As Ready as We're Gonna Be - The Nursery is Finished

Yesterday, with two days to spare before her due date, I finally finished the nursery. We started kind of getting some ducks in a row for the nursery around this time last year after I found my color inspiration on Pinterest (below). I really loved the navy wall but really wanted a coral crib to put against it.

The Animal Print Shop Nursery Project

We had received a hand-me-down crib from one of our generous neighbors and were really excited to repaint it BUT, we effed up somewhere and ended up kind of ruining it... so, we went to IKEA and I was newly inspired by the kind of retro yet kind of modern SNIGLAR crib. We bought it, and Jamie put it together, and there it sat in our messy office/nursery-to-be for about another 10 months.

Then I spent months trying to find a changing table I liked. Most everything in my price range was dark, glossy wood which was not at all my style. Finally, after months of searching, I found the homie below on Craigslist for 50 bucks. It was then that I decided I'd pop my chalk paint cherry and get my DIY on. 

I don't know what brand furniture that is... & Renaissance Chalk Paint in Aegean Coral

Fast forward through digging out the office, finally painting the wall with the paint we purchased last spring, we finally have a nursery! I'm no interior designer, so I'm not even sure what words to use to describe the look I ended up with, but I'm happy with it. I like the mix of the geometric pieces like the mobile and the lamp with the more retro-inspired glider and changing table. 

Now we must impatiently wait for baby's arrival! (Yes, her name is plastered all over the nursery, but no, I'm not "announcing" it yet on the internet... though everyone pretty much already knows her name.) She'll be here any day now. Birthmother will be 40 weeks tomorrow. I'm taking her in for an ultrasound so that the doc can decide whether to continue waiting, induce, or if Baby is massive, schedule a c-section. I'm looking forward to seeing her on the screen again!

If ya wanna know where we got this stuff: (none of these are affiliate links-- I'm not that savvy)

SNIGLAR Crib: IKEA
Changing Dresser: Craiglist
Renaissance Chalk Paint: Amazon
Wall Paint: Glidden America's Cup Navy
Brightech Bijou Tripod Lamp: Amazon
Mobile: Lavender Kay Design - Etsy
Coral Frames: BYARUM - IKEA (painted with chalk paint!)
Some Things Take Time print: Congo Studio - Etsy
Hands Charcoal Drawing: My talented husband in high school art class
Little Castle Savvy Glider & Ottoman: Buy Buy Baby (not available online ANYWHERE that I can find)
Shaggy Rug: AmazonFaux Fur: Homegoods
Glider Pillow: Homegoods

I Like Big News (and I Cannot Lie)

Hey guys, long-time-no-type! It's been a while and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things here. A lot has happened since I last wrote. After a month or so of not knowing if we were going to close escrow, we finally moved into our brand new home back in May!

We love the open floor plan!

We have a rad fire pit which we share with rad neighbors.

Basically, we love our new place. I have a ton of photos I could post right now about the house but that's not really the main reason for my return to this space. 

'Member how I started this blog as a way to document our infertility treatments? Well, I'm not going to be doing that anymore.

Just kidding. Not pregnant. That's totally an echocardiogram, but it is relevant. Nope. No baby growing in my uterus, but there's one growin' in my heart.

We are adopting!

When we decided to buy a house back in November, we had quite a few items to start paying for which led us to decide to discontinue my $400+ per month acupuncture habit. After a little bit of time, I began revisiting the idea of adoption. (I say "revisit" because it's something that Jamie and I had discussed years ago before we were even married.)

We never jumped too deeply into infertility treatments, but what we had already done I knew one thing about: I hated it. After 5 years of analyzing my body and cycle, obsessing over timing our grownup-fun-time ever-so-carefully, months of acupuncture preceded by months of sticking myself in the gut with blood-thinners, I decided that's not what I wanted. I was no longer comfortable trying to force my body to do something that it's obviously not equipped for.

So, after a little bit of soul searching, I brought it up to Jamie. Admittedly, he wasn't quite ready to give up on treatments. We had a handful of conversations over some time to decide if this was what we really wanted to do, and ultimately, it was.

We made the decision back in December to adopt a newborn, but due to all of our new home adventures, we spent the first part of this year doing our research. After taking a month or so to settle in, we finally decided to get started. Now that we've officially been accepted into the program we chose, we wanted to share the news with you all! It's typically suggested that we don't tell the world this early, but I also didn't follow that rule with the fertility treatments either. We're over-sharers in this family and have a hard time keeping our lives to ourselves.

We're in the super early stages right now, so there's a long road ahead of us still, but we're feeling really great. It's my intent to keep everyone updated on our journey here just as I did throughout my fertility treatments, so keep an eye out if you're interested.

Wish us luck!

Merry Christmas Eve

Let me tell you that I wish I had photos to share of what my childhood Christmases looked like. Our Christmas season started with me whining about when we were going to put up the tree. I love decorating for Christmas and always have and given that our house growing up had been described as it looking like Christmas threw up in there, it's obvious that this is a trait I've inherited.

When it was finally time to put up the tree, it was a big ordeal. Our artificial tree was the kind with color-coded branches that you had to separate and fluff and stick in the appropriate holes. This was also way before the genius of pre-lit trees. If you were around to witness my dad stringing the lights on the tree (which were those big, retro, colorful lights) you'd think he had hated it. Well, maybe he did hate stringing up the lights, but he also hated if it hadn't been done correctly. (This is also why I decorate my tree without Jamie's help. No, that one's too close to one just like it!) Usually during this time, the rest of us were putting out the rest of the decorations that went on shelves, tables and whatever else we could deck with holiday cheer.

Once Dad had used every four-letter-word in his vocabulary (and possibly some he invented) and the lights were up and the tree perfectly fluffed, it was time to decorate the tree. This is where I learned how to "properly" hang the ornaments.

Fundamentals of Christmas Tree Decorating 101

Prof. Sandra L. Stancliff

The basics of Christmas tree decorating as taught from generation to generation. Learn the importance of the order of decorating, spacing and equal placement, as well as how to appropriately place each type and size ornament. Finish the course with a hands-on direction of proper tinsel-hanging. 

The glory of a finished tree is something I still awe over today. Decorating for Christmas still gives me that same feeling I had as a kid. Even though Christmas morning isn't the same for an adult (especially of the no-kids-yet variety), I still find that I anticipate it the same, and it all starts with the decorating.

I decorate much earlier than my family did growing up. I get the itch on November 1st, but do my best to hold out until after Thanksgiving. I've shared a bit of my decorating with you in a few past posts here, here and here, but wanted to try and get some better photos. Unfortunately, they might not really be better, but I will share them anyway.

Our tree lives (in the not-so kind of way) in the dining room because we don't have the space for it in the living room.

We have a lot of rails, so I decorate those, too. 

The living room houses a couple small trees and our stockings. It also is where you'll find Christmastown in the country of Pianotop. 

Christmastown has a brewery.

A couple houses that don't really match scale-wise.

A fire station and another house (which was a hand-me-down).

And the bakery comes from my gram's old Christmas village.

Jamie is in charge of Christmastown; he does a pretty good job.

My favorite part, though, is that you can see the Christmas tree in the dining room from the living room downstairs!

My mom made this for us a while back. It hangs on our wreath and has two more blank stockings for our future expansion.

And this is what Christmas Eve looks like in Orange County right now. Rain and leaves.

So that's not all of my decor, but the main stuffs. I have a fair amount more, but that'd probably get boring. Anyway, we will be spending this evening with some good friends then tomorrow will be spent with Jamie's brothers and their wives.

Merry Christmas, dudes!

Getting Sh't Done

Recently I mentioned that I needed to figure out a way to stay on top of maintaining our home. I considered making a list before bedtime of all the things that I need or want to accomplish the next day. Finally, Sunday night, I made my first list and emailed it to myself. On Monday, as I finished things on my list, I sent an email back to myself with only the remaining items. Being that I am doing this digitally, I've found it helpful and motivating to be able to see my list shrink.

This worked so well for me that I did it again for Tuesday and also for today. I'm finally getting stuff done around here and am feeling a little more balance to my day instead of my usual day spent feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs done which then prevents me from starting anything.

Monday and Tuesday's lists.
(Click it if you actually want to read it.)
 (Yes, I include my meals on my list because they tend to be my "screw around on the internet" times.)

So far, this is working really well. Breaking big projects like cleaning and reorganizing the closet and cleaning up our bedroom to make for a more peaceful space into smaller projects that I can complete over the span of however many days makes the project more manageable. Here's to hoping I can make this a habit.

How do you manage your home? Are you a list-maker? Do you get overwhelmed and fall behind like me? Or do you have the enviable natural ability to just do it when whatever it is needs done?

Poor Excuse of a Closet Blogger

I mean that in the most literal of ways. Yesterday, I mentioned that one of the first things I needed to do to get a start on fixing up our bedroom was to move the big ugly storage unit into the closet. This meant first cleaning out the closet (mostly) and rearranging some things in there.

Being the poor excuse of a closet blogger that I am, I didn't take "before" pictures, but I have the following picture which might tell you something. On top of this built-in stands a jewelry box that my mom made for me a few years back. It's beautiful and I love it, but it can really only hold my smaller necklaces and some miscellaneous things that I've filled the drawers with. Because of this, the area around it has become a catch-all for chunky bracelets, random earrings that I never put in a drawer, large necklaces and other junk that has been sitting there for probably two years including a nice collection of tags that I've torn off after bringing a new purchase home. Oh, and half a roll of Rolaids. The picture below is what it looked like after I removed all of the jewelry from the area.

Search and find these items: Ace bandage, tampon, bra strap, shoe laces, half roll of Rolaids, Orajel, a different type of generic oral gel... 

I've since picked all of the garbage out of that mess, but I still have to deal with what's left. The rest of, well, my side of the closet has really come together. If I had a "before" photo, in it you'd see a pile of clothes and shoes on the floor, a pile of clothes and scarves on top of some storage drawers, purses crammed in a corner (actually, you wouldn't be able to see those, which is why I forgot I had them), and necklaces and other things hanging from the door knob.

In these "after" photos, you'll see organization! I rebuilt the cubes so that I'd have half a cube at the very top to put all of my bracelets, hang my dangly earrings and clip all my hair bows and such. For my necklaces, I used shower curtain hooks! My shoes atop the shelving were organized from their previous crammed and strewn about state with all of my heels there, then all of my flats in the storage cubes. My hanging clothes were separated so that all of my tops are on the left, then my dresses and some pants are on the right.

Now, my main goal is to keep it this way, but I will need a strategy for this. The clothing that I would take off then leave laying around in the closet was clothing that I deemed "still clean enough to wear again". What I think I need is either an over-the-door coat rack for the closet or a nice one for the wall just outside the closet to hang that stuff, which is mostly jeans and pajama pants, instead of letting it pile up on the floor where sometimes, something will get buried for weeks before I find it to wash. It's ridiculous, I know.

My short term goal is to finish the closet, which involves picking up the rest of the junk on the built-in, then organizing Jamie's side. We have a little bit of a lack of clothing storage, so this also aids to our build-up of clothing in the closet. I'm going to have to get creative, I think... I just don't know how yet. His side of the closet is about the same size as mine, but his floor area is home to luggage and various travel bags as well as more storage drawers, so we don't really have room for more cubes. That, and I want to try to do this without buying anything new! So here goes.

Bedroom Disappointment

I suppose that title is a bit misleading. Let me clarify: bedroom decor disappointment. I have it.

We've lived in our current condo for about two and a half years now. Every room has come together (well, minus some updates I'd like to make, but...) except our master bedroom and bathroom. I'm not really worried about the bathroom right now, but our bedroom is really bringing me down.

It's by far the largest room in the house, so it has become a bit of a catch-all. It also doubles as an office. This is where I spend my day and it's really bumming me out. To my right, the printer sits atop the computer, surrounded by cords, my camera bag and stacks of miscellany. To my left, a box of wrapping and tissue paper, two empty shoe boxes that I have yet to throw away from when I bought new boots, a bin full of more miscellany, four stacks of Jamie's computer software cds that probably date back up to ten years, my syringes from when I was giving myself blood thinner injections, and a pile of pillows that are supposed to go on the bed... when it's made.

Behind me, in the wide open space of our bedroom, is the middle ground. If you imagine it as a square, the bed is on one side, the desk on another, the bathroom on the third, then the closet on the last side. It's home to laundry baskets, the laundry sorter (that needs to go back in the garage where the washer and dryer are) and usually piles of laundry.

The walls are white and bare, aside from one of those large metal wall-hangings that I feel is out of date. In the corner is a freestanding, full-length mirror which I love, yet is covered in dust and dog nose prints. The bed rests directly on the floor without so much as a dust ruffle to hide the box spring. (We upgraded from a queen to a California king bed earlier this year and have yet to buy frame for it.) Along the wall at the foot of the bed is one of those cube storage units that is more fit for a dorm or a closet. The black canvas bins hold all of my craft junk. These used to sit on top of our linen cabinets on the landing where they weren't distracting or obtrusive until one day while I was out of town, Jamie decided to be helpful and rebuild the storage piece and put it in the bedroom. While I appreciated the effort, it didn't really lend itself to any good use other than offering a new surface for the cat to sleep.

I describe all of this because I don't want to show you what a true disaster this room really is, but I'll show you a corner for a better visual.

Can you spot the cat?

To say the least, I'm over it. I want a space I can feel comfortable in, not one that embarrasses and overwhelms me. I know that having the room decorated to my liking won't keep it clean and organized, that's up to us, but I still think it's worth the effort to have a space you like being in.

Once upon a time when we owned our own place, I was happy to paint every room I could; green in our room, blue in Jamie's office, red in the guest bedroom, and orange in my office!

(note the aforementioned large metal wall hanging)

Looking back at those, they're not decorated how I would have liked, but at least the paint helps. And no, these spaces never stayed un-cluttered, but they looked nice when they were clean. This bedroom now, even when cleaned up, is just... blah. Unfortunately, we're now renting and cannot paint, so that's where decorating comes in.

Lately, I've been making and effort to make an effort to keep the common areas picked up. I'm home a lot more so I need to make the time to keep the house looking decent. It makes a big difference in how I feel, so why wouldn't I apply that to our bedroom just because no one else sees it aside from us?

So while I'm already pinning bedroom decor inspiration, my first steps are to get the room cleaned up and organized first. This means figuring out how to manage our laundry, setting up that cube storage thing in the closet and reorganizing all of that shiz, then at least for now putting the dust ruffle on the bed and making it every morning.

My goal is to document my progress here, so look for an update soon!

It's Bio-Enzymatic!

I believe I've already expressed how we have a hard time keeping a clean house. There are two things that really get neglected in this house: dusting and cleaning the tile floors. The former has always been acceptable to me. I'm never embarrassed of my dust or turned off by dust in other peoples' homes. The latter, however, I'm embarrassed about.

We've lived in this condo for almost two years now and I've only taken a rag to the floors a handful of times. Yes, a rag, on my hands and knees. Believe it or not, this is easier on my body than using a mop, which kills my back. Maybe that's why I only do it when my floor disgusts me. Anyway, the tile in this condo is grey slate, and not smooth. Dirt and dog hair are decently masked, but crumbs and baby powder and leaves from outside are another story. This tile is a major pain to clean.

My slate floor is kind of a jerk.

Jamie and I had finally had it with this floor and he resorted to Google to find the ideal way to maintain our tile. He came home from Home Depot with a micro fiber dust mop for grabbing all those li'l crummies and hair, a regular mop and bucket, a scrub brush (though that's for the carpets, a whole different story!), and some Rejuvinate Bio-Enzymatic Tile and Grout Cleaner.

This cleaning spray reads as miraculous. Basically, you spray it all over your tile and wipe it around to spread it evenly with a mop or a rag. (I used our new mop, duh.) Then you let it dry.

Wait, what?

Okay, so you let it dry then you wipe it off with a mop and clean water.

That's it.

Apparently, these super enzymes sit and clean and clean, then you wipe away what they've lifted off your floor. But see, when you wipe them away, it reactivates the enzymes leftover on the floor to keep cleaning. As a bonus, it supposedly "lightens and brightens" your grout with every use. It sounds just too easy; spray, wipe, dry, wipe, tada! (I guess that doesn't differ too much from cleaning floors the old fashioned way, but it sure seems easier to me.)

I can't quite tell you if this really is a miracle product, yet. I've just applied it to the kitchen and the guest bathroom and am currently letting it dry. I guess I'll have to keep you posted.

Now we just need to figure out how to get the stains out of the carpet from the other day when Chuck decided to hurk all over the dining room...