Indecisiveness...I have it!

Alright, readers. I'm at a cross-roads. See, I'm trying to decide what fabric to upholster E's toddler bed with.  The only thing I've got going for me is that I'm leaning toward light blue/turquoise. And I want it to be cute, whimsical, and fun without being girlie...which is so hard with fabric.

So here's what the bed {shape} is going to look like:

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And here are some fabric picks I've found so far. I'll need only 2 yards and almost all of these options are within my budget...

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{stripes could be tricky...source}

{a bit duller than I was thinking but I love the chervon pattern...source}

So what do you think?

I'm leaning towards option #2, but open for opinions. :)

Spring Mantle: Work in Progress

W completed hanging our wall gallery over the weekend {our Sunday had a rainy afternoon; perfect for home projects!} And I'm not completely sold on the mantle just yet, but here it is currently...

The wall gallery still has some space to fill in when I find some more frames I like. Right now it's looking a bit too tame for me or it could just be that I've been staring at this for too long, trying to commit...

But it's a start and I'm happy to have it up! I'm also waiting on my shutterfly order to turn into a silhouette {previously mentioned tutorial} for the oval frame. My mom found a slightly bigger 'S' that I want to mod-podge with fabric before hanging, so the smaller one is taking it's place. Anywho, here it is, in all it's iphone pic grainy glory! :)

Happy Hump Day!

Big Boy Accents For a Big Boy Room

So I've started to put together some ideas for Ezra's big boy room. Lots of bookmarked tutorials and plans. Probably shouldn't admit this because I'm going against the grain here, but I'm not really one for themed rooms. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some really cute rooms using themes that I've loved, but I honestly can never decide on just one thing. It would drive me crazy to narrow my options...which others may find freeing: to have a specific idea in mind. I'm just weird, I guess. This is also probably why I could never get a tattoo--too much commitment to one piece of art! Instead, I plan to stick with some main colors to bring some cohesiveness to his room, and run wild with the other stuff.

While surfing the net, I fell in love with this idea from kojodesigns. Not so much for the ruffles but the use of old books for decor. The following day I found four perfectly old-fashioned looking books at a garage sale. Fabulous!

But I was still stuck on what to do with a ruffle-replacement. Then I was at Michael's in the dollar section and found these perfect white letter hooks. I was bummed that there was no "Z'' to spell his name so I opted for next the obvious word...

{Thanks, Erin, for picking up a few letters for me! Getting all the letters required a bit of a hunt...}

All I did was hot glue the letters onto the front of the books and followed the tutorial for keeping the books closed and prepping to hang.

{E for easiest project. EVER.}

I hope to hang these on the wall near a reading nook or ledge. And I'm just excited that Ezra will have some classics as part of his big boy room!

{Pride And Prejudice...One of my favorite love stories.}

Break Down:
Letters: $4 ($1 a piece)
Books: $6 ($1.50 a piece)
Total: $10 wall decor...sweet!


More on his room as it develops...

On Garage Sales & Family Fun

It all started when I downloaded an app to W's phone called "Garage Sale Rover" last week. It maps out the local sales, lets you look at the ads, and after checking it out, I was hooked. One local sale listed a Burley bike trailer. I'd be loosely looking around, asking for recommendations, and researching options. Really the only thing I knew was that Burley is sold at REI for the retails price of $500, our brother & sister-in-law used them for the coastal bike trip, and I've seen them a lot around town.  

So after a Friday afternoon nap, Ezra and I headed to the sale right as it was starting. And it was huge! Five ladies were running it and stuff covered the entire front house and garage. And there was the trailer on the lawn. Mint condition. Used only 5 times with an only child. I called W {we have this rule that we have to consult each other on purchases over $100} at work and he quickly did a price comparison with Craigslist. Thank goodness he did because I was able to shave another $50 off my asking price. And it & a helmet was ours for a steal! Have I mentioned how much I love garage sales?!

Saturday morning came and I was so eager to try this puppy out. I'd really been missing my bike and one of my favorites things growing up was Family Bike Rides. Since I hadn't ridden in over a year, W trailed E around...on his BMX bike. We took a few test-runs around the neighborhood and E loved it! Especially, his helmet. Oh, and he also went with his 'man-bag'...since Papa has one, of course the Buki needs one...

{Ready to rock n' roll!}

E was so excited by his new ride and all the wonderful sights to take in that he...

So we decided to ride around a bit more. My hammies were already hurting, but it was such a perfect day out and I was loving the time together. Before heading back, we stopped at the Wolford's house for an iced drink and a chat.

{Ready for some lunch!}

In order to compensate for a 2 hour bike ride and hour visit, we went to a fabulous hole-in-the-wall place called Bob's Giant Burgers. Straight out of a Carl's Jr. commercial with juicy drippings and delicious onion rings. Totally hit the spot.

Back at home we all crashed for long afternoon naps. Then Ezra played with our latest water feature outside while Papa got some more zzzzs {W has been waking up super early and putting in long hours at work lately. And I got to sleep in.}

A Tupperware container full of water. :) He plays for hours with that thing, just splashing around and dumping the water out.

The evening was mellow and we all went to bed on the early side for Daylight savings. Can't wait for our next family bike ride!

This Made My Day....

"I never thought of having a baby with down syndrome..."

Read the rest here. And if you have time, you should read more of Natalie's posts. We were fortunate to meet this wonderful family through the Moogs. But were so bummed when we learned they live in Temucula which is no where close to here...

Some of Our Weekend

{Celebrating Jill's 30-something birthday}

{Morning play while Papa was at a men's church meeting}

{Walking downtown to the market}

{Chilling and people-watching during lunch}

{Smelling a cinnamon pine cone while Pops & Ma clean out the back}

{Getting a little too carried away at the store.}

{Snacks before church}

{Ending the weekend with a fire.}

Spring Fever

I've started to put some spring-y decor together even though spring doesn't officially start until the 20th. Perhaps I'm just hoping spring weather will come a bit early this year, but the storms of late aren't keeping my hopes up. But really, who's not itching for spring?! The blossoms are already making a beautiful appearance about town!

I filled our apothecary jars with that fake straw stuff typically used in Easter baskets. At .69 a bag, I was pretty pleased. W wants me to add a few plastic eggs in there too. 

After the pants fail, I decided to switch gears and made a swap with my sewing machine for a glue gun. I've been seeing these fun yarn-wrapped wreaths in blogland a lot and after seeing a friend's recent picture on fb, I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's a fabulous multi-taking project. I wrapped the wreath during a movie one night and did some felt flowers while tutoring this past week. Super easy. The only time consuming part is the wrapping. I used this tutorial for the wreath and this one for the additional flowers. Now I just have to find some coordinating ribbon to hang it with.

And since our wall gallery is still in progress, I've got nada on my mantel. I also have no inspiration yet for the space anyway. It's a good thing I'm starting early!

It's Already Decided...

This dress will be my first purchase post-baby. Must have this gorgeous thing. Too bad I have to wait...

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Loved This Birth Story

...and well, all the beautiful professional photographs too...Ok ok, and her name just happens to be Jessica too. 

A home birth but an unassisted one {baby came before the midwife did}. Who wouldn't want to have a baby after only 5 hours of labor and 2 and 1/2 pushes?!? Sheesh! Guess that's what happens when you already have 3 kids. :)

One Down

Onto 2nd Trimester.

This 1st trimester actually seemed slower for me than Ezra's. Probably because I was still a crazy lady with my head cut off with a large plate full of teaching back then. Now, it's still physically exhausting being at home but a whole lot less stress and running around. More mellow which I love. But my energy is completely tapped by 3 p.m. pretty much every day without fail. 

Baby was measuring accurately, surprisingly. We didn't have health insurance with E until later so my first ultra sound with him was at 20 weeks. So I don't have a comparison, but tentatively our due date is 8.30.11. Ezra was 10 days late, so I'm figuring this little one to be early September.

Cravings: vanilla lattes, Gatorade, berries, smoothies, hearty and creamy soups, fresh deli sandwiches, naps, cleaning & crafting.

Pregnancy anomalies: Crazy dreams! I had these with E too. They are just so odd. Like the one a few nights ago: we had to evacuate our home because a tiger was going through the cabinets' contents under our master bathroom sink. Or the other one where I was trying out for cheerleading again, only 27 and pregnant. Just weird. Good luck interpreting those!

What I'm wondering:

-will he/she have blonde hair again like Papa or be born with jet black hair like me?
-will Baby be a night owl or go to bed early {6 pm} like Brother?
-it's so time to borrow the neighbor's ladder and get my last maternity bin out of storage. I need more shirts.

-should the bin of newborn clothes that's been sitting in our bathroom finally go up into storage for the next 6 months or just stay put?

-how much longer I get to sleep on my stomach and back. will it be shorter this time because i'm getting bigger faster?
-when will i get that natural chest lift? could really use one after post-nurse status.
-hoping this little one does come closer to due date before Papa starts his job on Sept. 19th
-will I finally get an outie?
-when to transition E into his toddler bed, once we make it?

Confession: Almost a month ago, I had a coupon for Old Navy. I started in the clearance section and found items for W, E, and I which I couldn't use the coupon on. So, I also grabbed a sweet little girl number for Baby that wasn't on sale so I could use the coupon. But I totally felt like I was cheating and should be getting into big trouble. Major cheating, like on a diet or on lent or something big like that. Such a rebel, I know. Okay, had to get that off my conscience.