New Light/Fan

I forgot to get a proper before picture before Ryan took the fan blades off for his ceiling scraping endeavor. Please forgive this crappy massively cropped in picture of the old fan that I took shortly after we moved in the summer of 2008.


This thing squeaked and wiggled from side to side. We only ever used it as a light for that reason.


The new fan actually works and it will allow proper ventilation and airflow in the room for Baby B!

Dresser Refinishing: Part 4 Painted and Finished

WOOO it's all done! Talk about back breaking work when you're 8 1/2 months pregnant. I wanted to give up so many times throughout the process, especially while painting in the black outlines. I started with the drawers doing freehand, 3 coats. Talk about work! On the straight lines on the actual dresser I thought I'd be smart and use painters tape to make it go super fast and look super straight. Didn't. Work. Out. I was so excited to see the result after it was dry, I peeled back the tape and I about cried! It was all jagged and splotchy! Howwwww? I was so distraught I didn't even take a picture of it to show.

Needless to say, I wrecked my nails scraping the black off of where it shouldn't have been and free handed white over what was still left. It actually turned out really nice after ALL THAT WORK! I'm actually quite proud!

Before and after, what do you think?


Ignore my extremely messy kitchen, this dresser took up my whole weekend.






I love how smooth the paint job came out!

Dresser Refinishing: Part 3 Primer

Sanding took a lot longer than I anticipated. Getting into all of those little cracks and crevices was not easy! I spent about six hours yesterday sanding everything to my liking. I tend to get OCD and turn perfectionist when it comes to stuff like this. Most people would have stopped and called it good well before I did. All in all I'm very proud of the result.

Ryan knocked out two coats of primer for me last night, so all I had to do today was sand the primer and paint. I just finished the second coat of paint a minute ago and when that's dry I'll see if we need a third.

Here it is today after two coats of primer and before the paint.



We have decided to reuse the original hardware, they are now a glossy black! I also have a bit of a surprise with the dresser details, a fun little twist. I'm liking it so far.

Sleep Sack

Has anyone else used a "sleep sack" with their baby? I am all about reducing chances of SIDS, and I've heard great things about sleep sacks. I've been eying them, never seeing one in my price range and in a pattern that would match his room, till today. I found one on Zulily (LOOOOVE that site!) originally $60 but I got it for $27.99. I found an online coupon for $10 off an order $30 or more, my order wasn't quite there, so I looked around a bit more and found these cute party cookie imprint stamps for $4.99. Once it was all said and done with my $10 discount and shipping added I ended up paying $29.93.

Here's the one I ordered, it actually matches his room!:

Dresser Refinishing: Part 2 Sanding

Ryan is doing the large area sanding and I'm doing the fine detail sanding. I would probably be done by now, but it's 34 degrees outside. I keep getting frozen fingers! If only sanding, like painting involved no dust, I could do it in the kitchen.

Ryan working on a drawer last night.


It's starting to get there.


Lots of little crevices to get into, yikes!




Judy says hi.


The wood is actually really really pretty. Maybe down the road if we get sick of it being white we can strip it and stain it to really bring out that wood grain.

Dresser Refinishing: Part 1 Before

I grabbed a few before pictures of the dresser I've been so excited about. Tonight Ryan is going to sand it down (gotta keep the pregnant lady away from all the dust) and I'm going to prime and paint. We'll be doing the same thing with the rocking chair, but I already posted pictures of that awhile back.

NOTE: Yes, I know my garage needs cleaned like no other! I'll be getting to that this spring! :)



I think my favorite design feature of this dresser is the shape of the bottom. I think this is going to look nice mixed in with the more modern pieces (like the Ikea bookcase) in the room.



I love all the detail, it's almost a shame I have to repaint it. I really don't think Baby Boy would appreciate the flowers though! I'm still torn as to whether or not I'm going to use the original hardware when we're all done.


My mom bought this dresser in 1994 as part of a set that included a beautiful canopy bed that's in the same style as the dresser, large mirror that is to be hung above the dresser, two end tables and two antique lamps; for a grand total of $150. They are Bassett Furniture and were made in the mid '60s to reflect the French Provincial style.

This dresser sat out on my grandmas porch for many, many years, hence the worn paint around the bottom on the legs. I think it would have stayed in excellent condition if it had lived inside. I'm shocked at how sturdy and excellent the actual bones of the dresser are still in. It's just the cosmetics like the paint that are in need of some help. She still has the bed and the mirror, but the lamps and end tables are long gone.

Dye Curtains, Dye

I really love this fabric and was wanting to use it for the curtains initially.



I even ordered a swatch to see that the color was accurate and really, it couldn't be more perfect. The problem though is it is $18/yd! I want to do floor length curtains, and this will be an astronomical bill when it's all said and done! I was talking to my mom on the phone tonight and she suggested that I buy a sheet, dye it my desired yellow color and somehow paint on/stamp on some sort of design, it doesn't have to be white elephants. I don't know WHY I didn't think of this myself. I dyed my wedding crinoline pink, so I know I can do this! I think the hardest thing will be to figure out how to stencil on some elephants without it looking weird. Hmmm.

The Seattle Trip

The Seattle trip for the most part was a success! We got everything we went for except a few small things that I couldn't find and everything made it in one piece! I didn't realize how crazy Ikea was! We had to park at literally the farthest point away from the entrance that was still on the Ikea property! once we got inside, I felt like a farm animal being herded from spot to spot. People were everywhere, and pretty rude too. They'd just cut you off, stand in the way when they knew you were there, and bump into you without an apology. It's not like I'm the smallest person anymore either! I have a big bump that sticks out quite a bit now! We got in and out of there in under 30 minutes, and after seeing the size of that place, I can't believe we did it. We booked it from section to section and made it to the checkout pretty fast. The one thing I forgot to do there was to use my Montana drivers license so I wouldn't have to pay sales tax, oh well. I realized today that we got the wrong sized shelving brackets for the shelves we got. Yikes! They don't sell them online, so I might have to try and figure something else out.

The lady that sold us the crib met us at Ikea to drop it off to us. That was so sweet of her to go out of her way to bring it to us. This crib is even more beautiful in person. Who knew a piece of furniture that I don't even get to use myself would make me so darn happy!?!?! The only downside was she didn't have the cribs hardware with it, so she should be sending that out to us first thing Monday! I can't wait, I want to get it set up so badly! Plus I still have to make the bedding for it!

It was a long trip and toward the end my whole body hurt! But I'd say it was all worth it. Right now I'm going to go get some ice cream and wash down the crib!

I have a lot to update in the coming days:

~Pictures of the crib and everything we got at Ikea.
~Stripping and refinishing the dresser and the chair.
~Painting all the frames and framing the images.
~Finish fabric shopping.
~Hopefully getting everything into the room?

Nursery Wall Art Mocked Up & Ordered

This is a very quick, very rough mock up of how the collage of art will look on the wall. I still haven't painted the frames, so I just laid them out on the floor in the layout I want them on the wall, snapped a picture, whited them all out in Photoshop, then dropped the images in them. All in all I think it's going to look alright!



I placed my order (These and his 10x20 name print that will go above the crib) and it came to $24 and some change with my 15% off discount. Not too shabby for 8 pieces of art for the wall!

Judy Picture

I finally finished the Judy picture. She wouldn't let me get a very good picture of her facing fully forward, so I used one of the "okay" pictures. Ryan says she looks like a "rough and tumble from the bario". I'm not as happy with it as I am the Walter picture, but it will do.



Also, I didn't really like the background of the old Walter picture, so I reworked it.


Now I can get all of these ordered, framed and ready to put on the wall!

Farm Artwork

One more down, all I have left is the Judy picture! Wooo! Here it is.

Nursery Painting Part 2: AFTER

I reallllly hate what photobucket is doing to my pictures...grrr. okay onto the paint.

***EDIT: I totally forgot I could use my Flickr account (duh!) instead of stupid Photobucket. Now the colors are better!!***

True paint colors:


It was sunny out when I took the before pictures, and overcast in the after. I hope to get better pictures of the after soon.

The window wall and the ceiling are a light gray color. We still need to switch out the ceiling fan and put a faceplate over that wiring by the door.

View from the door:


View from the door:













Now to refinish the dresser and rocking chair and get the other furniture in there!!

Nursery Painting Part 1: BEFORE

**Again, I don't know what Photobucket is doing to the picture quality, they look horrible! For better pics, look on my Facebook.

We finally got started! The pictures are pretty self explanatory, so I'll let them do most of the talking.

Ryan removing the popcorn ceiling. How this was ever considered cool is beyond me!


View from the door:


View from the door:










Actual paint post coming soon!

Planned Seattle Trip

I don't think I ever blogged about finally finding my DREAM crib! Well a wonderful lady in Seattle had one listed on Craigslist and I asked if she'd be willing to ship it to me and she said she would. I'm paying $170 for it! It was used by her daughter and is still in excellent shape. Shipping on it would have been close to $200 though, I'm sure!




Also, the bookcase I want to get from Ikea is reasonably priced at $69.99, but for them to ship it to me would be $349.00 + the price of the bookcase! UGH! There are also some cool shelves I want to get from Ikea.





Well, we decided we're just gonna drive our happy little butts over to Seattle this weekend and pick everything up. My brother Timmy's bringing the dresser down in his truck, he's so nice to come with us and let us use his truck for everything. I'm getting really excited to get the dresser and rocking chair stripped and refinished now.

Fabric Options

My mother-in-law and I are going to be making the curtains, chair cushions, and bedding for baby boy's room. Being a designer, of course I didn't want to just go and buy a "bed-in-a-bag" for his room. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just want to have EXACTLY what I want and trying to find anything in the "weird" color scheme I've chosen would be impossible anyway. I did look at first and couldn't find anything.

I've spent more time than I probably should have browsing all over the web for the perfect fabrics for everything. I wasn't 100% sure exactly what I wanted. I knew for sure what I didn't want. I didn't want matchy-matchy! I figured I'd know the perfect fabrics when I saw them.

Here's a quick mock up of some of the ones I was thinking of getting. Not all of these are set in stone. There are a few that I'm still trying to decide if I like together or not, and I'm still searching for a few that might be better than the ones I've settled for so far.



I added my original color scheme to the bottom for reference.

Cloth Diapers Are Here

Yesterday I got the seven cloth diapers I have ordered so far. Is it weird that I am excited about cloth diapering? Just seeing how cute these are makes me want to see them on Baby Boy! I took a few pictures.







These fit babies from birth to potty training! (7-35lbs)






We still have more to get, but at least we have a good start! Next I'm going to look into getting some less expensive prefolds and covers, I think.