1st Artwork

Liam completed his first masterpiece this month—complete with finger-painted handprints.  Do we have a budding Picasso on our hands?  Doubtful, but we’re happy that he’s dabbling with some new and creative forms of expression.  The other night he even drew scribbled on the restaurant table paper with crayons (for about five seconds—just keepin’ it real).  While I’ll probably keep this piece of art—being his first, and all—I know that I will not save every craft and coloring project.  My goal is to take photos of the ones that are most memorable and post every single one on this blog eventually create some sort of digital collage or photo book of them.  And for those dying to see Liam’s creative genius, I give you My First Finger-Painting.  Tada! 

Whatcha Chalkin’ About?

There’s been a little addition to our basement stairwell.  See that ugly old electrical box?   It needed something to hide behind…  Welcome, oh long awaited chalkboard!

After a quick prepping of the surface (I followed these instructions), he was ready to go.

I would have loved to DIY this baby, but sadly, the paint itself would have cost more than this piece altogether, not to mention the time involved.  Perhaps I’ll make one down the road, but for now, I’m thoroughly enjoying our new store-bought art (from Homegooods, if you were wondering).  Hurray for finally covering up our old electrical box!  Goodbye ugly, hello happy. 

Since we already have a memo board on our fridge, I plan to use this space for my favorite quotes.  Check out our current inspiration.

What are you chalkin’ about these days?  : )

Just a Click Away

Finally.  After years of cursing finagling my pathetic car key clicker (at least that’s what I call it…is there a more specific term?), I now can click from inside our house and unlock my car!  Can we say happy dance?!  Believe me, there was lots of it last night.  Ask Matt.  I even had a piece of his leftover birthday cake to celebrate.  So did he.  I mean, happy wife, happy life, right?  ; )

So here’s the story.  Four and a half years ago, we became proud owners of a little Nissan Sentra.  While it’s been a pretty steady Freddy, the key clicker has annoyed me to no end from nearly day one.  I always thought it was just rundown, since the buttons are pretty beat up (there are even holes in a few of them…I’m guessing the previous owner experienced much of the same frustration and maybe pressed a tad too hard at times…).  Somewhere along the line I heard that replacement clickers are expensive—as in, upwards of $50—although I never officially looked into it, so that might not even be the case.  Life went on, until baby Liam arrived.  If you’re a mom, you know what I’m about to say.  A baby brings so much joy—and an insane amount of stuff to cart everywhere you go.  I now average three bags on a good day.  Often it’s four, and that’s when I don’t come home with shopping bags.  Basically, trying to wrangle a baby/carrier/diaper bag/breast pump/lunch bag/shopping bags/miscellaneous items that just seems to fall out of the bags/yougetthepicture is enough to drive anyone crazy, but having to carry everything around to the driver’s side in freezing cold weather (since the car manufacturer decided it would be a good idea to only have one key hole from which to unlock the car) to manually unlock the car was the last straw.  You know, the one that broke the mother’s back.  After whining about it for waaay too long, I finally called the Nissan car dealership in town to find out the cost of a replacement clicker.  The man I spoke to on the phone was a bit brusque, but that was actually slightly comforting to me, as he sounded like an older man who knew his stuff.  I grew up around car guys, since my dad owns an automotive shop, and I was looking for a straight answer.  He was certainly the man for the job, since he got down to brass task and immediately told me to hit up Wal-Mart for a new battery, since that was probably the issue.  Without telling me the price of a new clicker or trying to upsell me, he promptly hung up.  I was a bit skeptical, but figured it couldn’t hurt to check with Wally-World. 

Rarely do I venture into Wal-Mart, but I’m happy to report that a kind employee quickly understood my plight, took one glance at the back of my clicker and determined the battery number I needed,

walked me over to the hardware department, and grabbed my exact battery off the spinning rack.  Picture my mouth hanging open in shock when I found myself in the car less than five minutes after walking into the store, and only paying $3.73 to boot!  I showed Matt my treasure as soon as he walked in the door from work, and he popped the clicker apart using a quarter and slid the battery in place. 

Whaalaa!  Good as new. 

If you’re still following along, bless your heart.  I totally get that this is not the most blog-worthy material, but if there is even one lonely soul out there experiencing the same aggravation, I hope you’ll find solace in my story.  Now get thee to Wal-Mart for a battery and start enjoying life again!  Believe me—everything is rosier with a working car key clicker. 

P.S. Did you notice the lovely bowl in the photos above?  My cousin-in-law made them for her wedding!  In fact, she made enough bowls for every single guest at their wedding to take home their bowl as a keepsake—and to top it all off, every single bowl sported a unique design.  We even ate yummy homemade soups out of them at the reception.  Isn’t that such a cool idea?  Now get thee a potting wheel and become a clay artist!  Haha.  Just kidding.  Here’s some eye candy from their big weekend.

My little sis ogling the bowls during set-up.

Finalized Nursery Space

My friend, Joy, warned me not to wait until the last minute to finish Liam’s nursery, as her own daughter arrived three weeks early.  While I tried to heed this advice, it just seemed difficult to finalize things—hence, the nearly-completed-but-not-quite-done nursery. 

Walking into our house with Liam for the first time after leaving the hospital was not too chaotic, since our friend, Brent, came over while Window World installed new windows in the nursery (yes, that was scheduled for the day we gave birth), and while he was here, he put together our crib, which had just arrived the day before!  Let me just say that Brent earned hero of the month for stepping in when we really needed it!  Then, my mom came out for a week, and we were able to finalize the space—whew!  I’m loving how the room feels spacious, functional, and soothing—all good things to feel when you’re changing diapers and nursing around the clock.  Check out Liam’s new digs!

I found the rug at Homegoods, which set the tone for the pale blue and java brown color scheme. 

My aunt added ribbon to the bottom of the roman shades, mimicking the curvy line of the rug.  We also hung a few long linen curtains on the outside of the windows for a softer look.

I ordered this Chipper Eaton fabric online and used Stitch Witchery to create the curtain over the closet.  Drawing back the curtain always makes for a fun surprise, as the inside of the closet is painted blue! 

Then there’s the rocking chair that I pulled off Craigslist, along with the java ottoman that opens for more storage (hey, ya gotta make due with other means of storage when your house has only a few pea-sized closets). 

Next to the rocker is the table that I updated with a fresh coat of paint.  Underneath is a bin that stores Liam’s baby calendar and several books.  I suppose it’s worth mentioning that the little clock on top is from Target.  We have its twin in our bathroom, and I’ve come to the realization that I could probably have one in every room of our house (although I’ll restrain myself).  I’m a clock watcher, and I love that this one has simple, modern features.  Often clocks just seem gaudy to me…maybe that makes me a clock snob? 

The crib is the Babyletto Mercer.  I love the clean lines and the additional storage drawer at the bottom.  To hide the gap between the drawer and the mattress (since we have the mattress raised for a newborn), my mom and I ran a crib bumper along the outside of the crib.  Not the usual method for hiding gaps, but it works great, plus the crib bumper is from Pottery Barn Kids, but I snagged it at half off at a local thrift store for $2.50!  It’s hard to find simple designs for baby items, and I love that it’s plain white with a touch of brown waving along the edge. 

The changing table dresser was given to us by a family from our church.  We just gave it a fresh coat of white paint and updated the knobs with these glassy beauts from Hobby Lobby. 

A few baskets inside allow for easy diaper storage, plus a few OXO containers for wipe storage.

A colorful glimpse at some of our cloth diapers (which we’re still waiting to use, since Liam is pretty teeny and they would completely engulf him at the moment). 

For extra storage above the changing table, we popped up a floating shelf from IKEA and loaded it with baskets from Target. 

Our other IKEA purchase was the Expedit bookshelf, which serves double duty as a bookshelf and storage space, as we filled the bottom portion with more baskets from Target.  It turns out that I’m slightly obsessed with the gray/brown baskets sold at Tarjay…

More storage in the form of an over-the-door hanging rack.  It currently holds Liam’s many hats (one of the only acceptable male accessories—gotta take advantage of them!), diaper wet bag, diaper bag, and nursing cover. 

And of course, we’ve dotted the room with simple art that I made using di-cuts of animals (hurray for the  elementary school di-cut machine at work!) that I glued to blue scrapbook paper.  Then I just plopped them in huge IKEA Ribba frames and we hung them around the room. 

Then there’s my favorite elephant skeleton which we picked up at a quaint shop while babymooning in Taos, New Mexico.  He’s hot-glued to a piece of scrapbook paper; again, I used a Ribba frame from IKEA, but I took out the glass so he could show off his 3-D shape.  Ooh la la! 

Ele-Skele is joined by his friends Whale (who, ah, happens to be an ashtray…didn’t realize that until my darling sister-in-law hesitantly pointed it out) and Owl—both spray painted by yours truly. 

Inspired by Pinterest, I also created three additional pieces of art using paint chips, Scrabble letters, and a cloth tree that I found at JoAnn’s.  Sadly, I don’t think I’m going to end up using them, as I feel like they might compete too much with the other art on the walls.  I really like the room as it is, and I don’t want to overdo it.  I have a feeling those three frames will find a new home in our “hallway” between the living and dining room. 

We had loads of help finishing the nursery, thanks to a visit from my mom and aunt.  Some action shots…

Before…

Progress…

After…the whole kit and caboodle from several angles…

It was a little surreal when I walked into the nursery holding Liam for the first time.  I’m pretty sure I said something like, “Welcome to your new room, Liam!”  I wish I could say that he was really excited, but I’m pretty sure he was just thinking, “Okay, Mom, would you just change my diaper already!”  And since Gma Mimsie and Company never seem to tire of Liam (also dubbed: Peanut, Tiny Tinkler, Bean, Little Man, Punkin, Sugar, Little Squeaker, and a few others that I can’t remember off the top of my head…) pics, here are a few recent ones.