Baby M's Nursery

My crazy desk pre-move

It feels like we have been ever so slowly working on transforming what was formerly my office into a near-nursery for Baby M forever. I say "near-nursery" because it doesn't have a crib in it for a variety of reasons. First, I scored a pretty sweet bassinet from the local kids & maternity consignment shop that I'm guessing is a more likely sleep spot for the little mister in the early weeks/months. Second, although the house hunt is on pause till after the first of the year, it's still on going. Although assembling the sweet little vintage-esque crib my parents gave us would be super fun, it'll also definitely result in us having to disassemble said sweet crib to move into whatever house we finally settle on...and probably with very little use by a very young little mister. Finally, not having a crib in the room means we get to have a twin bed in there in case (when) a middle-of-the-night-marathon-session ends in total exhaustion that really only one of us needs to endure.

Post-move office space

We also live in the smallest little Florida bungalow that we love but doesn't have much in the way of space. Since I work from home my office used to be in what is now the nursery, so we had to figure out where to relocate me. In an abundance of creativity we've moved my office into an area of our house that used to be the dining room. Despite the fact that my desk is now in a much less secluded space in our house I actually prefer it. I got a view upgrade with a big window & my crazy desk is still virtually out of sight from the rest of the house, so it's all good.

It took some work to even start with a clean slate in the nursery...we were totally overwhelmed with the generosity of our friends & family at Baby M's shower and I of course totally procrastinated moving my office. Once we finally got our (my) act together things came together pretty quick. From the beginning we knew we wanted a pretty neutral set up in there with some gender neutral colors & less baby-centric look. We settled on mint green, mustard yellow & coral. That way we can keep the same set up from baby to baby & actually like what we see in there. Also, I'm a lady that likes to beat a budget...so I know from the beginning we were in for a pretty creative experience. Here's what we came up with. I'm sharing because A.) It was a lot of work and I'm proud of what we did and B.) because browsing other posts like these is the only way I even knew where to start with this whole nursery thing. Here goes...

The twin bed was mine from many moons ago but of course I didn't have any linens for it. I picked up the duvet cover from the North Tampa Just Between Friends sale for under $20, a huge improvement from the duvet options I'd been browsing online. Then I got stuck trying to find a set of twin sheets, but luckily Mom had a fitted white sheet handy & I spotted this little cutey on Etsy for like $7. It just so happened the Etsy seller lived in Orlando & I had a trip planned over there anyway so I didn't even have to pay shipping. I love that it's vintage and the orangey-coral & mustard yellow are perfect. We already had the bolster pillow & added the two coral & mustard pillows thanks to TJ Maxx. Those were surprisingly expensive (comparatively) but totally worth it.

We'd decided we didn't want any baby-specific furniture like a changing table so we opted for a re-purposed dresser.  We looked & looked for the longest & finally remembered that my mom had a pretty rockin' mid-century dresser in my old bedroom which she so kindly gave us. After a sand, removing the doors & a few coats of mint green paint it was lookin' sharp for sure. The dresser was free (thanks Mom) & we didn't even need a quart of paint. We organized all of the stuff that apparently babies need with some Ikea boxes & a couple of gold buckets from my FAVORITE section in Target...the ONE SPOT! Some of the other baskets & such we were given at the shower, so we re-purposed those too. The sweet little scalloped changing pad cover was a gift from Aunt Meghan & it's one of my favorite parts.

Since there's no crib I decided to add a little visual interest for the noodle by hanging a homemade mobile over the dresser. I spotted this little how-to on Pinterest & adapted it a little to fit what I wanted. The embroidery hoop is quite a bit smaller on ours, we painted it gold, & used paint samples instead of scrapbook paper to cut medallions instead of hearts out of. It took me a while to get it finished, but I really like it. I bet all things considered, including supplies, that was a $10 project.

We were also given a second hand glider by some sweet friends but the

cushions needed a face lift. Initially I reached out to an upholstery shop my Dad recommended to see about new cushions...but that was going to cost me TWICE what the free glider would've cost had I bought it myself. So that was a no. Then I thought perhaps we could order new pads from Etsy, but that proved to be pretty difficult and also pretty expensive. My theory here is a free glider isn't really free if you have to pay almost what you would've paid for it in order to re-purpose/upgrade it. I knew we needed a DIY solution & my threshold was $50. After many weeks of whining to Greg about how unsure I was that we could even handle this project, we finally ventured out to buy fabric.

Helper (Supervisor) #1

This many not be news to the 2 of you that are even still reading this post but JoAnn's Fabrics ALWAYS has good coupons, and while I always lie when they ask me if I get their promotional emails & mailings, I DO know that they keep said awesome coupons IN THE STORE. So when we went to check out with our 5 yards of coral geometric fabric & our wonder under I nabbed a 25% off coupon that made our $50 worth of fabric more like

Helper (Supervisor) #2

$30 worth of fabric even though technically the coupon could only be used before noon & it was 3 when we got there. GO JOANNS! We loosely followed this Pinterest tutorial & ended up with a free glider with an affordable, fresh, color coordinated outfit on. All the credit here goes to Greg. I'm officially too pregnant to stand for long & wasn't much help after the first hour or so. He's the best!

There are a variety of other things in the nursery that we love, some of which I don't have pictured because that'd spoil the old baby name surprise. Some of my personal favorites include an inexpensive hanging organizer for cloth diapers, a #hashtag (of course), a bed for the pups and a gallery wall that features handmade puppy silhouettes, the Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto & the Jordan Standard. Greg was also kind enough to hang up some sturdy hooks in a lesser used corner of the room for getting baby slings & wraps put up & out of the way. Even if it doesn't stay that way, I love an organized nursery & that's exactly what we've got. In a color scheme that doesn't
SCREAM baby. Under budget!


Now that the glider is finally finished we are officially done (with the exception of a missing photo or two) with Baby M's nursery & ready to meet him. I hope he appreciates his new digs.

Maternally,
Meggo

Florida Fall

Hey y'all! I guess it's probably a bad sign for my ability to do the updating after Baby M gets here if I can't get it together pre-baby. Maybe more exciting things will happen once he  joins the circus & that'll prompt me to post MORE? Here's hoping.

We are sliding into our second season back in the sunshine state. Some of us {me} are missing fall weather more than others but we still love our little house & being so close to so many friends & family. Speaking of our little house Greg has been up to his old tricks again growing grass in the yard of another house we're renting. But he loves it & it's looking real good. If only Sadie would stop with the hole digging I bet the project would be a resounding success. We've also been up to a little gardening...lemon grass, citronella, sunflowers {unsuccessfully}, basil, poppies, daisies and some other varieties of plant. We're just practicing for home-ownership.

Speaking of ownership we finally bought Greg a new {to him} car. After months and months of searching and strategizing we finally settled on a used BMW. Even though we're not its first owners we think it's pretty sharp and it was the right price which means our house hunt won't be delayed as a result of our little German addition.

And of course on the topic of little additions Baby M is still being super nice to me and growing right on track. It's hard to believe we only have 10-ish weeks to go. We finally settled on some colors for Baby M's room. Although we're not painting we are going to work these hues into his room through fabrics and furniture. Our sweet friends the Rhodins gave us a gently used glider rocking chair which we're having recovered and I've got a few DIY projects ahead of me for the crib & some decor. If any of them turn out especially well I'll share the details here. Our most recent trip to visit the midwives was uneventful and we got news shortly after that visit that I passed my glucose test which was excellent news. Some of y'all know how good this news is better than others but it's good news either way and we were excited. We've started baby classes at the birth center & those have been fun, especially with all of the different personalities in our class. I don't have any bizarre pregnant experiences or cravings to report although I think french toast has finally registered on the list of things I love, along with watermelon, peaches and peanut butter sandwiches. I also love dessert. I don't have it even half as much as I think about it...but I think about it a lot. Now I'm thinking about dessert...

Let's see more about fall happenings..USF Football  should only be discussed in hushed tones & that's all we can say about that. We're participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer's on Saturday in honor of Grandma. I'm going over to Orlando to meet a dear friend's new little baby mister & visit with Ash Mat later this week. The Halloween decorations are up and we've already worked through our fist bag of candy corn {speaking of dessert}. We're also getting ready for Baby M's baby shower next weekend and the arrival of Mary Grace & Charlene. I can't wait to see what Lauren, Ash Mat & Coop have cooked up for the shower & spend some time with some of my favorite ladies!

Fall just started & we're already having the best time. Hope life is grand wherever you're reading this!

Happy Fall y'all,
Meggo