Clark’s Room

Had a really great (tiring) weekend in Pittsburgh with Bob’s family.  SO many firsts for Clark, so I’ll give the trip its very own post.  I wanted to post Clark’s nursery before we left but I just got so busy with prepping for the road trip that I didn’t have time.  So tah-dah!

Clarks room is the smallest of the three bedrooms upstairs.  We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl so we went gender-neutral.  Although, now it’s hard to see this as a girl’s room.

The walls are Glidden Spring Green and I forget what the ceiling color is.  I’ll have to look that up.

I made the curtains and the changing pad cover.  After sleeping in a room this weekend with black-out blinds, I think I’m going to have to buy some black-out fabric to sew to the back of the curtains.

My older sister made the bunting flags and the quilt.  I can’t even explain how perfect they are.  Modern, same color scheme, but not too matchy-matchy.  They were just exactly what the room needed.  Plus, I use the quilt to take Clark’s monthly photos.

I DIY-ed the “art” above the crib.  The small frame is actually a card we got from a friend after we told her I was pregnant.  The larger frame is just a piece of fabric (leftover from the Boppy cover that Bob sewed – yes, I said Bob 🙂  LOVE that my hubby can use a sewing machine!) with a free printable centered on it from this site.  (I plan on re-printing it onto card stock just as soon as we get around to buying some.)

The dreamcatcher was a gift from a woman who works for my father-in-law.  She’s half Native American and made it herself.  She also gave us a handmade quilt and information on otters.  Apparently, that’s what Clark is!  Isn’t that so cool?

The mobile was a gift from Bob’s cousins.  They got it from a really cool store in Annapolis.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  So boyish and cool for Clark to look up at as he falls asleep.

I made the crib skirt, but it’s only two-sided, I’m going to post about that soon too.

This chair…I’m SO PROUD of this chair.  Bob and I reupholstered it ourselves!  (Will post about it as well)  I nurse Clark in this chair at night and rock him to sleep in it for naps and bedtime.  It’s comfy and is just very special to me.

The bookshelves are these Ikea spice racks just painted white.  We need one or two more with all the books we’ve been gifted, but I love them!

The stool Bob made in shop class when he was in junior high school.  There’s a few other sentimental things in the room that either he or I made when we were young.  It feels so good to pass those things on to our son (and future kids).

The frames above the dresser are just Ikea frames filled with these really cool printed rice papers that my mom got from Korea.

Blocks from Lad of Nod and a teddy bear Bob got me when we were dating.

We may live in Bird Land, but this baby will be raised a Steelers fan!

I don’t consider the room “finished”.  There’s still some areas I’m sure will get switched up as time goes by, but I love this room!  It’s so bright and cheery and fun!

Eventually I’ll post about:

• How we reupholstered the chair
• How to make the changing pad cover
• How to make the crib skirt (I’m still tweaking it)

More Gardens

After fixing the garden bed by the sidewalk, Bob and I needed to do something to the bed by the house.  This is what that bed looked like before we started digging around:

Yikes!

Hot mess!  Those hosta were placed all wrong and crowding each other.  So we dug up the two we wanted to use in the bed by the sidewalk.

See the one on the left all up in the porch’s grill?  We moved that one out too.

This is what it looks like all rearranged and mulched.

I’m hoping the hosta fills out that empty space.  I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the tulip stems now that the petals have fallen off.  Still have a lot of work to do, but it’s a great start!

Now, here are some photos of the big bed in the back.  In it we have some herbs:

Back: Parsley, Oregano, Rosemary
Front: Basil, Cilantro

We moved the parsley and oregano back next to the rosemary because they are all perennial herbs.  That’s what the bare spot is…we just haven’t laid the mulch yet to fill it.

We also have a big section full of perennials:

We even have a baby tomato plant growing:

But the whole bed looks like this:

We have a ton of work to do in here.  We transplanted some of the plants from the front, but we haven’t put a whole lot of thought into it yet.  Plus, we’d like to eventually do a little patio-laying/hardscaping in front of the deck.  We are still planning that, though.

Baby steps…

Speaking of baby, next up: Clark’s nursery.

Getting Dirty

On Sunday, I wanted Bob to help me rearrange the garden beds in the front of the house.  They didn’t make sense. The plants were all just randomly placed.  So disclaimer: I am a total novice when it comes to gardening.  It’s not really “my thing”.  I like being outside and if I had any clue what I was doing, I would love digging around in the dirt, doing the whole GREEN thing.  I’m hoping that I will gradually learn what I’m doing because I want our curb appeal to be appealing.  Plus, it should be in my blood.  My maternal grandfather was a florist by trade (retired) and my older sister is the bomb dot com at gardening.  She really has a knack for it.  So this is what the bed closest to the sidewalk looked like BEFORE:

Plants thrown in willy-nilly

See the bed in the background right in front of the house?  When we bought the place it came with two dead shrubs to the left of the steps.  We dug those out last spring (and by “we” I mean Bob and Dave, Bob’s cousin) and Bob’s aunt gave me some hosta to bring back from Pittsburgh that I planted HORRIBLY in their place.  I wanted to use two of them in this bed.

So we scooped up the mulch, put it in empty pots we had on hand and dug up all the plants in this bed, except for the tulips.  (I don’t even know the names of any of them, but they are all perennials.  I’m sure I could look them up, but…I don’t care enough.)  I didn’t get a picture of the empty bed because I got distracted by this hottie.

Did you think it was going to be my hubby? He’s hot too, but I didn’t get any pictures.

Then, we dug up the hosta I wanted to use to transplant them here.

I told Bob where I wanted them and he dug the holes and filled ’em in.  We also put a few more tulips in this bed.  This is what the bed looks like now, after we re-mulched.

I just ran outside (in the rain) to get this “almost an after” picture.

So I know it’s not hott stuff yet.  The hosta will fill out a little more and in the mean-time we are going to plant some pretty annuals to the left of them to add some color.  But it looks SO much better, don’t you think?

Next, I’ll post about the bed closest to the house and maybe the ones in the back.  We started our attempt at taming the encroaching english ivy from our neighbor’s house.

My boys were pretty tuckered out after our productive day.

Taken at approximately 9:30pm

The Beginning…

Not really…I probably should have started this when Bob and I got married almost 4 years ago.  Or…when we bought our house a year and a half ago.  Or even a year ago when we found out I was pregnant again (after miscarrying the first time).  I’m even a little late with the whole “new parents” thing as Clark is now 3 months and 4 days old.  Oh well, live and learn.

Here is a picture of our little man after his first bath. So…it was taken in February.  But it makes me laugh, he’s just so cute!