Best Nursery Art Ever

Look at that little foot print!

More little fingers and little toes....

How adorable are those prints??? I have no idea how I stumbled across this website, but I am sort of in love with Baby Print Art. They have a bunch of different options for prints using your baby's hands and feet, but I love the simplicity of the single hand and foot (the color pattern in the print below is call Pink Lemonade - so cute!!!):

You can pick the size and number of hands/feet and whether or not you want text or a picture... I'm thinking this would look absolutely adorable in Baby Girl's nursery. Come on, Baby.... join the party out here!

Sugar and Spice

The walls may be green, but the nursery screams girl.

More to come once everything from my awesome shower is put away!

Nursery Progress

A long, long time ago (January 2010), our second bedroom was a catch-all of crap: And the closet was worse:

Then my sister and future brother-in-law came to visit in June and we made some progress turning the room o' crap into a nursery. We took lots of stuff to Goodwill, consolidated what we could, and were left with a semi-useable closet:

That weekend we also put together the dresser and later that week, Ryan put together the crib.

But this past weekend, we kicked major ass... we were Weekend Warriors, if you will. We painted, added additional shelving to the closet, and made the leap from second bedroom to Holy Crap - A Real Live Baby Is Going To Live In This Nursery.

First, the closet:

The left half is still storage of extra sheets, luggage, and my old My Little Ponies (they are collector's items, thankyouverymuch), but the right side is all baby. The floor of the right side slopes up due to the stairwell directly below, so we added in some brackets and shelving to increase our storage space. That tan and brown basket actually slides out and is currently housing wipes and baby shampoo. Then the shelf directly above is home to our diaper stash - I've been getting awesome deals on Amazon (thanks to Money Saving Mom). Yey for increased storage!

And we painted:

It's been raining all day so these aren't the greatest representation of the color, but it's a really crisp, clear green by Valspar called Lily Pond. I love it, and it matches the stripes in the bedding almost perfectly. And how great do the crib and dresser look against it?! It's super bright and happy... I sort of wish I could sleep in there.

Now I just need to find some curtains and artwork for the walls... oh, and a lamp. Probably one that doesn't cost $59.... I'm hoping to hit up Home Goods in the next few weeks to see what they have in the lighting department, and for artwork I'm going with Etsy. I love this

source

How cute would that be to the left of the window? My mom's rocking chair is going in that corner, and I'm going to put up some sort of book holder, so the alphabet print fits right in.

Our pink and green nursery is slowing coming together... at the moment it's more green than pink, but once we add in the sheets, tissue poms, and artwork, it'll be the perfect balance between bright & cheery and super girlie. What do you think?

I don't need a 59 dollar lamp.

But this one really is so freaking adorable. And it matches Baby Girl's bedding. And did I mention it was freaking adorable?

I don't reeeeeally need a $59 lamp for my nursery. But if I did, that's the one I'd order.

Nursey Progress: Dresser

We made so much progress in the nursery this weekend!!! Here's what we started with on Friday night....This room has basically been our storage for the past few weeks. It normally houses the futon and bookcase, plus a huge rubbermaid bin with my wedding gown.


Bright and early Saturday morning, my sister and her fiance tackled the futon. That thing was a pain in the ass to take apart.
But they still needed a place to sleep and I wasn't ready to get rid of the mattress yet, so we kept that. It was $300 back in 2005 when we bought it and I know that we got our money's worth out of it.... but I was having a hard time letting it go. So it stayed. But it's days are numbered... I'm posting it on CraigsList and if it doesn't sell by the weekend, it's going to the dumpster.
We also rearranged lots of Rubbermaid bins full of stuff, donated lots to the Salvation Army, and reorganized our storage shed. Since I couldn't move anything myself, I directed and my slave labor siblings did the heavy lifting.

Then Sunday morning we put together the dresser!!!!!! Pay no attention to the bookcase, Rubbermaid bin full of wedding dress, and LL Bean tote in the back corner. That's another project for next weekend.

My (future) brother-in-law was the master engineer for this project:
While my sister was the master dog snuggler for the duration of the project:

Two hours in, he and I had the frame mostly together:

And an hour after that we had this:
Notice the drawer resting on top of the dresser... we were missing the rails that make it slide in and out of the frame. I have to make a trip to Ikea this week to get a set and then it will be 100% finished. I love it! It's the 8 drawer Hemnes dresser, and the glossy finish is going to match the crib (Graco Lauren) perfectly. Here's the view from the doorway:

I am so excited about how everything is coming together! I am also super happy my sister and brother (in law) came to visit (and provided free manual labor). Ryan was teaching a class all weekend and I couldn't have done it all myself (actually I couldn't have done any of it myself). But besides the nursery progress, we spent time just hanging around the house, trying on clothes at Motherhood Maternity, and making homemade pizza. Can someone please explain to me why Maryland has to be 3 hours away from New Jersey? I wish we could do this every other weekend instead of just once every 3 months :-(

Next weekend Ryan and I are going to ditch the futon mattress and bookcase, put together the crib, and marvel at the fact that in 19 weeks we'll have a little baby girl in this house. Crazy!!

Nursey: Coming together!

On Friday night we stopped at the Ikea in Elizabeth, NJ for the Hemnes dresser (which is totally badass), $50 off coupon in hand. While we were in line I realized that the coupon (purchased on eBay, valid only in NJ) didn't have a barcode. Or anything that would tell me it was a valid coupon, other than it saying $50 off your purchase of $250 or more. Ryan was positive I was going to make an ass of myself in the checkout line, but the cashier took it, rang in the -$50 manually, and we went on our merry way with our $249 (plus tax) dresser. It was awesome.

Then we realized that the boxes for the dresser were too long to fit in our car without some major manuvering. We ended up having to fold down the front passenger seat and pushing the box as far as it would go. We have the split seats int he back, meaning that you can either fold down one seat (behind the driver) or the middle & right seat together. So for the three hour car ride home on Sunday, I sat in the back seat. It was so awkward.

Then at the Knowing Party, my mom bought us our crib! Thank you, mom!! It was actually delivered yesterday, but we weren't home so now they're trying again today.... so I'm taking a gamble and going in to work late to see if it maybe comes this morning. It's awesome because my sister and her fiance are coming down this weekend and we're going to do some major work in there. I would love to add 'put together furniture' to the To Do List.

Everything for the nursery is coming together - we've got the dresser, crib, and rocker - and we even picked out bedding! I ordered it the day we found out we were having a girl, and I did exactly what I always said I wouldn't do..... I ordered pink. It's a pink explosion. And it's adorable:

We ordered the crib skirt and the quilt from Land of Nod. The pattern is called Womb with a View, which is kind of silly but I love the pink and green color combo. And the pink gingham. It's so girly.

Projects for this weekend include finding fabric for my book slings, browsing through Lowe's paint samples for the wall color, removing the futon and bookcase from the nursery, steam cleaning all of the carpets, and moving in the furniture! Can't wait to see my sister + brother (in-law)... we have lots to do!

Nursery Design

Never mind the fact that I don't have this furniture actually purchased, or paint picked out, or even an empty room to work with (does anyone want a futon frame? $25, but no mattress...). Today I spent the day working on nursery layouts.

Here's a link to the furniture we're planning on purchasing. The room is 11'x10' with one window and a wall full of closet space (that is currently being used to store all kinds of crap that I cannot find a home for elsewhere rendering it useless for Baby H). I downloaded Room Arranger this morning and drew up a to-scale layout of the room (including the window, door, and closet). Then I was able to sort through the "items" Room Arranger provides to find what I needed - a dresser, a crib, and a rocking chair. All of these items were adjusted within the program to draw them to size.

Here's what I came up with....

Layout A

Layout B

Layout C

Layout D

I'm not sure what to do... what do you think will work the best? Suggestions for different layouts welcome!

Nursery Stuff

We spent the past two days at the pool and in between making sure my husband was adequately covered in SPF 30 and fighting with the leasing office about my pool passes (that tale to come), I managed to get some great color and get through a huge chunk of Baby Bargains.

Our goal is to get the majority of the nursery done by mid-August because once school is back in session (3rd weekend in August) we have stuff every single weekend up through October 10. And then I'm due the first weekend in November (holy crap).

So far we know we're going with white furniture and bright colors/patterns for the bedding. I really want something fun and cheerful - no animals, characters, or anything else with a face - in colors that are distinctly boy or girl, but aren't necessarily "baby". I found two patterns I love at Land of Nod... I'll share once we find out which one we're going with! For furniture, we decided on these:
The Graco Lauren crib (how many times can I mention it in one week?) and the Hemnes 8 drawer dresser from Ikea. And based on the Baby Bargins mattress information and recommendations, we're going with the Simmons Kids Beautyrest Beginnings Nighttime Whimsy Luxury Firm Baby Crib and Toddler Mattress.

Here's the budget breakdown:

crib - $110 at Target with free shipping (listed at $130 but I got a $20 gift card for starting a baby registry the other day!)

dresser - $249 (listed at $299 but I have a $50 off $250 coupon from Ikea.... it's a super expensive piece but we need the storage and it's the biggest we could find for that price anywhere)

mattress - $102.95 at Amazon with free shipping (listed at $122.95 but I have $20 in SwagBucks I'm going to trade in for Amazon gift cards)

So the total on furniture will be $461.95, which isn't bad! And we're saving $90 thanks to coupons and random gift cards. We haven't purchased anything yet, but will do so in the next few weeks. My favorite piece, though, isn't going to cost a cent. When we told my mom I was pregnant, she promised us the rocking chair that she was given at her baby shower when she was pregnant with me:
It's been in my mom's bedroom for as long as I can remember and I am so, so excited to rock my baby to sleep in it this fall.

And finally, here's the one DIY project that I want to do:
Book slings! See the books peeking out from behind the fabric? Genius. We're going to paint the nursery , but this is an awesome way to get more pops of color into the room. I'm hoping to find a fabric that matches the dust ruffle because the two I have picked out are so fun. I'll probably do something similar to the photo above, with two slings and a Lack shelf on top.

I can't wait to start! But first things first - I have a futon that needs to go ($100 for anyone who wants it!) and my wedding gown still needs to be drycleaned (coming up on a year and a half post-wedding now....). Yikes. Only 22.5 more weeks to go!