Documenting the Nesting Process

I'm so excited about preparing a haven of rest for our newest family member .... and for me of course! I've been looking around at 'nursery' ideas for a while now, and I've noticed a common theme emerging in the baby rooms that I like. I needed to plan a room that was gender neutral, but I wasn't interested in pastels, yellow or green. I wanted something different. So, here are my 'inspiration' images:

That second picture sends me into dreamland. It's gorgeous -- I love the organic, restful quality of the room. But, I also want to add a bit of childhood whimsy. So Evan and I decided (okay, I decided) that we would plan for a neutral and white nursery, with cherry red accents. Red is gender neutral, and just chic enough to please me, without being boring. I know I tend to be a little boring when it comes to decorating -- I just love neutrals! So having a colour was important.

Okay, enough inspiration: let's get down to reality. Here's what we have to work with!

While there's nothing majorly wrong with this room, there's nothing right with it either. It's just .... blah. And it had become the room for sticking all the stuff that we have nowhere else to fit. But all of that is changing. As I type, that room is almost completely empty, and we have taken the first step -- painting the walls (another blog post is coming).

So here's the grand plan:

1. Paint walls (almost done -- the enamel trim's been delayed)
2. Finish painting cot and changetable
3. Bring in a feeding chair with cushion
4. Recover my ottoman -- so excited about this
5. Find a suitable lamp with a dimmer function
6. Make a red birdie mobile to hang above cot
7. Knit a red cot blanket
8. Recover the change mat for the changetable in red
9. Sew 'baskets' to hang on changetable (very excited about this project)
10. Paint a bunch of photo frames a cherry red
11. Install blinds and breezy curtains
12. Track down/paint a dresser for baby's clothes so we can still use the built ins for other storage (we're woefully short on storage in our unit)

Phew -- I feel tired just thinking about it! But finally, we are beginning to move on this project and I can start checking things off the list. Weekends take so long to get here, and when they do, they're so short. This weekend I had a sick husband, sporadic contractions and the usual church commitments. It's a slow process -- 10 weeks to go!

Bringing something new to the table ... part 2

Here we go with the great reveal. So, I told you about our dining room table purchase here. Well this past weekend I toddled out to Bunnings to donate $210 to their profits. Only $23 of that was on paint for this project though! Evan requested that I paint the wood in a way that allowed the original tone to come through and I was all for that - it meant less work!

So, after a wonderful conversation with the delightful Bunnings paint men, I discovered that I could achieve my purposes using a tinted primer, diluted with turps. This I did! I did the painting in about 2 hours, and then sanded back the edges. We allowed it to 'air' overnight before putting it into our tiny unit with all those fumes.

I'm thrilled with the results. It's a tad 'whiter' than I thought it was going to be (I was looking for something a bit creamier) but overall, I'm so happy.

It feels so very grown up to have a full size table. Evan and I have been sitting at it, doing our devotions in the morning, having cups of tea. I can't wait to sew on this baby -- some room to cut things out!!

In other news ... Spotlight had a 20% off sale today and I bought some more delicious fabric for the nursery. My grand nursery plans are coming up next.

Tweaking ....

I'm playing around with the blog design at the moment -- don't worry, this icky green is NOT staying. I thought it would look different .... but I'm tired and need to go home. I wish I were more tech-savvy!

In the meantime, enjoy this pretty collection.

Bringing something new to the table...

As if we didn't have enough things going on in our lives .... below you see the little table that Evan and I have been eating off for the duration of our married life thus far.

Yeah, it's got glasses on it that I didn't bother moving and our sheets are drying draped over the chairs because it's about to rain (apparently). And I've gotta say ... I'm not crazy about the tablecloth. But the table cloth is a necessity. Because underneath lurks a sad tale of woe ...

Which I've attempted to cover up with paper towel and a piece of plastic. Let's delve even deeper ...

Yes my friends. That's an almighty CRACK! Despite one dinner guest suggesting that it's rather suggestive of my pregnant belly's power to break through glass, it's actually the result of my own stupidity. I was running out of bench space in our kitchen (a common occurrence) and placed a cake there to cool. All was fine for 5 minutes, then I heard this ominous sound and that crack was the result. Yikes! Sadly, it's not even our table! We were loaning it from Evan's sister and her husband for a while until we could be bothered getting something new.

When we were married, we set aside a bunch of our wedding gift money as "dining table" money. We knew we'd have to get one eventually, but kept putting it off until we moved somewhere a bit bigger. Now that that may no longer happen ... and that we only have a table that sits three people, we can no longer put off the inevitable.

So off to Harvey Norman we went this Saturday ... I'd seen on TV that "no reasonable offer" would be refused. That's what I like to hear. When we first walked in, I saw this beautiful suite:

Yeah I know. Especially with the hutch right!? I love it. I don't know if you spied the price tag though? $2700 for the table and chairs!!!!!!!!! While we had money set aside, we certainly didn't have that much.

However, we did spy this set:

No, it doesn't have the same wow factor, I know. But .... it was really solid wood, and only $700 and we offered $600 for it (Evan spent the rest of the day saying, "I should have said $550 or something even lower and then negotiated up). And, it's the same size and almost the exact same wood tone as the other suite I liked. Anyone know where I'm going with this?

Yup, we are painting our brand new, nothing-wrong-with-it dining suite to look like the $2700 one. At the most, we'll be spending $100 on paint, so for $2000 less, we're going to get the same look. Plus, the suite has "some" assembly required .... which basically means that I can paint the pieces separately, without having to worry about getting paint onto the nice wooden tone parts.

One more bonus? This set .... has turned wooden legs. The other one didn't. I love me some turned wood (sounds dirty, so isn't).

That's the plan for this weekend ..... can't wait. We already have a similar two tone look on our coffee table, and just you wait until you see the plans that I have for the hutch that's sitting in the garage. Oh the plans!! People, you won't BELIEVE what's in store in the coming weeks.

Some hints:

• Evan and I may or may not have just assembled some baby furniture, with grand plans
• Nursery painting
• Baby coathangers (it's way more exciting than it sounds)
• Baby sewing
• A hand made mobile
• Re-jigging our entire living space to fit 3 rooms into 2

I.CAN'T.WAIT.

Why do I have to go to work? Stay tuned.

I'm still around!

I realise I haven't posted in around a fortnight and this is beginning to look like another project that I started ... and didn't finish. However, I've been wanting to blog heaps, but there's a few obstacles in my way:
1. Open houses and inspections are taking up a LOT of our time at the moment (both having ours open and looking at other people's).
2. Having to keep our place tidy all the time doesn't fit in well with craft and sewing and splendid cooking.
3. I gave the sewing machine to my mother for a bit so she could finish sewing the quilt that was meant to be my 21st present (I'm 24 now).
4. My computer has a virus or something :-( So I'm posting this at work.

Selling the unit has been a rollercoaster that I can't even begin to describe. Despite us doing everything possible, things keep falling through and doors keep closing. We are about an inch away from giving up and staying in the unit. Last night I was having a panic attack about that ... how do you have a baby in a tiny 2 bedroom unit?

The biggest obstacle for me to overcome was mental: I feel like to be the person and the mother I want to be, I need space. Space for things like a deep freezer so I can make my own spaghetti sauce in bulk and freeze it. Space to sew a big project and leave it out overnight, instead of packing up my stuff every night off our already too small dining table. I have always wanted a beautiful home, filled with beautiful things.

But the truth is ... I don't need space like I think I need space. People all around the world raise entire families in places as big as, or smaller than our unit. Pictures like this ....

Just make me focus on my unglamourous brown kitchen ..... and the horrid interior brick wall. But I need to read articles like this. I am truly blessed. We own a unit. It has enormous bedrooms with built in cupboards. I have a separate room for a laundry (even if it's accessed externally). We have a yard (pics of that to come by the way .... once I have my computer back). It's in a beautiful area, just a short walk away from several parks.

Jesus, help me to be content.