Baby Number Three Nursery Inspiration

With only one month left to go it's really time to get my butt into gear and get this room ready for the new baby.  The last two weeks being sick really put a damper on timing and now I feel semi rushed to finish all the things like right now.  Not wanting to spend tons of money on this new room, but also wanting to feel like I'm doing something special for each baby we've tried to use a lot of the same furniture we had previously.  The biggest purchase really though has been a new crib since we can't quite kick Peyton out of his yet.

I'm updating the monochromatic look of Peytons room and adding orange, pops of black and a little more of a woodsy theme. This means we don't have any huge projects and will make the transition just a little bit easier.  The biggest statement piece of the whole room is some bright orange blackout curtains which will also be able to move around to any of the boys' rooms as they get older.

In true last minute fashion and honestly not having time to head out and shop, I was able to get most of the pieces from Amazon, so win for me and for Amazon prime for being so amazing.

/ Little Unicorn Quilt / Orange Curtains / Black Crib / Marquee Letter / 

/ Hamper / Similar Rocking Chair / Rug / End Table (budget friendly option) / 

/ Lamp / Hooks (budget friendly option) / Dresser /

Decorating for Christmas

It was so much fun this year decorating the Christmas tree.  Noah was a huge help and did the kids Christmas tree all by himself and I didn't really have to make any adjustments because he did such a good job.   We got a couple new ornaments he helped pick out and he really liked that we added those on the tree too.  I see a tradition happening.
Since we got a way too big tree (oops) and had to cut the top off, we had to buy extra lights to fill up the whole tree.  We headed to Target on none other than early morning on black Friday to pick some up and finished decorating the tree by the end of the day.  Peyton was pretty useless but he sure was cute in his Christmas PJ's. We really thought he would be all about pulling things off the tree but surprisingly our little naughty boy has been pretty good so far. Well, minus my favorite pig ornament he keeps trying to take off and snuggle.   I guess I can't blame him, that pig is pretty cute.

At the end of the night after we put Peyton down for bed Noah and I stayed up and talked about all the things he wanted for Christmas and wrote our own Santa letter.   He was really excited to give it to him when we saw him this week and told him all about his batman legos.   We're prepped and ready to go for Christmas!

Monochromatic Baby Nursery

As I mentioned on Instagram last week, our plans for this weekend were to leave Noah with the grandparents, get a ton of stuff done around the house, and spend one last weekend together without kids before the madness of having two begins.  We did a ton of outdoor work to the house. Finally got a new mower after the other one died out, planted some new grasses and flowers and mulched all the beds and the berries by the beach.  With most of the nursery complete I only had a couple of things left on my list.  We brought up the baby toys and organized the closet.  We got the best deal ever on a MamaRoo bouncer which I have been eyeing for like forever, and set that up in the room too.  We really are officially done with the exception of printing out some pictures, so this baby can come any minute now... well, maybe in a couple of weeks.

 

Charleston Glider - Target

Blackout Curtains - Target

Dresser - IKEA

Black & White Blanket - IKEA

Quilt & Crib Sheet - Little Unicorn

Crib - Target (Old)

Triangle Pouf - Target

Garland - A Little Lark

Triangle Decals - Just The Frosting

Christmas Tree Picking

I just want to be very upfront when I show you these pictures. They look like we were all happy, but behind the pictures is a whole different story.  I'm lucky I even snapped these. Lets just start by it was way colder than anticipated and took much more time than we thought.  Noah wanted nothing to do with walking in between the trees and just wanted to have a snack and go home.  Finally we bribed him to walk with us to "look for other people".  He's so insistent on playing with new people and saying hi that every time we heard someone else in the area he ran towards them.  We followed him around hoping to find a good tree.  By the time we found the tree Noah had enough and sat in the tree sled while we cut the tree down.  Lesson learned for next time.  Bring snacks, leave earlier, dress much warmer.

By the way, the tree we got was pretty amazing.

Setting it up was way more fun.  Noah was a great helper.

Fall Favorites

It's starting to cool down here in the evenings, high fifties, low sixties and that's making me so excited for fall.  I've been holding of taking out the fall tub because when it's warm, who wants to put out pumpkins?

I bought some felt balls to make some festive garlands for the house and I'm anxiously waiting for a fun little project for Noah and I.  It'll be perfect to work on our colors as he hands them to me.  Plus it's always cheaper when you make it yourself. Bonus.

The front door needs some decorating.  We've already got a massive mum plant which bloomed so awesome and big.  Now we needs a couple of pumpkins and a wreath and we'll be all set!  Pinterest has me all "goggle eyed", as Noah would put it, with all the fall front door inspiration.  I'm especially loving the one below.

via pinterest

For another small project that only takes a second I'm planning on putting our old flower vases to good use and filling them with some mini pumpkins.  They have all sorts of fun colors at the green house right now.  Fun side note story.  We went to pick up some new trees for our landscaping adventures this week and as soon as Noah pulls in he yells, "Red House!" because of course, it looks like a giant house painted red.  Then I murmured, "It's actually a green house", quietly... "Great job buddy!" =)  The rest of the day he would not stop talking about the big red house and how we almost got "all wedt" when the wind blew the rain water into the red house and we had to run out so as not to get wet.

Now, I better stop Pinteresting so much and just go pull out the fall tub and get to decorating.

House Tour - Living Room Reveal

As I mentioned last week, we took an impromptu tip to ikea to pick up a couple of things I have had on my wish list for a while.  We picked up some new bedside tables for the master bedroom, some stools for the pantry and closet and a couple of other little things.  While we were there I also picked up some new things for the shelves in the living room which was last on my to-do list, and now that it's finished I can finally show it off. 

Not sure if I should keep calling them reveals though,  it's not like I don't show my house on the blog anyway, and really, it's always a work in progress.  I must say though it does feel "complete" at this point and we're moving on to other parts of the house, so I suppose I must document.

DIY: How To String Globe Lights on Your Patio

This is seriously, the easiest and most awesome project we have done to the house yet.  I also think we're finally completely done with the deck, so another room we can check of our list.  The cost for putting up the globe lights is minimal so everyone could do this even to a smaller porch or deck.  The lights light up the deck just enough for some mood lighting but aren't as bright as the patio lights which makes it super nice to relax and sip some moscato before bed. Here is what we did, and the sources at the end.

We bought three 2x1x8 and attached them to the deck rail with two screws where the post meets the top of the deck and at the bottom where the post meets the floor.  That seemed sturdy enough to hold the lights and stand up to storms and such.  We measured ahead of time by laying out the lights hooked together to make sure we would had enough lights to make it the whole length.  I'm glad Jeff had us do this because we would not of had enough length for my original "x" plan.  Instead we did more of a triangle and that worked great.

We placed one hook about two inches down from the top of each post.  A small screw in hook.  They came in a pack of three so it was perfect.  Now all you have to do is string your lights and plug them in.  It was that easy.  Total price was around $10 for the lumber and hooks but we bought five posts and six hooks so really it costs a little less.  We got the string lights as a gift so we didn't have to spend money on them but they are pretty cheap anyway so they wouldn't add too much for the budget. 

Overall a pretty simple project and it took us half of a nap time to complete so really super fast.  (like a half hour)  The sunsets are awesome overlooking our deck and now their even better.  Really makes you slow down and enjoy the summer nights. 

Lights:
String Lights 25Ft x2
Three 2x1x8
Three small screw in hooks
Deck Sources:
Sectional (Seafoam)
Metal Table
Chairs (Seafoam)
Wooden Lattice Tray/ Target - sold out/Similar
Pitcher
Plastic Stemless Wine Glasses

My First House Buy

I've been waiting so patiently to buy new things for the house mostly so I have a better picture of what we need and where things will go, but sometimes Target just gets you and you have to buy that cute little rug for the mudroom.  So I did.  ...and maybe a couple other things like spatulas and tea towels for the kitchen.  Target never fails to suck me in. Noah was a big helper as we walked around during a house showing... wasting time... or spending money. (So ya... our house is for sale.  Do you live in the Grand Rapids area and want to buy it? Send me an e-mail and I'll send you the link!)

We also stopped by the house later on.  Things are moving pretty fast around there will all the cabinets going up etc. The pillars on the side of the arch are half up and looking good and even the cabinets in the basement were in!  But really, lets be real, the most exciting part was when we saw our custom navy blue island in the middle of the garage. It was so dark and late at night that there was no pictures taken but *sigh...* I'm so excited to see the finished product!

Our Christmas Tree

This year I made a point to get our Christmas tree up as soon as possible so that Noah could enjoy the bright lights and all the colors.  Surprisingly, he has been pretty uninterested.  Still, it's been great for me.  We trimmed down some of the "kids" ornaments and made room for some more adult ones.  I figure this is the time to enjoy an adult looking tree before your kids make lots of crazy looking ornaments.  Maybe then I'll get two trees!

I also had a ton of fun this year wrapping presents.  I wanted to all match under the tree. I'm laughing just reading at that comment, but whatever, I love that they all look like they belong under the same tree.  I used a lot of craft paper with pops of red and gold.  A little of green thrown in too.  That glitter ribbons looks awesome under the lights but as I quickly learned it's a pain in the ass to work with.  None of the glitter seems to stay on the ribbon.  Instead I vacuumed and dusted a million times and still I find glitter in random places.  Jeffs face, Noah's hair... it's a cleaning nightmare.

Finally, after looking everywhere for a great idea to display our Christmas cards and finding nothing I liked, I bought some Christmas garland from Mailbox Happiness on Etsy.  I feel like I could have made this myself but honestly, I don't have the time of the patience to do projects right now so this was super easy.   I used some clear pushpins and attached the garland right on the ceiling.  I also bought some cute mini clothespins that I painted with a glitter pen to attach the cards on the garland.  Way easy and turned out super cute!

Fall Home Decorating

I've been meaning to do some fall decorating shopping for a while now.  Of course I waited 'till last week to go when most things are already being replaced with (dare I say *ugh*) Christmas things. I was at Pier1 for at least an hour looking around. Everything is so pretty, I wish I could decorate my whole house with their things.  I did end up bringging home a couple of things.

one | two | three

The chargers I got in gold and silver because I have these great silver and white snowflake plates from Target that I love for the winter; I thought they would look great together. You can't really find the dinnerware anymore so I'm glad I scooped them up when I did but you can still get the servewear here.  It's great for the winter.  The gold ones will look great with our everyday plates.  Now I've just got to get cooking.  Does anyone else not seem to find time to cook lately?  I really have to do some pre-planning so it's easier when I get home from work.

The rug ended up being a great find on sale!  We had a nice cushy one but it wasn't washable and it was getting really filthy.  Since we still wanted a cushy one we just put this one on top and it fit perfectly! The colors are also much more vibrant in person.  It really does remind me of fall... all the pretty colors of the leaves. 

Finally, the glass containers made it to the guest bathroom in the basement.  I filled it up with all the miscellaneous travel size toiletries I've collected.  This way, if our guests forget something, it's right there for them to use up. Looks much better than a plastic bag under the sink.

Fall is soooo close! I can taste it!

The air is crisp, the leaves are changing color and the fall decorations are making their rounds around the house.  Ahh... the smell of fall! I can't get enough.  

I pulled out the table goodies.

I decorated the front door.

...and I even made a yummy recipe.  Stuffed peppers! Recipe to follow shortly!
Recipe Here (Link)

Re -Vamping....

Well, first off, I got my pretty charm packs, and let me tell you, I'm PUMPED!  I can't wait to do some quilting this week.  I'm not sure what I should start first, the "secret" project, or the baby quilt. (Or maybe it'll become something else, who knows.)

Second... have you seen all my webpage re-vamping... I know it, it's kinda annoying, I'm just trying to find out what looks good and what I like.  I promise though, not too long. 

On another note, I've been meaning to update my workspace area for anyone who is curious... still trying to figure what looks good down there too.  I got some new poms which definitely ads some much needed pop to the basement, but the organizing is not so great and nothing really matches.  I'm pretty dead set on getting THIS nice bookcase from Ikea with a table top that comes out the middle into the room.   All white.... I think I'll look pretty sweet, but until then, this is what I have!

Also, I just noticed, the chair... it's horrid. It looks great on our deck with our deck furniture where it's supposed to go... but not really next to my pretty machine.... I really need to work on that too.  Maybe I can reclaim an old chair and paint it some funky color... anyone have any ideas?