Fireplace and Chairs

While waiting on baby (now on day 4 past due date!), I thought I would share pictures of the finished fireplace and Donald's chair painting skills.

The fireplace had been "undone" since we moved in and I was tired of looking at it. We had two square mirrors made out of old wood with chippy blue and green paint, so the idea was to get a few more mirrors and do a collage. I couldn't find the right thing to go with with square mirrors until a couple weeks ago when we visited a flea market here in Montgomery. Among the junk - and I do mean junk - I saw this cute twiggy mirror.

It was the right size and shape to balance out the square mirrors and the price was unbelievable....$12! It's no dinky mirror either, it weighs about 15 pounds. Even though we used a 25 pound picture hanger I had fears of it crashing down on top of the hurricane candle holder (and Millie's dog bed) below it. I ended up switching the glass to the other side to ease my mind and after a few days I was reassured that it was secure!

I forgot to take a pic before we started but to get an idea, the square mirrors were sitting on the mantle propped against the wall, the candle and books were on the right side of the mantle, and the wooden balls were on the left. I took the basket with starfruit off the top of the armoire to fill in the mantle. We weren't sure about hanging the fleur de lis at first but decided to go ahead and hang it to add even more visual height. I like how it turned out and love that's it's finally "done."

I discovered Donald's skill for painting/distressing furniture a couple months ago when we found a $17 desk chair at a local antique mall. We had been using one of the dining room chairs after we moved and were keeping an eye out for the right chair. The chair we bought was black so we had the idea of spray painting it the same turquoise blue as our outdoor side table since we had some of that paint left over.

Donald did a great job of painting it and then using sand paper to let some of the black peek through. I love how it turned out!

Next up were the bar stools. They used to be a beige color and they blended in too much with the wall. We talked about color options (navy blue, green, white) and then one day it dawned on me that we should use the leftover gray from the dining room.

Again, no before picture but here is how they turned out...

Now, back to waiting!

Finishing Touches

The nursery is finally done! Pillows are in place, chandelier is hung, and a few family mementos are displayed.

I love the fabric on the glider, it's an Annie Selke design. I blogged about Annie Selke in one of my first blog posts.

The mirror above the twin bed was a steal at $40 from Hobby Lobby. All wall decor was 50% off the day we went.

The photo below is of my maternal great-grandmother, Minnie Lee Laney (Jenkins). The brooch on the book belonged to her mother, Ola Laney. The silver brushes were mine and the diaper pins were Donald's.

My mom and I found the iron hook piece at Hobby Lobby and hung my point shoes (used briefly before I quit ballet at age 13), dried flowers from my family shower, and a sweet little dress that my sister-in-law's mom and sister got us. 

Speaking of dresses, here is the dress that Laney will wear home from the hospital. It's a family tradition to bring babies home in a Feltman (or similar) outfit. 

I have to include this adorable card that my nieces Laura Brittain and Peyton made and is now on the cork board in the nursery. The "I hope she's cute!" part is so funny. Love it. 

Nursery Art

I wanted to share photos of the antique plates and other art we've hung in Laney's room.

I love the transferware dishes we found on etsy.com. Thanks Mom for buying them for Laney! They are considered red, but they have faded to pink with age. They look great with all the fabrics and furniture in the room. And I'm proud that I managed to hang them by myself!

Next to the window is this Degas print that I've owned for years and finally found the perfect place for it.

And between the door and the closet is a bulletin board and small rabbit painting. I like how the gold frames pull in the gold from the drapes.

Mom is finishing up the pillow for the gilder and pillowcase and throw pillow for the twin bed. Then we'll hang something over the twin bed - either the framed dress I wore as a baby or possibly a mirror. Can't believe only 5 weeks to go and she will be here.

Nursery Part II

Here are the latest nursery pics. It's getting close!

Mom and I found the little side table on sale at Hobby Lobby! It's the perfect size for the space.

Here is my little craft project. I didn't like the shade the lamp came with so we got an adhesive shade that you can customize with your own fabric. I used some leftover material and added pink ribbon trim from Hobby Lobby. It's a little crooked at the top but it turned out better than I thought it would since I'm not very crafty.

Mom made this pillowcase for the twin bed while she was here.

Here you can see the cute detail of the lace and ties.

Here are the antique red transferware plates ready to go on the wall above the crib. They should be up by tomorrow.

Ahh...The Beach

There's almost nothing quite as relaxing as going to the beach. It was a quick trip - -left Saturday morning and returned Sunday evening -- but still worth it. We wanted to take advantage of living a few hours from the coast and celebrate our anniversary. Crazy to think that it will be our last trip without a baby in tow.

Baby Update

Our baby girl is expected to arrive around June 10th. We are naming her Laney Russell. Laney is my great-grandmother's maiden name and Russell is my twin brother. I thought the name Laney was pretty unique, but maybe not. My mom saw an ad for the new American Girl doll the other day and her name is LANIE. She's Girl of the Year 2010. Ha! So she will probably have a few Lanie's in her school. And of course we will need to buy this doll even though they stole our name. :)

I had a 4D ultrasound on March 15th and got a peek at her! It took almost the entire session to get her to move her hands away from her eyes.

Here's a good foot pic. The tech said her feet and legs are long!

And here is her sweet smiling face!

Here are a couple of my most recent belly pics (taken a few weeks ago). I'll have more after our trip to the beach this weekend for our anniversary.

Nursery Update

I'm back! I decided to keep the old blog address and just change the name and create a new template. It's so much easier for people to keep the current link they have in their saved blogs.
So I'm now almost 31 weeks pregnant (tomorrow) and the nursery is coming together! I picked the fabrics first, then paint samples. The swatch with the orangey/gold background is going on the window and a throw pillow, the pink dot is for the crib skirt and twin bed skirt, the leaf print will be the glider pillow, and the white/raspberry pink is an accent fabric for another pillow on the twin bed.

We ended up not going with any of these paint samples. The center one (Ralph Lauren Gardenia) was my original favorite, but it was too white on the wall. I decided I wanted a softer lavender so we went to Sherwin Williams and found Light Lavender. Home Depot mixed the final product.

Donald did a great job!

Once the paint dried, we moved the twin bed back to it's spot and brought in the glider, stacked dresser, and crib!

My talented mom is making the crib skirt, twin skirt and curtain panels. We picked up the crib skirt a couple weekends ago when we visited Aberdeen. I couldn't wait to put it on the crib and see what it looked like.

The first level of the crib is not as high as we expected, so the skirt is going to be hemmed slightly, but I love the way it turned out.

Next are the curtain panels and twin bed skirt. Mom is coming next week to bring these, so I'll post more pics then. The final touches will be pillows, light fixture, and art on the walls. This is the light fixture I picked out...(PB Kids)

More posts to come soon!