Baby B's Woodland Nursery!

It's DONE! The nursery is done!


It has been so much fun planning, creating, and watching my vision for the nursery come together. One of the things I worried about at first when not finding out the baby's gender was what to do with the nursery, but even if I knew one way or another THIS is exactly what I would have done. There are so many homemade and personal touches in there that I love and make it so special, and it's easily my favorite room in the house. Again, here is my post on The Nursery Plans, and without further ado, here is the reveal:

Keely says, "Welcome!"

My favorite part of the room - the wall decal

Mobile

Bedding

Storage shelf with boxes for toys

A woodland nursery wouldn't be complete without Forest Friends! It's been hard keeping Keely away from these toys...

Nursing/Reading Corner

Other corner of the room

(Wreath on door handmade by my dear friend Bridget as a decoration from my Woodland Baby Shower)

Changing Area

Carefully selected wall art, baby pictures of Tyge and me, my shower invite, Petrie's first picture, and of course the deer head - made by my mom as a joke for Tyge a few years ago when the head fell off one of her Christmas decorations!

Cute accents

The view from the nursing chair - I'll be looking at this sight a lot!

And Keely IS excited for Petrie's arrival, really, she is! :)

A special thanks to:

-My dear husband for painting the room, helping me sand and paint the dresser, installing the white ceiling fan, and making and putting up the window valance box and blackout shades.

-My Momma for helping me put up the wall decal (that took 12 hours), furnishing the deer head that she had no idea would end up in her future grandchild's nursery, and picking out the perfect lamp.

-My mother-in-law Joen for sewing the changing pad cover and box liners to match the bedding.

Other Room Resources:

Paint: Behr Rejuvenate

Wall Decal: Lewa's Designs on Etsy

Crib: Graco Lauren from Walmart

Bedding: Southern Charm Quilts on Etsy

Crib Mobile: Tweet Toys on Etsy

Horizontal shelf & wall bookshelves: Ikea

Chair: Slumberland

Lamp: Marshall's

Blackout Shade (not shown used): Blindster

Curtains: Target

Dresser: Craigslist

Diaper Caddy: Babies R Us

Wall Art: Etsy (here & here)

Ceramic birds & squirrel statue: Patina

Owl Nightlight: Lamps Plus

Everything is ready for you Petrie, and I am SO excited to bring you home to your new room! I even have an outfit all picked out for you to come home in:

Fox hat with removable flower from Etsy

Just please wait to make your arrival on a day your Dad is home, okay? :)

Love,

Your excited and anxious Mom!

Nursery Plans!

I know I've alluded to it in a few posts, but I am SO excited about our nursery "theme" and can't wait to get things going in there. Now that we have an almost cleared out room, we'll be doing things slowly over the next few months. I want to try to have it mostly done a month ahead of time as I know friends who have had babies early (I myself was 5 weeks early!) or been put on bed rest at the end, so couldn't finish things. Not that it NEEDS to be done before the baby comes, but I'd LIKE it to be. :)

Anyway, since we're not finding out the gender I knew we needed neutral nursery colors and theme (I wasn't about to wait until baby was actually here to start decorating - the planning and prep work is half the fun!). As far as colors go that was an easy choice - "my" colors have always been sage green, chocolate brown, and white, from my high school bedroom to our wedding colors:

I just love that color combo and think it's perfect for a boy or a girl. As far as the theme goes, I found the below bedding set awhile back and loved the idea of trees, deer, squirrels, birds, and other woodland animals. I was originally going to get this set, but decided it was a bit too "matchy-matchy" and wanted to have more basic bedding with woodland accents elsewhere - this was a good starting inspiration anyway:

So here are some other inspiration photos of ideas of gathered here and there, and items I've ordered. The room will be pained a sage green, we'll have white furniture (crib, dresser & shelf), and a chocolate brown rocker/recliner chair.

Wall decal

Bedding

Crib Mobile

Chair

I bought a dresser like this off Craigslist that Tyge will paint white, and we'll use that as a changing table

We'll also do a frame gallery above it, filled with the artwork I've ordered from Etsy below:

I love this popular Pinterest idea of using this Ikea shelf as a horizontal storage unit - it'll go under the window with storage baskets underneath, and a patterned cushion on top:

And a few woodsy accent ideas:

So there you have it - my ideas for our woodland themed nursery! I may wait to do some of the accent pieces until baby is here so I can get more feminine or masculine ones. I can't wait to see it all come together in the actual room over the coming months. Of course, it will be even more complete come 8/24 when there's a little one in there! :)

Nesting begins - The LIST!

I am behind on blogging once again, whoops... All is well in my world, just been so busy getting back into "life" since the trip. I still need to finish blogging Puebla days 6-10 before it gets too late, which it almost is...Stay tuned on that one - I WILL do it by next weekend!

Because Tyge and I had the mission trip to prepare for, we didn't really focus on anything baby before we left and have slowly started to since adjusting to being back home. Now that we're over halfway there (21 weeks - when did that happen?!) it's time to start tackling the "Before Baby List"! Yes, I made a list. I had a million things swirling through my head about what needed to be done so I made a list, which helped my OCD brain get organized. This is in no way a finalized list and it's in no particular order - just things we need to get done between now and D-Day.

Before Baby (8/24) Checklist!

• Get eating on track – including more iron
• Start exercising – 2x/week (walking & weights)
• Plan a Babymoon
• Research Natural birth (read Ina Mays Guide & Bradley books)
• Sign up for baby classes (childbirth, baby care, nursing)
• Merge office into guest room & reorg that room:
• Break down & donate corner desks
• Buy new desk (Craigslist)
• Clean & move bookshelves
• Nursery decor:
• Paint walls (pick out sage green paint after bedding comes in May)
• Buy & apply wall decal
• Changing table frames & art
• Mobile, lamp, woodsy accents, etc.
• Curtains / changing pad cover / rug / other textiles

• Nursery furniture:
• Buy crib
• Chair from Mom & Dad
• Sand/paint dresser (Tyge)
• Buy Ikea long window shelf & wall bookshelves

• Achieve organization:
• Garage
• Storage room
• Workout room
• Kitchen cabinets – room for baby things

• Register for shower gifts
• Start researching maternity leave
• Register for daycare
• Write a basic will
• Finances - finalize a long term savings plan, pay off Acadia, revamp budget
• Tour St. John’s & pre-register with the hospital
• Prepare a basic birth plan 
• Make Freezer Meals (2 weeks worth)
• Buy necessary baby supplies/gear we didn’t get from showers (i.e. car seat & stroller)
• Install car seat and 2 bases
• Pack hospital bag/cooler & make day-of arrangements for Keely
• Wash baby clothes/blankets

So last weekend and last night we tackled one of the items on the list - merging the guest room/office to make room for the nursery!  For awhile now, I've envisioned in my mind moving the guest bed into the existing office and rearranging furniture in there, having Tyge paint the walls the blue color. This would leave the guest room open for the nursery, which would also need to be painted (sage green). Tyge and a few others I'd told about my "plan" asked if the nursery could go in the office instead, with the office furniture moved into the blue guest room, so two rooms didn't need to be painted. Not that he would have minded, but he had a point. It took a bit of time and thinking (as well as playing around with this awesome virtual layout tool) but I realized it did make more sense to have the nursery in the existing office room for a few reasons.  I had to be flexible (something I'm not the *best* at when it comes to my plans) and adjust my original nursery layout, but this way works great as well! He will have to switch out the fans, however, so the white one is in the nursery instead of that nasty brass one.

Office with 2 giant (unused) corner desks and 2 bookcases - now the nursery to be!

Old photo of guest room - new bedding now and white dresser (that will go in nursery closet)

Crappy cell phone pic of the combo room

Shot #2

I plan to get an actual desk chair instead of a stool, and Tyge will need to fashion some sort of risers for the desk legs as it's a kid's desk and his knees don't quite fit, haha! Gotta love a Craigslist deal, though! I've never really hung photos or artwork in here as I knew it was a transitional room, so I'm excited to personalize the room a bit. We still have some things to clear out of the old office room and put into the desk drawers, etc, but it the combined space looks even better than I thought it would! I can't wait to get the nursery 100% cleared out so we can start doing things in there - THAT's the room I'm excited to decorate!!!

Weekend Recap - "The Pit" is gone!

Happy Sunday evening! I'm sitting here watching the Golden Globes red carpet and catching my breath a bit. I need to go grocery shopping in a bad way so tonight's dinner for me was homemade sweet potato chips and frozen yogurt (not together!) - an interesting combo, but tasted good!


We had a great weekend, starting with our "Nuts" group with Betsy and Eric and Lori and Josh. We call it Nuts because we share life in a nutshell and catch up before diving into whatever book we're reading or splitting into guys and girls time. I love these friends and it was so nice to catch up! Yesterday was the first Saturday at home in awhile that I didn't have to clean before a party or didn't have a mile long to-do list so we took full advantage of that and slept in, ate a nice brunch, cuddled Keely and lounged around. We finally got moving early afternoon to get ready for date night. One of Tyge's New Year's resolutions was to do a date night outside the house once a month - I love that!

We started out by going to Dock 86 (a furniture warehouse place near our house) to look for a new basement sectional to replace "The Pit". Tyge's parents bought The Pit when they were first married 30ish years ago and it made it through all their moves, two growing boys, pets, and all that goes with having a family! Then Tyge had it in his bachelor pad for 5+ years where the poor Pit endured even more. When we got married we used it in our rental house basement and I got to pretty it up with some pillows and throws - it worked great! It followed us to our current house and proudly sat in the basement where it was used for many a movie night, overnight guest, video game session, etc. The Pit is an 11-piece totally modular sectional that is still so comfortable to this day, and they just don't make furniture like it anymore! We've looked at a few places and needed something very specific to fit the basement layout and face the giant movie screen, so we didn't think we'd find anything at Dock 86. There are literally a million sectionals there so it was a bit overwhelming, but a rich chocolaty leather sectional stood out right away. Tyge liked that it had power recliners and consoles for beverages during gaming and I liked that it was comfortable, would match the "rustic" basement feel, and would resist dog hair more than cloth. SOLD! Next we had to find a matching leather couch for under the window, which proved harder to do. Matching leather (colors, textures, stitching, etc.) is hard, but we finally found a couch that complimented the sectional perfectly. They were able to accommodate next day delivery so we got it today - pictures to come, but back to date night!

After Dock 86 we headed into downtown Minneapolis and stopped at The Depot for some indoor ice skating. I hadn't skated in who knows how long, and it was so scary/fun/exciting to step out onto the ice! Just like in a movie, Tyge and I held hands and went around the rink a time or two. That lasted a few minutes, then he was off ahead of me showing off his hockey moves. We were planning on an hour plus of skating but our feet hurt after about 45 minutes - skating is no joke!

Such a cool place in the middle of the city - there's views of Minneapolis through the glass windows all around

We left there and went to dinner at Sanctuary Restaurant, which was amazing! it's right underneath our favorite sushi place (Wasabi) so we've been near it several times but never inside. It's a quaint little place with no more than 15 tables, so a very intimate setting. Tyge had the special of steel head trout with lobster mashed potatoes and I had roasted duck breast and Belgian waffles with a pomegranate sauce (their upscale version of chicken and waffles they said!). The food was amazing, service was also very good, and I really enjoyed their atmosphere. All in all, a great place to dine in Minneapolis! We went home to sit in The Pit one last time and watched Moneyball (awesome movie BTW). It was a great date night indeed and I am so thankful for a hubby who makes those a priority!

So today we had out new couch delivered and it was bittersweet to say goodbye to The Pit, but it's been a long time coming. Here's some pics of the new couch with comparison to the old - we'll miss The Pit for memories sake, but we love the look and feel of the new setup!

 The good old Pit - doesn't look 30 years old at all!

 The new setup - power recliners not activated. ;) It even has spots to hide the remotes and Xbox controllers - perfect!

 The Pit sectional part

New sectional part

 The pit "couch" part

New couch

This was a bit of a tough transition for Keely girl as she was allowed on The Pit anytime she wanted (but not upstairs furniture) so she assumed the same went with the new couch, right? We didn't want her nails to ruin the new leather so are allowing her on the chaise part on a blanket only - doesn't look like she minds too much. :)

I also had a nice lunch today with my new fitness accountability buddy (Hi, Leah!) - a girl I went to middle and high school with and haven't really seen since, but we recently connected over our fitness goals and are helping each other to reach them! As I've learned is the case in many areas of life, accountability is key! So there you have it - our nice little weekend at home...

NYE Pajama Party

It's not what you think - not THAT kind of pajama party! So two years ago when we had just moved into our house, we hosted a small NYE dinner party for some couples. My fabulous friend (and hairstylist!) Katrina suggested the attire of the evening be pajamas/comfy clothes and it was awesome. We had a great time that year, despite our oven breaking midway through cooking dinner and having to run over to the neighbors to use theirs (thanks again Karla and Mike!). Last year Tyge and I headed to a different friend's cabin in Alexandria for a weekend away with another set of couples we love, and this year we were torn as we didn't know how we should ring in 2012! In the end, we decided to host a party this year and went with the PJ attire again. I also did a "Vices" theme, where I had different stations set around the house for people to indulge in their vice of choice before giving it up for the New Year.

Entryway decor

Dining room

Blowers as a centerpiece

 Vice #1: Food

 And this is only half the food, before others brought their apps! We had a delicious spread!

Vices #2 & #3: Sweets and Caffeine

Heading downstairs

(my OCD got the best of me and I kept trying to straighten those strings out all night long...I finally gave up and let them be tangled)

 Vice #4: Gambling

(oddly enough we didn't actually play poker, but used the table to play board games)

 Vice #5: Drinking Games

 Vice #6: Video Games

 Vice #7: Swearing

(I didn't really intend for the swear jar to be used, it was more for decoration)

 Vice #8: Alcohol

 The bar all decked out for NYE!

We had a champagne punch (N/A as well since half my friends are pregnant) and other drinks with mixers

Even Bucky was decked out for the occasion! (Tyge was less than thrilled with this haha)

 Beer pong in action

The boys playing Call of Duty, of course :)

 While others played board games!

This is where Keely spent most of the evening - such a good girl

This picture doesn't even do our PJ's glory, but it's the best shot - I had an adult onesie zip up with bunny feet, and Tyge was wearing fleece pants with labs on them and his camo Snuggie worn backwards as a cape!

Happy New Year from us goobers!

A lot of people left before midnight (again, half my friends are pregnant!) but those of us that were left watched the ball drop of the big screen, toasted to 2012, and blew our obnoxious horns loudly. We ended the evening playing a few rounds of Scene It before calling it a night. It was such a fun evening and I was so thankful to have our friends join us to ring in the new year.

All in all, my little 10 day vacation has been awesome - it's going to be so hard to return to work and a normal schedule tomorrow! That being said, off to bed I go. Happy New Year, all!

**Thanks for taking some of these pictures, Bridget!