3 in a bedroom?

Whether we adopt or birth a third baby, either way, it'll be in THIS house. 

This 2 bedroom, city house. Which means bunk beds are absolutely necessary. 

Good thing I love me some bunk beds :) I have great memories of sharing a bunk bed with my sister growing up. We were in bunks until we moved to a 3 bedroom home when we were 8 and 10 respectively.

Here are two simple bunks that I have my eye on. The IKEA one turns into two twin beds which is a huge perk, but has no storage and is made of less quality wood (and is actually $100 more!). The Brick one is white which I love and a bit higher quality, but doesn't turn into twin beds which would limit it's lifespan. Both are simple and I love how the ladder doesn't jut out but is attached to the structure.

{The Brick, $199}

{IKEA, $299}

But is it just me or are kids rooms getting a little out of hand? While researching bunk beds it was actually difficult to find the two I've posted above. Because all the bunk beds these days are so outrageous. 

They're enormous structures, complete with staircases, and cost nearly $1,000!!

What has happened to the classic bunk bed?!

[source]

36 week ponderings

1. One more week and I'm in the clear
2. I'm really getting tired of bed rest
3. I really wish we had a car so I could leave the house...
4. I can't believe I'm going to have a baby that isn't Lily
5. I'm nervous about my water breaking
6. I'm nervous about not being able to get an epidural or not making it to the hospital (now that I have felt labour pains, there's no way you could PAY ME to attempt natural birth!)
7. The nursery is so not ready (Lily's big girl bed doesn't come til Nov and it's notpainted with the gray stripe as we plan to have it, nor is anything hung on the walls. Good thing he'll be in our room, which IS ready for the first several weeks)

soon and very soon...

• i'll be in a new home
• i'll be lounging on THE UNICORN
• i'll be decorating for Fall
• i'll be getting ready for Christmas
• i'll be mummer to another little one
• i'll be drinking a margarita (or a glass of wine or a 1/2 pint of beer...)
• i'll be up all night and practically all day
• i'll be a Plateau-dwelling lady
• i'll be giving birth (can.not.wait.)
• i'll be recovering from giving birth (can.definitely.wait)
• i'll be attempting breast-feeding & giving it my best shot (again)
• i'll be living farther from my friends
• i'll be amidst far more French
• i'll be watching hockey
• i'll be wearing non-maternity clothes

lots (good & bad) to look forward to in joy and anticipation and just a smidgen of fear.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, 

for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. 

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble

- Jesus (Matthew 6:34) 

moving while pregnant?

In 4 weeks, we're moving.
In about 10 weeks I'll have another lil baby in my arms.
I say another because Lily still feels like a baby, even though after Saturday when she turned 1, she's officially a toddler. She's still under 20 lbs and has just 2 teeth and doesn't say much, so to me, she's still a baby. Our baby, if not a 'baby' to anyone else. Which brings me to the question on my mind:


How do you move in/out with a baby? 
Or while very pregnant?

Realistically, I won't be able to do much. I can't paint or lift heavy boxes. I can sort, organize, and best of all, boss people around, but I can't do much. I'm just too dang pregnant! And Lily... well she'll definitely need an all-day babysitter...for a few days. I have a few local friends who I'm sure wouldn't mind watching her, but I just don't think there's another way - so they will be asked (you know who you are!)

My goal is to have the house painted and large furniture moved in by September 30th, giving us a full 4 weeks in the house to actually make it a home (decorating, settling, etc) before LG's arrival.
Assuming he doesn't come early.
Assuming everything goes through with the house.
And assuming the final weeks of my pregnancy I'm healthy.
Assuming.

Advice, please!

25 things to do:

To-do lists are my favourite thing.

Crossing them off is therapeutic and making them makes me feel so much less overwhelmed, no matter how long the list is. I just saw the one I'd made for Lily's nursery this time last summer and smiled. It always gets done, even though it sometimes seems like it won't :)

This time around, we'll be in the process of finding and buying an apartment, so I can't do anything to the actual nursery/bedroom until we're settled in the new nest (and no one knows exactly when that will be... August? September? October? God-forbid November?). But there's lots of other things I can do to prepare for the boy's arrival and the room Lily will now be sharing...

1. buy fabric for his quilt

2. buy fabric for his blanket

3. sew his blanket

4. 0-3m clothes (fall/winter)

5. 3-6m clothes (winter)

6. 6-9m clothes (spring)

7. 9-12m clothes (summer)

8. 12+m clothes (next fall)

9. wash + organize by month LG's clothes

10. crib bumper in green

11. IKEAwooden train set

12. wooden toys - blocks, etc

13. find/buy dresser for Lily (LG gets her old one)

14. paint/refurbish dresser for Lily

15. find/buy bed for Lily

16. paint bed for Lily

17. find/buy mattress for Lily

18. find/buy bookshelf

19. paint bookshelf

20. find/buy adorable children's rocking chair

(thanks mom!)

21. find/buy some boy's burp clothes

(they're ALL pink)

22. buy spice racks from IKEA for book shelf DIY

23. paint spice racks from IKEA

24. make fun mobile for kid's room

from http://www.annaleahart.com/

25. find/buy/make LG a sock monkey

(if it's less than $10 or $15 I'm just buying it)

So mostly it's a LOT of painting and up-cycling of furniture.

Plus some sewing and a couple of purchases that aren't urgent.

Wonder if my dad will be up for painting some beds this summer?

co-ed nursery/bedroom

decorating and DIYing for Lily's nursery last July and August was so fun. We chose gender-neutral green and orange so we would only need to make minimal changes come baby no. 2 just in case it was a boy. And God has indeed blessed us with a healthy baby boy (who is 21 weeks in utero today!) so those minimal changes will be taking place after all :) Head over to {our nest in the city} to see the beginnings of my plans for the co-ed nursery/bed room, starting with the furniture.

My inspiration for their room is this fabric:

"Spotted Owl" in "Natural" by Alexander Henry

And this gorgeous co-ed children's room:

Sunrise Ruffalo's home tour from Domino Magazine

Also check out my pinterest (linked on {our nest in the city} for more nursery ideas under "kid's decorating"

baby boy quilt 2

Yesterday you saw my inspiration for LG (Little Gentleman)'s quilt. Today, I went to work to find out where I could buy the fabric I needed to make it happen. Oh, being in the USA! Where capitalism reigns and everyone can get a good deal (hey, why not help their economy, right?). I found www.fabric.com which had amazing deals on some of my favourite fabrics. We're talking $7/yard for Amy Butler fabrics! Those exact same prints run you about $15/metre (basically a yard) in every shop I've been to in Canada. I wish I had more cash to just stock up to my hearts content, but I settled with 1.5 yards of two fabrics I enjoyed and will match well in the kid's room.

I may make accent pillows or a valance or fixed roman shade. I really don't know yet. I've decided to make the kid's bedding (once they're out of cribs, that is) since I can't seem to find anything I like in my price range. Making a duvet cover is basically one of the simplist sewing projects known to man woman humanity, same goes for pillow cases, so it shouldn't be too hard. Plus if I can find some Queen or King sheets that are the colours I want, it would probably be less money than using fabric - and already hemmed! These fabrics would make a nice trim accent though. They'll be put to use somehow :)

It's also where I found my brown gingham for the backing of LG's quilt.

I like how this gingham is on the vertical. Wasn't initially my choice, and there was a smaller gingham for only $4/yard, but this was larger, and more bold - which is what I'm going for - so it was worth the roughly $8/yard. Still amazing compared to fabric prices in Canada.

And as always, the shipping (domestic in the USA only) was free. Golden.

baby boy's quilt

I mentioned before, my fabulous sister is making baby No. 2 a quilt just as she did Lily. COMPLETELY not necessary (we chose gender neutral colours for Lily's so they could share), but that's Lisa for you. She lives to go above and beyond. Anyone who knows her, knows that.

Anyway, we've been brainstorming and we still want to do the same colour scheme of Lily's - green and orange - since they'll be sharing a room and all. But we want his to be a bit more masculine and bold. Lily's has very small patch work (incredibly intricate!) and many of the non green and orange pieces were lighter fabrics/colours/patterns. With the boy's quilt, we're going the opposite - large pieces, bold colours and fabrics, and adding darker accent colours.

My inspiration:



The large back piece will probably be a brown and white gingham as you see in the bold patchwork above. I love the brown with the green and orange, plus it adds that boy-ish look we're going for, while keeping the quilts the same since their living space is shared.

We still have a lot of leftover fabric from Lily's quilt and the DIY onsies I made and the fabric hoops (a little fabric goes a long way...never throw out scraps!) plus I picked up some sweet fat quarters from a local quilt shop when I was home for the worlds-shortest-visit for Lisa's bridal shower last week. I'm heading to Joann's to get the gingham - I'm sure they'll have some, it's a basic print and pretty universal - and I'm so excited!

I love quilts! I love my sister! I love this little gentleman!

baby mobile idea

we already have one... but for anyone interested.... i found a beauty FREE mobile download. just add a branch + string :)

Thanks, CHILDREN INSPIRE DESIGN!

https://childreninspiredesign.com/content/free-download

MM's Dresser Make-Over

it looks terrific!!!!
{if I do say so myself}

Recap: we got this piece for $20 at a garage sale.

Then Brad painted it white with the paint we used for the trim in MM's room

They I covered the bland white change pad with a fun IKEA fabric and bought new knobs at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store for $2 each

And lined the drawers with a fun wallpaper I also bought at the Re-Store for $2

Ta-Da!

The drawers are now all packed and MM's diapers, clothes, and general things have a home :) Now I'm feeling very prepared...her crib is yet to arrive but that's not as much a hurry since she has a bassinet home for the first month or so. So MM, if you're listening... you can come now.
kthanksbye.

SCORE!

we were THIS CLOSE to buying the white, $170, Hemnes dresser from IKEA (below).

this close!!

I had dreamed of finding a cute old antique-looking, solid wood, and thus much better than IKEA plywood, dresser on Craigslist or Kijiji but after months of searching it seemed it wasn't in the cards. Everything I found online was either just people selling their old IKEA dressers or over $100, which to me is way too much for something second-hand!

So we were about to bite the bullet and get the white Hemnes dresser for the nursery until today Loni and I stumbled upon a garage sale in NDG while we were shopping at Emeline & Annabelle!
And there it was.
A beautiful, perfect-sized, antique-looking, complete with a key hole at the top, dresser with three drawers selling for $20!!!

We'll be painting it white and getting new hardware from the Re-Store this week.
Will show the finished product soon :)

a little behind...

For many reasons (i.e. traveling for 2 months this summer, visiting family in Ontario for weeks after that, not knowing if we were staying or moving apartments, etc) I am feeling very BEHIND.

I know the baby won't notice if her room is finished or not (but I will) but it's more than that... tonight we're starting our FIRST labour and delivery class of four, the last being precisely two days after our due date... The reason being, the class we should have taken was happening while we were in Africa this June. Apparently the last class should be exactly 1 month before your due date... Oops. Dropped the ball on that one!

I need to sit back and RELAX and enjoy these last few days/weeks before a baby infiltrates me and Brad's tight knit home and becomes our never-moving-out roommate that we love so much, we barely have time to think... I am so excited for her to come though that all I want to do is prepare FOR her instead of enjoy this time without her while it's here.

In reality, the things we have still to do aren't urgent (which is probably why they're not done) but to me they are because I want everything done and done right before she's born...

* we still need to buy between 6-10 more cloth diapers, but we're not starting cloth diapering until a month AFTER she's born

* we still need to get her correct crib in our nursery and assemble it, but she won't be sleeping in the crib until a month or even two AFTER she's born (bassinet will take care of that)

*we still need to take these labour and delivery classes, though my doctor's assured me that she knows what to do (duh) and the nurses and doctors are there to HELP me, so I won't be up a river with no paddle if I don't watch some terrifying video in the local health clinic with a bunch of strangers who are far less pregnant than me...

So really the things I'm behind on aren't something to stress about... I'm just stressing needlessly. But it's so hard not to! Stress is sometimes the easiest response when things don't go my way... Faith being the hardest and the most necessary.

Nursery {part 2}

I'd say we're in the "calm before the storm" stage, wherein we are getting ready to re-do two rooms in our home and expecting a baby any week now... but really it's already a storm!

My nursery TO-DO list is slowly getting accomplished, but not without leaving the rest of my house/life in it's wake!
Good thing I'm on maternity leave and have the time, if only the energy! So here's a glimpse into what we've done so far:

{fabric hoops wall-art}

• used left-over fabrics from the quilt my sister made
• bought fabric hoops at Fabric Ville, about $2 each
  
• this is actually the arrangement they'll hang on the wall in
  

{empty frame wall art}

• inspired by pictures like this and this
• bought all frames at Dollarama + spray paint

Stay Tuned!

Question:

Why are ALL the baby items (i.e. strollers, car seats, cribs, crib bedding, decor) so UGLY? Everything is pastel with bunnies or some retro plaid, and I've never seen more frills in my life!

Call me crazy, but Baby Olivia (Loni's new bundle of joy) doesn't even see colour yet (unless it's a recent development) and she doesn't have strong vision beyond what's immediately in front of her. So why oh why do we decorate entire baby rooms in these cartoon-y baby colours that I'd never put in the rest of my house? The baby can't even SEE the colours or theme most likely. The parents are the ones who spend most waking time in the nursery and have good vision (with the aid of contact lenses!) so why not decorate in a way that can please both baby and parent?

I really like what Andy and Loni did with their kid's room. It's covered in toys - after all kids LIVE there and no one's expecting a baby room to not have toys, but for the most part, it's not overly "baby" or "kiddie". It matches the rest of their house. The walls are a mix between beige and olive green, the furniture is white and wooden, and their bedding is gender neutral - maybe partly because Matty and Dahlia switch bunks often :) The point is, I LOVE it that I walk into their fun, warm, kid's room and it's not like chuckie cheese or baby land, after all they're only babies for a short time and there will likely be more than 1 child in the room at a time, so for us, it's got to be universal.

Like these:

14 things to do in the 28 days of February

1. watch Valentines Day (Feb 12th)
2. Olympics Opening Ceremony (Feb 12th also...yikes a clash...)
3. watch Olympics every spare minute I'm not sleeping or working
   
4. continue saving so we can buy a house before next winter
   
5. get over prego-nausea so I can start doing prego-yoga
6. visit my hometown and family in Fonthill, ON on "Reading Week" which is more of a slow-paced-work-from-home kind of week with my job
7. make valentine's for the girls in my DGs
8. get back my taste for foods and energy for baking and bake yummy heart-shaped goodies
9. enjoy winter in my new Hailey Boots from North Face (my birthday present from October '09 which just arrived!)
10. buy a hot glue gun and do more crafting since point 7 likely won't happen for more than 1 day
11. read lots of books (any suggestions?)
12. start accumulating baby stuff (we're not letting ourselves buy anything for the baby until the 2nd trimester)
13. start wearing more prego clothes (note previous post, LOVE the deals!)
14. think of a great surprise for Brad to show him how much I love him <3>

bedroom makeover

since I'm spending so much more time in bed these days (napping and night sleep is totaling around 11-12 hours a day) I decided to give my bedroom a bit of a makeover since I was getting tired of the same thing for 1/2 the day, every day.

ditched the duvet cover for simple white blanket over the plain duvet:


bought a new lamp shade at Salvation Army to match the white and added some leftover fabric from when I made jam this Christmas to cover the bedside table:


Made and hung a new piece of wall art (the clear frame with cool business cards we collected last summer at a food festival in Old Montreal) over the lamp, which I could only do evenly since I moved the bed much farther to the left (now I'm a lot closer to the window which is the downfall, because it's colder):


More fabric on the dresser:


The Whole Room :)


The whole room changes cost about $5 ($2 for the lamp and estimating $3 for the leftover fabric) but it looks quite different - just don't have the before pics to prove it :) G'night!

In the trail of my addictions...

Lately I'm hooked on candles. I blame Jamie, who needs one burning to survive. She especially introduced me to the scented jar candles that we found for $5 at Zellers, but their much-longer-burning-higher-class counterparts are from Yankee Candle. Either way, I'm burning them often and ending up with unburned wax and empty jars galore.

Enter the creation of scented wax tarts and more storage for my kitchen!

The wax melts really evenly, I use muffin tins but would use mini muffin tins if I had them. Make sure you don't put too much wax in each because the wax may melt over once you put it in the tea-light holder. Those were form Dollarama for $1 by the way.

So just put them in the oven at 150 or 200 for 10 minutes or so and let them harden afterward for at least an hour or pop them in the freezer and voila!