We're ready to change some diapers!

Curtains are up!

More Nursery Sneak Peaks

The crib bedding is all put together and Hop, the stuffed bunny is anxiously waiting for Layla.

Nursery Update....The Closet Edition

I'm like every other woman: a closet full of clothes, but nothing to wear.  -Cameron Diaz

I believe that I have all the clothes washed in anticipation of Layla.  And there was a lot of them!  All of the clothes are hung/ folded and organized, sheets and blankets folded and the towels and wash clothes are ready to go.

Tada.....the closet in all it's glory!  Notice the stock pile of diapers and wipes we have on the top shelf.

The top rack is nothing but 0-3 months.....almost enough clothes for her to wear one outfit a day.

The second shelf has three tubs.  The one on the far right is full (to the brim) of socks and shoes.  The middle one has bloomers and knit pants.  And the tub on the left is full of hats and uber cute headbands.

The bottom shelf contains the 3-6 month clothes.  The rest of the clothes (6 months and up) are in tubs in the garage.  We only have so much room.  Oh, and as far as her nightgowns and onesies, they are in the changing table drawers.  But we'll save that for another day.

Special Delivery

Oh!!  Look what fun "little" packages I received today!

I already busted into this one.  I couldn't contain my excitement.  I'm thinking about putting it together, but I'm resisting because I have some pretty important work that needs to be finished up.

And we're one step closer....

My dear, wonderful husband was nice enough to take all of my office items out of the spare room so I could paint this past weekend (while he visited a friend and stayed out too late).  :)  I think it was a fair trade though.  (He's awful at painting...even though he thinks he's good).

So here's what the room looked like...

As you can see, there was 3 large black floating shelves on one side, the original curtain rod with some blue curtains that hung on the window and a black filing cabinet with a dry erase calendar hung above it to the right.

 

This wall was the challenge wall.  I originally painted this wall with blackboard paint.  It was awesome to have while it was an office.  But doesn't really work in a nursery room.  So the challenge....how in the heck do you paint over black?!?!  3 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint....I was not about to go through that much trouble.  Casey thought it was impossible too.  And so our bet came to be.  I bet him that I could paint that wall with 2 coats of paint and no primer.  He just laughed at me and shook my hand.  Little did he know that I saw a commercial for some Valspar paint that guaranteed to cover anything in one coat.  I bet Casey two coats...just to cover my own butt.

There is a vent where the big hole is at the top of this wall.  I took it off so I could paint underneath it.  The previous owners just painted around it, so it took a little prying to get it off the wall.  Once I took it off, there was quite a bit of dust in there....GROSS!!  I'm still considering having someone come in and clean out all of our vents!

 The door to the left leads to the hallway and the door to the right is the closet door.  The blue wall was suppose to be my inspiration wall, but I never got around to finishing it.  Right now I have 9 carpet squares from CB2 that I was going to use as a bulletin board on this wall.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with them now?!?

 

And we are back around to the beginning wall.

So, after much contemplation and looking over the nursery bedding, I decided to go with a pale pink color.  I wanted a barely there pink, just a wash.  So Madison and I went to Lowe's to pick out a color.  We picked out a pink that was a little "pinker" than what I wanted, mostly because that's the one Madison liked but also because I wanted to be able to see the pink and it not look too washed out.

Once we got home, my painting assistant (Madison) pooped out on me quite early.  Needless to say, I did 90% of this room completely by myself.  Overall, the Valspar Hi-Def formula really did the trick!!  I was amazed at the coverage.  I'm pretty sure that the paint has some primer in it and that's why it covered so well.  The paint was extremely thick and unfortunately we had to buy 2 gallons to do the nursery room and the closet.  One gallon of normal paint would have easily covered the square footage...but with the black wall, I didn't want to take any chances.

So....voile....the final result.

 

At first, I didn't like the color.  It was a pink overload to me!  But as I kept peaking in the room and looking at it and visualizing everything else in the room, I began to calm down a little.  I'm just going to have to be careful and not put too much more pink in there, at least not pale pink.

I still have some touch ups to do on the trim, it should take too long so I'm not too worried about it.  And all of the electric outlets and the light switch will soon be replaced as well.  Right now they are all off-white.  I want them to be switched to white.  (There are some other original light cover switches in our house that need to be switched.  They are gold!  I mean really gold, like metallic, shiny gold!  Gag me!!!)

And here's the view of the wall and inside the closet.  Now that it's painted we can soon install the closet system!  Hooray!! 

How stinkin' cute are these!  I've never heard of this illustrator, Trafalgar's Square, but I'm already a huge fan!  I love the whimsical look of these.  So playful and lovable.  These are in the running for the nursery....BIG time!!!!

Taxes and the Nursery...what a combo!

This past weekend was productive and on the other hand, it wasn't.  Saturday we had the fun task of getting our taxes done.  I was looking forward to it, but yet I wasn't.  Casey has been an utter pain in the you know what since January about taxes this year so I was glad to get it over with.

I wasn't looking forward to it, because this is the first year we've had to file with me working for myself and we were very clueless as to what to expect.  In the end, we didn't owe anything (which I was expecting to)!  Whooo hoooo!  We actually got a little bit back, not much, but every little bit helps.  So instead of writing a big 'ole check to the government, I wrote it to the bank and put it on our house payment....cha ching!!!!

After that, I went looking for baby items.  I was really hoping to find some good deals on a crib, but no such luck.  I did however find THE baby crib quilt and bumper.  Here's a sneak peek....

I completely splurged on this, but it's going to be the center attention of the whole room.  I stood in the store talking myself out of buying this and then talking myself back into it.  I'm so glad I decided to buy it, it's been the first time I've seen a set and really loved it.  Now, I can get going on the rest of the nursery.

So, that was the productive part.  The unproductive part was that I didn't get anything done with the closet; we had a surprise visit from the in-laws on Sunday.  (That was the day I was planing on getting the closet done.)   But, I'll take a day with the in-laws over anything else any day!!  My mother-in-law brought over lasagna, salad and bread for a super yummy lunch and we watched the Nascar race....well, the boys did.  To me, there's nothing more boring than watching car drive around and around in a circle...not my cup of tea!

Nursery Closet Home Improvements

Well, we have finally moved all of Casey's items out of the closet and into mine.  As well as all of the other misc. items that were stashed in there.  Here's what the closet currently looks like...

The blue wall color will be changed eventually, I still haven't figured out what color scheme I'm going to go with....there's just too many cute options out there!

This is what the inside of the closet looks like.  It's a single bar for clothes some boards on top for storage and some boards on the three side of the interior with nails in these that stick out.  I've never figured out the reason for them.  This closet isn't huge, but it's actually big enough to walk in....so there will be some rearranging coming soon.  

This is a corner shot of the interior of the closet.  Everything will soon be striped out!

This is a picture of the hideous light fixture that is in all of the closets of the house.  I want to change this very badly.  I'm sure I won't be able to convince the hubby of doing this so I'll go with plan B; do it myself (which I've never done any electric work so it may turn into an adventure) or Plan C; wait until my dad comes down and have him do it for me.


My goal (fingers crossed) this weekend is to get the closet finished.....well at least painted.  We will probably install the shelving another weekend.  I'm going to paint the interior of the closet a gray color.  Here's some samples I have up...

The lighting of this picture was a bear to get and doesn't really give a good idea of what the colors really look like.  But I'm leaning towards the top left and top right colors.  They are both very soft grays so they won't make the closet seem smaller than what it really is.

I've already got a small head start.  I took the closet bar down and all the boards, but I believe that I'm going to have a lot more work ahead of me than I anticipated.

 Here's the boards and the bar that I took down as well as my trusty hammer.

As you can see, there is an obvious color difference from where the boards were and the current wall color.  There's also a bump from where someone repainted and the paint was thick by the edges of the boards....lots of sanding coming my way.  (I've already started a little, this project is really going to suck!)

Here's a close up of where the boards are. As you can see, LOTS of little nail holes to fill in!

And who can forget a few large gashes in the wall.  Not a clue how they got there, but regardless, they need to be filled in.

We do have some other things that need to get done this weekend along with running Madison around to her many activities, so we'll see how much we really get done.  :)

Inspiration Board: Vintage Lilac

1. Classic Changing Table by Restoration Hardware
2. Trellis Rug by Pottery Barn Kids
3. Country Luxe Wingback Chair by Lands' End
4. Crystal Basket Ceiling Mount by Layla Grace
5. Sophie Panels by Z Gallerie
6. Lily Crib Collection by Bananafish

Inspiration Board: Trendy Flowers

1. PS Maskros by IKEA
2. My Baby Sam Wall Hanger Letter on Amazon
3. Lucy by Target
4. Rows and Rows of Roses by Land of Nod
5. Devon Mirror by Z Gallerie
6. Felicia by IKEA
7. Tadpoles Tulle Curtains by Babies R Us
8. Lulu rug by Angela Adams

Inspiration Board: Modern Glam

Now that I know we are having a girl, I've been trying to decide how to decorate the nursery room.  I've been finding lots of great stuff, but keep forgetting where.  So.....I'm going to start collecting their locations and put them on some inspiration boards.  The first: Modern Glam

1. Tadpoles Basic Solid Yellow Drapes by Target
2. Mia Chandelier by Pottery Bar Kids
3. Westbrook Swingarm Wall Sconce by ELK Lighting
4. Angelique Mirror by Z Gallerie
5. Birkeland Dresser by IKEA
6. Skip Hop Flower Burst by Modern Nursery
7. Rose Pillow by Z Gallerie
8. Swivel Glider by Land of Nod