6.5 months!

Our little lovey dovey is almost 7 months old - where has the time gone?!

sam + kyle invites

While I was enormously pregnant I worked with B's cousin Sam to make her fun wedding invites. It was such a great project because Sam + Kyle are two of my favourite people and their wedding was in a super cool location - Coney Island in Kenora. Literally the day before I gave birth I handed them over to be mailed... phew, just in time! In August the Crandall family united for the party of the century and we had an amazing time celebrating the long-awaited union of Sam + Kyle.

wish list

Skip Hop makes such cute/practical things. Almost anything and everything from them is on my wish list.

5 months!

Our little sir is 5 months old already. He's mastered rolling over and loves playing on his tummy. He makes tons of chatty noises and it just melts my heart to hear him say mum-mum-mum even if he's just making sounds. He's also really in love with Berkeley, its so adorable.

baby favs

Our other favourite baby item is hands-down our Video Baby Monitor. It has been so handy to be able to check in on Lachlan while he's sleeping. Sometimes he makes noises but isn't awake and sometimes he's awake but not yet making much noise. And we get to see the adorable positions he sleeps in! Our favourite is bum in the air.

best baby purchase

One of the BEST purchases for Lachlan has definitely been our Bumbleride Indie. Recently a friend sent me a message about which stroller I have and I replied in a rambling response going on and on about why I LOVE this stroller. I have zero complaints, seriously. It has gotten a ton of use - on our gravel road, out and about in town and even on a boat a few weeks ago.

We also have the carrycot and used it as Lachlan's bassinet in the early months but probably didn't use it to its full potential with the stroller. We used his car seat (our friend's Peg Perego Primo Viaggo - lovingly borrowed) with the attachment in the stroller more since we were usually coming to/from the car.

[Just playing in the stroller after a walk. I realize the danger potential in this photo - he was fully supervised!]

little lachlan

My baby boy has been keeping me busy, but mommyhood is just wonderful. Our little mister is 2.5 month already and its crazy how time flies (and yet some days just crawl). Lachlan is full of adorable smiles and noises, already quite the little flirty guy.

lachlan's pad

Finally! Here are some pics of our little guy's nursery. At the moment we use it for changing diapers because Lachlan sleeps in his Bumbleride Carrycot in our room. Here's a little run down of where things are from:
Crib - Walmart (USA)
Dresser, Carpet, B Bookend & Fabric for Curtains - Ikea
Chair - Kijiji (and then refinished)
Change table - Already owned (and then refinished)
Elephant canvas - Home Sense
Elephant clock & decoration in the window - Superstore
Plush Owl - Pier One

baby b is here!

Our handsome little guy arrived Tuesday, May 3rd at 8:52pm! Lachlan was 7 lbs 1 oz and 20.5 inches and we are the most proud and happy parents :)

project #2 complete

B's pre-baby makeover task is also complete! He did an amazing job refinishing an old dresser we salvaged from some friends years ago. No before pics, just the lovely outcome. The step-by-step for this came from Young House Love's almost identical refinish.

chair makeover

My little pre-baby project is complete! (well... close enough to complete that I could take some pics, the back panel still needs sewing but what the heck). It may seem silly to change beige upholstery to a different beige upholstery but I think the new one is much much fresher and nicer. It was my first re-upholstery challenge so perfection it is not! But I love it none the less :) And B did an amazing job refinishing the arms for me!

Total cost was $50 (chair on kijiji) + $20 (memory foam) + $6 (upholstery ends on clearance). Plus many many hours of course. This rocker will either stay in the nursery or go into our room since we do also have the La-Z-Boy for hanging out with baby.

full term

Woo Hoo, baby is full term now (37 weeks)! My due date is somewhere between April 27th and 29th and I've got 2 more weeks of work planned. My fingers are crossed for the wee one to arrive before my birthday, May 5th because 28 sounds so much younger than 29 :)

On a side note, ohdeedoh featured this amazing collection of lullabies today, which supports an amazing cause, is incredibly designed and the songs are really good.

more cute bedding

Another line of adorable bedding has popped up! Auggie's super cute and simple combo of trees and horses would have been just perfect for our nursery. Why oh why must I find these things when the room is 90% done? Maybe that's why I've still been holding off on finishing the crib skirt and bumper pads (which won't get used for quite some time anyway)...

too cute!

Skip Hop just introduced a new line of bedding that might just be one of my all-time faves. I definitely would have used it as inspiration for our nursery! Some things are still a little in progress with the nursery so maaaaaybe I can work some of these cute owl items in. Or maybe I have to just finish the few projects that are on the go and call it a day, hahaha.

I am currently taking my first crack at reupholstering a chair found on kijiji. So far, so good and I will post before/after pics when it is complete! And B has been doing an amazing job of refinishing a dresser which will be our change table, soon to be complete. Plus he's painting the closet for me - small detail but I think it'll be nice when its done.

pinterest-ing

I've joined Pinterest! Noteworthy things that I find in my internet travels are posted there, which is kind of nice because it helps me keep track of where I've found things. Below is a sample of something pinned to my "nursery inspiration" board - a cool poster by Julie Mercier.

big art

B and I love maps and have recently hung a replication of a very cool vintage hand-drawn map in our mud room. Another cool and super cheap way of getting some awesome map decor would be this 20" x 28" wrapping paper from Kate's Paperie. The Cavallini World Hemispheres Map is my fav.

non-traditional fabrics

Oh! These folks used the same Ikea fabric I have for the nursery. I am making our crib skirt out of the funky bright coloured fabric seen here as curtains. For our room its less over-powering (and the yellow is softer) but it gave me a basis for pops of colour to work with for the art work. And it goes well with the green Ikea rug and the curtains I made from another Ikea fabric. Here's a reminder of how the nursery is shaping up.

dreams

Sometimes I dream of adding a cute little studio to our property that could double as a work space/guest room. As our family expands maybe one day I'll get my wish. A stunning miniature place like this one via Apartment Therapy would compliment the style of our house perfectly in a nice modern way. Maybe one side could be shed and the other side studio with a loft? Multipurposed :)

cool nursery art

I think the walls of our nursery are all full (I say think because nothing is hung yet pending placement of all the furniture), however if I end up with the space I'll definitely get this sweet poster by The Neighborhood Studio. Totally works with all the neutral animal/alphabet/oragami stuff happening in the nursery.

more sewing

While B was out on the west coast earlier this month I had some time to do some sewing after I finished my quilt. Just a few simple little projects - some terry cloth lined burp clothes, a little stroller blanket set, a cover for my new printer and a back-sized heat bag (which has been WELL loved!).

inspiration

Our nursery is far from complete but the majority of the things going in it are here, just not in place yet. I was browsing around Flickr and came across a nursery that I absolutely LOVE. It is kind of where I'm headed with our nursery - a nice neutral wall colour + bits of all kind of bright colours and patterns. Those windows are to die for, I sure wish we had those in our nursery! In fact, even the layout of the room is even very similar to ours. Here's a peek at thebline's beautiful space.

[photo by Amy Bethune via Flickr]

more large-scale art

The animal tea towels I got a while back are now framed and waiting to be hung in the nursery and I am so thrilled with how they turned out. I've got my eye on another tea towel that I think would be fabulous to frame - City Towel: Day by EVRT.

spoiled!

I'm so excited to receive this Pack N Play from my mom! She had an "excited grandma" moment and got a whole bunch of stuff sent to us. Some stuff off my Babys-R-Us registry (which is available online) and some stuff from Sears (where I have not yet registered but will).

i heart my sewing machine

Pregnancy has me feeling wonderfully domestic :) I've been putting my sewing machine to good use in the last few weeks and have a bunch more projects planned to finish before April. This is my first quilt - gender-neutral, for our little one. Lots of work but definitely worth it!

prettiness

Although I still and will always love my dress I can't help but drool over these Paloma Blanca beauties. Maybe it's because my waist is gone and the prospect of ever fitting back into the gorgeous dress hanging in my closet is quite daunting at the moment! B's super awesome cousin is getting married this summer and she is going to look SO hot in her gown. And I will have post-baby motivation to wear a cute dress by August.

cute AND practical!

Oh my goodness - I LOVE this Boon Loop Diaper Caddy! My fingers are crossed very tightly that I can get one of these when they are available in the spring. Made by Boon, makers of the Grass Bottle Dryer, also on my wish list. They have SO many cute modern and useful products for less than an arm and a leg.

a lazyboy compromise

We finally found a chair that B and I both found comfortable. Of course it's not as sleek and pretty as I imagined but I just can't get a chair like that in Tbay. So, after much deliberation we decided on a La-Z-Boy Pinnacle in a cozy dark chocolate brown. To make it a smidge more modern I added the stainless handle, which means our semi-custom chair won't arrive for a couple months.

21 recycled bottles

I loooove Matt & Nat, the cool Canadian company that makes ultra-stylish and durable bags from recycled materials (the 2 wallets I own still look brand new after 3+ years). So, when I came across a beautiful diaper bag of theirs at Winners I couldn't resist. It came with a nice padded change pad and has tons of handy pockets. It may not be as husband friendly as I might have planned, hehehe – the it's the white one below and has pink lining.