Projects lately

Last night I was going to blog about how the new job was going, but it would have been whiny and depressing so I figured I'd give it another few days before sharing -- with the hope that it would get better. I'm glad I did; today was great. Still, I'm going to wait until the weekend before I pass any sort of judgment on my time so far.

So what have we been up to lately? Preparing for my new job and doing a few things around the house that we've been wanting to do for quite some time now.

First, we succumbed to the Minivan. On Saturday we test drove and bought a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's enormous, and I feel like I'm driving a boat but I've never been more in love. Carina calls it the "family van" and loves riding in it. I can't believe how much storage space we have and did I mention the back row folds backwards into tailgate seats? Yeah, that.

I'M THE COOLEST SOCCER MOM EVER

Before bed, we read the girls a few books. We like to all sit together for story time so we set up a little reading corner in their room. It's nothing fancy, but Carina loves it.

 

Every night Carina picks one story, and then Aurelia picks another. Until she can select her own, I'm her book choosing proxy ;) I was looking for a way to display the books in such a way that Carina could see the pictures and titles on the front, and was so excited to receive a complementary Canvas Bookcase from Personal Creations.  

Our white bookcase with pastel canvas pockets is made of sturdy wood composite. It measures 28"H x 25"L x 12”W and can be embroidered with any name up to 10 characters. Since Carina has so many personalized items already, this one's Aurelia's. It's adorable and only took me about 15 minutes to assemble all by myself. It fits many more books than I thought it would, and Carina loves looking through them all before selecting her bedtime story. When we move someday and the girls each have their own rooms, we plan on getting another for Carina.

Now that the girls share a room we're realizing that there isn't nearly enough space for their clothes. And due to my slight (okay, not slight) addiction to buying them clothes, we've got overflowing drawers. So I hung up a canvas shelving unit in their closet for all of their pants, skirts, and shorts (come on, Summer!) and a shoe organizer for all of their tiny little soles.

Ignore the mess around the organized shelves ;)

Both of the girls' shoes fit in one pouch of this adult shoe organizer. Perfect.

Beer. After spilling a great deal of it, Mike {with a little help from me} finally bottled it. We tried the first one tonight and it was GOOD. Like, it actually tastes like beer; I'm a bit surprised to be honest. We plan on heading over to the home brew store in town and buying a few more kits. We'd love to brew on a larger scale once we have our own home.

Oh, and lots of Spring cleaning. We have too many baby clothes. My closet is full of tops that no matter how badly I will them to fit me again, they just won't. That's what 2 babies will do to you, I guess. Although I'm not sure that flowery halters are a good look for anyone anymore. And Mike has T-shirts from 1997 that NEED to be thrown out. You hear me, Mike? TRASH. Or donate. Although I'm not sure anyone would want your Middle School musical T-shirts with holey pits. Sorry, babe.

P.S. I've rounded up a bunch of cloth diapers that aren't our favorites, so if anyone is looking for some gently used ones (mostly Fuzzibunz, but a few others, too) shoot me an e-mail.

Just put the last few twigs in the nest

Not even a week before Aurelia will sleep in it for the first time, we have finally finished our shared nursery (or as Mike just adorably referred to it as the nest). It was a bit of a project fitting both cribs and everything else in such a small room, but we managed {for now}. Hopefully when we move in a year or so, the girls will each have their own space.

Carina was so excited as I took these pictures. She ran around the room to "show" me everything.

As you might notice, we didn't change much. Carina's nursery contained most of the same before. What's new? We finally got their mobiles hung up, put a few things on the walls, and decluttered. Oh, and the second crib, of course.

Mobile - custom made by Aprilderek

Aurelia's mobile

Amanda

Amanda from Aprilderek contacted me about making a mobile for baby Aurelia months before she was even born. (Fun fact: Amanda was due with a baby girl at the end of September, too!) The owl, bird, and flower mobile fits our green nursery colors and woodland theme perfectly. Each felt critter, flower, the tree branch base (my favorite!), and the letters of Aurelia's name on circles all the way around the mobile are intricately and beautifully crafted. I love how each bird and owl is unique and are decorated on both sides.

A little about Amanda:

I am a 26 year old stay at home mom to one darling baby girl. I simply love crafting! A couple of years ago I discovered Etsy.com, a site where everything is either handmade or vintage, and I knew immediately that I wanted to sell on this site! I began brainstorming. I wanted my designs to be cute, yet modern. After some prototypes, I came up with several baby mobile designs. I was hooked and still am :-)

We put Aurelia in her crib for a few minutes today to let her become acquainted with it. Upon setting her down, she stared right at the mobile and cooed. I think it's safe to say she likes it. Carina pointed at it and said, "that's amazing!" too. Thanks so much for making such an adorable mobile, Amanda :)

Well there you have it...the nest is finished and hopefully {fingers crossed} Aurelia will sleep in it happily come Friday night. I am so eager -- and nervous -- to see how they manage sleeping together in the same room. If your kids share a room, how does it go?

Our Holiday Traditions & Decorations!

Growing up my family had just a few holiday traditions. In early December we would choose a tree together, put on Christmas music {including the best ever Chipmunks' holiday album on vinyl}, and decorate. My sisters and I would carefully arrange the nativity and line up the Christmas Carolers that represented ourselves on the mantle.

In later years, my Mom and I created a Christmas garland that we adorned with lights, bows, sparkly pine cones, and little present bundles. We painstakingly set up this garland along the railing of the stairs in our 2 story foyer. She always wanted me, in particular, to help her, and would even wait until I traveled home from college in mid-December to put it up.

We would head to Mass on Christmas Eve, and start a fire and put on Christmas music as soon as we returned home. That night before bed, my parents, sisters, and I would give each other the gifts we had picked out for one another. I loved getting a few presents on Christmas Eve.

Mike and I are just now starting to decide which of each of our families' traditions we will keep going, and what traditions we would like to start anew, for our growing family. We will buy a special ornament for each of the girls every year, and I'd also like to get a family ornament yearly as well. Other than that? Not sure. I'd like to try to think of something creative in the coming weeks. That's a challenge for myself...hold me to it?

Here are this year's decorations:

Our little tree and stockings

Top: A garland and lights adorning the archway between our living room and dining room
Bottom: Lights around each of the windows in our living room

Left: My favorite penguin (Carina steals it often)
Right: We're sticking the Christmas cards we receive on the other side of the archway

What are your holiday traditions?


<center> <a href="http://www.growingupgeeky.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x324/mchupie/Growing_up_Geeky/tatbutton150.png" /></a></center>
This week's Toddle Along Tuesday co-host is Kari from The Heart of a Homemaker and topic is Holiday Traditions! Talk about what you do for the holidays, show off photos of your decorations or the kids meeting Santa, whatever :) There are no rules here, except that you link up a relevant post (old or new) rather than your whole blog.


Next week's topic is Year in Review. This will be the last TAT of the year...so summarize! What big things happened in your family this year? Share some of your favorite photos!

A peek into our dining room! err...sort of...

This week I'm "showing off" our dining room, as part of our home tour.

I of course use the term showing off loosely, as there isn't much to show. Our dining room currently houses our kitchen table, media stands, and tons of Carina's toys. It's open to our living room, so we just let her commandeer the majority part of it as her playroom. Most days? There are toys strewn about the floor and it is much more playroom than dining room ;)

Looking in from the living room

Toys & windows

Play corner #1

Play corner #2

My favorite part of the dining room: our built-in china and stemware cabinet

Villanova tapestry - any fellow alums out there?

For now, in our small apartment, the dining room is really the most centrally located place. It opens up into the living room, kitchen, and even Carina's nursery. As a result it ends up being the dumping ground for mail, toys...just about anything and everything. I can't wait to have a house someday so we can have a real formal dining room ;)

A peek into our kitchen(s)!

Our home tour continues with our kitchen(s)! It's a strange, 2-part kitchen; most of the kitchens in the New Haven area are like this. When we toured apartments here I was so confused. 9 of the 10 places we saw had a small kitchen with only an oven and refrigerator, and then a separate galley area that included the sink, dishwasher, and cabinets. I had never seen anything like this before!

It has taken some getting used to, but I'm beginning to like it. Here's the galley:

My only gripe? The tile counter tops. Who ever thought that tile on a counter is a good idea? Food, coffee grounds, sugar, you name it - it gets stuck in the grout. It is a nightmare to clean.

Herb-garden-in-progress in the window

And the kitchen:

Psst...those definitely aren't unpacked boxes underneath the table there. 6 months after our move. No, definitely not... ;)

Does anyone else have (or has even seen) a two part kitchen like this before? I'm wondering if it's only right around here or if any other areas have them as well.

I'll be linking up with Kelly's Korner tomorrow, but I posted today because we'll actually be on vacation! It's beach time on Cape Cod and I CAN'T WAIT. I've got a great group of guest posters who will be taking over while I'm gone, and I'll try to pop in a few times myself, as well. Oh, and pregnant Mommas? Awesome giveaway coming on Sunday. Stay tuned. Not pregnant? Don't miss out on the super cute BabyLegs giveaway going on right now. Happy almost-weekend!

A peek into our living room!

Back when we first moved to Connecticut in December, I promised I would post pictures of our new apartment, which is the 1st floor of an 100+ year old home. I guess I got a bit sidetracked, because I just realized it never happened! When I saw that Kelly at Kelly's Korner is beginning a series where everyone shows off the rooms in their house, I figured it would be the perfect time to hide all the ridiculous baby mess get my act together and take some photos.

So to start - here's our living room!

There are hardwood floors, dark wood window frames, and wood trim all around, including the door to the foyer. This is the first place in which I've lived during my adult life that has hardwood floors everywhere. I'm trying to get used to how often I have to vacuum to keep it clean ;)

Please ignore the mess out in the foyer. It's currently our dumping ground for anything and everything that we still haven't unpacked or found a permanent home for yet. You can see Carina's old bouncer peeking into the picture, on the right. Currently it's serving as a container for all of her musical toys. In a few months I'm sure we'll need it again for the new baby!

Yep, that's a seahorse statue on the end table on the left, behind one of our engagement photos. On the other end table is the trusty old computer; that's where it usually resides. We should probably get a desk or something. And? I should really get a replacement keyboard since it's been almost 10 months since Carina spilled coffee on my computer and rendered the keyboard useless...

Love our stained glass window. Almost every house on our old New England street has one in the exact same place. Ours is flanked by two photos: one from when we were first dating, and one from our wedding. We had our wedding guests sign the mats at our wedding reception.

Peek-a-boo! Lots of toys under the coffee table. These are usually strewn about the floor, rather than lined up neatly ;)

More rooms to come later in the month! Crap, that means I should probably clean them, doesn't it?

Toddle Along Tuesday - Carina's Nursery

Carina's current nursery is actually the 3rd room that she has slept in during her short life so far. First she stayed with us in the loft of our apartment on the West side of Madison (P.S. feel free to laugh at my waddling in that video tour). Then our asshole cruel and heartless apartment complex made us move, so Carina had her own bedroom in our next place. Unfortunately, she had to share it with piles and piles of boxes. So when we finally moved to Connecticut in December, we were so excited to set up a proper nursery for her.

It is still not quite done. We have a few things to put up on the walls and hang from the ceiling, but we haven't figured out how to do that without destroying the fragile plaster yet.

Our summer project is going to be stripping the armoire (below) that M has had since he was a kid, and refinishing it to be the same stain as the crib and changing table.

We hope to replace the two diaper-case boxes covered in sheets that we are currently using to store her toys (above, back left) and books (below, bottom center) with an actual toybox and bookcase, but money is a bit tight right now.

After I took all these photos yesterday evening I realized I never got a good shot of the crib! And since Carina is sleeping as I write this, you'll have to settle for the best one I already have.

I am pretty sure we'll end up getting the same crib for baby #2, as well. Eeek, speaking of, we'll have to make room in the nursery for it! It's going to be hard considering the room has three separate doors, AND a closet door. Who needs three doors in a second bedroom? lol...



<center><a href="http://www.growingupgeeky.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x324/mchupie/Growing_up_Geeky/tatbutton150.png" /></a></center>My co-host for Toddle Along Tuesday this week is Libby from ELF: A Family Blog, and this week's topic is Nurseries! Show off your baby's nursery, child's room, or post some nursery ideas or Pinterest inspiration. There are no rules, except that you link up a relevant post rather than your whole blog.




Next week's topic is something you hope your children do or don't inherit from you. Maybe a bad habit, a great feature, or annoying personality trait? Should be fun :)  Would you like to submit a topic idea and/or volunteer to co-host one week? E-mail me!