Quincy, Your Nest is Ready!

I sleep with my babies.  I got a crib for Lawson (because "that's what you do!") that he didn't use until he was a year old because it turned out, I wanted him right next to me at night!  I slept with Naomi, too.  Actually, at that time, we were renovating the upstairs of our house in Washington, so she was in the bed with me and Lawson's toddler bed was right next to our bed, so it was "family bedroom" more than a "master bedroom."  I loved it!  Dustin was a good sport.  Now Naomi and Lawson share a bedroom across the hall and still wake me up quite a bit at night between teething and bad dreams.  My guess is that as much as I'm going to want to snuggle Quincy up close at night, she may have to reside next to me in her own little nest, to keep from being disturbed every time I have to get up with the other kids. 

I already had a soft little bassinet that I used with Naomi, but I didn't just want her plopped down on the floor by the bed.  So, Dustin built a simple, perfect little piece of furniture to make the bassinet into a co-sleeper.  I love it!  It currently has four wheels on the bottom, but I'm thinking of switching one side to regular feet and adding a handle, so it's more of a "cart."  Right now, the kids think it's fun to push the "train" around and I'm not a fan of that.  A baby cart seems cool, anyway!  Mobile when I need it to be, stationary to keep the kids from driving down the hall with their sleeping sister!  Either way, I love that it's handmade with love by dad!  There's room for lots of baby items down below in the shelves and baskets and I envision that it will re purpose as toy storage easily later on. 

Thanks for making our little girl such a great, cozy nest, Dustin!  It turned out perfect!  And Quincy, I think we are officially all ready for you.  Your bunny is waiting for you to join her in your bed.  If you don't mind, though, feel free to leave her waiting a little while longer.  I've got a massage and haircut on Saturday that I'd hate to miss, your Mima will be here in just a week and a half and I'd really like her to be there for your arrival... and then we're only three days away from the 10th and THAT would be the perfect day for you to come!  Deal? 

Without further ado, here's it is, complete with Naomi's stamp of approval!

As good as it fits down at the bottom of the bed, she'll be up at the head of the bed with me at night!  Easy access is key for night-feedings!

Old Becomes Poof

I'd like to share with you Dustin's old shirt.

It is now three big white poofs to hang over Quincy's bed.  Lawson said daddy might cry when he saw me cutting his t-shirt into strips, but I assured him that daddy had intended for his shirt to go to Goodwill and that he'd probably just think it was a really weird thing to do.  And maybe it is, but I was inspired by this great tutorial at Craftaholic's Anonymous (a bottomless source for really cool ideas!) and it took all of about 20 minutes.  Mine don't look quite as poofy and perfect as theirs, but they are still fun and a big hit with the kids!

Now, I just need the bed to hang it over.  That's being taken care of, though.  Dustin's been working hard to build a stand with shelves for the Lalapanzi bed to go next to our bed.  It just needs a few coats of white paint, the wheels on the bottom and the brown leather baskets inside the shelves.  Oh, and the baby.... but that will all come together sooner than I'm prepared for, I think!

Happiness is Food.

Food is happiness.  A good day for me always includes lots and lots of good food.  I mentioned in my last post that lately I've been going big in the kitchen to prepare for Quincy's arrival.  And it is now that I find myself at a crossroads.  Do I continue blazing down my path of preparedness or do I leave room for the ice cream?  Oh, the struggle.

I went to stock up on more chicken yesterday and found that the organic chicken breast that I buy was on special - buy one get one!  I almost exploded with excitement right there in the meat section.  Then I filled our cart with poultry. Lots of poultry.  Which makes the decision to push out the ice cream in favor of more meals slightly easier for me.  There are tons of bird breasts staring at me each time I open the fridge, so I should probably chop to it and find a few good recipes for them!  I'm sure I can manage to squeeze some ice cream bars in between the frozen meals....

And as if I need a reminder to consume everything in site, I painted a sign for the dining room on some scrap wood from another project we've got going on around here.  I'm just waiting on some pretty hardware to hang it up with.  You get the idea.  I like food...

...and it likes me!

Nesting on the "Cheep"

Yep.  Still nesting over here!  It's really only gotten worse.  I started out organizing everything in site.  Now that I've done that, I'm moving onto decorating and arranging.  I can't exactly go out and buy a bunch of new decor, so I'm digging through my own Goodwill pile and painting whatever I can get my hands on!  That's right.  I'm armed with Rustoleum and I am NOT afraid to use it.  It's about the cheapest fix I could think of since a can is only $5 or so and it makes a big difference!  Here's a look at some of my freshly painted old items.  These first items were all brown to start with and I am just not feeling brown right now.  I'm liking them all so much better now!  Excuse the empty picture frames.  I'm waiting on the photos to arrive in the mail.

This is the old BROWN ceramic jar that was handed down to us.  Dustin was using for our dog treats and it was residing on top of the fridge.  A few coats of primer and some hand painted acrylic over the top and the fridge just got a little greener and cuter.

These canvases were a Peir 1 purchase over 10 years ago and they have been hanging out in a box for the last several years.  They just weren't me anymore.  So I taped along the edges and sprayed on some black paint to cover up the old.  Then I printed out some words on photoshop, tediously cut out each letter, etched around them and painted within the lines to reveal the new.  The new brings lots of joy and happiness for me!

And lastly for today (Although there is more!  It's a sickness, I tell you.).  This is a crate repurposed as a wine rack that I bought super cheap at TJ Maxx with the idea of painting either black or white.  It's been hanging out inside of a closet waiting for it's reveal.  I finally decided on black, although I hadn't figured out where I was going to put it or what exactly to do with it since there's no wine drinking to speak of around here at the moment (sad face.).  In between coats of paint, it ended up sitting just inside the front door to finish drying.  Funny thing was, it worked awesome as a shoe rack!  And so became our crate repurposed as a wine rack repurposed as a shoe rack.  It just required a spray of sealer, a few coats of black paint, some roughing up with a sander and another coat of sealer.  All in a day's work!

I'm obviously out of control with my painting, so please use caution if you stop by our house.  You may leave a different color than you came!  More to come soon... just putting the finishing touches on a few things first.

Everything in It's Place

I was in Oregon for a little over two months (a bit longer than anticipated). That left my husband to fend for himself and keep up the house. I returned a couple weeks ago to my "clean" house to find that his version of what that means and mine are two very.   very.  different things. So, nesting kicked in full force! Besides a good spit shine of every surface I can get my hands on, I've been obsessed with organizing and clearing things out. Everything must be in it's place! It's a work in progress, but I'm hoping to feel satisfied and done sooner than later. I've been tackling the more trivial items that enhance my daily routine. Later, I'll bust out the big guns and attack the bedroom closets!

First things first. The mouse has been homeless for years and has worn off the finish below it on our table. That leads to sketchy cursor behavior and aggravates me to no end when trying to photoshop! So, I remedied the situation with a mousepad complete with a recent photo of my two favorite short people! Computer time is now a little more lovely.

The computer shares a room with the kids toys, which allows me to keep an eye on them while using my spiffy new mouse pad. However, it can feel pretty chaotic at times when all the toys end up on the floor. The larger ride-on type of toys were driving me nuts always shoved against a wall somewhere when all the other toys made their way into the proper basket. No more. One hook and the doll stroller, surely the largest and most awkward toy of them all, is up off the floor and out of my way! Checkity-check-check! I'm telling you, it's sick how happy this all makes me.

Laundry is another big one for me. Every day, I'm doing several loads and spend a good deal of time folding while staring into the laundry closet. Again, the hooks have saved the day. The ironing board, steam mop and dry mop were always falling against each other and frustrating to get to.  Now, they hang gloriously on the wall for easy retrieval at my every cleaning whim!  TADA!  I even added an S-hook with clips so I can hang the microfiber pads from my steam mop to dry before I get a chance to wash them. No stone left unturned. 

 

You may notice the giant container of Charlie's Soap in the photo above (LOVE that stuff, by the way). Very economical, but also very heavy and not-so-easy to pour out the tablespoon of soap I need to use for each load. Which left me no choice but to buy a happy little yellow ceramic olive oil decanter to pour from. I measure the soap into a little silicone bowl then dump it into the washing machine dispenser and laundry is fun again!

 

Cooking is another thing that I spend a lot of time doing. It makes such a big difference for me to store my veggies in containers that keep them fresher longer and allow me to see them readily. There is nothing worse than a slimy cucumber hiding at the bottom of a veggie bin beneath a mess of plastic produce bags and vegetables. This solves that. Produce bags disappear immediately and veggies go in clear, stackable containers. I swear we're eating more vegetables now that they are so easy to see and get to!

Another thing that was crucial for me to get a handle on was our vitamins.  I give our kids several vitamins each morning and I have to take quite a few myself (along with the lovely Lovenox shots you see in the photo) to keep from getting any blood clots while I'm pregnant. Opening a dozen vitamin bottles every day was not working for me. These containers are my new love.

They fit 800 vitamins, which is a heck-of-a-lot, considering I literally dumped several entire bottles into their own section and won't have to deal with refilling for a long time! We each have our own box and now it's really easy to grab one of each kind of vitamin. Even in the morning before coffee with both kids freaking out wanting their vitamins! That's saying a lot.

Getting picky now. Magazines floating around the bathroom = yuck. Magazine rack is happiness. Why didn't I buy one a long time ago?

What's next, you ask?  Cords.  The tangle of cords behind my computer, at the head of my bed and behind the t.v. are about to get tied up. I found these neat re-usable (great when you move a lot) turkey ties. Best part is they actually look cute if they are visible and when you go to take them off, you don't have risk slicing your wire to cut the tie off.  Genius.  

 

So, there it is. My sickness in a blog post. I am obviously made far too happy by all of these simple little things, but I guess that's why they call it nesting. I did manage to keep myself from photographing my freshly cleaned baseboards and sparkly clean toilet bowl, so that's good.  Although, if I'm honest, my back hurts from cleaning them and my belly would prevent me from getting on the floor for the proper angle of the base boards anyway. I may need an intervention!