Baby & Nursery Preparedness on a Budget

Apparently, there is a lot to do to prepare for the birth of your first. Little did I know the path we were on when we first found out we were with child.

Here are a few things I never saw coming and to be honest, slightly blindsided me:

1. I would have to buy stretchy pants-like really insane, elastic stretchy pants.
2. I would be using cocoa butter religiously (and the smell always makes me want cookies) on my ever increasing belly.
3. People would touch my stomach. These are people I don’t know and people I do know and people I wish I didn’t know.
4. I would develop a strange brown “racing stripe” down the center of my stomach.
5. I would actually find baby clothes with tiny animals on them-cute.

However, these are minor things to adjust to compared to preparing a nursery for this tiny lad/lass. I’ve always thought, “Give the kid a dresser drawer to sleep in, some milk to drink and a clean diaper. Call it done.”

But….

…then I start to imagine what kind of a sweet setup I could give to the wee little one, without spending all of their college tuition on a silly room they’ll never remember. (HAH! Like we’re paying for your college! Get a job! Cut your hair!).

With my imaginings, I lay awake at night and plot my grandiose nursery plan. The next morning, I start creating things out of almost nothings. Here’s the beginning of the wall decor for the nursery. I will share a tutorial on this as soon as it’s finished and I make sure the project is actually doable.

The mobile to hang over the crib came after much deliberation between Biceps and I. We settled on a concept-with which I will share soon. All I needed was some stuffing, some felt, some more paper mache know-how, and a few coat hangers.

PS-Is that felt? Well, it is now!

Something you must know about me-I hate curtains. Number one: the cats love to destroy them. Number two: they are stinking expensive. Number three: there are never any store-bought curtains that Biceps and I can agree on.

However, when the dollar spent is low enough, Biceps will like almost anything. Enter cheap, heavy duty drop cloths and a little Rebekah-whimsy. This too will be a tutorial I will share-as soon as it’s done. Patience, grasshopper.

And lastly, I must introduce some sort of wooden feature into this baby’s room. Why? Because it brings warmth, it reminds one of nature and of God’s creation…and it’s also inexpensive.

So, maybe this kid will get more than a dresser drawer to sleep in-but they aren’t going to be spoiled, that’s for sure. We all have to make sacrifices, kiddo. And, if I have to wear stretchy pants that sag down to my knees by the end of the day, you can pretend to like your room. Deal?

Have a Best Friend?

This may be totally gratuitous, but I feel something needs to be said.
I have great examples of women who love their husbands, however I’ve overheard others say they may not quite be “in love” anymore. I don’t know what’s going on there, but I am choosing to stay in love. Till death do us part.
I’ve learned that you can either praise or raze your husband-it’s up to you. And I’m not perfect-trust me-oh baby, trust me. But I try.

So, I think it’s time to praise our husbands.
They have an enormous amount of pressure to provide for their families (I know some of us women work, too). They may feel tempted to keep up with the Jones’, they may at times worry if they can be both masculine and sensitive, and they wonder if they’ll ever be able to understand our every need and be able to aptly read our minds.
And they try to always listen to us the moment we want to be listened to, even if OU is playing OSU.

 
So, let’s hear it for the husbands that understand our “crazies”, our cravings and our cats.

Take this guy for example. He’s really cute, right? (Well, you don’t have to agree with me, that’s ok.) But what I love about him is that he can be so good looking and then not be afraid to do something like this…

 

…which makes him look completely ridiculous. And he does it just to make me laugh.
I bet you have some examples of things your hubby does just to make you laugh.

 

So, sing for joy when they are willing to dress up and embarrass themselves with a ridiculous costume year after year for your Christmas cards. (Even though deep down you know they truly enjoy it.)

 

Let’s cheer on our men when they do listen to us and react in such a way that you know they thought what “she said to you was just ridiculous and can you believe that of all people, she wore that to the function…I mean really, pink and red together with her skin combination?! Can you believe it?”

 

And they hold our coffees and our purses why we find a hair tie to tame the wild mane so that we can shoot another picture of the ocean.

 

And if they allow your weird decorations to ride around on their dash or take over the dining room table in their house, then you know you’ve got a good one.
Don’t ever let go. That is your best friend.

The Christmas Crazies-Help!

Dear Readers:

I am sure you don’t ever feel like this:
that you own a brain of mush due to too many list-making events,
that you want to bargain/convince yourself that a nap over a work-out is a better investment and
that you wonder how everyone else is so put together while you feel like a flopping fish.

I am also sure your living room never looks like this when you are trying to decorate for the upcoming festivities-while on a short time line and a small budget.
And you hope your mother-in-law that is staying with you for a month doesn’t feel neglected as you try to reconfigure your Christmas trimmings-introducing all non-breakables due to the new naughty kittens that have become a part of your life.

But, I want to be honest, dear readers. That is exactly how I feel-mushy brain, wanting a nap and floppy fish-like. When I am tempted to complain, it’s great to remember just who the heck is in control.
And it ain’t me.
There is so much changing in Biceps’ and my life right now that I’m not sure which end is up. (And I usually label those sorts of things.)
Throw in a dash of new babies being born, a broken car windshield, a church departure, both sides of the families coming in for the holidays, Bicep’s two new careers and a “home-made project” that is overwhelming…and you’ve got my yesterday.

So, since your house is probably all decorated, your life feels in control and your brain is not mush-please pray for me and my weakness. I need your help. I am leaning on you-and of course, God. He’s pretty good to me when I want to whine about stuff like this.
Wah.

The Master Bathroom Remodel-Part Deux

You’ll want to check out the Master Bathroom-Part Uno before jumping into this. You need to be prepared. And if you really want to be prepared, check out what I did with the adjoining Master Bedroom.
So, go-I’ll wait for you. But please, do come back.

Yeah! You’re back-I am assuming you have done what you were told and aren’t being naughty at this point. However, if you are being naughty, I know the feeling…
This is what I started with-a green room with absolutely no appeal, nothing, nada. Boring.

And this is where I left you in the Master Bathroom-Part Uno. Biceps was on tour without me (very sad) and I was being sneaky and remodeling the bathroom. I changed the wall color from green to a deep gray. The concrete floor and both vanities had been stripped of their old concrete stain. I painted the countertops canary yellow using garage floor paint. All the difficult steps are finished-now, it’s time to decorate!

I found Harold (the horse) at an antique store in Jenks, Ok for $10. This was Harold’s first car ride. As you can see, Harold was very happy to come home with me.

Using Harold as inspiration, I began to amass several large and small frames-all of which I spray painted a high gloss white. I hung the empty glossy white frames on the gray bathroom walls, making them pop.

I found a chandelier at an antique shop for $15. For safety’s sake, I rewired it first. Armed with a can of gold spray paint, I repainted it and then antiqued it. I then watered down some leftover high-gloss black paint, and used a rag to rub the watered down black over the gold to antique it.
Next, I found a brother-in-law that came free with my marriage to my husband. He aided me in the electrical portion of my bathroom remodel. After determining the spot we wanted to hang the chandelier from, he went to work-cutting, wiring, and hanging.

I got to do the fun stuff associated with chandeliers-hanging sparkly crystals in the appropriate areas. I scavenged discarded chandeliers from other projects to come up with what you see here. Before hanging them, I first cleaned them with vinegar and water to really make them sparkle.

Since I was on my own when it came time to hang the frames, I needed a ladder, some dexterity and a lot of good balancing. And 911 ready on speed dial.

Harold witnessed me almost fall (more than once), but he just sat there and whinnied…jerk.

The three dimensional bird and branch motif that are hanging above the mirror, I snagged at our local flea market for a couple of bucks and spray painted them also high gloss white.

We’ll probably lay tile on the concrete floor at some point in the future, but for now, just the stain being gone is wonderful. If you hadn’t read in my earlier post, the “stain” decided not to stain the concrete and kept coming off in chunks and sticking to our little footsies.

Hope you enjoyed my new changes around my old house.
Harold (the horse) seems to be loving his new home, and so am I. I can hardly wait for Biceps to see it.