McKenna’s Nursery Reveal

 McKenna’s room is pretty much DONE!  And that is a big sigh of relief to me because I wanted the nursery done by the end of May and our May is a little hectic and overwhelming.  I love how it all just came together so easily and how simple and clean it looks.  I do have to brag on my husband a little bit – he was such a trooper.  it was a long day of crib assembly {with Kennesaw in the way 98% of the time} and hanging things on the wall.  But he never once complained and I think he is proud of the work he did. And it all seriousness, I think she has one of the better rooms in the house.  Already a spoiled little princess! Now, I just cannot wait to get her home and in her room.

I absolutely love our crib.  I am so glad the debacle around the crib {and nursery} set was resolved …. even if it did take me writing a scathing review on Yelp.  Oh well.  The cream color looks good with the gray and pink and I love love love the engraved detailing of the little flowers.  I do hate mesh bumpers and think they are total distraction, but Land of Nod doesn’t make the big pretty bumpers and evidently non-breathable bumpers = bad.  But.  I still think they are a total eye sore.  We wanted to put McKenna’s name of the crib, but with the letters being white and the crib being cream we now are hunting for what to put over the crib.  Ideas are welcome!

Crib & Nightstand : Koo Koo Bear Kids, Dolce Babi Bambino // Bedding: Land of Nod, Hop to It

I just LOVE this wall.  And I have to pass the credit onto Kyle for the idea of putting M’s name of this wall.  I love these curtains and how they look on the pink wall.  When we hung them last week Kyle and I both immediately thought that they looked so good against the pink wall.  And we all know that K and I are pretty much obsessed with the glider.  And then the addition of her name on the wall just works.

Curtains: Land of Nod // Glider: Babies r Us // Letters: Babies ‘r Us.

I LOVE our dresser / changing table.  Again.  I am so glad the debacle around the nursery furniture was resolved and I am slightly obsessed with the mirror.  We like how the pink wall is reflected in the mirror and adds a little more pink to the room.  Another project will be to wash, organize, and put away little baby clothes and socks and mittens.  I need to order the drawer organizers from IKEA that I really like and we need to decide if we are going to do a diaper caddy or use one of the top drawers for supply and diaper storage to keep it all out of the way.  I am leaning towards using a drawer.  After all, I don’t think she will need ALL that drawer space yet.  Right?! FYI: babies are so small.

Dresser: Koo Koo Bear Kids, Dolce Babi Bambino // Mirror: Pottery Barn Kids // Changing Pad Cover: Land of Nod // Lamp: Target circa 2008

I saw this idea on Pinterest and we needed a place for books and extra storage and I really liked this idea.  And it looks clean and put away and is just what we needed – great storage for swaddling blankets and extra sheets and her books and toys anything else we need to store. I do need to get one more pink bin.

Cubbies: Target

We also have an apothecary jar on her night stand to store pacifiers {and need to stock up on some pacifiers to fill it!} and need to figure out what to put over the crib.  But, I love that the room is basically done and that it looks so very very good.  I cannot wait to show it off to Kyle’s parents when they come in town in a few weeks and then to my bestie Heather when she is in town and then my parents and brother as they visit!

And… now we have to go onto our next project.  Which Kyle thinks is laying down grass seed or sod from all the juniper he pulled.  I believe it is a laundry room make over.  Flip a coin – heads: yard work … tails: laundry room!?  We also need to get new furniture for our living room to move the old couch to Kyle’s man cave so we can have our big “family space” and the love seat into the random sitting room we have.  I feel like we need to play the lotta and hit the jackpot!

Five things Friday–Picture Style!

 I survived another week of the long drive to our client 80 miles round trip away.  Needless to say, my monthly gas bill will hate me at the end of all this and I learned that my pregnant self cannot sit through 2 hours of traffic so I have a Burger King on my way home that I borrow to use the bathroom {TMI, I know} … but we are making good progress and adding value and that is what we are supposed to be doing.

So, I decided to shake things up a bit with my Five Things Friday tradition that I am on.  I feel like this really is the easiest way for me to keep everyone in the loop about what is going on in our world.  And everyone loves pictures – visually appealing and all!

{one}

The house that I grew up in and the only house I remember went on the market this week. There are so many good times and memories in that house and even though I knew this day was coming eventually, it is still bitter sweet.  Just that neighborhood in general is full of summertime memories. Even when I posted on Facebook that it was on the market I had friends make comments like “wow I feel like I also grew up in that house” or “5710 will miss you in the neighborhood!” But, I can say that I was SO SO lucky to come home to the same house and same bedroom every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Summer breaks and then holidays when I was in college and then after I moved to Atlanta. But, while it is sad that there will never be another Thanksgiving or Christmas in that house it is an exciting new chapter for my mom and dad to be moving into their retirement house and to have their 2 kids (and grandbaby) so close by.  So – if you know of anyone in Northern VA on the market for a house to create their own memories in – let me know!

{two}

please stop everything you’re doing right now and take a look at this baby shower invitation. it is for the shower my friends at work are throwing Kyle and me. And when I opened it, I literally said “stop it. where did you find this”.  McKenna is getting an Alabama themed baby shower – which is fitting since I refer to her as my little “Roll Tide Baby” and she will eventually be an Alabama alum. This is called starting them young!  I really am so lucky to have such a great group of girls at the office and to work for a company that is like my 2nd family.  But seriously. how cute is that baby shower invite?! This will have a perm place in her baby book!! =D

{three}

Look at what Kennesaw did this week!!  Normally she just pops open the door and lets herself out.  This week I believe she was making a statement. Not quite sure what the statement is, but I think she may be tired of being crated every single day so she just shoved the whole front part of her crate up and messed up all her bedding.   Demon.  She is a demon.  This weekend we are purchasing zip ties to tie the walls of the crate together so this does not happen again and then bungee cords to keep the door closed hopefully.  She does not do this everyday, but when she does it is just funny to see.  Kyle is more annoyed than I am, but I think she is just a nut job of a dog. Does anyone else have a Houdini dog?!  If so….. what did you do to keep you dog in their crate each day versus breaking out of their crate. 

{four}

McKenna got her first baby gift this past weekend and we love it!!  my aunt – her great aunt – gifted her with crib sheets and the crib skirt for her nursery and when I say the picture does not do the cuteness justice, the cuteness is just too cute.  The little pink and gray bunnies are just too cute. And I got an email today from Koo Koo Bear Kids about a St. Patricks Day Sale – so we are going to go buy the crib and dresser this weekend at a whoping 50% off1! We will end up saving so much money and have a really high quality crib so we are stoked.  Me more than Kyle.  And…. it is supposed to be a rainy weekend which means I can put K to work painting the nursery!

{five}

if you’re ever looking for a unique Thank You gift to send someone and don’t want to sent the normal flowers or something like that you need to think about “The Cravery” – which is a cookie boutique that is amazing and makes me drool thinking about them.  Kyle’s mom sent me a dozen cookies {as a pregnancy snack} and let me tell you, Kyle and I were fighting over the Birthday Cake ones.  They are kinda pricey – but no more than flowers – and they taste so good.  We got Red Velvet {delicious}, Birthday Cake {I died they were so good} and a chocolate truffle {good, but too rich}.  Words cannot express how good they actually are but I feel like just thinking about them can give me gestational diabetes, but that does not mean I would turn away from them in the future.  Seriously, give them to a friend, family member, client, whatever.  You will get major kudos.

I hope everyone has a really good weekend!! We have pretty much nothing but lots of house stuff on the calendar – cleaning, painting, yard work, etc… and another trip to the vet’s office …. kennesaw went last week and was told she is a good dog – they don’t know about her crate habit. Mulligan goes tomorrow. And I want to hit Zumba in the morning since I have not been in awhile and need to be a little more active than I have been.

Bambino Bedroom

Since the bambino news is out in the open now I can share baby room fun stuff with you!  Ever since painting the guest bedroom and having A LOT of left over gray paint – we decided to paint the nursery primarily gray.  and then accent it in some way with either a blue or a pink {depending on the gender}. And in true Barbie fashion I have had to plan everything out and look at cribs and bedding because I want the nursery done well in advance.  So…. I have been drooling over Land of Nod bedding since they somehow found out I was pregnant (creepy) and started sending me their catalog.
 

And for bedding I have decided on these two prints/patterns.  I didn’t want anything cartoony or whimsical.  I feel like some parents go overboard with “themed” nurseries.  Kyle and I like clean, simple lines and I think both of these patterns fit our personalities and they are simple and clean.
 

And then for fitted sheets we want the matching animal {bunny or whale} prints + the big spunky polka dots to contrast against the stripes.  The only difference from the pictures is that the crib skirts show pink and navy – well, they are reversible so we would show the gray and then do the sheets in pink or navy {polka dots}.
 

Best part of Land of Nod – when  you sign up for emails you get an automatic 10% off, which will be nice and we will sign up for emails using multiple email addresses to get the best deals on all the bedding.  Don’t judge me.  I like a good deal. =)
 

We have been looking at cribs too {of course} and want to do dark wood for a boy and white wood for a girl and do a convertible crib that goes from crib to toddler bed to full bed.  That way we *hopefully* won’t have to buy furniture as the kid sprouts and gets older.  Plus we need a matching dresser and glider/rocking chair thing.  So – if anyone has any recommendations, please send them my way.  We have looked at Target and Babies ‘R Us and Buy Buy Baby and Koo Koo Bear Baby but everything is just so expensive. 

Obviously we don’t want to compromise quality for price but we also don’t want to spend as much as we just did on our big kid bedroom furniture!  So seriously, we are taking recommendations.  We want to start setting up the nursery in May so it is 100% done by the middle of June and ready for July.  But the baby room furniture appears to be the one thing we cannot seem to figure out due to price... and I think Kyle and I are just going to have to take a deep breath and just swipe the credit card! Yee Haw.
 

Overall – the nursery is going to be very very simple.  We don’t want a lot on the walls.  We don’t want there to be an overall theme that just clutters the room.  We want simple and relaxing. 
 

Come 20 weeks Land of Nod will be getting some business from the Shanahan’s!  That is when we learn if this Bambino is a boy or a girl! =)