictures myself. I have a few little prints that I just have to put up. I wanted to do one of each of our dogs in a cartoony sort of design. I had a pretty funny picture of Walter, so I just dove in and here it is.


ORIGINAL PICTURE:


Two of the accent colors are yellow and orange, so those are the background colors of each print. Judy's will be orange. I have to get a cute picture of Judy so that I can start her cartoon. I really don't have a lot of solid ideas for other pictures I'll make, but I have some time to figure it out.

Toys for Decor

In going with a vintage theme, I've been looking for toys that are a nice mix of new and vintage. Here is a compilation of a few of the things I'm thinking of. He is going to be born the Chinese year of the Rabbit, so that is reflected in the Miffy Bunny.

Baby Blankie

My Grandma taught me to crochet many many years ago. I really hope to put those skills to use and make something similar in color and style to this:



I'd probably not use green and I'd swap the tan for a light gray color.

Still searching for the crib

The search is still on for that awesome crib. I refuse to give up, I want it. I want it bad! I got a hold of the store, and because that crib has been discontinued, they have it for actually VERY inexpensive compared to what it originally retailed for. Also, they only have 2 colors available: natural wood and antique white. The price for the crib new is now $429. I *might* be willing to pay that much, but with the shipping (she estimated $250-$300 are you kidding me?!) it's just too much!

I Googled Bellini Annie Crib and found it for sale all across the US in various Craigslist posts. I found it on Ebay also, but that lady refused to ship it unless someone could come and pick it up and ship it out.

For now I'm happy to shop around and hopefully some nice citizen will be willing to ship me this crib at a reasonable price. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Second Hand Shopping

This weekend Ryan and I went to Libby, I had so much fun shopping with my mom and husband. We only went to a few second hand stores/consignment shops, and spent very little (well mom did, she wouldn't let my pay for anything!) I was a little sad that Parkside Thrift store wasn't open on Saturday. I haven't been in there in years, and they have a ton of stuff to look through in there. I got a ton more books, a LOT of baby clothes, and some toys. All in all a pretty successful shopping trip.

The thing I'm most excited about is the dresser I found. I didn't want to have to get a changing table. I wanted a dresser that was wide enough and long enough to have the changing pad on top of. I don't see a point in getting a changing table since it pretty much becomes useless after baby is done with diapers. I found the dresser on my Grandma's porch! It used to be mine years and years ago. It's a French Provincial style, which really, doesn't go with anything in my house, but being it's for the baby, and goes with the vintage theme, it should work out great. I do need to refinish it. Next time my brother comes down this way I'm going to have him bring the dresser and rocking chair for me to get to work on.

I spent quite a bit of time today washing and cleaning all of the new books and goodies. I'm going to wait to wash the clothes until right before he's born. What's the point right now, I'll just have to wash them again then anyhow.

PICS COMING SOON

It's a...

BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ultrasound was awesome! Baby is measuring right on target for everything. I'm happy to announce that I was right and it's a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so, so, so excited! He didn't want us to miss the fact that he was a boy, he had his goods and services all out and about, but was being like daddy and hiding his face from the camera. He was head down and facing toward my left butt cheek, face right against the uterus so we got NO face shots! I was so looking forward to getting a small peek at what he looks like, but he wasn't having any of it. Already taking after his daddy LOL. When she told us what he was I instantly started crying, I was so overcome with happiness! I'm so so so over the moon right now I can't sit still! The beautiful smile Ryan gave me when we found out will forever be etched in my heart. I love that man.

Kiley's 2!

Here is a video I made of my niece Kiley last month. The clips are of her from newborn-2nd birthday. She makes me smile.

Found the Bookcase

Unless something changes, this is the bookcase I want to get. It will fit all of those awesome books we got and things we're going to get.

I NEED to find this crib!

I have one picture of the crib I'd die to have! I've searched too many hours to count for it online, and have come up empty handed. I've found a few that are similar, but not quite what I want. If anyone anywhere knows what brand/style this crib is, where I can buy it (if it's not an arm and a leg) or one of similar style, please let me know.



I love how thick the slats are on the crib. I don't like those skimpy looking ones very much. I really love the curved ends. Ahhh I want it!
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UPDATE:

Good news: I found it. Bad news: Probably can't get it. It is called the Annie Crib and it's by a company called Bellini, an Italian furniture company. It can be found here . They don't even list the prices on the website, and we all know what that means--EXPENSIVE! I found a few on ebay, but they are all local pickup only and nowhere close to this area. Maybe, just maybe I'll find one somewhere!?!

Starting Line of the Nursery

One thing I've always been excited about since finding out I was pregnant was the prospect of designing the nursery. We still don't know if baby is a boy or girl, but the color scheme I FINALLY decided on is gender neutral. Yay! I'm still feeling pretty overwhelmed with all of the options for everything from the crib to the changing table to the accessories and toys. Everything I see I'm literally like a kid in a candy store; "Ooooo, pretty, I like that, no that, that one's awesome!" I'm not doing a theme perse, but I want to have a lot of different animals and kind of a vintage feel to the space. Also, I want it to all tie together. I don't want it to scream BOY or GIRL, so we're going gender neutral with the colors and letting the accessories do that boy/girl talking.

I have a lot of DIY ideas for this space. The question is am I taking on too much? Just off the top of my head I know I want to:

1. Design all of the artwork pieces.
2. Paint all of the thrifted frames white.
3. Refinish and reupholster a rocking chair that has been in our family a long time.
4. Build cloud shelves. (I'm sorry but the metal versions I saw online are rediculously overpriced at $69 each!
5. Get a new closet door. The mirrored door look is OUT, and has been for quite some time.
6. Get a new fan/light and install.
7. Make a curtain for the window.
8. Attempt to revisit my quilting skills and make a baby quilt.
9. Make an afghan.
10.Recover the Boppy I got. It's in amazing shape, but is ugly as sin.

These are just the things I'm going to be DIYing! I still have a lot of looking around online and in stores for everything!

I've already scored some neat finds. My mom and I went to our favorite Missoula second hand store, YMCA Secret Seconds. I got a few new looking teddy bears, a boppy, a vintage little people schoolhouse with oversized little people, a neat animal shelf with hooks to hang coats, etc. from, a vintage clown and a few used books. I love bringing things home, cleaning them up, and making them my own! I really do think half the fun is going out searching for things. Sometimes you didn't even know you needed it till you saw it! I just hope that in the next few days I can nail down the color pallette and find my DREAM crib that I have one picture of, but can't find online anywhere! I'm also going to be working on a storyboard or two of the overall color scheme and look and feel I'm going for. Afterall, we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl next week. I can't WAIT!!!!!!