Nursery fun...

I think I just lost my mind. I just painted the nursery closet. The closet. I mean who even sees the closet but me, Matt and maybe a grandparent?!?! (our moms will be babysitting Baby M a lot)

We decided to take the door to the closet off because 1) due to it being over 60 years old (yes ladies and gentleman it was the original door) it does not close and 2) the designer of the home decided to have the door hinges on the left, so when open it bangs into the entry way door, which opens into the room, making a wonderful triangle of wasted space! So last week Matt took the door off and I grabbed a small foam roller, our second gallon of "Going Grey", cranked up the Pandora and went to town. I only painted the back of the closet, and the two sides you can see (not the small interior sides that you can only see by standing IN the closet facing into the room - who will be doing that? Um no one!). It took me a little less than an hour but it looks great! We'll be finishing it with painting the shelf above the clothing rod and then adding a little sheer curtain to cover up the stuff inside.

Also, I went to Mary Jo's Fabric last weekend with my mom to look for curtain fabric. My original plan of purchasing white drop cloths, hemming them to the right width and length and painting some fun swirls on them failed. The drop cloths were more like OFF white, not pure white so they did not match the room at all. So off we went to Mary Jo's. Have you ever been to that store? It is sensory overload the minute you walk in. I got so distracted from my mission - which was to find pure white fabric for curtains and some cute fabric to make a cover for the Ikea Poang chair cushion and ottoman - so much so that my mom kept having to say, "Boo-Bear, focus!" (Yes, Boo-Bear is her nickname for me and she still addresses me as such.)

After doing a quick sweep of the store, I found the perfect white fabric for curtains for a great price, then went on a hunt for the chair fabric. I was looking for something black and white, hopefully a large stripe or zigzag stripe like I mentioned in the last post. We started in the "Nursery/Children" fabric section first just to see what they had - lots and lots of pink and blue is what they had! Which is great if you know what you're having, which we don't. There was one really cute black and white giraffe print (like actually baby giraffes on the fabric, not just the print of its skin), but I knew I'd grow tired of it after a few months. There was also a black, white and gray owl print, but again, I was trying to avoid anything too baby/cutesy that I would get sick of looking at.

We headed over to their "Stripes/Dots" section and it was an instant jackpot. (I am borderline obsessed with polka dots and stripes.) We looked through all the colors first just to see if there was something I liked in a color (nope) so headed to the back where the black/white was housed. Unfortunately, their striped fabric in black and white looked a little prison-ish - the stripes were about the same width of stripes on an old-timey prison uniform. So we went with polka dots instead.

For the chair I chose a black fabric with large white polka dots, and for the ottoman and head cushion on the chair, a white fabric with small black polka dots. I went home and immediately started to sew the covers I was so excited.... who am I kidding? I didn't sew - I used that iron on sew tape stuff. Washable, holds well, easy. The chair came out sooo cute!

Here are the before and afters. Whatcha think?

So I was going to purchase a black/white polka dot bumper from Carousel Designs but after looking at the chair, figured that would be a little too matchy-matchy and was lucky enough to find this bumper instead on sale for $32!!!! I love a good sale. It's the stripe I was looking for and think it will be cute against that all white crib and next to the polka dot chair.

Besides being a decorating maniac, I have been conducting some more responsible and mature pre-baby activities. Like reading baby books!

My co-worker let me borrow her copies to skim and see what I want to buy for myself. I just finished reading "Happiest Baby on the Block" and it made me say a little prayer and ask God if he could spare me the colicky baby. :)

Also, and I know this sounds awful, but I have really been thankful for these last few moments, however long they are, as a childless couple. It used to feel like a heavy weight, a burden, a sign of failure, but now I see it as a blessing. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to become a mom, but I know that life, my marriage, my relationships, work, everything is about to change drastically. I am going to try to be thankful in the HERE and NOW, in my PRESENT, whatever my circumstances.

PS. - We received another few donations towards Baby M a few weeks ago - $325 total! With that money and all the other generous donations, plus my 401K and Roth IRA, we are now 100% funded. Praise the Lord! GOD CAN DO ANYTHING!

Friends and family, again, thanks for reading this journey of ours, for your prayers, support and encouragement.

We love, love, love you!