A Year Ago: Nursery

You all can just go ahead and prepare yourself for lots of "A Year Ago" posts over the next few months. As spring is starting here in New England I am so intensely reminded of this time last year. My belly was big, the baby was kicking like crazy and I was shifting into nesting overdrive. The baby's arrival was feeling so imminent and we were savoring our final weeks as "just" a couple.

So, without further ado, a year ago today we were busy little bees and I was happy as a clam:

clearly, i was really helpful. i was in charge of instructions. and, pardon the mess :)

My yarn wreath!

 

Apparently I am the last person on the planet to hear of yarn wreaths, but fortunately, Mandy's post last week opened my eyes to this super fun craft. It took me the full week to grab enough time between saving my crawling baby from danger and trying to get her down for a nap during this week's nap strike, but I finally finished it yesterday. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I now want to hang a yarn wreath on every flat surface of my house. I might try to calm myself down and stick with seasonal ones for the front door. No promises.



I found these two tutorials to be most helpful:
The wreath:
http://www.danielleburkleo.com/2010/10/diy-yarn-wreath-with-felt-flowers.html
http://mrspriss.com/2011/01/18/tutorial-cheery-yarn-wreath/
The flowers:
http://mrspriss.com/2010/03/12/tutorial-felt-rosettes/

Inventions

Maybe its the overcast weather we're having here this week, but I've been feeling lazy and I want to get the house cleaned before our trip. So, I've been thinking up inventions that would help allow me to be lazy and productive all at the same time.

a bathroom that cleans itself.
hmm. and while we're at it, i'll take this bathroom.

a kitchen that has floors that never get dirty.
i'll take this kitchen, too. it's like a library kitchen!

a robot that delivers me coffee to my bed. because let's be honest: even if the above were to exist, i have a a cutie baby that get's up early. i can't stay in bed all day!

What would you invent to help you be lazy? What chore or activity to you hate?

images: 1 2 3: google search, then instagr.am'd

color coordinated

When I saw this picture on Design Mom a few months ago, I was instantly inspired. Ever since then, when sitting in my rocking chair, I have stared at my bookshelves dreaming of color coordinated books & gadgets. When we moved into our new place back in February, we just kind of threw stuff onto our shelves in an effort to get rid of boxes. I haven't ever felt like they were properly decorated. So, this Friday night, for some reason, i was finally inspired enough to take the plunge. I made stacks of books according to spine color and with the help of my husband and his love of color schemes, I now have bookshelves I love.


What do you think? Would you like color coordinated books? Or would you prefer organization by topic? or book size?

Country Craving

I love where we live. I love that we are steps away from a beautiful, paved bike path. I love that we are just a few more steps away from a peaceful reservoir. I love that we are near the city, but also have the perks of the suburbs. I love walking to Trader Joe's.

But sometimes, especially this time of year, when we venture out to apple picking or to a yummy breakfast at Parker's Maple Barn, I have an urge to move farther out to the country. To a place where we'd have lots of land. To a place with big, old, colorful trees. To a place where neighbors are friendly, but not too close. To a place where I'd shop in small markets, not gigantic grocery stores.


Who knows, maybe one day.

the promise of guests.

For the first time in my little married life I have a second bedroom, which now has a couch that has a bed. And for the first time, I set it up because we have guests coming. The best kind of guests: my parents.

I'm so excited for them to get here. They haven't seen me since my belly was looking like I stuffed it with too much turkey and mashed potatoes. My mom and I are going to stroll through Babies R Us. I might even see if she wants to go shopping for a dress for my baby shower together. Then we'll all head down to Newport, RI for a marriage retreat. It should be a lovely weekend. One with familiar faces I miss seeing every week.

another living room update.

even though we're still waiting for our super comfy, super cute yellow, upholstered rocking chair to arrive (in early june. boo!) we are still making updates to our living room :)

(the mirror, combined with the pictures, now sits centered above the couch!!)
ps. that is not a ghost on the right side of the picture. i don't think.
our new custom framed picture!

(i am embarassed my how much of a dweeb i am posing with our new framed picture...except clearly i'm not because i posted this to the internet)

Spring Cleaning!

I've been on spring cleaning overload the past few weeks. It was mostly in preparation for the arrival of our new furniture, but also because the change of the seasons is good inspiration for getting my butt of the couch and getting our apartment in order. 

Today my goal was taking down winter clothes and bringing up spring clothes. It's such a hassle, but also so exciting. With the forecast predicting Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the 70s and 80s (!!!!), I decided it was time. Bringing out spring clothes is like reconnecting with old friends. Summer dresses, beachy tops and fun sandals bring a flood of memories and also a promise of warmer days and happy nights of summer. 

So I'm not quite done. I still need to go through Chris's stuff, but I need his help to do that. But, I thought I'd leave you with a photographic journey of my day.

Drawers started off cah-raaaazy.

 Sweaters ended up in nice neat piles. Wanted to highlight the Teacher-Christmas sweaters :)

Now, my drawers are full of colorful patterned shorts, skirts, tshirts and tank tops!

Happy Spring!!!!

The furniture is here!!

Chris and I are beyond thrilled with our new furniture and new living room set-up. It feels like our own and feels very cozy. There are more updates and additions to come, but we are really happy with how it is right now.

Our couch, truck and rug. We're adding some pictures above the couch so the mirror isn't so off-centered.

This wall is a bit bare. We have a few ideas for sprucing it up. We'll see!!We moved our bookcases over against the walls to have more of an office/study feel. We really like how it turned out.

More pictures to come. I'm hoping to get a few new pillows and a few cute decorating things to tie all the colors in this week.

New Furniture!!!

I hinted in yesterday's blog about the possibility of us getting new furniture and we did!! I'm so excited. We were generously given furniture by my parents when we got married. We were very grateful and the pieces were extremely comfortable. However, its old furniture and was loosing its bottom supports and the back cushions were coming apart from the back supports. It is also very large leather furniture for a relatively small apartment. We also think we might have a bit of a bug problem, but we're not going to talk about that. Ew.

So Chris and I shopped around a bit this week and I also went out with my mom. With my mom I found the furniture that I thought was "it" so I took Chris to look at it. We were sold! The couch and one chair arrive on Saturday!! The other chair won't come for about two months because we special ordered the fabric.

This is like a dream come true because I finally feel like I get to decorate my house. I am grateful for the furniture we've had thus far, but it wasn't "mine" and I didn't get to choose it. Now, I feel more free to decorate and experiment with ideas I've had bobbing around in my mind for a long time. My Country Living magazine subsription might come into some practical use.

I will post actual pictures of our very own furniture once it arrives, but for now here are some stock photos of it!!

Here's the couch:

Here's the leather chair (in real life the browns match, they look different here):Here's the style of the upholstered chair (its a swivel rocking chair!):
We got it in this fabric, but yellow instead of red: