nursery – blank slate

I like to wait until I’m finished with projects to write about them but then that means that I don’t ever blog about them and that goes against my desires to blog more. 

I’m not finished with the nursery – notice I didn’t say Pea’s room since it will be for the baby whomever the baby is until we move or are done having babies – but I know that there are folks out there interested in its progress.

So.

I’m just going to begin.

Here’s what it looked like the day we moved in:

A nice boring, beige blank slate.  Lots of possibilities.

We had the movers avoid putting anything in the room but after we started to unpack, it still ended up looking like so:

 

Plans for the room included removing the popcorn ceiling so the girl ended up in her crib in our room.

Ok, so what are the plans:
- Remove the popcorn ceiling
- Paint the walls/trim
- New blinds
- More furniture
- Hang stuff on walls
- Closet reimagined as a reading nook
- Crib skirt
- Cornice board for the window

birthday want #2

Ok, this one is a little more “normal.”

It’s a Le Creuset Round Dutch Oven in Fennel.

See, I got this pretty one for Christmas:

And I am in LOVE.  It’s so pretty and it’s so fun to cook in but sadly, there are some recipes that just don’t fit in it’s dainty 3.5 quart size.

Clearly, I need a big ‘un – the 7.25 quart should do it - and might as well wish for a round one for some variety.

birthday want…

Is it weird that THIS

 

is what I want for my birthday?

It’s a basic Kreg Jig set.

It could also just mean that I’ve been reading too much Young House Love.

;-)

meh

We had a plan for the day.  Will didn’t move his regularly scheduled day off even though he already had Monday off for New Years. 

We were going to go to the shelter and add some furry friends to this crazy life we are building.

Will was going to get his birthday present – a cat – and I was going to get mine – a dog.

We were going to adopt them and save them from being put down.

We straightened up the house in case the dog liked to chew on things – there would be less lying around.

We put out the water bowls.  Oh yeah, we have water bowls, food dishes, a litter box… We’re as prepared as we can be for this.

And we came home with no one.  :(

Here’s what happened: First, the lady at the desk basically told us we were nuts for wanting to get both at once.  Maybe she’s right.

Then the woman who was helping us to meet cats – we started with the cats over the dogs at random really – initially tried to tell us that we should wait to get a dog until Pea was older.  Unfortunately, I got a little touchy about that and told her that if we did that, we’d never get a dog because she isn’t going to be our only kid.

Then it seemed like every cat that we’d seen through the window or online had a problem – a heart murmur, not good with kids, scared of people. 

And then the woman suggested that we meet Felix.  He was such a good kitty.  So friendly.  A little on the older side.  except that every time anyone picked him up, he peed on them.  Got me twice.  So clearly there is a little something wrong with him.  *sigh*

We were getting a pretty discouraged and Pea was starting to melt so we decided to call it a day.  The adoption woman had mentioned that they get a lot of kittens in the Spring.  And then she suggested what we’d been talking about while she was out of the room – get a dog now and a kitten later.  Validated!

So.

New plan:  Go back in a few weeks and get our dog.  And in the Spring when they have kittens coming out their ears, go pick out our perfect little kitten.  Here’s hoping it works.

If you want to check out the dogs and cats up for adoption, we’re working with Dumb Friends League of Denver

more or less for 2012

Yeah, I’m a little late if you will but here are my thoughts for 2012. 

More blogging

More pictures/videos posted in a timely fashion

Less clutter

More walks.  Well, more time outside in general regardless of weather.  The dog we’re in the market for should help with this one.

More time for myself and with Will – on our own!

Fewer poor eating choices

More time spent looking for a job that I like enough to not hate going back to work

Less snapping at others

Fewer bad moods in general – I control my mood!

More cross stitching which should hopefully result in fewer unfinished projects

More DIY house projects

Less time in front of the TV

More time reading

More friends

thankful

This year I am thankful….

- for a beautiful, healthy, growing, chatterbox of a precious little girl

- for an amazing, helpful, appreciative, understanding husband

- for the internet to keep us all connected

- for Lowes which, most of the time, keeps me in supplies for my house projects (our local store has been out of my trim paint all week hence “most of the time”)

- that we have a house to do projects on

- for King Soopers for stocking Blue Bell and making my husband very happy – and it’s cheap!

- that we made a cross country drive with a 3 month old with no horror stories to tell and got to see so many friends along the way

- that I was able to see Dad before it was too late

- that we were able to see the whole family even if under less than ideal circumstances

- that my one brother has managed to totally turn his life around and finally get it all straight

- for planes to take us East for Christmas

- for friends who love us so much that they’ve already come to visit.  In particular, Liz who came to help while we were still buried in boxes and didn’t have a bed for her to sleep on.

- for the hematologist who says that there’s no need for blood thinners when we decide to have another kid

- that Will has a job again where he doesn’t complain every day

- for whole house humidifiers to keep us from being beyond overly dry in this arid Colorado climate

- that Mom came out and made us work our tails off and that she’s coming back on Tuesday!

- that' I’ve lost all my baby weight though that just means that I’m back to trying to lose the 15lbs I was trying to lose before I got pregnant

- for new/old friends to spend Thanksgiving with

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

animal sounds

I was trying to figure out what sound an elephant makes (since we have so many of them in the house) and, of course, consulted the interwebs and found this:

It’s cheesy but great for some reason and she loves it.

Then I got the bright idea to have animals to go along with it.  Mostly because I figured that maybe if I laid out all the various animals in order, I might finally remember how the song goes without having to play the video.  But also because we figure that she might find it even more amusing than she already does and learn her animals.

Animals in the song: dog, cow, duck, owl, cat, bird, pig, mouse, horse, sheep, rabbit, people, snake, chicken, frog, bee, donkey, elephant, bear, and lion.

We have, or rather I have, an assortment of various stuffed animals including a whole bin of beanies.  I was able to come up with 12 out of the 20 animals so not too bad.

 
Our menagerie minus the dog because its upstairs and I’m too lazy to get him to join in on the photo shoot and the unicorn is standing in for the horse.

We still need: cat, bird, mouse, sheep, snake, chicken, frog, bee, and donkey.