Nursery Decorating Woes

Now that it's been a week and a half since we moved Katie into her big girl room, I finally felt like I could go into the nursery and work on switching out the bedding.  I felt ill removing the perfect flower bedding that I had used for both Ellie and Katie.  I love this set and I was desperately hoping that this baby would be a girl so I could look at it for another two or three years.  So right off the bat I was setting myself up for an underwhelming experience.

Once I had all the girly bedding stripped away, I started to open up the boy alphabet bedding.  I put the pillow sham on our small Pottery Barn Kids pillow and was upset to see that it was huge on the pillow. So I went and checked the girly sham from PBK and saw that the dimensions on the tag were exactly the same as the new sham.  Odd.  The old one is a snug fit and this one is way too big.  Not a good start, but I told myself I could try to shrink it.

Then I pulled out the crib skirt.  I wasn't sure if I'd have to wash it first or not, but I knew either way, I'd have to iron it.  But first, I wanted to see how it fit on the crib.  I thought it was odd that the skirt was pooling on the floor so I checked to make sure I had it on properly and took a step back.  On the crib's lowest setting about 3-4 inches of fabric were on the floor on all three sides.  Seriously, how can this be?!  At this point I was on the verge of tears.

I went searching for a navy blue crib skirt that I have for my nephew's crib set and pulled that out.  I noticed the package said it had a 12 inch drop for the skirt.  So then I checked out the PBK one and see that it has a 16 inch drop.  I suspect it's just the perfect length for a Pottery Barn crib on the lowest mattress setting.  Had I been able to buy the crib skirt for Ellie's set 9 years ago (I believe it was either sold out or backordered.) I might have already known from experience that the skirt was going to be too long.  But since my mom made the skirt for that set I was blissfully unaware.

I'm tired and exhausted.  Naps don't happen for me at all thanks to a dog who barks when I try to sleep and a few other factors like me having to pick Ellie up at school when I would like to be sleeping.  I don't have the desire or the energy to alter a crib skirt for this new bedding set.

I sat on the nursery floor and cried for a bit.  Bryan offered to buy a new crib if that would solve the problem but I told him I didn't want it.  Then I decided to try the crib skirt from the girly set with the boy sheeting to see if I could live with it.  I thought it was a possibility until I added the baby blue mesh bumper.  I really dislike baby blue for boys and this was just too much.  I sent Bryan another text with a picture of that combination.  He suggested finding somethign that works, as in another bedding set.  No, I already brought wall decor that worked with this and my chances of finding something I like that goes with the wall color are slim to none.  I'm picky, and when it comes to decorating a nursery I have to have everything just so or I'll fixate on everything that is wrong.

I started to wonder what I'd have to do to make the crib skirt work.  I can't hem it from the bottom since it has a design and applique work at the bottom.  My only choice would be to hem it from the top.  After I had my little pity party and cried again about the bedding situation I put the skirt back on the bed and tucked about three or four inches under the mattress on one side.  That gave me the look I wanted.  So now I know what has to be done.  I either need to alter the crib skirt myself, or take it to a seamstress.  I'm not sure which option I'm going to go with at the moment.  I really don't want to get into a sewing project.

I talked to my mom and she suggested running it through the washer and dryer to see if it shrinks up a bit so that if I take on the alterations myself I don't find myself having to alter the crib skirt twice.  The bedding is in the wash right now and will be going in the dryer soon.  Here's hoping that it shrinks a bit.    If not, I will probably cry a bit more.

On the bright side, I do like the way the bedding looks and I think it goes nicely with the color of the room and the wall art I picked for the nursery.  

I'm still here

I noticed the other day that it's been quite a while since I last blogged.  The finger incident, which I still haven't been able to bring myself to type out the whole story of my hospital misadventure, Christmas, moving two kids into one bedroom, the birth of my first nephew and a snow storm have just left me in a seemingly endless state of neglecting the blog.  Honestly, after my hospital stay, I've just had a hard time wanting to do anything.  I'm certainly in a bit of a funk but I'm trying my best to get out of it.

I've healed up nicely from my injury and infection.  My finger is still a bit sore but I'm thankfully able to to normal household tasks again.  I had about a ten day break from changing diapers.  I suppose that was probably the silver lining in this whole miserable situation.  That, and me not being able to wash sippy cups.  I really dislike cleaning sippy cups.

Our Christmas was quite nice.  We sat in the front row of chairs for Christmas Eve Mass in the parish school cafegymitorium.  That meant I finally got to take pictures and even some videos of Ellie singing in the children's choir, and I even snapped a few pictures of Madeline altar serving.  Katie was surprisingly well behaved considering she spent an hour before Mass trying to sit with Ellie and the rest of the choir.  We sat with friends at Mass which also made it a more enjoyable experience.

Despite the smaller piles of Christmas gifts, I still feel like the kids got way too much for Christmas.  We give the kids four gifts each (three from us and one from St. Nick) and a stocking.  Once you add in gifts from other family members, though, the piles seem to take on a life of their own.  Fortunately we didn't have anyone crying that she had too many gifts to open this year.  So that was a welcome change.

On December 28th my nephew, Miles, was born.  He weighed 9lbs, 7oz!  That's practically a two month old if you ask me!  Funny thing is, when we got to meet him a few days after he was born he didn't seem like he was a big baby, he seemed very newborn like to me, but that might just be because I'm used to carrying a 24lb toddler all the time.  Katie is quite taken with her new little cousin and kept calling him "my baby" and making this cute little sound as she admired him.  It was the cutest thing.  She was certainly eager to hold him and she has Bryan and I more than a little concerned about how we're going to manage having a 2 1/2 year old who wants to play mommy and a newborn.  I think we're really going to have our work cut out for us.

The past week and a half has been one of transition with regards to the kids' bedrooms.  Madeline and Ellie are now the proud owners of a beautiful bunk bed and are sharing a room.  We're still working on making Madeline's old room a shared space.  I still have to merge their closets and we have more than a few items that need to find new places somewhere else in the house.  We're getting there.

Ellie's old room is about to become Katie's big girl room.  I'm planning to pain the blue room a nice cheery pink.  I'm also trying to decide whether or not I really want to refinish Madeline's old armoire.  Right now it's a honey pine color.  I'd like to paint it white so it matches Ellie's old headboard which I like better than Madeline's old bed which used to be my bed.  So I have a bit of work to do.  I just need to find the energy so I can do it.

I've decided to keep the pretty light aqua blue walls that are in the nursery for the new baby.  The bedding I selected has some aqua in it and I think the wall help to make the aqua accents on the bedding pop.   I have most of the decorative items I will need to have the little guy's nursery just the way I want it.  I'm looking forward to decorating the nursery.  I'm hopeful that I will have the nursery set up by the end of February.

Madeline is back to playing soccer again.  I think she had about six weeks off.  She's playing indoor soccer for the next two or three months and doing training with her travel team one night a week.  Most of her indoor games are at the same time I teach on Sunday morning so I think I may only make it to one or two of her games.  Bryan's not coaching for indoor soccer so he's getting to see what it's like to manage a toddler on the sidelines.

So as you can probably tell from my hodge podge update, we've been a bit busy around here.  There's certainly a lot going on and I don't foresee things slowing down anytime soon.  I'm going to do my best to update the blog a bit more frequently.  I've got loads of pictures to upload so perhaps that will be a catalyst for me to do a bit more blogging.

I also want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas (nothing like waiting until the 12th day of Christmas to wish you a Merry Christmas, right?) and a happy and healthy 2014!

Product Review: Easy Canvas Prints

A couple of months ago I was provided with the opportunity to turn one of my photos in to a canvas print by EasyCanvasPrints.com.  I spent nearly two months procrastinating on ordering the print in hopes that I could get a nice picture of the new baby with Madeline and Ellie.  Katie, of course, had other plans and decided that she wasn't going to make her entrance until the day after I had to place my order.  That left me with the agonizing task of picking just the right picture for this canvas print.  Choosing what picture to use was certainly the most difficult part of the entire process.  When you have thousands of pictures to choose from, it's never an easy task.

After spending a couple hours in the wee hours of a Saturday morning I decided that the picture which was our Christmas card photo last year, would be the one I'd use for the canvas.  Once I had picked the photo ordering my canvas print was relatively easy.  To order a canvas you simply pick your size, upload your picture, choose how you want it laid out and how you'd like the wrapped edges to look and you're done.

I did have a slight issue with sizing my photo just right and choosing my wrapped edge.  I would have been spared a little bit of frustration if there was a button that allowed you to reset the photo.  That small issue was my only gripe about the entire ordering process.

My canvas had an estimated arrival date of November 2nd which would have put the processing and shipping time at around a 2 1/2 week wait.  I was pleasantly surprised when the canvas arrived on my doorstep in well under a week's time.  Having a newborn in the house made last week a bit of a blur and I had actually forgotten that I ordered a canvas print.  I was rather surprised to open my front door on Friday and find the canvas I ordered on October 15th sitting there.

I'm very pleased with the quality of the print.  The colors are exactly as they are on the 8X10 prints I had made last year.  I particularly like the wrap around edge since I can hang this canvas on a wall or display it on a shelf with out having to frame it.

EasyCanvasPrints.com provided me with the 8X10 canvas print you see pictured in this review free of charge in exchange for my honest review.  Having seen a sample of their canvas prints, I would certainly recommend giving them a try if you are looking to turn a photo into a canvas print.  I'm sure I'll be ordering a few more canvas prints in the future.

Completed Nursery

I posted pictures a while back of the nursery, but the room was missing the finishing touches.  Since I had the camera out, I decided to snap a few pictures of the completed room.  All it's missing is the baby.  I hope  we'll have one we can put in there very soon.

Small Successes

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I finally got all the bags of hand-me-down clothes that need to be given away out of my living room.  6 bags of clothes take up a lot of space.

2. After much searching, I found a quilt for Ellie's room that matches her existing sheets and goes with her wall color. I no longer have to deal with her poorly made lumpy Tommy Hilfiger comforter that didn't last 10 months.  Now, I'm just waiting for the new bedskirt and accent pillow for her arm chair to arrive.

3. I have just about everything on the main level of the house cleaned and ready for the party we're having after Madeline's First Communion.  Only two more days left!  I'm excited for her.

Bonus #1: Yesterday we got Madeline's new glasses just in time for her First Communion (I've been worried that they wouldn't be ready in time).  Now she won't have to wear beat up glasses on her big day.  I don't know what that girl does to her glasses, but she sure is hard on them.

Bonus #2: I managed to not kill naughty Mr. Furkins today.  Someone decided that it would be a good idea to dig in the backyard after 7 days of rain.  That someone also mistakenly thought that we would be pleased that he decided to dig up an area where we are desperately trying to grow grass that was destroyed during the pool construction last year.  In making these most terrible decisions, Mr. Furkins has caused me 1 load of laundry, a dog bath and the necessary cleaning of a now muddy tub.  Thanks, Mr. Furkins, I don't already have a ton of stuff to do between today and Saturday morning.