Friday, June 29, 2012

Skirting It

I love the crib we got.  I love how it looks and the additional functionality of the drawer below it helps too with storing extra sheets, etc.  I also love how it requires minimal skirting.




Since this crib only requires a skirt for the few months that the mattress will be raised, I knew I could get away with something basic.  There were many, many beautiful handmade skirts on Etsy that I drooled over (like this and this), but I couldn't justify that for a few short months.  I was then going to get just a basic white one, but even those were pricey (for what I was going to be using it for).  So I decided to brave it and make my own.


Keep in mind, I can't sew in the least and really am freaked out by fabric in general (how do you measure it again?  how much do I need?  what's a hem?).  I remembered tutorials like Sherry's and Kim's - so I decided I could just use material to make my own.  I went the flap route, where the skirt is basically just a facade.


I found some pretty fabric at Hobby Lobby (40% off) for a total of $17.  I think I got three yards?  Either way, I only used half of it.  Again, no idea how to estimate fabric amounts...  It was patterny and the right colors and more or less matches my sheets, so I went with it.


I know it's nothing novel, but here's my tutorial:



  • Lay out fabric on the floor because you don't have a proper workspace
  • Attempt to crawl around on the floor, 9 months pregnant, and cut in a straight line
  • Close the blinds because you look like a freak
  • Use a metal measuring tape on fabric, since you don't actually have a tape measure appropriate for fabric, or a yardstick
  • Add a good 8 inches to your measurements "just in case"
  • Repeatedly hold your piece up to the crib in lieu of actually measuring again - repeatedly iron edges smaller and smaller
  • Make a hem that looks like this:




  • Use hem tape, naturally, since you don't own a needle or thread
  • Spend roughly 2 hours getting the front panel done
  • Watch as ankles grow enormous as you stand over the ironing board
  • Eventually get the front piece right and move on to the sides - they take a little less time since you sorta learned from your mistakes.  Only estimate an extra 4 inches of "give" this time, only remeasure a dozen times instead of fifty 
  • Fasten your pieces the good old fashioned way - velcro!  (sorry - "hook and loop"....)





  • Hold your breath as you put it on the crib, all optimism of a good fit out the window
  • It fits!  It looks normal!  It only took two three hours and some serious grunting




Hooray!  It may not be perfect, and I'm sure someone who can really sew would be horrified at my work.  But honestly, I will only use these for a few months and it covers the underside and it's good enough for me!





I was lucky the crib was so forgiving, what with those big corners I could hide my mistakes behind and whatnot.



Also, I love the sheets.  I know they will just get pooped, peed, and spit up upon (maybe other bodily fluids too?  Who knows?!) but they are bright and happy and add some pizzazz to my simplistic crib.  Baby can now sleep in style :)



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Couples Baby Shower

Group photo (missing a few people)!


So I posted about my baby shower in Knoxville, but I also wanted to share about our shower we had here.  The lovely Kacy was kind enough to take on the task, as were her mom and aunt.  Tony and I are so grateful  and love that we have these people in our lives here.  They are the best!  


It was a couples shower, complete with food, drinks, and great family and friends.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  We had a great time - and it was so funny to experience friends from different areas of life - old friends, work friends, school friends, church friends, etc. - all in the same room at the same time.  We are definitely blessed to know them all!


It's cuteness overload.








My two nieces, Lyla and Ava, finally meeting for the first time!  They were very sweet to each other.










We're due two days apart, it had to be done. 
Tony practicing using the sling



And of course we got a ton of gifts!  People are sooo generous at baby showers!  So much cute and practical stuff.  I can't get away without mentioning some of the homemade gifts as well:

Kacy made this awesome diaper cake - so colorful and fun!  And of course filled with tons of diapers and accessories (and a cute pig!)



My sister in law Jennifer also made a diaper cake!  These girls are so talented!  I know it takes a ton of time and effort - so I was so excited to see these creations!



My friend Kim was kind enough to make me a nursing cover - she is the sewing queen - check out her stuff on her blog!

Tony had to try that one out as well - it works.

This is a poor picture of it, but Kacy's gift (another one!!) was this adorable bag with a set of squishy fabric blocks inside.  (Kim made this too - see her post for better pics!).  It was so sweet of Kacy to think to "commission" that :)  I know baby will love them!



My mom and sister were able to come down for the shower, and among other gifts, they made something too!

Courtney made this really cute framed letter that I'm going to hang in the nursery (as soon as I get my act together!)


My mom took this picture I love and mod podged it to a teal board and added ribbon - it perfectly matches the nursery colors!



So there you have it.  I have amazing friends and family.  The end.

Monday, June 25, 2012

A Tale of Two Ottomans

Breaking nursery-related news!  We have changed our ottoman!

Ok, just kidding, it's not that serious.  In fact, this probably shouldn't even warrant its own post, but it's getting one.  And a long story.  You're welcome.

After getting the big brown chair for the nursery, as discussed in this nursery post, I knew I wanted to get a fun, colorful ottoman to go with it.  I couldn't justify spending the $150 or whatever for the matching one (that did glide too, in its defense), and that would have just added more browneyness.  And yes, I needed an ottoman.  I'm weird and can't stand to not have my feet up, or at least one of them, at any given time.  In the car (when riding, not driving mind you) I always have at least one leg tucked under me.  Right now my leg is tucked into my desk chair.  Anyway....

So I went on an extensive online hunt.  I looked everywhere I could imagine.  I also looked at any real store I could think of that might possibly carry a cute ottoman.  I tried Homegoods, Ross, etc. hoping to find a random one, but to no avail.  Target had cute little storage cubes, but they were all brown or black.  I also didn't want to spend more than $50, so that didn't help the cause.  I spent weeks looking, but couldn't find what I wanted.

Eventually, I finally found this one, from Walmart, for $48.  


It wasn't exactly what I had in mind (I really had wanted yellow or teal, and preferably a storage one), and it was a bit pricey for a little thing like that, but since nothing else was happening, I bought it (yay free site to store shipping!).  We got it home and I liked it well enough and it did the trick of holding the feet, so I was content.



It's cute, right?

So Tony and I were at Target this weekend (go figure), when we stumbled across this guy!  What???  Teal? Storage? Seventeen freaking dollars?  Perfect!  Where was this two months ago???



While the pink one was nice, this new one was exactly what I had in mind.  Luckily Walmart is great about returns, so we gave the pink one back and got a new one and $31 back in the bank.




The pillow is also from Target (they have a ton of teal stuff these days!).  I had been eyeing it for weeks and it went on sale for $10 so I snatched it right up!  The blanket was made by my sister Courtney! 


Roxy approves. 



It ties in a bit better with the rest of the teal I have going on in the room.  I'm also realizing very quickly how much stuff babies come with and how precious storage space is.

Looking better already, right??



Thursday, June 21, 2012

Backups

Broken Computer + Homework + Multiple Naps Daily = Bad Blogger


Oh well.  I mentioned in my last post that our computer up and died one day.  Because it was the motherboard, we opted not to get it fixed, since that costs practically what it costs to just buy a new one.  Luckily, we were able to find a great deal on a new one, thanks to a student discount (gotta milk it while I still can!).  It's on it's way, and because it has a humongous amount of storage, I will never have to hear Tony give me grief about the amount of pictures I have saved to the computer!

We were also able to save the hard drive from our old computer. Tony followed some tutorials online to get it out (it took a while and there was a lot of banging), and we bought an external hard drive shell from Amazon (this one).  Basically it allows you to use a real computer hard drive as an external one that can just be plugged into a USB port like any other external one (it's just bigger and a little more fragile).  I was so glad none of our files were missing, since it had been a while since I had backed up my pictures and documents.  And now we have a gigantic hard drive backup.  We then recycled the rest of our old computer.  



So while the fact that it died sucks and we had to spend some money we weren't planning on spending, at least we were able to salvage some parts out of the deal!  


I promise shower, nursery, and other pics soon!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thursday Thoughts

I bring you a (probably welcome) relief from endless baby shower pictures to share some random thoughts floating through my head today.



  • We're in a weird holding-pattern kind of place right now.  I'm 34 weeks today, which means theoretically we still have 6 weeks to go before baby.  Yet Tony and I both had the idea of these past baby showers in our head as so far away and now that they have come and gone, it's like - ok, so this is really gonna happen soon, huh?  Technically we have all of the stuff we "need" (or I think we do, at least!).  Her nursery is more or less done, with the exception of wall art and other decor.  The tiny clothes have been washed and put away.  We have diapers at the ready.  My hospital bag is packed and my out-of-town parents have been sent directions on where to go, day or night (ha! yes, I'm that crazy!).  I'm by no means "ready" for her to come - I want her to stay in there as long as she needs!  But allegedly, we are "ready" should she come any time.  That's scary.  And awesome.  Mostly scary.

  • I'm taking two online classes, both of which are over the week before my due date.  In the past, online classes have always been easy-peasy, requiring very minimal effort to get an A.  Yet these two I'm taking are pretty time-consuming.  Not hard, necessarily, but taking up more of my time than expected.  I still have newborn books to read!  I'm spending much more time than I would like with my textbooks.  That, and I have twice-daily panic attacks that she will come early and I will be writing out chapter summaries with a newborn strapped to my chest.  Not ideal.  If it happens, I can do it (I think....), but I really really really hope I can get these classes done before she comes.  Not that this panic is motivating me to get ahead or anything...

  • Our stinking computer died yesterday.  It was showing NO signs of distress before, yet it just wouldn't turn on at all yesterday.  Apparently it's the motherboard.  Luckily it's not the hard drive, and I think everything I had on there is safe.  I also backed up my stuff a few weeks ago, but if it weren't for my laziness in taking photos off my camera after I download them, I would be worried those last few weeks would be gone.  Either way, I'm working from our less-than-awesome laptop, and I can't really access my edited photos from last weekend for a while.  You will have to wait a bit to be subjected to more baby shower awesomeness!  Moral of the story - back up your photos for peace of mind!

  • I've given up on jeans, even maternity ones.  Yoga pants or skirts it is.  And makeup.  Given up on that too :)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Inside-Baby Pictures

While we were in Knoxville for the baby shower, I forced convinced my sister to play photographer and take some maternity photos of Tony and I.  Originally, I had wanted to get professional ones, but Tony said no way convinced me otherwise.  Probably best anyway - I want to save that money for pics of the baby.  

Courtney did just as good as any professional would do, mostly because we are such perfect models ;)  They are cheesetastic, and I love them.  Mostly I was glad Tony was cooperative.  We found a nice park down by the lake to take the pics, as well as in my parents' backyard.  

This one is my favorite.






And of course, we didn't get through the thing without some ridiculous ones being taken:


Prom photo

What??  I'm pregnant????

Seduction at 8 months

My dad, the photobomber



Monday, June 11, 2012

Photo Roundup

As a follow-up to my last post, we took a ton of pictures before my baby shower in Knoxville.  Something about having everyone looking decent at the same time necessitates taking pictures with every combination of people possible.  Tony was just glad he didn't have to be in them, only behind the camera.  


Seriously, we took a lot.  And it just seems arrogant because, of course, I'm in them all.  Well, really, I guess it's the baby who is the main attraction.  I'm just the carrier :)


My sister Courtney 

My Grammy

And mom now!

Adding in my Aunt Patty and sister Caitlin



Dad had to get in one!

My bff JoBeth

Family friends Jane and Elaine

JoBeth and Adrienne - love them!


And a few funny ones were taken too:


Who knows.

They got caught eating the food before the guests arrived.
It was a wonderful day and we had so much fun!  Not to mention, baby got lots and lots of goodies!  I finally got it all put away - just in time to have another shower this past weekend!  Talk about feeling blessed and overwhelmed at the same time!
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