(Second &) Third Time's the Charm?

Now that Mia and I are into somewhat of a routine I've been getting a major itch to do some projects around the house. But it seems I have lost a bit of my DIY mojo somewhere along the way.

The first project I've been thinking about for about a year now: painting the front door. I even went so far as so try out a dark gray color I already had about a year ago, but I didn't like it. So since then our front door has been light blue with a little swatch of gray paint. Lovely.

I always hated the color scheme of the outside of our house (as seen here). The light gray siding with light blue shutters, and until last year the trim around the windows was two-tone blue and gray (which looked really dingy). Jeff painted the trim white last year and removed the shutters from around the kitchen window (because one was broken), so the only light blue we're left with is the shutters around the bedroom window and the front door.

Oh hey, look how fugly our front door was when we first moved in!

and this is after trying a few different paint colors I already had on hand
(the storm door was replaced a few years ago via Craigslist)

I turned to Pinterest for inspiration for the front door color. I wanted to do something bold and splashy. I thought about yellow (but I considered that when the door is open into the entryway it might clash with the yellowish paint in the walls there), eggplant (worried about resale), charcoal (not enough of a splash), poppy red (too much of a splash?), and finally settled on green after seeing this picture:

obviously from Blueprint magazine

I thought the color scheme seemed preppy and cute.

Not so on my house...

It was just okay from the outside, but truly hideous when the door was open, which it is a lot of the time as we get evening sunlight through the storm door.


So I had wasted $10 on a quart of paint, and I went back to my gut feeling which was to paint the door a rich, dark, charcoal gray. I like it. Is it splashy? Not really. Was it a risk? No. But it no longer looks like an elementary school. So that's something!

next up, I need to replace the ugly blue mailbox

Onto my second project which actually took 3 tries to get just right: hanging curtains in Mia's room.

I had some curtains that I loved from our old apartment, but they did not look good in our existing living room, and since the afternoon sunlight has been creeping into Mia's room through the side of the blinds and right onto her sleeping face, I decided they would work in her room.

On my first attempt I bought curtain rods and spray painted the finials aqua, but as Jeff was hanging them I realized the rods were too short. Ugh. If only I hadn't painted them, they could have been returned. Measure twice, hang once, right? Right. So another $10 wasted.

I ran out and bought longer rods. I learned my lesson and didn't paint them first. Jeff hung (hanged?) them. At first we only did one curtain panel on each window because they are small windows. It worked fine on the window in the corner, but the other window just looked lopsided.


So, on my 3rd try I finally got it right and moved the curtain rod out a few inches on either side and added another curtain panel.

Success!

I think it actually warms the room up considerably.

And since I have no other way to wrap up this post; Look! It's Mia as a penguin!

Summer Lull

Back from a long posting hiatus, but not with much to report. I have done very little around the house, aside from general upkeep. I spend every day just trying to keep a little one - an almost 4 month-old! - alive and (mostly) happy.

I was just pretty proud of myself for finally spray painting some frames in Mia's room (that I mentioned not liking in black here). I do like the shelves so much better now, but that's really the only house-related thing I've done lately (aside from buying new towels, but I don't think I'll dig that deep for post content).

So, I'll just post some pictures of my kid now.

Looking eerily like her dad.

Mia likes to match the decor (wearing a top my mom made to match the pillow my mom made)

Evolution of the Nursery

I'm finally posting pictures of the nursery. I've taken forever, because I'm kind of disappointed in how it comes across in pictures. I think it looks so much better in person. Maybe if I had a better camera or photoshop or an ounce of patience with any of the free photo-editing software out there, I would be happier with these pictures. But I love this room. It makes me happy.

Here's what the room looked like when we first moved in:


And this is what it looked like around Christmas (well, this picture wasn't actually taken around Christmas because I can clearly see some green on the trees outside, but you get the idea...)

And this is what it has evolved to:

It was a family effort. My in-laws bought us the crib, my sister-in-law's parents bought us the crib sheets I wanted, and my mom made the crib skirt.

There is my painted lamp and my DIY giraffe art.

My mom also made the small pillow in the chair. I painted the table beside the chair, and the rocking chair.

I painted the dresser and the shelves on the wall. The "M" is a clue as to her name. It is driving my mother insane that we will not tell her. (Honestly, I'm not sure I'm feeling the black frames here, I may spray paint them silver at a later date. Preferably when I'm not harvesting a human fetus who could be effected by the fumes.)


And because I'm a total sucker for closet organization of any kind, I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the closet.

We found out on Friday that the baby is breech and will most likely be delivered by c-section on March 28th. Maybe not my ideal birth scenario, but I'm just excited to meet out little girl. We are full up on stress in our household (a death in the family, a cat with an injured leg, Jeff finishing up grad school, trying to buy a new car, sticker shock at the price of a c-section [!]), we just want our little bundle of joy to be here, in our arms, so we can count all 10 fingers and toes and take a deep breath.

Small Projects, Continued

Finally finished the rocking chair from this post. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, even if it did take forever to sand and paint all those little spindles, and even if I did spill the better part of a quart of paint on the basement floor. (Comedy is a an 8 months pregnant woman on her hands and knees wearing a dust mask and futilely scraping up a puddle of wet paint with pieces of cardboard.)

Small Projects

My neat-freakness has compelled me to update if for no other reason than to move the last post down on the page.

In good news (AKA News That I May Be About to Jinx Right Now Simply by Mentioning it) the desk from my last post is set to be delivered today after 7 emails from Target, 2 phone calls TO Target and one strongly worded email to customer service.

In other news, I've been working on some smaller projects for the nursery lately.

I painted an end table and a few wall shelves white we already had around the house white, and I decided to paint a few other found objects some bright colors to liven up the room a bit.

I started with a cheap-o lamp and a little wooden pig that my grandfather made for me when I was a kid (it's supposed to be a bank, but I learned the hard way that there's actually no way to get your money back out).


I was unsure about how the lamp came out at first, but it's grown on me. I thought the color might be too gold before, but now seeing how it fits into the room I think it works.

The little piggy is turquoise, and almost looks like it blends in with the wall color here, but that's not actually the case. The walls are more sage.

Next up I need to repair and then refinish this rocking chair my Granny gave me when I was little. I'm not sure about the color yet. Stay tuned.

DIY Nursery Art

... or How to Forge Some Artwork You Like But Are Too Cheap to Actually Buy

In my last nursery post I linked to some artwork I liked. I contemplated buying it, then considered the fact that it didn't look all that difficult to reproduce (because as stated above, am cheap). Especially since I had all of the supplies on hand to do so.

I copied the image I like, pasted it into word and stretched it to the size I wanted. I printed it out on the lowest quality.

Then I turned the page over and traced over the image with a pencil.

Then turned the page back over and centered it on top of some card stock which will be my final canvas. I made sure you hold the top page still, but it could be taped down if necessary. Then I scribbled over the image to transfer the pencil from the other side to the card stock.

I tried to take a picture of the pencil on card stock, but it was so light it did not photograph well. Then I used some acrylic paint from Michael's to fill in my tracing. I could have probably also used some high quality markers, but I like to get my paint brushes out every once in a while.

And voila:

Then I decided I really wanted an elephant too, so I made the giraffe a friend:

Both took less than a few hours, were totally free to me and customizable in terms of size and color, and I'm excited to see them in place.

Merry Christmas to me!

Nursery Mood Board

5 months pregnant as of a few days ago, and I've finally pieced together my nursery mood board and started to purchase things for the nursery. Right now the office is looking half work space, half baby's room. I'm excited about what I came up with because I knew I didn't want to repaint, and I wanted something bright and not super girly.
The wall color is Sherwin Williams Clary Sage.

The crib is from Babies R Us.

The crib sheet is from Land of Nod, and I also want to get the matching changing pad cover for a changing pad on top of the dresser. I'm foregoing a bedding set because I find most of them to be too cutesy.

The chair is one we already have in the office (I no longer see it on the website) from Bassett.

The dresser has already been purchased & painted from local store that sells unfinished wood furniture, but is similar to the Hemnes dresser from Ikea.

The side table is also something we already own from Target. Ours is black and currently residing in the guest room that I'll be painting white.

The bookcase pictured is by KidKraft, but I purchased a similar one from the Christmas Tree Shops (possibly my favorite bargain store) for $30!

Pillows are from Target.

The artwork is from 2 Etsy sellers and Art.com.

The paper lanterns - in lieu of a mobile - are from Luna Bazaar.

I can't wait to really start pulling this all together!

What to Expect

Big changes are happening in our home, and not just the home improvement type, although it was a DIY project...

I am just about 13 weeks pregnant, and still baffled every time I see this little picture. Baffled by those tiny hands and feet. Baffled by the heartbeat we heard. Baffled by the fact that I ate lunch nearly 4 hours ago and it still feels like it might come right back up.

Of course I am running the gamut of emotions: excited, scared, anxious, excited again.

At heart I am an organizer and a planner, so I see this little being as a project. First step: keep it alive and thriving in there. Second step: decorate a nursery. Or course I have already started imagining it.

We will find out the gender, but I still want a gender-neutral nursery. My first step is always sitting down with my paint chips and thinking about colors, and this is my first pass at our nursery:

All colors are Sherwin Williams because I have a big box of paint chips from an old job. The room we are going to use is now the office and is already painted the back ground color of Clary Sage.

I want some bright pops, but most of all for it to be soft and neutral.

We've got a ways to go, but I can't wait to see what becomes of both of these big projects!