Dressing It Up

Time for another post!  The latest addition to the nursery, is not the baby I am sad to say… it is the new dresser/changing table!

I began my hunt for a dresser for an eventual nursery over a year ago… I had specific dimensions and a strict budget if I was going to DIY something… well needless to say, nothing ever worked out.  Came down to it and we were two weeks from D-Day! 

That’s when my adorable parents decided to chip in and buy our little one a dresser from Ikea as a shower gift, we couldn’t be more grateful!  The plan was to pick up this dresser from Ikea in the gray-brown color, cause we loved it and it was the PERFECT, and I mean PERFECT dimensions!  But when we saw it is person, there was hardly a spec of gray in it, this is a brown dresser.  So we went the opposite direction and bought black, a total stretch for me!

While I sorted through gifts from our first baby shower, the hubby – along with his feline buddy – assembled the dresser.  And in case you haven’t ever seen Ikea instruction manuals… check these out… funny huh?

But after about 40 minutes, we had a finished product!

We will tie this in with a little black shelf next to the rocking chair that I pulled out of our attic… we love the additional hidden storage that a dresser supplies and the fact that it can grow with the Monster unlike a traditional changing table.  Once our little guy or gal arrives, we can address the big empty space above it… supplies are purchased I just need to know what color of paint I am going to use!

Next up… a closet door.  Let’s see if I can get that one last project done before the Monster gets here.

Baby Shower – Numero Uno

Hmmm… that was an akward spanish flair in the title… I didn’t even take spanish, so no idea where it came from… random pregnancy thought?  The only spanish I speak is “taco” and “margarita” – huh, anywho, back on task!

The last Saturday in April, marked the date of my first baby shower!  Chris’ family threw it at Buffalo Wild Wings in the cities.  Hello!  B-Dubs for a shower – simply genius!  Others may think it weird, but it was honestly perfect.  It was laid back, casual and stress free.  No one had to serve food, we could all just kick back and chat – and I was totally eyeing up everyone’s drinks… just a few more days until I get that glass of wine, no lying I CAN”T WAIT!

I had an AH-MAZING time!  I hadn’t seen many of his family members since our wedding over a year and a half ago.  So it was great getting everyone together again!  We got lots of great gifts, all were items that we needed prior to baby’s arrival… we couldn’t be more appreciative.

And I even found time to squeeze in a project that I had pinned well over a year ago… check it out…

Above is a picture that I pinned, and planned to use as a baby shower guest book for a super long time.  I wanted something that doubled as nursery wall art (this will go on the gallery wall that I dream about), instead of something that I would simply tuck into a hope chest never to be seen again.

So on Friday night (procrastinator, remember?) I sat down in my dining room, taped a piece of paper onto the wall and projected a tree image onto it.  After tracing the tree, I brought it to my first shower and everyone signed it with their finger print.  This tree will come to all future showers and serve as our guest book.  Once it’s all complete, we will hang it up!  It just makes me giddy!

Well thanks for stopping by this morning, check back this afternoon for another post!  Two posts in one day, watch out!

For the Bookworm!

Alright, well yes, the paint did finally dry… and it still took me nearly two weeks to post about it!  I’ve decided that if I want to get any posting done, I need to forget about editting pictures for now.  So these will all be straight out of the camera, so be kind.  And yes, I used my flash, cause it was late out and I didn’t want to dink around with camera settings – what can I say, this mama is getting tired…

First, I’ll apologize, because all my process pictures seemed to have disappeared… but essentially my plan was to create floating bookshelves like I have on the mood board, seen here.  But then I told the hubby and he thought we should make it a larger piece of the room.

We ended up going to Menards and buying 2 – 6′ 1×12″ boards, 2 – 6′ 1×4″ boards and 1 – 10′ piece of trim.  Chris cut them all down to size, our shelves are approximately two feet long (this mama brain can’t remember exactly) and then glued/nailed them together. 

I sported the darth vader mask and got to town painting.  I used an oil based primer and two coats of Rustoleum’s Spring Green I believe… I promise to get better details of the process in the future, maybe… they are extremely basic, but we love them!  I took a whopping six-ish minutes to install them all… and here they are!

The black screws bothered me, so I decided to quickly paint them and…

Ta Da!  So much better at least in my mind… probably not too noticeable, but oh well…

Let’s fill it with books!

Including some of my favorites, like The Mitten…

And Corduroy!

Since I took these pictures, we have acquired a few more, but I love that we still have room to grow with it and that the hubby was right, we needed a statement piece in the room!  Since I’m not going to edit photos, I am hoping to get another post or two up this week.  Probably nothing fancy, but posts that I hope to get done before the Monster arrives – due on Sunday!  Crazy!!!  Seems like just yesterday we were sharing our super powers!

Update: Did you see the updated To Do list on the top right of this page?!  Not too shabby with a self-imposed deadline of the end of May given here.  We’ll have to see how things go with baby, and if the last two will get finished!  Time to start thinking about a Summer To Do list… sitting at the lake seems like maybe it should be the only thing on there!

While the paint dries…

Well while the paint dries on our current nursery project, I thought I would share just a couple of my maternity photos with you.  This was something that I wasn’t going to do, until I began to fear I might regret it.  So last weekend, at 37 weeks, I drove out to my parents house, and my mom ran around the farm with me to snap just a few for the baby book.  I am so happy that we did!  I will be back tomorrow with another project post and we have a busy weekend ahead of us… Baby Helm just needs to stay put for a few days more.

Room Tour

Alright, so let’s take a look at the rest of the room.  For some reason many of my family and friends were expecting that I would have the nursery completed by now.  Haha, just in case I haven’t always been clear about this, I am a procrastinator!  I put off everything until last minute, makes things much more exciting!

So here we go!  First up, as we mentioned here, the baby crib is assembled and I even put on a crib sheet.  All of my crib sheet so far are either hand-me-downs or from the thrift store, cause I’m cheap frugal remember?!  Anywho, I love them.  No need to pay full price!  The chair and ottoman were my Great Grandma’s. 

We helped her move out of her apartment last month and she sent them home with me for the nursery, I love them!  The perfect teal color!  Sitting in the chair is my boppy pillow.  I picked this up for $3 at goodwill a few months back, did a thorough cleaning and even sewed a new slipcover for it all by myself (score one for the home team, whoop whoop)! 

And if you didn’t notice behind the lovely chair, a giant blank wall!  Yup!  A whole lotta nothing going on here… but we have plans… just might not happen until the Monster arrives.

Of course, there’s Peanut, my little photo bomber and the current occupant of this room.  He loves to sit on the chair and watch the neighbors out the window… he’s a total creeper!

So what are the plans for this wall!?  Glad you asked!  A gallery wall of course!  Hoping to pick up some white frames this weekend actually… I also need a small side tabe for next to the rocker.  Something small enough to fit the area, but large enough for a lamp, bottle warmer and possibly a book.  And of course, I still need curtains.  I found the ones that I want (here at Walmart), but I don’t want to buy them until the baby comes.  Cause if we have a girl, I am going to have to get the purple ones!  Each panel is 42×84″ so I am figuring I can get one panel per window to keep the cost down – and you have to LOVE that they are blackout!

Next up, another ginormous empty wall! 

On this wall I will hang some woodlandy themed pictures – just not sure what to do yet – so another thing that won’t be done until maternity leave!

Alright, back to some things that are done.  Rug, check!  Scored this beauty at Ikea last summer for a whopping $20.  And then there are my new floating shelves.  They are currently not “styled” at all – but are holding some needed items.  I just need to hunt down some more baskets like the one on the bottom shelf.  It was the last one at Target a few weeks back, so now I have to start stalking.  Anyways, let’s take a closer peak!

This shelf contains some very important items!  Remember when I showed you my nursery mood board and all the things I was hoping for… well there was this little stacking tree.  So after all the saving with hand-me-downs and thrift store purchases, I decided it was time for me to splurge on my little one and I ordered it up from Amazon!  And then there is the every important Giggle Bear. 

We bought a giggle bear for DaShawn when he was just a little tike, and during a recent trip to Walmart I found them in the clearance section – they were getting rid of them… oh no!  So I had to snatch one up for my little monster.  And then the basket is full of samples, mainly diaper samples.  My baby brother has been busy collecting all sorts of baby samples for them these past few months, because he is extremely frugal also – love that about him!

Next is the shelf holding many of my baby books right now – those will find a more permanent home very soon.  Then there is Mr. Moose and some random formula mix that I scored super cheap with a coupon.  Other than that it is gifts from family and friends that don’t yet have a permanent home, but I want them nice and handy, cause they put a smile on my face.

More toys, including a puzzle I snagged at a garage sale the other weekend and a gift from Kelly, soft kitty.  Any other Big Bang Theory fans out there!?  Well this little furball sings Sheldon’s Soft Kitty song… and it cracks up the hubby and me every time!  For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, you can check out the song here.

Lastly, there is just a small basket with yet more toys.  Mainly from goodwill, and yes, they to have taken a ride through the dishwasher!

Shall we continue on to the right, guess what you’ll see?!  Another. Blank. Wall.  So what is going here you might ask…

A dresser!  I have been hunting thrift stores and auctions for over a year to find the perfect fit for this space, with no such luck, so we are working on an alternative plan.  Then on the wall I will do some sort of art and a mobile for the little one to stare at during all those midnight diaper changes, but I don’t want to make the mobile until after I know if the Monster is a he or a she! 

The last wall is again, blank.  But we have plans that will change that!

Bookshelves!  Remember that mood board I mentioned above, well I was hoping for some floating bookshelves, but the hubby had different ideas.  Either way, there will be shelves coming soon and I am working on a closet door. 

So, lots to do yet, but at least much of this we are comfortable completing after the little one gets here, or we are waiting to complete to add some different color to the room!  As for Peanut, he continues to gaurd his crib.  This is the response we get when we enter the room and try to get him out.

This little feline is in for a rude awakening shortly!

Let’s Hang It Up

Alright, so yes, it’s been awhile, again… whoops.  We’ve been keeping busy, but I’ve been uber tired this past month…. anywho… enough excuses!  Let’s so you what we’ve been up to!

Let’s start with the closet!  The last time you saw the closet it probably looked something like this.  It was a hideous blue color and contained nothing, nada, zlich.  Except of course a door to the attic, fun fun!

Now days, this is what she looks like.  Same door to the attic, but with lots of functional shelving.  And because I was too lazy to take progress photos, I’ll just have to fill you in on what took place!

First I took a quick trip to Menards and picked up the supplies.  I ended up grabbing six shelving brackets (size 12×8″), two sets of closet rod holders – yes that is the technical name – two 1×10″ boards that were 5 feet long and two wooden closet rods.  Now the first thing we had to do was “flip” the shelving brackets… see our closet only had a clearance of a little over 9 inches between the wall and the door frame, so we flipped the brackets so that the 8 inch side would be where we put our shelves. 

Why?  Well simple, there was a rebate, we got our money back on all the shelving brackets we purchased!  Then all I had to do was commission the hubby to instal everything and cut the boards/rods down to size.  Mission accomplished.

After 30 minutes, we had a functional closet so I could start unpacking all of the bags and boxes of goodies I had lying around the house!  Lots of shelving to store all the blankets and sheets we’ve collected so far and the rods for clothes.  The top rod contains all the neutral 0-3 month clothes I’ve gotten (all are hand-me-downs) except for the four new onesies I purchased and the occassional thirt store find.  The hangers are also from the thrift store – I was able to score four dozen for $2.50, then I ran them all through the dishwasher, just to make sure they were all clean.

On the bottom, you’ll find the shelf holding baskets (purchased from Walmart for $2.99 each).  The baskets contain onesies, socks, hats and sleep gowns.  Enough to last us a while we are hoping.  And the bottom rod has some of the larger neutral gender clothes.  We figure we have enough clothes to start us out with our little one and we’re certain the gender specific clothes will pile in after the baby arrives!

And of course, I have to mention the diapers!  My favorite little man (ahem, DaShawn) promised me years ago, that when I had a baby he wanted to be the first one to buy the baby diapers – he was going through a diaper phase at the time.  Well low-and-behold for Christmas our Monster Baby received its first package of diapers from Mr. DaShawn.

And that is the closet, thus far!  I don’t know if I will plan on painting the shelving or not (that’s why the shelves aren’t screwed to the brackets) but for now it is functional and with three weeks left in the countdown, functional is the goal!

Updates Coming Soon!

I promise I will be back next week with some more updates and pictures!  We don’t anticipate having the nursery completed prior to the Monsters arrival, but we have done a few more things… I will be back next week!  Stay tuned!  Just over three weeks left… yikes!

Baby Cage Assembled!

Yep, fell off the blogging wagon again!  Hoping I can get up a couple of posts this week.  I have been hauling some things into the nursery the past couple of days, but thought I would share just a few photos of the new baby cage crib!

If we back the trolley up just a second, I spent lots of time (over 6 months) looking for a used crib.  But I really wanted a white one… and those were had to find used.  After lots of discussion, my frustrated darling husband convinced me a just by something new for once, not everything needs to be thrifted! 

I finally caved, and then began the research – which crib would would it be!?  After lots of debat, we ended up buying our crib from Walmart.  We decided on the Graco Freeport crib, because I loved that it has simple lines, an affordable price and most of all, it is white! 

It is one of our goals to keep the cat involved with all things baby related right now, we want him to get used to new things and hopefully not dislike the new little monster… we’d really hate to have to find a new home for the baby cat.

It took us about an hour to assemble, hence the lack of pictures.  But the majority of that time was spent unpacking the box and getting everything unwrapped.  And the majority of the assembly was done by Chris…

It was my job to read the directions and be the leader, I’m good at that part – just ask my mom!   Anywho, I must have done an okay job, cause it all came together!

Wow, I need to white balance… hmmm… I’ll get some more pictures soon.  But for now, I am loving peeking into the room and seeing the crib.  Not so enthused when I find this…

But, he will learn… maybe I need to buy a squirt gun… either way, we will be buying a lock for the door to ensure that the furbaby can’t get in the room while the monster baby is sleeping.  Next up, snap some photos from other nursery additions and then start some of the fun projects!  Can’t wait to share them… 7 weeks left in our baby countdown!

My First Diaper Cake!

The last project I will share from last month’s baby shower was the diaper cake I made.  If any of you follow me on Pinterest, you probably saw me pinning up a few of these… well my husband wasn’t sure if my skills were up to par, but I was determined to prove him wrong!

I started with a package of Size 1 diapers… I got the pampers because that is was the expecting mommy had on her registry (I love decorations that serve a purpose afterwards!).

Next I started to roll up the diapers.  Simply laying them down and rolling them so the decorative pattern (in this case the Sesame Street Gang) were on the inside.  Once rolled, I wrapped them with tiny rubber bands I had on hand.  I knew that I was going to be covering the outside of my “cake” so I wasn’t worried about them being black instead of clear colored.

Once I had a bunch rolled, I just started assembling to see what was going to work.  For my top tier of the cake, I ended up using one diaper in the center and surrounding it with seven more (8 total) and them tying them all together with some string I had on hand.

For the remaining tiers I simply started adding additional layers to the outside…  I did have to tie each layer otherwise they would all start to fall apart when I got my string out.  This was really trial and error based.

When the rolling and layering were all done, this is what I was left with.  Top tier was 8 diapers, middle tier was 20 diapers and the bottom tier was 38 diapers – bringing the total to 66 diapers!

Next up, I decided to wrap my tiers in receiving blankets.  So I enlisted my mom (since I’m currently without a sewing machine) to whip me up a couple.  The fabric is from Hobby Lobby in jungle patterns to go along with the baby shower theme.  Then I simply folded them to be slightly “taller” than each tier, so there was a little lip on the top – this would come in handy for my final decorating.  I pinned them so they stayed folded and rolled them around each tier.

Once rolled, I wrapped them in a thick ribbon (also from Hobby Lobby) and pinned the ribbon tight.

Once I had all of my tiers wrapped and pinned, I was done until shower day.  I didn’t need to add any additional support to my tiers, they were all very sturdy on their own.  At the shower, I simply stacked them added a Hippo Piggy Bank as a topper and filled in the tops of the tiers (remember those lips I mentioned earlier) with basket filling to finish it off!  And that’s it, a super easy yet fun decoration that will serve a purpose following shower day!

The entire cake cost me around $50 from start to finish.  Not bad for something that could also serve as a gift!

Oh and of course here is a picture of me with the mommy.  Isn’t she cute!?  We tried to get both of our bellies in there, but mine was only at 28 weeks and her 35 week took the cake!  (Punny!? Ha!) 

I promise to be back with a belly shot next week, just wish I could get one decent hair day.  Have a wonderful weekend!

DIY Cupcake Stands

Last month I was asked to help with a dear friend’s baby shower.  I knew that we wanted to do cupcakes, and I took on the task of making them myself.  After lots of taste testing from my coworkers, we found the winning recipes, but I still needed a way to display them at the shower – enter my DIY Cupcake Stands.

I simply went down to our local dollar store (The Dollar Tree to be exact) and picked up a two packages of 4 brightly colored plates and 4 matching drink glasses; everything was made of plastic.

I brought them home and cleaned them up, then started assembling.  All I did was heat up my hot glue gun, add a bead of glue all the way around the bottom and top of the glasses, center them on the plates and press firmly.

Within three minutes I had four cake stands completed for under $1.50 each ($6.00 to make all four).  They were brightly colored and would definitely do the job!

All that really matters is the cupcakes anyway, right!?  That’s what I thought!

Done any dollar store projects lately?  How about any baking?  Those who know me best, know that I am not a cook – so the cupcakes were fun to do!  Did you know that if you put a teaspoon of meringue powder into a boxed cake mix that you will get more of a “rise” out of your cupcake!?  Well now you do!