Nursery Updreamate

Now that I’m eight months into this whole parenting an infant thing, I thought I’d give an update on our nursery.  What we love, what we’re just living with and what will we change…

First up… the curtains.  Go ahead and file these in the LOVE category.

I know, I know, WTH?  You may be shocked to read I love these things after all of the draaAaama behind settling on this particular pair.  However, it was meant to be.  These Bed, Bath & Beyond curtains block out the sun, keep the room temperature perfect and spend most of the time drawn shut.  I heart them and am so glad we found each other after so much heartache.

Next… the Ikea hack magazine rack turned diaper storage…

This was a brilliant move, ifIdosaysomyself.  This handy unit stores about 150 diapers.  It’s almost like it was made to do just that.  Each section is the perfect width for half of a diaper package… see:

Mr. Dreamer was too busy trying to get our precious munchkin into one of these – so there’s no demo shot, but you get it, right?  Perfect fit!  LOVE IT.

Another love?  The mesh bumper.

Our little wiggle-worm could somehow maneuver his swaddled self to the edge of his crib from day one.  Little unswaddled hands and arms were sneaking out and getting stuck.  So, this bumper is a must for us – and awesome.  Even though, said wiggle-worm now knows how to pull it down and look towards the door when it’s time to get up.  Mm-hmmm.  Pretty presh.

The infamous diaper pail can be submitted to the like category.

Yes, it did make my top 10 must have list… and it is pretty amazing (and matches our nursery decor quite well)… However, remember I said it didn’t stink?  Well,  I wrote that before solids were introduced to our precious little stinky munchkin.  There are some things even the world’s greatest diaper pail cannot contain.  Sorry, I spoke too soon on that one.  I’d still buy it again – but with air fresheners, which I’ve since added.

Finally… the item we’ll be bidding adieu to… our rocking chair…

the "dream" rocker

I never really loved this piece.  It was a must have, but I never really felt that it fit in.  It’s also not the most comfortable chair and takes up a ton of room in our relatively small nursery.  So, the rocker and ottoman are currently listed on Craig’s List.  We hope to get back what we paid for it, plus a few dollars.  Which we will use to buy this…

mr dreamer taking a photo of the tag so we didn't forget!

That is the Curtis Rocker from CB2.  We don’t have a CB2 store in Arizona, but had the chance to browse through one when we were in DC.  We immediately fell in love with that rocker and knew it would be much better for our nursery.

So… stay tuned!  We’ll let you know when the great switcharoo happens.  That will definitely take the nursery up a notch!

PS – The polka-dots are doing quite well!  Almost a year after we put them on the wall, they’re still there and look FANTASTIC. We definitely heart those puppies!

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The Dream of Columbia, AKA: DC

Hello!  Remember me?  I took an unexpected week or so off from this here blog.  We spent a long weekend in DC – combo work & pleasure – got back on a Monday afternoon and landed right in the midst of life.  Ya know?  Both Mr. Dreamer and I work full time, plus hanging with the bambino, other commitments, and a souvenir from our trip – serious colds – …the rest of our week was kind of a blur.

But… we had a great trip.  We showed Kenton the sites.  First snow fall, first Metro ride, seeing the sites of our nation’s Capitol including the White House (where he’ll live one day, obviously), and hanging with some dear friends.  Here are some shots of the trip…

Kenton's future "Dream" house. Think they'll mind if his mom does some redecorating?

Fun, FUN.  Okay – back to the Dream tomorrow.  NURSERY UPDATE!!!  Who says you can’t keep changing things even though your BABY is eight months old?!

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Happy Dreamaversary to us!

Today (January 20th) is our 4th wedding anniversary. I’m infinitely more in love with this man today, than ever before. I can’t believe he chose me, but I’m so glad he did!

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The Dream Joins the Pinterest Partayy!

It’s party time, people.  Pinterest partayy time!

So, a bunch of cool blogs that I follow — What the Graham, Mrs. Priss, Stucco Bungalow (among others) — are hosting a Pinterest Partayy today and I thought I’d join in the fun.

Basically, we’re all taking something we’ve “pinned” on Pinterest and instead of just leaving it there on our virtual board of DIY dreams… we’re making these projects reality.

Here’s my Pinspiration:

ORIGINAL SOURCES

1 – West Elm

2 – Tulip and Turnip

3 – Kara Paslay Designs

4 – Pepper Design Blog

And here is our finished product:

Disclaimer: For some reason, the photos do the fabric no justice.  It’s not as gold/red as it appears.  It actually has some silver and gray tones to it and blends really well with the color palette in this room.  I tried tweaking the colors in PhotoShop, but it still didn’t come out just right.  

We’ve been discussing making our own coffee table/ottoman for over a year.  Sad, but true.  I looked high and low for a used coffee table we could upholster, but never found one.  So, this entire piece is DIY by the Dreamers – the Mr did the construction and I did the upholstery – we tufted together.  (Sounds sexy, right?  Not really.)

I plan to do a more detailed Dream It Yourself (DIY) tutorial, but for the sake of getting this post up in time for the PARTAYY – here’s the shortened how-to version.

You start by enlisting your husband to build the frame:

We actually used fence post caps for the feet and they turned out perfect – and cheap!

Then, comes the upholstering…

Prequel… I didn’t get a photo, sorry!  We put furniture cushion foam (you know, the green kind) cut to measure – atop the wood frame.

1. Cover everything with batting.  I did two layers on the sides and one on top.  I secured it all with liquid spray adhesive.

2. Sew corners. (Sewing assistant in background is optional.) Sorry, no detail pics of this either.  It was a little frustrating.  In the end, I turned the fabric right-side down on top of the ottoman and pinned the corners.  I wanted it really taught, so I made sure I pinned it very snug.  Then, I sewed one line, about an inch below the corner of the foam down to the corner of the wood.  I cut out the access fabric, angling my cut to leave room for the corner to be covered.  They turned out really nice!  One corner was a little too snug, and I just sewed a new hem about a quarter-inch outside the original one, then ripped out the first one.  It fits perfectly!

3. Cut the bottom of the fabric, leaving enough extra to pull under the wood frame far enough that you won’t see the staples.

4. Staple away!

5. Be careful on the corners.

Here’s what it looked like when we were done with these steps…

(Again, it looks really red-orange here… not true to life, promise!)

So… now it’s time to TUFT.  That’s a term I, admittedly, had never heard of before starting this project.  I knew that tufting – or, adding buttons – would really take this piece up a notch… so… here we go…

Yes, we’re going a bit out of order here.  The tufting process actually begins before the fabric is upholstered.

1. We marked out the frame – penciling in where we knew the buttons would go.

2. Drill holes for the button threads.

3. Make buttons out of extra fabric using a kit sold at most craft stores.

3.5 (not pictured) – using upholstery needles, pull wax thread through the holes underneath, through the foam, batting and fabric.  It seems like it would be easy to loop the button and then draw the needle back through – but, for us, it was IMPOSSIBLE.  We drilled the holes bigger, tried every thing we could think of – but we could not get the needle back down through the hole.  So, unfortunately, we only had one piece of thread to work with. We tied it to the back of the button – then tied the two back-end threads next to each other together.  This is definitely a two person job – so you get the buttons really snug and TUFTED.  The word is making more sense now, isn’t it?  (Still not sexy though!)

4. It may be hard to tell what this is – but it is the underside of the buttons… the threads tied together.

And here, once again, is the finished project:

And some more looks… I am pretty damn proud of myself about those corners!  That’s the part I was most worried about…

So, what do you think?  Give me a comment below and let me know.  Meanwhile, check out the other Pinterest Partayy participants and their projects:

• Stucco Bungalow
• What the Graham
• Mrs. Priss
• Baby Gators Den
• Design Build Love
• Hernando House
• Merrypad
• Her View From Home – Leslie did a project I suggested and it turned out FANTASTIC!!!

This is my kind of party!

If you did a Pinterest Partayy project, please link to it in your comment.   I can’t wait to see what everyone did.

Psst…. This ain’t my first rodeo.  A while back, I did another Pinterest-inspired project for the nursery – a “You are my Sunshine” wood canvas quote.  You can see that project here.  

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Pinterdreamist Partay

I’ve decided to join the partay that’s happenin’ on Sunday.

I told Mr. Dreamer that I was going to wait and blog about our latest DIY project on Sunday so I could join the “Pinterest Partay.”  He wanted to know where I’d be going on Sunday for this party.  Cute, huh?  I’ll be home, with a glass of wine, ooh’ing and ahh’ing over a bunch of great projects and hopefully getting some fun feedback from you all about my project.

It is done.  I CAN’T WAIT to show you!

Here’s the Pinspiration:

Original source here.

And here’s a poorly-lit, not color-balanced-correctly tease:

Yes, I tufted.  No, I’d never heard of that term until a week ago.

Anyone else joining the Partay?!  See you Sunday!

Follow me on Pinterest here.

Get more info on the Pinterest Partay here.

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Attendream

2011 was a record year for this little blog.  Momentum is picking up and we’re gaining more and more readers every day.  Thank you so much for stopping by!

In case you’re wondering what’s drawing some of you to our corner of the internet…. here is a recap of the attention this here blog’s been getting in recent months.

(Here’s a hint – most of you like baby nurseries and silver curtains.)

The fine folks over at Project Nursery loved the nursery polka-dots so much, they asked me to write an article telling other mommas-to-be how they can DIY dots themselves.

How FUN is that?!  Every once in a while, they put the article in rotation on their home page, which is SO FUN to see!

We also have a nursery gallery on Project Nursery, which you can see here:

Chic Cheap Nursery did a fun write up about the nursery too.  You can view that here:

And… this one was a HUGE surprise… Oh-Dee-Doh also loves the nursery dots and posted about them here:

WOW!  Thanks for all the nursery polka-dot lovin’!  We’re also all over Pinterest now and getting lots of blog hits from that fun site:

If you’re visiting from any of these fantastic sites, WELCOME! We’re glad you’re here. 🙂

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Tuxdreamdo

Did you notice the dapper tux my young baby-man was wearing on Christmas Eve?

christmas eve candlelight

Funny story about that there tux…

I spotted that dapper number on a sneak preview slide show of Gwen Stefani’s new mini-person collection at Target, Harajuku Mini.  I made a mental note to be in line early at my local Target the morning the line debuted… I didn’t want any Missoni-type disappointing moments.  I mean how SWEET is that plaid bow-tie?

About five days after the line debuted, I remembered that the line had debuted.

DUMB!  Total mommy-brain moment.

I ran around to a few Targets, only to find one rack of the coveted Harajuku Mini line – woefully picked over with no tux onesie in sight.

It was particularly heartbreaking that a Christmas party was fast approaching – one that I had envisioned Kenton in said tux for – and once momma has the vision, only the vision will do. KnowwhatIwhatmean?

Cue: eBay to the rescue.

Other, smarter mommas had made it to their local Target in time to snag these onesies and I was in no position to be jealous.  Instead, I put in a bid on eBay one night – and went to bed fretting that I had not bid enough for this MUST HAVE AVAILABLE NOWHERE ELSE item.

I woke up – WINNER!  For only $15 above retail, it was mine all MINE.  (They retail for $20, my eBay bid for $35 won… which I thought wasn’t that bad.)  Kenton wore the tux to the Christmas party (sorry, no photos!) and all was well.

Then… a couple of days after the party, I swung into Target and what to my wandering eye should appear?

Harajuku mini tux’s in EVERY SIZE.  So, I did what any woman in that situation would do.  I bought all of them. Then I listed them on eBay.

We wound up selling two for a $20 profit and returning the rest.  In the end, we made enough that the mini tux I HAD TO HAVE for Christmas eve and parties cost us less than retail.  Not the CRAZY deal I was hoping for, but it still all worked out in the end.

Lesson learned.  The calendar on my phone is not just for meetings at work and birthday reminders… it will now include shopping trip alerts.

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First Christdreamas

This post is a bit late… but that’s okay.  We could all use a bit more Christmas, right?

Baby’s first Christmas was perfect.  He got way too many gifts, was totally overwhelmed and single-handedly entertained seven adults.  Here are the highlights…

We kicked off the celebration of Jesus’ birthday with a candlelight service at our home church on Christmas Eve:

That was followed by dinner at our house.  On the menu, Mr. Dreamer’s mom’s famous lasagna and pureed sweet potatoes.  (Not together, hopefully that was obvious.)  Around our table – the three Dream Dwellers (the Dream Bulldog was under-highchair), both sets of grandparents and my grandfather – four generations around one table.  Bliss.

In my family (Mrs. Dreamer), we traditionally open one present on Christmas Eve.  It’s always Christmas PJ’s.  My mom sweetly asked if she could carry on the tradition, so Kenton got to “open” one present on Christmas Eve:

Candy-striped PJ’s with a reindeer on the baby-booty.  PERFECTION.

The next morning, everyone came back to The Dream.  While the main attraction was taking his morning nap, we indulged in some of this loveliness:

Homemade cinnamon rolls by yours truly.  Recipe from my pal Leslie over at Her View From Home.  They require instant mashed potatoes.  True story.  Random, but they are SO GOOD.  We just found a new Christmas AM tradition for The Dream. 🙂  Alongside mimosas.  YUMMY.

After the young sir decided to awaken, he donned a Santa suit… much to the delight of the grandparents and great-grandparent.

Then he tried his hand at this fascinating concept called “presents:”

The Melissa & Doug train from Santa was a hit, but so was the paper. Whatever.

The adults in the room also had a lot of presents to open.

Too many.

Everyone was far too generous.  Including Mr. Dreamer.

BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

MacBook Pro. Completely loaded with PhotoShop, Final Cut Pro, DreamWeaver… I could go on.  It is AWE.SOME.AAWWWE.SOMMME. Happy wife.

I got him spandex.  True story.

He’s a cyclist.  A sexy cyclist.

Those are the highlights.  There were many other gifts.  Too many.  I think I already said that.  There was also a Dirt Devil, which has made me so happy and would have been Gift #1 if not for the Mac, but the MacMacMac will be Gift #1 for a long time.

After the Christmas-morning-face-stuffing-present-unwrapping-fun, we headed up to my parent’s house for more gifts (seriously?!) and more food (shoot me now) and more baby-gazing (okay):

The K-man’s stocking also made it’s debut:

The stockings are a tradition from Mr. Dreamer’s side.  We all have the same one.  We got Kenton’s as a gift last Christmas, but the name was blank since he was still baking and we didn’t know if he was a he or maybe a she – and either way what he/she’s name would be.  So, it was super special to have the stocking hung this year with his name boldly displayed.

It was a FANTASTIC Christmas.  One for the record books.  And, in our family, it already is – Baby’s First Christmas.  They’ll never be another.

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Seven Dreamy Months

Happy New Year!  We said goodbye to 2011 and hello to seven months old on the 31st.

I cannot believe my little man is now seven months old!  This month, in his monthly photo project, he earned some suspenders…

7 months

The shot was NOT EASY to get this month because we have a certified mover on our hands.  He’s not officially crawling yet, but he is army crawling and is constantly on the move.  See:

Good. Times.

Here is how he’s progressed since month one:

If you’d like to keep tabs on this monthly photo project, just keep an eye on the Kenton tab!

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