The nursery

There have been many requests for a post about the nursery. Remember I wanted to do a forest theme? 

Lesson #1: Finish your nursery before you have the baby! There is so much going on as a new parent you think your maternity leave is a vacation but it's actually more difficult than your day job!

Now I know....

MJ is now 2 months old and the nursery is still a work in progress. Just take a look:

When you walk in you see a window, laundry basket, artwork from my SIL and yep, that's my bridal portrait...guess I need a new place for that.

     

Close up of SIL artwork

To your right is the crib. Baby cribs are so simple. They can't have too many pillows or blankets so there's just the sheet and a few stuffed animals. Our "nino" sign is hanging up. And yes, we still need a mobile. The one from my previous blog looks cool when you look right at it, but it's not that interesting to the baby. Weird, once you have the kid you're more interested in his needs and not your own. Someone warned me that would happen!

Across from the crib is my dresser turned changing table turned baby's dresser. My jewelry and make up use to take up the entire surface of this dresser. Not any more! I don't even have all the drawers. He has three and I have four. 

This is his favorite place in the room because of this DIY mobile I made:

Babies can see in B&W so I made this mobile out of a paper plate, note cards and a sharpie. He could sit for hours under this mobile! Ok, more like 10 minutes straight, but to a new parent that time is a much needed breather!

What looks like clutter on the dresser is a two-tiered fruit basket that is a diaper holder and diaper accessory holder. We're still going through the disposable diapers that were given to use during our baby showers. I've tried cloth diapers on occasion. One brand did not hold in a #2 while the other brand was stolen by the neighbor dog when I left it outside to dry! Gotta love country dogs.

All the baby books from my baby book shower are displayed on top of this dresser. I emptied out this dresser thinking we'd move it but it hasn't made the move and is now full of extra baby stuff. Towels, blankets, clothes in the next size up, clothes he's outgrown...so it has come in handy and won't be moved into storage.

Things on the top of the dresser include:

Baby size crucifix, baby cross, frame (that needs an ultrasound picture in it - opps!), Sophie the giraffe, digital alarm clock used for nature sound feature and static (white noise), baby's hand print will be created soon and MJ's favorite accessory: the wipe warmer! 

Now you've had a quick tour of our nursery....

We have a rocking chair in the family room but MJ prefers to bounce rather than rock. So we use that yellow yoga ball and he's a happy camper! 

High Heels! 

p.s. there is a can of dirty diapers that didn't make the photoshoot. Because who wants a picture of a trash can?

DIY Baby Shower Wreath

We are throwing a baby shower for my Sister In Law this weekend. She is having a girl. With her girl and our boy the family will have 9 boys and 9 girls. That's 18 grandchildren on his side. Our boy will be the FIRST grandbaby on my side. This will be the first family baby shower I've been asked to help as a hostess. I am very excited! We hosted a Dr. Seuss shower for my friend in Dallas which was a blast! So I am very excited about this one. This will be the 2nd girl for this SIL so she has a lot of the clothes and supplies left over. But like most families, this family rarely says "no" to a party.

One SIL is making the food, the other is in charge of games and mommy mum and I am the décor girl.  Of course, I turned to my trusty Pinterest for pinsperation!  I ran across this pin and fell in love!


Hobby Lobby has these bows for $2.99 each. There are about 20 bows, at $3 each...that's $60! For a wreath! Of course the guest of honor would take home the bows as a gift, but I just couldn't wrap my head around $60 in bows. I'm obviously not a girl mom yet.

However, I've had this Styrofoam wreath for a couple of years.

I stapled fall leaves to it last year for our fall décor. I needed some inspiration for this baby shower.

Over at the blog Infarranty Creative I found this wreath tutorial with the exact same wreath form I have:

 

Beckie wraps the form in single strand yarn, which takes about 3 hours. After that much time invested I would be sure to pick a color that would work for ALL seasons.

That color would be RED. Red works for Christmas, baby girl, baby boy, Fall (red, orange, brown, etc), Valentines Day, 4th of July....

Probably not St. Patricks Day, but I think I'd go with Red on this.

I could always cover it up with something else and keep the yarn underneath.

* a great idea from Beckie: use straight pins to pin the flowers/décor on to the wreath. You can see for my Fall wreath I used staples (turns out they weren't long enough and the leaves fell off easily) Thanks Brilliant Beckie!

 

 

Over at Mine For the Making, Kara skips the purchase of a wreath form and creates her own form out of cardboard!

(a much lighter alternative!)

 

I love this fabric idea. When I saw these wreaths I thought they were pieces of ribbon, but Kara measured and tore pieces of left over fabric. Brilliant and a cost saving idea! Ribbon is expensive!

 



 

Emily at 52 Mantels, a blog I subscribe to, had this perfect pink baby shower wreath! I think this is VERY do-able for our upcoming shower.

She didn't use a foam wreath, but I think I could "make it work".

 

In all the researching for the baby girl wreath I couldn't help but look at some baby boy wreaths. As expected, they are pretty plain and boring. I did find one I liked. I usually DISLIKE burlap but this one is kinda cute for a boy..

We have until March to decide, but this one does scream spring to me!


High Heels!

How to add a signature on each post

This blog is slowly coming together....I sincerely thank you for your patience! 

I can't decide on a background or concept for the blog just yet, so I'm still experimenting.  In my experiences I learned that changing the background also meant changing the twitter buttons, font colors, signature, etc.  What a hassel!

However you may have noticed a while back I learned how to add a signature on my blog posts. 

I stumbled upon this website that guides you through how to add this html code.  Ekk! html code? sounds scary right?  It totally isn't. 

The website I used it totally ugly, but I don't have a fancy computer or Mac. I googled 'add signature to blog' and alot of bloggers use fancy editing programs.  I don't have photoshop or adobe or any of those pretty programs.  I use Microsoft paint for most of my cropping and images.  I'm sure some of you bloggers are cringing now, but I am saving up for a Mac.  But until then you can google another way to use your fancy program or you can read my tutorial below!

Click here to do it on your own and read along for my directions:

Step 1 Enter your name

 

Step 2 Choose your font

 

Step 3 Choose the size

 Step 4 Choose the color.  I kept my background transparent so that I could revise my blog background whenever I'd like and not need to change the color of the signature box

 Step 5 Set the slope I like this option because it gives the signature a little more personality, what do you think?

 

Signature is ready!  Click on 'Want to use this signature' in order to get the HTML code

Generate the HTML code

 



Preview Code and copy (Ctrl+C)

 Log in to your blog visit Settings/Posts and Comments and insert in the post template.

Easy peasy!

Great tutorial for bloggers on how to add a custom signature to each post!

High Heels!

 

Weekend Update

NBC Saturday Night Live Weekend Update

No, not that weekend update...but I do love Seth Meyers!

My weekend update, which consisted of:

 

Going with Farmer J to the cows to give them water.  They were thirsty and started running right up to us.  I am still not comfortable around these cows, I've seen too many rodeos!  J says they aren't snakes or coyotes, I'll see a cow coming if it wants to charge at me.  But they usually just stare at us or run away.  Them running at us was a new thing.  In the end they posed for a picture so I can't complain!

 

I attempted this drawer organizer.  Instead of stacking shirts and pants on top of each other, roll them up and slide them next to each other.  This way you can see what is in your drawer without messing everything up.  My drawers are packed tight so we'll see what happens when I start wearing these clothes.  Will they all unroll into a huge mess?  Stay tuned....

 

On our way to Valentines dinner (on Saturday) I attempted this new scarf knot.  I loved it!  I kept un-tying and re-tying it at the restaurant.  We did have an HOUR wait...(no reservations)

 

Found this tutorial on Pinterest which led me to Meg's Blog

Super easy: end 1 over-under, end 2 under-over, done!

 

We went out to eat at Stella's, an Italian restaurant I am officially in love with.  After the hour wait, I found out Lubbock does have some nice restaurants.  Ok, one.  I've only been to one, but we'll get there.  When we got our oyster appetizer J asked "Are you going to take pictures of the food all night?" which I really meant 'if you get to have your phone out I get to have mine out' so we both put our phones away and enjoyed each other's company.  It was a blast.  A great first Valentines as a married couple.

 

Identity Thief

 

Before dinner we saw Identity Thief. It started at 4:30 and we figured since it's been out for a while there was no rush. We got there 5 minutes before the start time and the theatre was PACKED. We sat in the third row! I guess everyone went to the 4:30 movie and then out to dinner. Identity Thief was a funny movie. J said he would have done the same thing Jason Bateman does in the end. I won't spoil the movie, but if you've seen it and know J, you'll understand.

 

How was your weekend?  Hope it was great!  When did you celebrate Valentines Day?

High Heels!

Pleasure in Pallets

Everyday I'm driving down my country road and I see pallets thrown on the side of the road.  I don't know if I should stop and pick them up or if I should introduce the land owners to a little known website called Pinterest.  You know you've seen TONS of pallet crafts on pinterest.

Today's post is inspired by a pin I saw today and couldn't click "like" fast enough!!

Great website that leads to inspiration such as...

Pallet Shelves

Pallet Wall Art

Pallet Magazine Rack!

Pallet Garden

Pallet Wall (Are you kidding me!?!)

My favorite, never seen this before: Hanging Chair made from Pallet wood!!

So whether you buy the pallet, ask for donated pallets from warehouses or "find" them on the side of the road I hope you have fun with pallets!!

High Heels!