Arden's Nursery

Arden's room is a little narrow, so I wasn't able to really get a picture of the "whole room," but I tried to take pictures of as much of it as I could. The lighting was not good (I just cannot take good pictures indoors), so I tried to edit the photos which sort of makes the colors seem to not match, but I used the exact blue and pink paint on everything so it really does all match, I promise!

I'll start with my favorite. I made this sign out of wood pallets. I just love the verse and pray that it is a constant reminder to her to let herself be defined by God and not by the world's standards. I know as a girl it's tough to compare yourself and not feel as pretty as someone else but I just hope that she finds her identity in the One who created her.

These letters are above her bed. I did the same thing in Avery's room. I bought the unfinished letters at Hobby Lobby, painted them, then hung them with ribbon. 

I searched for nursery bedding for her, but couldn't find any I liked as well as the bedding we used for Avery. I just LOVE it! So maybe that's not the "cool" thing to do, but I reused it. After all, Avery's not using it anymore since she has her big girl bed. It has so many different colors in it, so I just decided to pull out the blue and pink instead of the green and pink that I used for Avery. Full disclosure - I really wanted to get the same bedding for Avery's big girl bed but I figured I should stop myself at some point. It is the Hayley bedding from pottery barn kids. 

I used an old window pane as decor above the dresser. I got the window pane in Canton and painted it blue. I also made the banner to go over it.

Side note - if you are going to paint several items like I did, the best thing to do is go to Sherwin Williams and get a sample. They're cheap and even though I painted a bunch, I've barely used any. I would have had to buy several bottles of craft paint to do the same thing. 

For her trash can, I bought an unfinished wood one at Hobby Lobby and painted it. 

Then of course I had to make a wreath for her! 

Lastly, the curtain. It was my one big splurge. But hey I figured since I made pretty much everything and reused the bedding and crib I could splurge on one thing right?? For Avery we got blackout curtains from pottery barn kids and they were worth every penny. Rustin likes them because of the cost savings from blocking the sun, and I like them because I can make her room SUPER dark for nap time. And let's be honest, nap time is sacred. So anyway I had my heart set on this certain curtain at pbk. It was one of those things I didn't figure we had to have right away so I was going to wait on it. Well when I went to order it, I only saw the white one (and I wanted pink). I talked to an associate and they told me the pink one had been "discontinued and was no longer available online or in stores." I was so mad!! So I scour the internet and find the exact curtain on eBay. It was the only listing for it and I immediately snatched it up. My mom and dad ended up getting that for Arden. I couldn't get the lighting right so the picture's not that great, but here are some of the curtain -

I am really happy with it. It is a very heavy duty curtain, and that window faces east so I needed something to really block the morning sun. Because - can you really put a price on a few extra hours of sleep??

I should also give credit to Rustin. He painted her entire room by himself and did a great job! We used Macadamia by Sherwin Williams.

I hope she likes her room, and we can't wait to bring her home to it!

Herb Garden

I have high hopes of one day "going green." I look enviously at the people who grow most of what they eat and make all their own everything - laundry soap, etc. I always think about it but when it comes down to it, it's just so much easier for me to run and grab whatever I need at the grocery store. Maybe one day when the kiddos are older...

But I would really like to at least have a small garden at some point, but you have to start somewhere so I decided to just do a herb garden in mason jars. Of course I couldn't just use plain mason jars, so I planned to paint them.

All the tutorials I found on Pinterest called for chalk paint. Although I love the whole "chalk paint" thing that's popular right now, I do not like the price. So I found some tutorials on how to make your own chalk paint. The only problem was the "recipes" made a TON so I had to scale it down quite a bit. So I don't know if something got lost in my math or what, but it did NOT turn out well.

Then a friend of mine told me she just used acrylic paint - two coats and sand at the end - so I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out great! I have a chalk paint mason jar I bought in Canton a while back and I can't tell the difference between that one and the acrylic ones I did.

Next I got chalkboard stickers at Hobby Lobby and tied twine around the top. The mason jars are done, but not sure if anything will grow. If nothing else, they make for cute, cheap decor!

"Antiquing" in Wichita Falls

I had to have a "talk" with my mom about not telling me about the cool antique shops downtown :) I had no idea they were down there! I don't like antique stores that sell actual antiques that are super expensive. I like shabby chic/vintage "junk" and there were several stores with exactly that. My favorite was Alley Cat Vintage Mercantile. There was a TON of stuff there! I thought I would have to come back to be able to look at everything since I didn't think Avery could make it that long, but they have three cats that live in the store so she had a blast walking around trying to find them and petting them. I didn't end up getting anything there but plan to make it a regular stop when I'm in town.

We ventured down a few doors to another store. Avery found a stuffed Simba that my mom got her (and has not let out of her sight since), and I found another copy of As You Like It for $1. (I explained why I'm collecting these for Arden in this post.) 

At a different store I found an old Baptist Hymnal for $1 which was exactly what I needed for my project...

I bought this at another store in WF - Aint That Shabby for $10.

I knew it needed something and thought a pennant banner would be perfect. I was going to use just old book pages, but when I found the hymnal, I liked that idea even better. I went through and picked out pages of my favorite hymns to use for the pennants and made the banner.

I still had the rest of the hymnal though so I decided to tear the cover off and make a book stack. I got this idea from a friend from church. She explains the how-to on her blog.

I'm excited about my purchases and am glad I am getting some projects done because I know in about two months I will be out of commission for a while!

The Name #2

For all of you who are reading this in a hurry and don't want the back story, I'll go ahead and spill. The name we decided on is Arden Grace Andrews. 

Now for those of you, like me, who are nosy and want to know more I'll tell you how we came up with the name in probably WAY too much detail. First of all it was so...stinkin'....hard this time. We had the same issues we had with naming Avery, which I wrote about here, along with many others.

First of all, I realized I just like boy names better. There are very few girl names I like. Which I guess is part of the reason I tend to lean toward unisex names (Avery's first and middle are unisex). I also love the idea of last names as first names. Almost all of the boy names I liked were "last names."

So anyway compounded with only liking a few names, Rustin didn't like those same few names, and I didn't like the few names he liked!

Another problem with naming kids is technology. First Facebook - before Facebook I would have no idea what the people I haven't talked to since high school named their kids, but now, because of it, I know what (seemingly) every person I have ever talked to in my life named their kids. So when you're trying to pick a unique name and you know three people who already used it (even if you're not in contact with them) it sort of ruins it. So we have that problem not only with my circle of friends, but also Rustin's.

Then there's google. For example, one of our names was Addison Andrews. Upon googling it, I found a porn star convicted of murder, a penthouse model, and a girl's Facebook profile which listed her job at some strip club.

So to say our choices were limited is an understatement. Oh and we weren't tied to the idea of sticking with an A, but that just happened to be what all the girl names we liked started with. (None of the boy names I liked started with an A, so if she would have been a boy we wouldn't have stuck with it.)

So on to Arden... The first time I heard the name was at church when the pastor used this article in his sermon. I just really liked the name. It was always my front runner.

I like it because it is unique and not too "girly" (like I said, I like unisex names). Apparently it was a popular boy name in the early 1900s. And I wish I could say that I was such a literature buff that I already knew this, but I found it out during research. In Shakespeare's play As You Like It, the setting is the Forest of Arden, which is rumored to be named after his mother - Mary Arden. (See - love last name first names.) It was also a real forest in England. I thought it would be cool to collect vintage copies of the book for her. So far I have one. If any of you garage-salers stumble across it, pick one up for me!

Ok as if I haven't rambled enough, I'll move on to the middle name which was almost as hard as the first name. I really wanted a classic, girly middle name to complement her first name. Rustin wanted it to be one syllable, and neither of us wanted it to start with an A. So in case you haven't looked into it I'll tell you, there's not that many girl names that are just one syllable.

Grace has always been my top pick and was what we were going between for Avery's middle name. Rustin liked it but then started hearing it "everywhere" (two people) and was worried it was too common. After months of trying to figure it out (the same agonizing way we did the first name) we finally landed on Grace. I love its' classic feel (I used to love Grace Kelly) and also, most importantly, the biblical significance of God's amazing grace.

We can't wait to meet you, Arden Grace!

My {Tentative} Birth Plan

So I wasn't really that happy with how things went during Avery's birth. I wrote about some of it on this post but there was some I left out. It was just incredibly uncomfortable laboring at the hospital. They had me hooked up to machines to monitor Avery's heartbeat. Well whenever I would roll over on my side to sleep, right when I would drift off they would come in and wake me up because the machines couldn't pick up her heartbeat. So I didn't sleep at all that night. Plus they wouldn't let me eat anything and then pumped me full of pain meds (because they wouldn't check me to see if I was ready for my epidural, which I clearly was). Needless to say after not eating for almost 24 hours, getting medicine in my system I don't react to well anyway, and then oh yeah - BIRTHING A CHILD - I felt horrible!

Brutal honesty here - before I had her I sort of judged the moms who wanted to go all natural. First of all, all of them who I knew who said they were going to ended up getting an epidural anyway. Plus it seemed like they toted it like some badge of honor, but it's not like my husband goes to the dentist and gets a root canal without anesthesia. It just seemed like they wanted to be able to say they did it and for the life of me, I didn't see how that was worth it.

Ok ok if you're mad at me, this is the part where I eat my words. After having Avery I totally get why someone would want to go natural. So I actually thought about having her at a birthing center. Well that ended quickly when I found out insurance wouldn't cover ANY it. I can't say I'm to the point where I think I can go natural this time (although I pretty much did - not meaning to - the first time) but I am going to do things differently.

First, I plan to labor at home as long as possible. This is of course assuming I don't have to be induced or anything like that this time. Love technology because apparently they have apps that will time your contractions for you, so I'll be able to tell when it's time. Rustin says he doesn't want to be "that guy" delivering a baby on the side of the road, but the hospital is about 4 miles from us, so I'm not too worried.

When I start feeling the contractions I am going to EAT. Now I know it's not a good idea to scarf down a whole pizza, but I'm going to eat something. Probably peaches. If you don't know, that has been my pregnancy craving and I eat them all the time.

Another thing I was incredibly unhappy with at the other hospital (we are delivering at different hospital this time) is I feel like they didn't listen to me. I really wanted to breastfeed. So I didn't want her to have a pacifier or bottle and I wanted to feed her every 2 hours. Well they wanted to take her to the nursery so I could "get some sleep." I was so out of it I said ok but asked them to bring her back in 2 hours. Well I woke up in a panic, looked at the clock and it had been way over 2 hours. I called the nursery and they said "oh yeah she was hungry so we just gave her a bottle." Grrrrrrr. The hospital we are delivering at this time is much more "mom/baby" friendly and prefers the baby to stay in the room.

Aside from the epidural (which let's be honest, is probably still going to happen) I'm going to make it very clear I don't want any pain meds except ibuprofen. I just can't tolerate them. I am also going to have my anti-nausea medicine on hand. Last time I had to wait while trying NOT to throw up for them to call my dr to get the ok to give it to me.

As I write all of this I am reminded of this verse: The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:9
I may have all these plans, but I still know nothing may go as I "want" it to. I may have to be induced again or I may have to have a c-section. Praying against those but know I can't control it. At the end of the day if a healthy baby girl is what I get at the end then it doesn't really matter.