Nursery Tour!

I know you've all been losing sleep over this.

I have.

Just kidding. I've been losing sleep because I think that's what you are supposed to do when you are about to have a baby. I just wanted to fit in! Anyway... Here is the nursery! I love how it turned out. I'll try to tell you where everything came from as we go:

Banner: My BFF Ashleigh. (Who really needs to blog her nursery soon!)

Letters: Most of them are thrifted, some are from craft stores.

"You are Loved" wall hanging:  Hobby Lobby

Quilt: My mom made it. I love it.

Rocking chair: Thrifted. {PS it's really uncomfortable so I'm not going to use this one. But it's cute, right?!}

Rolling cart: Thrifted. I love it. It was $3. It's my favorite. Of course it was an eyesore, but yay for spray paint!

Bookshelves: Ikea spice racks.

 I literally don't think I could be happier with how the stripes turned out. My husband is the BEST!

 Dresser/Changing station: Thrifted and painted. 

Picture frames: Thrifted and painted.

Big safety pin: Hobby Lobby (Also Ashleigh had this idea first. But our babies are going to be BFF too so it's okay.)

 My grandma made the quilt that's on the chair. I love it.

Chair pad: World Market

Lamp: Thrifted (It's from Pier One though)

 Little safety pin: Hobby Lobby

Truck: Okay, cutest thing... My DAD made this when he was a little boy! My Grandma saved it all these years. After she passed away I got it. Love it.

Stork: A gift from some of our Special Needs kids.

Printables came from here, here, here, and here. The internet and cool people are a beautiful (and frugal!) thing!

"Shhhh" sign: Thrifted. (It says "the prince is sleeping" on the little round part.)

We also added this little guy because Josh's dad (who passed away February, 2013) always told him to "do right" and we want to pass it along to our kids. 

 Thank you to my awesome husband for hanging all.the.letters. He is so patient when I'm wanting to put more holes in our walls.

This was Josh's idea as well. He loves MMA. A lot. And so will our baby. He is already pretty good at throwing punches. :) Anyways, I came home one day from work and said "OH I SAW THE CUTEST THING ON PINTEREST FOR THE MOBILE!!! We have to do it! It's clouds and fluff and blah blah blah..."

And he said "He needs a punching bag." So we went with that. It's awesome and unique! If you aren't my Instagram pal.... well... you should be first of all. And secondly, you can watch this little baby in action here. 

I think that's it! I don't think we are ever going to feel "ready" to have this little man. But having a nursery that is complete sure does help! :)

As of late:

We are almost there!

 I am almost 33 weeks pregnant. I cannot believe how quickly this thing has gone by, yet sometimes- mostly at night- how slowly it seems to go, too!

I can't wait to meet my baby. It's going to be so surreal, I know. I want to soak up every moment I can with him. I want to read to him, sing to him, teach him about Jesus. I just can't wait.

I recently quit my job, and have been pursuing other ways to make money. I do have a stay-at-home job I will be doing, but I have also been stocking up my Etsy shop, as well as selling items we don't need/want anymore to make this thing work! Both Josh and I have a total peace about this. This is what we're supposed to be doing.

Anyways, I thought I would share with you some of my newest items. The creative/nesting bug has hit, I think. I have been going nuts creatively, and have been a cleaning fool! 

Anyways, without further adieu, I give you pretties! Please be sure to "like" my page on Facebook, too, if you haven't already! :)

Nursery sneak peak!

Here's some pictures of things happening around here... Of course I'll do a nursery reveal once it's done! :)

There's still so much to do, but I'm so happy with the results so far! :) 

Laundry Room Re-do!

So our laundry room is tiny. Just a walk-way from the garage to the rest of the house, really. There wasn't any changing the size of it, but it just really didn't work for us functionally.

Here's the laundry room before:

(For the record, this is more of a "during" and it didn't always look this trashy. Promise! There was a wire shelf up (that was totally impractical because it didn't even reach both sides of the walls so stuff fell off all the time) And those cupboards are the dumbest. They were so tall I couldn't reach anything in them without climbing up on the washer/dryer. So, those really needed to come down.)

And this is after, minus all the laundry supplies up on the shelf. I just wanted you to see the beautiful wood shelves. :) I love them so much! My husband did a fabulous job on the whole room. I was just the one who picked things out. He did everything! I'm blessed. 

So here's one side after:

I want to eventually get new labels for everything. Cute ones. But for now, these work. And they were $2, so that's a perk...Also, please note my cute laundry detergent holder. :) Love it!

Here's the other side after. I love it so much! It makes so much more sense to me now, and as an added bonus I can now reach things easily. :)

In the end, "we" painted, added shelves, changed the light fixture, and spent a few dollars on some organizing items. 

I think I eventually want to have a little "clothesline" up above, since I plan to cloth diaper. I don't want little bum covers drying all over my house. But we'll see. I am always changing things up around here, so who knows how long this re-do will even be done.

Kidding, husband. Kidding. ;)

Remember that one time?

...When I said I was going to be a better blogger? Well I'm trying okay!

Let's start with a list of things I have learned while pregnant, shall we?
1. I am tired.

That about sums it up! Seriously though, when I get home from work, all I want to do is sleep. I blame that entirely for my lack of blogging. :)

I do have a few pictures for you though, so I will consider myself forgiven. Okay?

First of all, may I announce to you that our baby is a BOY! We are so surprised. We both truly had a girl feeling, but we are so excited to have this little guy be in our lives. And no, we aren't saying names. ;)

This is my best friend, Ashleigh's, baby and mine. they are already best friends. See? 

I am so excited to be pregnant the same time as my friend. We get to share so much! I love it.

And finally, a bump update! I have one. I can't suck it  in. I feel hideous. Thank you for asking. But really, I knew I would regret not having these pictures. 

Pinterest: The pins that work.

We all pin things wondering if they truly do work. Well I'm here to tell you, some of them are stupid. You knew that though, if you've been around Pinterest for any length of time. Have you seen that pin that says you should put cling wrap on your fridge shelves to make for an easy clean up? Stupidest idea ever. Why not just, oh, I don't know, clean your fridge!! Anyways.... I digress.

There are just a few of the pins that are honest-to-goodness legit. I thought I'd save you the wondering, and just tell you that these are Mel-approved. :)

This carpet cleaning solution. Half ammonia, half hot water. And a white towel and an iron. I doused the area of the suspicious stain (seriously. I don't have a clue where it came from.) and covered it with a white towel (colored towels are said to stain your carpet) and ironed it on high, holding it in one place for about ten seconds or so. When I lifted up the towel, it looked disgusting! Brown spots everywhere... but that meant they were NOT on my carpet any more! I LOVE this trick. I hate dingy-looking carpet. This totally works.


This recipe for banana cake. It is to die for. The end. Go make it.

This homemade shower cleaner. I have been using it for months. LOVE it. And it's so cheap to make!

This cinnamon roll recipe. Okay whatever, it's my post. They are really good though!! :)

What about you? Any super-pins?

A Tiny Announcement:

It really is tiny.

See?

We are so excited to meet our little one in March(ish.)

Things are going well, too. So we are thanking God for that.

{For those who don't know, we were expecting last winter as well, but it ended up being an ectopic pregnancy, resulting in emergency surgery. It was such a devastating time in our lives, and we are thankful it's over.I think about that time in our lives every day and wonder why, but I have a lot of "why's" in my life that can't be explained. Maybe someday.}

We are just simply focusing on the fact that we are having a healthy pregnancy now, and can't wait to meet this little one that God designed for us to have.

Thank you to those of you who have already showed us such support and love! We thank God for the friends and family who are so wonderful to us!

Oh, and I promise to be a better blogger from now on! Really!!

Chocolate Pudding!

I'm not lying. It's so darn tasty, and takes like 10 minutes to whip up. :)

Do it:

2 cups milk
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
dash of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter

*Blend all but vanilla and butter together. Microwave for 2 minute intervals, stirring in between. It will start to set-up and look like pudding after about 8 minutes or so, depending on your microwave. After it gets to a pudding consistency, add vanilla and butter. Stir until butter is melted. Pour into whatever you will be serving this in, and be sure to lick the bowl clean. :)

*This is also delicious poured into a cooked pie crust. Yum yum!

A little before-and-after-ing.

I have been doing small projects lately, and wanted to share with you! I am a big fan of before/after posts. Hope you are, too! :)

Before: 

After:

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After:

 

I'm a huge fan of the fabric. :)

Before: 

After:   

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After:  

Before:

After: 

I ended up using the same fabric for my dining room chairs. I love it. :)

More to come! (Hence my lack of blogging!!)

PS- I DO like other colors besides white, grey, and aqua... Promise. ;)

DIY Cheap/Free Valentine!

So basically. We don't have money to blow. Who does? So I was thinking of what I could do for Josh this Valentines day that wouldn't cost anything, and came up with this little number. I really like the way it turned out, and thought I would share it with you! It seriously took me maybe 30 minutes to make, and everything I used was already on hand.

I thought it would be hard, but honestly, when you have a husband like mine... finding something to love about him A-Z was really a piece of cake.  :)

I cut some regular card-stock to 5.5x4 and punched two holes in the top. The rest is just stickers and scrapbooking paper I had on hand! I will show you a few pictures so you can get the idea... but some of the letters are just none of your business. :)

Here's the final product, tied up with some string!

What do you think?