The Nest & the Rest: 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

2011 brought us Jack

My brother got married!

Busy working at TJ's house

Went through my first earthquake - without a scratch!

Gave up coffee and wine for 9 months.
Glad to have it back...
but it was worth it!

Spent some time in sunny Florida

Monday, November 7, 2011

Crockpotastic

So it's that time of year...when you crave comfort food, warm and filling on a crisp autumn day. What's better than throwing ingredients in a crockpot and coming home to the smell of delicious dinner that's been cooking the day away? I love having dinner ready for me. That's why I started following the blog crockpot365.blogspot.com.

Stephanie O'Dea details crockpot recipes - the good the bad, and the tasty.

We tried out the Lemon & Herb Roasted Chicken. It was good, although I would recommend not cooking it too long (mine was falling off the bone good, but some of it was dry).

Recipe here.

We had leftover chicken - and so I made cheesy chicken broccoli casserole - yum.

This was delicious. Recipe here.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Pinterest Project - Fall Wreath

At first I had no idea what people were talking about. Pinterest. It sounded, well, interesting. And then you have to apply for a log in...how exclusive?! Not really, but it got my attention.

After I signed up for my account, I got busy pinning. I've pinned craft projects, organization techniques, fashion ideas and epicurean delights.Pinterest is the visual crafty person's virtual project board. I like how I can go back and see what I pinned, but also see what others repin.

This project is inspired by a Pinterest pin.

I purchased a wreath frame, yarn and felt in fall colors. I used Styrofoam glue and wrapped the yarn around over the glue.

Making the felt flowers was the fun part. I looked at different websites to learn how to do it. This blog has a good flower tutorial.

How to make these little roses: Cut a circle, then make uneven edges. Pick a point at the edge of the circle and cut it into a strip. (Leaving the little circle at the end.) Start at the other end and start rolling the fabric to make a rose. Hot glue the flower down onto the circle at the end.

I made the gold flower based off of the flower on this blog.

Then I hot glued the flowers onto the wreath. Tada! My first Pinterest project.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Nursery - Explorer Jack

Jack playing in his nursery

I had planned to post this a long time ago, but life took over! Since we rent our home, I did not want to go too wild with decorating Jack's nursery. I considered a superhero theme, because his dad is a huge fan of Batman, but decided it would be more fun to wait on that one until he's able to enjoy it. Really the nursery is for the mom...right?

Blank Slate

The empty room - soon to be the nursery

So I started with a blank slate - light beige/yellow walls in a teeny-tiny room, where we stored our wrapping paper.

"Online" From
Sherwin Williams

The first thing I did was select a color for the room. We were pretty sure that Jack was a boy when I was pregnant, but I wanted a color that would work either way just in case. I also wanted to use a version of gray.

Sherwin Williams has dozens of grays to sort through, but I really liked the "online" and "cyberspace" colors. My husband thinks the names are obnoxious, but the color “online” has a light blue hue to it that is subtle and nice.

Selecting a Theme

Next it was time to make a decision on a theme. I decided to go with "explorer," because we like to travel, hike and explore. (Certainly Jack will too!).

I purchased a wall decal of a map from this etsy shop "Is handmade Creations."

I chose white, because I thought it would compliment the wall color. She has tons of colors to choose from!

The white goes well with the gray color

Choosing a Crib

When choosing a crib, I wanted something affordable and safe. I also wanted something that looked nice. This crib was a great decision! It looks expensive. We got the espresso color. We actually purchased this Storkcraft Tuscany 4-in-1 Stages Crib – Espresso from Babies-R-Us when it was on sale and used gift cards to pay for the rest, so it turned out to be a great deal for us. It also turns into a toddler bed and eventually can be used as a full sized bed. We’ll see how it lasts!

Gliding into Parenthood

My husband was adamant that we needed a glider, not a rocker. I was not impressed with the price--many of the gliders out there are more expensive than our crib. I liked the Stork Craft Hoop Glider and Ottoman, Espresso/Beige on Babies-R-Us, but then found it for almost $60 cheaper on Amazon.com (not to mention free shipping with AmazonMom!)

The Inexpensive Accessories

I didn’t want to purchase a dresser yet so we used this white cube shelf from target that we had in our entryway. I just purchased some red and blue cubbies to hold Jack’s clothes and put his books on the bottom shelf, so he’ll be able to look through them when he’s mobile.

I found the changing table on craigslist for $40. Ironically, it’s my son’s favorite place in the whole world!

The small side table was from a fun furniture/craft sale . It was an antique that was repainted and distressed. (Another $40 purchase).

I purchased the baskets from Michaels at a two-for-one sale. And the frames were all 50% off. I then printed black and white photos of our family hiking. Continuing explorer theme, I framed map and postcard scrapbook paper.

The painting above the changing table is one I did a while ago, but we framed it.

The shelf is from Lowes. The small planes are from Michaels. My husband put them together and hung them over the map with fishing wire and wall clips.

The "Jack" letters are from Michaels. To hang them up straight, I used a trick I saw online and used lined wrapping paper to lay out the letters how I wanted them on the ground. Then I hung the wrapping paper to position the nails in the right place. Then it was easy to put the letters up with the correct spacing.