The Unstaged Living Room

Last night, I decided to take a couple of quick iPhone photos of the living room, exactly as it was at the end of the day.  No cleaning, no staging, just how it looks in a daily basis:

Considering my husband works from home 3 days a week, and we have a toddler, it's really not too bad, since this room is very much lived-in.  Fortunately, I have a child who, at 18 months, will typically put her toys away without prompting.  I really, really hope that lasts!

Most of the major clutter is hidden.  Such as all the random dog stuff, half of which is probably garbage, in the console table behind the loveseat:

 

Also, that nice pile of books and junk mail sitting on top of the table.  This should be fairly quick and easy to weed through and organize.  Things like the nail clipper, the Thundershirt, and the nice green sweater are keepers.  Empty box of poopy bags and stinky old bandanas he never wears?  Not so much.  I'm also thinking I'd like to get some sort of wall-mounted mail organizer/key holder to hang next to the front door, to cut down on the piles of mail on the console table. 

Figuring out the book situation is going to be a bit trickier:

The top four shelves of the living room bookcase (there are many, many bookcases in our house) is home to my collection of classic fiction.  Also, some CDs that aren't where they belong for no good reason, some misplaced contemporary fiction, and... a roll of packing tape?  Those things will be easy enough to put back in their proper homes.  We can get rid of that Wii balance board, and either toss or store that plastic critter cage on the floor.  But now that Amelia's books and puzzles have taken over the bottom shelf, I'm not sure that the classic fiction overflow (the stack of books on the right side of the second-to-bottom shelf) will have a home.  I'll either have to weed that collection or get creative with how I arrange it. 

This corner is a total mess:

The bouncy seat and folded up play mat (between the wall and desk) need to go into storage.  The folded up swing needs to go back to the cousin who loaned it to me.  My desk has... issues.  I need to go through the big pile of paperwork under my laptop and on the top right shelf.  I need to get rid of the years-old check registers.  I need to consolidate the boxes greeting cards and note cards.  I need to find a better home for our camera bag on top of the desk.  Glen's pile o' stuff on the fireplace needs to start living in his office, where it belongs.  I have absolutely no explanation for the Adipose plus next to the vase, except that one of its eyes came out and it was a choking hazard, so we had to keep it out of Amelia's reach.  There's got to be a better place for it, though.

Finally, there's this corner:

I need to get rid of the pile of papers on top of the filing cabinet.  Ditch the fake flowers.  Do SOMETHING about those exposed wires.  I'd like to move the router and modem to the inside of my desk, so that the wires run behind the fireplace, out of reach of tiny hands.  And I'd like swap Elvis's bed and the filing cabinet, and put a lamp on it, so it can be a cozy little reading corner. 

Also, not visible in this photo, but I have YEARS worth of bills that need to be shredded.  It's bad.  Really bad.  I refuse to go paperless, because I clip my bills together in the order they're due, and without them I'd never pay anything on time.  It's a good strategy for not destroying my credit score.  Not so much for avoiding clutter.

Now that I've put this out there, my goal for next week is to be able to share a newly de-cluttered and organized living room!

A Tour of Amelia's Nursery

Finally, I'm taking time to post the long-awaited tour of Amelia's nursery!  

But first, here's a semi-recent picture of Amelia:

Ok, it's actually from three weeks ago, and since she's only eight weeks old, I guess it's not really that recent.  But I think it's pretty darn cute!

But on to the tour:

Here's a birth sampler my mom made and had framed for the nursery.  It's currently hanging on the door:

Here the "before" shot of the corner of the room that functioned as my office space:

And here are a couple of shots of it now:

My mom made the pillows and crib skirt, since I couldn't find any sets I liked.  The wall decal is from the Etsy shop Quirkee Walls.  All those thin, wispy sections of the branch made it pretty difficult to get up, but I think it was totally worth it!

Here's a close-up:

 

And Amelia's bookcase:

She's already got quite the library!  Yes, that is a current picture, and yes, Go the F**k to Sleep is still prominently displayed.  I promise I will put it somewhere else before she learns to read. ;-)

Here's a before shot of the other side of the room, which functioned more or less as a guess room, what with the futon and all:

And here it is, looking slightly to the right:

You can see the curtains my mom made, which match the crib skirt and pillows.  The glider is from my mother-in-law, and that little black table from the "before" picture found a home next to it.  That's where I keep water, snacks, and burp clothes for all those late-night nursing sessions.

The changing table is now fully stocked with cloth diapers, covers, and wet bags.  

The lamp in the "before" picture also found a home in Amelia's nursery, I put it on the dresser:

And no, the picture in the frame is not Amelia, it's the one that came with the frame... although since I took this picture, I DID put a picture of her in it!

Amelia seems to love all the birds in her nursery.  She'll lie on the changing table, babbling and smiling at the curtains, and she does the same with the decal when she's in her crib.  It's absurdly cute.  We tend to leave her on her changing table for awhile after diaper changes are done, just because it's so entertaining!

Nursery Sneak Peek

This isn't the official office-to-nursery before and after post - partly because the nursery isn't *quite* done yet and partly because the battery for my actual camera died, so I had to take these pictures on my phone.  I really do need to do something about that first issue though, because today marks 38 weeks!!  Seriously, this baby could show up any day now.  Eek!

Since we're going to be cloth diapering, we needed a spot for wet bags.  I decided the best thing would be to hang them from a hook on the wall rather than using a diaper pail.  The room is small, and Elvis likes to root through garbage, so a solution that takes up less floor space while keeping those tempting dirty diapers out of our dog's reach was called for:

And of course, the hook has birds on it - have to keep with the theme we accidentally stumbled upon!  You can't really tell in the picture above, but the green wet bag has birds on it as well.  And of course we had to work paw prints in somewhere!  We also have a diaper cover in the same paw print material.

Here's a little glimpse of the changing table and dresser:

Yes, I left the picture of the baby that came with the picture frame.  I wanted to put an ultrasound picture in there, but they didn't fit since the ultrasounds are all landscape and the picture frame is portrait and I'm apparently too lazy to come up with a solution.  The baskets below the changing pad are full of cloth diapering supplies: pocket diapers on the left, prefolds in the middle, and prefold covers on the right. 

And of course, this kid already has a bunch of books:

Not pictured above: The piles of maternity clothes and (to Glen's amusement) a prominently displayed copy of Go the F**k to Sleep, both of which will find new homes after baby arrives. ;-)

Right now the crib is serving as storage space, but there's some pretty neat stuff in there, so I thought I'd share:

• No story behind the activity gym, the crib was just a convenient place to put it for now.  Although if you look closely, the dog on the left makes me think of a blue version of Elvis.  
• My mom made the bird pillows from extra curtain/crib skirt fabric.  Initially they'll be used to create a cozy little reading area next to the bookcase, and later as decorative pillows when we convert the crib to a toddler bed.  
• The baby doll is about to get passed down to a third generation.  She belonged to my mom when she was a little girl, then she belonged to me, and now she'll be passed along to our firstborn. 
• The pillow in the middle and the blanket on the right - this is really neat.  The pillow was embroidered by my mom when I was born, the blanket was embroidered by Glen's aunt.  They have the exact same animal characters on them.  I'm telling you, it was fate!!

Today I was out picking up some last-minute clothes to fill in the minimal gaps in Stormageddon's wardrobe, and came across this onesie:

I was so, SO tempted to get it, because it's amazing the amount of unsolicited advice expecting parents receive, and I imagine it only gets worse once the baby arrives.  I resisted the urge to buy the snarky onesie and went with the more practical options of newborn and 0-3 month sized leggings (one of two aforementioned wardrobe gaps) to be worn with onesies. 

And because no post would be complete at this point without a picture of Elvis snuggling with Stormageddon:

With any luck, I'll have a proper before-and-after post because Stormageddon's arrival, but I won't make promises, especially since that arrival could occur tomorrow or 3 weeks from now... There's a real possibility that in the before-and-after post, the baby doll pictured above will be replaced by a real baby.  Madness!

Maternity Monday: 28 Week Belly Photos & Baby Bookcases

I'm not sure how it's possible that baby Stormageddon will likely be here in 2 1/2 months.  Crazy!

We actually didn't get to the 28 week pictures until 28 weeks, 6 days - so really these are technically more like 29 week pictures, but close enough. ;-)

Finally wore an actual maternity shirt!

Is it me, or does this eggplant look smaller than the cabbage??

The view from the front!

...This one's a little blurry, but I was making ridiculous faces in the others. :-P

Now I'm really feeling the pressure to get the office-to-nursery conversion moving.  I did finally manage to get the crib put together (you can catch a glimpse of it in right-hand side of some of the pictures above) and the old bookcase moved to the storage closet, so that's a step in the right direction, at least.

Now I just need to get rid of my old desk so we can pick up a baby-friendly bookcase for the nursery.  We're probably going to use the ClosetMaid Cubeicals 6 Cube Organizer:

We'll put a couple of baskets (probably these purple ones) in there for toy storage, along with her already-growing library of picture books. ;-)

I've been awful about visiting/commenting on blogs lately.  Last week was kind of absurd.  Glen was barely around because he was commuting to New York City every day for his new job.  In addition to working my regular day job, I had extra library hours, played in a concert at a nursing home, went to Glen's comedy competition in Staten Island, sold my jewelry at a craft show, and drove up to Connecticut for a party with some friends from college.  I didn't have much free time to sit in front of computer, and when I *did* have the time, I picked my husband over my laptop.  Hopefully I'll have a bit more time to make the rounds this week!

Halloweenie

Halloween has long been one of my favorite holidays.  Getting dressed up and wandering the streets in search of free candy?  It really doesn't get any better than that!

But somehow, as the years passed and I outgrew trick-or-treating, my Halloween/autumn decorations have become more and more minimal.  This year it's probably just as well, since I doubt whether trick-or-treat will be happening in my town, given the current weather situation. ;-)

Next year I want to carve actual pumpkins, plant mums in front of the porch, put up lights and cobwebs, and have one of my friends make an autumn-appropriate wreath for the front door. 

In the meantime, this is what I'm working with:

A fake jack-o-lantern and a cauldron (full of Hershey Kisses!) on top of my new desk.

Autumn-themed dish towels I won at a tricky tray a couple of years ago.

This cute little thing is on top of the toilet, because the bathroom needs to be a little festive, too!

My beloved skeleton lights, which I've had since middle school, now adorn the bar.

Our bar, all lit up!  Even if all I can do for the time being is sit back and admire it. ;-)

If any of you folks have posts with photos of your Halloween/autumn decor, share the link below - I need some inspiration/motivation for next year! ;-)


P.S.  This is a scheduled post, so by the time it's up, it's entirely possible that Hurricane Sandy will have plunged us into darkness. Good thing I have a decent supply of candles and books!!

Maternity Monday: 24 Week Belly Pictures and Finished Curtains!

I'm finally not running multiple weeks behind on belly pictures!

As of today I'm 25 weeks, and these pictures were taken about midway through week 24:

 I'm pretty sure the papaya from week 22 was bigger than this cantaloupe...

...But my belly is way bigger than it was 2 weeks ago!!

 Sharing a shot from the front this week to illustrate how different I look from this angle.  

This is why most of my maternity clothes are still too big. ;-)

In nursery decor-related news, the curtains are done! 

Glen and I spent Saturday afternoon weeding through and organizing the storage spaces in the house so we can start to make more progress in the office-to-nursery conversion, and I've started gradually moving my jewelry stuff into the bottom section of the secretary desk.

I'm amazed by how much of my supplies fit in there!  Once I finish moving the rest of my supplies into the desk, I might have to do a post about how to fit an entire small business into a single desk, because aside the display supplies I use for shows (table, risers, tent, and a Rubbermaid container of tablecloths and jewelry stands), all of my office supplies and raw materials should all find homes!

Speaking of the jewelry business, my first show is this Saturday!  Eek!  It's going to be a busy week, but *slightly* less busy than expected, since my band rehearsal for tomorrow evening got cancelled.  I still need to fill in some gaps in my finished inventory - I desperately need to have more earrings on hand, and I still have an entirely new style of necklaces that I'd like to have available in a few different colors by that time.  If I have time, I also want to try out a new idea for added my logo to the gift boxes as well.

On top of that, I have a childbirth class at the hospital Tuesday night, an appointment with my OB after work on Wednesday followed immediately by a movie night at a friend's house (I will be bringing jewelry making supplies to the latter!), my usual Thursday night library shift, and a wedding on Friday.  And of course, putting in my 40-hour week at my day job.  Needless to say, I'll be spending most of Sunday napping!

Maternity Monday: 22 Week Belly and Curtain Prototype

How was everyone's weekend?  Mine was busy, but fun.  Glen and I went to my cousin's 30th birthday party on Friday night, then went on a sushi date (I stuck with a California roll and eel roll, but was stuck admiring his spicy salmon roll from afar) and attempted to finish up our baby registry.  Yesterday afternoon, Elvis had a play date with his cousin Magoo, who is a 118 lb American bulldog.  Magoo definitely falls under the category of "gentle giant" but the two of them had a fantastic time chasing each other around the back yard and wrestling.  I wish I'd taken pictures, but I dropped the ball on that...

However, I DO have belly pictures!

These were taken about a week and a half ago, about midway through week 22:

Baby was the size of a papaya that week.

Unrelated, but that was the week I stopped wearing my hair curly.  I had just dyed it and the weather's been less humid lately, so it stopped curling on its own, and straightening it is the path of least resistance again.  I am lazy. ;-)

Contemplating how it's possible something papaya-sized fits in my belly!  And probably worrying about watermelon week.

Although my belly has grown quite a bit, I'm still not filling out much of the maternity clothes I got, so I'm still mostly in my regular clothing for the time being, fitting into my jeans and dress pants with the help of Target's BeBand.  Seriously, best $16.99 I've ever spent!

And I just have to share this photo of Elvis hugging my belly.  It's a bit blurry, since I took it on my iPhone in the dark at an awkward angle, but it's too cute not to show you guys:

In other exciting baby-related news, my mom pinned together a prototype of the curtains for the nursery.  She stopped by over the weekend to check the length and width:

Please excuse the blue curtains that we lazily pushed to the side.  It just didn't seem worth it to take them down all the way until the new curtains are done!

Anyway, the print on the fabric was quite a bit larger than I'd expected, but now that I've seen it in curtain form and in the room, I actually think I like it better than if it was too much smaller.  An unexpected bonus of the print being so big is that we will be able to do a custom-made mobile by cutting out some of the birds from the excess fabric.  This works out well, because after searching high and low, I couldn't find a single mobile that I liked!

Next weekend's project: clean out the laundry room and hall closet so I can finally start clearing the non-nursery things out of the room!

New Office Space

I explained in a previous post that I need to relocate my office, since little Stormageddon will be taking over that room is less than four months (!!!).

After much debate over whether to hold out for the perfect antique or go ahead and buy something new, I decided to go with the latter, mostly because it would be easier to find and would give me more room to transform the old office. 

Ultimately I decided to go with the same desk I mentioned in this post, except in black:

As much as I would have LOVED to have find a cool antique desk, this one was the perfect color and style for the decor in the rest of the living room.  It was on sale.  I couldn't resist.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the desk, it's definitely quite solid.  (Come to think of it, we've bought at least 3 other pieces of furniture from Target, all of which turned out to be surprisingly nice!)

Here's what our living room looked like pre-desk:

I feel kind of bad about this, but the recliner (which is officially Elvis's chair at this point) had to make way for the desk:

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do about a chair yet, but for the time being I will probably just stash a folding chair between the desk and the fireplace or between the desk and the wall, then take it out as needed.  Once I come up with a more permanent solution, I'm sure I'll be sure to share.  Perhaps THAT will be the antique element in the room!

Maternity Monday: It's a...

GIRL!!!

I was stunned when the ultrasound tech told us, I was definitely expecting a boy considering how many boys there are in Glen's family!  The anatomy scan went really well, Stormageddon (we're going to stick with that name for now even though we're pretty much settled on a "real" name) looks healthy!  Here she is, sucking her thumb:

Awwwww

Now that we know we're having a girl, we've decided to go with this fabric for curtains, crib skirt, and possibly some other stuff:

And now: Belly pictures!

This is quite possibly my favorite belly picture so far:

18 weeks!

I think the combination me wearing one of my favorite dresses and holding a pepper that we grew ourselves had something to do with it.

We need to schedule these better.  It's always after my 12-hour work day, when I'm tired and disheveled!

And here are some pictures from 20 weeks - getting bigger!

I went to the grocery store to buy a single banana, just for this picture.

 I finally have a real belly to hold onto!!

Sad story about those tights:  That was the only day I got to wear them before getting an irreparable snag. :-(

 
The past couple of weeks have been very cool, pregnancy-wise.  I've been feeling Stormageddon kick on a regular basis, and Glen got to feel her kick for the first time last week.  It seemed like every time she started kicking and I'd call him over to feel, she'd stop, so I pulled up this song on my phone and she started dancing around again!

We've also started putting together some nursery furniture.  The changing table and dresser are done, but right now they're being used to store maternity clothes:

My office is a bit crowded since I haven't moved my desk, filing cabinet, bookcase, or futon just yet... but it's not quite as crowded as I feared it would be.  Once I relocate my office and get rid of the futon (umm, anybody want a futon??), there will be plenty of room for a crib and rocking chair. :-)