Details, details, details

First I would like to say thanks to everyone for your kind comments. K and I worked hard and had the help of many to get the room just the way we wanted it. As for the recliner, we bought it at a local baby furniture store "The Baby Room". The manufacturer Dutailier, can be found in many nursery furniture stores. Here's the link http://www.dutailier.com/nursery.php

A closer look at the change station / dressers. I opened the top drawer so that you can see our cute AppleCheeks all washed and folded ready for our little Bunny.

A little bedtime prayer that both K and I used to say when we were little. We ordered it from enduringarts on Etsy. The frame is from Ikea.

We got the alphabet and numbers prints from Etsy as well. These ones were from Modern Pop. We got the frames from Ikea and the mats are from our local flea market, custom cut to fit.

A collection of books we have started for Bunny. They will kept in the wall book shelf under the wall mural just as soon as the book shelf is built. K and my dad are making it so we might wait until after Bunny comes.

I love the colours in this photo. Kids toys are always so brightly coloured and fun. I can't wait to sit on the floor with Bunny with the sun pouring in and just play.

The pillows my aunt made. The two orange ones have styrofoam beans in them, the blue one has soft batting.

Week 33 and 5 days update

Last night I went back to prenatal yoga. I was away for 8 weeks due to our prenatal class. Boy do I wish I could have done both. I've been experiencing a lot of back pain, the last few weeks. The yoga helped keep me stretched out and aligned, that's what my chiropractor told me. I've had to sleep in the recliner the past 6-8 weeks in the nursery because sleeping in a bed results in an achy back in the morning.

(picture from google)

I knew that I would be stiff and the positions would be difficult. It's amazing to see how much my body has actually changed. I had a hard time 1/3 of the time, but it really felt good to stretch things out.

My prenatal class was taught by two labour nurses at the hospital that I will be delivering at. The yoga class is also taught by a labour nurse from the same hospital. That means when I go into labour and go to the hospital I will have my midwife, but will also know at least one nurse on duty, hopefully.

There are only 6 weeks left, 5 weeks of work. The time is getting close now. I've been training my mat leave replacement this week. She's doing well so far. I'll be glad to not have to bundle up and take the train into work. It's getting really cold outside and my coat doesn't close in the front.

This Sunday is my baby shower and I can't wait. After that I can wash everything and get all of the nursery packed away. That means there will be finished nursery pictures coming soon. I will also be able to pack my hospital bag and some stuff for the baby. K and I will also be installing the car seat in our car. Can't wait to finally meet this little person and be a mommy.

Nursery Nightable

We were lucky to inherit a few items from K's sister when her family moved last year. Below is a night table that she originally got from Ikea for her son's room.

After priming and painting two coats of Benjamin Moore's "Jack-o-lantern" the night table is now a side table for the recliner / glidder in the nursery and will hold all of my "baby" books. We spotted a fun and quirky lamp from HomeSense a few weeks ago and I fell in love with it.

So much has been done in the nursery. I hope to take some great pictures this weekend and show you the progress in the room.

A New Bathroom

God bless my sweet, hard working husband and his friends. Aram and Adrian came over last weekend and helped us put up the wainscoting and trim work in our upstairs main bathroom. K worked so hard to get all of the old trim removed, paint the new wainscoting and walls before they came over. They worked well into the night only stopping for dinner. I can't begin to thank them for all their hard work. Here are a few early pictures of what is to come.

There will soon be some lovely hooks opposite the tub for future kids towels.

We ordered a new school house light fixture that will soon replace the eye sore of a fixture the builder gave us.

Can't wait to have the bathroom finished and all ready for our little Bunny to take over. Ten more weeks and then they will finally be here. In related news we also go the nursery glider. The crib is now fixed and the drapes are up. The nursery is really starting to come together. Stay tuned for some sneak pictures.

Oh christmas tree, oh Christmas tree.... Part 2

Getting the tree to stand straight in the stand while the other two turn the screws to hold it in place. In this photo they were trying to figure out if some of the lower branches needed to be removed so that the tree would stand flat on the bottom.

Then I held the tree while Jen (my sister) made sure it was straight. K and C worked at making the tree straight for a few minutes, and finally got it to stay.

Stay tuned for more Christmas tree decorating..... And in related news, it's supposed to snow on Thursday!!!!! So excited.

Not every Monday is a "Monday"

I was off work today. I had some blood work and tests to do at the hospital for the baby. After we went to my aunt's house to give her a thank you gift for all her hard work. She has sewn all of the nursery decor for us. She made the drapes, crib skirt, floor pillows, bassinet sheet and bumper pad for the bassinet. Bunny is so lucky, they all look wonderful. I wish I could show you pictures, but K is really set on having one big reveal when the nursery is all put together.

So instead I've included a picture of the laundry room rack / shelf finished. K painted it white to match all the trim work. We got some neat boxes with windows for shoe storage and some white wooden hangers from Ikea. K's shirts hang dry now and our dress shoes that don't get smushed under all of the everyday shoes in the coat closet. At last the laundry room and the coat closet are done.

After my aunt's house we went to see our nephew play hockey. He's only 7. It was so cute. His dad even told us that he seemed to be pushing a bit harder because he knew we were there watching. On the way home, K stopped to get the mail. Guess what finally came ... the fabric for Bunny's quilt! We are so excited. I can actually start the quilt for them now.

Laundry almost complete and a sick kitty

If you've been reading for a while now you may remember my post about our re-vamped laundry room. So now I am proud to introduce to you the second phase of our lovely laundry room - the drying rack.

Dad and K built the top shelf out of MDF and the metal bar is a simple shower curtain rod that you can buy at Home Depot. This week K will prime and paint the shelf.

We bought some simple white hangers from IKEA for K to hang dry his shirts. He believes that drying them in the dryer shrinks them, so this rack is a must in our house. Otherwise we end up with shirts hanging all over the door knobs in our house.

On a side note we came home to our poor little guy not feeling too well. At first I though it was just a hair ball. He gets very upset when he has a hair ball and ends up lying in his litter box. I thought that was all. However later in the evening when he finally came out of the litter box he kept lying on floor and rolling around like he was in pain. At one point he was actually shaking like he was cold. I tried to wrap him in a blanket, but he didn't want any part of it. K said to leave him be and if he was still acting odd in the morning we could call the vet. Thankfully he was back to his old wild and crazy self the next day. I guess just like humans, the older we get the harder it is for us to recuperate from a crazy night.

Nursery - Part One

So now that I have shown you all of the ideas we have had for the nursery it's time to put it all into action. Below are some pictures of what the room looked like before and some "during" pictures from 2 weeks ago.

This room is usually used as the "catch-all" room. Files, blank cds, my wedding dress, suitcases, a futon to use it as our back up guest room. Although I'm ashamed to admit we have actually let people sleep in what seems to be our storage room. So sorry :)

Painting - this corner will be where the rocker will go. I've now begun my search for a light fixture. It has to be gender neutral. I was thinking a ceiling mount drum style, but K isn't to keen on the style. He suggested a chandelier style, but I'm afraid it will look to feminine. So the search is on. Anyone have any suggestions?

Yes those are snorkeling flippers, what don't you have flippers still in the package somewhere? As you can see this room hasn't been used to it's potential. It used to be my art room. When K and I started talking about having a baby we decided this room would be the best one. That triggered a little TLC in the back bedroom where my art room is now.

These Ikea dressers were used in my parents old house when K and I lived in the basement. We were only there for a few months after the wedding waiting on our house to be complete. They were just enough storage for each of us on either side of the bed.

I've seen many kids rooms and nurseries where the closet was transformed with drawers and shelves into a much more organized space. I thought it would be a good way to use the dressers. Unfortunately they didn't fit. Actually they were too big by 3/8" - how frustrating. Thankfully dad and Kenrick were determined to make them fit. After some modifying and removal of the tops they were able to make them fit. This weekend they are going to install a piece of MDF as a new dresser top and we will paint it to match the room. Now the dressers look like built ins and the Bunny will have lots of clothing storage.

More sad before pictures

I really only took the pictures while we were painting to be able to use them as before and after shots.

Stay tuned, we have another busy weekend a head of us. My parents, aunt and uncle will be spending the weekend helping us around the house some more. I hope to have an after shot of the closet top and the drying bar in the laundry room. My aunt and I will be turning the kitchen into our sewing room. I hope to have the drapes, and crib skirt done.

To Do List Checkmarks

While most people were getting together with family today for Thanksgiving dinner, K and I were hard at work. We had dinner with his family yesterday which freed up today for a whole bunch of to do list work.

After breakfast we painted one coat in the nursery. Then we moved outside to get some much needed yard work done before the cold weather moves in. K cut the front and back grass, I pruned and weeded the front garden. We cleaned the garage out and then moved on to painting some baby furniture. It was a full day that left both of us exhausted and really soar.

We got to use our new Black and Decker mouse sander. We sanded down the night stand and prepped for a fun "jack o'lantern" orange. There is a door on the front that we removed before I remembered to take some before pictures. The nightstand will sit next to the rocker and house our little green lamp we bought at HomeSense. I will have to take a picture of that and post it too.

We were hoping to get to sand and paint the change table, but after a long day we became tired and hungry and decided to wait till Thursday night to finish.

Thursday night I was downtown for a wedding rehearsal. K and I decided to hit up the ever popular "Designer Fabrics Outlet" to see about fabric for the nursery. What a hit! We bought fabric for drapes, a crib skirt, and some fun floor pillows. If you live in the GTA or can find your way down to Queen St. W, it's worth the drive. This weekend my aunt, uncle and parents will be staying over to help us with a bunch of to do things. My aunt can sew really well, in fact she's the one who got me into sewing, knitting and cross-stitch. The room is really coming together. The mobile came on Friday, and you'll never believe it - the fabric matches the mobile colours exactly, not planned either :)

More photos to come soon.

Sad Coat Closet - and an IKEA super list

Here's the beginning to a project I worked on last week. Back in March I had emptied the closet and organized it. It was so neat and tidy. I bought a little blue basket for our shoe care products and two Ikea racks housed our shoes. Unfortunately in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, along with some laziness, this is what happened to our closet....

The Ikea rack on the floor wasn't re enforced with nails and "tossing" shoes into the closet eventually took it's tole on the poor little rack. Not to mention the helpless shoes that got lost between and below the collapsing shelf.


I sent K with a "super list" [that's what our neighbour called it] to Ikea to collect some supplies when I was at work. Our neighbour needed to go as well, so the two men set off to Ikea to return a few items and purchase some new ones. That's where the trouble began.

First, the line up at the returns desk took over an hour to get through - and this was on a Tuesday morning in the middle of the day! Our neighbour, M, couldn't believe how confusing the whole process was. First you stand in line. Then you get to a counter where you are given a number based on your return, exchange, defective product, in store pick up. The numbers are similar to our passport offices. That's right A13, B5, C26 etc. The letter signifies the type of return and the number is for your actual spot in line. The men were not happy. Then they spent almost another 1.5 hours searching the store for the items that we (the wives) had sent them for. Unfortunately they came across some rather "unhelpful" staff members that gave them the wrong directions to some bins I needed. They had to turn around and go back to the beginning of the store. If you've ever been in Ikea, you will know that the entire store is setup like a maze to make you walk through the entire showroom before you actually get to the merchandise. So lets cut a long story short and say that they finally made it home with the merchandise and their lives. Sadly, even with the help of my "super list" they managed to get 2 sets of bins wrong and K had to go back the next day to exchange them! OMG.

The Super List

Art Studio

Finally, You can see the floors. The magazine file folders have been labeled and the closet has been emptied and reorganized. It feels so good to finally have it all done. Now if I could only make time to actually use the room.

I'm still debating about the window treatment. I don't like how they sag in the middle. I think I have to shorten them. I've never adjusted roman blinds before. Maybe I'll give it a go.
My sister was kind enough to give me her old Mac. K set it up for me along with my new printer. Now I'm all ready to enhance photos taken with my new camera and print them for scrapbooking :) I left the white table under the window empty. It will be my "worksurface" for whatever project I am working on. For now I have 2 stuffed animals that will be Bunny's. I think I might have to change the chair. It seems way to low when you sit in it. I will be taking the tissue paper puffs down. I don't like how they look. Instead I hope to hang a large cork board on the wall above the computer and use it for tacking up inspirational pictures.
The nice thing about this room is that I would still have space for Bunny's playpen if I choose to do a little photo editing while they sleep. Of course this won't be for months! I also have a small table and chair that I might bring into the room and make a little person craft station so that we can craft together.
Voila! My new organized closet. I got the metal shelves and plastic bins from Ikea. Now everything has a place. K still can't seem to find a normal pair of scissors in the whole room. He makes me laugh. If I do add a little person station to the room I think I will add a lock of some kind to the door so that I can lock up all of the supplies that could potentially do some damage to the house :)

I used a 3M adhesive hook to hang my rulers and some Ikea plastic bag holders on the floor for rolls of tracing paper and such. This is also a great way to store wrapping paper. You also get a glimpse of my favorite bags of all time. The blue and red ones on the floor there. They are made from molded plastic. They are sturdy and stand on their own. I got them from an interior design company I used to work for. The senior designer used them to carry and store client samples. Whenever she needed to go to a meeting she simply grabbed the colour coded bags and left. She orders them from Koziol, a German manufacturer, but I think they have dealers around the world that ship and sell them.

Visions of Bunny's Nursery Dancing in My Head

Here you have it folks. The sheet that started it all [well actually restarted it all]. It's a fitted sheet made by NoJo. I got it at Toys R Us. The only issue is that our crib mattress is 48" and the sheets are now made standard 54". Thankfully my Godmother sews amazingly and will be helping me modify a few of them. I also asked for her help with the bassinet bedding and the skirt for the crib. Maybe if there's time we will also make a bumper pad for the crib [for when Bunny is a little older]. So I have 2 weeks to find all the other fabrics I need for the nursery. She's going to spend a weekend at my house and we hope to get all of the sewing done. I think we will also have to fix the broken slat on the crib before then too.

A big thanks to everyone that voted on the mobile last week. K and I have decided on the one with the felt birds. K really likes the nest that it hangs from. It was helpful for you all to let us know about the delicacy of a paper mobile and also the "too much matching" of the felt numbers mobile. Both very good points and ones I hadn't thought of until you all pointed it out. Thanks

Of course we also ordered the two alphabet and numbers posters. I think they will go above the change table. Not really sure yet. Simple white frames from Ikea will do the trick. Hopefully we can also get two nice mats to them.

Finally our rockn' recliner! We were originally going to recover a rocker from K's mom. It was a great size for me, but a bit small for K. Once we priced out labour and materials to recover it and getting an ottoman to match, it was pretty close to the same price to buy a new one. I'm not a huge fan of ottomans, so when the store owner showed us this one I fell in love. It rocks like a rocking chair, but with the flick of a switch it stops moving and you can push back to recline. I also like that when the nursery is ready for retirement the chair will fit in with our decor anywhere else in the house.

First Peek....

Is that a desk? A printer still in the box? My wedding bouquet? Yes to all of the above. My poor art room has been neglected. Ever since I moved it from the large front room to the small back room I have barely had a moment to myself to sit there and allow the creativity to flow. Instead I have shamelessly let magazines, boxes and everything else in our home hide here.

We can finally see the floor in the walk in closet. You can see some of the bins I bought at Ikea in my attempt to organize the gift wrap and bags we keep in this closet. Finally, after three years of living in our home we can walk into our walk-in closet. I also bought some shelving units from Ikea that are easy to assemble. I used three of them in the closet to house all of my supplies.

If you have been reading my blog long you will remember when I hung these little tissue puffs. They were from my wedding shower. When I found them here at our house I thought they would be a neat little addition to my desk area. However after searching an collecting a number of office and art room inspiration pictures I think this wall will be receiving a huge overhaul. I'm thinking cork board, inspirational magazine clippings and maybe a burst of colour.

Last a view from the doorway. Not only can you see how small this room is, you can also see what the room looks like on a normal day. I have to say I am very ashamed of how I let this room get. However I am also very proud of what the room looks like now. Stay tuned for update photos soon.

Almost 5 months

Okay, I'm usually not this disorganized, and I don't know

how I let this happen - but this is my first picture of my pregnant belly. I'm 4 months and 2 weeks. I've read some blogs that take a photo every month. Then there's the ever famous Pacing the Panic Room who took a picture every week and included a cute little message to their baby. Dusty over at All things G&D posts every week along with anything interesting that is happening around her related to the baby. I can honestly say with everything that I put on my plate I never seem to have enough time. I don't even know how I find time to keep up this blog. I'm going to make every effort to take a photo once a week and try really hard to blog about it.

On a side note, we are also on a tight schedule to get a lot of small and big projects done around the house. Yesterday I finally finished re organizing my art studio. I have a few before / early cleaning photos to post. I hope to take finished pictures this week and share them with all of you.

P.S who let me post a picture without my hair or face done!

More Room Inspirations

Thanks to everyone for your feedback on the mobile. I think we are leaning towards the felt birds. In related nursery news I have gathered some room shots from Flickr that are going to be a source of inspiration for us.

First, these two images of reading / feeding corners. The blue one below is where the original idea came from. Funny, most of what's in this picture isn't going to be the same. The bookcase is the same Pottery Barn one that both K and I love. We hope to build one similar and paint it a lovely shade of blue. The girl who made the blue nursery for her daughter really grabbed my attention when she talked about her love of books and the collection that she had on her own. For art in the room she used images of book covers from a large collection of best books and had them framed. The wheels in my head started to turn and I began to see, books, letters, numbers and vintage primary colours. I then remembered a polka dot fabric that I had seen before [picture to come soon]. This began the search for vintage toy and book rooms. Both ideas are gender neutral and slightly muted primary colours began to feel more like a kids room.

Meg's playroom room was also a jump off point for our nursery design. This room in her house is where the kids play, read and watch movies. I love the light walls. It allows the colors in the furniture and fabrics to really pop. Meg also framed some family favorite book covers and hung them above the bed. She used great vibrant fabric to draw colour and pattern into the room. She even used my favorite polka dot fabric on a refurbished lamp shade. The blue night table and red trunk sparked my inspiration to paint the bookcase, change table, night table and crib. They will all be different colours, but the colors will all be pulled from the polka dot bedding I found.

Books, numbers, painted furniture and vintage! Oh my!

Teddies, rocking horses and floor pillows are all so sweet. I can just see K and I now playing with our little Bunny and leaning on some bright floor cushions.


Again pops of colour with vintage inspired decor. The orange frames on the wall are fun. I love how they transformed plain white shelves into floating clouds.

Funny thing, as I was typing this post I received a message from a fellow blogger and spoke with a friend here at work. Both brought up the thought of waiting to see what we get to determine the decor of the room. Pinks and purples for a girl and blues and greens for a boy. I say funny, because just last night K and I were talking about this. We were in a baby furniture store and came across a pink crib. We both thought it was beautiful but also thought the same thing - not practical. You see even thought this is our first child, we plan on reusing a lot of their stuff for the other kids we plan on having. The cloth diapers, the furniture, even the room. They will always belong to our nursery. When our little one is big enough to move into their own room that's when the gender specific items will appear. The room should reflect them and so it's only fitting to incorporate their little personalities, likes and dislikes into their own room. Even though it can make decision making tough, I think it's almost better that we don't know what we are having so that it can't sway our decision making. There have been so many gender specific things that we have just loved, not knowing has definitely saved our wallets.

I do thank you all for your advice and tips. Trust me, when K and I saw the comments rolling in about the mobile we were really excited to see what you all thought. We do take what you say in to consideration. In fact often we take your design ideas as inspiration for our own home.