Gold Crush

I really don't have many gold accessories in our home, but there are some I love and wanted to share.  First, this gold table lamp. It would pop in any room with its tall base, and I could definitely see it on an entryway table.

Z Gallerie

Every time I am in Pier 1 I contemplate buying this mirror, but realize I have no spot for it. I love it as an accent mirror- in a hallway or next to the front door. And, it's only $22.

Pier 1

I love this clip on gold lamp from Land of Nod. I was surprised to find this on a kids site- it's such a classy lamp. It could be used on a headboard or even a nursery changing table (I'm tempted- this could be the solution to changing diapers in the dark!).

Land of Nod

And, I can't forget one of my favorites, which I bought a while ago and still haven't hung. I'm thinking it would look great in the nursery against the hot pink walls.

Made by Girl

I hope you are inspired to add a touch of gold to your home. It can definitely be a statement piece with its bold color even if it's just a small accessory (or even just a frame)!

Glimpse into the Nursery

We have the main components of the nursery: the crib, dresser, and glider. I love the white furniture against the hot pink walls and the aqua glider. She will be sleeping in our room for the first few months so I have plenty of time to decorate the rest of the room. Here is a glimpse into the part of the room that is complete!

New Crib (previously owned, but we love it!):

 Current furniture placement (may move around in future):

Corner Nursing and Reading Nook: Glider (see post here) and ottoman (Home Goods):

To the right of the dresser is my closet (I have to figure out what to do/how to conceal this space):

Nursery To-Do's:

• Wall decor and accessories
• Hang shelf (on floor next to crib, bought at a garage sale for $7)
• Hang monogram (similar to Ellie's)
• Replace curtains (too sheer for sleeping)
• Figure out how to conceal my dressing room (curtains?) and reconfigure closet
• Crib bedding (need new sheets, bumper, and maybe crib skirt) 

We love the progress of the nursery (Ellie calls it the "pink room") and look forward to bringing her home!

Today is my due date!

My 40 week pregnancy photo:

We are so excited to meet our second baby girl. Our lives were forever changed when Ellie came into our lives. We can't believe we are lucky enough to have another girl and give Ellie a sister and a best friend. We have been preparing Ellie for her sister for a while now. We read "Ellie is a Big Sister" quite often at naps and bedtime. Yes, the main character's name is "Ellie" so it's perfect! We have been talking about helping and sharing with her sister and Ellie loves lifting my shirt to say "hi" and give hugs and kisses to my belly. This melts my heart! It's the sweetest thing ever. She will also put her hand on my belly, wait for a moment, then say, "kick!" The other night she was definitely startled when she rested her cheek on my belly and her sister kicked. She looked up at me with a smile, but surprised look, too. I know Ellie will be an amazing big sister, as she is an amazing daughter. Hurry up baby girl- we all cannot wait to meet you!

Nursery Dresser DIY Project

I love the outcome of the dresser makeover! I'm so glad I chose the white and a semi-gloss white. The gloss gives it shine and looks great against the hot pink walls.
Before:

After:

I love baby clothes! Most of these were Ellie's and I'm so happy I get to use them again!

Knobs: Home Goods

Supplies: I used the roller for the majority of the painting and the brush for corners and hard to reach places. I then used the small paintbrush (Ellie's actually) to get inside the crevices.

Paint: (Benjamin Moore) Primer in White and Interior Water-Based White Paint in a Semi-Gloss Finish

Project Info:

Dresser: Craigslist, $50

Knobs: Home Goods, three 4-packs, $8 each (I saved myself money by using a gift card)

Paint and Supplies: Benjamin Moore, $50

Total: $124

A great deal for a dresser made of real wood (not laminate)!

Nursery Dresser

I finally bought the paint and supplies for baby girl #2's dresser. To refresh your memory this is the dresser we bought off Craigslist:

I really wanted to paint it a soft gray, but in the end I went with white. The gray would have been different and would go with the pink/aqua/gray color theme, but the carpet in the room is beige and since the crib is white I decided to match the dresser, as well. I also went on my "nursery" board on Pinterest and found these colorful rooms all with white dressers and I thought it looked the best:

All photos via Pinterest

I went to my local Benjamin Moore store. This is always my go-to store for paint because they are always so helpful and I trust their recommendations. This time was like no other and I was in and out in 20 minutes. I knew I needed primer and I wanted white water based interior paint in a semi-gloss finish. They provided me with the supplies and I was good to go.

I sanded and primed Friday night and painted two coats of paint over the weekend. I want to give it a few days before adding the hardware, which gives my hubby time to spray paint the clear glass knobs anyway.

After priming

After 1st coat of paint

Check back soon for the completed project.

House Updates

Back in January I posted about our planned house projects. Here is an updated project list:

• Update light fixtures (great room, dining room, downstairs hallway, stairway, and baby #2's room). That's a lot of new lights. I'm hoping to sell the old ones on Craigslist.
• Replace kitchen faucet
• Update vanity in upstairs bathroom and replace medicine cabinet
• Create gallery wall in great room
• Add frames along stairwell
• Wallpaper downstairs hallway (feature wall)
• Add art to great room (I have a few options I will share)
• Buy new furniture for the living room (since we sold our couch)
• I'd really love a painting project! I just have to decide on the room. I'm thinking either the downstairs bathroom, hallway, or living room. I feel like I need some color on our walls downstairs.
• Finish playroom! I cannot wait to cross this one off my list. 
• We just need to put in the flooring, then I can move the furniture in the room and add storage for all of her toys that have taken over our great room.
• Add wall art
• We have one blank wall in the room adjacent to the playroom (her art room). I was initially going to wallpaper this wall, but it was going to be a lot more money than anticipated for such a small wall. Instead, I'd like to stencil it or add a wall decal
• Organize all of the art and craft supplies for this space and add storage
• Re-organize the office space (75% completed)
• I will be spending a lot more time in here so I'd like to some pretty wall hangings (the Etsy gift card I got for Christmas will be used)
• Add curtains
• And, most importantly, complete the new nursery!
• Figure out the closets- what stays and what goes. Paint the inside of the closet?
• Furniture placement
• Curtains for my closet
• Wall art

Updates (April):

• We finished the playroom- finally. A space Ellie loves playing in and doing arts and crafts. We love it down there, too. Pictures coming soon!

• The office is almost finished. We added curtains and moved one of our Ikea dressers from my dressing room to the office for added storage. I still want to add a few more pictures, but I'm in no rush. So, for the most part the office is complete!
• We've been shopping for a new couch, but haven't found anything we love. I was really hoping to find a light blue or charcoal color couch. The ones I like only come in the basic brown and tan. We'll keep looking...

Walls:

• I've slowly been adding new framed pictures to our walls. I recently did this wall collage in our kitchen using the free "Home" printable I found via Pinterest and Ellie's artwork. I love the color it adds to our walls. True masterpieces!

• I ordered this print (called "Brittle Stars") that I found on Imagekind. The frame is Ikea and I love that Ikea extended their frame color selection to charcoal gray. I placed it on the wall in our great room between our gas fireplace and bay window. I wanted a bigger sized print and this is the perfect scale.

• I had a coupon for Art.com and used it on this colorful 24x18 print. I'm thinking of putting it either in our bedroom, but first I have to find a frame.

• I plan to add pictures along our upstairs stairwell after the baby comes and I can fill more frames.

Unfortunately, the nursery has been pushed to the end of the list! I previously mentioned I bought this Ikea crib; however, when we tried out Ellie's mattress there was about 2" of room in the crib. Very frustrating, especially because the crib stated it fit the standard mattress. Ikea provided us with great customer service and we were able to return the crib for a full refund. Since the baby will be sleeping in our room for the first few months the crib is not a priority. We have set up the pack n play, swings, etc. We are picking up the paint for the dresser tomorrow and painting this week. More details to follow! And, let's hope I don't go into labor before this dresser is painted! :)

Happy Second Birthday, Ellie! Thank you for giving us the best two years of our lives. We love you more than we ever could have imagined.

Ellie's 2nd Birthday Party!

On Saturday morning we celebrated Ellie's 2nd birthday with her friends at our house. As I previously mentioned it was a Baby Beluga/whale party. This is her favorite song! I sing this to her before every nap and every bedtime. She calls the whale "yuck" and we have no idea where she got that from. The party was a success and a lot of fun! All of her play group friends were here (both Monday and Tuesday's group) plus my friends and their children (i.e Ellie's friends, too) and her cousins. My Mom also came to help with the party and Ellie (mostly Ellie) so that we could socialize, too. It was brunch so we had bagels, french toast casserole (a huge hit), homemade coffee cake, donuts, fruit salad, and drinks. I also made the cupcakes and re-discovered my KitchenAid stand mixer. I can't believe I've only used this a couple times before when we first moved into our house. I think I'll be baking a lot more often! I also moved our Keurig to the cabinet space next to our fridge to create a coffee bar. This is the Keurig's permanent home- I love the use of the space here (see a picture below).

I had set up a craft table outside with whale coloring pages, crayons, foam ocean stickers, and play doh. The whale coloring pages were a big hit with the kids! Even though it was a chilly morning, at least it was sunny so the party was primarily outside. It's always where the kids want to be anyway!

The party favors were bubbles from the Dollar Store with stickers on the lids from Zazzle. I created the stickers using a pink whale image I found on Google. I made a photo banner from months 13-23 and hung on the wall. Her birthday banner from R&R Creations was hung on the mantle and matched her party colors. I displayed some of our favorite photos of Ellie on the mantle along with a copy of "Baby Beluga," her framed invitation, and a chalkboard frame with her "favorites." I found the chalkboard idea on Pinterest.

I loved the party's theme colors of navy and hot pink. I even matched Ellie's outfit to the party colors. I bought a variety of pink and navy solid and polkadot balloons to decorate the inside and outside the house. I hung tissue poms (pink and silver) from the chandelier (not pictured). 

Here are some party photos:

The Birthday Girl!

Ellie did a great job of blowing out her birthday candle. As she told me later that night, her favorite part of her party was "Happy Day" (when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her).

I am so happy we had a special party for Ellie's birthday before her baby sister arrives. She deserves it! Her actual birthday is Friday, the 12th and her Daddy and I are taking her somewhere special. On Sunday we are having family over to celebrate, as well. It's a week long celebration for this little girl!

My Shopping Partner

This morning I had to do a few errands at the mall so I brought Ellie along. When we first pulled into the parking lot Ellie exclaimed, "mall, yay, fun!" I didn't bring her stroller knowing she wouldn't sit in it for too long. We had a fun two hours! I got done what I needed to and she was the perfect shopping partner. We had fun in each store and even ran through the mall holding hands. We threw pennies in the fountain and rode the carousel. She picked a horse and wanted to hold on her "self" and added in the "neigh!" It was too cute. While in Lucky she told me she had to "pee pee." Knowing the store across the way had a bathroom we went in there and she went on the big girl potty! Another milestone! Obviously I was not going to carry her potty around the mall. I was so proud of her. It is so freeing to be able to go do things without worrying about whether I can bring her potty with us. While passing a shoe store she exclaimed, "in there! Shoes!" Daddy is in trouble!

It really was a fun morning. I love how excited she is when we do something she enjoys and she gives me a big smile, or better yet a "hug." I am lucky that she is so lovable and I savor it. I probably tell her I love her a million times a day and I now get it back with, "wuv you!"

Here are a few pictures:

Ellie, 23 months