Living Room Update

Even though I am supposed to be on bedrest, I still cannot control my nesting urge sometimes. Months ago, I bought enough materials for two toy shelfs for the living room, but only had energy to build one. But now I cannot stand the toy mess in the living room any more, I had to finish the second one. Since I cannot lift heavy stuffs, I just painted the boards in the basement, then brought them upstairs one by one, and finish building it right in the living room. Here is the before picture of the west wall of the living room. What a mess! When did I get all these toys for just one girl!
We don't have a family room or a separate room to set up as little caterpillar's playroom, so I have to make this small living room a multi-functional room. Here is the after picture, kind of. Well, it's not all done yet, but it does look more organized. Now everything has its own spot. The shelf on the left is the new one. Look closely, you can see it's not done yet. I need to trim the sides a little bit to make it even with the first shelf, paint the raw edges, and polyurethane it. Look at the height difference here, it doesn't bother Stubborn or little caterpillar, but it really bugs me! But I am exhausted, and it doesn't worth risking having my baby premature. So, it just have to stay this way until this baby is out.
Here is what the left side looks like now. I made that alphabet art a couple of nights ago. I found it online, and printed out the individual letters, cut them out, and taped them to a piece of white board. So easy! Cannot remmeber where I found it online though, it was months ago. Whoever created this art originally, THANK YOU! My girl loves it! The blue floral bins on the upper right shelf are so easy to make also. They were just these boxes from BJ's. I built these toy shelves 18" deep to accommodate her music table and some other big toys, and these free boxes are the perfect size. Some self-adhesive shelf lining paper and several minutes later, this is how it looks like! Much better! And each of these bins costs me about 50 cents! I just need to make some pretty labels for them. They each hold a different type of toys, like building blocks, musical toys, pulling toys, teaparty toys, etc.
This is the right shelf. As you can see, her favorite toys are on top of the shelf, so she can play with them anytime she likes, without digging or pulling them out of big boxes. And notice I removed the horse painting, and tied a piece of yarn to display her arts. Aren't they cute? Little caterpillar is very happy to see her masterpieces proudly displayed on the wall!

Before I show you the other side of the living room, I have to show you some of her toys! I just love wooden toys! Almost all those plastic toys came from friends! Look at these, my girl is more into cars, airplanes and dinosaurs than dolls!
She loves that cashier machine, and sings to that microphone all the time. And everytime she sees someone playing piano on the TV, she starts playing along on her little piano. So cute! We might need to get her a real piano in a couple of years.
These globes are my favorites. I can show her where grandparents and other relatives live. The big and midium ones are from thrift store, the tiny glass one was a party favor from a wedding.

OK, now the east side of the living room. This is how that tiny corner looked like during the holidays. I wanted to set up a painting table there, so I took down the xmas tree 2 days after. Moved the animal alphabet art up a little bit, so I could hang the little DIY blackboard and some buckets right under it. Now she can do coloring, finger printing, and draw with chalks on the blackboard, right at one table! The activity bag hanging on the wall holds her coloring books. All I need is a walllamp above it. It's kind of dark. I love this ikea lamp very much, but not enough to drive 1hr to get it. I will get it next time we go there for more stuffs.

There you have it, my living room is taken over by my girl! And I am happy about it and supporting it. This is the exact situation I said I won't allow before I had her. But you know what, my love to my baby totally won! I don't mind toys in the living room any more, just need to have them under control!

Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time

Have you ever being frustrated by this too? I read lots of blogs, mostly crafting and sewing related, and mostly about kids. Well, I love crafting and sewing, and I have a baby girl. So, whenever I ran into a great idea, or wonderful tutorial that makes everything looks so simple, I always think "if they can make it, so can I", "Oh, I got to make that cute dress for my girl", "what a wonderful party idea, I should do that for next holiday or birthday", etc. After my to-do and wish lists get longer and longer, and materials piled up all around the house, they just simply became clutters, both physically and mentally. Ok, why suddenly thinking about this? I was reading one of my favorite blog, Small Notebook, and saw this old post, How to protect your time from too many good ideas. It's like Rachel is talking about me too. Let's face the facts, how many hours do I have every day for crafting or sewing, or anything creative. Well, I do have a full-time job, more than two hours commute daily, all the cleaning and cooking (I got used to cook a lot for dinner, because we both bring lunch to work. so dinner normally takes about an hour to cook, rice, four dishes and a soup), getting a two year old ready for daycare in the morning, make sure she eats her dinner (takes forever), give her a bath at night, play time with her before bed, then doing all the laundry, after all these, I probably have about one hour free time. But by then, I am normally very tired, and rather climb up into the sofa and watch some TV. So, when will I ever have time for some serious sewing? Besides, little caterpillar already has a full closet of clothes, enough for twin girls I think.

From now on, I should carefully evaluate each idea before I add it to my to-do list, and really organize my time better. Just because I know how to do it, doesn't mean I have to do it. If I can buy something really cheap, cheaper than the labor and materials I will have to put into it, I should definitely support the economy. And I need to treat myself to some quality me-time, and more sleep. I am so tired and sleepy all the time!

How about you? Are you ambitious when it comes crafting and sewing?

Key Situation

We always had a key bowl by the front door, even before we moved into this house. Ever since we got our beloved console table, it has been sitting on it proudly, and super conveniently. I even have a special Christmas bowl to swap out every year. Isn't it cute? Well, technically it's a candy bowl, but hey, a bowl is a bowl, and it's perfect size for our keys.
OK, back to the normal key bowl situation. You see, now our little caterpillar is growing up, there has been lots of new toddler proofing to do around the house. Apparently, tall and curious is not a very safe combination. She can reach almost anywhere, including the higher countertop in the kitchen. So, she has been grabbing keys and changes and other small objects (I drop my earrings in there sometimes too, bad mom) from our keybowl. Stubborn got really fed up one day, and cleared out all things dangerous from the top of the little console table, and the tiny drawer (yeah, she can open everything too). We also really need more space for mails and magazines. So, sadly the little keybowl has to go. The only free space right by the front door is this tiny wall space between the door and the windows. A short trip to Lowe's, some measuring and drilling later, we got two new shiny keyhooks. Nothing fancy, just practical. Enough space for all our keys (backup ones are in a box in the home office).See how nice and clean they look now? Not covered by the curtain, and not bothering the light switch. The color is not matching the curtain rod, but this is just a quick solution, and I am more into nickel finish these years anyway. One more look at the less cluttered console table. Now I don't need to worry about mails and magazines falling off the table any more. Just hope my little girl won't suddenly love to tore apart our mails.

DIY Toy Shelf

I should have said "shelves", since I planned to make two matching ones. But since I don't have time to make the second one this month, and the first one is so fresh and lovely, I have to post it now, standing there proudly, but very lonely. Don't worry, your twin brother will join you soon, I promise!
Well, I drew this plan in my little pocket book, like months ago. Finally got the courage to get started. Once the wood was cut, there is no turning back. Oh, I have to remember to post pictures of my plan for the shelves, and measurements and cutting plan to the original post. I measured all her toys, so even the big ones have their own spots in this new system. I love how crispy clean the white is, plus a couple of coats of polyurethane, it should hold pretty good. One thing I do regret is painting the inside aqua-blue. What can I say, mommy loves blue! Remember her room? It's blue! And the dresses I refashioned for her recently were also blue! But now seeing how many of her toys are blue, I should have just left it white, or painted it apple green? Anyway, I am getting some white plastic bins or baskets for the top shelves, so I can group toys, and it will look less messy. If I cannot find bins big enough, I just have to make some myself. To utilize every inch of the shelf space, I will need bins that's long and narrow, like 10" by 18". That's very odd measurement!

Here are the before pictures. It's hard to tell, but it's kind of messy before. Toys all over the floor, above and under her little table, so she got nowhere to doodle. And most of her smaller toys and stuffed animals are piled up in that big canvas bin. Of course there were toys in other rooms too. And do you see all those pillows on top of the sofa back? No one sit in that corner, it's taking up too much space, just to hold some pillows and toys sometimes. Yeah, it was our fault buying such a huge sectional sofa for such a small room. But it didn't look so big in the big bright showroom! We didn't even have space for a sidetable or shoe rack! So, to make space for the twin toy shelves, I removed that corner sofa! Look how much space we got! That metal shelf came out of little caterpillar's closet, and it's there only temporarily, holding the space for the second toy shelf. We also got more than enough space for a shoe cabinet! No more piled up shoes in front of the door. And we still have enough sofa for 3! OK, take another look at my new 'old' shoe cabinet!
It holds so many pairs of shoes, ours and little caterpillars. The door stucks a little, so you have to wiggle it to open. But it can be a good thing, so little caterpillar won't open it all the time and pull every single one of them out. I got it from my best friend, who moved away two months ago. It's still in good shape, but just dingy. Nothing some fresh paint couldn't fix. Now we have a spot to put our bags. And I am eyeing the narrow wall next to it for a cute coat hanger, so our coats and jackets won't pile up on the sofa again. OK, there is still much to be done for this room. Some are simple, like hanging some more modern arts, but others are very big job, like reconfiguring the living room closet. Those will be posts of their own, one day. For now, I just like to sit back and admire my handy work. Oh, did I mention this before? Little caterpilalr loves this new arrangement, she can get to all her toys now.

Nursery Closet Reconfiguration

We all know that babies grow up too fast. I used to wish little caterpillar can grow faster, but now I want her to slow down. I really miss the feeling of holding that soft little baby in my arms. Anyway. As she grows, our needs for storage in the nursery has been changing. CONSTANTLY! It was quite simple, like this. Then there were more cloth and toys, so we added a sweater organizer (for blankets) and more hangers. This worked fine for a long time. But now that she is much bigger, she wants to help mommy to hang the clothes up. Also, Stubborn wants the clothes sorted and set up the way he could understand, since he will be the one drop her off at daycare. And it became very hard to hold her still on the changing station. So it's time for our elfa shelves to go back into the closets again. Base on all the reasons above, mommy had to reconfigure her closet, a total transformation.

The actual plan involves painting the inside of the closet pink, and building a narrow shelving unit for the left end of the closet to hold accessories and small items. But I didn't want to paint it while all the windows are still closed, and I didn't have time to build shelf yet, so these will the in progress pictures. First, I removed the sliding doors. I like they don't take any extra space, but hate that we can only access half of the closet at a time. So, they had to go! Now that the doors gone, you can see better how the closet was set up. A metal shelving unit inside a builder standard closet. Oh, plus some canvas bins and a hanging sweater organizer. And this is the changing station made with two elfa shelves. Oh, I already removed the changing pad.
After some measuring, cutting, and painting, here is the new shelf and rod. Also, one elfa unit inside the closet. I had to remove the wheels, since they are not very stable, and we won't be moving it for a long time. This is when I noticed that the new shelf may not be level! I couldn't find my level, so trusted the baseboard. Stubborn thinks it's not a big deal, but it really bugs me. I will fix it one day. Oh, that little box on that new shelf holds all her socks and tights.Look, little caterpillar was inspecting the new closet. She was very excited to find the new rod at her level. To the left of the new shelf is where the narrow accessory shelf would be. For now I just hang a canvas shoe organizer there. Once the shelf installed, I will somehow change this organizer to a 2 by 5 (two columns of 5 next to each other), instead of a single column of 10. So, one column will hold her entire sets of outfits from Mon to Fri, while the second column holds the backup outfits.
I will paint her closet before our next vacation and leave the window open, so it will have time to air out. I will never let my baby sleep in a freshly painted room, even if I use the no VOC paint. I will post the updates once all are done, probably in a couple of months.

Busy Spring Weekend

I have to take a break from photo processing, as my eyes hurt too much, I cannot see very clear. Or maybe it's because of my allergy. Anyway, it was great that I could get out to the yard and spend some quality time with my plants. Warning, this will be a boring post without pictures. Or, I can take some pictures and add them here later.

Although I don't particularly like the heavy lifting part, I do love to see all my trees and shrubs and flowerbeds dressed up in new mulch. Also finally put the spring fertilizer in the yard. We had been so good for years, making the lawn organic. But I can tell we were losing the battle! Too many crabgrass and other weeds. Well, if your neighbors on the either side aren't doing their job, their weeds will get in your yard, no matter how hard you try to prevent it. So, this year, I simply have to put down some fertilizer with weedkiller. I don't want to spend my precious summer weekend time pulling weed. I rather run around and play with my little girl!

This year, I am taking spring cleaning to the extreme (my standard), instead of the regular dusting and cleaning, there will be lots of decluttering and organizing. I have a lot to organize, but first, add more built-in shelves in closets, to utilize the dead corners and wasted space above. I bought some particle board shelving from Lowes, had them cut to size. I had enough, of the chaos in our living room closet, and I need to totally transform little caterpillar's closet to a big girl closet too. I will show you the before after pictures much later, if I can get it done in spring, and not too embrassed about showing you the before. I also have a plan for a couple of identical toy shelves to control the living room toy mess. But there are just too many cuts, the lowes guy said they don't do this many cuts on weekend, since there are too many customers. BUT I could go back and have them cut today, after work! What a nice guy! Time like this, I really wish I own a circular saw! If I get all the materials ready today, I probably can finish her shelves in a couple of weeks! Is that too long? You probably forgot I have a full time job, a house to run and a hubby and a baby to take care of. On the best nights, I get about 1-2 hours free time! And absolutely no loud projects! Or, that two weeks also include a couple of coats of primer, several coats of paint, both I already own. But since it's for my very active toddler, I probably need to polyurethane it a couple of times to get a stronger surface. They are not very fancy, but will fit all her toys! Even the big ones! I love the Ikea toy shelf system, but the bins are too small for her music table and rocking Nemo, and the ride on truck, and the zebra! Didn't take a picture of my plan, but it's very easy, kind of like the Grace's Bookshelf plan from amazing Ana White.

Store Old Baby Clothes Or Refashion?

So far, I have been storing little caterpillar's outgrown clothes in those big bins up in the attic. But since I discovered this amazing world of refashion, I wanted to open all those boxes, and look for clothes that I can work with. Well, that means I will have to break my current working system. Let's see how it works now, and try to figure out how to change that to satisfy my new urges.

Well, I cannot explain the system without telling you how I organize her closet, which is actually bigger than mine. Yeah, we have a very small "walk-in" (that's what the builder called it, actually should be walk-through) closet for our master suite, but that's another post later. All little caterpillar's current clothes are either hanging in her closet, or folded nicely and stacked in canvas bins. I explained how I set it up when I was pregnant.

Here is how I utilize the space now. On the top shelf, there are 4 bins. I know, I can install another one above that to use all available space, but so far, I feel that's not necessary yet. OK, back to the bins. The two big bins on the right hold all her future clothes. We buy lots of her new clothes off season. Since I am crazy about making or refashion clothes for her, we probably need more bins for that. The left most bin holds her shoes and costumes. The one next to it, at the most convenient spot, holds all her socks and hats. I just realized that the tag on that one has another amazing use. Our nanny is much shorter than us, so she cannot reach lots of stuffs in our house. But she can reach that tag. So, she just pull the tag to take the bin down, looking for socks, instead of move a chair over. On the first tier of the shelving unit, there are 3 bins. One for all her pants, one is for her tshirts and other tops, and the bigger one behind the door is for some very thick and warm winter clothes. The bin on the bottom shelf hold some extra sweaters, and the winter clothes that are just too big. Extra comforters and pillows are stacked next to it and behind the door. You see the pattern here, I put all less-used stuffs behind that sliding door, so they are there when I need them, but not in the way. There is just enough space under the bottom shelf to put a underbed storage box there. That one holds all the brand new baby gifts we got earlier. Some of them were too small when we needed it. So, they are future baby gifts for my friends, if any one will have a baby girl for a change. They all had and having boys. What's up with that? Well, my girl will be the only princess in the group. The hanging organizer holds some extra blankets for now.

The clothes that little caterpillar wears most often, are hanging on the rod. I just group them by categories, sweaters, sweats and jackets, pjs, onesies. The dresses that not suppose to be folded are hanging on the rod behind the door, so they are not in the way.

Now, let's talk about how my system works. Whenever little caterpillar outgrew some clothes, I just put them in another underbed box under her crib. I could do what Sherry from Young House Love did, leave a gift bag in the closet to hold them, but little caterpillar is very curious, and she will pull everything out and tear the bag to pieces. I have to use something she cannot open and destroy. When that box is full, I simply carry it up to the attic, and empty everything into the bigger boxes. The ones that I never let her wear (some hand-me-downs were just not my style), we just simply donate them. The toys that she outgrew also ended up in the attic.

Now since I added refashion to my agenda, I have been watching for candidates (the first several might become victoms). I can follow the wonderful tutorials on Ruffles And Stuff, especiall these two to extend life of tops and bottoms. Who knows when we are going to have a second child. There is no point to save everything now. The ones that cannot be refashioned, will be cut up and used as applique. Cannot wait till the weather gets a bit less cold, so I can spend sometime up in the attic sorting and digging. I probably will need a bigger WIP box. And these will be the perfect projects to use the scraps, and maybe use some of the gorgeous fabric from my stash. Let's face it, when kids old enough to go to school, they will not want to wear some homemade clothes any more. So, I have to seize the moment, and she won't be able to tell the difference if mommy made some mistakes. Babies are too cute, doesn't matter what they wear.

Another Great Thing

Take a look at the picture above, you will understand why I hated that situation. Stubborn and I use different shampoo and conditioner. And even though little caterpillar has her own bathroom, we have been giving her bath in our bathtub, so there are a couple of more bottles for her, and her bathtub, little rubber duck, knee pad thing, spout cover, stool for us to sit while bath her. Now you can see where my frustration came from, and what a chaos it was in our master bathroom. Chaos no more! At least I fixed a part of the problem. Until we move little caterpillar to her own bathroom, I just have to get used to the rest.

Welcome my new helper, the shampoo dispenser! Take a look at this handsome little thing. So shiny, so clean, so organized! I am so in love with it!

I have been searching around for a 3 compartment dispenser for a while, but most of them are two compartment ones, and the only perfect one I found online was just too expensive. Then on our last trip to NH, we made an unplanned stop at local Walmart, and there it was! I couldn't believe my luck, quickly grabbed one, and couldn't wait to get back home to try it.

The installation is just so easy. Just put the double sided foam tapes on, squeeze all the silicon glue on, and stick it to the clean shower wall. You want the glue to come out through those little holes, just like this.

Now here is how our bathtub looks like after removing 3 giant bottles! See, only two bottles left in that corner, and nothing else in the tub! And once I finish those two, they won't come back, so there will be no bottle there later!

Here is a close up shot of how I organized little caterpillar's stuffs. Now, all her stuffs in that big plastic box, so they all can drain, yet not touching the bathroom floor. I could leave them in the tub to drain, but we use this automatic shower cleaner every time after shower, I don't want those chemical get on little caterpillar's stuffs, since it will go right into her mouth. I have to take them out of the tub to protect her. It's not a perfect solution, but it's working, so we are keeping it.

DIY Crib Rail Guard

Every since little caterpillar could pull herself up standing in the crib, she has been biting the crib railing! I just worry that with her razor sharp little teeth, she might scretch some paint off and eat it. So, I have to protect her, not the crib. Searched on the Internet for a perfect solution, but again just like the table bumper thing, none of them provide both the function and design element. So, I just have to make them myself. I bought lots of sample fabric pieces before Fabric Place (I loved that place) closed. Found some very colorful polka dot ones, but they were quite small, about 12" by 24" each, barely enough to make one guard. I really prefer the white one, but don't want to go buy more fabric when I have a big shelf full of them in the basement. At first, I made only one, you guessed it, the white one, to protect the front rail that little caterpillar was chewing on. Then she moved on to the other rails, so I had to cover all of them. The colors look a little bit busy, but then when I put the train crib organizer (gift from my sister, Thanks!) back on, plus the wall art, the Pottery Barn letter and number mobile (gift from my neighbor), and all the cute stuffed animals and dolls on the shelves, it looks ok. Just like what it supposed to be, a fun playful baby room!

I really love this crib organizer. It's so colorful, and all the wheels rattles. Little caterpillar has been playing with it even before she could sit. She would just laying there, grab one of the wheel or that yellow bar thing, shaking and chewing and entertain herself for a long time. As soon as she could sit up, she figured out that mommy hides lots of her favorite birdies in those pockets. So, even though I put her toys in there all the time, they always end up all over the crib, sometimes even on the floor. I am getting used to the idea of stepping back and let her explore and have fun, but I just have to keep the crib clutter free once she doze off, for her safety and my sanity. And later on, I can teach her to put her toys back in the pockets, clothes in the closet or hamper, books back on the bookshelf, etc. Well, I am daydreaming again. The only thing she loves to do is taking her animal friends out and play with (or chew on) them. See, she already got her next victim? Ahh, I meant little purple bear.

What A Mother's Day!

What did you guys got for Mother's Day? I thought I will get something nice or practical (typical me), or go out shopping and eating at my favorite place. BUT, having so many WIPs in the house and rainy and windy weather outside changed everything. Couldn't do any painting outside, so I basically didn't even step out. Accomplished a lot inside though.

First, I enjoyed some sweet play time with little Caterpillar in the morning, kind of gathering up courage and building up strength for the rest of the weekend. Then Stubborn started bugging me about changing the water filters again Sat. afternoon. I know, sometimes I like to postpone some projects just because I don't feel like doing. Yeah, I am the handy one in the house, so Stubborn has to either push me to do it, or do it himself and mess it up. But I was so glad he pushed me this time. There are two filters for this under sink filter system. Didn't take a picture of mine, but it's exactly like this. The first one (actually is the second filter water flow through) we opened, was quite clean. BUT, we were horrified when we opened the other one. The water inside was MUDDY! I couldn't believe my eyes! And we use filtered water for Caterpillar's formula! Then think about it this way, that filter did its job, stopped all those 'gunk' from getting in our drinking water. Well, no need to argue any more, it's time to change them. Then Stubborn reminded me the faucet is kind of greenish. So, we dicide to take the whole system apart, deep cleaning and reinstall it. Man, it's harder than I remembered. I installed that system long long time (5+ years) ago. Then came the time to clean that skinny little faucet. How am I supposed to clean the inside of that tiny tube thing? Just while I was in the basement searching the protential cleaning tool, a little light bulb lit up in my head. Since we couldn't push the Q-tips through the curve, why don't I use wire instead? I put some cutton at the tip of the wire, and made a loop so the cotton ball won't fall off. It worked like a charm. Man, I was so glad Stubborn suggested it. IT WAS FILTHY! The cotton ball came out GREEN! I didn't realize there were so much algae growing in there, and we were drinking it! Eww! Anyway, after some deep cleaning, it's time to put everything back together. My wrists are painful ever since I had little Caterpillar, and the fact Stubborn has longer arms, he was doing most of the job. We connected and disconnected everything twice, still could not stop the leaking. So, we shut off the water, and called it a night at 11:30pm. Sunday morning, I sweared I will fix it, so this time, I put on more Teflon tape, and squeezed into the cabinet. It was too narrow for Stubborn to get in and he won't know what he was looking at. I was lazy to look for some cushion to put on the floor, and the cabinet is about 6" off the floor, so I was really glad I did some yoga before (the bridge pose). FINALLY, this time it's fixed! Stubborn actually said the water taste SOOOOO sweet! He sometimes still acts like a little boy! I am really glad he is stubborn enough to push me this time, otherwise we would still be drinking algae water. Eww! Eww!

Then the rest of the weekend I bleached the rest of the basement. Yeah, I didn't finish it right after the flooding. I was exhausted. I went through lots of boxes, got rid off lots of junks. Then I went up the attic, threw down all the summer clothes, and dragged up all the winter ones and another box of Caterpillar's clothes that are too small, but I want to save for (maybe) her future baby brother or sister. I reorganized the stuffs on the attic. last season I asked Stubborn to put the clothes in any empty luggages he could find, since I was pregnant and on bed rest. So, now I have no idea where things are, and I don't like it at all. Yeah, I like to have everything totally under my control around the house. Oh, little Caterpillar was so cooperative, she took a long nap while I was doing all this. She didn't even wake up by all the noise I was making. Well, I finally came down, I was so disgusted looking at the huge pile of clothes on the floor! Why do I keep all these clothes while I only wear maybe 1/3 of it? And every year I have to move them around twice? Did I tell you I am so into decluttering recently? So, after close inspection, I separated them into 3 piles, keep pile (hang or neatly folded, putting in our closet), 'too small but I might squeeze back in them after losing the last 10lbs of baby weight' pile(folded and put in a bin, hide under the shelves), and donate pile(throw into a laundry basket). Did I mention I was doing several loads of laundry all this time. So, after decluttering throughout the house, I ended up with 5 huge bags of stuffs for Salvation Army. There are still some organizing to do, but I felt so relieved! Maybe a couple of more weekend, I can finally sit down, and enjoy the clutter free, WIP free house with little Caterpillar! Maybe.

So, for me, this Mother's Day was lots of hard work, I was exhausted at the end of the day. BUT, I gave myself the best gift possible, a cleared mind. With some WIPs crossed off the list, I am actually ready for more. Bring it on!

Baby Nursery Update

Received lots of baby books as gifts recently. They were all over the room, made the already small nursery really cluttered. Finally made up my mind, and made a shallow bookshelf to custom fit the narrow space behind the door. My mom painted it white to match those floating shelves I made earlier. Now it looks so neat and organized.

I have looked everywhere for a perfect changing table or dresser, got lots of inspirations online. But it's so hard to find one in reality, which provides ample storage and matches our height better. Finally, we found a perfect solution. I have 3 elfa shelving units in the closets all over the house. Hubby tied two together, which made a perfect changing station, perfect height, fits our changing pad nicely, and has 8 drawers for storage. Now everything has its own spot, diapers, wipes, clean nipples and pacifiers, burp cloth, hand towels, medicines, and lots of toys. And not a penny spent. PERFECT!

Since there is only one window in the room, and that's the only spot my baby can get some sunshine, we placed the bouncer there, and moved the glider chair to the side, in front of the closet and changing station. I know, it's crowded, but we have no other choice. The room is just TOO TOO SMALL! At least it's working.

Nursery, Finally Done!

What do you think? Sorry about the light quality, the window was too bright.

This is the left corner, where I put the glider, under the floating shelves and right in front of the closet. Well, this is the only spot I can fit it in. The room is just too small. This glider was picked up on the side of the road years ago. The chair itself is in perfect condition, just the cushions were in a horrible shape. Guess the old owner had some naughty cats. So, bought some nice fabric, and recovered both cushions, and added two small pillows for neck and back support. It looks brand new! And the best part is, it only cost me about $10!

The crib is in the right corner of the room, and a twin size bed next to it. So I can sleep next to my baby during the first several months, it will be great for night feeding.

The closet is good size, but only have one builder standard shelf, not really functioning for me. And since I am the handy one in the house, and I am really pregnant, cannot do any heavy work, I decided to use what I have. Half of my metal shelf, some of the canvas bins bought months ago, and some homemade tags. Tadaaa! Customized closet, just for my girl!

And here is the baby bouncer for my little 'monkey'. Inherited it from a friend years ago, and made this fun monkey cover right after I got pregnant. Now it's ready for action.