Christmas 2013 Recap

Here are some pics of our quiet Christmas together at home before traveling to celebrate with our crazy families!

Ahh, there is nothing like a nice clean decorated house!

All decorated for Christmas..

I love the truck and lamb under the tree! Makes me so excited for next year when we have lots of kid presents :)

Evan and his new Bose noise canceling headphones (I'm hoping I don't regret getting him this gift!)

And for me? The hubs got me the new sheets I've been coveting :)

And a Restoration Hardware giftcard! 

And I had to include a bump pic... 33 weeks!! Getting so big :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! :)

Pregnant Mama Must Haves

I know 99% of you are not pregant, but there are a small handful of products I have sworn by during this pregnancy, and therefore have decided I have to share!

1) Eberjay Pajamas. They are SO SOFT! It is such a special treat to have these silky, cute, and comfy pajamas during a time when I feel so huge and sleep doesn't come easily.  I loved them so much that as soon as I bought a pair, I bought another pair (in this style). Also, while they fit my BIG belly perfectly, I also think they'll fit perfectly well later (and will be great for late night nursings)

2) Kleen Kanteen. I am always, always, always thirsty. This bottle keeps water ice cold and it gives me comfort that it is toxin-free. I bring this with me everywhere I go!

3) My husband Evan's XL hooded sweatshirt. (He has this one from J.Crew) It is soft, loose and cozy. Now that I'm in my third trimester, it is seriously the only thing I want to wear when I get home from work! Ladies, steal a sweatshirt from your man!

4) Boppy Custom Fit Total Body Pillow. An absolute, 100% must have. I am pretty sure I would not be able to sleep without it at this point! (I even lugged it 250 miles away on a business trip with me because I could not bear the thought of going a night without it!) 

5) Honest Company Cleaning Products. The strong smells of the cleaning products I regularly use have  been extremely bothersome to me since becoming pregnant, but at the same time I've also become more obsessed with things being very, very clean and sanitized. A perfect solution has been Honest Company products - specifically their multi-purpose spray, bathroom cleaner, and toilet cleaner. They really get the job done and don't irritate me in the least! 

6) Clarisonic Mia. My skin's been a little crazy since becoming pregnant (hello hormones!) and this has really helped me get my skin feeling and looking clean! I have super sensitive skin so I only use it 2x a week, but its enough to really clean my pores and leave my skin feeling soft and great. Worth every penny!

7) Be Maternity BeBand from Target. AMAZING! I have a handful of these that I wear with all of my work pants and they have spared me from having to buy ANY maternity dress pants (which believe me I shopped for and shopped for but could not find any that fit!) At $16.99, just such an amazing product. 

Any other recommendations? I'd love to hear!

Nursery Progress!

Hello long lost friends! Today I'm officially 32 weeks pregnant :) Getting closer (and BIGGER!) by the second!

We are working on getting prepared for our baby boy's arrival! The goal is to finish up the nursery and get 100% organized over Christmas break. I'm due February 8th, and the planner in me feels really good about being ready about a month early JUST in case! (And the bigger I get the harder it is to move around, so the time cushion will be very nice too in case we don't get everything done!) 

My AMAZING baby shower was last weekend and we got a ton of stuff to fill the room (and quite frankly every room!) so while it looks a little bare now, in two weeks it will look just about finished! I'll definitely share pictures of the final product :) 

And here is a pic of the baby shower. Unfortunately my camera died immediately, so I don't have very many :(  TEAR!

Hope you are all doing well :)

Spontaneous Weekend Transformation - Inspired by Young House Love!

Let me start by saying we had absolutely NO PLANS to do this project this weekend. I'm going to blame it on pregnancy hormones making me super emotional and a well-timed post by Young House Love. (I'll get to that in second!)

You see, I have always hated this room. It just never sat right with me. The wall color, which was supposed to be a light gray, always looked a little blue and the curtains always looked too yellowish against the white woodwork and blue/gray walls (Ugh!). The couches were ugly hand-me-downs (although seriously comfortable) and the berber carpet...Ohhhh the carpet. No matter how much I tried I couldn't get it clean enough! We've been talking about replacing it for two years, but I have had design block regarding this room and haven't been able to make a decision I felt comfortable living with the next 10 years. (I really struggle with carpeting! Good thing this was the only room in our house that still had it!)

Anyway, I woke up last Saturday morning, and had a completely meltdown about the room and how it just always felt "dirty" and how I wanted the carpet GONE before the baby comes in February. But I still couldn't make up my mind what to do! Coincidently, this conversation happened over breakfast when I was skimming through Young House Love's blog on my iPad and saw this post they did about painting their subfloor as a temporary fix. HALLELUJAH!! It was less than 5-minutes after reading that post that I had pliers in my hand and was discreetly pulling back a corner of our rug.

What was underneath was beautiful, beautiful plywood (never thought I'd say that!) Thankfully Evan was on board for being spontaneous (especially since he did virtually all of the work) and we had all the carpeting up and out of the house in 30-minutes!

Once the carpeting was up, we had a decent amount of patching to do using wood filler. I think we went through 3-full tubes of it filling in holes where staples/nails resided and also filling in the small cracks between the pieces of plywood.

Unlike YHL, we decided to rent an orbital sander for the room to get an extra smooth finish. Sanding by hand just seemed too greuling. It cost us $55 to rent the sander from Home Depot for 24-hours, and we spent about $15 on sand paper to go with it. We went over the the floors once with 60-grit paper and then went over it again with 120-grit paper for a fine finish. (Unfortunately the cuff was stuck on the sander we rented and we couldn't angle the handle! Thank goodness it was a small room!)

Before sanding the floors, we decided to re-paint the upper walls. We went with Sherwin William's Van Dyke Brown. I knew that going with a dark brown was a risk and we didn't put that much thought into it ahead of a time, but thought we'd give it a shot! (Very unlike me on both fronts, but like I said this was a spontaneous project!)

Thankfully I loved it :) Then Evan primed the floors. We just love Killz water-based primer, so Evan finished this up while I got out of the house the rest of the day (shopping for baby stuff, of course!). 

Once it dried, we painted the floors in Martha Stewart's Flagstone (a semi-gloss Glidden paint) from  Home Depot. This is same color as the walls in the adjoining room and kitchen. I thought it would tie the first floor together nicely!

We did two layers of poly-acrylic so far and it makes all the difference! The shine brings it from a painted subfloor to a beautiful, shabby chic floor. Overall, I'm LOVING the result!! It feels like a new room. It is warmer, crisper, and CLEANER!

We originally had planned on doing white stripes on the floor, but I decided I liked it so much just being a solid gray that we are leaving it as is.

Talk about a transformation on a budget! We already had the paint so the whole thing cost us around $100 (sander rental, sand paper, and acrylic).

 

I can't believe thats all we had to spend to make me so excited and happy about this room! It is something I never would have thought to do or been brave enough to do without John & Sherry's inspiration - SO THANK YOU!!!

 

Here is one more before and after so you can get the full effect:

 

I'll keep posting more once the room is finished :) We have some plans in the works in terms of reusing furniture and adding a cushy rug.

 

(and yes, i'm very excited for the holiday's this year so I had to see how my wreaths looked hung up in the room!)

 

Stay tuned!

24 Weeks!!

I feel great and HUGE! This little guy is certainly growing. He now kicks pretty often throughout the day (still mostly at night right as I'm trying to fall asleep though!) The nausea is now 100% gone, along with most of my crazy cravings and food aversions. I have a lot of energy throughout the day, but am still ready for bed by 8:30-9:00. I officially no longer fit in 90% of my pre-pregnancy clothes, so I've been doing a lot of maternity clothes shopping lately. I still think the best place by FAR is Old Navy. I dont think I've spent more than $30 on a single item and they are holding up very well! (I just can't bring myself to spend a lot of money on maternity clothes.. I'll wait to splurge next fall when I'm back to my pre-pregancy size and go crazy at J.Crew!) Nesting is also happening, bigtime! Not only am I cleaning and organizing everything in sight, I'm pretty sure I want to redecorate the whole house!

 

Overall we just cannot wait to meet to this little guy in early February. I never would have believed you could be so in love with someone that isn't even born yet, but we are! I am so excited about our little family <3

 

What's your best advice for someone about to embark upon the third trimester? And best advice for a soon-to-be new mom?

 

Custom Kitchen Built-Ins = 75% Done!

We've been working on built-ins in our kitchen for the last couple of months, and we are SO CLOSE to being done! At this point, we need a cabinet door along the pantry to the left of the fridge, and another door on the 2-cabinets directly below the microwave. (The rest will be open display) We also still need to prime and paint the new crown molding and repaint the wall below the molding in gray. Finally, we have to finish the baseboards and door frames... Ok, so maybe we more like 60% done! Still though, I am loving the progress! Having the extra storage is pretty much life changing (You would feel that way as well if you had food fall out of the small double cabinets above of the dishwasher every time you opened the doors!)

 

I also decided I do not like having the trash can in the pantry. It's a pain (husbands idea, sorry Evan!) so we are going to put more shelves in there for even more storage.

Next on the list is new countertops (still debating the marble) and and a farmhouse sink. I also want new window coverings, but not 100% sure which direction I would like to go on these.

 

As a reminder, here is what it looked like right before we started the built-ins:

 

 

 

Fall Dining Room Decor

Our dining room is now officially decorated for the season :)

My favorite thing about it is the light-up pumpkins. Brings some sparkle to the house!

Baby Boy Nursery Inspiration!

Ok, its offically just going to be baby boy week here on the blog! I can't help myself. Here is my inspiration board for our baby boy's bedroom, playroom, and bath accessories :) Everything below is from Restoration Hardware Baby & Child, where I plan on registering for the "cute" stuff.

I also got this name banner from The Land of Nod. (As you can see, we are going for a planes theme). We have the name picked out but we are going to keep it a secret until the baby is born! (TWICE in the last month I have thought distant Facebook friends had already had their babies based on how they would reference the baby by name on their status updates... Only to be shocked when I finally hear the baby is born several weeks or months later! Weird isn't it?)

Baby Boy Clothes!

Thanks everyone for the sweet comments about our baby boy on the way - they mean so much to me! :)

So lets continue on the topic of baby boys! I remember some of my friends telling me their one disappointment with having a boy is that they are not as much fun to shop for... So far, I COMPLETELY disagree!! I've had so much fun shopping for little boy outfits and pajamas that I cannot even help myself! Here is a collage of a few things I just LOVED:

From Nordstrom, Baby Gap, Serena & Lily, and Carters :)

Holding the clothes makes me just want to hold my little sweetie!!

Boy or Girl? It's a..... !!!!!

We had a gender reveal party this weekend with our families...

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, so excited! We feel beyond blessed :)