Fortune Cookies

Last night Nick's parents brought us Chinese food for dinner. This morning I cracked open all the fortune cookies to see if any of them said something along the lines of "You will have a baby this week..." 0 for 4. Although it looks like me and my "flamboyant personality" will be taking a trip to the "sunny shores" in my new car...

outdoor ideas

Now that our yard is landscaped, I've been dreaming up ideas for creating an outdoor room where we want  to spend our time. Both Nick and I love eating outside and with the fairly mild California weather, we can do so throughout most of the year. Right now the only thing we have is a  hand-me-down wrought iron dining set. However, we have a vague plan to try and outfit our outdoors by the end of summer/early fall. Usually patio furniture tends to go on sale at the end of the summer, so we're hoping to score some good deals on the things we want. Since this is not a immediate project, I've had time to gather ideas and inspiration from various sources. Here's some of our ideas for the yard: 

(click on any of the pictures to go to the original sources)

I'm in love with the colors and textures in this picture. I love how this space feels like an extension of the house, rather than a separate space. Definitely something we want in our own yard. 

We definitely want to build an arbor over our entire patio, since it currently has no shade and gets lots of afternoon light. This is a project for next Spring/Summer but it's certainly on the to-do list. 

I love the idea of a wood table with fun chairs for outdoor dining. Given our small space, we aren't planning a table this long. In fact, my father-in-law, Bob is in the process of building us a custom wood table for our patio. He is building us a 3 X 4 ft table to accommodate at least 6 seats. I've been scouting out cheap seating options to go with our table.

On the other side of our patio, we want some kind of conversation seating/lounging furniture. This is by far my favorite look of all the types of furniture that we've seen. Since outdoor sectionals are pricey (over $1K usually) we'll probably end up building our own version of this or something similar. 

We'd like to add rope lighting along the transition between grass and flower beds.

Lastly, I'm obsessed with hanging egg chairs and would love one in the corner of our yard, to swing in with the baby. This one from Pier 1 is $279 and I'm crossing all my fingers that it will go on sale before summer is over. 

Who knows how our yard will actually end up? We are excited to continue to let this space evolve and make it feel like another room in our house.

happy birthday boy

Happy Birthday to my favorite guy! I'm so lucky that I've gotten to spend the last 9 years with this amazing man. It's been a great time and even though our life is about to change like crazy, there's no one I'd rather have by my side than Nicholas! Cheers to 27! 

 

38

Full term... 11 days from our due date... Just waiting.... And walking lots. And eating spicy food. And praying for baby to come soon. 37 weeks passed rather uneventfully, although we did have an appointment where we found out that Teeny Tiny is measuring right around 6 pounds, so he probably will be teeny tiny- unless he decides to stay in there for another 3 weeks! However, if the fortune-teller/ nail salon lady is correct, baby will be born tomorrow on Nick's birthday...

chalkboard doors

When we came up with a plan for Teeny-Tiny's room, we knew that we needed to do something with the chicken-nasty closet doors. They had the look and feel of cheap cardboard, in an unflattering beige color. Nothing good about those doors. However, in the interest of keeping costs down, we decided that we didn't want to replace them. Even cheapish new doors would have cost at least $80 for all four of the closet doors.

So, my smart cookie hubby came up with the idea of painting the doors with chalkboard paint. Brilliant! 

A couple weeks ago, he took the doors down and painted each one with Rustoleum's black chalkboard paint.  He used an extra-smooth foam roller, so that there wasn't any brush marks or roller marks on the doors. Nick gave each of the doors two coat of paint. 

The doors dried quickly and were easy to put back on the track. Then it was just a waiting game. The directions on the can said to let the paint cure for 4 days before drawing on the chalkboard.  

I wanted to make a fun mural for the doors, since Teeny Tiny probably won't be coloring anytime soon! I decided to draw birch trees with some woodland creatures (although don't look too closely at them - not my best drawing!)  peaking out around the trees.  Nothing permanent or amazing but another easy way to add character to this bedroom. 

So that's our closet-door update. For the cost of $20 (two cans of paint) we transformed these doors into something fun and more attractive than what previously existed.  

bathroom complete

I can officially say that the bathroom remodel is complete! It's been at the 95% finished state for several weeks ago and this past weekend, Nick added the last 2 pieces of trim that we needed to complete the room. Since it's a small, windowless room it was hard to capture the whole room in one shot, so be prepared for an onslaught of photos.

 We started by tearing out the shower doors, the sink and the mirror. Next, I painted the entire space gray, to match the adjoining bedroom. We added white wainscoting and trim.

I added peel and stick tiles to the floor, along with an outdoor chevron rug from Target.
Then I painted an old mirror with a fun yellow and the existing vanity got a makeover with a bright turquoise paint and some Martha Stewart handles from Home Depot. We put a new modern sink on top of the vanity (from Lowes). 

We replaced the ugly bar light fixture with an outdoor light. My dad took out the medicine cabinet and made recessed shelving in the space. 

I accessorized with green hand towels from Crate and Barrel and a metal crate to hold baby products and wash clothes. 

 I bought a Kate Spade shower curtain from Bed Bath and Beyond and peeled off all the glue from the shower tiles (left behind from the sliding doors we removed). 

 I bought two pieces of art from this Etsy artist.

On the little robe hooks, I hung up an adorable baby towel and bathrobe, a gift from my sister for Teeny Tiny. 

 I'm so happy this project is finished and I love the way it turned out. Fun, bright, and clean! Definitely an upgrade from what we started with: