36 Weeks and the Evolving Nursery Plan

Hi Everyone! I started this post on Monday and then got distracted :) Go figure. But I wanted to post anyway and let you know we're all moved in to our new house. We've had the week off to get settled in and it's starting to feel a little bit more homey each day. We've got lots of ideas for this house but also we're also going to take things one step at a time - especially with baby #2 arriving in a few weeks. I'll be posting when I can and will hopefully get some more photos up soon. Below are my thoughts from Monday...enjoy :)

Can't even believe I just typed out 36 weeks - where does the time go? Overall I'm feeling good but this baby is definitely out of room in there. I'll start my weekly appointments tomorrow so each week will be a step closer to meeting our second little one :)

We've had a great stay at my brother's and tomorrow is settlement/moving day already! We're excited. Today is our walk through and we're going to pick up the ton of mail waiting for us at the post office. 

Last night the boys were watching Game of Thrones and I had my mind on the house so I started putting a few things together that I've gotten for the baby's room just to give myself a point of reference for this week once we're in the house. Sheila's room and the baby's room are going to be my starting points just so they're all set.

This is where I'm at right now...I wasn't going to do much of anything in the baby's room until he/she was born but I feel like what I've got going is still at a point where it could go girl or boy.

I've already got the graphic silk scarf that has sort of set the tone for the room and the colors. My plan right now is to hang that freely using some small clothespins and fishing line. We've got the crib which is similar to the one shown and I picked up that little elephant at Phantastic Phinds recently. There is a swing arm lamp (not hard wired) in the room similar to the one above as well I think I'll just need to update the shade on it.

The two fabrics shown at the top middle are ones that I am considering for the rocker that I just got from my SIL. Left is John Robshaw for Duralee and the one on the right is Magnus by Dwell Studio for Robert Allen.

And the cute monogram print is a freebie from On to Baby.

Ok, back to house stuff - have a great weekend and thanks for sticking with me during this long hiatus ;)

Love Seat Fabric

Before I devote myself to packing up the rest of the house for the weekend, I thought I'd stop in for one last post.

The love seat is getting picked up on Monday for a makeover. The talented team over at Chairloom is going to be working their magic. If you follow Chairloom on Facebook you can get some sneak peeks of their projects including my client's accent chair I had posted about the other day.

Here are my final three fabrics that I chose from:

The fabric at the top is what I hope to use for window treatments eventually, and then you'll just have to wait to see which of the three options I've chosen. Any guesses? 

From left to right:  Thom Filicia - Fiscoe in steel, Dwell Studio - Mini zigzag in birch, Kolam in Sandstone

And now back to this for the weekend...but first, coffee :)

I'll catch up with everyone soon - enjoy your weekend!

Second Hand Finds

Well at least when I don't post for a while I have a lot to update everyone on :)  We've been busy packing as much as we can. Starting to feel a little boxed in (literally) but feeling good about the progress we've made on the big move.  We settle on our current house 5/14 and then we settle on the new house 6/4, so we're going to be living with my brother and his family for 3 weeks (God bless them and so thankful that it's only 3 weeks for us and for them).

I've got lots of second hand finds to show you today that I'm pretty excited about.

But first, remember this client with these great chairs? They got shipped off to the upholsterer yesterday so things are progressing. Sometimes projects can take much longer than expected with client schedules, budgets, etc a lot of times projects happen in pieces. I'm excited to see these chairs revived with some new fabric.

This accent chair will be getting a fun animal printed fabric, and the larger club chair (not shown) is going to be reupholstered in a beautiful glazed linen. Will be sure to post some updates when they are finished.

And do you remember my love seat that I picked up recently? I've been trying to figure out what fabric I want to use on it, and I'm still waiting for a few memos to arrive to make a decision. Maybe I'll round up my picks so you can see where I'm headed with it.

The story behind this piece...I've been doing a LOT of searching on Craig's List for furniture for the new house. Sheila's going to need a few pieces for her room. I was looking for accent pieces that I knew would work well in other rooms. I came across a posting about a month ago on Craig's List and the furniture looked so familiar. It ended up being furniture from the first house we had bid on and ended up losing. How crazy is that? The owner is down-sizing and was selling a few pieces of their furniture. I remember touring their house and thinking what great pieces they had, so I knew I had to snatch this one up. My husband even commented that this piece could survive a war - it's really solid and really well-made so I'm pumped. The owner and I have had a few conversations and it's been nice to connect even though we didn't end up with their house. So that's the quick story on the love seat - small world huh?

Speaking of Craig's List...we're going to pick-up this head board tonight for Sheila's room. I really wanted to find a Jenny Lind style bed or head board, and I found a posting a few days ago, emailed the seller and Steve is heading out tonight to pick it up.  AND, $10.00!  HOLLA!

I talked to the seller yesterday and it was her daughter's head board who is now 33. I love to find unique items with a story.  

And just yesterday I stopped into my favorite local consignment shop, Phantastic Phinds, which I know I've mentioned a lot on the blog, to find this little trinket. I thought he'd be perfect for the baby's room. I think it's supposed to be a bottle opener (?) but I'm going to hang it on the wall.

And I passed up this painting but I keep thinking it would be perfect and so pretty in Sheila's new room. I would probably change up or fix the frame a bit but the colors are so pretty.

Mmmm....I might go back for it.

I'm sure I'll be back again soon with more updates. I've got a new client to update you on as well but I'll save that for a future post.

Under Contract!

Just wanted to check in to say that we're under contract on our next house!!! It feels like it's been a long road but we finally found a great place in a wonderful location with lots of potential for us. We have our inspection tomorrow morning.

I feel like I've been so out of the loop but now that we're headed in the right direction toward another house I'm feeling a huge weight off of my shoulders (at least for the time being).

Remember my spending freeze post? Well I sort of broke that promise to myself but for good reason. I picked up this loveseat below (which is being stored in our garage for now) for the new house a few weeks ago. It's got excellent bones and I can't wait to give it a new look. And, it's got such a neat story behind it - I'll share in another post.

In other family related news, we hit up the Manayunk StrEAT festival this past weekend where a bunch of food trucks lined the streets of Manayunk for your dining pleasure. We went early to try to skip the crowds which ended up being the right move - it got crowded since the weather was beautiful. This little beauty got to go on her first train ride...and she loved it.

I'll be back soon and may even try to get some photos of the new place soon.

Big Girl Room Updates

Happy April 1st! I wish I could say I had some updates on finding a house. Hopefully soon.

I do have a few updates on Sheila's big girl room. Ideally, when we move I'd like to transition her right into her new room = new bed = new bedding, sheets, etc. So I started ordering things so we're ready to go.

Here's my inspiration board I had posted about previously...

My jumping off points were the photos in the upper right and bottom right corner - a color palette of pale pink and pale blue. Then I came across the Thomas Paul Botany fabric and thought that was a perfect choice for some window treatments. Here's a photo of the full repeat so you can see more of it.  Seeing the full repeat allows you to see the variety of flowers and insects brought into the pattern - perfect for a young girl's room.

And here are some of the items that I've picked up thus far...

I got the blue floral sham (top right) and princess sheets (bottom right) at Pottery Barn Kids. The sheets were on sale so that was a big score.

I also ordered the pink floral block print pillow cover from Lands End. I can't say enough good things about this pillow cover - it's so pretty in person. And, wait for it, on sale for $16.99.

Lastly, I did a little digging at Target the other day, and found this quilt in the twin size that I needed on clearance. Love seeing that sale sticker!

I'm excited to have made a little progress on this project - at least someone will have a room ready for her when we move :)  I've also been scouring Craig's List in search of a bed so hoping to find something soon at a good price.

Hope you had a great weekend! Hard to believe it's April already.

Spending Freeze

I put myself on a spending freeze. I'm not really a big spender to begin with (maybe my husband would disagree) - I maybe buy myself new clothes and a pair of new shoes a few times a year but nothing crazy. And as far as for the home, I'll buy small things here and there that really appeal to me. That's important to buy what you really love. And in our current home we never really had a ton of space for more furniture so we just used what we had for the most part and never really bought much more.

I've been waiting to move to a new house, a bigger house, in order to really start purchasing bigger items that we'll have for a while. And to be honest, I certainly have certain items on my wish list (a new sofa, new chairs, a coffee table) but I want to wait to see where our next home is going to be and what it's going to look like and how we're going to live in it to really start thinking about a plan.

So while I really want a new sofa, I'm waiting very patiently to see where that next house is going to be and what our floor plan is going to look like. Sheila is also going to need a bed, so we'll have to get that going as soon as we move as well (because the new baby will use her crib eventually). And I'll also be shopping consignment stores, yard sales, and hopefully check out an auction or two to find some good bargains on old, well-made furniture. And, oh yeah, we're going to have a new baby ;)

I figured it was a good idea to start brainstorming shapes and styles that I like, so here are a few things that I have been admiring...and I couldn't leave out a few fabrics that I've saved as "favorites" to maybe use at some point.

Carlisle sofa has always been a favorite of mine from Pottery Barn. It's got a nice English roll arm and I like this style with the tight back, but it can also be slip-covered which I'm going to consider too.

I really like the shape of this chair from West Elm.

You can't beat the value of this IKEA Ektorp sofa with chaise. Ever since we cleared out the basement, we've been spending more time down there playing and on the computer. We always talk about how nice it would be to have a sofa or chairs down there for the adults to relax in while Sheila plays.

This cute side table is a great value from Target and a piece that can be moved all over the house when needed. I know I've seen it in the stores but quantities must be limited as I can't find it online any more.

And a storage ottoman...must have some sort of storage ottoman to store toys and books. Great for entertaining and holidays and great when you need to throw all the toys and books in at the end of the day. (leather ottoman is from Ballard and the striped ottoman is from Safavieh)

And those dreamy fabrics...those are all Robert Allen.  The trim is Kravet.

I still get myself a coffee treat, but the big items will have to wait a while.

We're going to look at a house tomorrow - fingers crossed!!

Finding Home

Well it's been a few weeks since I posted, hasn't it? I wish I could say I have good news about our house hunt but I don't. I don't have bad news either. We just haven't found a house yet. And I haven't been inspired to blog at all, but I felt inspired tonight.

We did have a few close calls. An offer here that got beat and a house there that we stepped into, fell in love with, and then found out 10 minutes after leaving it that an offer had already been accepted with several other offers already made as well. Complete bummers but we're still hopeful.

This whole experience has made me realize that the biggest thing is that we have a roof somewhere wherever that may be with my family that I love more than anything. They are home.

I've also been inspired by a few things I've read recently about people who took a big leap of faith and wound up finding home. Their home just happened to be New York City but I could still relate and find comfort in some aspect of each these stories (remember my love and fascination with New York? I've got an entire Pinterest board dedicated to NYC - whenever I get the chance to visit again.

Ann Hood recalls her first apartment in New York and her experiences floating from one apartment to the next. I thought it was interesting how her less than ideal living conditions helped her discover what she wanted in a home.

I had a good mail day last week...

My First New York is a series of quick stories on people who took the leap and headed into New York for the first time. From Yogi Berra to Nora Ephron, Liza Minelli to Maggie Gyllenhaal - it's neat to read the thoughts and experiences that shaped all of the people featured in the book.

Pregnancy-wise I've been feeling great. I'm exactly 25 weeks today which is nuts-o. It's going really fast. Emotionally the house hunt has been tough (with added hormones thrown into the mix) but I've been able to handle everything well so far. I had no intentions of posting any type of belly shot, but today is your lucky day friends...this was taken over the weekend (don't mind the bath towel thrown over the shower - that's how we roll around here).

And that's the belly disguised in one of my comfy outfits that I wear a lot. Black pants from Target that are so incredibly comfortable and a black long-sleeved shirt from Gap that I had gotten a few years ago.

So hopefully I'll have a *good* house update soon - let's hope :)