Little Miss Martha: February 2012

2.28.2012

A Few Of My Favorite { Baby } Things

This week, Little Miss Ella will be one month old. Can't believe how the time passes...

And in this month that is kind of a blurr, I have depended on a few things to get us through...

Without these things, I would not have been able to survive... probably.

So, here they are... In no particular order:

Bright Starts Wrist Rattles

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These little velcro rattles go on the baby's wrists and then when they move, they get a little rattle. It's nice since they can't quite grip anything yet and this allows for them to entertain themselves a little bit as well as realize how crazy their arms are waving.

Samsung Wireless Video Monitor

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I am in love with my video monitor. How did we survive without these? I mean, what did my parents do without this? I love to sit and watch Little Miss Ella lay in her bed asleep or watch her as she wakes up. I'll put her down in her crib and then still not get anything else done because I just sit and watch the monitor. It's so entertaining.

Tommee Tippee Bottles and Bibs

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We use the anti-colic bottles and they seem to be working so far. I use them for breast milk and for one formula bottle a day. They are really nice and Ella seems to do pretty well with them. Then for those times when she's a crazy eater and messy, I love the Tommee Tippee bibs that have a thicker raised area around the neck to prevent the milk from seeping down onto the clothes and into the baby's neck. This we really like!

Large Swaddle Blankets

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These have been a lifesaver... So long as we get her fed enough before bed...
They will keep her asleep for HOURS on end! It's really nice to have a baby sleep for two plus hours. You cannot have enough of these!

Avent Soothie Pacifiers

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Steal as many of these as you can from the hospital! They are the best! There's something about these that the babes just take to and LOVE. We have a couple of other types of binkies and Ella doesn't really like them as much. So... steal steal steal... or lose lose lose them when you are at the hospital (while you are really just stashing them in your bag).

Bundle Me by JJ Cole

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While we've really had one of the mildest winters this season this has still come in handy. I actually kind of love it for the ice rink. It's really nice to just have it on the carseat when we go into the rink that's freezing... I just keep her all zipped up in it and if she's sleeping, I just keep her covered completely. What a great idea so that you don't have to bundle the kiddos up with thick uncomfortable clothing!

So there you have it. That's my must have list! I'm sure tomorrow I'll find something else I must have! Things that almost made the list were the Tommee Tippee Bottle Warmer, Wipes Warmer, and the Diaper Dude Diaper Bag. They might make the must have list next month! haha.

Anyone out there with different opinions on must haves?! I'd love to hear! :)

2.27.2012

Nursery Reveal

Now that my baby is three weeks old, it's probably time to reveal the nursery.

It's actually probably a little late, so sorry.

I decided that I wanted to try to take some decent pictures, but this is all I came up with!

Here's the changing and storage area of the room. The dresser you may remember we found on Craigslist and then refinished it white. It actually works out really well because it's on the smaller side. Anything bigger would have looked silly and probably not fit.

The bookcase is from Ikea. That was a fun project with Mr. K. Ikea furniture has a way about causing tiffs. Not bad ones, just frustrated because the instructions are not clear tiffs. Oh well. This is the perfect piece for in here. We have toys in the bottom baskets from Ikea, diapers in the plum baskets which we got at Meijer, and books and accessories on the other shelves. It works great!

On top of the bookcase, I have an elephant lamp that I found at an antique shop with a new shade from Target. The Lambchop is to represent my sister in the room as that was her favorite show growing up. Then there are a few other items up there like the leftover buttons from the Cute as a Button baby shower and the invitation as well as a Peek-A-Boo bear from Gigi (Great Grandma).

Here's a shot of the wall where you walk in. The DIY Mobile works perfectly over the changing pad. I really like the color that it brings to this side of the room. The mirror was painted teal (previously brown) and was found at Wal-Mart. The button was from the baby shower and was given a new coat of white (and might get another coat come spring) to blend into the room better.

The wall over the crib is probably one of my favorite parts of the room. We have some baby animals up there, some funny sayings, some lyrics to songs, a picture of Mr. K and I, a sonogram picture of Baby Kakes and some bunting that I made using a template found on Aubrey and Lindsay's blog. I am in love with the bunting and although not all the colors are right, it still works!

There's also a little rhinoceros that I purchase off of etsy and a picture that says "cute" made by my mom and Ella's Gram Tam.

Here's the rocking and reading corner. I absolutely love how my rocker turned out and ended up giving us a little more texture due to the subdued patterned fabric.

Chair was found on craigslist and I was lucky enough to find this perfectly matching teal table at Target for sitting next to the chair. It works so well and looks great next to the chair and the curtain from Urban Outfitters.

You can also see in the closet a bit. It turned out great! Love it!

I know it's not a great picture, but there is an antique frame from my great grandmother in there that I repainted teal and a wicker child's rocker which is also teal in there. This can be a sort of mini-playroom... I hope...to help keep the clutter down.

This is Ella's outfit display wall. I figure this will be nice to select outfits or just for fun! The hooks came from Urban Outfitters and the shown tutu and onesie are from friends!

So there you have it.

Look for cost breakdown next week!

I tried to keep it on the cheap, but that's always easier said than done...

We'll see how I did.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

2.23.2012

Thrifty Thursday { Scrapbooking Embellishments }

Do any of you guys scrapbook?

I'm working on (or will be) one for Ella. It'll be her little baby book...although, I already feel like I'm slacking.

Anywho... If you are a scrapbooker, have you noticed how expensive the embellishments have gotten? I can't believe that for some stickers you will pay up to $5. It's kind of crazy. I do realize they are neat, but still that can get expensive.

So, I thought of a way to at least keep me out of the scrapbook aisles for a little longer. Maybe it's me being resourceful or maybe it's just me being cheap, but it's going to work. :)

I had a ton of gift bags given to me from having a couple of showers and I kept them all. Some had cute little things on them, some had things coming off of them, and some were just plain. But, after looking at this bag full of baby themed gift bags that I would never be able to use (because there were so many) I decided I could use them.

I decided to cut off, pull off, cut out the embellishments that were on these bags and utilize them in my scrapbook for Little Miss Ella.

Here are two that started like this:

And ended up just like this:

And here are the others that I was able to get off of other gift bags:

Can't wait to start on this scrapbook! I think I'd better start soon!

Maybe sometime this week!

2.22.2012

Newborn Fog

I think I'm still in the newborn fog...
Things are starting to get better as we are actually sleeping for more than 15 minutes at a time during the night...

But since I'm falling behind on my sleep, I've been slacking a bit on the blog.
Hopefully I'll be back up and running normally here in the next week.

Until then, here's a pic of Baby Girl!

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

2.20.2012

Guest Bedroom Reveal

This has been a long time coming! Seriously! I mean, my house is finally painted... and now, almost all of the rooms are finished to the point where I feel like people can see them. There are still a few things going on in this room that still need to be changed, but being on a budget, I will have to wait.

Starting with this chair... It's the first thing you see when you enter the room. It's an old chair that I got from my cousin. Under this hounds tooth, there is a greeny-yellow, 1970s fabric that is tufted. I'd really like to redo this chair, but I'm not sure that my upholstery skills are up to par yet. So for now, the chair is covered with a black and white checked/hounds tooth blanket - I actually think it works for now.

The curtains have moved from our once office to the now guest bedroom/office. They actually work really well in here with this color. The color is Artichoke by Valspar. I really enjoy it. I wanted to paint the loft this color but with only one window in that room, it would have been too dark. Here it works though. I think it makes the room very homey and cozy.

The lamp is a redone goodwill lamp that was probably under $5 and the shade is also from goodwill. The lamp started bronze and when to white. The white is a nice contrast in this room with the dark walls. And of course, Lex wanted to be involved in this post so he's looking out the window.

When the office became the nursery, we had to find a new place for our "office." So we originally moved the desk to the loft and had it flanked with bookcases, but I never really liked it in there so when I was about 8 months pregnant, I had the great idea to move it back here! And so it stays...

It actually got stuck in the hall for a hot minute while I was moving it because I knew if I asked my husband to move it, he'd say no. And he did so he tried to move it back, but I sat on top of it until he agreed to help me move it into this room. I actually kind of like it here.

Above it is the re-vamped bulletin board which I posted about yesterday, and two leftover cream frames that I had from working on my gallery wall. This room is a semi-eclectic mix of items which a color theme to keep them all working together. The top photo is of my grandmother and the bottom is of me and my little brother from a while back. I think it is about 10 years ago... oh how the time flies.

Then there is the sleeping set up. The bed we found a goodwill for $15. We've yet to finish spraying the rest of the bed, so right now the headboard is the only piece in here. Then we have these bedside tables that I found about 3 years ago at an antique store downtown for $30. They will need to have their color changed or be swapped out at some point.

Then there's the shelf that used to hang in the hallway leading to this bedroom. I ended up hanging pictures gallery style on that wall and needed a place to put this shelf. I actually think it looks pretty good, although I'm not sure if it should be on this wall or not. I think once I hang something interesting but small underneath the shelf and change out the lights.... I think it will look better.

But there you have it...

Our Guest Bedroom...

Finally revealed.

It's only taken me 3 years to get it semi-finished but it's finally presentable.

Items to still change:

Lamps

Bedside Tables

Sheets/Comforter

Chair

Time to start saving and thrifting again!

YAY!

2.16.2012

Revamping a Bulletin Board

Before Little Miss Ella was born, I was in a state of boredom! I had cleaned and vacuumed all the rooms. I had finished up the nursery. I had even finished decorating our guest room.

And I had a ton of items in our "storage" closet ... aka the guest bedroom closet ... that were in need of either being donated, redone, or finding new homes. One of these items in our storage closet was the bulletin board that used to hang in our office before it was turned into the nursery.

Here it is when I started. It used to hang over the desk and would soon find it's way to the same place, but in a new room over the desk!

I removed the thumb tacks and fabric, but kept the batting on it. I originally re-painted the wood trim, but eventually went another route.

Remember when I said my glue gun was my new best friend?! Well, here she is again.... I used the glue gun to glue around the back edges the linen fabric I was recovering the board with. I just started on one edge and then pulled it tight around to all the edges while gluing.

Very easy!

And here's what I had when we were done.

I made sure to pull the fabric as tightly as possible all the way around.

Then it was time to add some embellishments. I reused the thumb tacks from before. I choose this time to only use the silver ones as I thought the white ones were too much contrast AND I decided to space them out a little differently. I really like the end result!

It looks very different than before, but goes so well with the guest bedroom/office area.

So there you have it... It actually cost me ZERO dollars to finish this up! I had everything laying around just waiting to be used! I love those kind of projects!

You'll get a final reveal when I reveal the recently finished guest bedroom! Don't mind the empty picture frames. The guest bedroom reveal is coming soon! Just need to take some decent pictures. It was a part of my "nesting" phase that helped it to get finished!

2.15.2012

Saying Goodbye

I don't know about you, but I follow a lot of blogs.

Remember, my mom called me a blog hog!?! So that's how I lovingly refer to my followers.

But in all seriousness, I follow so many that it's hard to keep up! I have wedding blogs, decor blogs, diy blogs, family blogs, baby blogs... Just about every type of blog you can think of!

So even though I started this blog to document my wedding planning, I'm thinking it's time to say goodbye to some of the blogs that got me through! It's just that I no longer need the wedding inspiration. And while there are some gorgeous events out there to look at, it's time for me to start looking at events more relevant to my life now - birthdays, barbeque's, and everyday entertaining.

Goodbye Wedding Chicks...