I know some of you are itching for details about the house coming, and even moreso for some interior stuff, but I really want to document the basement.

While the trips to Warman to see our house were so fun, it was the ground breaking that made it real for me.  About a month ago they dug our basement and I’ve never been so excited about dirt and cement before.

How many times over the years had I looked out over that field and squinted my eyes to imagine seeing our home there?  And now it had finally begun.

My dear husband literally got greyer hair over the course of that week, though. It had been Saskatchewan’s snowiest winter on record.  (And when Saskatchewan breaks snowfall records, we’re talking A LOT of snow.)  It just kept falling, and falling, and falling, well into the end of April.  And it was cold too.  There were predictions of flooding of epic proportions.  Not exactly what you want to hear when you have a house scheduled to come in mid-June, and need your basement dug stat.

But God knew.  And even though the cold winter chill lingered far longer than any of us thought we could bear, beneath it all the snow slowly and  efficiently melted into the ground meaning that there was, in fact, no flooding where we lived.  The basement could go ahead, but we needed it dug NOW.

Fortunately my father-in-law’s close friend, Roy, owns an excavation company and they were ready to jump in as soon as they could.  And Sean’s friend, Matt, works for a basement and foundation company that was able to get to us in a timely manner.  (In fact, maybe so timely that the RM and the building permits were playing a bit of catch-up.) 

So, like I said, between flood-watch, excavation, building permits, inspections, last-minute revisions of the drawings, mortgage stuff, foundation pouring, utility applications… etc. etc. (all while finishing tax season and beginning seeding) Sean’s hair actually got greyer over the course of a week.  Poor guy.

But it happened.  God took care of the details.  Some key people stepped in and got things done.  My smart, capable husband worked things out.

And we got to celebrate.

We thought the excavation would be on the Saturday, but Sean got a call on Tuesday that they could start that day.  After working in the morning I whipped up a picnic lunch, rushed to the farm, and we waited and watched for the “digger” to break ground.

It was 27 degrees celsius that day.  Super hot for May.  But there were still piles of snow left on the ground.  Oh, Saskatchewan.  A memorable day, indeed.

The excavation was done that day, and when we went out for supper that night with friends, Sean received a call asking if the basement crew could start the next day.  Um… yeah!

The basement guys worked really efficiently, and before we knew it we were looking at footings.

Then walls.

We took a lot of walks to go visit our basement.

We couldn’t wait to put all of the pieces together and see our house there.

As I’ve let the design plans for the kids’ rooms simmer in my brain, I’ve been surfing Etsy for art that might work for their rooms.  I’ll have to hit up some used book stores and thrift stores before ordering anything online, since much of what I’m looking at is vintage bookplates and posters.  I like the vintage route for art since it is affordable, beautiful, unique, and adds so much character.

For L’s room I already have the Month by Month prints from Sarah Jane Studios.  I bought the little notecards long before I even had kids because I loved them so much.  So I’ll definitely be putting these in her room somewhere.

(“October in Polka Dot Wellies” from the Her Month by Month series by Sarah Jane Studios)

I also want to play with florals in her room - because where else can you do this with abandon than in a little girl’s room?  I often call her “Sweet Pea” so I’ve been on the hunt for vintage seed packets or books or illustrations of sweet peas, like this one:

(Sweet Peas and Nasturtiums [laser print of seed box] from Victorian Rose Prints)

Or perhaps a botanical print like this one:

And wouldn’t those yellow sweet peas look lovely paired with these little yellow butterflies?

(Both prints from Early Bird Sale)

She also adores animals, and has a particular affinity for puppies (one of her first words) so I’ve been searching out dog breed illustrations like these:

(Vintage Dog Breed Illustration from Iowa Jewel)

For the boys’ room vintage maps are such an easy go-to for art.  They’re interesting, beautiful, educational, and still pretty neutral.

(Antique Topographic Map of Canada from Reclaimer Vintage Goods)

M has some ideas of his own, though.  He’d really like some superhero pictures in his room.  And though he’s never watched anything Avengers-related, he’s obsessed with them and has a few toys and colouring books with them.  I kind of cringe at the thought of something character based being featured, but this minimalistic poster is pretty cool:

(The Avengers Variant Poster from William Henry Graphic Design, also comes in blue)

Though I’m not sure he’d find that sufficient.  Another route I’ve considered is framing vintage comic books. (Though it’s quite the hunt finding one that looks cool, features his favourite characters, yet is without anything scary or any scantily clad women on it!  Sheesh.)

(The Avengers No. 151 Comic Book from Sidewalk Comics)

One item I’m totally kicking myself over not purchasing is this 1921 Canadian flag.  My kids really like flags, and they might find it cool that pre-1960’s our Canadian flag was actually different.  This flag is linen, it’s cool, it’s patriotic, it’s historical, it’s beautiful - what a treasure!  But I waited, and it sold, and I can’t find anything like it online (for a decent price).  Darn.  Seriously kicking myself.

(Historical Upper Canada Flag from PapillonArtBoutique)

This old bookplate is pretty cool, but given its age it’s missing a lot of provinces and actually has the old Saskatchewan flag, which may annoy M or confuse my kids as they learn.  So I’m not sold on it.  And really I just want that old linen flag.  

(Flags of Canada from Peony and Thistle Paper and Print)

I obviously won’t be getting all of this, but the hunting sure is fun…. We’ll see what I end up with!

We’ve gone twice now to visit our house in-process up at Warman Homes.  What a cool, strange experience!  As I opened a door or walked through a hall I tried to convince myself: I will be doing this thousands more times!  This is MY house!  Crazy.  After years of waiting and dreaming it’s pretty surreal.  Little moments of praise to God around every corner.

The first time we went it was just us and the kids.

Little M has pretty much wrapped his brain around the whole idea now (This is our house.  This is my room.  A big truck is going to move it to the farm.  We will live there soon.)  And it was really fun to see him get excited.

We visited on a Saturday and there were tools all over the place (duh.)  But no workers.  M wanted to know: “Where are the workers!  Why are they not working on our house!?” Be very afraid of that kid if he’s ever your boss some day. ;)

Little L was also super excited.  Maybe she sort of understands.  Maybe she was feeding off of our excitement.  But mostly it’s just a super great place for hide-and-go-seek.

I loved being there and seeing for myself how light and bright the house was!  (After 10 years of living in apartments or basement suites you can never have too much sunshine!)

On the first visit I was thrilled to see some of the light fixtures installed.  I had picked them from pictures and descriptions online, and had my fingers crossed that the finishes would look right and the scale would work.  I was really happy when I saw them in person. (Obviously that chandelier will be lowered after the house is moved.)

On our second visit a bunch of Sean’s family came with us, which was really fun.  By that time our kitchen cabinetry was installed.  Seeing our kitchen was definitely a moment of complete disbelief.  ”No way is this my kitchen.” I could probably fit all 5 of our first kitchens into that kitchen and pantry area.

That island alone would take up the majority of our condo kitchen.  (Kidding.  Mostly.)

And most of all, what hit me over these visits is how perfect the timing is.  God knew all along.  All that waiting and pining for this - and now is the right time.  Now, after we know much better what we want and need in a house.  Now, when we can share this adventure with our young children.  Now, when we’re at this time in our lives and marriage.  Now, when we’ve seen His faithfulness and been stretched in our trust, and contentment, and maturity, and perspective about what really matters in life.  Now, when we still have so many years of living ahead of us.  Now, when we are so overwhelmingly struck with what a massive blessing this is.  Now’s the time.

I love the look of an upholstered French headboard.  You’ll find a few of them throughout this tumblr and my Pinterest pages.

(Cream French Upholstered Bed from Sweetpea & Willow)

And I’d love to have something like this in Little L’s room.  So pretty and feminine.  And can you picture it with her headboard fabric?

I did a search a while ago for Louis style beds.  I came up with some lovely options - but none within Canada, and none in my (very cheap) price range.

But last week I stumbled upon this vintage French-style bedroom suite for sale online.  It came with two twin curvy headboards.  Now, as much as I want to scoop up both headboards (SPOILER ALERT), this next baby is not a girl.  And while I could try to play the odds that we MIGHT have another baby one day and that baby MIGHT be a girl, I do my very best not to be a gambler.  Or hoarder.  So I just want one headboard.

I wrote the seller asking if she’d be willing to split one headboard from the set.  She had just posted the ad, so she wanted to wait it out and see if anyone was interested in buying the whole lot first (I’d do that too).  But she said she’d keep my address, and if in a little while no one buys, she’ll get back to me.  We agreed upon a fair price, and I crossed my fingers that I could snag one of them.

But wait.  They’re not upholstered.

Karen, a lovely blog reader also loves the look of a Louis bed, and found this beautiful option at PBTeen:

(Lilac Bed from PBTeen)

But she had the same dilemma: it was the right style and shape, but no upholstery.  She wrote me to ask how I might go about upholstering a bed like this.  If I do end up getting that vintage headboard I’ll be sure to share a post on what I do with it this summer.  For now, though, I have two theories (but no experience), and here’s what I’m thinking…

I could upholster the headboard in a similar fashion to my Louis chair.  (Or a more detailed post about my round chairs may be more helpful.)  Here’s what I would do:

• Cut a thin piece of foam to fit just inside of the frame of the headboard (and footboard if you have one).  Use spray adhesive to attach it to the headboard.
• Cut the fabric to fit just over top of the foam inside of the frame of the headboard.  Attach it to the headboard with a neat row of staples just inside the frame.
• Glue welting cord on top of the staples to cover them up. (Good welting cord tutorials are here and here.)

You can see this bed from Laura Ashley has welting cord butted up against the frame:

(Photographer Rachel Whiting)

The second method is a little more hypothetical:

• Find a sturdy but thin material (maybe like the cardboard cereal boxes are made of?  But maybe stronger?  But you’d want to be able to cut it yourself.  Hmm… now I want to go to Lowes and see what I could find.
• Cut your thin but sturdy material to the exact shape and size of the inset of your headboard.
• Cut your foam to the same shape and size of the cut-out.  Use spray adhesive to attach the foam to the cut-out.
• Cut your fabric to be a couple inches bigger than your foam.  Wrap it around the foam and attach it to the back of the cut-out.  If your cut-out material was cardboard, staples may not work.  So maybe glue the fabric to it?
• Using another glue (?) attach your upholstered cut-out to the inset of the headboard.

Now obviously this is just a theory, and would take some knowledge of the right materials.  BUT it also means you could skip the welting cord, if you wanted to.

I’ll probably work with the first method.

And if you want to tuft the headboard, like Jenny’s sweet girl’s bed you could check out what she did:

(Design and upholstery by Jenny Komenda of Little Green Notebook)

In fact this tutorial, minus the tufting, is pretty similar to my first suggested method, so it’s definitely worth a look.  You can check out some of her other helpful posts here and here.

I mentioned awhile ago that I’ve been dreaming of the design schemes for the bedrooms in the new house. For the most part I’m trying to reign myself in when it comes to decorating plans. I know that:

A. You should live in a house first. Let it inspire your direction for colours, furniture placement, etc.

B. “Brand new house.” Unfortunately those words don’t leave piles of extra cash lying around for decorating purchases.

C. Shortly after our move-in we will be welcoming Baby #3. I don’t know about you, but having a newborn eliminates me from productivity at anything for roughly 6 months minimum. (Hint: Expect blogging hiatus.)

But it’s also really hard not to get all excited. And a part of me would really like to establish some “done-ness” in the kids’ rooms over the summer so that it really feels like home for them. (And I discovered that this actually matters to my son, who has lamented how much he misses his old room in the condo the entire time we’ve had our temporary stay at The Pink House.)

So with some consultation (and a few veto decisions on my part. Sorry, kiddos), we’ve come up with the colour directions for their rooms.

Girl Room:

I want it to feel like a yellow room without screaming YELLOW! This is hard to do. The trick to success with yellow (and red, in my opinion): no yellow walls, just accents of yellow. Keep the walls neutral. So the yellow polka dot fabric will be the drapes - providing the major sense that the room is yellow. It’s a nice buttery soft yellow, which is hard to find (most yellows I found were a more lemony hue or more golden.) L also asked for “boo and geen” in her room, so the warm aqua blue background on the floral with green, yellow and pink in the flowers is a lovely pairing and provides the vintage feel I want. I’m thinking the floral may end up as a headboard. With two patterns as bold as this being featured in large areas any other fabrics will likely be more neutral - yellow, cream or white solids, or small scale stripes or gingham.

I knew from the start I wanted yellow - it’s sort of my colour for Little L. Her name means “light”, and her disposition is usually so cheerful and humourous that yellow’s always been the colour I associate with her.

Some other gorgeous yellow fabrics I considered (but eliminated, largely due to cost)…

Isn’t this one so incredibly beautiful, yet understated? I’m still tempted to use it somewhere else in the house, but at $30/yard I’m not sure I can do it.

I knew I wanted a floral and that I wanted yellow. So this one also tempted me.

I reeeally love this large scale floral. It has the prettiness of a floral, but a not-too-girly colour scheme. And it pairs well with the polka dot. But it was $10 more than the floral I chose and had a more limited palette to work with.

For the Boy room M and I were in definite agreement that the main colour would be his favourite, “dark blue”. Navy is my go-to colour, and is a colour I’ve always associated with M. (OK. I realize I sound crazy colour coding my children. It’s how my brain works. Anyone else know what I’m talking about?!) But we aren’t exactly in agreement on the accent colour. He also loves orange, but I felt it would turn the room too modern, and good orange fabrics are hard to find. He also offered red for consideration - which I’m still open to - but didn’t want the room to turn too nautical (which I feel red might do). My sister-in-law recently decorated my sweet little nephew’s room with a nautical feel and I LOVE it (I’d love to show you some time), so I don’t want to be too copycat. Plus I’m really liking the way this deep spruce green looks in the mix. And I may or may not have already decided that green is the next baby’s favourite colour. ;)

M loves plaid (I find it so funny that a 3.5 year old has a favourite pattern) and I want a mix of fairly low key (not too graphic) patterns - stripes, plaids, herringbone, etc. Sort of what you’d see with mens’ suits. That navy ticking will likely be the roman shade and I would love to see that navy and white plaid on a headboard. We’ll see.

So that’s where I’m headed! Whaddya’ think? Anyone else colour-code their children? Man, that makes me sound super type-A and controlling. Really, I’m not. I’m not! At least 57% of the time. ;)

(Photograph from BHG.com)

I’m holding back quite a bit on the decorating plan for the house.  Though I have some specific ideas of what I want the rooms to look like, I’m working on the foundational layers of the building process first, and won’t make any major decorating moves (or purchases or projects) until after we’ve moved into the house.

But the other day my dear little boy lamented to me once again that he missed our condo.  He has an impeccable memory for a three-year-old, and can be really sweet and sentimental.  But I was surprised that he still felt that way.  I asked him, specifically, what he missed.  ”My room” he said, “I like the way my room was.”  

Since we’ve been in the Pink House (the house owned by our church) I haven’t done a lot with their room.  There’s a big clunky double bed in there, and an old wooden rocking chair. Plus we jammed in the change table/dresser and the crib.  I did hang a few pictures on 3M command hooks, and did hang the drapes from their old room, but it still feels pretty dreary.  And certainly not like home for him. 

And so, with my heart strings pulled, the kids’ room made it to the top of my priority list for decorating.  How wonderful it would be for that room to feel finished and homey right away when we settle in!  So I’ve been pinning away and looking for the inspiration I need for their room.  They’ll share a room again (though some of the adorable girls’ rooms I’ve come across have me rethinking that slightly…) and I definitely want matching twin beds.  I’d love old brass beds, or painted wooden beds, but my second-hand hunting has not been fruitful as of yet, so we may end up with cheap IKEA beds and DIY upholstered headboards.

You can see some themes running through my pictures: pale neutral walls, with lots of room for displaying the colourful things kids love (books, toys, momentos).  A definite vintage vibe.  A sort of raw, natural feel.  Eclectic art.

Speaking of eclectic art, I just found this cool vintage paint-by-numbers painting on Kijiji… I may just have to pick that one up!

A new frame and this could be a great jumping-off point for the room.  

I’m getting excited - kids’ rooms are my favourite to decorate!  Let the dreaming begin…

Don’t forget to hug the ones you love tonight. -Justine

Christmas Moments: Red shoes

Hey there.

My name is Justine.  In case you forgot about me.  I blog here.  In theory, anyways.

I thought I should check in with you all and let you know that I’m still alive.  And still have every intention of continuing to blog here - I just need to take care of life as it demands first. Consider this a bit of a blog sabbatical.  A “blogbattical”, I like to say.  (Because I’m a nerd who often makes up words inserting “blog”)

So I’ll be back.  Maybe this week.  Maybe in a month or two.  I do miss this terribly, but other things are a little higher on the to-do list these days, like:

• enjoying every minute I can with my two beautiful children.
• spending every moment I can with my kind and gorgeous husband.
• enduring every stressful second of raising a baby (I don’t do the baby stage well, unfortunately, and right now she’s teething like a… um… like a baby getting 4 teeth all at once.)
• surviving serious sleep deprivation. (Example above.  Not so good with the creativity these days.  Actually not so good with the thinking in general.  It’s been a bad stretch the last few weeks between Baby L being up, Little M waking through the night, and my own bit of insomnia thrown in.)
• cleaning my house.  This is an impossible, never-ending task with a  two-year-old tearing around.  I want to go back in time and say to the pre-kids me, “Just clean your house.  It’ll take no time at all.  It’s so eeeeeasy.  And it won’t be when you have a two-year-old.”
• blogging.  Wait.  What?  Oh, not here.  Over at UsedEverywhere.  Straight up, folks, I get paid for that.  And not for this.  So.  (Tell me how to feature ads, and then pay me to advertise cool stuff.  Not dumb stuff.  And then my blog will start making money.  And then blogging will move up my to-do list.  Cool.  Good idea.) ;)
• home projects.  Whoa baby, when I DO start blogging again I have some cool stuff to show you.  I’ve been chipping away at many projects (with the help of our team of free babysitters.  Family and in-laws rock, peeps).  Hopefully in the new year I’ll have a bit of a living room tour with some major changes we’ve made(and are making), followed by dining room and bedroom.  hopefully.
• church stuff.  Sean and I are teaching grades 4-5 Sunday school together this year and I’m loving it.  I’ve worked with these kids since they were tiny, and it’s so good to stay involved with them, even on my maternity leave.  Plus mom’s group, and my sweet care group.
• Aaand that’s kind of life right now.  Oh!  And another reason my blogging’s been slow this fall?  My computer was broken.  But I got my Christmas gift from Sean early, and this it’s inaugural blog post.  It’s big, and silver, and has a cute little apple on it.  (Traded in the macbook pro for an iMac.  A desktop makes more sense to me with growing kiddos around.)

SO!  check back in a while, OK?  I promise I will too.  And if you’ve only recently started following my blog, a big fat apology.  I’m not usually this lame.

I consider last week an initiation into a new stage of parenthood: Sean and I ventured out on our first week-long family vacation with two little ones.  We learned a lot.  We laughed a lot.  Both Sean and Micah had no clean pants left by Wednesday.  (I’ll spare you the details, but if you’re reading this, good Calgary Harvey’s employee, my apologies for the one incident.)  We had a very excited two-year-old who only threw up twice,  a poor three-month-old who was introduced to the perils of teething, and two twenty-something parents realizing how much their lives had changed.

We visited old friends, older friends, the zoo, shopping hot spots, and my kids’ great great grandma.  And by the end of the week I found myself marvelling at the patience, resilience, and kindness of my husband (whom I dubbed “Super Dad”).  It was a great week.

 And we visited our house.  Sort of.  In the Spring we found out that we have permission to subdivide the farmland to create a spot to build our house.  Shortly after that Sean and I agreed upon a house plan.  Last week we were able to visit a showhome model of the plan we like.  (And if any of you have ever bought a home from a floorplan, you may understand what an incredible opportunity it is to see the actual space beforehand!)

It was great to see how big the windows are, how the ceiling peaks, the size of closets, or how the rooms flow.  It was also great to meet our sales lady and know that our “hunch” about her being awesome and knowledgeable was absolutely right.  It was nice to inspect the craftsmanship up close.  And it was delightful to stand in the rooms and dream a little bit.

So, now we have a lot of other things to do before we begin building… but it sure is nice to have a specific space to plan!  Woo hoo!

Hokey Dinah.  Who even says that anymore?  Well, me, apparently.  And my two-year-old son.  Because whenever I open up a particularly gruesome diaper of his he exclaims, “Hokey Dinah!”, because I guess I’ve said that on those occasions.  Wow, starting out with digression.  Bad sign.  Run away, peeps, this could get all rabbit-traily.

So I’ll try to hit the main point now: Hokey dinah - life is suddenly feeling crazy busy.  And I have had no time to update my own blog, or read blogs, or do any of that fun stuff.  In fact, I haven’t even been scrolling through the pretty stuff on my Tumblr dashboard.  Boo.

I’m not sure what happened exactly.  Summer was so pretty low key (well, “I just had a baby” low key).  And fall snuck up on us with gorgeous weather and a whole bunch of commitments on the schedule.  Plus my beautiful baby girl is growing up and needing a bit more from me.  And my son’s been on this new sibling/terrible twos/battle for independence thing that is requiring a lot of me.  And… I don’t know what else.  All that to say: “Sorry, Dudes, the blog’s been neglected, and probably will be many more times to come.”  I do feel bad.  But not that bad, cuz let’s face it, I do this for free.

And in the midst of it all I’m really needing to assess what my priorities are.  My main purpose is clear right now - to serve and bless my family; to build my marriage and raise my children for God’s glory.  But what should I do beyond that?  Because there are a lot of things I want to do.  Some things I’m obligated to do.  Some things I wish I’d never volunteered to do.  And a bunch of other things, too.  But what has God planned for me to do?  I don’t have any answers right now - it’s hard to think through such deep life questions on such little sleep and personal time.  But I do know the blogging’s taking a slide, and that’s OK for now. 

I have managed to chip away at a few things around the home on the good days:

Remember my DIY lamp?  It looked cool in pink, but wasn’t working in my space.  So I repainted it in Krylon’s brushed nickel finish (which is actually a much warmer metal tone than nickel, I think), and used a lampshade I’d recovered in blue linen a while ago.  I’m quite smitten with how it looks.

I finally got around to painting our dining room sideboard.  I tried to sell this thing online a long time ago, but the “buyer” never showed up (seriously, people.)  So I opted to keep it, paint it, and now I just need to add new hardware.  I don’t love the piece, but it’s solid, and a good size for the space.  And now it’s not a garish honey colour, so that’s nice.

I picked up this pretty white platter at Value Village.  And I love it.  It reminds me of ironstone, though I don’t know if it actually is.  I try very hard to not purchase things that are for our future farmhouse, but this is one of those things.

And I picked up another Louis chair!  Back when I recovered the first one I purchased enough fabric for two in hopes that I’d find a second one.  So I’m looking forward to redoing this one to match, and creating the double welt cord for both.

I have some other projects in process, and some others on the to-do lis, but I’ll share them when I’m done.

And the most important projects?  A whole lotta’ this pretty thing:

And a whole buncha’ this handsome one:

And those are the projects that make my home the most beautiful.

Sometimes when you’re a mom you get no sleep.  And by sometimes, I mean all the time (at least in my experience so far).  Well, you usually get some sleep - just not the amount you used to get, or want to have, or is medically recommended.  And then sometimes you really get no sleep.  Luckily Baby L’s been a bit better than her big brother was, and allows me more sleep than he did.  But she’s a baby.  And babies can’t feed themselves, work out their own gas, turn over, take off a blanket when too hot, and sometimes (my babies, anyways) can’t even fall asleep on their own.  So.  That sucks.  And I have to do it for her.  And last night was one of those nights where she needed a whole bunch of all of that.

Last week I had one of those nights too.  Plus she continued her fussiness all day.  Plus her big brother decided to be way overtired and put up a legendary rebellion against nap time, eating, house rules, and all things “mommy”.  And I had no wits about me (due to lack of sleep) to handle this well. This resulted in all of us crying.  Numerous times.  And a messy house.  And no supper made.  And Daddy coming home early.  (What a good Daddy.  Have I bragged about him lately?  Because he’s AH-mazing.)  Luckily the day was saved.  In thanks to Daddy.  

And also thanks to a dear friend who took me for a smoothie and sat on a sunny park bench with me while we poured out our hearts to each other.  I cried more - but good tears this time.  And I was reminded once again how good it is to have hope.  As we shared with each other we also reminded each other of our Good God who will see us through and provide what we need for today and tomorrow.  We also spent time praying together.  And we moved on - not just having vented raw emotion, but also being encouraged, strengthened, and determined to go forward for His glory.  What a blessing.  And I learned that I will need to be intentional, especially when sleep is sparse, to live for His glory for my children’s benefit.

And today?  As the wee morning hours rolled along towards daybreak and I realized sleep would not be a part of my near future, I braced myself.  I resolved not to flounder in hopeless frustration.  I prayed that God would strengthen me.  Help me think clearly.  Help me look beyond myself.  Help me love my children with patience.  Teach with gentleness.  And focus on what matters.  I knew I needed to intentionally work hard today to be compassionate.

So.  At the end of the day: the house is still a mess.  Sean took us out for supper, because nothing was ready.  The “To-Do” list was not even glanced at.  But I did spend time praying with my children.  I did make time to play.  I did snuggle, and hug, and kiss whenever needed.  I was able to be silly.  I did (endlessly!) hold a tired and sick baby girl.  I did have a dance party with a silly little boy.  They did eat.  They did nap. We did sit in the sunshine.  We did read some books.  And so, I guess today was a success after all.

Now.  Enough blogging.  I’d better get to bed!

Well, I shared my plans along the way… but maybe I should also share the finished project?  So welcome to M & L’s nursery!  

In case you forgot, here is the original plan:

Over time the plan in evolved in the details, but stayed pretty true to my vision: cream with pops of colour (particularly deep red), with lots of fun, vintage-feeling, patterned fabrics.  Here are a few of the posts and DIYs I shared along the way:

• I sewed the drapes myself, and my dad built the bed then I upholstered it.
• Once I found a serendipitously perfect fabric I used it to slipcover an ottoman.
• I reused a side table from UsedRegina, which my mom painted.  (You’ll see in the link I’d planned to use two tables, but since I changed up the layout I only needed the one.  The other table still has its wood finish and is in my bedroom.)  I had also originally thought about painting the table red, but with the contrast between the dark wood crib, medium wood floors, the light canvas toddler bed, and the apple green chair I felt the need to neutralize the remaining furniture, so my mom kindly painted the dresser and side table in a colour to match the fabric on Little M’s bed.
• And after I knew I was having a girl I swapped out the IKEA knappa pendant (which I have a cool plan for) and created my own “capiz shell” chandelier.
• I also sewed Little M’s quilt - made with some inspiration from Pinterest.

Some other changes?  

• The layout was changed up because we actually had room for the change table between the crib and bed (instead of in the closet) - which is ideal.
• I did purchase the IKEA rug, but after living with it for a few weeks I felt the pattern was a bit too busy, and didn’t relate enough to the fabrics in the room.  Also, it has a pretty scratchy texture, so it wasn’t necessarily better to play on than the laminate.  So the rug’s in our room now, and I quite like it there.
• I also sewed some pillows and a crib skirt, spray painted the lamp and some hooks cherry red, Sean put up some display shelves and hung a second closet rod, and I added some adorable alphabet flashcards as art above the crib.

But enough of that… how about some pictures?

Our rocking/reading/snuggling/nursing corner!  (And though the drape over the closet is also the cheaper option - as opposed to adding doors - it also allowed us to have a spacious floor plan by placing the chair slightly in front of the closet.  Another bonus?  Little M loves to hide in his “tent” closet where I’ve stashed books and soft toys on the bottom shelf.

I sewed the stripes onto the store-bought curtain panel using the leftovers from the drapes to connect the two sides of the room.

Here’s the lamp I bought ages ago at Urban Outfitters on clearance, now looking kicky in deep red.  I love it.  L’s journal was purchased at Chapters and was designed by the same artist, Lorena Siminovich, who created the flashcards above the crib. (Underneath it is M’s journal, which coordinated with his old forest-themed nursery design.)

I actually bought these corner shelves when Little M was born, but they only made it onto the walls last week… isn’t that how it goes?  I’m loving the display surface now!  (Especially Baby L’s cute red shoes!!) :)

Here you can see the side table, a find from an estate sale on Used Regina painted to match the change table/dresser.  I love the extra storage space for more books!

In this shot you can see the crib skirt I made from the wonderful dot fabric using the instructions found in Amy Butler’s book: Little Stitches for Little Ones.  My sneaky cost-saving (and time-saving) secret?  I didn’t have enough fabric for the whole skirt, so I only sewed the visible panels, and left the other two wall-facing sides of the crib bare.

Obviously those cushions won’t stay in the crib once Little L moves in with big brother, but they’ll look lovely on the chair or Little M’s bed then. 

Here are the beautiful flashcards from Petit Collage.  Love ‘em.  And you can see Little L’s new chandelier and my beloved drapery fabric.

As you can see we painted our change table to match the side table and stand out a little less.

Here’s little M’s bed - loosely based on this tutorial from Design mom, with a headboard added.  And you’ll see those great ‘Monsieur’ prints by Blanca Gomez on the wall, which look so great with the ottoman fabric (and Little M loves that they feature bubbles and balloons - two of the coolest things ever.)

Speaking of the ottoman, I love that it can float around the room:

I spray painted these cheapy brass hooks red to hang outfits on.  I like to hang out their Sunday clothes on Saturday night to make getting out the door on Sunday mornings easier!

We kept the Ribba picture ledges as book shelves - a wonderful, changeable art display of storybooks!  However now that Little M is a ravenous reader I have to watch that he doesn’t use the ledges as a ladder…

So there it is!  I’m pleased as punch with it.  Even with two it doesn’t feel crowded at all, which is lovely.  …Oh, and I think the kids like it too. ;)