Notes From Our Nest

We didn’t officially celebrate Father’s Day today, since we’re not technically parents, but I still wanted to do something for the dad-to-be. Just for fun, I picked up a cute onesie and a book called “The Dads’ Book for the Dad Who is the Best at Everything” for him. The book is by the same people who did “The Dangerous Book for Boys“. K LOVES that book! I’m sure we’ll have to get it for our little guy.

Pre-father's day gifts

Oh, and I had to include this picture of my tuckered-out man after all of his hard work today. Not only did he move all of our belongings by himself in the 80 degree heat, but he was battling allergies all day. Those kleenex are only from the last hour…

Poor guy!

Today we put into motion the first part of our master moving plan. We packed up our belongings from and loaded them into a U-Haul in South Beloit. No one quite understand’s the extent of my dear hubby’s anal-retentive packing habits, so I thought I’d document it for everyone…

Tomorrow, we embark on Phase Two of the Journey. We take ourselves and our U-Haul to the burbs. We also have…the final walkthrough of the NEW HOUSE!

Love,
M

P.S. Moms…please don’t worry, I barely lifted a finger all day. I gave myself the jobs like getting K cold drinks and fetching the packing tape tape.

The best $10 we've ever spent (the dolly)

He makes it look so easy!

Perfectly stacked boxes

I wonder if I annoyed him...taking pics as he did all of the work?

All loaded and ready to go!

I just got this lovely sentiment as a part of an email from BabyCenter.com:

In the past few weeks, the top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball.

Reading that made me feel queasy and huge. How could one of my organs be that big?

Then, I found an illustration and I understand what they were talking about:

My hubby and I are having a debate about our stroller. You see, I found a GREAT deal on an amazing stroller…so I bought it.

Check out the Bumbleride Queen B:

Bumbleride Queen B Pram

It even comes with a bassinet for Baby VB when he’s tiny and a toddler seat for when Baby #2 comes along!

Bumbleride Queen B Bassinet

Bumbleride Queen B Toddler Seat

I think that it’s a great system, but I do see K’s point. He thinks that it’s too large to use in practical everyday applications like shopping. He’s concerned that the turning radius is not tight enough. (He’s analyzed it like the engineer he is.) I showed him how to easily pick up the front wheels to change direction, but he’s not buying it. It’s also quite heavy at 35 lbs. But…It’s so gorgeous! I can just picture myself strolling through our new neighborhood next Spring with this “pram.”

I think we’re going to try to sell it on Craigslist. I’ll be so sad to see it go, but I want him to be happy. He’s certain that we need to get the BOB Revolution. He’s probably right. Would it be so bad for us to own $1500 worth of strollers?

I am so proud of my project! I refinished and painted these adorable chairs for our kitchen.

They were formerly off-white and faux-finished with a crackling and peeling paint. I loved them, but I wanted some color in our lives!

Robin's Egg Blue Chair

We’re looking for a dark wood, round pedestal table that is between 36 and 42 inches to go with our chairs…

Here are some possibilities:

Option 1: C&B Allegro (kind of big, though)

Option 2: C&B Avalon Table (too big?)

Option 3: WE Round Table with Cutout Legs

Option 4: Target American Simplicity

Any thoughts?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have found the perfect baby bedding! It’s cute and the price was right.

The price was so right, in fact, that I decided it was ok to hack apart the bumper and make it into artwork for the baby’s room. Take a look!

First, I cut out sections of the argyle print:

The Argyle Bumper with sections removed

Next, I used 3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive to attach sections of the fabric to heavy paper:

Gluing the fabric to the backing

Then, I took the matting out of the frame (from Michael’s):

Cute Square frames from Michael's

I cleaned the glass–both sides!

Cleaning the Glass

You can’t see it very well, but I just centered the pattern and taped the fabric (on the paper backing) to the mat:

Taping the fabric to the mat

And…Viola! I put the fabric and the mat into the frame. It looks pretty good, if I don’t say so myself!

The finished product

Here are all three of the pieces that we’re going to hang above the crib. Kabe has assured me that he can secure them to the wall so that they won’t fall down on our little one! I’m so happy with the finished project! I packed it up with the piles of baby stuff that is ready to move into the new house.

Argyle Artwork

The next bumper project is going to be turning the other side of the bumper into valances for the windows!

Soon-to-be-Valances

Not unlike the search for the perfect bedding, our search for the perfect crib took hours and hours and hours as well. The problem with this was that I had always pictured a simple white crib for our baby. K wanted a larger dark crib. Take a look at the photo and you can see who the big winner is…

The Hudson Lifestyle Crib from Bonavita

Our Nursery Bedding arrived on Friday! This is a big deal considering the fact that I spent hours and hours and hours searching for the “perfect” bedding for our baby boy’s nursery. I wanted to find something that was not baby blue or themed. It seems like about 95% of boy’s rooms use this shade of blue with some sort of cutsie theme. I know! It’s adorable. But, I just wanted something a little different.

I searched everywhere from high-end stores like Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod to the less-pricey Target and Babies R Us. I looked into custom bedding and I considered making it myself. Basically, the problem to me was that the only things I needed were the crib sheet and the skirt. Did you know that you can’t put the bumper or the comforter in the crib? They are just for looks. In the end,  just couldn’t fathom spending $40o+ on things that I am not going to use.

Imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon a post on Ohdeedoh that showed cute bedding from…Walmart!

So, I ordered this adorable Aqua and Pistachio Argyle Bedding Set for…$90 (including shipping)!

Cute argyle crib bedding

We’re thinking of painting the walls the blue shade from the comforter. It’ll look more blue than this sample shows:

#618 Robin's Nest from Benjamin Moore

I’m hoping to capture the happy feeling of Megan’s daughter, Paige’s Room. I LOVE this room! The paint color in Paige’s room is the same as the above sample, so you can see how it would be a perfect match for our argyle room.

Wee's Gorgeous Nursery

I’d love to find a recliner like the one in this post. If anyone has something I could recover (in chocolate with the white piping), let me know!

love,

m

It’s hard to believe it was only three years ago that we were dancing the night away with our friends and family, toasting our leap into married life. What started with a dream wedding has only gotten better as time goes on. It is our hope and goal that “the happiest day of our past…[continues to]…be the saddest day of the future.”  (That was my high school yearbook quote. I was so wise at 17!)

With this in mind, today  seems like the perfect day to start documenting the next phase of our journey…Parenthood and Homeownership in Suburbia. Only a few short months ago, this type of life seemed like a prison sentence that we’d never subject ourselves to willingly, but now we’re beyond-excited for the big change. Don’t get me wrong, we thoroughly enjoyed being yuppie city kids without a care in the world and plenty of time for our hobbies of eating out and sleeping in. But, now the world is going to be bigger than the two of us.

We wanted to start this blog to share a little peek into our lives with you, our friends and family. We hear that becoming parents is hard work so we’re definitely going to need your support, reassurance, hugs, and love in the upcoming years. Hopefully by reading the daily ins and outs of our family, you’ll feel more connected to us and our cozy little nest.

love,
m (and k)