Around the House....

First things first... Happy Holidays Everyone! It's been a while and a few things have gone on around the house. Not a whole lot, but some small projects here and there.

I'll start with my most favorite small project! Here's a picture...


Did you figure out what's new?

If not, look again because we grew a headboard (AT LAST!!!!) You may recall from way back when that I intended to make my own. I purchased fabric, batting, etc... Eventually we realized the project would be a little more labor intensive than we thought because we don't have a wall to lean a headboard onto. It would have to be freestanding and pretty supportive on it's own. Since I'm of little use around the house these days, and HauteLook was having a sale on upholstered furniture I decided to bite the bullet and just buy a headboard. Boy am I glad I did!

Side note: I love our local UPS delivery man. He's such a nice older guy! He's been to the house a couple times recently and always looks at me, (realizing I'm home alone) and offers to bring everything inside and even take it to the appropriate room for me. He's the best!

Anyhow when the headboard (and husband) arrived at the house, I forced the husband to get to work on it! I helped a little, but pretty much didn't do anything useful in getting it set up. I did make two trips down to the basement for supplies he hadn't realized he'd need. Anyhow I can't tell you how wonderful it is to not have to fish for my pillows off the floor in the middle of the night. Ahhh headboard...you've made my life so much easier!


Next up...I (with a little help from the husband) put together the baby's swing/bouncy seat. I say...with a little help...because the directions were so terrible (and my brain doesn't work quite as well as it should) I ended up putting two parts together incorrectly and needed a little muscle to undo my mistakes. Oops! Why does all this baby stuff come in a million pieces with virtually no directions? Why can't the directions come with words as well? Pictures just don't cut it!
Anyhow...here it is!


And onto the baby's room...
Mom G-K came for a visit last week. She cooked up a storm, put all the baby's books on the baby's bookshelf, and we picked out some fabric for the crib skirt she's making. It was so great having her here! Come again soon!
Here's a little preview of her hard work in the baby's room... (We brought the chair up from the living room and I think it'll work out great! I also threw in my Brian Hibbard Horse painting and a few stuffed animals for good measure...)


Another view:


Here's the fabric we selected for the crib skirt. It obviously isn't done here, but to give you a sense of what we picked out...


I think it'll be great! The pattern and colors mimic the paper pom poms I hung over the dresser/changing table. There's also enough fabric to make a pillow for the chair. Fantastic!!


Last...but not least, we get to the car seat/stroller fiasco. Why a fiasco you ask? Well...let me explain! Over the weekend we got to work installing the car seat (thank you Papa and Marilyn!) in the car. We had it nice and secure when I looked down at the sticker on the side of the seat. It said, "not to be used with infants over 22lbs." Huh? Not what we had picked out-or so I thought! As I remembered it, we had picked out a seat that was good up to 30lbs. I was very confused so I ran inside and looked up our registry and sure enough, the seat we installed was only good up to 22lbs. We had specifically picked out the travel system by Chicco because it was the highest rated and good up to 30lbs. After a bit of detective work I realized they sell two different travel systems and we'd inadvertently picked out the wrong one. (Mostly because we liked the color and pattern the best - not realizing it was different from the others.) If we kept the one we had installed, it would mean that we'd have to purchase two separate infant car seats before graduating to the next size up in car seats. UGH! So I called around to all the baby's r us stores in the area, only to find out that no one carries the travel system we wanted and that to order meant we might not receive it for two weeks. Not acceptable considering we only have three weeks to go here (give or take a week or two.) I finally found a store in Everett that carried them so we rushed over to see what we could accomplish. Surprisingly they took back the car seat, base, and stroller (which were all put together and therefore wouldn't go back into the big box they came in) without a fuss. Wow...that was easy. Then we went to pick out the correct system only to discover that it was truly hideous in person. The colors were terrible and we both agreed it was not going to be ideal. That's when we discovered the one we now own. It's the same brand, works up to 30lbs, and is going to be just find for the little person. It's a little boy-ish, but what can you do?! Poor Michael had to spend yet another night putting more baby stuff together.

Here it is!



Should the little bugger come out and play (or eat, sleep, poop, and cry as he/she will most likely do for a while) - we're ready! ;)

p.s. I swear, if I lose any more brain cells we are in really big trouble! I'd like to blame the car seat fiasco on someone else but I just can't get away with that.

p.p.s. The husband is a good man! Just wanted to throw that out there! He doesn't get enough credit for all that he is doing lately. I feel the need to publicly thank him! He's been doing housework, cooking, cleaning, gift wrapping, and whatever else I ask him to do. I still do some of it, but he has been an enormous help to me and I appreciate it! He's also been doing things he wouldn't typically dare do. Case in point, yesterday morning as I was getting dressed I sat down on the bed and just stared at my boots. I was pondering how best to put them on, when the husband walked in and saw that I was getting overwhelmed by something as silly as my boots! Rather than laughing at me (as he typically does) he walked over and offered to put my boots on for me. It saved my morning! Thank you! I had to give the man a little credit! :)