Accessorizing the Signature Color

First, let me say that I acknowledge that I am slipping on my weekly updates. You know I do not care for excuses, especially of the "I don't have time" variety. However, since the last update we have managed to celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary (go us!), have both of our mothers in town, have the best baby shower ever (thanks Kristen, Julie and Casey), celebrate my mothers birthday and Passover. Immediately following all of that, I survived 3 commercial photo shoot days. I'm "off" today, getting ready for one more tomorrow.

The follow up to the last post (where Jeff painted the nursery) is that we added a fabulous decal the accent wall. White birch trees with blue birds and a fun orange owl! I love it so much, I sit in there for a few minutes each day and admire it.

This was SO easy. I was a little worried that I had chosen a project that was a little more work than what we are capable of DIY-ing at the moment, but it was surprising simple. We got it out of the package and up on the wall in about 3 hours.

Now, we took our time, to make sure that we still loved each other throughout the process. We even took a snack break and got everything cleaned up. I have been telling people that we are total pros at this and can come over and decal a wall for you anytime. Im confident that we could get the next one up in less than 2 hours! With this chick's excellent supervising skills and the dude's flawless execution, we are pretty much masters. Just saying.

Since I am a little behind, I hadn't done it yet, BUT I did take a ton of photos with the intention of creating a step by step video of how to to put up a decal. This would be super helpful, if you ever wanted to do it. If no one is interested, Im probably not going to take the time to do that just yet. BUT, if you are, leave a comment and I will get it up ASAP.

The how to video won't take me long to get up, but I should probably tell you all about the amazing baby shower that we had last weekend. And I have a few thank you notes to get out to the wonderful people who shared that day with us.

Living in Color

You remember how long it took us to pick out that chair? Well, lets just say, it took longer than deciding on my new car, which I got last week. More on that later.....

The nursery is slowly but surely coming together. The chair should be delivered in April, just in time for the baby to arrive in beginning to mid May. I moved what was my office, for the first few months we were in this house, to a new room that is much better suited as a study. I should do a little post on how its coming together too. I will add that to my list.

Before the furniture was delivered, in the middle of a random snow day, Jeff got the room painted. Choosing the paint color was a process, just like the chair. 

First we went to Lowe's or Home Depot (I cant remember, we are at both like every other day) and got some swatches. I taped them to the wall and checked in to see how I felt about them over the next few days. I would take a look in the early morning, mid day and evening, to see how they looked in different lighting.  After a few days, I narrowed it down to these 4.

Since we knew we wanted to add a decal mural, we figured it was best to pick that out first and that would help make the decision. Since we decided on a nature/woodsy kind of thing, we picked the green. 

Once we decided on the color, which only took a week!, this dude started painting! He did a great job and got it finished before the furniture was delivered. 

While I love the gold/yellow and feel like it is such a happy color, I felt green was best for the wall.  I added my splash of yellow with the rug!

And here is what it looks like pre-mural, with the furniture. Next post will be putting up the decals, which turned out GREAT! And just in time, I really wanted it to be up before our moms come to visit and before our baby shower next weekend. I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

Mirror turned Chalkboard

This was my Thanksgiving project. Long overdue to get done and long overdue to share. My bad. Most of what we have to share is baby G related (like registering and getting this damn chair ordered), so I thought I would break it up a bit.

You know that I am passionate about upcycling, repurposing or whatever you want to call refusing to throw stuff away. That is how this DIY headboard came to pass and so many other projects.

The backstory on this mirror goes like this....I bought these 2 mirrors for like $35 off Craigslist for my small studio space that I rented in Dallas (circa 2009). When I went to pick them up, the girl nonchalantly mentions that they have these obnoxious giant nails thru the wood framing all the way around. Since I was already there and I needed a mirror, I just took the damn thing.

Now these have been wrapped up in packing paper for 2+ years and schlepped from Dallas to our first house in Richmond and now here. Just like the wood in our shed that became the DIY headboard, I swore to the Dude that I would figure out some amazing and fabulously creative way to use them. It took me some time, but now that we are in our new house it came to me.

I decided to turn the smaller of the two mirrors into a chalkboard to hang in the dining room. After I hammered out the giant nails that were in the frame (I've got a pic of that from the 2nd mirror project that we did today), I taped off the edges and spray painted the chalkboard paint directly onto the mirror.

It was so easy! I did take a few coats. I think I did it 3 times, just make sure it was even. I let it dry about a half hour each time in between. 

 Each week, we have been taking my pregnancy progress photo and writing the number of weeks on the chalkboard. It also is a fun place to write our menu when we have people over for dinner. I am sure we will use it for all sorts of stuff!

We have been tracking the baby's progress with his size corresponding to fruits and veggies. I couldnt find a rutabaga that week:)

If you are a Pinterest person, I added this to my DIY decor Pinterest board. Its here if you want to  repin and save it for a future project.

See, told you so! Never doubt my creative vision. Today we put the 2nd mirror into action. It looks amazing, more to come on that.

Rock a Bye Baby

In last week's post (tackling the registry and other to dos), I mentioned the search for the perfect chair. I can not tell you how thankful we were to finally make a decision on this and get it ordered. I am sure that our mothers, were ready for us to make a decision and move on. I know for sure one of them was:). I also know that if she is going to spend as much time as she wants in this chair, with this baby, she will be happy that we got a nice comfy one.

When I tell you that we spent more time in search of this chair than we did picking out our next car, I am totally serious. Chair shopping proved to be much more challenging than expected. From what I hear, you spend a lot of time rocking the sweet little ones in these chairs, so comfort is key.

What I learned on my journey is that even the ugliest ones available are also REALLY expensive. I decided that if I was going to buy anything, I wanted to not hate it.  We had looked at this Pottery Barn chair early on but had some sticker shock. Then, like I mentioned, as we kept looking we learned all chairs are expensive, even the ugly ones. We decided on the one in the above photo that I am glamorously "modeling" for you all. It will be coming in the below color.

All I wanted was an upholstered (not wooden or leather) chair that was semi-modern with clean lines that swiveled or rocked. It didn't have to recline or have an ottoman. I wanted to be able to sit in it before buying it, which made the Little Castle chairs not an option. A lot of folks recommended these but I wasn't dropping $500 on something I couldn't see in person. I liked the way they looked but I just couldn't commit.

So, assuming that I will rock more than one baby in this chair, and that I will continue to like it when these babies are older, we went for the Pottery Barn chair. We are really grateful that our parents help us with making decisions and purchases like this. If we didn't have them, we would probably just not have anywhere to sit.

Good thing we ordered it when we did because it takes about 10 weeks before the can deliver it. By the time the nursery furniture gets here, Jeff gets the room painted (more on that) and decorated, the rug gets here (oh, yeah, another story!), the chair will be here just in time for the baby. We also saved 10% by registering for a few items at Pottery Barn.

If you are looking for a giant leather chair that looks like a 400 lb, 80 year old man would rest comfortably thru an entire Sunday of football or a wooden rocker/glider chair built for a quilting granny, you should be able to find that in a single afternoon instead of weeks of searching.

I have a whole list of stuff to tell you about, what do you want to know next? I am thinking paint samples and our (super long) process of choosing an accent wall color will make for an interesting story. Ok, maybe not super interesting but it will do.

Registry, and other works in progress.

Since we are expecting this baby to come in May, we have been super busy the last few weeks preparing for his arrival! Maybe I was kind of naive about this but I really thought that the crazy busy times, started after that baby got here. What do I know!

We are getting it done, little by little. We made the announcement to the world that we were expecting (seen here), then shared our gender reveal (here), now for the real prep work! Its kind of like planning  a wedding, except I am much more into this than I was the wedding. Maybe because, unlike the wedding, we can make decisions how we want to, and not have to tip toe around what works for everyone else, friends, family, friends of family. Nope this one is all us.

I am trying really hard to keep the habit of posting here at least once a week. There is so much I need to update you on, but I will spread it out, as to not overwhelm you as much as I have been overwhelmed the last few weeks. For now, I want to share my excitement about our upcoming shower!

My awesome girlfriends, Kristen (maid of honor from my wedding) and Julie and Casey (gender reveal party planners) are hosting this. I have no idea what they are planning but it is always awesome. Just like this shower invitation that I got in the mail this week. They know how to pick fun things that make me happy and know that I love to be surprised. How cute is this invite!

I am especially grateful to Casey for helping us with our registry and making sure we did it on time!

This guy is a handful but he is great to have around!

girls just want to have fun!

My mom and mother in law will be flying to Richmond for the shower, which will be nice. It is hard not having them be here but they do the best they can to be a part of each special thing. I would have loved for them to be here for our gender reveal party, but when Casey and Julie surprised us with having them join us via Skype that was pretty awesome too!  Totally unexpected and very special.

Registering kind of snuck up on us, I didn't realize it would be so intense! And such a time consuming process. Of course, I do have the world's most thorough researcher for a husband. He has read this book, cover to cover and refers to it as his bible!
 
Seriously, if you or someone you know (who likes to make ultra informed decisions on everything) is having a baby, get this book. Jeff has read it cover to cover and it has all the safety information and the best place to buy everything.


It really helped us when registering. We are registered at a few places (see below for details). Babies R Us is a big box store that has a lot of stuff and is easy to order from so we went there. I added Amazon.com at the last minute, because it was suggested to me by previous new mamas who said having gift cards to Amazon was great to be able to order things yourself and have them show up to your door. I also registered for like 5 things at Pottery Barn because it saved us 10% on this chair. More on this agonizing chair decision and how we spent more time chair shopping than shopping for a car.

The place that I am most excited about registering was a small local store, Franklin Goose. They have very unique, environmentally friendly products. You can order online, which is great for our out of town friends and family. The staff is SO helpful and knowledgeable on the 2 things that are really important to us, cloth diapering and making your own food.

We went to a diapering class there that was SO helpful and we are ready for the challenge, yes, I know you think we are nuts. No, we don't care what you think, we are doing it anyway. Unless you think we are awesome, in that case, we agree. I don't know why I am surprised when people say super negative things about something I am excited about, but that somehow 30+ years into this life, it still kind of gets to me.

Because so many of our friends and family are out of town and won't be able to join us for the shower, we wanted to include registry information here, if you wanted that.  I added the links so you can go straight there, some of them were not easy to find! Anyone who sends anything before the March 23 shower, I am saving your gifts to open then so it can be like you were here in spirit.
Babies R Us
Amazon
Franklin Goose 
Pottery Barn

Things coming soon:
The Chair Shopping Adventures
More details on the Gender Reveal Party
Weekly Pregnancy Photos Journal
Letters to the Baby
Hiring a Doula
Why Cloth Diapers?
On a Mission for the Perfect Chair
Nursery Decor

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Winter Retreat to Park City, UT

Park City, UT 2013

My in laws decided to pack up and head west about a year or so ago. After building their dream house, the now live full time in Park City, UT. Tough life living in such a beautiful place. Last week, Jeff and I went out for a week. This is great timing for us because Jeff enjoys skiing with his parents, while the slopes are not so crowded. It is the week of the Sundance film festival so people are engaged with movie going and star spotting. I saw Nicole Kidman!

I dont ski. Not just because I am pregnant right now, but because I just don't. Yes, I have tried and no I am not good at it and I do not like it and NO, I don't want you to teach me. I am perfectly fine shopping, or eating, or lounging, or blogging or snow shoeing or doing anything else.

Jeff skied 3 or 4 days while we were there and he also worked a few days remotely so he wouldn't have to use so much vacation time. If you follow me on Instagram (@starstylist), you probably saw my pics of our adventures. Here are some....

There was plenty of wildlife spotting. Here is one of my daily deer photos

and the elk, which I really wanted video of but this quick Instagram shot out the car window was all I could get:( I really wanted a snow bunny shot but I only saw them at night.

I captured some fun shots of Baby Jeff. What a cutie! Right?

We got our baby his first Sundance Film Fest t-shirt. He can't wear it until he is about 2 but thats cool. It  is his souvenir from his first time there. We had tickets to more but we managed to make it to see 2 movies. One very weird one  (Two Mothers) and one very hilarious one (Austen-land).

I managed to keep on my workout schedule and even stuck to my January Workout goal (you saw this video right?) to mix it up with at lest one strength day, one yoga day and one day of swimming a 1/2 mile. How dedicated am I? So dedicated that I swam here. Yep, its heated and didn't seem like the worst idea until I had to get out:). So far I haven't missed a week yet!

I did some blogging and some Vlogging, yeah thats what us cool kids call video blogging. I did one on my 1 minute (out the door FAST) face, that is here.  And I also did one for my March Money Making Makeup Artist workshop, that is here.  By the way, I really need some help getting the word out on this so anyone who wants to share it and help would really make me happy, hint hint! I also did one on my must have products for winter so stay tuned for that one!

You know I LOVE anything S'mores. Some people only make s'mores when they go camping. I am of the belief that this treat can be enjoyed indoors, like this...

Before we left, I decided that it was time to learn to use this camera that I had bought 3 years ago. It is very fancy and has lots of bells and whistles but I needed some instruction to be able to put it to use. My friend, Julie, who took those lovely photos from our gender reveal party, gave me a lesson before we left. I promised that I would put some of her teachings into action and practice.

I even took it out on the day that I convinced Jeff to go snow shoeing with me. Now, I have only been once, which was last year with Casey (who was 7 months pregnant at the time). Casey and I went on a short little "snow walk", which is what I thought Jeff and I were doing. Instead, we trudged a few miles thru the golf course and I swear it was uphill both ways. I could have sworn I was going to die out there. Thankfully, I had my phone and called my father in law to come and pick us up because there is no way I was going to make it back home. 

Here are some of the non-iPhone photos that I took....what do you think?

little too close!

thats better!

Snow Walking with Moses

Just practicing with some things lying around.

Here is some video of our snow-shoeing past and present. We like to have a good time:)


Our next visit to Park City will be in the summer, which is a bit more my speed. I won't be pregnant then and will have the grandparents on hand as babysitters, so I plan to really have some adult fun. I will probably be moving more quickly and breathing less heavily then. I hope.

Gender Reveal

So last week we had a gender reveal party to find out the sex of our baby. This was by far, the best way for us to find out. You know that I LOVE a party, especially with surprises and lots of hype. Our fabulous friends, Casey and Julie, really went way above and beyond to make this incredibly special for us. We will never forget it. Thank you so much to everyone who gave a little something to make this so amazing for us.

Oh, in case you somehow missed it....we are having a baby. I have posted this video on Twitter and Facebook about a million times but I will go ahead and put it here in case you want to watch it again.

We got some great photos and videos that I need to edit so that they are manageable enough to share, so those are going to be added soon, I promise. For now, I did get this video up so that we could announce the big news and share how we found out what we would be expecting in May.

I will be adding more, like our letters to each other and the baby and Aunt Casey's poem that she wrote for us and the baby. Just like her, it is hysterical, very sweet and really fun. We also played a lot of fun games. Casey and Julie surprised us by having our moms join the party via Skype. Wow, technology is so cool. This was great because they got to be a part of the last game we played (that I won!) and they got to see us open the box and find out with us.

Having an incredibly talented photographer as a friend is a wonderful gift. Here are a few of my favorites that my friend Julie took for us that night.

"the" revealing photo

Everyone had to wait for the video to hear the news, but I did make 1 exception to that rule.  

I think she is saying "Please tell me this is not true!"

Happy mom and dad!

This is, by far, my favorite photo!

Wait, no, its this one!

I think this is a printable. 

Team blue for the win.

One of our best surprises for the night.

Team pink, sad to have lost the game but still excited to welcome baby boy.

Little Spencer, says "Don't be sad, little boys are lots of fun!"

I write to the baby every week, this is the last letter before we know the sex.

Always festive. The details are important. 

Future big brother!

More videos and and photos to come! Are you liking the personal blog updates? I am shooting for once a week! Lets hope I can keep it up!