A feature, Pinterest and a Crazy Nesting Pregnant Lady

Majorly quick post here, but I wanted to let you know that I'm so excited--Laurie from Tip Junkie featured my filing cabinet on her blog! It was really sweet of her. Here's the link. Tip Junkie is a great site that compiles great blog posts. Kinda like a one stop shop--there's so much awesome stuff to wade through in Blogland, it's nice to let other people do the wading sometimes!

In other news, get ready because my second trimester bod is ready to NEST. I made a list of things I need to do to get ready for baby, also known as Ziggy #2 (Ziggy being short for zygote, of course.)

The list is SUBSTANTIAL, but I know many of my 3rd trimester friends would encourage me to start NOW. I'm definitely heeding the advice, because it doesn't look like we're moving any time soon so we gotta make this house work for us!

I've been compiling ideas on my new Pinterest, and have been particularly excited to outfit Ava's big girl room. If you are interested in checking out my boards, here's the link!

We're From the Island of...

We have this window in our bedroom. It's kind of a misfit. It's not shaped the way the other windows are. It's wide but short. To make matters crazier, the window is practically flush with the trim, which means we can't mount anything inside. Any window covering or shade we put up has to be mounted on the wall or on the trim itself. It's just not like the other windows. It's okay. It was born that way.

Mr. Wonderful is not a good sleeper. Lots of light can make it harder for him to sleep in (sleeping in is not really in his vocab, you might say) So last fall I pinned up some dark fabric over the windows. This made Mr. Wonderful very glad, but I was not so enamored. It was UG! So I started sifting through my options.

Shades were not going to be SUPER effective due to the mounting issue. Then I looked at blackout curtains. Most of them have vinyl, which is supposed to off-gas terribly. Then I thought maybe I could just find some thick fabric. But I didn't want it to be severe and dark. Then I found this fabric at Joanne's. (back view)

It was $21/yard down from $35 a yard. It doesn't look terribly thick in the pics, but it really does block a lot of light, and manages to not look dark or depressing. I ended up buying just a yard and hemming all sides, one of which being a long hem so I could have a little rod pocket.

I ended up buying some brown grosgrain ribbon so I could tie it up and let the light in during the daytime.

I safety pinned the ribbon to the curtain in back so when I let it down the ribbons don't fall off. Totally mistreated. Awww, yeah. Also, the window is not crooked, the ceiling is slanted. Do not adjust your monitors. :0)

Not as pretty down, but it's gonna help the mister and much improved from what we had. What's that you say? The bed is not centered on the window? Some of us are pregnant and need a little extra space, mkay?

Oh, and speaking of pregnant, we had our ultrasound on Monday--baby is looking good, and we can't wait to be surprised when he or she is born!!!

Uh Oh.

Do you see that hinge at the top of the cupboard? Do you see how there are still screws left in it? Looks like the door hanging on them was stripped...maybe open shelving is in our future???

Lovely Lanterns

I finished my garden project! It was super cheap, fast and easy and I'm so glad I took the time to figure it out and do it. I have been collecting aqua Ball jars for awhile now, so those were free, as well as the candles I already had. All I bought was some wire and sand at Joanne's (on a gift card!) So it was fa-reee! Here is how it ended up (in daylight): Here is the early evening glow:

I ended up getting the sand because I wanted the candles to stay put. I wiggled them down in the sand so they wouldn't shift around and get by the glass and break it. It also helps me reach the candles in the bigger jars. In the biggest jar I first put a bunch of rocks in the bottom to save on sand. I wrapped the wire around underneath the threads and then looped it over to make a handle before securing it on the opposite side.

Here's what it looked like from the ground later:

And of course, the pictures don't do it justice. It is really pretty and it made us want to linger as we sat underneath.

I really wanted this to be a low maintenance project. Something I could put up and leave up all summer without having to worry about rain or bugs. I spent a day racking my brain trying to figure out a way that I wouldn't have to take them up and down. And then I realized, duh, put the lids back on! Now they'll be super easy to care for. Another advantage to these lanterns is that they are totally kid proof. We don't have to worry about Ava getting into them.

So there they are--our romantic, free, ambient lighting for these beautiful summer nights!




Linking up to the Lettered Cottage

Yay for spring! It's finally starting to be consistently pretty nice outside (despite freezing temps the last two nights) and I'm trying to be really proactive about being outside a lot. So last night I was driving back from teaching my class, and even though it was a little chilly outside, I decided I'd invite Mr. Wonderful for an outdoor date. We took out the lawn chairs, grabbed a couple of blankets and sat right in front of these guys: Lilacs have always been a favorite of mine. In fact, in high school my mom and I redecorated my room with one of those ridiculously HUGE wallpaper borders with lilacs on it.

Anyway, I have been wanting to make our backyard a little more interesting and romantic in the summer, and last night's date gave me the motivation to start DOING something about it. I don't have all the tools and materials I need yet, but here's a sneak peek:

I'm excited to see how it will turn out and how it will encourage us to spend more time outdoors this summer!

Speaking of lilacs, we also have a white lilac bush in the front yard. (how awesome is that?) It doesn't look like much from the front:

But my favorite part is that it always seems to have the best blooms in the back, right outside my bedroom window. It's so wonderful to sleep with the window open and smell those beautiful blossoms!

So there's a little spring tour of my favorite parts of the yard! I'll post more pics of my new project once it's done!

Update on our *almost* 2-year-old

Time for another episode of pictures for Grandma!

Ava had a run in with the driveway this week. Poor thing had a lip out to here! She's doing much better just three days later. One of Ava's new hobbies is putting shoes on. Putting my shoes on me, putting her shoes on her, putting her shoes on Papa, no one is safe!

She was really into sitting on the potty and even went poopy once! So, I got her some big girl underpants. But she's over it now. Totally not interested.

Here she is on Easter! Amazingly, she wore the same 12 month dress she wore last year. We pretty much squeezed it on her.

Ava got some Easter eggs to paint from Auntie Jen. She definitely favored the blue paint and...sampled it. Found blue paint on her teeth.

Her new signature look. Pigtails!

Okay, so we've been considering a major bathroom project and this is the biggest reason why. I used to just take her in the shower and she liked it first, but gradually began to dread it. So we moved operations to the kitchen sink. She barely fits!

Completely unintentional artsy pic:

Free Lantern

Last summer I scored this lantern for free at a rummage sale: I took this pic after removing the glass. Anway, he said I could have it 'cause it doesn't work. Psssh. Details. I had it on our front steps, but it couldn't even be seen because our steps are black, too. So I bought some yellow spray paint at Joanne's....and I brought it back. Almost as soon as I got in the car, I knew I should've gotten red. When I brought it back, I found some red on sale for $.97!!!!

I used lots and lots and lots of thin layers. Many trips out to our (very ventilated!) garage.

I don't know exactly what to do with it. But I've been meaning to paint it forever, so thanks Sarah for the motivation!

Linking up to the Spray Paint Party!