The push before the big push, part 2

Downstairs Powder Room
From blank white, with a clamshell sink and the cheapest fixtures you can find, to kind of more inviting with a little color. Not a thing to do about the fixtures in a rental, but paint has always been my favorite answer to changing a room anyway:) We put all of our architecture and Chi-town related photos in the bathroom, which actually unified them in a nice, new way. It still needs something along the knee rail, but we're not going to do curtains, as it's already a dark room. I need to keep thinking...any suggestions would be appreciated!



Dane's Room
This room still kind of drives me nuts, as paneling is so dark. It's a basement bedroom, which makes it a little cave-like for my taste. Mark, on the other hand, loves it. I think he's hoping Dane will inherit his mole ways so they can sit in a dark living room and watch TV together:) We added bright bedding, a rug, all white furniture and frames and it's actually not so bad now.

We repainted a Goodwill corkboard and resale shopt photo of a pelican, repurposed some old cork flooring samples as the backdrop for some sailboat drawings and cut up some mock-ups of an author book from when I was at Tyndale to make the "Imagine" poster.
Drawings of the Cobra that Mark hopes to build with him someday, and then some other car I found online.
Freehand letters in orange and yellow scraps from my fabric closet.
These built-in shelves are one great quality of the room. Excellent for storing all the books and toys we're beginning to accumulate.
We went with a bright, yet masculine scheme of yellow, orange and blue, getting all of our bedding/rug/ etc from Crate and Barrel Outlet. Love that place!

Upstairs Hall
For our upstairs hallway, we wanted to cover the scuffed inconsistent "white" so we mixed up a lighter gray from the one we used in the baby room and primer. It's a soothing color that adds life to the hall without darkening it significantly.

Lastly, we finally hung the Bobbsey Twins books using sawtooth hangers nailed into the back covers. Two tiny holes in the back, and we can always pull them out once we're ready to read them together!

3 days

I'm officially 3 days away from having our little girl, of course, barring any early labor. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone and how different it's been in every way. I've now been pregnant and growing for almost 2 months longer than I was with Dane. I feel huge. I feel tired. And most of all, I feel worried that I won't be able to give two kids what I need to, and was able to up to this point with Dane. I can't imagine what it will be like when I'm not able to give him my full attention when he needs it. I feel a tremendous amount of guilt at cutting his time as my only baby so short, especially when he seems to be entering an age of heightened awareness and neediness. I will miss our quiet mornings and evening book reading together. I tear up when I think about having to share my love with another child, like I'm taking something from him. Everyone I've spoken to says it will turn out great, that being so close in age will make our kiddos best friends, closer than they could be if they were further apart. I realize that they will have to share so many things, and am trying to keep my mind on the positive. It's so hard when my emotions are already experiencing crazy highs and lows.

Dane will always be my first baby, and I have an irrational fear that I'll never be able to love a girl the same way. I do remember having similar thoughts before Dane arrived, thinking that I didn't know how I could love a person I'd never met. All I can say is that I love him more than I knew possible. In a completely different way than I've loved before, but in a way that is almost more powerful and consuming. I have to believe that the same will be true with our new little song. Despite having no plan for how quickly our family grew, both Mark and I think that God let it happen this way for a reason. She's going to be an amazing new blessing and we look forward to meeting our fourth soon.

The push before the big push, part 1

In the last week before we have our second little one, I (and Mark by default) have gotten into full-on nesting mode, finishing a ton of projects we've been meaning to do for months. Here are some of the projects we've done in the last few days.

Master Bedroom

Our room has always been the last to get attention, but once I finished painting our tiny bathroom (from a dark mauve) light sea blue, I decided it would be great in our room as well. We also have a hand-me-down blue metal bedframe, that while functional, was not beautiful. I decided to sew covers for the head and foot board, creating a fabric wrap that definitely updated the look of the bed. A beautiful sheet set we received for our wedding had gotten a hole in it, so I patched that and used it for the covers. I'm not a pro, but was still happy with how they turned out.

We also finally got around to hanging curtains: lightblockers that make the occasional late morning so much more pleasant. We used tension rods that are pretty ugly, but they were cheap, and that works for now:)

Finally, we found a great deal on a large mirror at home goods, which adds a little light and function to the room. I can fully see how large I'm getting at 38 weeks!
Baby Room

We put all the finishing touches on the baby's room; she'd better come out a girl, or we're going to be finding new homes for a lot of pink and fuschia stuff! We completed all the painting, including a new squirrel and a secret message from Daddy. We found a great rug and pendant light at Crate and Barrel outlet, expertly installed by Mark.

I also covered a cheap lampshade with tissue, topping off a clearance lamp from HomeGoods. Complete cost was less than $20. That's my kind of lamp.

Finally, we found a couple old photos of Mark and I as babies, and blew them up so we can compare our new one and argue about who she looks more like. Our final project will be to mount a set of old Bobbsey Twins books, which we found at an antique store near the hospital Mark works at.

Still to come: Dane's room, upstairs hall, powder room

New house project roundup

Baby Room

This was the biggest project other than just repainting the living area. We painted the walls a cool gray (notice how the previous almost-fluorescent green is gone. Nothing like fluorescents to calm a baby...), painted a rug, created a mural, hand-sewed a mobile and refinished a couple pieces of furniture, including an old record player cupboard that we ripped the insides out of and repainted. Another nice dumpster pick from Wheaton Center.

The inspiration for the room is a birch forest, but we wanted it to be modern and girly. Hence we added the fuschia curtains and the fuschia, pink, orange and yellow birds.

I also painted one of the walls in our carpeted living room, creating stripes with the two colors that we used for the raindrop wall in our last apartment. You can see that wall here. It definitely brightens the room, but I'm not sold on it yet. Although, I'm at the burned out phase for that project, so it's done for a while either way! Dane did his best to help:)

We also hung a photo grouping of frames that we'd gotten in the old apartment, matching the paint.

Next up on the list is painting the bathroom, our bedroom and finally, the upstairs hall. All this before the baby gets here, right?

Curtains

Finally, we're mostly moved in. The old lease ends Wednesday and it'll be great to have all those loose ends tied up. The house we moved into came with some pretty yucky curtains in the living room, not to mention a color scheme that made me gag. Picture flesh tone + sage green. Ew. So after days of repainting everything a cool grey and white, I finally got the awesome fabric I ordered on Etsy. It's beautiful! So, over the last couple days, I finished up the curtains (6 panels!) for our living room. Brightens things right up!

Dumpster pick up

Our latest find at the dumpsters was a dresser for the Dane man. He's getting to the point where the last dresser we found (on the side of the road) is too small for his ever-growing clothing collection. We found this one, looking pretty dumpy, and had to snatch it up for its potential. It had great lines and cool detail, and was FREE, perfect for refinishing! Below are the before and after photos. It only took 4 (ha ha, only...) coats of white gloss and $3 worth of scratch dent handles from Ikea, and it's good as new. Probably better, really:)

Guac...in 10 ten seconds or less

Mark and I discovered a shared love of homemade guacamole shortly after we met, thanks to my good friend, Sarah Kahler, a guacamole-maker extraordinaire. Not only is it easy to find the ingredients all summer long in grocery stores, cilantro is also a simple thing to grow on the porch, so we like to grow what we can. Recently, while making pureed fruit and veggie cubes for Dane, we thought we might try doing a batch of guac for ourselves. We couldn't eat it all, so we tried freezing it. Amazing! Frozen into ice cube trays, we're able to defrost them for a couple seconds and bam! guac for a taco. So easy. That's my kind of snack:)

Mark and Larissa's Mostly Homemade Guacamole

4 avocados (we've liked the Haas variety)

2 tomatoes (medium, on-the-vine, or home grown)

1/2 bunch cilantro (we like a LOT of cilantro, add based on your taste preference)

2 tbs. lime juice

1/2 cup store bought salsa (it's so much easier than seasoning separately)

salt and pepper to taste

We seed and mash the avocados to a slightly chunky texture, cut the tomatoes to 1/2 inch cubes, or smaller for Dane. Dice the cilantro finely, add the lime juice, s & p, and stir. Voila! Delicious on grilled chicken tacos, with chips, or really even just by the spoonful if you're Mark:)

While it's not quite the same as fresh, when Dane's had a rough day and we haven't had time to get to the store, it makes for a great summer dinner fast.

Mexican getaway

Just got back from our "babycation" with our good friends the Swees to Cancun. I hadn't yet been out of the country, so decided that Mexico was a perfect place to use my newly minted passport. Here's our photo journal of the trip:)