Painted House: Results

Living Room Kitchen Dining Room: Scott & our neighbor, Alan, installed the bead board - as noted in an earlier post, but now it's all filled in & painted. Entry: I love putting the Fall decorations out - I don't have many, but they sure are beautiful. Family Room Laundry Room Nursery: not everything is in its exact place yet, but it's almost there.

Study accent wall: I'll hopefully have a big cork board covered w/ some matching fabric up on the blue wall soon Master Bedroom

Pictures of the guest rooms are coming soon. They still need to be put back together all the way (or at least more than they are now).

Transportation Art Project: Completed!

Back in May, I got the idea to decorate Will's nursery in a transportation theme (this allows me to incorporate fire trucks in his room without it being overwhelmed by them). I was inspired by Pottery Barn Kids where I saw these pictures:

However, they cost a little over $80 per picture after tax. This got me thinking that I could make these myself - it just looked like canvases decorated with paint, scrapbook paper, and Mod Podge. I called my artistic friend, Marisa, to see if she could help me out since I'd never painted anything except for in my elementary school art class. I have done plenty of artsy projects in the past, and knew I would be able to at least draw the pictures & then learn/improvise from there.

This is how the canvases started:

Marisa showed me how to use acrylic paint & different kinds of paint brushes, and after our first day working together, this is what we ended up with. She took responsibility for the tractor, and I did the others:

We got together again about a month or so later and got this far:
We were then going to get together today to finish them, but Marisa was stuck without a car 2 hours away. I kept thinking I should just get them out and finish them myself, but I made the excuse that I didn't own any paintbrushes (plus I was intimidated to do the letters without Marisa). However, the nesting instinct really kicked in, and I wanted to finish the pictures today. So I went to the craft store and guessed at the paintbrushes I should buy, came home, fixed up some details on the canvases, braved painting the remaining letters, painted the borders, & added the finishing touches. So here are my completed Transportation pictures. I'm so proud of myself. I knew I would be able to do it, I'm just so happy with how well they turned out & that I made something so cute for Will's nursery (plus to make all four of these cost less than the price of buying one at PBKids).
Thanks for your help Marisa! I had so much fun hanging out with you & doing yet another crazy art project (not quite as crazy as our President t-shirts: Abe Lincoln (Marisa's) & George Washington (mine) drawn with sharpie on neon shirts & then accessorized w/ gold sequin eyes, puffy paint & cut out quilt fabric for clothes - good times).

The Home Stretch

It's the home stretch, and Scott and I have so much to do before the baby comes - I need to put the nursery together, register, pick out a stroller (there are way too many different kinds), finish the baby quilt I'm making, finish the decorations for the nursery (Marisa, I need help if you can - it just recently hit me that I don't have much time left to procrastinate), pick out paint for the entire interior of the house, go to delivery, newborn, and breastfeeding classes, etc.

Yesterday, Scott went and picked up some of our newly arrived furniture for the nursery. It's amazing how close we're getting to having our sweet boy here - just under 8 weeks now if he's on time (I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up that he'll actually arrive before or on his due date). Scott and I are so excited. We love William so much already and can't wait to hold him in our arms. We continue to pray that all will go well and that he will be healthy and safe. It seems like we waited so long to get him, even though I know others have to wait so much longer for their own children. It still seems unreal that this miracle has happened in our lives. I am terrified at times that it will all disappear, but I know I need to continue to have faith, hope, and joy - I can't live my life in fear of "what if" because otherwise that question would never go away. I need to embrace the moments that I have and trust in God, believing that all will be well. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, support, and encouragement. We love you.

Weekend in Danville & Gardening

Last weekend, while Scott was working, I went down to Danville to visit my family. My main goal while there was to get a more refined idea of how I want to decorate Will's nursery. (I know it's still early to start this whole decorating process - I'm not even halfway through my pregnancy, BUT I'm really excited for this baby, and I've had plenty of time to think about nursery ideas, so why not get started early. Not only this, but my mom's going to be out of town for over a month, and if I end up making something for the nursery, I want my mom's opinion and expertise on how to do it before she leaves - this way I can actually finish whatever project I want to do before the baby comes.) So - my mom and I spent Saturday going to various baby stores and quilt stores hoping to be inspired with some brilliant idea (which we were, or at least I think so). I'm going with a transportation theme.

These are pictures that they sell at Pottery Barn Kids. However, they're ridiculously expensive, so I'm going to try to duplicate them. I also want to make one with a firetruck, since we're undoubtedly going to have lots of fire related things given to baby Will - I already have a bunch of baby fireman gifts lying on the floor of his future nursery. This theme also allows me to use a ton of color, since I love all colors and can never focus on just a few in decorating.

After hours of looking around, we went home and got ready for Stake Conference.

On the way home from shopping, my mom got rear ended by a brand new teenage driver. My mom was so nice to him and did her to best to calm him down. He looked freaked out and super stressed. I was so excited to be in town for Stake Conference because I haven't heard my dad speak in a long time. It was also great to hear Elder Larry Wilson speak at the Sunday session - he's our previous Stake President and my friend, Brig's, father. I was also really excited to see a lot of my old Danville friends from high school.

Michelle, David, Spencer, me, PJ, Matt and his wife Nicki. It was great seeing my super cool friend, Marisa, too. We couldn't find her, or her husband for the picture though. In addition to the fun Danville trip, I've also taken up gardening (with encouragement from my mom). She brought up two clay pots last week and planted tomato plants for me. She also brought me some beautiful white petunias and red geraniums for my front yard. I've been researching how to care for these plants, and hopefully I will have success - so far anything I've planted has died within a month. She taught me how to prune them, and even bought me a watering can, fertilizer, a shovel, and gardening gloves, so I'm all set. I'm actually surprised with how much I enjoy gardening. I've always wanted to learn, and this should be a great place to start.

Tomato plants:

My petunias and geraniums - Scott was so sweet and planted them for me (he's such a great husband). The flowers aren't on them right now because it's better for the plant if you pinch the flower off after first planting them. This allows all of the water and nutrients to go to the roots first, so they can settle firmly in the soil. (Hopefully they won't die before the flowers have a chance to grow back.)

What the flowers will eventually look like: