La Chambre de Notre Petit Prince

I have had this post in draft form for a couple of weeks now.  Sorry for the long wait, but every time I sat down to finish typing about the nursery I felt compelled to post something else (we've had an eventful couple of weeks with a fake broken ankle and new car).  I promised I would get it up though before we have the Hamiltot~ so here it is!

A reading nook for the little man~ We filled the bookshelf with framed cards with cute pictures from baby showers until he has a bigger library.

Baby and I can rock together while Pops (aka Kyle) plays music for us on his guitar or banjo.

Someday soon this will be where our baby lays his head to rest.  We snagged this great crib (mattress included) off craigslist for a mere $75!!  It was the steal of the century.

All of baby's friends are waiting for him to join them in this fun room.  I'm not sure if I've posted a picture of the tiger painting before, but Kyle did that as a middle schooler.  He seriously can do anything he puts his mind to, and it seems to always have been the case.

A place to change dirty pants and learn the alphabet

My mom cross-stitched this pretty prayer which we thought would be best over his little bed.  We love it!

It's no fancy boutique nursery, but we think we'll be quite happy spending time here with our little man.  It's filled with lots of homemade and fixed up things so we'll always be glad that his little room has such personal things made just for him.  It's officially week 39!  Be praying this week we get to meet him!

Inspiration & Application

So my friend Maria recently invited me to this website, Pinterest, where you can save pictures from things all over the internet and categorize them into topics like books & travel & food.  I was delighted by all the fun things my friends share there and realized this would have been a very helpful resource a few months back when I was snatching images from all over to help me with the baby room.  As it is, I have a bunch of pictures and no referring websites to give proper credit to their sources.  Anywho, enough with the chatter.  Want to see how things have come together?

This is baby's bedding~ lots of circles and bright colors that led us in our decor decisions.

The Rocking Chair~ This was by far the biggest project in the nursery.  We received a wonderful rocker from Kyle's family that was aching for some new upholstery.  Here's how it started:

Silly me~ this is the best picture I have of it from before the transformation.  It's behind the clashing pillow.  Merry Christmas & Happy It's a Wonderful Life.

Kyle stripped it down to reveal what was beneath....

We needed some inspiration for this chair.  After a little sleuthing online, here are the two looks that appealed the most~

I'm not sure if you can tell, but this love seat shares the similar duck head armrest feature.  I liked the velvet look with white trim, but red wasn't the right color.

The brown and white rocker here is obviously a lot more contemporary than ours, but since we were going with a circle theme for the nursery, I liked the colors and the paper lanterns above.

Kyle then sanded it really well, and we painted it in our living room while enjoying the Ken Burns Civil War series on PBS.  What ought to have been the highlight of the transformation was not recorded with my camera.  Shame on me.  My little sister, Miss Foo, and Kyle reupholstered the chair with a brown canvas and all new stuffing.  Lastly, Kyle and I hot glued a velvety trim to cover the rough edges and staples.

The Bookshelf~ We inherited a rickety little bookshelf from my parents.  It was not the most attractive thing with stains all over it.  I've used it for years (since I was in college).  As a testament to how ugly it was, there are really no pictures of it on my computer with the exception of this....

See it in the corner on the right side of the page?  This was right after we moved in.  Also, note the brown-framed pushpin board next to it.  It was recently transformed, too.

Kyle reinforced it's loose joints with some nails and wood glue.  We gave it a few coats of fresh white paint, but I wanted to make it a bit more special.  How about a background color?  Inspiration~ (this one I know for sure was from Young House Love)

 We picked out an apple green paint sample from Home Depot (only a couple of dollars) that went with the green in our baby bedding.  After a few applications, here's what we have...

Wall Art~Remember the pushpin board from above.  I wanted to make it into something a bit fancier for wall art since the nursery is big and has a lot of bare space to be filled.  Inspiration~

I saw this cute idea for button topped pushpins....

...then I saw this cute button art (probably on etsy).

I painted the frame white (lots of white paint in this nursery), had my little sister cut and whip stitch a big piece of brown velveteen for me, and superglued buttons to push pins.  I printed off an "H" in a fancy font off the computer to use as a template to have as the center ("H" is for Hamilton or Hamiltot or Hamboy~ whatever you like really).  I am terrible at pictures and couldn't prevent the buttons from glaring in each picture.  This is the best of several (can I blame my camera?)....

I wrote about this before, but I'm not sure I showed my inspiration (a pillow from etsy) for baby's watercolor.

My painting with colors to suit the room.

Since I enjoy a little needlecraft from time to time, I wanted to do some fun & easy projects for more wall art.  Here's my inspiration...

This is the idea I wanted to follow~ felt & thread designs framed in the hoop.

More birds~ I really think they are so cute!

After seeing these pillows, I wanted to apply them to the hoop framed look with my own colors.  Here's what I did~

Kyle and I are really happy with the projects we did to prepare for the little one's arrival.  In the coming days, I'll reveal the whole nursery to you.  Since this is a long post, it's time to call it a day and enjoy dinner with my sweet husband.  Only 3 weeks to go!  As Austrians are known to say to babies, hasta la vista!

Here, There, Everywhere

Still feeling scatterbrained these days... So this entry shows some of what we've been up to.  Kyle gave me a lovely bird feeder for Mother's day, and it has been wonderful to have so many avian visitors (mostly cardinals, titmice, and chickadees if you're curious).  Well, the blessings come with a curse~ squirrels.  I had left the bag of bird seed on the porch.  A crafty little squirrel ripped into the bag and feasted on our seeds almost entirely unnoticed.  When I did spot him, I fussed like crazy.  Greedy little rodent...

The cutie bird feeder mounted by our t.v. antenna

The aftermath of that squirrel's binge

Caught in the act!  We need some sort of Gandalf to ward off these sneaky snackers a la "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

As I mentioned recently, Kyle and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Monday.  It was excellent because Kyle had the day off work.  I love being married to him; he is such a good man and we have the best time together.  He's so smart, thoughtful, cute, fun, social, godly, and kind.  I love that we run together (well....not currently) and that he loves to cook and bake and that we enjoy being together in large groups of friends or just the two of us at home.  Being married is such a blessing~ there is no relationship like it.  He belongs to me and I belong to him; we get to be the best representatives of Christ's love to one another.  I think God spoiled me by giving me Kyle; I hope to be as good to him as he is to me.  Here's a little now & then....

Day 1 of marriage~ vows were just spoken and I became a "Mrs.".  I love how Kyle snuck his hand into my bouquet to hold my hand.

Day 365 of marriage~ we got fancy to see a play, but not before posing for a picture on our narrow porch in France.  I picked out that dress especially for our anniversary; oh how I wish I could wear it now.

Day 730 of marriage~ Kyle has his whole little (or big, depending on your perspective) family on his lap.  We were a lot more casual this year spending the day at my parents' house reading lots, watching Food Network, and napping.

A couple of French lifestyle things came up this week.  We have friends who receive a share of fruits and veggies from local farmers who sell their goods weekly at outdoor markets.  We were offered their helpings from two different farmers' markets~one in Chamblee and one here in Norcross.  Well, we only ended up collecting the Norcross one (thanks Rusty & Kirsten!)  Why is this like France?  We went to markets and even a nearby farm to collect fresh produce to enjoy what was in season.  Here's our plunder!

Leafy greens, yummy potatoes, baby carrots, and a very tiny onion~ how cute!

Another French thing (for me) is being artsy.  We didn't want to put holes in our dorm room walls in France, but they were too white and bare to hang nothing.  I ended up painting (admittedly very amateur) water colors and using putty to fill our home with some color and life (I shouldn't fail to mention that my students & card senders also filled our walls with art).  I haven't painted anything since we came home from France; we really haven't even found placed in our apartment for the paintings I did abroad.  For lil Mr. Hamilton's nursery I wanted to make something cute especially for him.  I copy pretty much everything I ever paint so no originality points for me, but I ended up feeling pretty happy about my cute recreation....

Colorful birds in a blue tree to match his nursery colors

I couldn't overlook my sweet husband; he deserved a little watercolor.  I copied this little piece from a card I saw in Southern Living.  I think it's too cute!

Little lemons love to lock lips!

If I haven't gone all over the place already in this entry, let's do one more random thing.  Ready to see my pregnancy progress?  Baby boy is growing right on track according to our OB visit last week.  We are officially going ever two weeks!  Eek!  He'll be here in no time!

29 weeks~ can we really get any bigger?

This baby enters every room before I do.

There you have it!  My thoughts and pictures are more scattered than Waffle House hash browns.  Hope you are having a wonderful start to June!

March Plaidness & Kid Gloves

It's finally time.  If you haven't heard it through the grapevine, you're patience today will be rewarded!  Kyle and I are expecting....A BOY!!!!  We have no names picked out just yet, but around these parts he is affectionately known as little Mr. Hamilton.  He's growing right on track and has a very large stomach/belly for his age.  If you've done the ultrasound thing before, you'll know what I mean when I say his belly is 5 days ahead of his perfectly on time head.  No wonder I've been so hungry!  As for said ultrasound pictures, I love seeing my friends' babies in utero.  However, for me I'm not ready to share my womb with the world.  There will be plenty of pictures of the little man in good time.  I did snap some shots that don't relate with our anatomy to share with you...

Just in time for March Plaidness, Aunt Kelly (Kyle's twin sister) picked out this little number.  I'm already envisioning this one being his Christmas eve church outfit.  Stylish Kyle thought a small sweater vest would be the icing on the cake for this look.

Newborn shoes!!!  Did you even know they made shoes for newbies?  These were a gift from (yet-to-be-dubbed-with-grandparent name) Susan, Kyle's mom.

Now that you've seen some of lil Mr. Ham's wardrobe, feast your eyes on a sample of his colorful bedding.  These colors and circles are the theme for our nursery.

This last little section doesn't have much to do with the baby exactly.  The cold weather made me pull out my winter running clothes again.  I had found a pair of white mittens at my parents' house in my old bedroom while we were moving last fall.  They have become my go-to's for frosty days~nothings worse than having hands so cold they feel brittle.  Well after my run today, I determined they were quite grungy and needed a whirl in the laundry machine.  I guess I shouldn't have tossed them in the dryer because this is what I got....

They are now tiny little mittens.  No amount of stretching can return them to their former state.

For a little perspective, the wrist-ribbing to the finger tips is smaller than my hand.  Hand-me-downs for my little baby man?  Sure...

I guess I haven't mastered the art of laundry.  So much homemaking to conquer before mothering joins the mix...