Life, love, & Lily.

two months old.

Lily turned two months on Sunday. Wow, time is flying already. I really wish it would slow down. Before I know it she'll be walking and talking. I totally understand why people have tons of kids. Babies are great. I already want another one. I will not be doing that, though because a) the last thing I need is to be a single mother of TWO and b) I have no intention of having sex with anyone ever again. Hah, just kidding... kind of.

 

Two months old, here is a recap:

• birth weight: 8lbs 9oz; 2 month weight: 12lbs 6oz
• birth height: 21.25" (or was it 21.75"..? Crap, I don't remember. What an awful mother); 2 month height: 23.5" (almost TWO FEET LONG, wtf!)
• now coos and makes silly little noises
• SMILING UP A STORM
• lifting her head wonderfully
• aaaalmost rolling over... not quite there yet

She got her shots at the doctor yesterday. Poor baby was not a happy camper. But she got these rad band-aids so it made up for it. Right, Lily?

 

What's up, doc?

More shit around the house is getting done. I made curtains last week and ordered some stencils so I could paint them. I ordered sea life, zoo animal, and flower stencils just so I could keep my options open. Lord knows how indecisive I can be...

 

Monkeys and crabs and roses, oh my!

 

For the curtains, I bought some grey fabric and iron on adhesive because I am lazy and I also do not own a sewing machine. It was tedious using the iron on shit, and I am the queen of eyeballing things so the panels are not necessarily the exact same size, but it falls perfectly into my 'good enough' category. Instead of hemming an opening for the curtain rod, I decided it would be easier to go with drapery clips. 

 

 

Can we talk about my new found love for drapery clips? I especially like them because they make it fairly easy to adjust the curtain lengths so the panels match better since I obviously suck at measuring/don't give a fuck.

 

I ended up going with elephants because, let's be real, elephants are the shit. I love elephants and decided they belonged on my kitchen curtains.  

 

Now my kitchen is like Africa.

 

I wasn't happy with the color selection for fabric paint so I took another route. I bought two bottles of acrylic paint in a nice turquoise color (an attempt to semi-match the lazy susan) and a bottle of this stuff called textile medium. You mix one part textile medium with two parts acrylic paint and it makes the acrylic paint permanent on fabric. So I sponged on the paint with the stencil, let it dry, then ran the iron over it to set the color. This was a really easy project that I think added a nice touch of my personality to the kitchen. 

 

Also, I bought myself flowers because they are pretty and I fucking deserve it.

 

dining room redo.

This past week I painted my dining room furniture. I wanted to add some color to the room in a simple way and balance it out with a plain white table, inspired by this dining room table I saw at Pier One that had a similar structure to mine but was priced at almost $500. Yikes!

 

I love the white because it looks elegant yet allows for liveliness to be brought in with little details rather than having an overwhelmingly colorful large piece of furniture (if I had decided to paint it a solid bright color, which I did consider).

 

 

I bought this set when I was moving out for Fort Davis from a friend for $75. Came with the table + leaf and six chairs. She had painted it when she had it. It looked like the base and the chairs had been a dark green with wood finish on the surfaces. She covered the green with black & I had been happy with that for the past year. But now that I'm in my new house and Lily is here, I am really focusing on having a comfortable, stylish (our style, at least.. some may look at my choices of decor and think 'what the fuck?') and most importantly, clean and organized home. I'm taking baby steps to getting our home where I want it to be & now I feel like the dining room has achieved a good level.

 

 

I know these aren't the best pictures, a new camera is in the works. But you'll get the idea. I took the leaf out of the table because, c'mon, it's really just me here most of the time & I don't need a big table. I like the way the smaller, round table looks. It gives the dining room a breakfast nook kind of feel. I'm only using the red chairs because once it was all in the room, I ended up not being completely thrilled with the way the yellow and red chairs looked together against the white. It had a crayola crayon vibe that seemed juvenile and that wasn't what I was going for. I blame the brightness of the yellow. I wanted closer to a goldenrod color but they didn't have that at Home Depot so I settled for the brighter version. The yellow chairs are taking up residence up against the wall for now. They still add a nice pop of color with the red chairs in the same vicinity, but without the intense contrast that they had when they were side by side. I figure I'll use them for holidays or dinner parties in combination with the table cloth seen in the before pictures. The table cloth masks the crayon feel quite a bit by breaking up the starkness of the solid white. 

 

I also painted the lazy susan that I got for free in Fort Davis. I chose a turquoise spray paint for it. I think I will use the rest of the can to paint a few little things around the kitchen, tying the little details together. I ended up really liking the way the turquoise pops. Then I added a crappy little centerpiece of an old glass coke bottle with a flower in it, which had been sitting on my fireplace mantle gathering dust. I figured the red on the bottle label and the yellow in the flower went nicely with the chairs. 

 

Costs for this project:

• furniture - $75
• lazy susan - free
• spray paint (three cans per color + one turquoise) - $40
• package of sandpaper (that I barely even used. hmph) - $6

Total price for a new dining room: $121

 

Not too fucking shabby for such an inexpensive undertaking. I feel like my dining room has a totally different mood now. It's fun and colorful, yet still simple. Also, removing the leaf really opened up the space. It's not perfect yet, I'd like to get a buffet-type piece eventually (I've been eyeing this one from Target) but I'm pleased with its current state. A few more simple decorative pieces in the room & I think it will be just what I'm looking for. I want to make some DIY placemats, too. A trip to the fabric store is in order pronto!

 

Up next: the living room. I bought new furniture a few weeks ago & the room is ready to be rejuvenated around the set!

nesting > resting.

I have been nesting like crazy lately. Wasn't I supposed to get most of this out of my system in the third trimester? Oh well, nothin' like some good projects to pass the time and make my house feel more like a home! Mostly it involves cleaning, and usually it's the kitchen, but I've done a few extra things here and there and have a few bigger projects looming on the horizon.

 

 

 

Some of my new cheap ass China diapers!

First off, I set up a new diaper unit in Lily's room. I didn't really realize how many diapers I have until they were blatantly staring me in the face! I'm really happy with the shelving unit, which was relatively inexpensive. The best thing about the reorganizing was that Lily actually hung out quietly in her crib while I put the whole damn thing together! It's a rare occurrence that I can actually do a project without a break midway through to feed/soothe/change a baby. I'm amazed that I am even able to write blog posts. As we speak, I'm using my foot to bounce her in her chair so she stays calm and relaxed! There are a few squeaks every now and then but nothing I need to jump to respond to. Wahoo!

 

 

 

 

 

 The other night I decided to set up a more organized bath area for Lily by the kitchen sink. Before, all of her stuff was just kind of scattered between her room, the bathroom, and the kitchen and I would just gather it all when bath time rolled around. So instead of doing that, I now have her wash cloths, baby wash, and whale water scoop (the orange thing) all together on the window sill above the kitchen sink. I made the baby wash dispenser out of one of my dozens of jars that I have sitting unused in my cabinets. I drilled a hole in the lid, stuck a pump from an old soap bottle in it, then filled the jar with some lovely smelling lavender baby wash! Voila! Another simple project completed! (Side note: I want to replace those crappy black curtains with some super cute lace ones!)

 

 

This one isn't much of a project but just another step I've taken towards organization and making the house more homey. I set up this area right where you enter the dining room by the front door. It's my mail/bills/appointment station. I bought a big desk calendar and hung it up on the wall. Calendars are essential for me. If you know me, you know I'm pretty anal about keeping my shit in order and calendars are one way that I do it. I especially like oversized calendars like this (bonus points for dry erase calendars!). They make it easy to write in any and all shit that I need to do. January was pretty empty because most of the things on my to-do list included watching Netflix or ordering diapers online. 

 

The mail bin was a metal desk organizer I bought at Office Depot and hung on the wall with two nails. I keep my mail, bills I need to pay, pens, and notepads in it. Really simple but I love it because it frees up the space that all the mail and notepads and other random shit would be taking up on my kitchen table or the counters. Which would be a lot, knowing me. That shit would be everywhere.

 

Lastly, I just added a hook to hang my purse/diaper bag. It makes it that much easier to get out the door when we need to go somewhere. It's hard enough to get everyone ready, but if I have to scramble around to find things it can seriously add an extra 20 minutes.

 

The next big thing I plan on tackling is a upgrade of my dining room set. I plan on painting the table white and painting the chairs yellow and red (some yellow, some red, not both colors on one chair). It'll be a big undertaking but I have a friend coming to visit next week so I'll take advantage of the extra hands and the extra eyes to watch Lily and bust it out in a day or two. I'll post photos when it's through.

 

 

 

On a completely unrelated note, Lily & I had our first successful story time today. Normally when I try to read to her she ends up crying, but today we got through all three of these books without any tears and, in fact, with lots of smiles. She especially liked the Dress Up Peekaboo book, but that's because mommy does fucking awesome voices.

yowza.

I swear this kid is trying to kick and punch her way out of my uterus right now. She's super active. Doesn't she know it is WAY past my bedtime? 10:30PM is a time I rarely see these days. Tonight I decided to be a party animal, though, and I went over to my co-workers house for birthday cake and a glass of red wine. I didn't even make it through the wine (though I did make it through the cake, duh). We went and saw her neighbor's daughter, as well, who was born just two days ago. It's freaky that in only 5.5 weeks I will have a tiny little baby of my own! What the fuck, man!

 

I've been doing a lot of work on Lily's room lately. I washed and put away all of her clothes, prepped most of her diapers, and decorated a little bit. I got a ton of stuff at the baby shower so I'm working on finding a place for all of it and starting to make sure everything is set and ready for her arrival (juuust in case she decides to come early).

 

Speaking of the baby shower, it was GREAT. I got to spend time with a lot of terrific people, we ate some good food complements of my mama, and tie-dying baby clothes was enjoyed by all! I'm going to have the most colorful baby in all of the land!

 

After the baby shower, I put in one last order for diaper shit that I need and hopefully it'll be here by tomorrow so I can start prepping those! Ugh, the prepping process is pretty annoying. All of the cotton and bamboo diapers and inserts I bought need to be washed 3-5 times to reach maximum absorbancy. You also have to be careful what you wash them with because if you mix some of the synthetic materials with the natural fibers during prep, you can fuck it up! Luckily, after the prepping process, washing becomes much easier. I am excited to finally use the diapers and experiment with what works best.

 

Well, as I mentioned before, it is past my bedtime, so I'm going to leave this short and sweet and end with some low-quality pictures of Lily's room so far. No theme, no color scheme. Nothing special but it feels cozy and is coming together slowly but surely.

Cute onesies on display - tie dye credit to my brother!

A wall with stuff and some furniture. Thrilling. The shelf contains  my stash of cloth diapers, which is becoming quite extensive.

A quirky little decoration Auntie Tara found, I love it!

This shelf.... this shelf was the bane of my existence last night.  I still don't trust it. The striped blanket came all the way from Massachusetts, knitted by a talented pair of hands belonging to Hannah.

A glass piece from my favorite ranch lady, Mary Ann  (geez, Lily - so many people love you already!)

A map of the moon, in case she ever wants to go.

Where I hope she dreams of the most wonderful things.

home sweet home!

After a stressful and seemingly fruitless search, I have finally found my new home. Thanks to some detective work from a friend of mine, I'll be living in a cute, comfortable, upgraded two bedroom home that is very 'me'. Wood floors, huge kitchen with tons of counter space, a front and back porch, and a safe neighborhood. I am grateful and, even though I may go broke paying for it, it's worth it to be somewhere nice and, most importantly, safe. I'll get to check the place out first hand next week, but for now, here are some photos of its glory.

 

Where my little family will begin.

 

 

Look at all the sunshine. And a dishwasher!

 

 

 

 

I'm already excited to decorate for our first Christmas...!

 

it's nesting season.

Not just for sea turtles, but for me too apparently. I have been spending an embarrassing amount of time surfing Ikea, Overstock, and various other websites. Not just for baby shit either, mind you. I have decided in the past 48 hours I want to redecorate my entire house. Buy new furniture, paint a whole bunch of shit, you name it. What the fuck, right? 

 

I think I am just antsy - antsy to do SOMETHING. To make this house feel more like a home. For me and for my little one. I'm refraining from doing anything terribly drastic to the baby's room (read: painting the walls) until I look up the thing's skirt (or trousers). I know either way I am probably going to go with a neutral gray for the walls and add splashes of color with other details (curtains, bedding, the yellow dresser), but I just want to be sure I don't change my mind when I know for sure what I'm having.

 

So anyways, because I cannot just yet work on the baby's room, I got a hair up my ass tonight and decided I was going to paint the bathroom with the leftover yellow paint from the dresser. Five minutes later, I was indeed painting the bathroom. An hour and a half later, the first coat was done and Ilove it. I'd post a picture but my cell phone camera (the only camera I currently own, sadly) sucks and doesn't even come close to doing the color justice. It brightens up not only the bathroom, but my whole fucking life. I needed more yellow around. I contemplated calling for back up to help, but decided I wanted to do this alone. These are the kind of projects I love to tackle, and especially now, I take pride in knowing that I am fully capable of gettin' shit done. It also gave me time to reflect on the little things. Next, I am aching to replace the god awful light fixtures in there...