Remodel Update

Hi Everyone! Happy Wednesday!

Lots going on at our house...starting with a new roof because it rained and ours leaked. I soooooo would have liked to have spent that money on something fun (eg new carpet), but my husband is all about being responsible and that's a good thing...

Here is our living room/dining room breifly put back together (LOVE LOVE LOVE our new floors, they make the house feel so airy and clean and beautiful vs the dirty white carpet):

And the stairs which were carpet before:

Someday we will reupholster the dining room chairs something colorful:

Wood still in the dining room...destined for the laundry room floor at some point...

And here's the exciting part...this is totally my husband's vision but it's going to be the coolest thing ever. We have a 2-story wall in our living room (that our upstairs family room looks out over too) and we're doing these textured tiles and then a design that my art-director friend put together for us is going to be painted onto it. The tiles were initially tricky to get to stick to the wall (they are very thin and light cardboard), but once the guys helping us figured it out, it's gone fast.

Living room is torn up again...so excited about this wall but also can't wait to get our house back to normal. This is it as far as house projects for a while...going to have to save up before we can do any more... :)

XOXO

Living Room Remodel Weeks 2 and 3

Slow and steady progress on our remodel...

Dear Luke and Zoey: Moving Day

Dear Luke and Zoey,

We moved to our new home in Albuquerque middle of March, on your first birthday, in fact.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day and we had tons of help, with professional movers and Grammy and Grandpa and Grandma Charlotte (your grandmas helped watch you and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned for us...the house was, unfortunately, filthy when we got it). Your Grandpa Steve got us a flag to hang out front...such a nice gift...and made sure the dogs got out and exercised. We had some new-to-us furniture delivered (including the blue velvet couch below, isn't it cool?), cable hooked up, all the normal moving things.

Moving is hard! It's almost a month later and we're still not quite done (although all the boxes are emptied at this point). This house will definitely be an ongoing project due to time and money restraints, we're going to be paying for things as we go. But we have such great plans for this house, and I love that your first memories will most likely be here.

Love,

Your Mommy

Adventures in House Hunting

Hi Everyone! I'm back! Hope everyone had a great week last week...as you know we were in Albuquerque house hunting, and look what we found:

Not the classic adobe with a view of the mountains I was dreaming of (turns out, that's out of our price range), but I'm soooooooo excited nonetheless. There are some hoops that must be jumped through, but fingers crossed this is going to be ours. Throughout the house hunt this was known as the "60's Fab" house...it's like Mad Men crossed with Palm Springs (we're going to have a pool!), with a little bit of Mexico sprinkled in. These are just crappy iPhone photos, and of course somebody's else's stuff, but we have plans to make this place oh-so-very-cool. It felt like our home from the second we walked in. 

In other news:

1. ABQ is cool (I'd never really been), I can definitely see us enjoying ourselves there 
2. It's all about red or green chile...I like both so I've been taught to order my food "Christmas" (hee hee)
3. The more we learn about my husband's new job, the cooler it sounds
4. The grandmas watched the babies (and I missed them TERRIBLY)...they (the babies) sprouted teeth while we were gone and the world is now their personal jungle gym and they say "Da!" when their daddy walks into the room (they've been saying "Ma-ma" for some time but I'm still not convinced it's meant specifically for me)
5. And my brother's (now mine) dog Dexter had his eye removed in surgery today...long story but he is doing well and that's all that matters 

AND...tomorrow is my last day in this (our Colorado) house...I'm feeling kind of sad when there's a second to think about it. Packing starts Wednesday...my husband's headed to ABQ Saturday...me and the kids and the dogs are decamping to my parents, probably until about mid-March. I hate being away from my husband but love love love spending time with my parents, so looking forward to that.

It's chaos around here, but a good, excited, my-husband-is-taking-care-of-almost-everything kind of chaos.

Cross your fingers for us and the house...it's not a done deal (long story I'll tell when it's over).

XOXO

Making a Marriage Work, Volume 1

Hi Everyone! Happy Thursday!

Thanks for the suggestions last week on what to call the little bird perched on the antlers of the paper mache deer head we've put in our playroom. An ensuing conversation with my husband:

Me: "Stacey says we should call the bird 'Buttercup.' How cute is that?!?" (Stacey is a dear friend of mine who lives on the beach in San Francisco...lucky girl...so jealous.)

My Husband: "I was thinking after that bird from Snoopy."

Me: "'Woodstock?'"

Him: "Yeah, 'Woodstock.'"

Me: "Hm. I like 'Buttercup' better."

Him: "I know...we can name the bird "Butterstock!' Or 'Woodcup!'"

Me (laughing): "'Butterstock' it is."

See how good we are at making things work for the both of us? :)

XOXO

Maurice

So for years, don't know why but I've wanted an animal head in my house...but not a real one, animal lover that I am. Something artsy and cool. Luckily, they're trendy right now, so there are lots to choose from, and we've been putting together a playroom for the kids, so it seemed like a good time.

And so...meet Maurice (named by my husband, who does all the naming of things around here.) I think he was thinking Steve Miller Space Cowboy; it makes me think Maurice Sendak and Where the Wild Things Are. Either way, I like it, and it's nice to have a playroom mascot, you know?

Oh, and the little yellow bird on the antlers has yet to be named, so let me know if anyone has any clever suggestions.

Happy Wednesday!

XOXO

P.S. Don't forget to vote for Buck Up, Buttercup in order to help us get a good ranking on Top Baby Blogs! We're at #26 right now, which blows my mind...THANK YOU to everyone who has voted...means the world to me. To vote (and you can vote once per day if you want to vote again), CLICK HERE, and then click again on the left side of the screen that pops up...that's it. Thanks in advance. :)

Shopping Info: Dwell Studio.

Good to Do the Things That Bring You Pleasure...

So even though we're probably moving (although not sure when or where...I'm doing pretty well overall with that uncertainty), I've decided we should make a little bit of effort to make things nice in our yard. So easy with infant twins and not knowing what the future holds just to blow it off. But my mother-in-law is here this week, and this morning she helped me weed, and I planted some flowers for our back patio, swept the winter leaves and dirt up, washed the cushions and generally made it so we can be outside and enjoy it. And I'm so glad I did. We may be here all summer, and there's no reason to deprive ourselves of outdoor pleasures, right?

By the way, my husband's job hunt is going well...he's on his second and third interviews, respectively, for jobs in L.A. and Virginia (the Virginia job involves a likely transfer at some point to Seattle).

And also, I have become obsessed with Instagram:

Hope everyone's having a lovely day. :)

XOXO

Nursery Tour

Hi Everyone! 

I've been meaning to do a nursery tour forever...and today is finally the day!

My husband and I were both hugely involved in decorating this room, and because we both had things we wanted, we didn't end up with a particular theme...instead a mish-mash of things he wanted, things I wanted, budget items, small splurges, sentimental things, things we made, gifts, etc. Here is the finished room, which I love:

This used to be my husband's office, and the gray on the walls is his color, which he was adamant about not changing. I actually like the gray, although when we move I think I'd like to do a lighter, more pastel shade of it. We've just got one crib for now (from Target), a dresser with changing pad (dresser: American Furniture Warehouse; pad and cover: Land of Nod), and a rocker (vintage, from my mother-in-law):

We got tons of quilts/blankets as gifts and are using them all...you really can't have too many! The ones below: polka dots: a gift from a college friend (Nordstrom); multicolored paisley (on crib) and the animals (lower left of picture): hand-made by my BFF's mom (from fabric my fabulously stylish BFF picked out); patchwork quilts on the floor for tummy time: hand-made by my mom (with a little help from me). The white rug on the floor is from American Furniture Warehouse:

These giraffe mobiles were a gift from my aunt and uncle back east...so cute! (From Amazon.) And my husband wanted an alien in the room, and I found kind of a girly patchworky one on Etsy, so we were both happy:

The paisley curtains my mom and I made from fabric from Hobby Lobby...they were super easy. The dotted changing pad cover is something I splurged on. And this bunny is from a dear friend of my mom's...she's English and I so admired her style all the time I was growing up:

My husband and I changed out the plain silver knobs on the dresser...replaced them with some Anthropologie knobs that I'd used on cupboards in my bedroom in Santa Barbara and have been waiting for a chance to use ever since. The silver trash can fit our aesthetic much better than the diaper pails we saw (at least the reasonably priced ones). It works great as far as containing odor, by the way (from Bed, Bath and Beyond).

Love, love, love this vintage rocking chair that my mother-in-law refinished for us. And the leather footstool was a steal at Ross. Great for putting my feet up while rocking, or sitting on while selecting clothes out of the dresser:

Here's a detail view of the pillow in the rocker. When we originally put the room together, it felt too masculine to me, so I tried to add some girly touches like this. This is also something I had in Santa Barbara that I've been trying to find a home for ever since I left (from Land of Nod, although purchased years ago):

A few additional details that I love:

Above the rocking chair we have zoo pictures I got from Etsy:

And my BFF gave us this fabulous nightlight:

My husband has a thing about Ugly Dolls. Actually, it's really cute...when we were dating and in Seattle, we went for a walk in the Arboretum one day and passed by an open house and went inside...in one of the kid's rooms there was an Ugly Doll and my husband said, "If we ever have kids, we need one of those." So the Ugly Doll collection (each given to us as a gift) is kind of sentimental:

My husband's also all about the kids being smart, so he really wanted a periodic table in the nursery (this one's a gift from a woman I work with; from Land of Nod). I added the flower (which I used to wear around my neck some nights going out in San Francisco), again trying to keep the room from becoming too masculine. :)

So that's it! Hope you've enjoyed a peek into our happy little nursery! :)

Happy weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

XOXO

The Nursery, Episode 5: Quilts From My Mom

Hi Everyone!

First off, thanks for all your sweet comments on yesterday's post. I'm actually feeling really positive today and not scared...just really trusting that everything is going to be OK, which is so unlike me! :) But a really good place to be.

Anyway, today wanted to share with you the quilts my mom made for our babies (I helped a little, but the vast majority of the work was done by her).

Here is the one for our boy:

And our girl:

My mom gave them to me at my baby shower last weekend, and my friend's 15-year-old niece who was there said that the girl's looked like watermelon and the boy's looked like snow, which I though were really sweet and apt descriptions. 

We have been VERY blessed in the handmade quilt department, with additional quilts coming from my mother-in-law, a lovely friend in Boulder (whose kids I used to babysit for when I was in college), and my BFF's mom. I'll be doing additional quilt posts in the future...the quilts are all so cute and TOTALLY different. Thank goodness we've been told you can never have too many quilts!

Anyway, I think the quilts my mom made are the cutest things I've ever seen. Can't wait until they're wrapped around real, live babies!

Thanks, Mom! :)

XOXO

The Nursery, Episode 4: Curtains

The Nursery, Episode 3: Wall Art

The Nursery, Episode #2: Receiving Blankets

The Nursery, Episode #1: Furniture

The Nursery, Episode #4: Curtains

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday!

So a few weeks ago, my mom and I made curtains for the nursery. Very simple, just hemmed rectangles...we're using metal clips up top to hang...and I didn't want to line them as I've heard you want to get the babies used to day and night, so no blacked out rooms during that day.

As I've mentioned, this room (the nursery) was already painted gray and we've decided not to change it, so I'm working within that parameter. I love the fabric here, though...felt like it helps to lighten the gray up and make the room more fun and child-like. What do you all think?

Will be showing pictures of the entire nursery in February, once we're finished. I have to say, it's been really nice to put it together little by little, especially since we're making a number of things. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Thanks for spending some time here this week. :)

XOXO

Fabric source: Hobby Lobby.

The Nursery, Episode 3: Wall Art

The Nursery, Episode #2: Receiving Blankets

The Nursery, Episode #1: Furniture

The Nursery, Episode #3: Wall Art

Hi Everyone!

Today I wanted to share with you the wall art we selected for our nursery. This was fun, but also hard for my husband and me to come to agreement on something. It's been the same the whole time we've decorated our house...there's a lot I like that he doesn't and vice versa, but in the end we always manage to find things we both love. (Takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears, though.) (See the end of this post for links.)

Zoo Animals 

The zoo animals (actually, animals in general) were my idea, but my husband picked these particular prints. The ones I initially fell in love with were much more subdued, and had poems to go along with them. But I really like these as well. And they are a lot brighter and happier than what I originally wanted.

Periodic Table

My husband is a total science nerd. This is all him. But I think it's kind of cool.

Alien

Having an alien in the nursery was also my husband's idea, but this particular one was my pick. It's all cute and patchwork-y...love!

Bunny

And this is all me. I am such an animal lover and would never put a real animal head on my wall, but I've been obsessed for some time with having a fake animal head to hang. Love the flower wreath and the gold ears. :)

So, I know this is a totally eclectic mix and there's no real theme here, but everything works together because of the colors and I'm really happy with where we ended up and I know my husband is too. And that's what counts, right?

What do you all think?

XOXO

The Nursery, Episode #2: Receiving Blankets

The Nursery, Episode #1: Furniture

Image credits/shopping: 

Zoo Animals: Wallfry via Etsy.

Periodic Table: Land of Nod.

Alien: BigTedLittleTed via Etsy.

Bunny: Anthropologie.

The Nursery, Episode #2: Receiving Blankets

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday!

Blankets for our girl...

So over the past week or so, my mom and I made a bunch of flannel receiving blankets. This is my kind of sewing...they are essentially three-foot-by-three-foot squares with the edges hemmed...super easy. We'll use these to swaddle the babies when they are first born, and then as regular blankets (for example, to lay on the floor for them to play on, to keep them warm in the stroller) after. My mom made blankets like these for her three kids...so cool to get to do it together for mine. :)

...and for our boy.

Love the fun flannel prints! And that I'm getting to make some things for our babies...

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. Thanks so much for spending some time here this week.

XO

The Nursery, Episode #1: Furniture

Grace in Small Things, December 7, 2011

Today's the first day it's really feeling like Christmas is coming. Love this time of year...

1. Really slow work week for me...took advantage of that fact and spent the day at my mom's sewing receiving blankets for the babies (we have a few more to do...will post pictures when we're done). They're turing out so cute and things go so fast with my mom and I working together. Plus whenever I use the blankets, I can think back to the day we made them together and how lovely it was...

2. About to head home to meet my husband for dinner, but as I sit here typing the sky is tinged light pink from the sunset, my parent's Christmas tree is in front of me sparkling with multi-colored lights, my mom is playing the most lovely melody on the piano...it's so beautiful...all's right with the world...

3. When I have lunch at my parents' (once a week or so) we almost always play a game called Upwords (like Scrabble, but 3D). My parents play against each other every day and are really, really good. But today I won for the first time! Yay! :)

4. We're having a co-ed baby shower over in Denver in the New Year. My dad originally scoffed at the idea of attending a baby shower ("Never been to one, see no reason to start now."), but today he said he'd come, which makes me sooooooo happy.

5. Our younger dog, Newton, broke his toenail a week or so ago. Last weekend, my husband and I took him to the dog park where the little pond they have full in the summer was dried up...except they had pushed all the silt that had accumulated to one side, and wouldn't you know it, both our dogs ran into the chest deep mud and muck. It was worth the pain of having to clean them just for how funny it was to watch them try to extract themselves...it was like they were stuck in quicksand...I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. But Newton's foot got infected, which prompted a trip today to the nicest vet ever (Dr. Bob's his name, big, burly ex-football player and mostly a horse doctor but he sees dogs now and again). Anyway, I'm just grateful it's nothing a few antibiotics won't cure, you know?

XOXO

Image Credit: HikingArtist.com.

The Nursery, Episode #1: Furniture

Hi Everyone!

So we're getting started on the nursery. (I know it's early, but I'm feeling pretty good now and don't know how I'll be later in my pregnancy. Plus we're going to be making a number of things, which takes time. Plus I think it'll be really fun to have a room to go into and sit and dream about the babies, you know?)

Anyway, thought it would be fun to share!

A little about the room: It's really small, has beautiful hardwood floors, good light. My husband's been using it as an office and it's painted dark gray, which I don't love for a nursery, but we're going to try and make it work since we will probably be moving not long after the babies are born (even if we stay in the same town my husband would like to move to a new house.)

I was originally thinking vintage/used furniture, but we're not finding much and the things we're finding are really expensive. So we're going for new. Dark wood, which I'll lighten up with bright and cheery quilts, curtains, cushions, etc. Here's what we've picked out:

Rug--The softest thing ever...cannot wait to have it in the room and go in and lie down on it:

Rocking Chair--This is a vintage piece, a gift from my mother-in-law (ours looks just like the one in this picture):

Dresser--The one we picked looks a lot like this. I'm going to give it some personality with some funky glass pulls I have from Anthropologie. They were in the Santa Barbara house I shared with my brother, and I love that I'm going to get to repurpose them in the babies' room: 

Crib--We're just going to get just one to start, because of the size of the room. Something along these lines:

Pretty simple, but we like simple and figure it's a good canvas for all the fun and happy things we're going to make. Wall art is also going to be key here to make sure the room is bright and cheeery and not too grown up looking.

What do you all think?

XO

Rug: American Furniture Warehouse. 

Rocker: Vintage. Image Credit: pappymerlot via ebay.

Dresser: American Furniture Warehouse.  

Crib: Target. 

Baby Stuff: The Preliminary List

I love this ottoman and can totally see it in our nursery. I'm picturing lots and lots of color...

Hi Everyone! 

So I have to laugh, because my husband and I have been talking and talking about how we don't want to get/don't think it's necessary to have a lot of stuff for the babies, and yet, when I make my preliminary list of what I think we need it seems sooooooooo long.

Basically, we're trying to:

1) Keep our lives as clutter-free as possible (may be totally unrealistic with two babies, I know), and

2) Get the baby stuff on a budget (we've got a few Visa gift cards, a few hundred dollars worth of change we've been saving up, a few hundred dollars that we've been setting aside little by little from our weekly budget for a while now)...so we have some cash, but don't want to go crazy. (Well, let me rephrase that...I would love to go to Land of Nod or Pottery Barn Kids and buy everything in sight, but my husband is so much more responsible about money than I am...and it works out great for our family, so I am not complaining...but to be perfectly honest it's really him that's keeping this whole thing from getting out of control, lol.)

Anyway, below is my preliminary list of what I think we need (and/or I really, really want):

Baby "Necessities"

• 2 cribs (probably used, or from some place like Target or IKEA)
• 2 crib mattresses
• Crib sheets...maybe 4?
• 2 quilts (I think I'm going to try and make these myself...not really in love with anything I've seen)
• 2 Moses baskets (so the babies have a portable place to sleep when they're very small)
• Curtains for the nursery (I'll make these)
• Receiving blankets (my mom and I will make these...not sure how many we'll need)
• Onesies (again not sure how many we'll need)
• Burp cloths
• Diapers
• Diaper pail
• Ottoman/footrest for rocker (we already have the rocker...it was my grandma's...my dad and his brothers were rocked in it...love that)
• Cushion for rocker (I'll make)
• Dresser (plan to get one cheap secondhand and repaint/put on these cool Anthropologie knobs I have)
• Changing pad for top of dresser
• 2 slings/baby carriers
• Double stroller (this might be where we splurge...I have my eye on a really nice one and my husband hasn't said no)
• 2 car seats
• Nursery decor (pictures for walls, mobile, nightlight, etc)
• Diaper accessories (wipes, rash cream, etc)
• Bottles etc? (I really want to breast feed 100%...but I know that might not work out and I'm not opposed to pumping and having some milk in the fridge so my husband and I can get out of the house on our own at some point)

What do you all think? Am I missing something important? Is something here totally unnecessary? Would love to hear your opinions...

Oh, and on a somewhat unrelated note, I keep thinking I feel the babies move, but only when I'm walking up the stairs. Could this be true, or am I totally imagining things?

XOXO

Image credit: BERBERCOOP (ETSY Shop) via Lay Baby Lay.