Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Lists!.. oh and Wall Art

The last couple of days have been Mike and I just relaxing...finally! We went non stop for a couple weeks leading up to visiting our families and only have a couple weeks of down time before soccer preseason hits.
Us outside our "Date Night Restaurant" on a river in between visiting families.

The scary thing about time to relax is that it allows my brain to think about all that we have coming up and it starts to make lists. Here are some of the things I think I need to worry about::
        1) Graduate Assistant Schedule
             a) On Monday I start working as the assistant to the athletic director for my graduate position. I am working about a month earlier than everyone else so that I can build up time to take off for Baby B. During the school year I need to work 20 hours a week on average. So I hope to work 45 hours or more before my regular start date in mid August.
             b) With that said I need to figure out what type of schedule to work to get those hours around other things going on like; my part-time job, soccer, and making sure I relax just a little bit.
       2) Graduate Courses
           I started two courses in June that are schedule to be completed during the fall semester. Since I am due early September, plan on coaching one team, and have my graduate assistant job I would like to have a jump start on that work so I am at least one month ahead. That way, if something crazy comes up I am covered. Unfortunately, the motivation to get that done has been hard to find.
       3) The Baby B Handbook
           After reading the awesome book It Gets Easier!... And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers by Claudine Wolk I decided I wanted to make a handbook of sorts for when Baby B arrives. (Side note on the book: I highly recommend it for expectant moms who want a blunt, non sugar coated explanation of what in the world really happens from going into labor to the first year of your baby's life.) Anyway the guide will compile all the ideas I found on Pinterest when it comes to sleep training to what kind of schedule we would like to aim for when it comes to feeding because let's be honest, aiming for those types of things is as good as it gets. I also want to create sections for notes. Notes for us on what worked and what didn't, notes for others taking turns taking care of Baby B on when the last time she ate was or how long she slept. With our crazy schedules I think that will be a great way to communicate especially when Mike stays up later with her, he won't have to wake me up to ask when is the next time she should be eating.

I think those are the major things... I am sure I will think of more tonight as I try to fall asleep or when I try to go back to sleep tomorrow morning. The curse of an inconsistent morning schedule where one day you need to be ready by 7:30a and the next at 9a, I am sure it will prepare me for the crazy "schedule" that will start when Baby B is here but for now it's a little annoying.


Oh and here is what Mike and I put together today. 3 of the 4 Canvas pieces for wall art!



Using the same Glidden Barely Blush tester paint as the dresser, I painted the  edges of (3)10x10 canvases. Then I cut out my scrapbook pages to fit the tops of the canvases and glued them on with tacky glue.



Lastly, Mike hung them up on the wall above the changing table in the nursery.
I really like the way they came out and I can't wait to see the 4th one :)

Monday, July 15, 2013

A Crafting Trip: Nursery DIY Preview

This week's work schedule is kind of awesome. I work Monday through Friday but only 4 hour shifts which is really nice for super pregs over here who would rather be sitting at home watching tv. So today I tried to be productive with my short shift and ran some errands afterward and by errands I mean a trip to Michael's. I finally decided what DIY's I want to put in Baby B's room! I always knew the locations 1) over the changing table and 2) over the crib; but I had no idea what to do with all the options Pinterest provides.

The first crafty thing will be a 4 canvas art piece. I got the inspiration from the Newly Woodwards. I don't work with fabric a lot so I chose different scrapbook paper to use on the top of the canvases.

 Yes there are only 3 canvases and 3 scrapbook pages in the picture because the 4th canvas is being painted by my talented sister. I gave her an image, secret!, and I can't wait to see what she does with it. Anyway two of the pages will be glued to the canvas with nothing else on them and one (I think the pink damask) will have Baby B's first initial on it.

The second project was inspired by Aedriel. Again, I don't have fabric scraps laying around or old clothes to cut so I got scrapbook paper! I tried to not duplicate any of the ones I am using from the canvas wall art.

 I am really hoping that when all the paper is put into place that it "goes." I know they seem to work together laid out but I am super visual so I will believe it when the project is complete. If you can't tell I like the preppy style I got going on.
And here are all the hoops I got from Michael's. It was funny because the employee who rang me out asked what the hoops were supposed to be used for. I told her needlepoint but that wasn't what I was using them for and proceeded to show her my Pinterest board :) If any of you want to follow this blog's Pinterest account I have a button on the top right for you to click. Handy right?

Alright time for me to go get some stuff done before bedtime. Night!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

DIY Nursery Part One

Finally my first Ikea Hack project! Usually when I shop at Ikea, we get large items that require very little assembly like a dining room table and chairs. Most other things I get are in the as-is section so they are pre-assembled or they are decorative pieces that do not require any assembly ever! The Ikea Rast dresser was my first major assembly purchase which I didn't realize until I opened the box.

RAST 3 drawer chest IKEA Made of solid wood, which is a durable and warm natural material.For what I needed it was perfect, some small hidden storage for what I have not decided, a space to put bottles during feedings, a lamp and some decorative items. It was also completely unfinished so I had a blank canvas to work with. If you know me, you know that I am creative when I am given options. Coming up with it on my own is a different story.

Okay so my brother-in-law and I put this contraption together in the hallway outside the nursery because we were lazy mostly.


Yes these pictures show it was a little more work than I expected but wait until you see the end result! I also decided to paint/stain the piece after it was assembled which I am so happy about because I can only imagine all of the scratches that might have occurred during construction.

The finished product! I used a dark mahogany wood stain on the exterior sides and bottom, 3 coats. I wanted it super dark to match the other furniture in the room. The paint was Glidden's Barely Blush which I only applied one coat of on the exterior of the drawers (I bought a tintable tester, prime/paint and still had some paint leftover). Lastly, the knobs we picked up from the Habitat from Humanity store earlier that day. The top and bottom 4 are plain brushed bronze and the 2 in the middle have an extra indent around the rim. It has a vintage look I think and I love it! That Beanie Baby was a gift from my mom and there is Baby B's small board book collection. The lamp is another Ikea find in the Emmie Blom shade and the Hemma table lamp base. The total price on this was about $47. Not too shabby :)

The Nursery Part One

Let's be honest. This is what everyone wants to see. The Nursery!!! Our amazing family and friends came over this past weekend to help us paint and assemble the nursery. Basically, I have to get my rear in gear in the craft department to finish this puppy up. Some of it I won't be able to show until after she arrives because it might reveal her name... I haven't decided yet.

Friday night: The hubs and I went to Home Depot to get all the supplies to paint the room and my Ikea hack project (keep reading for more information on that!). Later on Mike's brother and girlfriend, who was my best friend first, just saying, drove from Eastern PA to get the nursery started.

Saturday: The day it got crazy. No lie. We woke up and right away the boys had to go pick up a rocker/glider we were given from my friend who no longer needed it. It fit our decor so I was super pumped. While they did that, my friend and I hit all the cool spots within 10 minutes of my house. A real estate store, a family owned coffee shop and the Habitat for Humanity Restore where we got more than we thought we could ever get accomplished. I didn't even bring a list to keep me on task...oops! The real estate store was a blast. There we bought a Beanie Baby teddy bear, and 2 board books totaling $4.00. Success. Then some coffee, yes I am 32 weeks pregnant and I wanted a toffee nut iced latte, so I got one :) Lastly to the Restore. I was hoping to find some knobs to put on my ikea hack project so I didn't have to use the ones to come in the box, they were boring. Bought 6 knobs for $5 and we were on our way. Before we left, we tried to convince Mike that I needed a new couch set.



He said no, so off we went!

Now comes the craziness! At the end of Saturday this is what the nursery looked like. Notice the amazing Glidden Pistachio Ice Cream color on the wall. Nice work!

The Delta 3 in 1 Crib given to us from Grandma & Grandpa Bair
 
The Summer Infant Combo Changer $21 on clearance. Bargain! 2 drawer organizers from an Ikea set of 6. And a Thirty-One storage bucket given to us from my brother's fiance. The diaper waste basket was given to us by a soccer coach Mike works with.

The rocker/glider given to us from my friend, the fleece blanket was made by one of my co-workers and the white decorative shelving unit from a yard sale for $.50. Yes that is the Beanie Baby from the Real Estate Store too ($1).
 The biggest picture of the room I could get from the door. It has a weird nook where the closet is across from the changing table. Nothing too exciting in there, at least not yet.

Lastly, the aforementioned Ikea Hack project. Psych. This post has been so long that I am going to make a separate one for this awesome project. For now, I love the way it came out and it was well worth the time and effort we put it to it to make it one of a kind for Baby B.



Welcome

Welcome to the homepage of our family! My husband and I have been married for 2.5 years. We met at college and fell in love there. We got married in January 2011 and are "settled" down in Pennsylvania. We are both getting our masters and coaching club soccer. Mike works as an admissions counselor and associate soccer coach at the college level while I work part time.  The most exciting news is we are expecting our first child on September 7, 2013!

I hope to use this blog to keep family and friends updated about our crazy lives. If the online community happens to follow along, that's cool too!

Our passions are God, family, cooking, soccer and our pets! I love to troll Pinterest and recreate fun DIY's for our home. Recently it has been put to good use for Baby B's nursery (post coming soon!). We are also super budget conscious, love using excel to track our spending, and I embarked on the mission of couponing. I do not consider myself to be an extreme couponer but I think I got a good system going.
Who knows what else  might be brought into our lives but there's a snapshot.

Thanks for reading, don't stop!