Hunter's Nursery

I 'think' Hunter's nursery is finally done! It is finished enough to post pictures, but ideally we will add a few more decorative touches here and there. It was kind of hard because we have also been storing all of his baby goodies in his room so it appeared way more full than it actually was. I finally talked Tim into moving all of Hunter's supplies into the sitting area of our room and it really cleared out! Imagine having two strollers, a pack and play, a bassinet, a swing, and a bouncer all in a small bedroom and then removing them all at once! Here is our current bedroom situation:

I wanted something pretty simple, with a color scheme rather than a theme and if you know me, then it will come to no surprise that his color scheme consists of blues and browns. I say those plural because there are a few shades of blue and a few shades of brown all around then entire room. Somehow, green has snuck it's way in, so there are a few different shades of green in there as well! We wanted it boyish and not babyish.

Almost all of the picture frames are empty, but you can get the general idea! Once we get his newborn photos taken they will fill the frames, and take out some of the 'white space' from the walls! I love these frames from Cut It Out Already, but they took forever and a day to get them in! They also come unfinished, so Tim was out in the garage spray painting them for a few nights! They are a pretty porous material and soak in all that paint, it is hard to get a good coat on them. Now that they are here and hanging, I really want some more! If only I could get up the courage to try to distress the edges to show more of the beveled edges... the problem is that if you do one, you must do them all. What if I don't like it? What if they don't some out even? What if I mess up the paint job and Tim has to redo it? Decisions, decisions!

It also took some persuading on my part to get hubby to hang the pom pom balls, but I think it makes the ceiling seem a little less empty. They were from the baby shower, and I couldn't bear to just toss them out! I have seen so many nurseries with them hanging, and just had to give it a try! I wanted either three or five bunched in the corner, but Tim would only settle on hanging three. I know its a boy room, but he is a baby! He is not a 28 year old man like him.... not yet, anyways! Still not sure if they will stay, but they are hanging for now.

Here is the nursery for now:

Furniture: Baby's First Furniture (Brand: Natart----- took foreeeeevvvvveeeerrrrr to get in!)

Bedding: babybedding.com (retro owl)

White Frames: Cut It Out Already

Brown/Blue frames: Hobby Lobby

Cornice Box above window: Pier 1

Glider: Babies R Us 

Owl and Monkey: Pier 1

Marlin stuffed animal: gift from Grandma and Grandpa from Hawaii!

I love it and canNOT wait for him to get here!

Project Nursery: Day 3

I am SO excited right now! Hunter's furniture came in a whole six weeks early, and of course I begged and begged for Tim to pick it up as soon as possible!  It is even prettier and nicer than I remember, and I can't wait for more nursery goodies to arrive!

Here is a picture of the first thing to go up, the window cornice box and the curtains. We have had this up for a while, but I didn't want to put up a picture of just one tiny thing! Also notice that the crown moulding is all up, Tim and Jason did a wonderful job. It is amazing at how one little thing makes a huge difference in a room!

Tonight, we got the furniture assembled....

We also put the bedding in the crib...

And we (and here when I say 'we' I mean Tim...) moved the furniture around to all of the different configurations that the room would allow and decided where the furniture would go. I know that when he can stand in the crib, something needs to move, either the curtains or the crib, but for now this is where it is going...

On the wall across from the window is the door. To the right of the door is the nightstand (not pictured for some reason), and to the right of that, angled near the dresser/hutch will be the glider. We are waiting to order it because we are hoping for Babies R Us gift cards so that we can put it towards the glider/rocker. I know once we get it, I will probably sit in his room and imagine what life will be like in a matter of weeks, so it is probably good that it is not here yet, haha!

Now the question is... Where do I put the letters for his name? I ordered a set off of Etsy, and I am worried they are too large now. I am for sure thinking they are too large to center over the crib, which I already knew, but I was thinking they could be centered on the wall over his crib, but now that can't happen because the crib had to be a little closer to the window than I anticipated. I can put them over the hutch, centered on that wall, but that means I need something perfect to go above the crib since I have been thinking that area will have the name 'Hunter' sprawled across it for so long now.  Oh well, I guess that just means more Etsy shopping for me!

Also, I am totally aware that the wood on the window cornice box is many shades lighter than the furniture. I am thinking that when we get more wall decor up, it will look ok. I knew that it would be much darker, but the metal accents on the box almost match the furniture exactly so I thought it would flow.... Any thoughts?

Project Nursery: Day 2

Tim and I had already discussed what color the room was going to be the baby was a boy, so when we found out, we were both ready to go! We are using Thistle Blue by Martha Stuart. We LOVE this color, and get so many compliments on it! It is what we have in our master bedroom. I actually love pretty much all Martha Stuart paints, and I used a different color in my 'craft room' (would be girl's room if thats what we were having). I went to one Home Depot, and they said they were out of Martha Stuart flat paint, but didn't bother to tell me why. I just left because if we were going to need to touch up our master bedroom, I wanted to formulas to match the best that they could. I went to another Home Depot the next day, and they told me that I was getting the last 2 out of 3 cans that they had left, and he explained that they are getting rid of Martha Stuart paint. I love the colors, though! He said they will still have the colors, but mix them with Behr paints. People love the colors, but don't want to pay almost $30 per gallon. He said they were on sale, and he thought they were $17 per gallon, which is fine, but when I got to the register they were only $12 per gallon! Score!

We wanted to paint it over the Christmas holiday, so that it would be done. I have off work, but since I can't help paint, that does no good! Instead, while Tim was painting last night, I went through all of my unused/leftover craft items. I am really bad about starting a project and not finishing, so I had this huge gathering of Hobby Lobby bags. Each one contained bits and pieces of projects past. I was able to get a bag together of things to donate, while still keeping what I thought I could use.

Here is what I worked on..... In then end I used about 20 gallon sized ziplocks, each
sorted and labeled! Then I went through and picked out what I knew I wouldn't use
again.... and then through a second time, and picked out what though I probably
wouldn't use again! This will all get donated to my dad's store!

Tim worked on painting, but sadly..... didn't finish. I woke up this morning to see that the majority of the walls are done, basically what you can do with a roller. He started the trim work, but his paintbrush was a little messed up so it made it difficult. I will buy another brush ASAP and hope he gets back to work at the same pace, lol! Not that I am upset that it's not finished, but its kind of annoying walking into a room and seeing SOME paint, but obviously not finished paint!

Here is a picture of Project Nursery: Day 2

Starting to paint! The color is Thistle Blue by Martha Stuart. They are discontinuing
Martha Stuart paint, so I go this at 12 bucks a gallon! We've had this color picked
for months!

In the meantime, Tex wanted to be in BOTH of our rooms, so we moved this tiny rubbermaid bucket to block him in. The great things about Great Danes is that they don't usually like to test 'natural barriers', so he never thought about jumping, or for that matter.... walking, over the bucket. He just felt defeated and slept on the other side of it!

This little blockade was enough to keep him out!

Hopefully I can report a fully painted room very soon! After the paint comes crown moulding!

Project Nursery: Day 1

The room that we decided to use for the nursery is what is currently being used as a storage room. There was a full set of queen sized bedroom furniture, my summer/winter clothes (trading off depending on the season), all of our wreaths, my wedding dress, suitcases, unorganized craft stuff, and various other boxes. This is also the only room in the house that has managed to stay untainted from the canine roomies that we have living here! Once the Christmas season rolled around and I finally got into the mood the decorate a little bit, all of the Christmas boxes soon became part of the decor as well.

My parents helped us by offering to take the bedroom furniture. It was mine since I was about 13 or so, I helped pick it out, and aside from my parents bedroom set, I was the only child that had an actual matching set of nice furniture. It survived who knows how many college apartment switches, and we really felt that it should stay with the family! Tim and Jason (his best friend, sister's husband, and our across the street neighbors) loaded up the set and headed to my parents' storage unit. This helped a ton!

Next, Tim and I went through and really assessed what we wanted to keep and put away, and what we could donate. We loaded up about 7 garbage bags full of donation items and headed to one of my dad's store's drop boxes for donation. This really got things consolidated!

Then, we sent the suitcases up to the attic and stacked the Christmas storage boxes in one general area. In a few weeks, these should be gone!

On the list of immediate things to be done to help the clutter:

Send wedding dress to get cleaned and preserved
Go through craft stuff and organize/donate and out away in actual craft room
Send storage boxes to the attic


And that's basically it! The wedding dress isn't even taking up any room in the actual room, we just want it boxed and out of the room.

I didn't have the foresight to capture the true 'before' on camera, but here is what happened after Project Nursery: Day 1....

Baby Buys: Number One

I am so excited to start purchasing some items for our baby boy! One of the many perks to being a teacher is the appreciation that you get. During Christmastime, teachers usually a few gifts, and this year my parents went above and beyond! One made an amazing homemade craft kit with a picture of me with her twins, some made baked goods, and a lot bought gift cards for me (mostly for Target!), so when I happened to have just the right amount of gift cards for an adorable Pack-and-Play, I thought, "What the heck, let's start this thing!"

Today I purchased the Pack-and-Play that I have had my eye on for a while. It is by Graco and in the print Meadow Menagerie. It is boy-ish, not too gender neutral, but not baseball batty or anything. I usually don't go gender neutral, and that wasn't my goal here, but this is definitely cute enough to go with a girl. Let's put it his way though, if we were having a girl, this would NOT be the one that I would choose!

Tim doesn't want to set it up until we paint the nursery, but here is a picture of the print and the set up:

Cute, right? I am going to end up registering for the matching travel system (stroller, car seat, and base). There is also a diaper bag! I tried to buy it today, but it was gone :( I went to the store a few days ago when I originally saw it, but today it was sold out! I hope it isn't too much of a hot item! 

I have also been going a little crazy purchasing baby clothes for our little man. Actually, those are the clothes that I like the best, little man clothes! Here, let me show you:

This came from Baby Gap 

Another Baby Gap 

Love these onesies with jeans! 

A also found some adorable track suits from TJMaxx! The grey and green
one also has sock that match!

 The last thing is something that I am so excited about! It could go anywhere in the house, really, but I thought of it specifically for the nursery. It is going to be used as a window cornice box above his window, and then I will also hang drapes. Here is a picture from the website:

The wood is a little lighter than the wood for the nursery furniture that we chose, but the iron accents will bring in the dark element so that it will kind of match. I don't want his whole room to be dark-ish!

There are a ton more baby clothes, but I can't take a picture of all of them, that is for sure. Let's just say, his closet is getting filled!

Tomorrow, I am going fabric shopping with Jamie. I am not sure if I want to take on the task of making my own nursery bedding yet, but I do want to make a rag quilt for the bedroom, and to go on the toddler bed in a couple of years. Plus, I think it would be very special to have something made with love by mommy.