Shut the front door...

I painted both front doors last summer. Yes, I went bold. I think the curb appeal tells others that we don't take ourselves too seriously. Who doesn't love a bright blue door? It reminds me of a sprinkle in a Zaxby's birthday cake milkshake (fingers crossed they have those again this summer).

I also painted the back of the carport door white (it was already white, but it didn't clean very well). The coat of white paint makes wiping dirt and grime (puppy nose prints) easy peasy.

Next up was to paint the back of the front door. It was still a dark almost navy blue. Here's the best picture I could find- ignore the "after" on the picture. (just a warning- it's REALLY hard to take pictures of this door since it lets in so much light. All my pictures turn out super dark. Or my camera forces me to use the flash which is what I did in the last few pictures).

Although there's a trend with painting interior doors black, in a 1,400 square foot ranch this seems like a horrible decision. Maybe if we had 10 foot ceilings...

The blue door never really bothered me. But I figured white would only make this corner feel bigger. So armed with a 2 inch angled brush, a foam roller and some interior semi-gloss white paint (Moonrise by Behr) I went to town.

Here's one coat (I told you the pictures were dark):

and 3-4 coats later we have this:

and 5-6 coats later we had this!

Ta-da! It took me about six 15 minute increments to complete. I used the brush first to get in all the places my roller wouldn't go, then I rolled, then let it dry and I went back to repeat the process again. I did have to take the door off it's hinges to get into the corner. It's funny how your eyes take a while to adjust to something new. Every time I walk by I notice how much larger the corner feels! Yet the blue never bothered me... it's just better now!

Welcome to the world precious Emberly!

She's here! Here's her story- good thing hers isn't 2 years late!

Because of the events of Luke's birth, my doctor decided a repeat planned c-section would be the way to go for any future babies. We set the date a few months ago- May 15th- unless I went into labor early. 

I have to admit that most of the pregnancy I was excited about my planned C. But the night before? I started panicking. Just the idea of surgery, the IV, the pain... everything started coming back to me. Not to mention the "newborn" stage, breastfeeding, counting dirty diapers, dispensing medicine, etc. 

I had 2 pre-op appointments on Monday. I had a final visit with my doctor and then filled out all the paperwork at the hospital. I was curious what pediatrician would be on call, so I popped into OB and found out. 

Tuesday was pretty much a complete day of cleaning, making sure everything was packed (yep, I left packing the hospital bag until the last minute), and tying up loose ends. I had to take a prep shower Tuesday night and rub this nasty smelling bacteria killing stuff all over my belly to prep for the surgery. My parents came up so they would have Luke first thing the next morning. We didn't go to bed until almost midnight (knowing the alarm clock would be going off early the next morning!). 

Wednesday morning came fast. Alarms went off at 4:45am and I had to take a second prep shower. I wanted to "get ready" so I at least felt somewhat human after surgery. I did my hair, and put on makeup (well I wasn't really supposed to wear makeup, but I snuck some foundation). We finished packing (pillows, blankets, towels, cell chargers) and we were off. We actually got out a little later than expected and arrived 5 minutes late to the hospital. I joked that if we couldn't get the 2 of us to our scheduled surgery, how the heck are we ever going to be on time with 2 kids?

We walked in and they got us situated in our room- Room 102 (right next door to the room I was in with Luke). I immediately fell in love with my nurse. I can't say enough good things about the nurses at that hospital. They were just all so wonderful!! 

I warned them that morning sickness had come back in the past couple weeks and since I hadn't eaten anything since the night before I was a little queasy. They wanted to get my IV in and started pretty quickly since I needed a full round of antibiotics before surgery (I was Group B Strep positive this time around as well). They also started some anti-nausea medicine. I wish I could say, "then they put my IV in and was whisked away to surgery"- but it wasn't that easy!

They started in my right arm... and when I say arm- I mean the TOP of my arm. After two failed attempts (the second time was in the side of my arm) and the comment "roley poley vein", I started seeing stars, everyone sounded like they were underwater, and I started throwing up. It was pretty terrible. I'm not a public thrower- upper and it was pretty embarrassing doing that in front of 2 nurses and Josh. They got me a cold rag and brought in a fan. It brought back so many memories of getting the IV with Luke. I've decided that the IVs are worse than the surgery- hands down!

The nurse then moved to my left arm/hand. I honestly don't know why I didn't speak up sooner because I have had multiple lab techs tell me that my veins are better in my left arm. She immediately found the vein ("threaded it"- that term totally gave me the heebie jeebies) and started the IV. Here I am recovering after that horrible process. See all the bandages on my right arm?

After all the hurry up, let's get the IV started, I had about an hour to "relax". They started a bunch of meds and it made me really sleepy. I wanted to fall asleep but I was so excited I just couldn't. I was also super anxious about the spinal block, so my mind was really focused on that. 

I met the anesthesiologist and he was absolutely fantastic. He talked me through the procedures he would be doing and he would be there if I needed anything. He seriously ended up being my favorite!

My doctor came in around 7:30am to say hello and she asked if I had anymore questions. She also said there was another patient who may need an emergency c-section before me- which would bump our c-section back about 2 hours. Although I was bummed, I've been in that other patient's shoes. I just didn't want to have to anticipate surgery for another 2 hours! 

Within 5 minutes of my doctor telling me that, the OR staff was in my room wheeling me away! It was GO TIME! No emergency c-section for the other patient (yay for her!) and ours was still on schedule! YAY! The ride down the hall was surreal. It's like there was NO turning back. Josh was with me until the door of the OR and they asked him to wait in the hall. I wish I would have snapped a picture of him in his "bunny suit". He was adorable. 

The OR was freezing. I had the shakes but everyone was so cheery, talkative, and friendly. It was such a relaxed atmosphere (much different than Luke's c). My anesthesiologist was there again and after they transferred me from my bed to the OR table he started the spinal block. It was a million times better than I thought, but it still freaks me out to have a needle stuck in my back. The nurse let me lean on her and she held my hand the whole time. After the spinal was in, I was thrilled that all the pokes and prods were over! I also requested that they wait to put my catheter in until after the spinal. Why feel THAT when you don't have to??!

My doctor, the pediatrician, and the other doctor all arrived and I knew it was go time! My OB always has a second doctor on hand for repeat c-sections. Because of the risk of uterine rupture, she always wants a second set of eyes overseeing everything. 

The prep took about 30 minutes total. To me it FLEW. I seriously felt like the prep was 5 minutes. Before I knew it they were telling Josh to come in. It was 8:21am.

Josh took the seat next to me and surgery began. They made sure that I couldn't feel anything and the suction machine began. Everything started coming back. One of the worst things I could remember was smelling something burning. I'm sure they were cauterizing something in my belly.

All of a sudden they said "lots of pressure" and then I immediately felt relief. I think she was screaming even before her whole body was out of me. She took her first breath at 8:26am.

My heart was totally wrapped around her little finger the second I heard that sweet cry. I typically don't cry during really important events (like my wedding or the day Luke was born). I've often times thought that was weird that emotions don't strike me at the time of an event. It was TOTALLY different this time. As soon as I heard her the waterworks started. I really think that because the whole day was totally planned out, I was able to relax and truly enjoy her birth. That sounds crazy since it was so hospitalized, but I'd been through it before. Now matter how babies come in to this world, it is a precious experience. 

Her initial APGAR score was a 9 and her second was 10! Talk about a perfect baby. She weighed 7lbs, 9oz just 2 oz shy of her brother. She was also born a week earlier than her brother (she was 5 days early, Luke was 3 days late). I'm fairly certain that she would have surpassed his weight if she had been allowed to make it to her due date!

They brought her to me and I was able to see those squishy warm cheeks. It was a sweet moment.

The next hour I was being stitched up and Josh went with her to recovery. I just closed my eyes and thanked the Lord for such a perfect baby and such a perfect birth. Josh later told me that he was pretty amazed at how messy the surgery was. He couldn't believe how much blood was on the floor. Yikes!

The anesthesiologist stayed by my head the whole time and about 20 minutes into sewing me up I started getting really hot and I felt nauseated. I told him I needed to be sick and he immediately got the vomit bag and waved an alcohol strip over my nose. The doctors both said that the area they were putting back together was very sensitive and it was common to get sick at that stage in the process. It was my worst nightmare to be sick on the OR table. I couldn't feel anything from the waist down and my arms were strapped to the table. All I could move was my head. Also the anesthesiologist added an anti nausea booster to my IV. I also have to throw in- with my epidural with Luke they just upped the medicine for the surgery. With my spinal they gave me a boost of Duramorph which kept me relatively pain free for 24 hours. I still had to have some Toradol for incision pain later in the day, but the Duramorph was wondeerful!

I was actually able to close my eyes for a few minutes while they finished. Again the whole surgery experience was COMPLETELY different than Luke's. With him, I fell asleep on the table, not because of relief but because I was so exhausted from laboring for 23 hours. This time around everyone was talking about just normal every day stuff and it was such a relief for everything to not be super intense.

Around 9:30 I was wheeled back to my room and I was able to hold her. I also nursed within that first hour I was with her (her second hour of life). It was sweet and she is a pretty great eater! They initially told me recovery would take 1-2 hours, but after about 20 minutes I was feeling great (no fever, blood pressure was great, etc) and asked if my parents could come in. They said "absolutely" and they got to meet her!

Around lunch time I started getting hungry, but of course I was on a liquid diet for 24 hours. I started with gatorade, jello, chicken broth, and water. Of course after my first round of Toradol for pain it all came back up. I was just thankful it wasn't when some sweet visitors came to see her (they left about 5 minutes before I got sick).

Big brother Luke got to meet her that afternoon. He was so sweet and we had them exchange presents. Emberly "gave" him a train to go with his train set (the train's name is Luke). Luke gave her a baby doll- her first one. It was a sweet moment that we captured on video.

The rest of the time in the hospital was pretty uneventful. I never got sick again thank goodness. I was up walking around the next morning and was able to shower that evening. Also I was unconnected from everything (IV, catheter, leg cuffs that puffed air, etc) the morning after she was born. It was nice to feel human again and do things for myself!

We left Friday morning. I was actually sad to leave!! Our nurses were some of the best and I really missed all their help! I did feel waaaaaay more prepared to come home this time though. All the bottles, pumping, nursing, etc has come back and I remember it all. But this time I feel like I know what I'm doing and I don't feel like "something's wrong" every time she cries.

Here she is all dolled up and ready to go home!

And before we left the hospital I wanted to snap the after shot! 

Here's a before and after: 5:45am Wednesday and 11:30am Friday. 

 Our new family minus Luke-a-duke.

Office Overhaul part 2

Here's where we left off... a pretty disastrous room.

Having a baby changes everything! We thought we were prepared after we had Luke, but #2 has really made us rethink how our whole house functions.

We decided that regardless of gender, we wanted this baby to have it's own room. We are huge believers in sleep and creating an environment for sleep. Luke slept in our room for 5 weeks (he started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks), and it was the most miserable 4 weeks of our life. None of us slept. I woke up to every little noise, coo, and squeak he made. He woke up every time we rolled over, stepped on a squeaky floor board, or coughed. It was not fun. We knew the whole sharing a room thing wasn't for us.

If this baby was a boy, we planned to get good sleep habits established (2ish years) and then have the boys sleep in the same room. But since this baby is a girl, it's a pretty obvious choice that she will have her own room. 

We have 3 bedrooms, so 2 kids' rooms plus our room totally eliminated Josh's office and my sewing space. Although we were both a little bummed, we both knew turning the office into a nursery was for the best in the long run. We have also decided to stay put here (Josh's new job in July, we refinanced in October, trying to finish paying off a student loan) and work with what we have. Once we had a plan, and figured out what was best for us, it was an easy choice to stay. Sure a 4 bedroom house with a basement sounds like total luxury- but we're just not willing to do that right now. 

Soooo our minds were made up, but now we had to make it happen. Absorbing an entire room into the rest of the house is REALLY hard. Especially since everything already had a place. We had to rethink where e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g went. All our files, our desk x2, 3 filing cabinets, my fabric and all my sewing tools (machine, stabilizer, thread, etc); oh yeah and Josh's closet! Whew. I blogged about the chaos of moving closets. We both had no idea how it would work to share a space- but 4 months in and it is going way smoother than either of us thought possible! We purged, purged, purged and thought about everything we kept. Did we have room, did we love it, and was it still practical? We even rethought the need for a desktop computer. An iPad, iPhones, and a MacBook are wonderful, but when it comes to embroidery software that I use for sewing a Windows PC it had to be. Blah.

As far as the "office" aspect we did a trial run having our computer in the dining room. Here was the set up:

We knew we eventually wanted a hutch type cabinet for all the office supplies. But figuring out if the office was even going to work was #1 on the list. We tried this for a few weeks and quickly realized that it was totally do-able. We just needed to find a hutch to hold the rest of our things! A few quick searches on pinterest and I found the look I was going for:

But with a $400 price tag plus nearly $75 shipping it was totally out of the question. So off to more brainstorming...

With the closet and office situation nearly solved, we moved on to my sewing storage. I pretty much had one bookshelf that held all my fabric and sewing tools (minus my sewing machine which stayed out all the time). 

Since this shelf became our command center everything had to find a new home.

I knew I wanted to keep my fabric stored like how I organized it here (on comic book boards). So I found some locker sized crates (which held the comic book boards perfectly). It took 3 crates to get the job done and store all my fabric. Scraps, stabilizer, and tools are still stored in the clear boxes with blue tops and labeled with what's inside. 

I'm really not sure how we did this, but Josh puttered for an afternoon in our hall closet and made space for all my stuff. I knew that if I stored my sewing things in the attic that I would never use them or my machine again, so I desperately wanted to keep them within reach.

So what did we do about the office?
Some friends of ours were moving one weekend in early November. They had a hutch/office that they were using in their old place and while they tried to fit it in their new house, it wouldn't turn the corner into their office. They knew we were looking for one and asked us if we'd be interested in buying it! $75 later it was ours. Much better than the hefty price tag from Pottery Barn.

Josh is the primary budget person. He crunches the numbers, keeps up with the bills, balances the checkbook, etc. So this space had to be 100% functional for him. The entire right side is his stuff.

I sew, cut vinyl, keep some craft supplies, and coupon here, so I needed space as well. The left side is mine.

Our new to us hutch/office holds some much needed supplies:
a small filing drawer:

The rest of our files are held in the attic in plastic filing bins. We can easily put our hands on whatever we need thanks to our attic organizing system! Also extra office supplies are kept up there in a box (CDs, paper, etc).
My Silhouette:

and our small shredder:

(yes our shred pile is outta control!)

and because of how much the office sticks out from the wall, we had to move our dining room table over which in turn meant that our chandelier had to be re- positioned. That was seriously a pain! (finding a stud, centering it, and having enough electrical wire/chain, oy!).

The bins on top are from the Container Store. I immediately fell in love with the Rugby stripes. At $9.99 a pop they were pricey, but totally worth it! They hold all of our DVDs, which frees up some space in the entertainment center for other things.

I am totally thrilled with this whole project. Of course it gets out of hand on those totally crazy weeks. And it's a constant reminder to pick up after ourselves. It is so nice to know that we freed up an entire room by putting some thought into this space and making it work!

We did end up getting rid of a few pieces of furniture: 3 filing cabinets, 2 desks, and a bookshelf. Actually they're not totally gone- just waiting patiently in the shed for a spring yard sale.

Also I'm happy to say that my sewing machine is perfectly within reach. As you're looking at the new hutch our command center is directly behind. And my sewing machine fits on the bottom shelf. It's nice to not have to lug my machine half way across the house!

And you know what this means?? Now that the room is cleared and baby stuff is moving in it's almost time for a nursery update!! Paint will be going on the walls this weekend... the crib is already up, the closet is full, the dresser is ready, and the rocker is put together! Of course it took me 2.5 years to finish Luke's room- but maybe this one will come together more quickly. I mean we have already been through it once!

New Paint + Curtains

Just a warning- I probably should have split this into 2 posts (paint and curtains). I feel like this post is choppy at the end- but it just makes sense to keep them together because they fit so well in the space together! So here goes!

Something I've wanted to do since the day we moved in is paint our living room, dining room, and hallway walls. The color- a tan/light khaki was ok. But in some lights it seemed to turn pink which is a common issue with "tans". It obviously didn't bother us enough to change it quickly- since it took 4.5 years to do it!

I scanned the blog to find some true to life pictures of the old tan color:

The first picture is more true to life. The second looks washed out from the flash.
Here is the color the day we moved in-

When we redid the master bathroom, I decided to turn to pinterest to find a color. I had NEVER done this before. And I had no idea how it would turn out- but it quickly became my favorite gray tone! It's called Gray Horse by Benjamin Moore. I had it color matched to Martha Stewart paint for the bathroom and for the living room I used Behr. Here it is as I was cutting in with the gray on the tan wall. You can see how the gray is a little darker than the tan. 

Because it was such a success in the bathroom, we decided it would be our whole house color! Over Christmas break my mom came up to help paint, and we got the whole space knocked out in about 4 days. Add that to the 2 or so days it took to do the hallway...

Here are some pictures of the new color in the living room:
The gray against our chunky white frames-

I had to recut the vinyl for the "masterpieces".

It now matches my quatrefoil painting perfectly (since I used leftover bathroom paint!)-

And here it is next to our new "office". I still owe you a post about that!

We also upgraded our curtains on the back door in the dining room... we had already updated our curtains in the living room here. I say updated because we worked with what we had and added a panel to each window to make them more... flow-ey. Our old curtains on the back door were purchased the week (practically) we moved in. If I could do it over again I would highly recommend WAITING until you have figured out what look you are going for before spending $30+ on curtains. It was a mistake I lived with for 4.5 years and I was so ready for a change! The dark red made our whole space feel closed in and they hardly let any light in. Also it blocked the view we so desperately worked to achieve (when we moved in the seal on the back door was broken so the glass was all cloudy- we lived with that for 6 months before changing out the sliding door). This was the only picture I could find of the red curtains. I never took a picture of just them! (This was at Luke's first birthday!)

My only requirement was that the new curtains kept the privacy factor- i.e. not be so see through that they are sheer, and that they let some light in. I also wanted to raise the rod about 5 inches to give the door some height. We reused the old rod that used to hang right at the door moulding. This gives it some much needed height.

The curtains are from IKEA. I went a little crazy... When I went I knew exactly what curtain panels I needed. When I got there I couldn't find them. They are the VIVAN panels. I over heard another couple saying they were looking for the same ones. I found 2 packs seriously misplaced in a different container, so I grabbed both of them. It was an honest mistake because I didn't realize that 2 panels came in one pack (for $9!!!). So (in my selfish grabbing fit) I actually ended up with 4 panels and had to return one pack- since I only needed 2 curtains. I felt a little guilty and I really hope the other couple found some. I just didn't think it was possible to get 2 96-98in long curtain panels for $9!! Here's how they look on the back door-

Also the casing for the rod to slip through was not thick enough for our rod, so I jumped on Amazon and ordered some thick ring clips. Also I did have to hem the curtains. Not sure how much- I hung them, figured out how much I needed to take off and sewed a straight line!

The VIVAN panels are the same ones we used to update our living room curtains.

We also grabbed a rug that I fell in love with at SAMS of all places. At $20 I couldn't resist! It pulls the white from the curtains, blue from the living room and navy/green from the laundry room. I love happy accidents like this!

Back to the paint color- a little before:

and after from the same angle:

This is literally the perfect color for our space! We love it!