Holy Moley

Is it really January 31st and I'm 30 weeks + 2 days pregnant?!?! NO WAY. This is surreal. I swear, just yesterday, it was the beginning of January. Ultimately, this means that I only have 2 months left to get ready for Baby Blev. ::hyperventalating::

So here I am as of last night...dang that belly's B-I-G!

A pic of Mama AND Daddy Blev on our way to friends' for dinner.

As promised, I have some pics from the recent baby shower that my dear sisters and friends hosted for me...thanks to Fran (and Natalie for the photos she posted)....

Here's the adorable table decorated with baby pics of me and Jay and delicious "nest" treats made by Natalie.

 

Of course the shower had a "nest" theme!

My mom and Kari (who opened up her new, beautiful home to host the shower...thank you!)

 

Stuffing my face with the delicious food. And that's my friend Kelly who is expecting her son just a mere 7 days after me!

This might be one of the most unflattering pictures of me I've ever seen...but I was so excited about all of my gifts! And that's my beautiful sister next to me...

Thank you to my hostesses! (From L-R, Natalie, Christine, my Sissy, a very awkward-looking Me, Danielle, and Kari)

On another note....

This weekend was a chilly and fairly lazy one. I didn't get much done until today when I started cracking the whip. Jay and I got the garage cleaned out and organized, the Christmas boxes finally got put back in the attic (yeah, yeah, only a month behind!), and I cleaned out our "junk" drawer!

Life is good. Feeling great. And just trying to stay on top of--or preferably in front of--all my projects including the high school projects, grad school projects, and home projects! Next week's (let's be honest--weekend) home project is the Laundry Room. I'll take before and after pictures!

Feeling So Loved...

...thanks to my family and friends who threw me and Nugget a Baby Shower last weekend! I've wanted to post about it in all its fabulousness, but have yet to receive any pictures from them. (Hint hint!) :)  But, my best friend, Natalie, who designed a nursery for me when I first found out I was pregnant which has been a HUGE inspiration for the nursery that we're currently putting together, just posted about it on her blog so you'll have to check it out there! Thanks for stopping by....

http://lavieenrose-natalie.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-best-friends-baby-shower.html

You Know You're Pregnant When...

....You spend close to $30 at Jason's Deli by yourself just so you can have it delivered to you at home. True Story. This is what was delivered to my home tonight.

In my defense, I was home alone tonight as Jay's out of town for work, I didn't want to leave Ellie in her crate, and I was working on a paper due tomorrow by 5 p.m. for graduate class. And what I didn't eat tonight, I can eat for lunch and/or dinner tomorrow.

That's my justification--and I'm sticking to it.

P.S. I officially can't see my feet anymore when I look straight down. Pics coming soon...

If it's Broken, Fix it!

Thank you Mom for helping me realize that even though I may not have gotten my organization goal accomplished this week, I did complete Lauren's Pure Style Home task-of-the-week!


My plan was to set up the new shelves in the garage that Jay bought me during the week (BTW....so grateful, but I really think I need another....there's just not enough room in our garage!) so that I can organize the laundry room, which will allow me to clean out the armoir that I've used as my "craft" storage since we got married, but will now be used as an actual armoir for the baby. BUT--as we are also looking into upgrading my hockey puck to a mommy mobile, it was time to finally fix the sideview mirror that I'd broken at least 6 months ago....

One day, while leaving for work around 6:15 a.m. (!!! I'll never get used to working so early) in a rush, as I was pulling out of the garage, I noticed that I was too close on my side. But it looked like the rubber flap on the garage door would just barely graze my sideview mirror, so I just backed up slowly and then--to my horror--watched in slow motion as that little rubber flap POPPED the casing off of my mirror! And as it hit the garage floor...it broke into 2 pieces! SAD DAY. Flustered Chelsea. Within a few days I took it to our neighborhood Good Year to get if fixed, but they told me it would cost around $500!!! FOR-GET-IT. I've since been driving around with it looking like this.

But thanks to Scott's Auto Center and a week of driving back-and-forth there, ordering the part, multiple phone calls to see if the part had come in yet, and finally taking it in on Friday after school...it now looks like this!(And cost less than $200...)

P.S. While at my first baby shower on Saturday (will be sure to post about this wonderful event as soon as my friends and family send me the pics), my sweet husband had my little Volvo washed and detailed and would have taken it to CarMax to see how much we could get for it, but the "Check Engine" light came on...guess that'll be part of this week's to-do list...

Coat Closet Re-do

Oh. My. Gosh. I can't believe I'm about to show you these pictures...how embarrassing! As I mentioned earlier this week, I'm following along with Pure Style Home's Pure Organization Weekly Projects and this week Lauren has inspired me to organize our coat closet. First of all, I think we have too many coats! There's only 2 of us and we live in the south...how many coats do we really need?!?!? Secondly, the hanger on the door began as a good idea: I thought it'd be a great place to hang my aprons and scarves...but what an eye-sore it is now! Thirdly, we're "storing" stuff in here for which I think we could find a better home. Wish me luck...

Sign hanging on the doorknob of our coat closet. I need to "have a little faith" that I can tackle this project!

Ugh...what a mess!!!

How can I even find what scarf I want to wear? I wish I could say that I use those aprons...they're really beautiful aprons...

Icky. What a waste of space!

 

There are no words for the floor...a hodge podge of stuff, cleaning supplies, bags, silly gifts, etc.

I was so overwhelmed with tackling this project that I found it best to be a copy cat. Here is the Pure Style Home version (much cuter than mine!) Unfortunately, because we rent (and will hopefully move out in 6 mos. or so) it'd be silly to be paint. So I did my best to make it look nice. What's most important is that it's organized, and I should be able to keep it this way! That being said, as soon as we own our home, I will so be taking Lauren's advice to paint it a pretty color...and I do love the aqua she chose! Now...drumroll please....here is our new-and-improved coat closet!

The first task I started with was going through our coats. I got rid of a couple of mine that I no longer wear (or that no longer fit--like an old yellow slicker that had 3/4 sleeves on me now--that's not gonna keep me dry when it's raining!), switched out the hangers so that they're all white (already had these), and divided our coats so that mine are on the left and Jay's are on the right (they're coded by color and length, too).

I bought a cheap shoe organizer at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and while initially I wasn't thrilled with the idea of clear plastic, once I put our winter scarves, mittens, hats--and my aprons!--in, I liked being able to see what was available so I can quickly grab it on my way out the door, and it added color to our drab closet.

The closet floor is the biggest improvement. I also bought this wire cube organizer at BB&B (gotta love 20% off coupons!) to house our "stuff." I've got cleaning supplies in there, games, and my ever-handy step stool. In a perfect world, there'd be another place to keep the cleaning supplies, but our coat closet is in a very accessible area of the house and there's really not another logical place to put it, so I just decided to make it work!



The only thing I have left to decide is whether or not to hang the broom, mop, duster, etc. on the left and right side of the closet walls, or to hang them right outside our back door in our garage. (I'm voting for garage, but I think Jay is hopeful that if they're inside, maybe I'll clean more!)

And last, but certainly not least, here's the shelf in the closet. I grabbed this cute basket (which I re-found while cleaning out the guest closet) and threw a couple of larger winter items and blankets inside. I can also use it to "hide" shopping returns and exchanges until I make it to the store.

What's even better is that while organizing the coat closet, I was inspired to quickly organize under the kitchen sink! I don't have a "before" picture, but I guarantee you it was bad. Here it is now:

I used this cute picnic utensil basket that never gets used for our under-the-sink cleaning supplies.

And used this cool hammered brass antique pitcher to keep all our plastic bags that I like to re-use to take my lunch to school.

Unless I'm inspired by Lauren's organization post tomorrow to work on something else, my plan for this week is the laundy room...

Covetousness

Design blogs and Etsy are going to be the death of me. While oh-so-inspiring, I'm starting to covet other people's things, stuff I can't afford, and--most of all--other's creativity. My poor husband and mother are receiving the brunt of this. I've been newly inspired to move this piece of furniture there, to buy new dressers to be used as nightstands (courtesy of Lauren of the blog Pure Style Home), to "Whiteberry" our guestroom furniture, and now...to create my own mobile for Baby Blev! :)  (In the meantime, I'm supposedly getting organized and ready for Nugget, taking my final two graduate classes to receive my M.A.T. in May, teaching and inspiring 9th and 10th graders in English, and trying to have a social life!) So this is what inspired me to make my own mobile. I've been searching, and searching, and just wasn't finding anything I loved. If I found a mobile with the right color scheme, it'd be planes, trains and automobiles. Or I'd find a birdie mobile, but it looked dangerous or was the wrong color scheme or looked too girly like this Bananafish one from JC Penney for only $50:

But then I found the creme de la creme--and it's $94.

I just don't know if I can bring myself to spend that on something that I know the baby really isn't even going to enjoy that much. I mean, sure, he'll stare at it from time-to-time, but it's really for me because I want his nursery to be cute. Right?!!?

So after seeing all of these different ideas, I'm now thinking that maybe I can make him one. I could buy a pattern (or maybe even create that, too) and felt and use some extra pieces of fabric from his bedding to create the perfect mobile. Here is some felt inspiration that I've found on Etsy:

(All of the above images can be found by searching "felt bird" or "felt owl" on Etsy.)

Do you all think I've finally gone crazy?!?!?

Nesting....It's Hit Me!

As the ticker on this blog continues to remind me how very little time we have left until this baby arrives, I've begun to realize just how much there is to accomplish! As I told you below, I'm a terrible procrastinator. :) So I created a to-do list. Then, I got inspired by Lauren at Pure Style Home to just tackle one project a week so as not to be overwhelmed. It's my New Year's Resolution to be more organized. While my projects may not always follow hers, this week does! It was on my list, so I just bumped it up a few weeks so that I could accompany Lauren on her journey. This week (or weekend, more likely) I will tackle the coat closet!!! Last week, my project was the guestroom closet. While I don't have a before picture to show you, I wanted to show you the "after" picture which will soon be shared with the baby. We don't have much storage in our rented townhome, so unfortunately, we can't not use this huge closet for some of our storage. It's not ideal, but here she is now. Ready (or more ready than before at least) for Nugget:

The right side of the closet: our side. I swear this is more organized!

So we threw our suitcases up there so they're at least out of the way. Anybody have any better suggestions as to where to put and/or what to do to store luggage? I'm stumped.

The entire left side of the closet is now open and available for Baby Blev!

This is what the closet looks like when you open the door. Look at all that hanging room for Baby! He better not have that many clothes, but if he's anything like his Mama or Dada, he will!

In case you can't tell, I'm really not that great at organizing. :) If you have any suggestions, please please please (!) post them or email them to me. I'm trying to do this with zero cost using what we have and not run to The Container Store for "organizers" so send me your ideas!

Master of Procrastination

I am THE master at procrastinating....case-in-point: Today. :)  We got a snow day in GA today and I had great intentions of all I was going to get done. Instead, I've spend much of my day on blogs and getting inspired. (Don't get me wrong, it's been super-fun, but it would have been helpful to clean out the guestroom closet since the guest room is soon going to occupy the nursery too.

But....all that being said....LOOK what I found on this blog! First of all, I'm so excited to find a blog on nurseries, but I love these prints! They are from the Wisteria catalog and are waaaaay too expensive, but do you think I should add them to my Wish List?!?! Maybe I could find a book with similar prints and rip them out and frame them on my own?!?!

Nursery News

There is so much to update you all on! (I guess if I kept up with my blogging better, there wouldn't be so much to tell you in one post, right?) Let's start with Christmas. :)  I hope you had a lovely one....we sure did! It was so much fun to envision what Christmas 2010 will be like with an 8 month old! Both of our families were so precious and got Nugget awesome gifts. Jay's family surprised us with a baby bath and all the neccessities and my family surprised us with a mini-Beamer for Nugget (disguised as a gift for Jay since it's Gator orange and blue). What a fun first (in-my-belly) Christmas for Baby Blev!

Jay with his son's new BMW:

After Christmas, we had the AMAZING opportunity to go to Cabo San Lucas with my dad. What a wonderful treat! We read, laid out by the pool, ate fabulous Mexican food and seafood, and got pampered all-around.

At dinner one night:

With my dad:

Once we got home, I got into major nesting mode. While I love decorating, I've never been much of a "nester" and typically shy away from most domestic duties. But on the weekend before school started back, I found myself mopping, hanging mirrors, putting away the rest of Christmas decorations, and finally registering for Nugget's Nursery. I've posted about my ideas for his nursery, and finally started making some decisions!

This is the color palette I'm using for his bedding. (Thank you Marjorie from Customhouse Baby on http://www.etsy.com/ for making it!):

I'm going to order this print and mat and frame it in white:

I think this style crib is our favorite. We're planning to make a decision and order one this weekend.
 (Thank you Dad!):

My mom is buying us this rocker/glider in a barely off-white (slipcovered, of course!):

And you can't forget the dresser!

Any ideas for a possible paint color?

Since we rent (and our lease is up in July), we will not be painting now. But my hope is that we will move into a three-bedroom in July so that we can have a true nursery and a true guestroom instead of a combination, and paint! I don't care if there's not another painted room in the house--I really want my son's room painted!!! That being said, I still can't wait to see what it starts to look like as we put it together. At 27 weeks (!!!) this is all becoming very real, very fast.

Update:

How far along? 27 weeks

Total weight gain: 16 lbs. (and my goal was 20 lbs. total--ha!)
Maternity clothes? Definitely jeans...I still <3 the GAP ones I bought forever ago...wear 'em all the time. I'm growing out of another pair of pants I have. Dresses are my best friend b/c I can still wear my favorite pre-pregnancy dresses with tights/leggings and boots--a great option for teaching!
Sleep: I HATE HATE HATE sleeping on my side! Toss and turn all night long. Miss sleeping on my back so much...
Best moment this week: Going back to school and hearing all the comments from my students about how large I've grown in the last two weeks. Kids (even teenagers) say the darndest things!
Movement: Tons...I LOVE it! I would lay by the pool in Cabo just watching my belly change shape as Nugget moved around. A-mazing.
Gender: Boy, oh boy!
Labor Signs: Nope--and no Braxton-Hicks yet either, thank God.
Belly Button in or out? Is flat an option? Either way, it's weird looking!
What I miss: Sleeping on my back!
What I am looking forward to: Sleeping on my back!
Weekly Wisdom: I got great advice about breast pumps today from a teacher friend....thank you Lori! :)
Milestones: Making decisions this week! I've always been indecisive, but when it's for your son, it's even that much harder! But it feels soo good to finally have made some. (Even if they are just about bedding!) :)