Chapter 2: Creating A Nursery

With the realization that we had very few free weekends open before the nugget arrives, we decided to stay home two weekends ago (yes, I realize I'm behind with my posts). It turned into one of those nothing-special but because of that, so-very special weekends. I just loved the fact that it was just the two of us, running errands and putting items together for our daughter’s nursery.


Friday after work we headed to Ikea. My silly hubby thought we were only going to pick-up the Hemnes dresser and Billy bookcase. Then he remembered who he married and realized I had a few other items I wanted to purchase while we were there. Duh! :o) Extra items included storage containers, napkins, scissors, a trivet, a lamp, a few picture frames and a plant. I know – kinda random. But it was all either for the nursery or the kitchen.


After Ikea we headed to Babies R Us to purchase a shower gift for our friends Nick and Amanda. And right next to Babies R Us is a Half Priced Books and a Michaels. Our stop in Half Priced Books was rather short because they didn’t have a copy of “The Road To Wellville” by T.C. Boyle (the Newcomer’s Club October book selection that I’m not super trilled about reading). Then we had to run into Michaels so I could get scrapbook pages for the baby album I made for Nugget’s first year.


When Saturday morning arrived, I got us started off on the right foot by making some delicious pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and northeast Ohio maple syrup (the best there is)! I’m not sure if it was my yummy pancakes or the Buckeye music I had playing in the background that got us motivated to start putting together the Hemnes dresser.

While furniture assembly is normally a job that Keith completes solo, I decided to help. It was nice to tag team this project and spend time together in the nursery. It made me love the Havana Cream paint color I picked even more!

You can see how we utilized the crib to store the pieces and parts as we worked. This dresser truly is a perfect match to our crib so I'm pumped.

If you ever purchase this dresser, make note that four hands are probably better than two hands. We had to rotate and turn the dresser on several occasions, which I think would be a difficult task for just one person.

As you can see, the dresser is just the right size for a changing table on top. Exactly what we need! And that cute striped liner inside the drawers is yellow - how perfect is that?

And I know I’m going to appreciate the four mini drawers on top – I can have one for hair accessories, one of socks, one for first-aid items and one for diapers stuff...or something like that.

Ta-dah! Here's the finished product! And the cute lamp on top is one of the extra purchases at Ikea.

It took us about 2.5 hours to put the dresser together…just in time to break for lunch and watch the Buckeye’s beat Indiana!

Still a lot more to do with the nursery and I'm 31 weeks pregnant. Yikes! More updates to come so stay tuned!

Chapter 16: Kitchen Renovation

Back with a kitchen renovation update! It’s been a little over a month since our installation was completed and I have to say we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every moment in our new kitchen. If we had a TV in here I really don’t think we’d ever leave the room. Ha ha!

Although, there are a few more things that still need to be done – like replacing trim, painting window frames and pocket doors, finding décor, etc. The plan is to complete this list of "to-do's" by the end of this month. But, I’ve also had to deal with this...

Yes, that’s a sad little light bulb hanging above our beautiful island. Cue the “wa wa wa” sound effect.

For the past month this pathetic light was a daily reminder that the fabulous pedant light I purchased online at Shades of Light was on backorder. Sigh! Being the planner that I am, I ordered the light on August 19 because I figured it would arrive at just about the same time the kitchen installation was wrapping-up. I was disappointed to get an e-mail reply that the light was on backorder until September 10. Slight bummer, but no big deal. However, September 10 came and went and I still had not received my light or even a shipment update. Double sigh! On September 16 I called customer service to check on the status and I was told that my light was still in production, but it was scheduled to be completed the following week. That got a triple sigh out of me because I realized the light would most likely be shipped the week we were at the Outer Banks. So imagine my annoyance when we got back from vacation and I still didn’t have my flippin’ light! This required another call to customer service on October 5. Luckily for me (and the customer service rep who didn’t have to experience the wrath of an emotional pregnant lady), my light had shipped out that very same day. FINALLY!

If the pedant light wasn’t so fabulous I might have cancelled the order altogether, but I hung in there. And it was worth it! The light arrived last Thursday and, of course, it was the first chore I made Keith complete on Thursday evening.

I have to say my hubby is one handy-dandy guy to have around. The installation instructions were not the best, but he figured it out.

I think I'll keep him around for awhile. :o)

Ta-da! I told you it was fabulous!

I just love the design of the pedant. It’s perfect for our kitchen. The soft gray lines pick-up the stainless steel appliances.

Shades of Light named this the “Trellis Linen Drum Shade Pendant,” but I think they should consider renaming it the “Becky Light” because it’s just my kind of style.

Stay tuned because we finally decided on barstools and they are expected to arrive later this week! Double yay!

Chapter 2: Make New Friends

In case you haven’t read my sob story of having no friends in the Pitts, you can read it here. I made my second attempt at finding a friend at the Newcomer’s Club September Book Club meeting. I was again, super nervous upon arrival – especially since I was one of the first to arrive. But I was greeted by one of the gals I met at the Kick-Off Meeting so we quickly started chatting.

The hostess had selected the book “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo.” I read this book in June and couldn’t put it down. I actually ended up reading the second installment “The Girl Who Played with Fire” last week at the beach and thought it was even better than the first. Now I’m trying to figure out how I can find the time to read the final book “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” and start our October book of the month “The Road to Wellville.” And let’s not forget I’m going through my whole “nesting” phase right now and I need to get the house in order before the nugget arrives.

Anyhoo, I had a good time at my first book club meeting and I even learned a few things…

1. Book Club never starts on time so don’t worry about getting to the hostess house right at 7 p.m.
2. Don’t eat dinner before Book Club because the hostess has plenty of yummy munchies!
3. I don’t think I really have to even read the book of the month because we didn’t spend that much time discussing…although I can’t figure out if that was just because this was the first Book Club meeting of the year and there were a lot of new members and introductions of how the club worked.

I was brave and even signed-up to host our July meeting. I figured that would at least give me six months to try and get the hang of this “being a mom” thing. Plus, by then I’ll hopefully have a living room.

I can’t really host an event with a living room like this. Yikes! That means getting a sofa, chairs, rug and wall hangings before July! Keith thought it was very sly of me to volunteer to host. It definitely puts a deadline on a project that’s probably at the top of my list, yet more at the middle or bottom of his list. Ha ha! (I love you babe!)

So like the Kick-Off Meeting, I didn’t necessarily walk away with a new BFF, but I’m making connections with other women in the community and getting out of my hubby’s hair for a few hours in the evening. I’d say that’s a success!

We’re staying in the Pitts this weekend to work on the nursery, the kitchen and few other home improvement “to-do” things. I’ll have updates next week. Stay tuned!

Outer Banks

So I’ve been bad and haven’t written a new blog post in the last couple of weeks. Oops! Two weeks ago, the MIA was just a result of my laziness. Last week I had a good excuse. Keith and I took a week off work and headed to the Outer Banks with our friends Nick and Amanda.


It was somewhat fitting to be on vacation with Nick and Amanda since she is due November 20th and I’m due December 20th. I think the new buzz word for a situation like this is called “babymoon.” It’s that last little getaway where parents-to-be can relax and not have to worry about any munchkins. So a week at the Outer Banks seemed like the perfect fit. We definitely got time to relax…only problem was that it wasn’t in the sun.

The east coast draught decided to come to an end the moment we crossed the bridge.

But not even a stormy weather mixture of wind and rain from Sunday until Friday could damper our enjoyment.

Yes, Amanda and I managed to waddled our way over the sandy dunes even with the nasty wind gusts.

And yes, that is a football in Keith's hand. Not sure this was the indeal setting to play a game of toss, but the boys seemed to enjoy the challenge.

We were finally greeted by the sun on Saturday…our last day. Amanda and I even enjoyed a nice cold brew too (the non-alcoholic version, of course). Aren't we cute? :o)

But don’t be fooled to think that I left home decorating ideas off my mind during this vacation. I decided I needed to take my beloved Outer Banks beaches home with me. I want to be able to share a place that I’ve cherished since I’ve been a little girl with my nugget. Of course, she’ll eventually vacation there too, but until then she’ll find a piece of it in our happy house.

So the few moments in the day when it wasn’t windy and rainy and we could take walks on the beach, I made my hubby help me collect sea shells. I didn’t have any requirements for what sea shells we picked other than the fact that I didn’t want any broken ones. I realize I could have gone with a color scheme and only picked black and white shells. Instead, we just picked the most unique ones we could find. The more different – the better! And I have to say we ended up with a nice variety.

My vision is to put the shells in a glass jar on our mantle in the living room as that’s definitely on the list of projects I want to complete before middle of next year. Stay tuned to find out why the living room is definitely on the list!