25 Things: Day 2

I did it. Again.

I know. You're shocked. Two whole days in a row is more consistency from me than you've come to expect.

Before I get to my accomplishment there are two other super awesome things I want to mention that happened yesterday.

First, our glorious new shiny refrigerator was delivered.

Isn't she pretty? Austin got her for roughly half of the MSRP and I am thrilled. It's a little big for the space, but that's about to change. I'm even more excited about that, but that project deserves its own post and really isn't going to get done in the hour between Norie and I going to sleep.

I also made Beer and Bacon Mac & Cheese for dinner. It had Halcyon in it. It was GOOD.

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I can't. It was The Beeroness. If you like craft beer and cooking you should go subscribe to her RSS feed right now. It's amazing. She has about a million recipes I want to try and she obviously blogs during the day based on the quality of her photos. Don't get me started about fall lighting and blog photography when you have a full time job.

Short version: it sucks.

Slightly longer version: it sucks more when you don't feel like you have the time to import the pictures from your real camera and quickly snap some shots with your phone.

I promise I'll replace these pictures some weekend when I can take them during the day. Well, at least the ones of things I haven't eaten.

That brings me to my 25 Things plan.

I didn't have a ton of time so instead of using the prioritization I did the thing I thought I could finish the fastest and without making too much noise. I started this page months ago and only had a couple of bits to stick down and the month label to create. 

In case you are counting and wondering why my October page is about finding out I was pregnant if Norie was born in May, I found out I was pregnant about 6 weeks after conception (a.k.a. when I was 8 weeks pregnant). There is a page for September too since I was pregnant for the whole month even though I didn't know it yet. No wonder I felt so icky at the Great American Beer Festival. By the time we found out about her she was the size of a strawberry. We were trying so it was a major relief to find out I didn't just have some freaky weird endocrine problem. The blog posts around that whole situation would have been hilarious if I had been ready to tell people.

On a photographic note, if your infant has attempted to use the corner of your phone with the camera as a chew toy the images get blurry. Lesson learned; clean the lens.

Day 2 of my 25 Things plan: check.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Infographic Wednesday: Free Birth Control!!

It doesn't have the ring of Infographic Friday, does it?

I could have waited until Friday, but then you could miss out on two whole days of knowledge for no good reason. This is really important stuff. In addition to fully covering birth control, a whole bunch of other important things are now covered too, like pap smears. You shouldn't have to get a pap smear AND pay a co-pay for it too. Now you don't. I have a related story, but that's way TMI.

I'm also pretty excited about the changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Did you know that your employer is required to provide you with space and time to pump at work if they have more than 50 employees? They do.And it can't be in a bathroom. Here's to not having to pump while listening to other people pee. I wonder if that has anything to do with the decision to post this story in K-State Today. It's about the new lactation stations on K-State's campus. In case you're curious, they are really, really close to being, but I guess not technically "in" bathrooms. At least they have outlets and chairs (a new development in some locations).

Tell your friends.

Maternity Wardrobe Ideas

I work on a college campus. My job isn't that fancy and I wear jeans most days. From a distance or if you aren't really paying attention I could look like a college student who tries just hard enough to wear a cardigan and a necklace to class.

That's not really an issue until you become pregnant enough for the casual observer to notice. (Which apparently is today. I've had four people I don't know ask me when I'm due since I got to work).

Now, I'm basically the embodiment of every student's worst fears. You can see the terror in their eyes when I walk past.

It's even worse with the groups of high school seniors and their parents here for campus visits, especially the ones with girls.

In good news, I have a design idea for a maternity t-shirt.

 

Not that I think you need all those things. I just think it might make dads with 17 year old daughters feel a little better.

We've been together a LONG time

I think about weird things. At least I'm guessing other people think they're weird. I think they're totally normal. Or at least normal for a person with a Ph.D. in biocultural anthropology. That might still be weird to most people.

Like I was thinking about how long my sister and I have been around for each other. Most people would think about that in terms of the last 29 years. That is how long it's been since I was born.

Aren't we cute?

Twenty nine years is a really long time. Longer than I've known just about anyone else.

But that's not the way I was thinking about it.  I was thinking about it from a whole other perspective. A even longer term, biological one.
 
Being pregnant with a baby girl reminds you of very cool facts about human biology. Like the fact that she has already developed all the eggs she will ever have. They are all there right now. If she has biological children the eggs that will become my grandchildren are in her, in me, right now. That's really cool, huh?

Do you see where I'm going with this yet?

Crystal and I both came from eggs my mother developed before she was even born. As in the eggs that became us have been together since then. That's a really long time. Like a really REALLY long time. A whole generation before we were even born. No wonder we're so close.

I think we're still pretty darn cute too. Even in pictures I take with phone that are grainy and have questionable color quality. :)

Nursery Armoire: I need color help

I've been trying to figure out what to do about storing clothing in the nursery. The one I put in the nursery floorplan was the Pottery Barn Catallina Dresser and Hutch.

 

It's not exactly my dream piece, but I needed something to represent an armoire in the room. (I really prefer to hang clothes over folding them. Drawers just turn into a complete mess.)

I seriously thought about making this nursery armoire from Ana White's website, but I'm pretty sure it would make my husband insane if I started a major building project at this point.

That, and I'm pretty sure that I would spend as much or more on wood and hardware as I'm going to pick up this armoire off of craiglist.

My in-laws even offered to buy it since we're getting most of the other major pieces of nursery furniture free. I'm not one to say no when people make generous offers so I took them up on it. My mom is going to come paint it for me, but I we need to decided what we want to do with it. 

My husband doesn't always care about these things, but I've learned that its better to ask and have him look at me like "why would I care what color the armoire in the nursery is?" than have him think I don't value his opinion.

I really like the bead board look of Ana's so I think some bead board paper on the door insets would be a good starting point and I'll probably go with hardware similar to what we used in the kitchen. The real question is what color to paint it. Yes. I'm painting it. I am without hesitation or remorse covering every inch of that cherry wood in milk paint.

Originally I assumed we should off with an old white, but then I saw a couple of pieces that really inspired me.

This one is for sale at a little shop called Joanie's Junk an hour or so away.

There is something I love about that mustard color. I also loved it on this piece that I can't find the origin of. I think it was from Ana White.

 

 But then there are other colors like the blue used on the dresser on the cover of Shaunna from Perfectly Imperfect's Book. I'm pretty sure it must be Duck Egg or Provence since she only uses Annie Sloan chalk paint.

Or a brighter blue like this one from Young America?

Or maybe a pea green like this Seymour Office Armoire from Pottery Barn?

Or maybe something else? What do you think?

Actually, now that I've seen that last one I really kind of think green. I know. It's basically the color the room was before we painted it, but that's because the room used to be my favorite color in the whole world. If only I had some of that paint leftover I would be set.

But seriously, if you have a great suggestion let me know. :)

99 days and counting

The baby bomb clock is in the double digits.

Cribs!

I'm sure you wondered why I didn't post something about the baby yesterday since Wednesday is Baby Day. (What? You're not obsessed with my schedule?) Hopefully awesome cupcakes were a satisfactory substitute. Just in case, here's some baby action for you.

Austin and I are freegan-ing as much of the baby stuff as we possibly can so I haven't done a ton of shopping or registering for big items, but it looks like we are in the crib market after all. (Feel free to let me know if you have one you'd like to sell cheap/donate to the cause.) When thebump.com sent me a newsletter with a slideshow of 10 Cribs We Love I couldn't resist a peek or four. Fair warning though, they have excellent taste, but some are not budget friendly. I think I'll just look at them.

My favorite:

Graco Lauren Convertible Crib ($150 Target)

I am totally registered for this one in case you're curious. It's not super flashy, but it converts from a crib to a toddler bed to a full size bed. Yes, please.

 

There were also a couple I think are totally adorable, but absurdly expensive (sorry if you're into high end baby gear and are offended by that).

Muu Sam ($1775 MuuKids)

That aqua whale design makes me smile.

I also like the design on the PetitNest Alloette Crib ($1490)

Do you suppose there is a place where people sell them on craigslist after their kid grows out of a crib?

Nursery Floorplan

In an effort to structure and use my time effectively this year I've allocated days to each of my major project areas. Wednesday is Baby Day which means I get to spend the whole evening playing with things related to the baby. To be honest, most of things on the baby prep checklist aren't exactly thrilling.

Maybe I'm missing something, but scheduling a glucose tolerance test and filling out paperwork are exactly ideas that have me all excited about Baby Day. I added work on the nursery so I wouldn't go crazy. That and because I can't not decorate. It's just not in my nature. I MUST make things attractive.

Since I'm not exactly in a condition to move furniture around repeatedly and I wanted to visualize the space I decided to try out Pottery Barn Kids Room Planner. They do mention it in every email they send me. Not sure I remember signing up for those. I bet thebump.com sold them my email. I don't mind though. I'm all about nursery ideas these days.

I measured the room so it would be to scale and started adding in the furniture we already have, have been offered already, or probably need to acquire before Little Miss is born. It was fun and now I know exactly what size of rug I want which is super helpful.

I colored in the stuff we have like Austin's family heirloom rocker,

 

the papasan chair and bookshelf we already have, and a huge corn plant I'm going to put in there. I even put one of the placemat throw pillows I made on the chair.

It would look great with that vintage aqua afghan I saw out shopping last week, don't you think?

I also colored in the existing carpet. If Austin has anything to say about it that will be covered up with new, plusher carpet before we're finished so maybe it should look more like this.

For the record, he has great taste and decided where most of the furniture should go. I didn't like the way I originally had it nearly as much. What do you think?

Pregnancy Scrapbook

I've been trying to post more consistently lately, but today when I went to write something I just didn't want to. All I wanted to do was think about how I'm going to scrap book my pregnancy (and Little Miss when she comes along).

During my all afternoon shopping extravaganza last weekend I spent a good hour in the scrap booking aisles of Hobby Lobby looking through materials and trying to decide what to buy. I'm a novice scrap booker although I did have what some would call a scrap wall in high school. (I'll try to find a picture of that to post at some point). I'm really good at the collecting things from memorable events part, not so good at the organizing them beyond throwing them in shoebox part. I've decided I'm going to do something about that so I can better document her impending childhood.

I had no idea there was so much stuff involved in scrap booking. I looked a ton of it and decided on just a few items that I think fit with my style.

Since I have nothing but the scrapbooking paper left over from our wedding placemats, (Which reminds me I need to post about our wedding. I didn't start my blog until after the wedding but it was Country Living fabulous and I have a ton of pictures to share) I went with a page kit. I'm sure that's sacrilage to a real scrapbooker, but I figured it was a good way to get a bunch of stuff all together and not have to find all the individual bits. It also comes with ideas on how to put them together which I like. I've never done this before so I need a little more inspiration than I do with some other creative projects.  I got this one since it was 40% off.

I used a very similar pattern on one of the walls in the original Dream Dollhouse I built for my nieces. I must like it. It has brightly mis-colored animals (see the realization from this weekend) so that's not exactly surprising.

There was another baby girl one I liked too, and some sticker sets I thought were cute but they weren't on sale and I just refuse to pay full price for anything at HB. I'll go back with a 40% off coupon for it one of these days.

Between the two page kits, the Dream Dollhouse wallpaper leftovers, and the wedding placemat paper I think I'll have enough to create a sufficiently adorable yet not quite obnoxiously baby girl themed scrapbook.

I picked out this bright, Barbie pink cloth album after about 20 minutes of debating between it and the same one in aqua. There was another one in pink with white polka dots, but I wasn't super keen on the vinyl cover.

I'm going to write her name on it with these awesome pea green letters with white polka dots. I loved them the moment I saw them.

I'm also thinking I'll add a couple of other elements like the three dimensional lion sticker from the kit and something else to spice it up.  Since I'm not a hardcore scrapbooker I'm thinking this will be a pregnancy/baby book not two separate ones so her name makes more sense than "Pregnancy" or some other title.

All of this is, of course, is at home along with all the bits I would scrap rather than in my office where I am on my lunch break. No scrapbooking for me. Just fantasizing about scrapbooking.


I searched the internet for inspiration instead. I found advice on creating a pregnancy scrapbook. Hint: I'm already WAY behind. Not a single picture to my knowledge of me from the last several months. Ooops. But seriously, how many pictures of me expanding does the world really need?

I also found some lovely page ideas. I'm sure I'll spice it up Amber style, but I like a little creative inspiration. 

Beer Bottle Lamp How-To and a Color Choice

I've been spending all my free time busting my butt to finish up projects around the house lately. I had the day off yesterday and I seriously considered spending the whole thing working on the house, but reason kicked in and I decided a mental health day was a much better idea. I went to lunch with a friend, ate some frozen yogurt, and did a couple of easy little projects instead of trying to conquer any massive ones.

The lamp was actually my husband's idea. He thought the pink would be perfect for the nursery. I couldn't argue. I love the color and it meets the sentimental value criteria for nursery decor. We visited Rogue's Portland Brewpub and Voodoo Doughnut on our honeymoon. I recommend them both if you're planning a trip to Portland. It's probably not the memento most people would use in their nursery, but it's perfect for us and I think Bump will love it.

Making the lamp was a pretty easy project. I cheated a bit on the hardest part. My how-to for that goes something like, "find a friend who knows what they're doing and ask them to drill a hole in the bottle for you." I'll see what I can do about getting her to provide a how-to on just that part. You can also just leave the cord hanging down from the top if that doesn't bug the crap out of you.

Once the hole is drilled it's a cake walk. Head down to your local hardware/home store and ask where the lamp repair section is. Someone in an apron will probably point you toward an endcap full of packages that look about like this.

There are several options that would work, but I chose the Make-A-Lamp Kit that comes with several adapters to turn a bottle into a lamp. Then you just follow the directions on the back. Since you're dealing with electricity here, I recommend you read and follow them.

When I got done it looked like this.

 

Add a lamp shade and voila.

After I finished the lamp off I picked the color for the nursery. I was originally thinking a very pale yellow. I even spent a good half hour trying to decide between four shades that most people (including Austin) would argue were the same color.  After I picked my inspiration piece I had a change of heart (it was those little giraffes).

I wanted a really pale color, but I still want color. I'm going with True Turquoise from Glidden mixed at 25%. Thanks Miss Mustard Seed for the tip!

Did you notice that timer in the first picture? It's counting down to my due date. I got it from Santa and it's kind of like a cross between the timer on a bomb and an Advent calendar. Nothing motivates a pregnant woman like a reminder to "Make Every Minute Count" and a reminder of roughly how many she has left to nest.

Breakdown

I just had my first major pregnancy induced emotional breakdown.

A major, body shaking, tears streaming, weeping in a way that puts Kim Jong-Il's mourners to shame in the parking lot of my local recycling center kind of breakdown.

They were closed.

I got there at 9:24am. They are open until 9:30 on Wednesday, but not on Thursday. On Thursday they open at 7:30am and close at 9. I really wish I had known that at 9:07 when I got back to my house and before I busted my ass to get the enormous pile of recyclables that has been taking over our laundry/mudroom/hallway to the only main floor bathroom for the last month into our little SUV.

Sidenote: yes, I do need to post about that. It's the most embarrassing part of our house and if you have to use the facilities while you're here you'll see it.

Back to that breakdown. So they're closed and the recyclables are already in the car. Not such a big deal, right? I can just bring them tomorrow instead when Austin will be off work and around to help me with them.

Wrong.

They also aren't open Friday morning, but they were open Wednesday from 5-7pm. Isn't that convenient? Who would have thought you might want to have a time that is actually after people who have jobs get home from work? Too bad it doesn't say that on the website.  I would have brought them last night instead of taking a shower. That would have been a really handy bit of information to have, especially now that my car is full of recyclables that I can't get rid of until Saturday morning.

Because,, you know, I don't want to drive anywhere else between now and then and I don't mind carrying them back and forth to the house over and over. It's not like I have to hold them awkwardly to avoid putting pressure on my abdomen (which is much more uncomfortable than you might guess if you've never been pregnant).

I've been trying to get rid of them all week, but every day there is something I need to do which I can't get done until some store opens (God forbid they open at 8:00am) and that means I don't get back to my house in time to load them up before the recycling trailer closes.

Why don't I just wait and do the errands after?

Because I need to do them 10 miles away from my house and I'm already there to drop off my husband for work. At least if I want to have a vehicle that moves to carry the recyclables. The battery in my car is dead and it's a heap anyway so we haven't replaced it.

So there I was, an emotional wreck with an Escape full of recyclables crying on the side of the road in front of the recycling trailer. I'm not sure which was worse, my level of frustration at the situation or at the fact that I couldn't keep myself from throwing a total tantrum right there even though what is left of the rational part of my brain didn't think it was that big of a deal.

And yesterday's project?

Totally not done. I worked for hours and I know I did a lot, but you really can't tell when you look at the room.

Today's project: Walk the dogs and try to regain some sort of emotional stability. Hopefully I can actually finish this one.