Kitchen Transformation

Hi! I'm still alive!! Life with two leaves very little time for blogging. At least, for now. 

A few weeks ago I was on Pinterest while mid-night nursing and got the idea to paint our cabinets grey. 

Over the last week, we did. We = my husband, myself and my dad. Dad was really the star of the show because he did a ton of work for this project. Hubs put in a ton of hours as well and I painted in between nursing sessions while my mom watched the boys. Talk about a team effort!!! Here are a few "before" photos: 

I did loads of research (as I typically do) and from the suggestion of a few friends, I opted to buy the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit. I chose the "light" kit in Winter Fog. We were skeptical that it would work as advertised....but it did!!!!! 

I chose all new hardware also, which is where much of the budget and time of the project went. 

Are you ready...?!

Holy guacamole what a transformation!!!!!!! I'm thrilled with the cabinets and hardware. Next I think I will tweak the wall color. It's a bit of a mustard yellow/green and the cabinets are begging for a more cool tone. I think I'll stick with yellow but go more towards lemon....or maybe I'll go mint. 

We also are planning to update the backsplash. Hopefully sometime this year, maybe early next. Who knows!? All I know is right now I am thrilled one step is complete and it's beautiful. 

...and I have to cut this short to go feed a baby. CHEERS!! 

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Non-Toy Toddler Gift

LW happens to have a lot of friends, and they all happen to have birthdays around the same time. Since I am no longer in a salaried position, I needed to get very creative with the gifts we gave this year. I couldn't just go on Amazon and order whatever looked cute for $30 or even fill a basket of snacks from World Market (another favorite gift option of mine).

I found this article on Pinterest of 18 Non-Toy Gifts for Toddlers and knew I needed to create something from it as our gift to all of these parties. Because really, what toddler *needs* another toy??

I opted for something somewhat practical and educational – a bird feeder!

I like to give "packaged" gifts, so I also bought some bird seed in bulk: 

And each child got a book about birds. Every book was unique because I scored them at Half Price Books – my favorite book store. 

To me, for toddlers and any age, it isn't about what is spent on the gift monetarily but the thought that counts. Maybe I'm tooting my own horn but I feel like this is a really thoughtful gift and I did it for a lot of kids on a very tight budget! 

I'm so proud of how they turned out! 

Of course each gift needed its own hand made, coordinating card! I used scraps for the cards (as I always do) so nothing was spent on them. 

For the bird seed in each gift, I used mason jars I had on hand (because everything looks cuter in a mason jar!) and decorated them with scrap fabric, tags and twine. Again, all things I already had in my craft supplies. 

I bought bags and tissue from Five Below in really fun, bright colors so each gift would be wrapped in an exciting way. 

 Three down, more to go!

The feeders were on sale when I initially placed my order so each toddler gift was less than $15 total - including wrapping materials, feeder, book and bird seed. Hopefully this post doesn't make me sound too cheap...just creative :) 

Each toddler I've given the feeders to so far seems really thrilled with the gift (at least their parents do!). It's something that doesn't clutter their house, since it hangs on the outside of the window, the bird seed all goes into the feeder so in the end they can recycle the card, save the jar for something and save the bag/tissue for another gift!

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Pregnancy: 33 Week Update

How far along? 33 Weeks

Size of Baby:  I don't even know. Enormous!?

Weight Gain: See above. 

Nursery: I sewed his crib skirt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sewed. his. crib. skirt. 

I feel so awesome that I did it. I used this tutorial for an adjustable crib skirt. Hubs needs to tack it down because using thumb tacks didn't work and right now it's stuck on there with duct tape... BUT I DID IT. Also: I screwed up the pattern direction. If you look closely, the front is horizontal pattern and the sides are vertical. The quilter in me tried to utilize the most fabric when I cut it all out, then I realized I biffed it hard.... so I just went with it. It's "optical interest" my mom says ;) 

And speaking of Nana - she finished Mo's quilt this weekend too!!! 

I haven't seen it in person yet, but it sure looks stunning from the photos!!!!

Hubs hasn't hung the curtain rods or curtains yet, but hopefully just me writing this line in this blog post will inspire him to do it a day this week after work ;) 

Movement: He's a crazy man. Moving alllllll the time. I can always SEE his movement too, which I don't remember being the case with LW. He's like *right there*. This morning in church I could feel his head down low, his booty up almost to my ribs and his toes wiggling over on my side. He is not small.

Symptoms: I've been feeling really great this week. Like, really great. Part of it may be the weather has been garbage so we've had to stay inside - which gives me a lot of opportunities to keep my feet up and relax vs. chase a toddler. The weather also coincided with LW getting his canines so it's really just been snuggle fest over here. All reasons that I feel pretty great! 

Mo is getting really big and up in my ribs lately though, which is a feeling I did not miss. It makes sitting upright for long periods (ex: dinner) very uncomfortable. 

Cravings: Nothing really. I'm so boring :)

Looking forward to: Snuggling little Mo and seeing LW interact with him. I take a lot of opportunities to snuggle my friends newborns when I can and LW seems to have adjusted to that very well. He listens well and is very understanding when I tell him to back away or be gentle. We're working on the same manners for him and dogs since lately he believes our dog is actually a drum :-X Or a pony. 

Things I can't stop thinking about: We could have a baby. In a month. or two weeks. Or six weeks. Or tomorrow. The end of pregnancy is the most exhilarating time emotionally because anything could happen at any moment. 

Three friends now have had babies in the last week. Two of them were natural births - no epidurals. It's made me think more and more about doing this delivery naturally. Do I want to go naturally? Could I? What are the benefits? Why would I? Just to say I did it? 

Well, for whatever reason I had a flashback of sorts yesterday and the flashback, though totally mental, felt physical. I *felt* the pain of postpartum over again. And that helped reaffirm my decision - I will be getting an epidural this time if time allows it. I don't know that I am emotionally strong enough to brave a natural childbirth (I'm just being honest here) and that wave of pain in my flashback reminded me that epidurals are good. I can have a few hours of not needing to get up to pee. I can not feel that pain for just a few extra hours. I'll know it's there, but I won't feel it. Just for a little while. And if you know me, you know I really love being in my happy place. 

I salute every woman who has their children completely unmedicated. At one time in my life, it was my dream to do so. Now, my dreams have changed. I dream about not having to pee constantly. And being in my happy place :) 

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Nursery Decorations – Paper Mache Letters

I'm so thrilled to have this awesome part of the nursery done: Mo's name is now on the wall!!!!!!

I started with some paper mache letters. I love the brown kraft paper look and wanted to just embellish them enough to be a extra cute.

I used a rubber stamp, paint brush and acrylic paint to add stars to the letters. 

TA DA!!!! I'm thrilled with how the name turned out. It is exactly what I had envisioned when I started daydreaming about his nursery. 

I stuck them to the wall using some 3M strips I had on hand. One quick Google search told me that was the adhesive of choice to put them on the wall. I'm hoping they really do stick! I had JUST enough for the name. 

The curtains aren't hung yet, but the room is coming together. One step at a time! 

For those who don't know, Hubs and I chose the name Simon last Easter (2014) in church. We were studying John over a few weeks and the more we read, the name Simon Peter kept coming up. The more we learned about that guy, the more we liked him. "Simon" just kept ringing through our heads and we decided if we had another boy someday, his name would need to be Simon. Our Simon won't be Simon Peter, but he is named after the apostle. He's commonly known in the Bible as Peter. 

Ironically, today the reading in church was again about Simon Peter. A line popped up that I hadn't thought twice about in the past, but feeling our Simon rolling around my belly while it was read made me feel extra connected to the reading. 

Acts 10: 34-35

34Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 

That's why we're naming him Simon. Because in the most important book in the history of the world, Simon is known to be an honest and god-fearing man. A true good 'ole boy. I know our Simon will live up to his name. 

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Pregnancy: 31 Week Update

How far along? 31 Weeks

Size of Baby:  Coconut (3.5lb!!!)

Weight Gain: We all know the answer to that from last week....so let's not talk about it again until next week, shall we? 

Nursery: It is coming together!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. 

This week I ordered the monitor as our item of the week. Only a few things left on the list! 

I did add a white noise machine to the list, however. After some research, I picked this one: 

The humidifier I picked that we've ended up using in LW's room bc his kicked the bucket isn't as noisy as our previous humidifier. I really like it (once I painted over the nightlight which was actually like EXTREMELY BRIGHT HEADLIGHT) because it has great output, is small and lasts all night long on one tank, but I specifically remember needing white noise for LW in his newborn days, and really until recently we had the really noisy humidifier in his room that buffered out sounds. This is the humidifier we have now: 

So since the new humidifier is so quiet, I decided a white noise machine is a good thing to have. For LW we used an old iPhone in a docking station with a free white noise app. Problem with that was the home button on that iPhone didn't work consistently, and if I forgot (in my sleep-deprived state) and hit "play" on the docking station, Carrie Underwood would start BLASTING through the speakers at the volume we had been playing soothing waves sounds previously. 

That made for plenty of panicked mommy moments, LW jumping awake, and a lot of frustration. So, I'm not doing that again. $42 will be well-spent on that little noise maker machine. It's gotten great reviews. 

Movement: This little dude is a WILD MAN. He's moving around so much lately! It's really fun. I feel like he's very long because I already always feel him very low in my pelvis while simultaneously feeling him up at my rib cage. I have a feeling my dreams of a baby under 8lb may just be that....dreams :)

Symptoms: Well, this is where it gets interesting. Thursday afternoon LW and I visited my dad in the hospital (he just had both knees replaced) and I got stuck in traffic on my way home. I had to use the bathroom REALLY BADLY by the time I finally arrived to my door and had been contracting from the need to use the bathroom (or so I thought). Turns out the contractions didn't stop once I "emptied my tank" and continued fairly aggressively for over an hour.

I contacted my midwife and made a plan on what to do if they continued but thankfully after a lot of water, sitting with my feet up and completely relaxing 100%, the contractions slowed and eventually stopped.

That said, we're considering Mo a bit of a flight risk so I'll be taking it easy more often than not the remaining 8 weeks....as much as I can possibly stand to do so.

Also, I have SO MANY BRAXTON HICKS lately! It's like my uterus doesn't realize it's done this before and thinks it needs to practice. Earth-to-uterus: YOU GOT THIS. CALM YO'SELF.

I've had a little heartburn this week, but nothing crazy (thankfully). My back hurts now and then. I'm tired. You know...third trimester woes.

Cravings: I think it's probably just residual from Easter, but CHOCOLATE THE MINUTE LW GOES TO BED. As much as possible, get it in my belly. Just thinking about it right now I think I need to bite the ears off of a bunny.

Looking forward to: Getting the final items done in the nursery. I have a craft list of things I want to do and between that, freelance work (blessed!), Jamberry, What I Feed My Kid, housework, LW, sewing ring slings, and oh, trying to "relax" I don't know how I'll do it all!!! One day at a time, I guess :)

Things I can't stop thinking about: Nothing, really. I'm just trying to take it one day at a time and get all of my tasks done on my various lists as I go. 

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Pregnancy: 30 Week Update

How far along? 30 Weeks

Clearly between weeks 29-30 I "popped" because this baby got HUGE! Look at that tummy! It came kind of at the perfect time, because last week I had my maternity photos done with Milamemories Photography. I have only seen one "sneak" peek photo so far, but I'm in love. 

Size of Baby:  Cabbage.

Weight Gain: Are you sitting down? Because you'll want to be. I should have been when I heard.... Twenty. Six. Pounds. Ladies and gentleman, that's a record breaking 12 pounds in a month I just gained. Ho-ly sh*t. I feel like I've been pretty well behaved, too! I mean, a doughnut or two here, a Cadbury egg or six there but.....TWELVE POUNDS?!?! That's embarrassing. Apparently my body thinks Mo needs the cushioning....

Nursery: OH MY GOSH so many things are happening in the nursery. The twin got moved to LW's room, so he's in a big boy bed now (a post on that another time). The crib is set up and ready in Mo's room. I bought curtain rods which will be installed this coming weekend and I FINISHED THE DRESSER!!!!!!!!! Recap, BEFORE: 

And this is the finished product: 

The paint I wanted to use for the drawer fronts ended up being bad so I painted the whole thing the blue/grey from the accent wall at the old house. Paint was free, dresser was $30, hardware was $30. $60 for a super sturdy and adorable nursery dresser! I'm thrilled with the outcome. (I also just noticed from this photo that I have the drawers in the wrong order. I'm awesome at paying attention to detail.)

I've also acquired a few pieces to repurpose/refinish for Mo's room which I'll leave you in suspense over. ANNNNDDD I plan to make a crib skirt since I never made one for LW (poor LW). I'm planning to use this tutorial...I just need to find the right fabric! Which is proving to be more challenging than I had anticipated.

Movement: Easter Sunday MoMo was COMPLETELY wild. Probably the two ham dinners. Or the Peeps. Or the Cadbury eggs (and really I'm wondering how I gained 12 pounds in a month...really....) but he certainly isn't small anymore. His movements aren't too extreme like I remember LW's being, but he LOVES to hook his feet under my ribs and push push push. 

Cravings: None really. Lemonade tastes awesome and my heartburn went away (for now) so I've been really enjoying that. Otherwise, nothing fun to report. 

Looking forward to: Doing all of these projects in his nursery!!! His room and LW's big boy room are coming together so adorably! 

Things I can't stop thinking about: More projects. I'm in DIY mode, big time. This morning I had two items in my hands at HomeGoods and it was going to be $70 + tax so I put them back. Went to the thrift store and scored the same two items for $5 ea!! They'll take a touch of creativity and DIY but they will be exactly what I want in the end! I can't wait to share them, and the other items in our home when I finish them. I'm trying to do all I can now, when I have good feeling days. Every few days I feel absolutely wretched and I hit the "WHEN CAN I HAVE THIS BABY" wall. So good days become very productive days. 

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