Etsy Shop News

Yay! I've been so excited from the interest in my Etsy shop, AdornedDesign, lately!  Orders being sent out and lots of views and "favorited" items. 

 

Right now the offering is small, some custom artwork and then these two headwraps:

Light Pink Sparkle Camo Wrap

Talk of the Tailgate Collection - UGA Wrap


 

More items to come soon! I've got fabric for the following team colors and will be doing some shabby flower bands as well :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Never Ending House To-Do List | Part 1

A fitting post title:)

Here is what I would currently like to tackle over time, for the 1st floor:


DOWNSTAIRS

Living Room:
--Hang artwork
--Hook up surround sound (the previous owner put a Bose system in our living room but we never hooked it up..slackers, I know)
--Re-Paint the Accent wall a different color? Maybe Navy?
--Get a basket for blanket storage
--New sofa

Kitchen:
--New pendant light over the sink
--Re-organize cabinets for baby items
--New baking storage canisters
--Artwork at the peninsula
--Hang mail holders
--Fix Broken Dishwasher

Dining Room:
--New dining furniture set
--floor rug
--hang photos/artwork
--Create small desk/work area for me?
--new draperies

Staircase:
--Hang large wedding canvas
--new frames on collage wall
--Remove 1/2 wall at the top of the stairs and turn into railing with balusters? I've had this idea for a long time but I worry that this change would be less kid-friendly.


OUTDOORS

Garage:
--Re-program garage door so that it actually works
--Organize. Organize. Organize.

Porch: 
--Seasonal decorations
--spray for ants and bees
--Finally plant some new flowers
--Clean furniture
--Re-stain front door

Backyard:
--Patio Project
--Make it much more awesome.
--Find a way for Kona to not dig out of the fence.


The ones in red are obviously things we HAVE to do instead of our wants.  Because when you own a house, there's always something that's broken or needs fixed I feel like!

 

House Projects

Ahh the lovely experiences of homeownership.  We have been in our 1st home for 3 1/2 years now.  It's crazy how time flies.  We have already gotten some of the big and little projects off of our my our list, but I think when you own a home there is always the next project that is on the honey-do list either because you want to or because you have to.  Here's a re-cap of some things we've done already...this list is surprising me with how long it actually is:

DOWNSTAIRS

Initial House painting:
Living Room accent wall and Dining Room Faux Finishing, man cave

Thermostat Replacement

Living Room Draperies

The year-long kitchen remodel which included:
Cabinets
Hardware
Granite
Backsplash
Sink
Faucet
Peninsula Chandelier
Accent Wall
Patio Doors

Kitchen artwork


UPSTAIRS

Guest Bath Refresh included painting & over-toilet towel rack

Master Bedroom Remodel included:
Painting
Artwork
New Furniture (when we moved into our house)
Flooring
Rug
Bedding
Draperies

Upstairs Hallway Nightlight Receptacle

Closet Door Giftwrap Organizer

Of course the Nursery/Bedroom3 Remodel which included:
Flooring
Painting
Furniture & décor
Ceiling Fan
 
Then there was the Flood which prompted:
New Washer & Dryer
Ceiling patching & painting
New flooring downstairs
Replacement carpet on 2nd floor hallway and staircase
Replacement Vinyl floor in laundry closet

Hallway art project

Hanging our Photo collage frame on the staircase


 GENERAL

Getting things on the walls always seems to take forever.  We still don't have this completely done.

Having my own space for art/crafting/sewing.  This is a work in progress and my "art corner" from this post actually no longer exists.  Thanks Pack & Play.

Landscaping will be the death of me.  We haven't really done anything in the past couple years.  Probably should get on that.




 ...I've been itching to tackle some projects lately.  I feel like so many rooms are halfway how I want them, or we have things partially done.  Instead of doing a little here and a little there, I think I want to start tackling one thing at a time to completely get it done.  So, look for that list tomorrow and I will of course slowly update as things get checked off the list!

 

31 Weeks!

Not the best picture, but it was the only one we got on Christmas day!

How far along?  31 weeks, 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: +23lbs...darn those Christmas cookies! haha but really things seem to be on track and my OB is happy with where we're at so far....

Maternity clothes? All the time!  Now I'm also trying to focus on nursing clothing and taking that into account when/if I purchase any clothing.

Sleep: Seems to be okay...getting tired and taking some weekend or evening naps here and there.  I've gotten a few leg cramps in the middle of the night which is not fun.  I'm having a little more back/hip pain as this bump gets bigger and bigger so sometimes it's difficult to figure out a way to lay that is comfortable.

Best baby moment this week:  Several!  Jake and I went to childbirth class on Saturday and learned lots about preparing for the exciting, yet dreaded, childbirth.  I have to admit that it pretty much scares the mess out of me.  But, I'm now feeling super informed and finding some confidence in myself and the choices that Jake and I will make for bringing our daughter into this world.  We had a great instructor and both really liked the class.  

 

On our way home from class, we bought little one's crib mattress!  Selecting one seems overwhelming and impossible to do with all of the choices available, but I did some research and we settled on the Lullaby Earth Stage 2 crib mattress from Buy Buy Baby [thank you 20% off BBB coupon!].  It's a huge matter of personal preference, but the important aspects came down to organic materials, firmness/support, and it's waterproof so it will be easy to clean and hold up well.

 

Also all the love and Christmas gifts for Ryleigh :)  She's already one lucky little girl.  She got some outfits and pj's, bedtime prayer board book, squeeze/teethe blocks, and two handmade quilts!  I had to hold myself together when I opened up the beautiful quilt from my friend Shanti, which she also had embroidered with Ryleigh's name and it has the softest minky fabric back.  That will keep her warm next winter for sure! 

Have you told family and friends: Yes

Miss Anything?  Being able to sit down and get up quickly...being able to get dressed quickly...being able to do anything quickly...haha

Movement: lots, especially around meal times or after 7:30pm.  Night owl!

Food cravings: Still pasta, chocolate milk, and juice!  Trying out some out-of-the-ordinary flavors but not necessarily weird--like Hawaiian pizza.   

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really

Have you started to show yet: Oh yes :)  belly bump is measuring right on track at 32cm/32 weeks [I've been measuring 4 days ahead for a while now]

Gender: GIRL!  

Labor Signs: No, hopefully not until sometime in February!

Belly Button in or out?  In, but getting pretty shallow. 

Wedding rings on or off? On, but some days it's a little snug.

Happy or Moody most of the time:  Happy/tired.  I do get emotional over sad/sweet things.  

Looking forward to: More nursery progress, and celebrating on New Year's Eve--closing out one pretty great year and looking forward to 2014 because I know it will be even better!  Also our maternity pictures and baby shower coming up in a few weeks!

 

 

 

Decking the Halls

Or should I say Decking the Kitchen....because after 2 years our kitchen is officially fully remodeled.  Maybe we were just taking our time, maybe we I was a little picky, maybe it just wasn't a top priority...but let's take a look back at this remodel that started back in the Fall of 2011...

Remember that our kitchen originally looked like this?

Oak laminate cabinets and laminate countertops

Old flooring

No Peninsula dividing the kitchen & living room spaces

and the slowly but surely all of this happened...

New wood cabinets

Granite Countertops, new sink and faucet



New lighting over the peninsula



New Patio Door

Did a little painting...

And, the final piece, the backsplash...

Here's the final product!

 

It's been a labor of love, and we love the results!  Of course, we owe many, many thanks to my Dad and Mom for volunteering their free labor to help get these tasks done!

 

Fiasco Avoided!

Well, let's take a peek at the nursery progress, shall we?!



Paint selection, Behr Premium in Botanical Tint

Accent Wall painted! [BIG thanks to my parents for helping!] 

And the big fiasco that was thankfully avoided...furniture lead times.  Let me tell you.  I've read several different things before about how some nursery furniture takes 4-6 weeks to come in, and we already picked out the set that we wanted, so I figured it was about time to order.  Thankfully I called and checked on that this week.  Of course, the set that we chose--after much research and discussion--has a lead time of 16-18 weeks!?!  what the #(*@#%$?! Just in case you need a refresher....we've only got 13 1/2 weeks left until our due date!  Well, we were extremely lucky and the Charlotte location of BuyBuyBaby had ONE double dresser in stock, but no crib.  I called the Columbia store, and they, by some act of God, had two cribs on order that should be arriving within two weeks.  One was already sold, so I snatched up the other one as quick as I could!!  We should be getting a call by December 5th to be able to go pick it up, so by mid December it should be all put together :)  I think seeing her crib [although it won't have sheets or anything yet] in the room will definitely make reality sink in a little more!

P.S.--Jake decided that as soon as I got the dresser home it had to be unboxed and brought up to the nursery.  My stubborn husband was determined to get it upstairs and in place.  It was my  job to carry the individual drawers up [and down and up and down] the stairs...talk about  a workout! haha...At least he knows the proper way to move and carry furniture since he had to pretty much get it upstairs himself.  I would help to "stabilize" while we maneuvered it around the staircase, all while he would fuss at me every two seconds not to pull or hold any of the weight.  Then, once we got it up in the room and the drawers back in, I walked back in the room to find him doing this:

...Those would be all of the beanie babies and stuffed animals that my parents had saved from my childhood for my children to play with.  We went through the boxes this past weekend and picked out a few bunch that were cute or girlie or she could possibly be obsessed with after watching a Disney movie [i.e. the Gorilla beanie baby if she likes The Jungle Book or Tarzan, the baboon beanie baby if she likes The Lion King, or the fish beanie baby if she likes Nemo].  I know that's a little silly but hey, we're first time parents :)  He also decided to take it upon himself to put the pants and onesies that are not being hung up in the closet into that top drawer...and he tried to throw away two little skirts that he deemed "too short".....ohhh, this little girl is in for some rough teenage years.

 

Mid-week Randoms...and an exciting purchase!

Well, first let's start with the update from my doctor.  Hydronephrosis confirmed, and the safest way to move forward is pretty much do nothing.  They can put in a stint to help my kidney drain, however in pregnant women stints need to be replaced every 4-6 weeks.  That means having several surgeries between now and the time I give birth--no thank you.  The stints also tend to cause more discomfort in pregnant women, and have been known to cause pre-term labor--again, no thank you!  I'm perfectly fine with managing and dealing with the pain if that means little miss gets to cook all the way!  So, course of treatment now is a follow-up renal ultrasound of my kidneys and bladder in 6 weeks so that they can make sure the dilation is not getting to unsafe levels.  Over the past two weeks I have learned certain things that help the pain to subside and have been able to manage it pretty well.  I just plan to continue with that so that I don't need to resort to any pain medication. I'm allow to take Tylenol but I'm not crazy about putting medicine like that in my body that will get to the baby. 


So, on to more fun and exciting things, let's take a look back at Halloween:

Pretty cute for being thrown together in about 5 minutes, huh?
I had several costume ideas but procrastinated a bit and put this together at the last minute by cutting up some old
cotton t-shirts and pinning it to the outfit I wore that day.

 And now a peek at the Nursery progress:


Room cleaned out, floor mopped, rug laid down, diaper shower goodies brought upstairs, and washed all of the baby clothes that we have so far.  The two green and two clear plastic bins in the picture above need to go up into the attic, but we did not have our ladder so couldn't get that done this past weekend. 

We also changed out the electrical duplex in our hallway upstairs [to the left of the nursery door].  All we need it for is one plug-in to vacuum, so we put in one of these:

LED Nightlight and Receptacle

For about $9.00 at Home Depot, we got this nifty receptacle. The nightlight has a sensor so when it is a certain level of darkness it turns on, which will help tremendously during all-hours-of-the-night trips to the nursery so that I don't have to turn on any brighter lights in the hallway.



While that was an exciting purchase, that's not the one this post title is about.  No, that would be Ryleigh's "coming home" outfit!!!  I'm a little obsessed with paisley and mint green, and this cute little set was too perfect to pass up [plus it comes with a cute little bunny rattle]...

Tutti Frutti Layette Set from Vera Bradley Baby
[I found this set on sale from Zulily...still a little pricey but it's her coming home outfit so I'm justifying it!!]

Also, two good sales going on right now for you mommas and mommas-to-be!  Apparently, with the code THANKSGIVING you get five free pairs of baby leg warmers at www.babyleggings.com, you just pay $12.95 shipping.    The other is at www.Crazy8.com, where they are doing a B1G1 for 88 cents!  This is only for regular priced merchandise, but you can still get some great deals. 


That's all for now!

 

Nursery Planning...

Little Bedroom #3, the smallest of the 4 bedrooms that we always knew would eventually be the nursery.  It started out pretty bare, with the old builder light fixture and a sea of tan.  Then, we moved in the set of furniture that I got when I was little...A twin sized  bed, tall dresser, and vanity [excuse the heap of laundry and untucked sheets]. 

 

 

That brings me to Part A of the plan...Since kid #1 is a girl, once Ryleigh moves out of the nursery she will move into a bigger bedroom with this furniture.  Of course, with a different bedding set.



 

 

Now, Part B...my amazing dad came up to visit and helped install a new ceiling fan and flooring, the same color that we put into our master bedroom.


  



 

 

Part C, furniture shopping! A very fun part.  Also a highly researched part.  We knew that we wanted a convertible crib and wanted a dark finish.  We decided on convertible because it just makes sense that if you are spending the money on a suite of furniture, then you want to be able to get many years of use out of it!  We also decided that this furniture will not only be for Ryleigh, but in the far away future we will hopefully be blessed with kid #2.  Since Ryleigh will be using my girly childhood furniture, then kid #2 will be the one to use this nursery furniture into his or her teenage years.  That also made us decide on the darker finish, because we felt it matched the room and would be suitable for either girl or boy.

 

Here is the set that we chose! We're getting the crib, dresser, and adult conversion rails to eventually make it a full-size bed.

 

 

This one passed my "scratch test" which consisted of me trying to scratch and dent the surface of every crib that I liked with my finger nail so that I knew how well it might hold up to a toddler.  I'm sure the sales associates loved me. 

 

And this gives an idea of possible room layouts.  It's a small room, not even a full 10'x10', so we have to get creative.  I think I like the option on the left the best, so that the window won't have the sun and moonlight shining straight in on the crib.  (This is just a basic layout tool, so the finishes are not exact):





Lastly, Part D....Design & decorating!   We started looking at crib bedding sets and couldn't find anything that we loved and could agree on.  I decided to just make my own crib skirt, blanket, and some other accessories.  That was when I stumbled upon this fabric:

Giraffe Love in White, Michael Miller Fabrics

I'm obsessed with the adorable little girly giraffes!  It also met Jake's requirements of (1) Not too much pink, and (2) No flowers.   I also love that it's a clean, white background with so many bright, fun colors on it so that we can mix & match crib sheets and other items in the room.   It's definitely the centerpiece for the room inspiration, and my mind is already crazy with ideas!


I'll update once we start getting some of this going! We have a little bit of organizing and spring cleaning fall cleaning junk-purging either to donate or trash.