Oh baby!

Meet sweet Baby P! We announced a few weeks ago that this tiny Virginia peanut would be making its way into the world mid-summer, and, as we (and everyone else on the internet) tend to do, we thought we'd try to document the process for our friends and family across the country.

We've been busy visiting doctors to make sure mama and baby are healthy (check!), helping Wally and Cleo adjust (mostly Cleo- that pup has major anxiety issues), and planning the nursery! Here's where we're headed:

We don't want to be too "theme-y," but I couldn't resist the paper maché Zebra from Dwell Studios (found at HomeGoods for half off!) or this sweet mama and baby yellow elephant (yellephant?) print from Ikea that we found long before we were even talking about Baby P.

And in true baby blog fashion, there will be bump pictures- just not this week (not much to show, anyway). I had a stomach bug on Monday and Tuesday, then was a little too excited this morning about going back to work, and I slipped and fell down the stairs on my backside. Baby's fine, but Mama's a little sore :/ Hopefully next week is a bit easier on us.

Anyway, here's the weekly update!

How far along: 7 weeks

Gender: We won't know for awhile, but I think it's a boy, and everyone else thinks girl. As long as the baby's healthy, we're thrilled either way.

Weight gain: This part's been hard on me (I lost 55 pounds this year), because my body IMMEDIATELY changed (I knew I was pregnant before we even took a test; my pants got tight during week 1, and there was one day where I ate really well and worked out, and the next day I gained 7lbs (what?!). My weight's leveled out, but I'm going to focus on toning, walking, and stretching (all doctor approved) to keep me (and Baby P) healthy.

Maternity clothes: Not yet, but I've been choosing dresses and leggings over jeans, and some of my favorite tshirts are a little snug up top now :(

Stretch marks: another way I knew before we "knew." I woke up with two lines on each side of my lower stomach, and that night we took a test. Thanks to Mustela, we're keeping them at bay- that stuff is a miracle worker :)

Belly button in or out: In

Sleep: Like a dang ROCK. And all the time. We got a body pillow because I've been having tailbone and hip pain some nights, and it's definitely helped.

Best moment this week: Seeing sweet Baby P's little heart flicker on the screen yesterday. It's so cool thinking about the fact that we're bringing a human being into the world, filled with potential to make a difference and change lives. Mindblowing.

Worst moment this week: falling down the stairs :/ grateful that we're all okay though

Miss anything: Sushi and coffee. RIP. Although I found out I can have some sushi in moderation as long as it's cooked and not mercury-rich, so that's super exciting.

Movement: none yet!

Cravings: Anything SUPER spicy, potatoes, Italian food, pears, broccoli, and lately, breakfast food.

Aversions: apples, pasta salad/Italian dressing, on some days: ice cream (the texture is weird now... and I used to LOVE it), and recently saltines (they taste greasy for some reason)

Queasy or sick: Not particularly. My morning sickness has been practically non-existent, other than a little nausea at night. Found out my mom had the same thing when she carried me- we've had a lot of similarities :)

Looking forward to: everything! Finding out the gender, putting the crib together- you name it, we're excited.

Hope you guys have s great week!

C+K 

Project Update: Table and Chairs

The whole "blogging while keeping up with a house" thing has been tricky (as you can see). We're still plugging away at things, and on top of it, we've jumped back into wedding planning! Never a dull moment over here :)

With that being said, we have conquered a few projects. Last week, I was bumming around Fabrics Unlimited and found this great pale grey upholstery fabric with a diamond pattern set into it. I thought it'd look great on our breakfast nook chairs, as they were currently stained cream suede- not exactly the kind of fabric you'd take home to meet your mother :) So I picked up two yards and a staple gun, then got to work.

A VERY easy- and fun- update. Staple Guns are the greatest!

They turned out beautifully, which made the little table look even sadder. See, Cade got the set from a friend who saw DIY potential in them but then gave up when she received a new set for her wedding. The table started out with this RED (yes, that's the best way to describe it), cheap stain on it, and it was as far from cute as it could possibly be. But, with a little sanding, the red went away, revealing a great natural wood.

Adios Rojos! It's time for a facelift.

Unfortunately, the table needed a LOT of sanding, so doing it by hand would be a nightmare. That's where my lovely friends at Home Depot came in- they set us up with a great little sander that was born to take on projects like this. After about 20 minutes of sanding, the table was ready for some stain. We picked up MinWax's PolyShades in Mission Oak and slapped on the first coat (after cleaning the dust off with tack cloth... semi-related: I'm pretty sure people sleep in tack cloth bedsheets in Hell. That stuff is awful).

The first coat went on okay. MinWax suggests you do at least two coats, and I wasn't sure what to expect since the poly is mixed in with the stain. After we let it dry for 6 hours, per their suggestion, I took a piece of 000 grade steel wool and rubbed the whole table down to get it ready for another round of tack cloth and stain. The second coat turned out a lot better, but there are still some spots where it's more grainy than glossy, so we're going to have to do a final round of the steel wool/ tack cloth/ stain before it's ready to go. The edges of the table top are a bit tricky to stain- it tends to pool on the bottom of the sides, but I think it's a result of user error in trying to keep a "wet edge." If you have any suggestions on how to avoid that, we'll take them :)

All in all, not a bad project- I'd give it a 4 on the difficulty scale, just because of the stain being a pain in my keister. We'll post a picture when the final coat is on- until then, have a great day!

Oops!

I am the absolute worst at blogging these days, although I have been documenting all of our fun on instagram. The goal is to post once a day this week, so hopefully that'll catch us up. Here are some sneak previews of what's to come:

Some Pig

One of our other finds at Home Goods last night was this adorable flying pig on clearance. He had seen better days, as he was being sold as-is due to a giant crack across his hiney (insert jokes here). But he was adorable and $6, and no one would even see it when he was sitting on our shelf. So we officially adopted Wilbur and brought him home.

After some spackle and a little paint, Wilbur is looking better than ever. I'm so glad we picked him up last night, as he brings a little whimsy into the house :)

Adventures in Spray Painting

When we moved in, the house was surrounded with brass fixtures to the point where it looked like King Midas was the previous owner. It looked outdated, but we quickly found out that replacing all of them would cost us a tiny fortune. Cade replaced the front doorknob as soon as we got the keys, but the rest continued to shine brightly.

As a fan of the Young House Love blog, I've developed a growing interest in updating via spray paint. And since Cade saved the original front door knob, we decided we could use it as a test dummy. I picked up some Oil Rubbed Bronze Rustoleum (to match the front door) and set to work.

Not only was it easy, it also turned out perfectly. We're going to wait 24 hours to make sure it holds before tackling the rest. In the mean time, I also managed to update an old brushed nickle lamp from college. It came in a 4-pack and the whole matchy-matchy thing was a little too much for me. So I gave the lamp a little ORB treatment as well, and ouila! It's a whole new lamp.

The trick to spray painting is light coats- hang back about a foot and run each coat evenly across the surface before adding another. And make sure you get an all-angle spray. It'll make your life much easier. Also, check out the awesome shade Cade found at Home Goods last night! It's perfect for where we're headed with the house.

Quick Tip: Faceplate Face Off

When we were painting my apartment last month, we ran into an issue with the faceplates for light switches and outlets. Even though they should be universal, that didn't seem to be the case when it came time to put them back on, and most ended up looking slightly askew. We're getting ready to paint our kitchen, and I didn't want to run into the same problem, so I came up with an easy solution: number them!

Write a number on the back of your plate (so it won't show when you put it back up) and put a corresponding number on the inside of the switch (that way it will stay hidden, no matter how fancy your switch gets). It's quick, easy, and will relieve the headache of moving plates from outlet to outlet as you try to find a match.

Shut the front door!

After much anticipation, we finally heard back from the HOA about our proposal to paint the door a new color, and guess what? We were approved! What a small but great victory :)

The approval meant we got to visit our good friends at Home Depot for a little paint purchasing last night. We hadn't seen them in a few days, so it was nice to be reunited, but what a trip that was... The woman running the paint counter was almost as pleasant as she was helpful (which was barely- she tried to sell us interior paint, and then spilled the pigment all over the outside of the can, making the wrong color, which she then tried to sell us. She also was very critical of our color and the fact that we bought a house with an HOA... Not pleasant. At least we knew what we were doing to get what we actually needed!). It took a lot for me to not paint the front door last night- it was cool out, it could dry over night, and, oh yeah... I wouldn't be able to see a blessed thing. Plus we had two Expedits (read: bookcases) from Ikea to put together, so I decided to wait until morning.

Then there was a heat wave.
And our door is in direct sunlight.
I.E.: mission impossible.

But we told the HOA we'd do the project immediately, so I went with it. I figured the heat would help cure the paint faster, which would mean less time with the front door wide open. After three coats, the black is finally hidden, but the heat is causing major brush lines, so I'll give it a final coat tonight after it cools off outside. I'm loving the color though- we went with Behr's Nocturne Blue, which is a subtle pop of color on our formerly monochromatic dream house. And it'll go great with our interior color scheme we're working on, but that will come another day ;) For now, here's a peek at the door after 3 coats! The picture doesn't really show you the true color- for some reason my iPhone thinks our door should be bright blue instead of our dark teal, but either color is MUCH better than the scuffed up black door we originally had!