Multi-Use Closet Makeover

My business has started to take off (woohoo! very blessed), which in turn means that I was making a larger mess in our home office...

See all of that wasted space?! Well, I decided it was time to do something about it. Brad installed the same white wire shelving that we removed from our laundry room when we renovated it and hung it in the office closet.

I "borrowed" a pants hanger from his side of the closet and put some of my ribbon on it so I could quickly see what I have in stock and not have to dig through a box.

Then I added some of my ready-to-order items: beach pails, different size plastic buckets, and water bottles. Many items are in the basement (ie: box of tumblers, more water bottles, floating frames), but this certainly is an improvement!

In case you are wondering, the photo boxes to the right don't hold photos, but greeting cards. One is cards to me, all from Brad, cards to me from others, William's birthday/baby shower/welcome to the world cards, and cards to Brad from me. Perfect way to organize it all!

New Shower Curtain = New Mood

A few weeks ago, this pattern caught my eye at World Market. The blue and green paisley was serene:

I could just picture this in our guest bathroom, so of course I bought it to make it happen! When we moved into our home, I had a really hard time finding a shower curtain for that bathroom. Funny story: when registering for wedding gifts, I actually registered for the same shower curtain at two different stores without even realizing it for our master bathroom. I guess it was exactly what I wanted. Anyway, this is what the bathroom used to look like:

The color was semi-metallic and I liked the texture, but it was pretty boring. And now the the reveal:

I like our new one MUCH more and it plays off the beachy theme in there. I don't want to make it too much of a "kids" bathroom, at least not for a few years and the bright blues and greens are good for a little boy anyway. The new pattern goes with my accessories too.

How I Stay Organized

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner asked how we stay organized. Since this post doesn't involve photos, I can write about it now!

My level of organization has changed dramatically in the past three weeks since I became a mom.

In the Past:
Schedule: When it was just my husband and I, all of our dates/commitments, etc were kept in my daily agenda planner which came with me to and from work everyday. I kept track of both of our travel schedules for work, potential visitors were penciled in, etc.
Food: When it comes to groceries, I kept a running list in a notebook and revisited it every week before I went to the grocery store with my coupons.
Coupons: For about three years I have kept my coupons organized in a small accordian "folder" by category: grocery, cold, frozen, personal care and household. Every Saturday the coupons get cut, organized and expired ones get thrown away.
Laundry: We have two laundry baskets in our bathroom, one for whites and the other for colors. This helps me see if I only need to do one load of laundry or run both. It also prevents me from having to sort the laundry.
Crafts: I am very lucky and actually have a craft room! I know I should share a picture of this, but right now I have all of my spring/summer clothes out in the room since I am trying to transition my closet and also pack up the maternity clothes (woohoo!). I have a large armoire in the room and the right side has shelves and it is all scrapbook stuff. Scrapbooks I have made, photos, paper, stickers, scissors, etc. The left side of the armoire has a shelf and also a hanging bar. On the bar I hang already washed and pressed fabric on hangers so I can see what I have and then I have other fabric folded in an old open suitcase along with all of my sewing notions. My sewing machine is on the shelf beneath the fabric.

Presently:
Schedule: I still use my daily planner, but it now stays open to the current week on our dining room table. It doesn't have meetings listed, but doctor's appointments and commitments to visit with family and friends.
Food: I bought a small notebook that has a shopping cart on it (genius!) and I keep my grocery list in there. I have a "Standard List" which is items I buy each week and then I add things that I need. This was real helpful when people helped me with grocery shopping when baby arrived (thank you Mom and Meghan!).
Coupons: I still cut coupons, but it isn't always done on Saturdays when the newspaper gets delivered. It is okay if it takes a few days, but my system is even more helpful now.
Laundry: Our laundry is still separated, but our son's is all in one hamper since everything is so small. I do separate it warm and cold based on what the tag says, and then I just wash the bigger pile first. My goal with his laundry is to get it washed, dried and layed out flat so it doesn't wrinkle. I have been able to put it away quickly, but even if I don't, at least it all looks good sitting on top of the washing machine.
Crafts: Same since I haven't had time to do anything sine baby arrived :)
Baby Feeding: I keep a notebook on the ottoman in the nursery to keep track of the time of feedings, diapers, and amount of feeding so I don't have to think about it. Since we are supplementing with formula, I prep a few bottles in advance by making sure they are clean and assembled and filled with purified water. That way all I need to do is mix in the formula. Since the water is room temperature, I don't need to warm the bottle (according to my pediatrician) so although I have to mix the formula with each feeding, I don't have to heat it up with hot water in the middle of the night. It has worked for us so far.

That is a little glimpse for now....

Kitchen Update

What is the least expensive way to update a large space? Paint!! We moved into our home in November 2009, but haven't made painting a priority for a few reasons: (1) We have 1.5 acres of land that needs to be maintained, beautified, landscaped, etc (2) My husband prefers to do all the painting which is great since we don't have to pay anyone and he does a perfect job (honestly), but he also has a full-time job that had more than full-time hours (3) I hesitate when choosing colors.

The rooms we have painted are our master bedroom (January 2010), master bathroom (June 2010), nursery (November 2010) and now our kitchen/dining room (March 2011). I had three color blocks painted on the wall in our kitchen that I looked at for many weeks. I am very pleased that I went with the middle option and my husband surprised me by painting the kitchen while I was out one afternoon and finished it into the dining room until the gallon of paint ran out.

This is a before picture of our kitchen from Thanksgiving 2009 when my family was in town. All of the walls in our house came standard in this "bisque" color:

After:

Of course, once the kitchen was painted, we decided that we really do need a piece of furniture where the cat's bowls once were. We have a two-seater bar where we frequently eat and also our informal dining room so we haven't purchased a small kitchen table since I am picky about what I want. Well, our large kitchen seemed to get cluttered with mail, keys, etc. and we finally found a buffet-style unit that we liked for the kitchen so we bought it!

I purchased a small bamboo tray to collect our mail and also my husband's black leather valet for him to charge his cell phone, drop his wallet, etc. So far so good (and organized!).

Since our kitchen and dining room share one large wall, we carried the same color into the dining room.

Before:

After:

I love it and it feels so good to see color on the walls downstairs! And to think it all got done before our baby arrives and additional visitors. Next project for this area are curtains for the double windows in the dining room and panels for the sliding glass door.

P.S.: The color is more green than gray in person...sad it looks gray here!

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Closet Do Over

The baby's closet is complete! Or at least until we decide we need more shelving once baby comes :).

We took a trip to The Container Store to buy additional wire shelving for the nursery closet. The closet is a little bit more narrow than we thought and although it is long, the door size is standard which means you run the risk of alot of dead space if you don't make the most of it.

Did you know my husband is an engineer? Well, the wheels in his mind were spinning and we decided to install two adjustable wire shelves on the left side of the closet so I wouldn't just have these big stacks of stuff that would topple over. Before that he also removed the existing shelving, spackled and painted the closet. He is so wonderful :).

We may install an additional short shelf in the closet near the right side, forward facing, but we didn't want to do that yet.

Right now the closet is a little more empty than you may be used to seeing in a nursery, but that is because we don't know the gender of our baby! The baby does have more clothes than what is in the closet, the dresser is pretty full actually, but since this is also our first child, we are going to learn as we go with some things.

I love being organized!!

28 Weeks

It is only fitting that my first blog post of the New Year is about the biggest and best thing that is happening to us in 2011 - our precious little baby! Although we won't meet him/her until the end of March, there have been a few things we have done recently to prepare for their arrival.

The nursery is looking great! By the way, thanks to The Creative Mommas for the shout-out on their blog about their nursery! 

The room was cleared out, also by my wonderful husband, and painted on Thanksgiving! We went with Honey Beige from Olympic's Audubon Collection because it is warm and neutral, and I have loved seeing it on the wall the past two weeks. As a side note, it is nowhere near as orange as it looks on the computer screen. You don't think a Terp would allow his child's room to be orange do you?!

We spent some time assembling the crib the day after Thanksgiving and I love going in the nursery and just looking at it. Last week I purchased the mattress for the crib and a sheet so it looks for ready for baby now. How did I fit the mattress in the back of my small car? Read on to find out :)

The dresser came in a few weeks earlier than expected and some of the drawers already have goodies in them thanks to friends and family. We'll be using the top as a changing station once we get the changing pad and everything else that is involved.

My handy husband will be building a tall bookshelf for the nursery and we purchased the materials last week. Little Squirt already has more than a dozen books and that doesn't include our childhood books or many new ones. These were gifts from my mom, friends and a few classics from a sale.

There is also an antique family cradle in the nursery from my mother-in-law's family. There is a plaque at the headboard of the names and birthdates of babies who used the cradle, starting with my mother-in-law's older siblings more than 75 years ago. My mother-in-law, husband and his sister are also on the plaque. We aren't using it as an "everyday thing" because of safety, but you can be sure that I will take some photos in it. For the time being, our cat likes to use it as his bed when he isn't in mine.

To be honest, the only crafty thing I have done in for the nursery so far is sew some basic blankets. A few weeks ago I couldn't resist buying gender-specific nursery flannel when it was on sale for $1.29 per yard! What will I do with the boy blankets if we have a girl and the girl blankets if we have a boy? Give them to friends of course! This weekend I got busy sewing and now have four completed blankets and one nursing cover (the vibrant cotton fabric). My husband laughed about that because he said I'll really be drawing attention to myself...maybe I should buy something more simple?? I still need to buy clips and a ribbon to make the nursing cover more than a blanket, but all in due time.

The least exciting thing was my glucose test. I passed with a score of 86 which is well within the 65-139 range. Best part of this besides my body correctly processing sugars? No three hour test! I also went for a RhoGAM injection because I have a negative bloodtype and my husband has a positive bloodtype. It was "more work" than the glucose test but necessary for the health of me and baby.

On a much more exciting note, we bought a new car which we are jokingly referring to as the Squirt (baby's in-utero nickname) mobile. I met a deer on the road a few weeks ago and thankfully it ended much better for me than the deer. Most of you know I had a two-door Pontiac G5 that was a great car, but sadly had been hit a few times by distracted drivers and then hit a deer. So, we took advantage of what was left of the situation and decided to upgrade "my" vehicle now to a Chevy Equinox which is what I had been eyeing for some time.

I continue to feel pretty great most of the time, but the sleepiness has come back quickly, but still not as bad as the first trimester. My belly button still isn't totally out yet but it is funny to see that sometimes it moves when I laugh. We still have a very active baby and some of the kicks are more quick and spaced evenly. Maybe it is hiccups? The movement of the baby is changing and I feel tightening when I think he/she is moving their body around to get more comfortable. I can also feel protruding body parts which is entertaining. I can't identify them yet, but I'm sure I will be able to soon! Sleeping is rather uncomfortable since I lose feeling from my hips halfway down to my knee depending on which side I am lying on. Any tips for relief? This is a picture from new Years Eve and my shirt makes me feel larger then I am.

I go for my 28 week appointment this week right before our first baby shower (yeah!) and I hope the doctor tells me everything is right on track.

Holiday Table

As I mentioned in my previous post, our dining room table was the first thing decorated in our home this year. We do not use this as a formal dining room, but a place to eat everyday because we have a pretty laid back style at home. I actually prefer an everyday dining room, otherwise, why spend all that money on furniture you rarely use?!

I purchased a new tablecloth and runner from Homegoods this year. My mom also sent another runner and the gold placemats you see below. We have an 8 foot old barn wood table so I have to buy large oblong tablecloths to cover the table. I started with the cream/gold tablecloth that I loved as soon as I saw it.

The scalloped red runner has holly cutouts all along it with gold thread, which compliments the gold tablecloth.

These glass candle holders were a gift from a relative last year at our Christmas open house. The silver candlesticks are from Pier 1. Surprisingly I did like the silver candlesticks with the gold tapestry, but it didn't seem to be "enough."

I transformed the candle holders with a bag of unopened cranberries from Thanksgiving! I split the cranberries between the two vases and the red immediately made it all come together.

This is what it looked like before the placemats from my mom.

Looks much better after, don't you think?!

And finally is the garland framing our double windows. most of the garland I found in stores was boring, too skinny and not what I was looking for. Well I feel like Black Friday at Michael's was my lucky day because that is when I bought two strands of this:

I suppose the garland can stay up for awhile since it is more "winter" than "Christmas", but we'll see. Sadly, everything else with a tree will be coming down in the next ten days (sigh). Time to go enjoy it while I can!