Goodies for Baby Boy

It's another Sunny Saturday!  I hope it's sunny and beautiful and warm where you are today.  We are soaking up one of those three adjectives and beautiful is it.  Our fridge is fixed after living without it for a few days this week and that piece of stainless steel in the corner of the kitchen with it's cool insides is one of the most beautiful things my eyes have laid eyes on in awhile.

I have been in hyper nesting mode all week and have been gathering and adoring all the sweet items I have picked up for Baby Boy.  His room is almost complete and I am loving having time to organize and clean and wash and put everything in it's place.  (Thank you to Bob our builder for getting done a month early, not that he would ever, ever read this.)

If you are in the Omaha or Lincoln, Nebraska area and have littles, you should know about Oh So Vera. They are a small clothing company that specializes in baby and toddler clothing that is fashionable and functional...and also ridiculously soft.  Lily wore one of their twirl dresses for Christmas and I couldn't resist ordering these dapper leggings for Baby Boy to wear after he makes his arrival.  They are monumentally soft and will go with so many different tops.  I just love them.

Another one of my favorite things are these onesies from H&M.  They are soft and simple and, again, will go with almost any pair of pants I want to throw on with them.  I will probably be heading back there for more when our sweet boy grows out of these.

After two babies, I finally learned my lesson about hanging picture frames above the crib.  I have fought the urge to hang anything above the crib because eventually that sweet, helpless baby will grow into a toddler who will try and tear those beautifully hung frames off the wall.  My friend, Annie, had the smart idea of putting decals on the wall in her baby boy's room and so, of course, I totally copied her. These wall decals are so easy, I literally hung them in ten minutes.  I have plenty left over, so I am debating doing another wall as well.  I am all about simple and easy.

This swaddle and hat is the sweetest from Lynn and Liv Swaddle.  It's buttery soft and I know our little man is going to look super handsome all wrapped snug in this blanket.  And if he is anything like our other children, he will outgrow his hat with his large head before anything else.  #bigheadbigbrains

I pray your Saturday is filled with lots of snuggles under warm blankets and Netflix on repeat.  Kevin and I are still mourning the end of college football season a bit.  Anyone have any good Netflix recommendations?  Have a Sunny Saturday wherever you may be today!

Baby Girl's Nursery

As you can probably guess, Baby Girl has not graced us with her presence, yet.  She is taking her sweet time getting ready to meet us.  We are scheduled to be induced this coming Wednesday, November 12, if she doesn't decide to come before then.  It is all a waiting game now.  

I thought I would share Baby Girl's room that I loved preparing for her.  As much as I enjoyed getting Luke's room ready, there is just something about buying girl stuff that is just plain fun.  There are so many special items that friends made for our little girl that mean so much.  

Here is her nursery in pictures.  

(Please forgive the quality of the pictures.  I took them with my phone because my camera is packed for the hospital. )

Changing station

Nursing/Snuggling Chair

Where Baby Girl will rest her head.  Those butterflies are from my Grandma, repainted by Kevin and I.

This adorable headband holder was made by my dear friend Annie with wood from our corn crib across the road.

A corner nook.  I bought this shelf with a baby girl in mind...oh, about 10 years ago!

CLOTHES!

A girl's closet.  She has so many shoes.

I couldn't get a great picture of this, but it's a butterfly mobile my amazing friend Shelby made for Baby Girl.  It is perfect right in front of the window.

It's in the details.  Don't you love the burlap frame?  Thanks, Betsy!

A nightstand of books ready to read.  

Nursery: Done

The nursery is done, complete, finished, ready.  It has been mostly done for awhile, but I had Kevin make some last minute switcheroos this past weekend.  I really like how it turned out and I'm excited to bring our peanut home to a nice, comfy place of his own.  Here are some photos of Baby Forristall's nursery.

still debating cloth diapers

details from when Kevin was born

a closet full of clothes

i can't wait to rock him in that chair!

Nursery: Part 2

The crib is assembled, the changing table is up, and there are clothes in the closet...our nursery is almost ready for Baby Boy Forristall!  We decided to keep everything neutral, as we will want to use it again for another baby in either 2 years or 10, depending on how life with our first little guy goes.  We don't really have a 'theme' because, well, I'm just not a 'theme' person.  We are using blues and greens and putting up items we love.  Along with the DIY projects, we also hung a map and a Star Wars quote.  Both were Kevin's ideas and I have to say I really love one of them and the other, well, I don't love it as much, but I am living with it because I really love Kevin.  Kevin's idea to hang a map I LOVE.  We hung it without glass and are planning on putting push pins up on the places that Baby Boy Forristall visits.  For awhile, push pins will only adorn Ottumwa and Macedonia (which isn't on the map) and possibly some other Iowa stops, but as he grows so will the amount of push pins.
The other Kevin idea is a Star Wars' quote, something about a Jedi.  This item is partly my fault because I showed it to Kevin on Etsy as a (haha) joke.  I guess I should feel lucky we're having a boy, because Kevin wanted to hang it without taking gender into consideration.  Kevin loved Star Wars as a kid and I think he wants to relive some of those childhood memories with his son, starting with this quote on the wall.  Although I may not have picked it for the nursery, it makes Kevin happy and that's pretty worth it.
We still have some things to do including curtains and finding a little side table to put beside the chair, along with organizing day to day baby items.  We have a few months yet and I'm sure it will all get done as November nears.  The excitement is building and as I am definitely enjoying being pregnant and feeling our little guy move all the time, I am surely ready to meet him, hold him, and give him lots of hugs and kisses.

Nursery Project #2: Alphabet Boards

My second nursery project was something I found on Pinterest and wanted to do badly.  It was a little out of my 'realm' of creativity and craftiness, but I gave it a go anyway, with the help of Kevin.  I knew I wanted the alphabet somewhere in the nursery and this little project was perfect (and inexpensive).


The items I used were:
-3 9.5 by 12.5 plywood boards
-paint
-alphabet cards
-push pins
-corner tool


First, I located three 9.5 by 12.5 plywood boards.  You wouldn't think this would be too difficult a task, but I was at Home Depot for about 2 hours waiting on a kind young man to cut them for me.  After leaving the store and texting Kevin, he said, "I could have cut them for you."  Now you tell me.  That's okay, it was one less part Kevin had to complete of the project.  When I got them home, Kevin painted them with some leftover blue paint from our living room.  (As a side note, I wish we would have stained them first and then painted so we could have used sandpaper to give the boards a more worn feel.)

I bought an alphabet download from Etsy to use for the alphabet cards.  I love the look of them and they were really easy to cut.  I used a corner rounding tool after I cut them out to make them look polished.  I found them here.  The pushpins I found at Wal-Mart for a few bucks.

The last step was laying out the cards and fastening them to the boards.  This was the easy and fun part!

All in all, it was a pretty forgiving project and not as difficult as I first imagined.  Although it might not have turned out perfect, I think our little guy will enjoy looking at them just the same.

Nursery Project #1 (kind of): Closet Organizers

My first nursery project didn't go as planned.  Let's just say I wanted to make this cute yarn ball mobile and it literally deflated before my eyes.  After wrapping balloons in glue soaked yarn and letting the balls dry overnight, I popped the balloons the next day and the yarn ball, along with the balloon, deflated, leaving a flat, non-round mess of yarn.  This is not supposed to happen.  The balloon is supposed to pop and leave a nice, round yarn ball, perfect for a nursery mobile.  Kevin thinks I didn't use enough glue, but he didn't see the glue I cleaned off the counter, floor, my clothes, hands, etc.  Whatever the problem, I think it was with the crafter, not the craft.  I still need some practice with this crafting stuff.  After Kevin and I had a good laugh about my Pinterest fail, I decided I needed a painless project to raise my confidence a little.  

these are what they were supposed to look like
i didn't take a picture of mine...too embarrassing

I got this cute idea from my friend, Shelby, who is due with her first baby any day now.  (Thanks Shelbs!)  These are super easy tags that I made to organize Baby Boy Forristall's clothes.  I am in that nesting stage and I can't organize enough.  


The materials needed are:
-scrapbook paper
-glue
-number/letter stickers or stamps
-ribbon


I chose two different kinds of scrapbook paper and simply cute them into squares and glued.  I put stickers on for each of the designated sizes.  

Finally, I punched some holes at the top, squeezed some ribbon through and tied them on in the closet.

  
This is a straightforward project and it's exactly what I needed after the previous laughable one.
P.S. If anyone has a (simple) DIY mobile, please comment or email me!  

done!

Nursery: Part 1

Last weekend I started getting a little antsy about the nursery.  I started having visions of our baby sleeping on the floor, in a dresser drawer, in Abel's bed, etc.  We still have 17 weeks to go until our little guy gets here, but some of you know me as the slightly anxious type and this nursery thing had me anxious.  So, we got busy...or should I say Kevin got busy.  I was more of the, um, supervisor.  Kevin did most of the work during part 1: moving out furniture and putting things together.  It's amazing what he can do when he has some tunes playing and a cold beer...the sky is the limit!  We aren't even close to being finished, yet, but I wanted to get some pictures up of what the nursery looks like before it's complete.

This room got a face lift during our remodel.  It was previously adorned with blue shag carpet.  The carpet was removed and the floors sanded.

The closet with  lots of stuff stuffed in there.

A little cubby hole where a desk used to be, which Kevin removed and stored.

Kevin working on the crib.

Kevin's 'tools'