Wednesday, March 28, 2012

I'm in the mood...

Posted by Meghan
...for something sweet. Is anyone else hungry?

But you don't religiously read this blog to learn about my most recent cravings so let's move on to more interesting topics.

The Nursery. More importantly, the Nursery Mood Board.

Everyday across the internet millions hundreds a lot of women design and post what is commonly called a "mood board". Thanks to Wikipedia, I can tell you that a mood board is "a type of poster design that may consist of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition of the choice of the mood board creator. Designers and others use mood boards to develop their design concepts and to communicate to other members of the design team."  


Here are some examples of the different kinds of mood boards out there.


Craft Mood Board. Source



Fashion Mood Board. Source



Even a Mood Board for gift ideas. Brilliant! Source




You wonder how I know that it's women posting these mood boards? Because a man's mood board would look something like this:


Source


In between eating anything sweet I can get my hands on and poppin' Tums (yes, I'm eating them like they are candy thankyouverymuch!)  I designed my own mood board for the Nursery. 


Sources:
4. Plush Owl from Pier 1.
5. Take Me For A Walk (Boy) from Etsy
6. giraffes giclée print from Etsy
7. Monsieur III print from Etsy
8. Zigzag printed rug from Urban Outfitters
9. Hemnes Dresser from Ikea
11. POÄNG Chair from Ikea
12. changing pad cover from Carousel Designs

I already had the crib, dresser and chair. And as you can see in the images below, I have recently purchased the curtains, plush owl from Pier 1, rug, pouf and changing pad cover. 






The pouf is a little more red than I had expected and the changing pad cover has more blue than aqua in it but I'm very happy with the overall look. Of course, I still need to decide on bedding for the crib (without a bumper of course!). 

Luckily I have my very own personal shopper who will be visiting this weekend to help me finish this space. Some people refer to her as the best shopping partner ever, but I usually call her Mom. She's where I got my passion for shopping. The hardest part will be keeping her focused on sheets and pillows when all she really wants to do is buy some "cute" baby boy "outfits". With options like this, can you really blame her?



        





3 comments

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bump It

Posted by Meghan
Don't worry. This is not some elaborate ploy whereby I discuss a product at length in the hopes of receiving said product for free. (Seriously though, who would use one of these to fake what appears to me to be a birds nest?! Snooki - your secret is safe with me.)

I have happily entered into my third trimester of pregnancy. Where on earth did the time go?! I was so excited to get here, but now for the life of me, I can't remember why. We'll blame it on the pregnancy brain which has also contributed to forgetting my purse at home, having to turn around to make sure that the garage door is closed (TWICE!) and forgetting those..what do you call them. Oh, Yes! Words. Sometimes I just draw a complete blank.

Fortunately for others, it is no longer a question of whether I'm a little plump in the middle or pregnant. Thanks to the excessive amount of powdered donuts I've been consuming (in line at Walmart no less - classy I know), I no longer have to suffer through awkward conversations of people trying to determine if I'm pregnant. Take the other day at the dentist. After having sat in the chair for a good 5 minutes, the dental hygienist awkwardly asked "Uh..umm..has anything changed in your medical history that you haven't mentioned?" Well there was that donut coma I'm currently recovering from. Oh...and the pregnancy of course. Bless her heart.

When I told my doctor that I was convinced my stomach was stretched to the max, she laughed, looked at Caleb and said "Let's not tell her". Well that's comforting.

See for yourself.



Now where did I put those donuts?
2 comments

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Bonus Post

Posted by Meghan
I'm trying to be sneaky with my post title. I'm hoping it will make you feel special, like maybe you are getting something a little extra for being a super dedicated blog reader, and you'll forgive the fact that it's been a while since my last post. Is it working?



About 3.5 seconds after learning that we were expecting, I muttered a string of words that brought horror to Caleb's thoughts .....and more recently, our bank account.

"We need to redo the bonus room."

I was 110% convinced that our first priority was to redo our bonus room. Of course we all know that my idea was completely rational  hormone induced. From what I can remember, the rest of the conversation went a little something like this:

C: "That's funny, it sounded like you said bonus room. You meant Nursery right?"
M: "No. We need to redo the bonus room. New carpet, paint, lights, etc."
C: "But why would we need to redo that room? We're not putting the baby in the bonus room...are we?"
M. "Because we need to move the office furniture from the nursery to the bonus room, so we might as well redo the whole room before we move the furniture." (I admit it does sound a little crazy now that I'm typing it out.)

So Caleb did what any husband does when their pregnant wife insists asks for something...he gave in.

Like any renovation project, the bonus room took on a life of it's own. Our first and biggest project was new carpeting. And since we would be putting in new carpeting, we might as well repaint, because we wouldn't want to repaint after the new carpet was installed. And since we were repainting, we should probably get some new light fixtures, since we would have to take down the old light fixtures to paint. You know that book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"? Well I was that mouse, and the bonus room was my cookie. One big fat chocolate chip cookie. (Mmm..I could totally go for a cookie right now.)

Lucky for us (and since I have been a little lax on my blog posts) my blog editor had some free time to visit and help out with our "little" project. Caleb and Dad did all of the heavy lifting, painting and installing while I supervised from the couch. It was an exhausting couple of days, and I'm pretty sure Caleb and Dad were tired too. We were able to finish a majority of the work and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Let's look at some before and after shots, shall we? ( I have, of course, marked a few areas of interest. I wouldn't want you to miss anything.)






Feel that burning in your eyes? That's the body's natural reaction to unsightly interior decorating (or lack thereof). Let's give it a few seconds to subside.

And now for the "In Progress" shots....

Please pay no attention to the mess. I haven't had a chance to tidy up since we were featured on an episode of Hoarders.





We still need to put up a chair rail at the intersection of brown and white. I have chosen a profile deep enough to allow us to rest pictures frames along it. I am going for something like this:


I have a feeling after June we'll have plenty of pictures to choose from for our gallery wall, although they may all feature a cute little guy.



3 comments

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Hello, My Name Is...

Posted by Meghan


Many of you have been asking if we've picked a name yet for our little man. To be honest, we haven't even made our list of top 10. There are so many options, it's kind of like trying to pick a shade of white paint - cotton, snow, ivory..I digress.

This is a HUGE decision that we don't want to take lightly. Baby H will have to live with our decision for his entire life. No pressure...right?

I must admit that I have been more aware of names in general. I'm extra sensitive to spelling variations as well -"That's Bob with one 'o' or....?" And I wait for the movie credits like I wait for girl scout cookies to go on sale. (One word...YUM!)

I also frequent a few baby name websites to get a feel of what's in (and what's not).

Nameberry.com has a live feed that shows names that people are currently searching for. (People search for some odd names on a Saturday night at 11 pm.)



Babycenter.com  has a feature that will show you suggestions based on your current search.


And of course there are lot of top baby name lists out there for each year. Here's the top 40 for 2012 from Babycenter. Check out # 25. 

Popular Baby Names for 2012.

Since we will not be posting the official name until we meet Baby H (we'd like to make sure it fits), and I need to post something of substance so you'll keep coming back to read more, I have decided to share the names that we have officially ruled out. (Let's hope Baby's handwriting is better than below.) *


I actually surprised myself by putting this first. This has been my first choice for a boy for YEARS. I am, however, a little hesitant of any names that fall within the top 10. It sure has been nice being the only Meghan at my office.


As much as we would love our son to be guaranteed a Number 1 jersey, we think he should earn it on his own.


I have liked this name since reading "The Next Always" by Nora Roberts. I had already figured that Nora would be naming all of my babies since I fell in love with Emmaline (Emma) from her series "The Bride Quartet". We can't get past "Beck" as a nickname though, so it's off the list. Maybe next time Nora.


Enough said.


Caleb and I would really like a first name that can be shortened to a nickname. Unfortunately Everett doesn't offer this option (we couldn't really get into "Ev" or "Ever").


Like any parent, we have high hopes for our little guy. This may be taking it a little too far though.


We even considered offering up the naming rights to the highest bidder and having sponsors for the middle name. "Comcast Samoas Hartwell". (Free cable and girl scout cookies for life!) I could live with that.

And to any of you considering putting together your own list of suggestions for Baby H, you can put your pencil down. In the small chance that Baby H didn't like his name, I wouldn't want him to hold it against you, that's what parents are for. 

* Apologies to anyone who has or is considering a name on our "no" list. No hard feelings...k?
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