Hooray for Garage Sales!

I went out garage sale-ing this morning to scout out things that we hadn't yet received from baby showers that I knew we needed. I just had to post some of the deals I got because I'm just so excited!! :) At the first one I went to I got a Baby Bjorn for only $20!! That was my best deal of the morning. It's in perfect condition...doesn't even look used at all. I also got one of those shopping cart covers, baby monitor, and various toys. I was super-excited to find that these people were selling those sweet little smock dresses (usually you only see them on babies whose parents have lots of money!) for only $5! So I had to get one (only one, even though I really wanted more!) I was also able to score a Boppy cover for $.50!

The second sale I went to was one that a friend of mine was having so she let me score her baby clothes for 1/2 off. (And she's probably going to read this so, Misty, you're the best!! :) She also had this really awesome travel swing that will work with our car seat. It's going to be really great for traveling. I almost didn't get it, but she talked me into it!

The other sale I went to I ended up at on my way to another sale. This lady had the one thing I knew for sure that we didn't have but needed. I got one of those booster seats that straps to a chair and has its own tray. We're going to use that instead of a high chair because it will take up a lot less room (plus it's a lot cheaper!). And it was only $5. :) I am super-thrilled about my finds...I'm sure I'll be doing a lot more garage sale-ing in the coming months and years! Since I won't have a job, I'll need all the bargains I can find!

The Crib is Ready!!

I had to post the picture now that the crib is completely put together. The bedding I ordered from ebay came in on Saturday, so today I got it washed and went to Target and purchased the crib mattress that I had researched online. I hope you can tell from the picture that the crib skirt is red with white polka dots (the crib sheet is the same). Obviously, the bumper pad is red. I also got to hang up my "Karys" sign that I made months ago. :)The other picture is the result of two baby showers in one weekend. My job today has been going through everything. I've currently got a huge load of baby laundry in the washer right now as we speak. I will post more on those later, but it was a great weekend and I definitely felt very loved. :)

I Feel Huge! :)

I would also hate to keep anyone in the dark about what I'm looking like these days! ;) I saw my sister this weekend (whom I just saw on Memorial Day, which doesn't seem like too long ago) and she said I definitely needed to change my profile picture on myspace and facebook because I'm "way bigger" now. :)

I'm up to about 34 1/2 weeks now (35 weeks on Sunday). I can't believe how close we're getting! This whole experience has been so surreal to me. The idea that we're actually going to have a baby just blows my mind. However, the good news is that so far I've only gained an extra 17 pounds! I would tell you what I weigh now, but then you'd be able to figure out where I started at and we don't need that!! :)

I still feel really good. I wish it were this easy for everyone because I know it's not and that makes me feel sorry for my friends that have bad experiences. I've had a few little contractions every once in awhile but nothing big and definitely not anything to worry about. But most of the time I feel great. :) I washed all of my baby laundry yesterday so all of the clothes that I have that are 0-3 mos. are clean and ready to go as well as towels, washcloths, burp cloths, blankets, and on and on. :) I have two more baby showers this weekend (my last two!) so look forward to posts of those as well!

Nursery, Phase 2

First of all, I realized today that I am obsessed with reading other people's blogs. Not to mention the fact that I find myself disappointed to find out that they haven't posted anything new. And who is the worst about not posting anything new? That would be me!! So to those of you that feel disappointment that I haven't posted anything new in a couple of weeks, my apologies to you. :)

I said that I would post pics of the nursery process. The painting was very successful and took way less time than I thought it would. The first day I painted for a total of about 5 hours and got the insides of the closets and all of the light green walls finished. The second day I did a second coat on all of the light green walls for a total of about 2 1/2 hours. The third day I did the crib wall (with Ryan's help around the ceiling and trim) and that only took a couple of hours (Ryan also had to touch up around the ceiling on the light green walls). The fourth day was Ryan and me doing second coats on the crib wall for maybe 1-1 1/2 hours. Not bad at all! Considering last summer I painted our kitchen/dining room/informal living room (for those that haven't been here, it's one long rectangle) for a solid week and each day was a full day of painting (the first couple of days were literally 12 hours of painting!). So this year's painting was a huge success. :)

Yesterday morning we (when I say "we" I mean "Ryan"!) finally got the crib put together. This is a story in itself. For whatever reason, Ryan and I have horrible luck buying furniture. As in, when we get it home there is always something wrong with it. I swear, I'm not making this up! I could tell you about our furniture-buying adventures, but that's another post in itself! Anyway, we get the crib home and Ryan intends on putting it together that night because he knows how excited I am about seeing it completed. Well, one of the side pieces has this really bad flaw on the top. Upon examining the other pieces, Ryan realizes that one of the legs looks more like it's brown (it's supposed to be black). So back to the store we go the next day to exchange these pieces out. Problem solved. However, the next time Ryan tries putting the crib together he realizes that what he thought was the bottom of the legs was actually the top and two of the legs are really messed up. Back to the store again. Oh well, it's now all finished. However, there is no mattress or bedding yet! I ordered bedding from ebay and it's supposed to be in soon and when it comes in I'll go to Target and get a mattress so I can get all of that put together!

Now to explain the pics I'm posting. I just went around the room and took pictures of everything. Under the window is our guest bed. I bought new bedding for it and turned it so that it would look sort of like a daybed or perhaps even a couch.

To the right of the bed is one of the closets. This is the one that will actually house clothes. As you can see, we moved a dresser into the closet as well.

The other closet is going to be used as a changing area. The bookshelf you see in the closet is going to be our "changing table" (even though it has a car seat on top of it at the moment!). The only thing I have to do is get one of those changing table pads.

To the right of that closet is my really comfortable chair and ottoman (albeit not exactly gorgeous in color, but who cares!) and a trunk we got from my grandma's house that we're going to use as a toy chest. Right now it's not exactly safe for a baby (well, for any child!) but we'll work on that. And the other day I came up with the idea (since the piece is old and well-used in the first place!) that it would be so cool to paint it with chalkboard paint. So I think that might be what I do because it will help it match the decor in the room anyway, and what kid wouldn't love that!

Lastly is the crib. At least you can get an idea for it, even if it isn't all the way made up!

Nursery, Phase 1

I'm finally getting to start on the nursery! I think some people have panicked a little for me when I tell them that the baby's room hasn't even been started. :) But that is no longer the truth. I began painting yesterday and will hopefully be finished either tomorrow or Friday. Then it will be time to start decorating! I'm posting a few pictures to give you an idea of what's going on in the room. Her room has two closets that used to have accordian doors in front of them. But we've taken the doors down and are going to use that space. One side will house a dresser and her clothes and the other side will have a changing table and the supplies for that. And I'm sure there will be toys on both sides! There are two colors I'm using for painting. I picked something that would match the red, black, and white theme without being one of those colors. So the green is supposed to make you think of grass or leaves, since that is what you would find around ladybugs!

The inside of the closets is a darker green called Key Lime and the other walls in the room are a shade lighter than that (although I don't remember what the color is called). The only wall that is unfinished is the wall that the crib is going to be on. It's going to be painted the Key Lime color as well, as an accent color.

I will definitely keep posting pictures of the process, as well as the final outcome!