Adelaide's Room: Finished!

I'm finally done with the little girl's room! I put finishing touches on it this morning, and breathed a sigh of relief knowing that whenever she decides to come, I don't have to worry about working on this room anymore! I am absolutely in love with every bit of it, and now I just wish that all our rooms looked this good! :)

[Entering the room. Rug from IKEA.]

[Bookshelves made from a vinyl gutter. New vibrating seat was a $5 Goodwill find!]

[Bamboo blinds from Lowe's. Curtains from IKEA. Wooden bike from Goodwill.]

[Shelves I've had for years.]

[Dresser from IKEA, with new knobs and changing pad on top. Cloth diapers, covers, handmade wipes, etc. are in the top drawer, while clothes are in the other two drawers. Wet pail to the left of the dresser. Tall mirror hung low so Adelaide can use it when she gets older. Dandelion decals from Target.]

[Mobile I made, inspired by the one found here.]

[This will be Adelaide's view when she's getting her diaper changed.]

[Closet doors, and door into room.]

[Martha Stewart alphabet cards. I love the vintage feel.]

[Knobs on closet doors, found at Hobby Lobby.]

[Gulliver crib from IKEA. $0.99 sheet from Goodwill.]

[Crochet blanket was a gift from a friend. I made the owl years ago, and the kitty is IKEA.]

[I made this bunting that hangs over the crib. If you flip it over, the other side says "I love you".]

[Closeup of the bunting. Both of these fabrics are being used in the quilt I'm making her.]

[Crib/bookcase corner.]

[Frame collage over bookcase. I made the paper collages in the five gray frames using scrapbook paper.]

[Hubby and I made this bookcase out of birch plywood. We put it together using dowel rods and no screws! We are very proud of it. It's very sturdy and stable, and will last years.]

[$5 piggy bank from Target, no longer sold.]

I can't wait to put little Adelaide in her room! I think it's made well enough so that it will grow with her. The crib converts into a toddler bed and will most likely stay where it is. The bookcase of course can hold so much more than it is now (we just don't have many toys yet). Books can be switched out in the gutter bookshelves. The changing pad can be removed and little girly things can be placed on top. And the closet is still practically empty and can hold tons.

I'm so happy with the way this room turned out! Total cost was around $500, but that includes all the big furniture, the wood to make the bookcases, and the tons we spent in paint samples! Not bad for a room that started off beige all over and completely different!

DIY Tutorial: Christmas Stockings!

This year, considering how we're getting an extra-special brand-new addition to our family, I wanted to do something extra-special for our Christmas stockings. (Well, that and because I like to make stuff.)

So I used some materials I had on hand, and whipped up a snazzy tutorial for you all to make this:

{It's SO easy, and it looks SO good!}

Materials:

• Fleece
• Water-soluble marking pen
• Scissors
• Wool felt (acrylic is fine too)
• Sewing pins

Optional: Tissue paper to create a stocking pattern.

Step 1: Lay out your fleece, and double it up so you can cut through two layers at once (makes it quicker). Use your water-soluble pen to draw a stocking shape. (Tip: If you're hesitant to mark directly onto the fleece, draw a pattern onto regular tissue paper, and pin that to your fleece.) Cut out your stocking.

Step 2: Grab your felt, lay it under the stocking, and trace the top of the stocking onto the felt. Before you trace, make sure you like how big the felt piece will be. This will replace that fuzzy white stuff on the traditional stocking. :) Cut out your shape, then trace it onto the remaining felt to make a second piece exactly the same size.

Step 3: Pin the felt pieces to the top of the fleece stockings. Notice I flipped one of my stocking pieces over, so that in the end, the felt will be on the correct outside part of the stocking, front and back. The felt may not fit perfectly, but that doesn't matter as long as it covers the fleece.

Step 4: Sew the top and bottom edge of the felt onto the fleece. Don't worry about the sides.


Step 5: Make snowflakes following this tutorial from The Purl Bee. I used the same felt as for the top of the stocking so the colors would match. I also didn't make mine double-sided since I'd be sewing it directly to to the stocking. Here you see the three snowflakes I made for our three stockings.

Step 6: Find the perfect placement of the snowflake on one of the stocking pieces (whichever you want to be the front) and pin in place.

Step 7: Sew that bad boy on! I just sewed along the 6 branches of the snowflake and didn't worry about all the little bits sticking off. It seemed secure enough with just that.

Step 8: Pin both stocking pieces right-sides together. Sew along all sides except the top, because you want Santa to be able to put in his treats, right? :)

Step 9: Before you flip it right-side out, trim any excess felt off. Otherwise, it'll make your stocking kinda bulky.

Step 10: Cut a long-ish rectangle from your felt. This is for the loop to hang the stocking.

Step 11: Place your rectangle onto the stocking like this, and sew it on, making sure to go over it a couple of times for reinforcement. Now you're done!

Step 12: Iron carefully, and then hang by your tree, fireplace, what-have-you! Here are all three of our stockings, finished and hanging!

Kevin gets the orange one, I get the teal, and our little lady will have the maroon. We each have our own, and they're each slightly different. The snowflakes are all individual and we each get our own color.

Please let me know if you make (or plan to) one of these! It's really not that hard... the most time consuming part is the snowflake, but only if you're obsessive like me and actually use a ruler to make sure each branch is exactly the same (like a true snowflake).

What do you think?

Freezer Meals

Yesterday I woke up early after only five and a half hours of sleep.


(I was tired.)


But I wanted to get up on my first real, official day of maternity leave and DO something. So I fixed a delicious breakfast of waffles and eggs and fakin' bacon for myself and the hubs before he left for work. And instead of crawling into bed for more sleep, I trekked to Walmart to do some major grocery shopping.


Then I came home and made a bunch of food that I can't touch for two weeks because I stuck it in the freezer specifically for when Adelaide gets here and the thought of cooking is beyond my mental capacity.


On the menu (sorry for the lack of pictures):

• 18 breakfast burritos - 9 sausage and 9 beef (all veggie meat of course). These are SO easy and quick and awesome for rushing around in the morning. Not to mention the insane amount of protein per burrito. I can post the recipe if anyone is interested.


• Spinach Lasagna. I haven't had this before but it looked mighty tasty. Lots of sauce and yummy cheese.


• Veggie Enchiladas. I'm really excited for this casserole dish. The enchiladas themselves have corn, spinach, black beans, and cheese. And of course I made the enchilada sauce, which actually looks, smells, and tastes like the enchilada sauce I remember from my favorite college-town Mexican place.


• Veggie Burgers. The recipe says it makes 4, but I got 6 out of it. I wrapped each individually and then bagged them up two in a bag so that they'd be good to take out for a dinner for the two of us. I don't know how these will taste, burger-wise, but the patties did smell good and the little bit that I did taste was yummy. But I don't think they'll be burgers.


• Pizza Bagels. I made 10 whole wheat bagel halves, topped with pizza sauce, cheese, and an assortment of toppings. And just like the recipe said to, I broiled until the cheese melted, let them completely cool, and then bagged them separately. They will be a quick fix (with about 8 grams of protein each, plus your calcium from the cheese) by just popping them in the toaster oven for a few minutes.

I even got the hubs to agree not to touch anything on that freezer shelf until baby Adelaide gets here. I figure while we have the time and energy to cook now, we should. Later when we're sleep-deprived, we don't want to regret heating up and devouring that delicious enchilada dish or munching on those pizza bagels.

All in all, for a day of cooking, I'm glad to have a freezer full of yummy, nutritous food on hand! Hopefully that'll help us in the first couple weeks not to call Dominos for their num-yummy white sauce, onion, and red bell pepper pizza. Maybe.

Quilt for Adelaide, part #1

I've set out to make a quilt for my baby girl.  I've never made a quilt before, but I saw this and decided I had to make one.  I think there's something endearing about a mother taking the time to make something for her child (at least, that's what I hope Adelaide will think!).  I'm sure there will be some snags in the road, but so far it's looking good. :)

I spent any free time I had at school/work cutting out the pieces.  In total there are 288 bits, but there are more that need to be cut (I'm thinking I need to add some rectangular pieces to finish out the edging, but I can share all that later!).

[Here are all the pieces stacked together.  It doesn't look like much, does it?]

[And fanned out so you can get an idea of the colors.  The lighting isn't the best in this photograph as it was taken with Kevin's cellphone, but you get the idea.  The really light piece on the right is actually a light turquoise.]

[I laid it all out (all 288 pieces) to figure out color placement.  I'm glad I did that because there ended up being a lot of switching things around until I was happy with what I had.  Again, the lighting isn't the best, but you get the idea!]

[And a close-up of the layout.  I love all these fabrics.  Some of them I've had forever (like the dark blue and the dark teal ones) but some of them are newer purchases from Hancock Fabrics... nothing special but it will match Adelaide's room very well!]

More updates on the quilt coming soon!

This book's going in the gutter! (Gutter bookshelf, that is...)

While working on Adelaide's room, I was trying to figure out what to do with a wonky-sized corner.  The wall facing the doorway has a window, but the window is not centered (drives me nutty!).  To the right of the window, we have the dresser and wet pail.

To the left, we had a 3-ft span.  I was originally wanting to do some sort of corner bookshelf/bench/cubby thing, but I realized when doing all the measuring and figuring, that the vent would either have to be covered up or blocked.  It is the only vent in the room so that's not an option.  I don't really want Adelaide to freeze in the winter or burn up in the summer.

So, after seeing lots of examples of this on other home/mommy/school blogs, I decided to make some bookshelves out of gutters!  I loved the idea for the simplicity of the look, the easiness of the project, and the cheapness of the whole thing.  

For $20, I was able to purchase the 10-ft vinyl gutter and 6 endcaps (3 left and 3 right) to create our three 3-ft long bookshelves.

After cutting them to size, with a bit of scrap left over, I sanded the pvc-like edges clean and attached the end caps.  I caulked along the inside of the caps to make sure they adhered really well and let them dry overnight.

The next day, Kevin and I measured exactly where we wanted them on the wall and found the studs so they would be nice and sturdy.  We predrilled holes in the gutters, and then screwed them into the studs, with a couple of other screws on the ends to add support.

Ta-da!

Adding books makes them look so fantastic, right?!  And the idea behind these gutter bookshelves is that Adelaide will see the fronts of the books, instead of just the spine, therefore being more interested in reading the books.  The first is only 18 inches off the floor, so definitely in her reach, when she gets to moving around.  Nicer books will stay on the top shelf, and Moma will have to pull those down for reading to her :)

We still plan on making another bookshelf/cubby piece of furniture out of birch plywood, but that's still a work-in-progress and will go on the wall to the left of these bookshelves.  This child already has a lot of books, and will surely collect many more (just like me!).

Busy Weekend! Painting the House...

One of the items on my "before baby" list is to paint the side of the house.  Right when I first got pregnant, before we really knew, my mom helped me to paint the front of the house (which is, like, 95% done).  

Then I got pregnant, then it was rainy all the time, then it was a hot, hot summer.  Now finally the weather is cool again and my nesting instinct has kicked in big time.  I've been tired of living in a two-toned house for the past 6 months, so this weekend with the perfectly cool weather, I broke out the painting supplies and did as much as I could without climbing a ladder.

This is what I got done.  The yellow is the old color, and that beautiful gray?  It's perfect.  My mom is coming up yet again this weekend to help Kevin finish that side.  It should be interesting as they are both somewhat afraid of heights and we don't have scaffolding or anything.  We'll see how it goes!

Of course, even if we finish painting this side, we still have the other side and the back of the house... but that can wait until next spring.  The reason why this side is so important to me to finish is because that's what people can see from the road... and it looks awful to have two different colors of house!  I want it to appear that the whole house is painted, even if it really isn't.

Woohoo for getting things done (even if it is little by little)!