Test Results

My doctor's office called and said my blood work is good except I am slightly anemic- so iron supplements it is! I also had to collect urine for 24 hours (good times) and the nurse I talked to seemed to have the data in front of her but since she was just calling about the blood work, my questioning about the urine results must have caught her off guard. She said from what she could tell everything there was fine as well.

Considering my blood pressure was perfectly normal last visit, I'm not going to worry about the hoopla that took place on my last visit.

Today I went with  my friend and coworker Megan to get a pedicure. Can I say how much I love pedicures- especially since reaching my toes gets more and more difficult.
The lady that did my pedicure was super cute! She said she had a 13 pound baby that had teeth! This lady was TINY, too. 13 pounds! She said her husband wouldn't let her get an epidural, either. If Stephen did that to me I would either threaten a divorce or send him on some ridiculous errand and while he was gone tell the docs to give me drugs. 13 pounds!

She also said because I am craving sweet, and not sour, its going to be a boy =o)  
I really need to get a list of old-wives tales going and tally up what the baby will be- girl or boy- and see what happens.

Baby's Room- Details!

I'd like to preface that I have saved TONS of inspiration pictures but I didn't think I would create a blog, so I didn't save the web address. If I run across these photos again, I will do my best to credit the owner.

These are just some neat ideas that will depend on time, space, and my patience level =o)


Baby's Name:

I'd like to have letters in the room but Barrett and Elizabeth are really long names to decoupage (if you don't know what that is, see picture on the right- you use wooden/cardboard letters and paper/scrapbook paper) both sets. Since we aren't finding out gender, I figured I will get both names ready to hang and the one we don't use I will just put back. I would decoupage them with the appropriate gender specific colors











 I have a couple of options but one thing I *love* is this bright frame with one letter in it:

I could do something similar but paint the frame teal or turquoise (my mother's least favorite colors- haha) because I think it would work for both a girls and boys room. Or, I could paint the frame antique/chipped white.

Now, I could leave it with just the one letter... but I was thinking it would be really neat to have the first letter large and framed and follow it with smaller letters. In my head, I'm thinking the large letter would be decoupaged pink or blue but the remaining letters would be one solid color- black or gray? but with colored ribbon? I dunno, this is one of those things I will decide once I have the letters in front of me and paint on the walls =o)

I just know I want either the baby's name or initials in the room.


Here are some other variations I really like:

This would be the most tasteful thing I could do- and *love, love, love* the shelves. I definitely want floating shelves in the room

This one is kinda quirky but really awesome:

I really like this, too. We don't have molding in the room, we are just painting the large stripe (even though Stephen is convinced it won't look good with our textured walls- whatever)... I was thinking I could use a painted MDF board and add the molding around the edges, or just paint stripes to look like molding. I think it would be striking to break up the color/stripe and texture.






Hanging book display:
I really want to do this and depending on the space I might do two. They seem really easy, and cheap, to put together- here is the tutorial. 

Its hard to tell with this particular picture but its just cloth on dowel rods that holds books.













This kind uses straps... not sure which I like better. If I used the straps, I would paint the dowel rod:

Then, the fabric I use on the hanging book display I could use with these:

I think this is a neat way to add more color to my gray, "gloomy" room and they are super cheap to put together.

Window Treatments:

Since there is a small window in the nursery, I think I will make an over sized valance with curtains that go down to the floor to make the window look bigger than it actually is. I really like how this valence provides a pop of color but is very sleek.

Oh, I just noticed they used the embroidery loop circles here, too! Super cute.






Hokey-pokey

This is the strangest thing I found but its so quirky, I couldn't resist!
I found this at All Things Thrifty and I know that I was drawn to it mainly because of the awesome owl, but oh the possibilities!
I could make two and do one Snoopy and the other Woodstock.... or just the one. The only issue would be to find old windows like those shown. If I really wanted to, I could probably get new windows and make them look dilapidated... we shall see! This is one I probably won't do because of time and all the other things I'd like to do to the room... but we shall see 



Those are all the ideas I have right now for the baby room! What I find amusing is most of the gray rooms I find use bright yellow or orange as their accent color (hence, all the pictures above that use yellow)... and those are my two LEAST favorite colors.


Side note: I'm laying on my tummy while typing this up and all I can feel is the baby rolling around- it feels so strange =oP

Baby's Room- Theme (Snoopy!)

I have decided to do a Peanuts/Snoopy themed baby room. Now, the pre-made Snoopy themed sets are, well, kinda gross... so I am going to have to piece this together all by myself- which I am perfectly fine with. Now, I don't want to do this gaudy, yellow, red and white, over the top, in your face Snoopy theme... but a delicate, black and white, tasteful one. I have already purchased a handful of things on ebay to get me started and I have some other ideas to incorporate my theme once we get the room more put together.

Lamp:
I will put a pink or blue ribbon around the red collar and decoupage a new lamp shade in either pink or blue (this will match the decoupage I want to do with letters elsewhere in the room).

Stuffed Animal:
This is by far one of the cutest, softest Snoopy stuffed animals I found. Again, once baby gets here I will put a pink or blue ribbon around its neck. This will look super cute on the upholstered chair I want =o)

Piggy bank:
I have always loved the silver piggy banks and I saw this and I had to have it. I got a pretty good deal because I bought it tarnished. The first time we cleaned it, it didn't work... but we bought stronger cleaning stuff and now it practically sparkles

Snoopy Mobile:
This has to be one of my favorite finds. My mommy snagged this one on ebay for a good price. Because it is kinda rinky-dink (and it might not fit the width of the crib), I might have to play with this one a bit but as long as I have the 4 Snoopies and Woodstock music box, I think it will be cute! I will probably sew a gray toile cover for the arm and possible a new canopy part to make it look more expensive:

Those are the things I have. Now, I certainly have other ideas, but again.. I don't want too much Snoopy in the room.. so the rest are just ideas and will be determined once we get the room painted, furniture placed and all the other non-Snoopy ideas in the room.

Pictures:
I like the idea of the 6 framed pictures like these (black with a white matte) but using soley black and white snoopy characters

 If I did this, it would depend on what space I have. I thought I could do it over the changing table/dresser I want but I wouldn't mind putting an antique mirror above a dresser. Maybe I could find an antique mirror and put two Snoopy pictures on either side of the mirror- this all depends on size and space.


These are the pictures I've pulled so far:

Mural:
One of my lovely, artistic former students said she would paint me a mural. Now, I'm not sure if she said this to humor me, but its too late now! Instead of doing a mural, I thought it would be *really* neat to paint a small Peanuts theme in the horizontal stripe I plan to paint in the room (see Baby's Room- Basics). If the large stripe was light gray, the scene would be painted in black/dark gray... and if the stripe was painted a dark gray, the scene would be painted in light gray. I think this would be cute in a corner- the figures would only be 5-6 inches tall and wouldn't include any speech bubbles... just a cohesive scene. Again, this would be based on how much space I have in the room and how much Snoopy I have going on. I also saw this and thought how cute it would look if it was gray Woodstock painted on the light switch:

Baby's Room- the basics

Since we aren't finding out gender, it makes putting together the nursery a tad bit harder but still manageable. We are going to paint the nursery gray, ideally two different shades. I got the idea from this picture:

 At first it was going to be mainly dark gray with a light gray, horizontal strip with this white furniture:      





















When we went to look at it in person it wasn't a pretty white- it was a shiny, blue white... not the creamy, antique white that I would have wanted.But it's sister in cherry wood was MUCH prettier

 
Problem is, this messes up my whole dark and light gray scheme. So now we might have to flip flop what I wanted to do and now have a light gray room with a dark dray stripe.




    We will most likely get the matching dresser- we just haven't decided if we want the tall dresser or the long, changing table dresser. The great thing about these cribs in they convert into a toddler bed and then a full sized bed. Hopefully we will get use out of these pieces!

So now, it might look more like this. But I still like the style of the picture up top with the larger stripe. The stripe with a dark gray NOT black and no color underneath. This picture just gives a better "feel" of the colors with dark furniture I suppose

I would also like a cream, upholstered glider but they are RIDICULOUS in price. I will probably Craigslist this item for cheaper:

I've seen some decent ones on Craigslist already, but we really aren't ready to buy one yet.








Last but not least, I want a shag rug! If I can find a round one, that is what I'll get but I found this rectangular one I *love*. I don't know if I will get it in gray (since we already have cream carpet in there) or wait until baby is born and order it in pink or blue. I'm leaning towards gray =o)

Now, I know what you are thinking- "That's a lot of gloomy gray for a baby room". I plan on adding as much color to the room once baby is here through lamp shades, valance, curtains, bedspread, etc etc.


 I think this will be absolutely fabulous!