room by room : a room for Myles

It has taken about 3 months or so to complete but I can finally say that this room is DONE.  I am just tickled with how it turned out.  Originally the plan was just "vintage kid stuff".  And then before our baby showers I realized that was a bit too vague and headed more towards a vintage air plane theme.  

Now normally when I design a room in my head... it completely does not turn out the way I wanted it to.  I'm usually really sad at the end because I had too many ideas and no way to mesh them cohesively.  Or I give up prematurely.  Or I never have an idea, but instead get caught up in the world of Pinterest and do a "project" at a time and then it just looks weird.

Not this time baby.

So the final result... minus the baby.

1. Watercolor painting based on Snoopy and the Red Baron (including the book itself below) by my Aunt Debbie.  So so so excited to have this for Myles!

2.  Cheap bookshelf from Target.  I lined the back panel with some fabric that I found on sale at a local store.  Filled with books, toys, and the bins have things like socks and pacifiers. 

3. Our son's name in photos.  Made by a friend of my aunt whom I used to dog-sit for back in Louisville.  She was also a huge help in organizing everything for me after the babyshowers :) (Thanks Stacy!)

4. Planet Wise wet bag for dirty cloth diapers.  Haven't found a good place for it yet.  The changing table is a little too low to hang it from.

close up of the painting

1.  Faux metal letters I made the past 2 days out of paper mache letters, black paint, and silver spray paint.  (seen on Pinterest somewhere)

2.  The family rocking chair.  My mom rocked us in it, her mom rocked her in it... I had to take it.  Kyle's mom and grandmother made the pillow cushion and a friend of my grandmother's crocheted the blanket.

3.  Antique children's magazines.  My dad built the wooden boxes, I put a burlap backing in them, and they are suspended by furniture tacks pushed into cardboard.  I didn't want to poke holes in them or ruin them with tape.

4.  Simple lamp from Target.  I like the look of the new with the antique furniture.

5.  Antique plant stand (I think) from my parent's garage.  

1.  Sort-of 3D metal airplanes from an old friend-Megan.  I had just realized I had almost no biplanes for my biplane themed room when these showed up in the mail!

2.  Antique chest from a local consignment shop.  My grandmother got it for us when she came to visit a while back.

3.  Basket woven from what looks like old Japanese newspaper.  Found at Hobby Lobby...to be used as a clothes hamper.

4.  The crib.  From BRU.  Chevron sheet from Target, bedskirt handmade by Kyle's mom and grandmother.  Small tag blankie with biplane and his name is also from Megan.

5.  Biplane/cloud mobile.  I made this a while back when I was resting in bed for a week after overdoing things.  Clouds are made from paper, hoop is part of an embroidery hoop, wrapped in twine, with various biplanes I got at the babyshowers.

The mobile, and Myles' friends are waiting for him!

1.  The changing table that I made out of an old hutch bottom.  The doors are hiding the diapers, and wipes are in the drawer.  Spent several days sanding, painting, and sealing that thing.

2.  Shelf was made out of reclaimed wood I found at the Habitat ReStore for $1.

3.  Various old toys/antiques from family and friends based on the original decorating plan.  They still fit in really well with everything else.

So what do you guys think?  Pretty cool huh?  I just realized that I totally never got a picture of the rug that the rocking chair is sitting on.  Maybe one day you will see it... It is cherry red and majorly shag.

I had a lot of fun getting this room together.  Everywhere I look there is something picked or made with love from a friend or family member.  And better yet... none of it is too "baby-ish" so the decor should last him as he grows until we have to move again... or can be converted to slightly more girlish if he ever has to share a room with a little sister :-p.  

How much did I do in the room? Kyle helped hang the shelf and the mobile.  My dad hung the frames and planes on the wall.  I painted the wall (Valspar Sea Salt) completely alone.  Same goes for the blue furniture.  And assembly of the crib and bookshelf.  It was such a fun project and I wouldn't do anything differently!

freezer cooking - burritos

i'm going to need a bigger freezer.

I'm really excited about all of this freezer cooking.  I have had small bouts of doing this over the past year or so and every time, I am glad I did it.  It is so much cheaper and healthier than running to the drive-through and really doesn't take very much time if you are just stock-piling one thing at a time.

In the past I have frozen quart bags of chili, breakfast burritos, and baked pastas.  I am branching out a little this time.  Monday's event was brown-bag burritos.  No idea why they are called that... ask the Money Saving Mom.  I ran across this recipe on her site a couple weeks ago when I was looking for something I could easily microwave and eat while comforting a screaming baby.  This fit the bill... and while it is already healthier than Taco Bell just because you are controlling everything that is going in there... I made it a little healthier by substituting fat free refried beans (because to me they taste no different than normal beans) and turkey meat.  I also only did half of her recipe because I want to make sure I like it before I make 20 burritos.  Also I don't think I have a pan large enough to do 2 lbs worth of meat plus all of the other ingredients that you mix in to simmer.

I have tried to include an idea of the cost of fixing these but had to guess on the ingredients I bought at Aldi since I had already pitched the receipt when I decided to write this post.  So its my best guesstimate.

Brown Bag Burritos

For 10 burritos- Adapted from Money Saving Mom who got it from Amy's Finer Things

• 1 pound ground turkey ($2.99 Aldi)
• 1 can fat free refried beans ($0.89 Aldi)
• 1 can red enchilada sauce ($1.08 target)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup diced onion (an entire large onion is like <$1 so I'm going to call this $0.10 since I barely used any of my onion)
• 1/2 of a taco seasoning packet (full seasoning packet at Aldi is $0.59  so $0.30)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (negligible)
• 2 cups shredded cheese (I used fiesta blend) (~$1.50 at Aldi)
• 10 burrito-sized flour tortillas ($2.48 Walmart)

Total Cost for 10 burritos: ~ $9.34 = $0.93 per burrito.  I mean come on... why not?

Time to make the burritos: about an hour.

Brown the ground turkey with onions. Drain meat and add all remaining ingredients except tortillas and cheese.

Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Spoon 1/4-cup of the meat mixture onto a tortilla, sprinkle with cheese.  Fold sides in and roll up tightly.

to freeze: Wrap each burrito in a paper towel and then in a foil square (Dollar Tree has pre-cut aluminum foil squares... 25 per box for $1).  Put burritos in airtight ziptop freezer bags and store in the freezer for 2-3 months.

to serve: Pull out desired number of burritos. Remove foil (you can save the foil and reuse it the next time you make brown bag burritos!) and heat a single burrito in the microwave for about a minute or leave the foil on and heat one or more burritos in a preheated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes or until heated through.

I tried the pan-scrappings with a leftover tortilla after I finished the burritos.  Pretty tasty!  I think they will be fantastic with a little sour cream!  Very glad I made these.  I just might do a second round of them next week :).

baby prep

I am officially nesting.  (My previous post was about mentally doing it...this one is about me actually doing it.)  People thought I was nesting before... no I was just scratching a curious itch for trying new things.  Like building a mobile or baking cinnamon rolls.  Now its real.  We are less than 5 weeks from the due date.  

And I am freaking out.

Every minute of the day has my thoughts towards wanting to be "ready" (as ready as you can be) for Myles' arrival.  

To me, ready is having quick, relatively healthy meals to survive on when cooking is the last thing on my mind.  And having a house that isn't so gross dysfunctional organizationally.

My house is still cluttered (sorry Nana...) but progress is taking place.  I have sorted through piles.  I have washed (and ironed!) the crumby table runner and wiped down the table.  I have scrubbed the kitchen.  I have vacuumed the dining room.  I have vacuumed off the duvet that was covered in cat hair.  I cleaned the shower.  I folded laundry.  I have started making stacks of pictures for my wall of frames.  I have started stocking the freezer.  And I have been trying to do this all leisurely so I don't overdo it and get back to square one with pain in my hips (I'm finally mostly better...just really pregnant so always uncomfortable)  Problem is... all I want to do is stock the freezer.  Because that is fun.  I made a special freezer stocking supply run to Aldi Saturday morning while Kyle napped just so I can work on that this week.  And I even held back on buying everything I wanted because lets be realistic... My parents are coming on Wednesday... I won't work on freezer cooking while they are here and I need to use part of the next few days to clean.

What else do I want to do?  

I think the better question is; what do I need to do?

all of those errands that I will not want to do alone with a newborn.  I need to get the oil changed in my car.  I should probably get my eyes checked/new glasses ordered (they are covered with our insurance so why not?!)  Oh.... and figure out who his pediatrician is going to be.

soak in social time.  I have been really working on this one.  I have been trying to go to as many social events as I can... in the past 2 weeks I have had 2 play dates with the residency moms, gone to a Thirty-One sales party, gone to Oktoberfest in Greer, stayed up late at a resident's house watching football (ok the guys were watching football... I was enjoying conversations), and gone to Fall for Greenville (lots of local restaurants set up tasting booths downtown).  It has been exhausting, but oh so nice to know we didn't miss out on anything.

soak in me time.  I have enjoyed doing a little browsing/shopping while Kyle sleeps during the day.  I treated myself to a purse at JCP (on sale with a gift card).  I have turned thrift store shopping into a sport looking for good baby clothes for super cheap (can't beat $1 babyGap onesies that look like new!).  I haven't hesitated to stop for a pumpkin spice latte* if I feel like it while I'm out.  And spend hours on the couch reading a book?  Why not?

share my house.  I've neglected my blog.  I'm not sorry.  I haven't felt like writing lately.  But I would really like to finally take pictures and share what updates we have made... finally reveal the nursery to you.  Unfortunately this item is at the bottom of the priority list.  

I wish I could have done a whole "babymoon", or had some awesome list of fun things to accomplish before I'm a mom... but that just wasn't in our cards.  And I don't think we have done too bad making the most of what time we have had to work with.  

*Dunkin Donuts gift cards are welcome at any time (think of it as the new-mommy-sanity-fund)

five on friday

I've been recouping from the past week of time at home.  It was relaxing and exhausting all at the same time.  I went non-stop... but I also didn't have to worry about anything.  It makes sense in my head.

Suffice it to say... the blog has been on the back-burner while I have vegged out on the couch... read a book in two days... and did minimal work around the house.  That changes today.  I am about to be busy for the next few days.  It is Kyle's weekend off.

Well its Friday so I will be participating in the 5 on friday link up again... write about any 5 things you are thinking about/things that are making you happy... whatever.  Five is the magic number.

one

baby showers.  Our amazing family and friends held two baby showers last weekend back in KY for us.  The turnout of people and love that was shared was really overwhelming.  And the homemade desserts were to die for.  I wish I could replay the whole weekend full of amazing cupcakes and intricately decorated cookies and candies that we enjoyed.  Oh and the presents.  Presents are fun too ;-).  Myles is one lucky kiddo to have so much love waiting for him back in KY.

two

thank you notes.  I will be starting out my day at a coffee shop or something in order to get away from the distractions at home so I can focus on the long list of thank you's that need to be written.  Will I get them all done today?  Heck no.  But it will be a start.

three

lunch with strangers.  Before I flew back to KY, I contacted one of the resident wives... Kyle had just worked with her husband on Peds all of August.  She got me onto a contact list of other wives for monthly dinners... which I had to miss while I was away... but she also meets with a few other moms for occasional lunches/play dates so they have invited me to lunch today.  It should be interesting... I'm excited to start making some friends that have kids, and the place we are going sounds pretty neat... its the Runway Cafe... next to the small airport to watch the planes come and go while we eat.  

four

projects.  There is a long list still.  Some I have started or bought materials for, others that I would rather be working on but refuse to buy things for until the other projects are done.  Either way... I feel stuck.  There just isn't much motivation except for the constant timeclock that is running down in my head to the day Myles makes his debut and takes all of my free time away.  Nothing is getting done and it is frustrating. 

five

blogging.  This is part of number four I suppose... I really wish I was being more consistent with writing on here.  I do enjoy it.  I'm sort of beating myself up for not posting about any of the updates we have done around the house.  But I feel like all of the things I have worked on still need those finishing touches before I am ready to share.  Have I mentioned lately how much I have issues with finishing things?  

I'm a little stressed out.  The whole realizing that my due date is in 10 weeks has not helped that fact.  Nor the thought that he could easily come earlier.  Or later... which produces a whole extra round of issues.  Thankfully tomorrow is Kyle's final day of his 19 day stretch without a day off.  While a few things are planned for the weekend, I hope we can just enjoy each other and relax.  We both need it.

sometimes all you need...

...is a shiny new coat of paint.

This owl bank was found at an antique shop about 15 minutes from our house.  My aunt bought it for me to put in the baby room.  I think he looks quite handsome in glossy cherry red.  I did learn though that for any other type of project... not to buy Krylon spray paint... it came out in a more drippy spray than a fine mist.  But for this... the cheaper stuff was fine.  

Happy weekend folks!  Looking forward to sharing a few more DIY projects and updates this week!

pregnancy : the bump

Careful.  You might need a microscope to see this thing.  

Seriously... I feel huge... because I have gotten bigger than I have ever been in my life.  

But no one that meets me can tell I'm pregnant... I attribute that to them seeing me from the front at first.  One of the surgery attendings actually said I must be "birthing a rabbit" when I said I was 20 weeks last week at the dinner we went to.  Everyone is shocked.  

All I know is, last week at my doctor's appointment, he is developing normally and not being affected by my own lack of growth.  So I'm not complaining!  It has also (so far) meant not needing to buy very many new clothes.  Most of my summer shirts are stretchy enough to still fit.

  

I'm not incredibly happy with any of these pictures... but I'm learning :).  I think the switch to yellow makes it easier to see, and I might have figured out the camera settings.  Thanks to Kyle for putting up with weekly picture day.  You can also see the change in wall color best between weeks 19 and 21.  It will eventually make it onto the blog.  Along with the few other small changes we have made so far.

Its amazing how much seeing him on the ultrasound last week has changed things.  Before that, in my mind I think I was just like... yeah something is growing in me that is making me uncomfortable and bigger.

Now its real.  There is a little boy growing in me.  I am going to have a son.  My mind is in nesting mode.  My body isn't... but my mind is definitely dreaming.  Lack of progress is being attributed to terrible weather, needing to finish unpacking before I do anything else, and mentally adjusting to Kyle being gone all the time.  But mostly unpacking.  All I want to do is just throw all the boxes into the car and drop them at Goodwill.  Where am I going to put it all?!?!?!?!?!?!  It has to get done though.  The unpacked boxes are keeping me from trying out new hobbies, restarting old ones, and working on the baby room (all of the boxes are stored there).  

Enjoy your weekends everyone.  I haven't forgotten that I still need to show the bedroom and master bath for the final room-by-room post... that is the only reason I haven't started showing the improvements we have made.  

I have issues finishing things.  Seriously.

room by room : living

I have been so excited about doing this post... Like, had to make myself spend time with Kyle when he gets home instead of editing pictures non-stop, excited.  Which means I just started REALLY playing with the pics this morning.  And it became a job.  Not a fun one.  There are just way too many things I want to do to this room... and that isn't very easy to do quickly in Photoshop like I did the past 2 days :/.  So I'm totally not happy with the "dreaming" pictures because well lets face it... I want to find prints... but haven't actually found anything I like yet...and lets face it... I couldn't draw it on here even if I had... so I'm really just TRYING to show some color scheme to you... which looks better in my head than on my poorly Photoshopped drawings.

So here it is...

the living room:

This is from the dining room.  I am in love with that window.  I can't wait to get some plantation blinds in place so we can take down the sheet we nailed over it and actually have some sunshine come in during the day.  

Top top priority for this room is blinds... which we should be dealing with this weekend.  After that... the main large purchases I intend to use our dwindling decorating budget on are new throw pillows and a large rug for this room.  Eventually I would like to do something about curtains... whether hanging to frame it or just a flat modern topper for color.  We have time to deal with that later though.  Not shown in this picture, we are planning to paint the room grey this weekend... too much photoshopping... I couldn't handle it.  But basically the theme is going to be grays and yellows in various shades, maybe some green thrown in.

I swear the front door isn't orange... more of a brick red... but oh well.  I couldn't get the colors right on this one.  Bear with me.  There's the awesome cat tower I mentioned yesterday.  I know you are super excited.  I know Zoe is.  She barely leaves it.  I just love how big this room is.

I tried to color the walls gray, it almost worked, but I am planning a little darker gray than that.  

The media area.  The little window is looking out into the carport.  I will eventually put some hanging curtains on it for a little privacy, but right now the priority is the giant window that everyone can see into from the street.

The bookcase behind the sofa.  I brought this with us to Louisville from Owensboro... I'm so glad I splurged on this thing.  We just love it.  The box on top of it is an old canon ammo box a friend and I found at our favorite antique shop in Louisville.  As you can see on the left side of the picture, that doorway used to have a door... we took it off on our first day in the house... it serves no purpose to have a door when you aren't actually able to keep anyone out since we have the big cut out leading into the dining room.  We will fill the holes and paint over it soon.

Not shown:  behind the loveseat, I would like to put a little sofa table someday.  None of the pictures show that there is a lightless ceiling fan.  All other rooms in the house have overhead lights except for the living room.  Kyle's main request for the entire house is that we replace that fan with one that has a light kit in it.  So that might be happening relatively soon as well.

Kyle's parents are on their way over to visit for the next several days so I will be taking a break until next week.  Come back later for more of the room by room series.  If you have missed out on the other rooms I have covered then here they are:

kitchen

dining room

Have a great weekend!

room by room : kitchen

We have been pretty busy since the Friday move-in and I've started settling into my new job as a homemaker.  Kyle started orientation on Monday so I've had to keep myself busy.  I've done a little unpacking and tidying up, but mostly running around checking out the local thrift shops.  Today, however, I decided the blog would be my top priority.  

The room of choice to share today is the kitchen.  It is pretty much the first room to be "finished".  I say "finished" because of course I intend to do something to all of the rooms... so the next several posts will be of our rooms with our stuff but little to no improvements done to what existed when we moved in, with some extra photos of changes I would like to make.  

the kitchen:

We had to buy the fridge for ourselves, thankfully it was the only appliance that needed purchasing.  After a lot of issues trying to find the counter-depth Whirlpool Gold that I wanted, at the last minute, we were able to get basically the same thing in a Kenmore Elite (made by Whirlpool) from Sears with a hefty sales sticker on it, delivered exactly when we needed it.  So instead of living out of a cooler for 3 weeks like it was looking like we would need to, we only had to survive about a day.  

I knew immediately that I wanted this big cabinet to be food storage, but I think its original purpose was to store the trash... so I had my Dad order some drawers for easy access to food and helped him install them on Saturday (I glued 2 of the drawers together...he did everything else...thanks Dad!)

I would really like to paint the top panel with chalkboard paint so I can have a fun little spot to write my grocery list as I realize what I'm out of. 

This is from standing next to the fridge, virtually the majority of our cabinets and counter space.  It is more than we had though and we are very thankful.  All of our stuff fits in these cabinets pretty well since we have the food storage surrounding the fridge.

This is the other side of the kitchen.  The microwave is old (and still dirty :/) but the seller installed the dishwasher (which is 100xs quieter than what was in our apartment!) and range.  I chose to turn the empty display area into a built-in coffee bar and am keeping all of my mugs above the various coffee makers.

You may not be able to tell from the photo very well, but we started changing out the knobs on the cabinets.  The left side shows how small the existing ones were (gunmetal plain), and the coffee bar has the larger ones (gunmetal with a basket weave design).  The new knobs were left overs from a job my Dad did so we are going to need to order some more to finish up.  I've highlighted the background of the coffee bar in grey; I hope to eventually put a tile backsplash of some sort in there.  Not drawn in,  I want to install a small light in the top of this space and I would also like to find a cute colorful little tray to put the sugar bowl and spoon on to keep the surface from getting coffee stains.

 

I love that I have a window to look out of now.  To add a little color and to soften the area, I am dreaming up some curtain plans:  

 

My original thought was to go with an orange theme and do a little curtain on the bottom half... probably with a design.  I had picked out a cute Ikat print that I thought would work great here...

Since getting here though and getting a better look at the countertop... I'm thinking green would probably be the safer color to go in here... and the rug I brought is also blue and green and I really like the look of it with the hardwood.  I also feel like it MIGHT be better to put the curtain at the top so I am sure to be able to look out the window rather than straining to see over the curtain.

So what do you think?  I can't wait to see how this space evolves.  Green is really growing on me for this room... 

a dirty little secret

Over the past week, I have been browsing through ideas of what to do to prepare for moving.  I really don't know exactly when we will be moving, and since things like that can creep up on us, I would like to get a handle on things.

On occasion I go a little nuts and just HAVE to clean my kitchen top to bottom.  Its like something just takes me over and I have to do it.  My family can attest that I am not a very tidy person, but no matter how dirty things may be in the rest of the house, I always feel better if at least the kitchen is clean.

Here is my dirty little secret.  In all of these moments of obsessive kitchen scrubbing over the past good while, I always forget something. 

My oven.

I mean... what is doing that?  I just really don't remember having that much stuff splatter or spill.  It's gross. I know.  I'm sorry I shared that with you... there is a point.  I promise.

So I broke out the Easy-Off oven cleaner and the rubber gloves.  I'm sure there are less dangerous, greener, probably using baking soda and vinegar of some ratio...but cut me some slack.  I didn't know how to clean an oven until a few years ago... and this is only the third time I've done it.  All using the same can I bought forever ago.  I hate to be wasteful.  And this stuff works.  So I removed the shelves for easy reach...I planned to clean them later.  As per the instructions, this was done in a cold oven... Just spray the foamy stuff everywhere and let set for 2 hours.

Other tools were my scrubby sponge and a big bowl of warm water for easy rinsing, changed a few times as needed.  This photo was after I had already cleaned the door... I hadn't thought yet of sharing this. 

So after some time...this is my result!

I gotta tell ya... this is SO fulfilling of a job.  So easy to do... it probably only took like 20 minutes to do the actual cleaning inside.  Its not a perfect job by any means, I never did clean the shelves...I ran out of the cleaner.

So this got me thinking.  In about 30 total minutes of actual cleaning, this one project was finished on my Saturday while Kyle was on call.  It will also help keep from having so much to scrub down in a few months when we are trying to move...

So what else could I do?  My plan in the next few weeks is to make a schedule.  A schedule of projects to complete each weekend in order to make moving a little bit easier.  And it will be on the blog.  This will be my accountability.  Probably pretty boring for you guys... but so what, skip over it.  If it makes me do it, who are you to complain?  And you can see our apartment get in a little better shape.

See. I told you there was a point.  

Wish me luck!  Feel free to provide a few ideas for my list of projects in the comment section below!