Nursery Update

Y'all.

YOU. ALL.

Look!

I can't even tell you how happy I am with this room. It's all refinished and stained and painted and ready for the furniture and decorations.

The crib should theoretically be here by the end of the week. It better be, since my dad's supposed to help the DDH put it together when my parents are in town this weekend. My mom only ordered it last Wednesday, though, so we'll see. Nothing like the last minute....

The baby shower is on Saturday so we'll get all the bedding and curtains and things we picked out that my MIL bought us. I can't wait to see what it looks like all put together.

I've even stashed away all the T-Rex clothes we already have in the closet:

Tiiiiny little baby clothes!

Somewhat bigger baby clothes, sorted and labeled.

Everything else in this house is secondhand and inherited and mish-mashed together with no forethought. I'm living with a hideous hunter green accent wall in the living room (right when you open the front door. Right in a room that's dark to begin with. UGH) and yellow plaid wallpaper in the kitchen and ugly, odd-sized cabinets that nothing fits in properly. The rest of the house is still gross Berber carpet and looks-dirty-even-right-after-mopping linoleum and mint green tile.

But THIS ROOM is just how I want it. And it makes me so happy.

I can't believe what an amazing job the DDH did, and all by himself. I didn't even pretend to help do anything. Oh, I held the fan blades for him while he screwed them back in, and at one point I helped dust some things. But I don't think that counts, compared to all the sanding (by HAND) and staining and taping and painting and everything else he did. He's amazing. ^_^

I am appreciating my DIY DDH.

The DDH made some impressive progress in the nursery this weekend. It went from this:

Carpeted nursery.

To this:

No more carpet!

To this:

First sanding done.

He sanded the whole floor with the first grit of sandpaper using the belt sander. Apparently you have to sand everything three times using a progressively finer sandpaper grit.

Unfortunately, this means he'll have to sand the edges of the room (where the belt sander can't reach) by hand. Three times. Heh.

He also had to pull up the staples that had held the carpet down and the carpet strips from the edges of the room:

Lots and lots and lots of staples.

Carpet strips, aka, little boards full of tiny nails,
pointy sides up.

All gone!

He spent most of the weekend working, and I think he's more discouraged at how much he still has to do than anything else. But I'm impressed!

We went and bought a bunch of stuff at Lowe's for the painting and sanding, even though we're not ready to paint yet and haven't chosen a color, because I had a coupon. And you don't miss an opportunity to use a 10% off coupon at Lowe's when you have a big project coming up.

Here are our test patches of paint. We narrowed it down to two blues and a brown (we think). The lighter blue is really hard to see in the picture, but visible in real life. It's just really pale.

Mid-afternoon.

Distance view.

Evening (artificial light).

So anyway. That's where we are in the Saga of the Nursery.

The rest of the house is a total wreck, though.

I am nesting (just a little).

Ok, the b key on my keyboard is being temperamental. I think I caught all the times it was missing, but please forgive me if you find a strangely b-less word.

The Roommate moved out right about the time we returned from vacation, and we have begun the process of turning his room into the nursery.

My mother-in-law bought us this nursery set (dinosaur-themed, of course!).

The picture on the bag; I think it will look even better with
a darker crib.

All the dinosaurs are different patterns and fabrics, and I am
in love with them. The T-Rex on the comforter is a green
plaid that makes me want to die of cuteness.

Some of them are different textures, too, like this fuzzy pterodactyl!

Too adorable, right? We were looking at dinosaur sets online and this one was my favorite but insanely expensive (almost $200 for a four-piece crib set (on Amazon, not the site I linked to, though still, $150 for four pieces?)? have you lost your dino-lovin' mind?), so we had sort of picked out a couple of other options.

Then we went to Babies'R'Us with the in-laws and my parents to look at the crib we had chosen. I was poking around in the bedding aisle and found this, my favorite set, on clearance! Like, $84 instead of $196 clearance! So we bought every bit of it they had, which was everything (valances, receiving blankets, crib set, changing pad cover, spare crib sheets, wall decals, wall art) but the fuzzy blanket, mobile, and lamp. No Babies/Toys'R'Usses in Tulsa had any of those, except one very beat-up lamp.

BUT! Turns out the Babies'R'Us in Albuquerque had the mobile (though nothing else) also on clearance and they kindly put it on hold until my sister could stop in the next day to pick it up for us. The mother-in-law found the fuzzy blanket and the lamp (best lamp ever ever ever. just look at it. LOOK AT IT) online and paid full price for them, but since she got all the rest so cheaply, that was no big deal.

It is all just so cute and perfect and wonderful I just want to cry every time I walk past the bag. Death by cuteness. Or hormones, whatever.

/End long boring saga of the nursery set.

My mother-in-law is keeping most of the stuff until the shower, but we borrowed the main bedding set so we could pick paint colors and the like.

The crib we plan to get is a deep chocolate brown color. We haven't ordered it yet but have picked it out; we have the bedding, and that's it. We'll probably use an old dresser we already have and will probably also get a changing table (I debate on this). The room is small, and I'd rather spend money on things other than furniture, so no fancy chairs or whatever. This will do.

But, ambitiously, we have a major DIY renovation planned. See, our house was built in the fifties, when people felt the need to only have one shower for a whole house and installed cardboard sewage pipes but also floored houses with beautiful hardwood floors.

However, sometime since the fifties, crazy people decided they liked carpet better than hardwood floors. So though our house has this nasty gray Berber carpet throughout, there's actually hardwood underneath everywhere except in the addition. Our dream is to pull up all the carpet and refinish the wood floors throughout the house...but we thought we'd start with the nursery.

So first we moved everything out of the room. I wish I had taken a picture of it furnished. We had bunkbeds in there (from the DDH's childhood, nice solid wood ones), a dresser, a very uncomfortable rocking chair, and a ginormous pile of law books destined for the trash. Though the Roommate has been living there, it was still where I was storing a lot of random stuff: throw pillows, blankets, all my old stuffed animals, some luggage. This all had to go...somewhere.

Remember that beautiful guest room I showed you a few weeks ago? Well, right now it looks like this:

Garage sale, here we come.

Yeah, you can't even close the door. Ouch.

Anyway, to make sure we weren't getting in over our heads, we decided to pull the carpet up just in the closet to start and see if it would be doable.

So starting with this:

Ok, the carpet's already been pulled up, but whatever.

We pulled up the carpet in the closet:

Shelves removed.

Sanded down a patch:

I always forget how pale wood is.

And stained it with the color we think we want:

Pretty reddish tone, medium darkness.

We also picked out some paint swatches and are trying to choose two of them (a blue and a brown; the greens are for something else):

Thinking of half and half walls, blue on top and brown
on the bottom.

We did all that Sunday. The DDH decided that it will take a long time with his belt sander, but he thinks he is capable of doing all the sanding.

I like the stain color; the DDH isn't sold on it because he thought it was matching what was already there.* I tried telling him at the store that it wasn't the same color, but he insisted it was. Now that he sees that it doesn't match the old color (keeping my mouth shut on that one), he's disappointed. But I like it better than the other color and am trying to convince him.

So that's where the nursery project stands. It could take awhile, but I'm pretty stoked about how nice it will be when it's done. And we have until the middle of November. That's plenty of time. Right?

Right?

This will be the only room in our house that's intentionally decorated with coordinating things; the rest of the house is a mishmash of donated furniture, books, and whatever individual pieces I've picked up along the way. I mean, we haven't even stripped the dining room of it's yellow plaid wallpaper, that's how little we've done with decorating this house. I am stoked to have one nice, pre-planned, thoughtfully decorated room.

(And did I mention the adorableness of those dinosaurs?!)

What DIY projects have you tackled in your home? How coordinated are your furnishings and decorations? Am I the only one who lives with hodge-podge stuff on blank white (or worse) walls? And isn't it funny how we'll do stuff for our babies (at least the first ones) that we never do for ourselves?

*The guest room and the entryway are both still hardwood and not carpeted, so he was trying to match their stain. While I would rather have that color than carpet, it's not the one I would pick if I were doing it fresh. Plus, it's hard to match new stain to old, worn stain. The DDH said at one point that it didn't matter if it matched exactly because we could always refinish those too (plus for now the nursery won't border those floors at all anyway), so I took him at his word and thought he knew the color he was picking didn't match what was already there. But apparently he didn't. Obviously we need to work on our communication skills when it comes to interior decorating.

I am crafty: Altoids tin repurposing.

Perhaps you can blame my mother for my love of Altoids mints. She gave us a tin in our stockings each Christmas. I savored those mints, striving to stretch my supply until the following Christmas. When I was old enough and had spending money of my own, I invariably bought Altoids. I've tried just about all the flavors and varieties (my standard favorite is Wintergreen).

However. I am also a packrat, and have thrown away few of the containers I have collected over the years. Okay, I've thrown away plenty, but I've also saved plenty. They're just such useful little things!

One of my favorite uses for old Altoid tins is the mini kit. Sometimes I just toss supplies into an empty tin and call it good; a few I've labeled with Sharpie. But I'm an adult now, so I really ought to make nicer looking kits.

Here are two uses for an Altoid tin: a mini first aid kit and a business card holder.

I have a separate container for my most commonly-needed OTC meds (namely sudafed and ibprofen or, while pregnant, tylenol), but I do also carry in my purse a stash of bandaids (mostly for shoe blisters) and, ah, gas relief medication.

I used to carry these items in a plastic baggie, but recently the bag ripped and I ended up with smooshed and torn bandaids all over the bottom of my purse. The solution? This nifty Altoid-tin-turned-first-aid-kit.

Since I also have some business cards for my Real Job but don't have a paycheck that would fund the purchase of a thirty-dollar Fancy Business Card Holder, I decided to use an Altoid tin for that purpose, too.

First, the materials:

The white paper is just spare scrapbook paper; for the red
cross I actually used an envelope from Target rather than
any fancy sort of paper.

• an Altoid or similar tin for each use
• paper for decorating the outside of your tin
• Mod-Podge (or thin out some white glue with water)
• brush for applying Mod-Podge

Wipe out the inside of your tin(s) with a damp cloth. It may still smell minty fresh, but you probably don't want suspicious white powder all over your business cards (or bandaids, for that matter).

Trace the top of the tin onto paper.

Make sure to trace onto the "back" side of your paper, if
it has sides.

Traced.

Cut the paper to size.

Repeat steps 2. and 3. if you want to cover the bottom of your tin as well.

Apply a layer of Mod-Podge to the top (bottom) of your tin. Be generous, but not so generous that excess will ooze down the sides and glue your tin shut when you press the paper on.

Press your paper to the Mod-Podged top (bottom) of the tin.

It should line up pretty evenly; if not, trim with scissors or
an exacto knife.

If you want any other decorations, draw and cut them out. First trace an outline of your tin onto the paper you plan to use so you can ensure that your decoration will fit.

Outline.

To do a red cross for a first aid kit, draw a cross onto the back of some red paper. Each line of my cross is 1/2" long, if that makes sense. Use a ruler to keep it straight!

Remember again to draw on the back side of your paper.
You can see how many times I messed up the poor cross.

Cut out the cross/other design.

Cut out and flipped over.

Apply a layer of Mod-Podge to the top of the paper on your tin. Feel free to do this as thick or thin as you like--a thick layer will provide a more textured finished product, while a thin layer will be sleek.

You do want your paper to get pretty well soaked.

Apply your cross or other decoration.

Position it how you want it now.

Apply more Mod-Podge on top. Don't worry--it will dry clear, I promise! You want to make sure the entire papered surface is coated in at least a thin layer. Once hardened, it will protect your paper from tearing or light water damage (use outdoor, waterproof Mod-Podge if this is something you intend to get wet).

White now, clear later. Promise.

Allow to dry. Depending on climate and how thick you layered the Mod-Podge, this will take 30 minutes to several hours.

Still not quite dry, but almost.

Fill your finished tin with your supplies!

Secret bandaid tin!

For the business card version, I simply trimmed the corners of the business card since the tin has rounded edges,

Chic?

then applied with Mod-Podge as described above. After I did this, I discovered that I would have to trim the corners off all my cards if I wanted them to fit inside the thing. So I did. Hopefully people I give them to will think it's spiffy rather than odd.

If you got Mod-Podge around the edge of your tin,
you may want to leave them open to dry so you don't glue them
closed on accident.

Ta-da! Now I'm not exactly the first person to do this sort of thing to an Altoid tin; I'm not even the cleverest. But I do love them for storing things that would otherwise get beat up in my purse, and now everyone knows more-or-less what's inside--in a nicer way than if I had just labeled them with Sharpie. ;-)

For more tin repurposing ideas, check out The Art of Manliness's Twenty-Two Manly Uses for an Altoids Tin, Tested's fancy techie uses for Altoids tins, and Artists Helping Children's 15 Cool Crafts using Altoids tins.

I am still my daddy's girl.

My dad is a retired officer of the United States Navy.

This means a lot of different things, but what it meant when we were very little is that he would be gone for months and months and months, out at sea in undisclosed locations, doing whatever it is that submarines did in the eighties and early nineties.

When you're zero to three years old, you forget people whom you haven't seen in a week or two, much less three (or more) long months.

To her credit, Mom tried to remind us of Dad, to help us know who this man was who would mysteriously swoop in and out again. She made little picture books (photos in ziploc baggies strung on a key ring) filled with pictures of him, kept photographs around the house, and talked about him to us frequently.

This did not always work as planned. Sometime when I was about a year old, Dad was home on leave. He arrived and Mom made a big show of being excited. "Look, Katie! Here's Daddy! Look, it's Daddy!"

I took one look at this dude in his uniform and very firmly said "No. Not Daddy."

"What do you mean, that's not Daddy? Of course it's Daddy!"

"No," I reiterated, and pointed imperiously at the photograph on the mantel. "That Daddy."

Poor Dad. Replaced by a picture on a fireplace mantel.

I figured out who he was eventually (or more than once). I walked for him first (Dad calling to Mom in the other room: "Honey, you didn't tell me she's walking!" "That's because she's not!"). I learned to read in his lap and to drive with him in the passenger seat and we cried arm in arm through that long walk down the church aisle at my wedding.

Dad calls me a writer when even I refuse to acknowledge the title. We go to book conventions together. Mom banned us from going to bookstores unchaperoned. We hike together. Whenever we're in the same town, we'll accompany each other on errands, content to ride along in silence.

I could not have asked for a better father. He's wise and funny and kind and patient, my most steadfast encourager in all that I do. It's trite, it's sappy, and every word is true.

I miss you, Dad, now that I know you exist to be missed. I love you.

Happy Father's Day.

I don't have a picture of Dad on Picasa, but as a
UT Austin alumnus, I know he'd appreciate this photo
of Longhorn cattle at last year's State Fair.

I cannot wait to see my dad (and mom and brother) this week.

This is the DDH's first Father's Day too, sort of. Next year I suspect I'll post in honor of him.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!

I am dressed (don't ask much more of me)!

This week: Layering, belts, dresses, and a surprise find in the back of my closet.

Tops: Old Navy; belt and pants: Target.

Belts are a continuing theme. I've also been doing a lot of tanks-over-tees. Trying to add some variety to my work outfits (not to mention taking advantage of slimming effects).

Top: gift; skirt: thrifted.

I got the Firefly t-shirt as a Christmas present ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"), and though I've weaned myself off most graphic tees, I just can't pass up on Firefly.

The skirt I snagged at the Animal Aid thrift store a few weeks ago because it's loose and floaty (so much fabric!) and casual but fun. I am contemplating living in it this summer. It's not the most flattering thing, but its different and I can wear it while doing gardening and stuff because there's plenty of fabric to keep me from flashing everyone.

I got the t-shirt-with-skirt idea from Megan here; I'm not sure it actually looks good on me (reviewing Megan's photo, I've decided perhaps a belt is the answer), but it sure was cozy. 

Shirt: Loft; belt: Target; pants: old old old.

 Another work outfit. Pretty boring. I do love that belt, though.

Top: Old Navy; skirt: Sears;
necklace: Gordman's?

Sunday outfit. Yes please. I bought this skirt when I worked at Sears before I started my teaching job (skirts required; that's a rant in and of itself. Let's just say that girls and women had to wear skirts no matter how cold it was (and we had multiple ice/snow storms that year), but if it were hot, boys could wear shorts to chapel. Yeah. Very glad I got out of that place). ANYWAY, I love love love it. It's structured yet swingy, a modest-yet-flattering length, and oh. Love.

The shirt is actually small teal and navy stripes, which you can't see in the picture, and is another Old Navy favorite that I don't know how I'll ever replace. I love this outfit because it's trim and neat, with a touch of feminine flare in the skirt, bling in the necklace, and good color. Also, it makes me look skinny.

Dress: Loft.

I forgot to take a picture at home of what I wore to the step-sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday, which is a shame, because I was strutting some dang-girl! heels (these strappy purple beauties). And yes, I danced in them.

However. The dress looks ok; nothing special, but it was comfortable with my mini-baby-bump (my blue dress-for-weddings standby was a touch tight around the middle. and also was stained, ugh). Also: clearance at Loft for twenty bucks. Score.

You can't really see the jewelry I'm wearing because it's small and the necklace chain is very delicate, but it's almost the only "real" jewelry I own, and also the only jewelry the DDH has given me. He gave me the necklace the first Christmas we were dating, the matching earrings for my birthday, and the matching bracelet for...some other holiday. Dating anniversary, maybe? Anyway. Sapphires (blue!), baby diamonds, gold. I do love them, and I wear them to weddings for sentimental more than fashion reasons.

Dress: Old Navy; leggings: Sears.

I think that dress is from Old Navy; it might be Target. It has pockets, so it's one of my go-to party dresses (with leggings). I think it's actually either a girl's dress or a tunic shirt. Or an extra-small or something. Anyway. I like it because it's comfortable and cute (and has pockets), but it shows a lot of boobage. Not that I have much to show, but it's a struggle to keep the dress covering the bra. In the winter I wear it over a shirt, but it was so hot out I went with it plain.

Except it was so cold in the room of the birthday party we went to Friday night that I ended up dressed like this:

Scarf: Target?

Which at least also solved the boobage problem.

Shirts: Old Navy; pants and belt: Target.

Again with the belt-over-tank-over-t-shirt look. But. On some radio show or another this weekend I heard someone say that you couldn't wear brown and gray together. Excuse me? This is one of my favorite outfits. I had to wear it yesterday to prove the radio wrong. Take that.

Necklace: Gordman's; shirt: Old Navy;
skirt: homemade.

So I'm doing a closet purge (more on that later) for two reasons: one, it needed to be done anyway, and two, I need to pack away clothes that already don't fit me and make room for a key maternity piece or two.

Anyway, I made this skirt in the seventh grade. It and the absolutely hideous matching collared blouse are the only articles of clothing I have ever sewn, but I made them all by myself, from picking out a pattern and the cloth to cutting and pinning and sewing and hemming. That is a pleated front skirt with pockets and an elastic back. Fancy, right? Of course, I used someone else's sewing machine and haven't touched one since, so I have this split personality of I can sew/I can't sew thanks to this project.

The truth is, I now think the fabric (it's a tiny teal flower pattern) is sort of ugly, and it's not the most flattering length (though I will point out that I made this for myself in the seventh grade and it still fits. So there). I was about to toss it in the donate/repurpose pile. But it has pockets. And comfy 100% cotton. And a pleated front but an elastic back, which means it might fit me for a good bit of this pregnancy.

So I tried it on. Just to see. And you know, it went pretty well with the gray shirt I was wearing. And hey, I have this silver-and-turquoise necklace that really ties it together. So I wore it the rest of the day. The DDH is not a fan of skirts that hit below the knee (and in his defense, mid-calf really is not a flattering length for me), but he didn't say anything. I wore it to WalMart and no one gave me strange looks (though admittedly, it's WalMart). So it's staying in the closet for at least awhile longer.

It's Wednesday, and that's what I wore. What are y'all wearing this week?

Have you salvaged any surprises from your closet lately?

Linked up with What I Wore Wednesday at the Pleated Poppy.