I hit 12 weeks this past Tuesday - yay! Evie has happily agreed to be the official "belly shot" photographer for my pregnancy. She was just way too cute when she took this picture - standing on a stool wearing panties and a pony tail :) Baby preparations are already in progress, we are busy cleaning out the office (the baby's room), planning to decorate, working on a little master bath redo, having doors painted down the hallway, and shopping for the right "mommy" car. Anyway, I've been busy making baby room plans and I think I've figured out which direction I want to go. My plans are fairly similar for either a boy or a girl, I want to make the space calm and neutral, and then add soft punches of either blue or pink along with art and fun accessories. 
Jenny over at Little Green Notebook always talks about decorating in layers. That's pretty much the way I've always decorated, I just didn't have a name for it ;) So here is my first layer of soft sophisticated neutrals to anchor the room. If this doesn't look very "baby" to you, just wait, it will when I'm finished.
And here is a bit of the second layer (which is hard to plan at this point - not knowing who Baby will be) but I know I want to incorporate some fun printed fabrics, funky toys, and some beachy art. Here is some more fun art from an Etsy artist...
I LOVE this crib set from Rikshaw Designs, it comes in both blue and pink. Hand block printed monkeys, elephants, and paisleys - yummy!
Next and somewhat less exciting - the "mommy car". We have decided on the Mazda CX9. It's a crossover between a van and an SUV with 3 rows. I went to look at one the other day and I think I am going to really like it.
I am going to be having ultrasounds every 2 weeks since I am high risk. The ultrasound tech tried really hard to figure out what gender Baby was this past Monday, but the little guy/gal was not quite ready to give up the secret (I think I know what I saw though :). I have another scan on the 27th and we should be able to tell by then! We have been very busy playing the baby name game over here too, I love Elisabeth Wilborn's baby name blog You Can't Call It "It", it has been a fun read and very insightful. I think we have our names nearly chosen, our boy name is picked for sure and we almost have the girl name :)Ok, that's all the fun for now. I will keep you posted!
I left the house with just $40.00 cash and that was the exact cost of all the items I found - down to the last dollar! Here are some of my finds... A large antique mirror, some old frames, and some sconces. (The reflection is Ben and my mom debating how to hang the mirror)
I am going to paint the sconces and frames, but the mirror is now hanging on my dinning room wall.
I also bought this 
Last, I was super excited to find this baby doll carrier from 
In other weekend news, my 
Anabelle approves ;) Thanks 
I've recently decided to decorate my previously unfinished dinning room - starting with a chair redo. I LOVE these chairs (a garage sale find from a while back) but the paint is old and very chippy (and I assume lead based) so I am stripping them to repaint. Big job.
I am also working on a fund raiser for Tom's 
One more thing I wanted to share is this yummy shrimp quiche I made last night. This is what it looks like before it is baked (no after picture because the hubby could not wait to start eating it). It's really easy to make... 
The sweetest lady gave me this antique frame at a garage sale. I further antiqued it using a spray bottle of water and a can of flat white spray paint. I first sprayed droplets of water all over the frame and second sprayed a thin layer of paint on top of that. Once the paint dried, I wiped it with a clean dry washcloth which removed flakes of paint from wherever there had been a water droplet beneath. I repeated this process two more times to give it a deep rich weathered effect. I love the way it turned out!
I recruited my mom to help with the board part of the project. We used a piece of corrugated cardboard, some quilted fabric (from an extra quilt a bought for the girl's room for just these sorts of projects), some white twill tape, and some mother of pearl vintage buttons. The assembly involved Fabric Tac for the fabric and needle and thread for the twill tape and buttons.
Only one week until Christmas day! I am a little behind on publishing the posts that I've been composing in my brain, so I am going to just fling a few treats your way right now and let myself off the hook ;) Ok, Exhibit A: Our Christmas card! It turned out cute right?
Exhibit B: Surprise! I want to share my template for the girl's Elf Stocking shirts.
In case you wanted to make some yourself, because as you can see, babies love to wear them ;)
Exhibit C: A last minute home made gift idea - personalized tags! I designed these in Microsoft Publisher. I used Google images for the clip art, and 
Exhibit D: Last minute shopping for little girl's anyone? Here are a few of my favorites things that I spotted online :) These are not necessarily the gifts my kids are getting, just things that I loved!
Exhibit E: A new tradition! This might surprise you (especially based on some of my previous posts) but we actually do not "play Santa Clause" at our house with our kids. Why? Well, my answer is really simple - simply because the fact that Jesus came to Earth is everything to us and we don't want a fictional character to over shadow that. Now, with that said, our kids are interested in Santa, and we encourage that interest in the same way we would interest in any other fictional character. My girls love Mickey Mouse, and so of course they love Santa too. Evie has been really fascinated by Santa this year and has been asking tons of questions about him and the stories that surround him. Now remember that I am a history nerd, so I of course wanted give Evie some historical background on the "character". I decided to look up and read some kid's web articles on the real St. Nicholas with Evie. We first read about how St. Nicholas loved Jesus so much that he devoted his life to loving and serving the poor in remembrance of Christ, and second we read about how his legacy is celebrated world wide - of course one of those ways is leaving out shoes for "him" to fill with treats. I immediately remembered the adorable wooden shoes from Holland that my brother sent to the girls for Christmas last year, and I thought of a way to hopefully inspire the girl's to love Christ and to love His people the way that St. Nicholas did in His honor. Instead of filling their shoes with treats, I selected a child (one for each of the girls) from our church's Angel Tree for Evie and Anabelle to select a Christmas gift for. It was really an honor to do this with the girls. It was great for me to see such genuine compassion coming from them. It's so hard to keep the holidays in perspective and it's so easy to loose focus when, as a mother, I have been Christmas shopping since June! 
My mom has graciously offered to make window treatments (in addition to painting the room, making the headboard, and upholstering a chair - yes I am spoiled rotten) and we've agreed that we like these from one of my 
I also need to make a plan for these blue initial plaques from the 
Last week was an exercise in juggling hats - 1. Be a good mommy to a 22 month old with a virus 2. Be a good mommy to a 4.5 year old who loves my attention 3. Kick my bedroom redo projects into gear (I'm redoing mine right now too - will share a separate post soon!) and 4. Try to still be a somewhat decent wife! No comment on how well I did in all of said areas (see those two sad neglected children up there?) my poor family just "may" have gotten the short end of the stick, but I have accomplished a lot in the way of decorating in the last 5 days! My mom and Ben helped a ton, they painted both bedrooms (while I "tendered ma 
Looked nice together, but still needed some accessories!
So I dug around my house and found a few perfect things! A mirrored glass frame that was a wedding gift from my Aunt Bobbie, a 
This is what it all looks like together now. I love it that I was able to find special things to use that were already in my house!
This pair of vintage lamps was in my room as a little girl (FYI they were vintage then too) and I wanted to use them, but the colors were not quite right...
It all started with this classic rocking chair that Ben and I bought with the hopes of having babies one day. I basically chose blue and yellow long before I knew I would have girls (plus, for some reason I totally expected to have a boy). Decorating a girly room to coordinate with the chair was a bit of a challenge, but I didn't give up and it worked out!
The room has always been very soft, mostly white with bits of color here and there. It has been such a fresh feeling space for my babies, sort of like a clean white onesie - just yummy and sweet!
This antique twin bed belonged to my mother as a child, then to me, then to Evie! It is a very special family piece that I will save for future children. Mom and I made the wall letters before Anabelle was born to go over each girl's bed.
I love the sweet vintage style fabric, I chose it along with blue gingham to coordinate with the rocker and my mom all of the bed linens. 
The girl's have a collection of Beatrix Potter figurines, some were mine as a baby and my aunt has added to the collection for Evie and Anabelle. They are housed in a cabinet with books and other treasures...
... like this stack of vintage blankets. I have LOVED the girl's nursery! It has been a happy room for baby girls to sleep and play! Here are a few of my favorite nursery memories of the girls as tiny babies... 
