Little Girl's Room

We have a second bedroom in our apartment which used to look like this:

 This was actually on a day when I made it look nice... usually it was just a place to dump stuff.

Now it looks like this:

It was fun to try to decorate this room using mostly things that I already had or was given. I made the "headboard" for the guest bed out of an old curtain rod and some white sheets. Notice the dresser from the before picture? I love it's new look and crystal knobs, even though it was a ton of work.

I just finished the blackout curtains this week! I am excited about how they turned out, and they really do make the room very dark, even in the middle of the day.

Most of the picture frames are still empty. I'm planning on making some bunting with Little Girl's name on it to go in the open frame, and then baby pictures and family pictures in the other frames. I got the "medusa" lamp on Craigslist and it has been in my classroom for the last few years. Perfect colors!

This project took forever... until I figured out I could just drill holes in the bottom for the hook screws (I was trying to screw them into the bottom of the frame by hand-- not so smart). Do you think that Little Girl has enough headbands? I'm not so sure...

 

I thrifted this $4 mirror from Goodwill. I didn't take any before pictures, but it was UGLY. The frame was brown plastic open circles that kind of look like wicker. Or like someone had glued a bunch of bangle bracelets together. I tried painting it, but lost patience and ended up just wrapping the whole thing with white fabric. The turquoise lamp I also got at Goodwill and painted 2 years ago. It's been on my desk in my classroom until now.

I LOVE my rocking recliner! And the first quilt I've ever made and not given away. 

 I made the pack-and-play sheet, too--using this great tutorial.

A girl's gotta have plenty of books....

 ...and clothes! I think Little Girl will be able to wear a different outfit every day for the first year of her life, at least.

My favorite part of the whole room:

 I framed pieces of my Great Grandma Bessie's jewelry. Above are a pair of clip-on earrings and below is a matching brooch.

I was Grandma Bessie's first great-grandchild (she insisted that we were NOT to call her "great" grandma, it made her feel old). She made me a quilt with yellow toucan fabric on the back that I adored. I remember visiting her in Bountiful, Utah when I was pretty young and I have vague memories of a sparkly chandelier, running through the backyard, and eating orange rolls. I love having Grandma Bessie's jewelry displayed! It's a fun way to remember her and they are perfect sparkly accessories for the room. 

27 Weeks and a Project

I can't believe we only have 13 weeks left!

I definitely look way more pregnant in real life than in pictures, but here ya go:

  

This week I also finally finished my first big baby project. This awesome dresser was given to us by our good friends when they moved.

BEFORE

 

I have wanted to refinish it for the last year but haven't gotten around to it until now. 

AFTER

 I am so pleased with how it turned out. I only spent $30 on the whole project ($12 on knobs, $10 on polycrylic sealer, $8 on brushes, the dresser was free and I already had the paint).

My favorite part is (are?) the knobs! So pretty!

Semi-Annual Pilgrimage to the Homelands

As soon as I finished school, I started on what ended up as the biggest project of my life. It is a family tradition to receive a quilt when you are married. I volunteered to make the quilt for my sister's wedding. She picked the fabric, and I drew up a plan. It was a great plan... if I had had several months do to it. Luckily, I had all day every day for 3 weeks to work on it. I used a technique I found on The Welsh Quilter.

 the back of the quilt is gray and yellow. this is square 1 of 100... I quilted a treble clef/bass clef/heart design on each square. I actually ended up mis-calculating and making 45 extra squares (?!) so there may be a mini-version of this quilt up on etsy in the not-so-near future.

This quilt was huge, she took over my entire desk!

It's hard to see in this picture, but I embroidered their names and a quote from Shakespeare about love and music.

 Brian was also working on the biggest project of his life: studying for Step 1 Exam for the Medical School Boards (aka "The Test of questions about anything in existence"). So he didn't mind that I was completely occupied. He studied for 6 weeks, 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for that bad boy. He resisted all kinds of social temptations (movies, game nights) that were posed to him. And he conquered that 8-hour test! He just got his scores back this week and he scored above the Vanderbilt average! (cue the music.. "Hail the conquering Hero! da da dun dun dun....."

We flew to Arizona for Sarah and Zach's wedding. We had a week full of Chimichangas, Just Dance 3, decorating, ice cream, and generally enjoying the Arizona sunshine.

Mom and Sarah manning the frying station.

Michael and Brian claimed the "quality control" station while making chimis

 Just Dance3... bringing families together

 Beautiful centerpieces for the reception

 caught in the act...

The wedding was beautiful, the day was beautiful (though HOT), the bride was beautiful, and everything went generally smoothly. It was so fun to be their photographer! My amazing friend Amanda has been so great to help me along as I learn how to take better pictures.

After the chaos died down, we flew to Oregon. There we had a week full of sleeping in outrageously late, visiting the Keldsens in Bend, s'mores, puzzles, golfing, Disney Sing-Alongs, nieces and nephew, mini-golfing, movies, reading, PS3 gaming, the beach, fireworks, and (of course) more ice cream.

500 piece puzzle!

 Eli--Commanding and Conquering

Disney Princess sing-alongs

 cute Avery!

 Silly Alayna

 Reading the Bearnstein Bears

Jenna, Alayna, and Uncle Brian shooting for Par

 Brian likes his ice cream...

 Alayna and Aunt Stacey

 Fireworks!

  The Oregon Coast is beautiful, but COLD!

All too soon it was time to fly home. It's back to real life... I am studying for the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Exam and Brian is starting his rotation in Anesthesiology. Always staying busy!

Spring Break

I had so much fun doing projects over Spring Break!

Coffee Table Re-do! ($15 craigslist find)
Started out with this:
Halfway through day 1 of stripping it looked like this (I had to run to the store to get more stripper!):
After 2 days of stripping (3 cans of aerosol paint stripper later...) it looked like this:
(I didn't get a picture of day 3-- sanding with my new mouse sander!)

Mid-day 4-- painting and priming!

And the finished product!
I love the pretty blue knob!

Baking S'mores cookies

Baby Onesie Embellishing
I have a friend at work who has a daughter named Seven. She gave me some onesies and fabric and told me to do whatever I wanted with them. I had fun...