A Little Vintage Nursery for Amelia

I finally took some pictures of Amelia's nursery. She's almost 9 months old, so I'm right on track.  I definitely didn't do this while I was pregnant. I was just going to put her crib in the corner of our room and call it day. But, 3 months after she was born nesting finally kicked in, and I just couldn't help myself.  Anyway, good things come to those who procrastinate because I am kind of in love with it.

Details:
Let's see, the crib was new from Target, and I used some of our Amazon textbook trade in credit to order the rocking chair. My mom bought the armoire for $30.00 or so from a neighbor and we painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Coco. Freya spotted the knobs in the clearance bins at Anthropologie-they were marked down to $2.00! 

The changing table is an antique sideboard my mom found at a thrift store and gave to us for our wedding a few years ago, but I swear it has found its true calling now. The drawer is the perfect size for diapers and wipes, and the changing pad fits like it was made for it. Lucky.

The book case was a project I did way back in the day. My mom and I salvaged it from an old building, stripped the many layers of paint, and then sanded for days. We stained it, sealed it and it's lived many lives since then (but none were nearly this cute).

And for the nick nacks, of which there are many. Most I already had, collected from thrift stores and garage sales. I've been buying children's books at thrift stores for quite some time. It definitely felt less creepy once I was actually expecting a child. My baby shower was book themed, and everyone brought a book instead of a card which really beefed up our selection. (Side note: that baby shower was so great. See it here.)

 My sister made the pompoms, and my cousin crotcheted those little hearts. I strung them on some yarn and they make me so happy. The alphabet cards were designed and printed by Freya (for my baby shower). The rug is from Urban Outfitters. The crib bumper was made by Joanna; the fabric is called "Fly a Kite"by Riley Blake. The little frog was a gift from my mom years ago. She makes them out of rocks...they're called rock pals...the seventies were good for her.

Whew- that should cover it! I love her sweet little room. I think she likes it too.

Christmas Night to New Year's Eve 2013

This should probably be broken up into at least 2 separate posts but...ain't nobody got time for that.

After spending the day with Cory's family, we drove over to my parent's house that for Christmas night.

We ate our second delicious dinner of ham, potatoes, and all the fixings (And I totally felt like a hobbit. Second dinner! Elevensies!) and then did our Secret Santa gift exchange. We missed Jackie's little family like crazy, but it was so nice to have almost all of us together. We spent the week afterwards at my parent's house hanging out, and playing with babies.

My Dad's birthday is on Christmas Day (random fact: my sister Jackie was also born on December 25th, totally weird, right?), so one night of vacation we had a little birthday shindig for him. We had fajitas,  and a bonfire. My mom had them set up a projector and screen outside too. She said something about having us square dance at some point, but we ended up just watching funny Youtube videos for an hour or so. I'm pretty sure the neighbors loved hearing us watch Katy Perry's music video for ROAR around 9:30 PM that night.

The boys did a lot of man stuff. Cutting down trees, making bonfires, cooking outdoors, and using power tools. It was all very impressive. 

We celebrated New Year's Eve a few days early with friends. Our outside plans got rained out, but we moved the party inside. S'mores, hot cocoa, party hats, Sam made sushi, pretty much an anything goes kind of vibe. At one point the dog was in a hat, so you could say things got crazy. Even though it was pouring rain outside the boys still managed to get quite a few fireworks off. And, per tradition, the police showed up. When will they learn? 

All in all, we had a pretty good week together. I'm so excited for a sister's week in Texas this April :)

 

Christmas Morning 2013

We spent Christmas morning with Cory's family. Grandpa Allen made eggs, sausage, and the lightest, fluffiest, most deliciously mouth watering waffles. I really like those waffles. I asked him for the recipe once, and about three steps in I got so confused about the whole process. I'll have to make him write it down for me next time. And, if you're lucky I might even post the recipe here. (I can't really make promises like that...I have fallen so far off the blogging wagon...)

Anyway...after breakfast, we opened presents. Amelia went first. I wasn't going to get her anything for Christmas, just because she's so little and doesn't even know what's going on, but we caved and got her some books and a toy. I'm glad I did because, sister knows what's up. She was all. over. it. Ripping that paper, and screeching with delight. It was seriously so cute. And yes, we all did circle around and watch her every move with our complete and undivided attention. That girlie. We might be a tad bit obsessed. 

After a opening her little stack of presents from us, her aunties, her uncle B, and grandma/grandpa, she seemed to be a little overwhelmed. And when everyone else started opening their presents she got a lot overwhelmed. So, she got to take a nap. And that solved that. 

Highlight of the day: We finally finished the Christmas present project we've been chipping away at for the past 4 years! We transferred all of the Allen home videos onto DVDs, with cute little descriptions and volume numbers on the covers. I think we ended up with a total of 28 volumes, transferred over from roughly 45 cassettes. So, that little project took longer than expected, but it was worth every minute. 

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with each other, watching old home videos, and playing with Amelia. A very merry little Christmas day. 

(Now enjoy about a million pictures of Amelia in her Christmas jammies, opening presents, and eating Candy Canes, and just being generally cute...Sorry not sorry...)