Finally Finished!

After many weekends painting, nailing, putting holes in the ceiling, and buying furniture the nursery is done and I couldn't be happier with it.  Chris worked really hard to make sure it was exactly what I wanted and it is just that.  It's a big sigh of relief to have it all finished up.  Now we just need a baby to put in there!

Nursery Chandlier

I heart the way chandeliers look in nurseries.  For some reason it just gives the room a fancy  accessory to go along with all the other usual nursery must haves that are not so fancy(changing pads, video monitors, sound machines, the list goes on).  Unfortunately, the bedrooms in our house do not have overhead lights so we had to install from scratch and I was adamant that it be on a dimmer.  It just seems much easier to be able to turn the light on a low level when checking in on the little one to make sure she's breathing.  With my obsessiveness I'm sure that will be a frequent occurence in this house.

I sent off to Chris a handful of ones that I liked and even one non-chandelier that I also had a jones for.

We ended up picking this one from Walmart of all places. 

For the Walmart discount price of $49.98 it fit our price range perfectly.  Chris spent his Saturday running the wiring and come up and down from the attic to the bedroom.  His brother happend to stop in  just when the light wouldn't work unless a lamp plugged into a switch was turned on.  He used his good ole GHS electrical shop knowledge to tell Chris how to fix it in less than 5 minutes.  It was a big help!

I want a comfy nursery chair glider...

I was being really picky about a rocking chair/glider for the nursery. I had the following requirements:

• Must be white...and yes I'm aware that is nuts. 
• Not look like a traditional glider with wooden arms etc.
• Have a removeable/washable cover (see item 1).
• Must be a reasonable size..I didn't want it to take up the entire room.

After looking at what was available I discovered two things. 

1. Chairs at most retailers are either junk (babies r us) or extremely expensive (pottery barn).
2. To get what you want, you don't have to compromise, you just have to do it yourself.

So I went online and searched for 'upholstered chair to glider' tutorials.  Not only did I find a website that had a tutorial, but also that sold the base to make it swivel/glide/rock.  After much consideration we ended up going with the swivel glider instead of the rocker.  I was impartial, but Chris thought the swivel glider would be better, in the end he was right. 

Deciding on a chair was a no-brainer with an Ikea an hour away.  The Ektorp Jennylund fit the bill perfectly.  I was also able to get myself an extra cover for when the one on there needs a washing. 

Chris had to cut some wood pieces in order to fit the bottom on, but it wasn't too taxing and was well worth the few hours of labor he had to put into the project.

I now have exactly what I want...and Sofie loves it too.  What's  even better is that it was a gift from my parents for Christmas so it was 'free' to Chris and I!

A Coral Nursery

When it was time to decide on how to decorate the nursery I knew I didn't want something too traditional.  No Winnie the Pooh, Safari, or Flowers.  I looked around and saw this picture and totally fell in love with the white and coral color of this nursery.

I saw another photo that had wainscoting going up half the wall in white which I really liked.  After some deliberation and 15 different color swatches I decided on Behr cheerful coral and white beadboard.  Chris ended up having to do 4 coats of paint and spend well over 20 hours painting, cutting, and installing the beadboard, but the result is beautiful.  We also had to install a ceiling light since none of the bedrooms have light fixtures.  Thankfully Chris' brother stopped by and recalled some of his high school electrical shop knowledge to get the light working independent from the outlet that the switch originally was hooked up to. 
Overall the room is pretty much done.  I need to make some decisions on shelves, a mirror, etc. for the walls, but am not going to rush into it.

Here is a little sneak peek:

Back To Sewing

So I've finally gotten back into sewing since we came back from our vacation.
A few months ago I did some stuff for the babies room, which I'll post about once the room is done, but other than that my machine has been unplugged.

I found some easy tutorials for baby dresses and bloomers.  I am obsessed with bloomers! I found the tutorial on non other than the cute diy sewing site www.danamadeit.com.  She has some great and easy projects on there.  For the dress I can't find the specific tutorial to link to, but search for pillowcase dress tutorial...there are lots of those out there and that's basically what this is.

Hawaii

We made it to Hawaii!  We are 100% aware that it would've made more sense to go when living on the west coast, but with vacation time used up visiting back east every year we just couldn't work it in our schedule.  We had decided pre-pregnant me that we were going to take one last BIG trip.  We tried going to Australia first, but there literally was nothing by way of flights using our points.  We decided after that Hawaii would be a good choice.  After I found out I was expecting I was relieved that Australia didn't pan out..that's a long flight and lots of outdoor excursions that at 6 months pregnant I couldn't have dealt with. 

Our friends Dee and Jason from SD met us there and it was a fun and relaxing.  The only thing I couldn't do was hike the Napali Coast, but I wasn't too sad about it honestly. 

The weather was perfect throughout the trip - Chris didn't even burn!  I was bummed that we couldn't see active lava flow, but we did get to climb on dried up crusty lava which was neat.  Food for me was so/so and expensive, but the rest of the crew had some really good meals. 

We got to see some amazing wild life, including Hammerhead Sharks from our snorkeling boat.  That was fantastic!  I also made a sea-turtle friend.  I was determined to get to swim with them and read the guidebook and looked online for where they could be found on Kauai.  Thankfully there was a little rocky beach on the side of the road not far from our rental that had one friendly guy just floating around.  I was so excited I even let Chris take a picture of me in a bathing suit.