Carpet tiles and fabric

I can't wait to see everything come together. Today I received 4 carpet tiles called Interface FLOR in red. I also received the fabric I ordered for the glider cushion covers.



I think this gray chevron was a really good pick! Can't wait!





The carpet is for this step in the closet. I have to step on it to reach the shelf, so why not make it pretty!

Touching up

Since I was painting I thought I might as well touch up the kitchen door and trim.


I didn't take a before photo but the trim was yellowing and dirty.


I think it's much better now. I need to touch up the walls now. I want things looking spiffy for the baby shower.

Feeling accomplished

Today I crossed a few things off the to-do list. At first, morning sickness just got to me but then I was waiting to see if we were having a boy or girl before pulling the trigger. Then there is the procrastinator cheap me who was afraid to buy a bunch of stuff and end up not using it so I waited and I'm glad I did.

I love love Amazon! Rather than going from store to store which wears me out these days, I can just find it on Amazon! I ordered a set of hooks so Baby Brown can (hopefully) hang up his coat and hat.



Also, I ordered an over the door (bathroom) organizer shelf for inside the closet door to hold all those lovely baby things like butt paste and baby powder.



Keith gave me the okay to order this print of the Macchi MC 72 vintage aircraft on etsy from seller tjneal.


We want to do a gallery of wall art and have the represent us - Keith almost has his pilot license and he has a great deal of knowledge of birds and aerodynamics. I wanted to be represented by my love of books and architecture, but I haven't out how yet.

Then I ordered this gray chevron patterned fabric for the glider and ottoman from etsy seller hodiandpoppi.



I wasn't sure about it and was afraid it was too "crazy" but for the same reason my gut told me to get it!

I can't wait to see the room come together!

Nursery over the weekend

Last week I painted a pattern in the nursery. I got the idea from a Pottery Barn nursery, but more on that later. To finish it off, I asked Keith to install a piece of chair rail on that wall. Over the last two days I have been spackling the nail holes and touching up the paint.


I started painting the closet shelf and clothing rod. It took 3 coats of paint to get it to look solid. I also painted over the wall where I did a test trial of the wall stencils.


We took an interesting trip to ikea.


Where I picked up these curtains for the nursery. I like how the pattern mimics the wall stencil.


Progress photo

Nursery: Drawer Liners

I wanted to line the drawers with some decorative paper or fabric, but found this drawer liner leftover from the kitchen so why not use it up. It's not as though anyone can see the liner and the colors are neutral.


I measured the inside of the drawer and cut the liner down to 14x17. I had just enough for 6 drawers.


Full drawers just like daddy.

Vote for Clyde King of the Web

As many of you know, Keith and I volunteers for French Bulldog RescueNetwork where we adopted Basil & Guinness. Another one of ourgraduates Clyde is running for King of the Web and if he wins, he willdonate all $2500 to the rescue. He was in the lead and just slippedout of 1st place today. We need 300 more votes to get him back infirst place. You can vote 10x a day so all we need is 30 more ppl tovote! But if we can get even more people to vote that will hopefullykeep him in the lead. Voting ends June 1st at noon.

Go here and see his hilarious campaign!http://kingofweb.com/users/7209654009

About the rescue, we rely entirely on donations and the generosity ofthe volunteers and foster parents. Foster families pay entirely out ofpocket to foster their dogs and rehabilitate them so they can beadopted. The funds from donations and fundraisers go towards medicalbills and surgeries. $2500 would mean a great deal to the rescueespecially now. All the dogs we take in have great potential to beadopted out just like our sweet Basil and Guinness were. It's aboutgiving them a second chance.

Please take a few minutes and sign up (it's a really short form) andthen vote 10 times!!! It would mean so much to our cute littlefrenchies. Even if you don't like dogs, do it for baby Brown. Come on!You can't turn down a baby! ;) Please cross post on Facebook, twitter,your blogs and hit up your dog loving friends and family and forwardthem this email.

Vote here!http://kingofweb.com/users/7209654009

Please, only votes from a valid email address per computer counts.Don't create multiple accounts on one computer.

Clearance finds & Good Will

My girlfriend came down to visit me and we spent the weekend doing "girlie things" like eat, chat and shop! She and I brainstormed on decor ideas for the nursery. We hit up a couple of stores including TJMax and The Goodwill Store.


At TJMax, I score this these pretty bookends for $7.50 each and the cool red frame for $5. I love the swirl pattern on the frame. The book ends will hold some little Beatrix Potter and Winnie the Pooh books I have.


At GoodWill, I was on the look out for large frames with a bit of texture on the frames. The frames were all between $1.99 to $2.99! The white frame was also on the clearance rack at TJMax for $7.50. I like how large it was and it holds 5x7 photos. In the frames, I plan to put some DIY wall art in them and create a wall gallery.

Gotta love yard sales

A neighboring town hosts an annual town-wide yard sale and there are always lots of treasures to be had. I love browsing because this event is full of antiques and other goodies.

I have had my eye out for a wooden cradle to keep in our bedroom. There's just something so sweet and romantic about them. Well, we drove around and something caught my eye!

After a tiny bit of haggling, this proud new momma to be walked away with a beautiful cradle, mattress, bumper, comforter, and 3 sheets! Price? $15!! Can we say score!


This spot was made for you! Ain't she a beauty.


With bedding.

I keep staring at it and picturing what it would be like with a baby in it. I can't wait.

Big News!

Basil and Guinness have a little announcement they want to make!

Yep! There's gonna be a little addition to Our First Place.

That "guest room" we were working on...so not a guest room. Did you guess? Actually at first, it was meant to be a guest room and that we had a little surprise! It was always intended to be a nursery, so the transition was easy. We're keeping the wall color. That's why I ordered the chandelier and why Keith worked so hard on refinishing the floors and installing crown moulding which looks gorgeous by the way!

Last week, we invited our family and friends over for a little 'Reveal party'. We attended my anatomy scan and I asked the ultrasound tech to write the gender down on a piece of paper. I gave the paper to my friend Lauren (Basil's girlfriend Ellie Mae's mom) who made cupcakes from scratch with either pink or blue icing. We got everyone together and Lauren delivered the cupcakes. We were able to find out the gender of Baby Brown together!

We asked everyone to come wearing their team colors. I was on Team Blue. Keith was on Team Pink. I always felt like it was a boy.

I made "team" lemonade and finger foods (not shown) such as baby corn, baby carrots, pigs in a blanket, and mini meatballs.

Here is the big surprise kept in this secret box!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Team Pink was defeated. Here we are with our victorious blue cupcakes!

Now let the nursery begin!

Nesting

Last night I had this crazy idea that I wanted to rearrange our bedroom...so I did. The biggest problem in all our rooms has been circulation because of their modest size. We always feel cramped walking into our bedroom, so I wondered whether a new layout would help. Let's see shall we?



The bed is now against the wall where the tall dresser was. In this arrangement we have more room to walk around the bed.


The bed frame overlaps the window frame by just a little which worked better than I expected.


That wall is where the bed used to be. The rocking chair fits nicely under the reading light.


We can use the night stand again since there's room for it next to the bed now. Here you have a better idea of much more space we have to move around.


The tall dresser ended up there at the foot of the bed. It's not ideal but there is still plenty of room between it and the foot board. It's close to Keith's closet too. The bedroom door doesn't open all the way now but we have plenty of room to the right of the door.

Do you rearrange your furniture often? I do it all the time. It makes me feel as though I'm in a new place.

Lamp shade ceiling fan

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2011/04/prettying-up-ceiling-fan.html

Saving for future. I've been looking for ideas to deal with the light in "my apartment".

Back to my apartment

No we haven't forgotten about this room. I think the last time we left off Keith installed the quarter round along the floor and caulked it. The quarter round was expensive at $55 considering all the other DIY projects we've done and those have had a big wow factor.

We ended up moving the daybed from the guest room into this room. I have been spending night and day looking for design ideas on how to arrange this room. Keith actually came up with this arrangement which I love.



The day bed is half way through the room. In the corner where the plant is sitting is where we will put the tv. That way there's a bit of intimacy between me and Edward Cullen...just kidding! There is enough space to walk by but not such a wide gap that it's distracting. The chair on the right allows for conversation.


As you can see here, there's a separation of space and function which is what I wanted. To the left is my desk and workstation. I can do my crafts and scrapbook while watching tv.



From the opposite angle facing the front n closet door. And yes the plant grew legs and moved on top of the cabinet where I store a lot of paper supplies.



I'll put up some shelves and a cork board. I need to find a place for my printer and sewing machine.



Nothing matches right now but I'll slowly work on that. In the mean time, how cute are they?

Rooms continued

Today Keith caulked the crown moulding. It looks so much better once it's caulked. I have to go back and paint it when I get a chance.


Then in the other room we cleaned and vacuumed thoroughly. We put away all the tools finally and started moving some furniture into the room.


Here's the other view. It's a real mish mosh of non matching furniture right now but everything is gonna a facelift pretty soon.

Chandelier is here

The chandelier is finally here and Keith installed it this morning!


However we are having a wiring problem so the finishing touches are just gonna have to wait. I hate that! So close yet so far away.

Tired

We brought the rug down and rolled it out in the room. Things are warming up in there. I can picture the room now. It's really coming together.



As you can see in the pic below, there's a lot of work to do. There's tons of dust and I think I need to touch up some of the paint. I know it's going to take a while. We are just so busy these days.

Painted floors continued

We continued with the floors this week. We put a total of 3 coats of paint down and two coats of polyurethane. The poly really seals the paint and makes the floor smooth to walk on. It's growing on me.



There is some yellowing through the paint that we are not sure where it's coming from.


The wall looks really pretty with the light floors. I can't wait to have the quarter round installed to cover up that forest green strip of paint. There is a lot of cleaning to do as well.

We painted the floor

The floor was in such bad shape that we decided to paint it. Appalling I know! But in a few short years we are going to have the place recarpeted and we are going to put a rug over this floor so we figured why not.






It was still a lot of work. There was so much debris. We swept, vacuumed, swept some more and mopped. It was filthy.






Here is the first coat. It's difficult to see in the pic but it's a light gray color. Keith thinks it's very white and makes the walls look very yellow. Perhaps we should have gone with a warmer color.






Second coat. We will have to go over the seams with a brush. Do you see that dark border along the floor? It's the forest green paint that the last owner painted the baseboard. We bought quarter round to go around the room to cover it up and to cover the gap between baseboard and floor.

The floor requires 2-3 coats of polyurethane. I'm not sure how I feel about the floor right now but I'm sure it will be fine. Painting a wood floor doesn't seem like an ideal choice.




Another photo in the morning.