Kelsey's Work Shower

The gals in my department threw me and baby C a shower on Friday,  March 14th. They put so much thought into it, and everything was just perfect! Both Mom and Sheryl were able to attend, and that really completed the day.

We received so many big items from my thoughtful coworkers. I'm so grateful.

Jerome's Work Shower

Jerome's sweet coworkers threw us a wonderful shower today. We got so many great items for little Cameron! I'm constantly reminded how blessed we are to be surrounded by giving people.

Sheryl and even little Kalyn were able to attend with us today; it was a fun, family affair.

The food was amazing and the decor was precious. They did a bang-up job!

I'm in love with the sports-themed cake. They really know Jerome well.

We received so many wonderful, monogrammed gifts.

Photoshoot

I've been reading up on how to take good pics of infants. Boy, it's harder than it looks! I'm thankful for a brand new niece who was very cooperative and who'd let me get all up in her business for an hour or so about a week ago.

She was wide awake in most of these shots, but I love that you can see her eyes. Just wanted to share a few of the newborn cutiepie. Welcome to the world, baby Kiley!

Baby Bedding

Asking me to narrow down my favorite prints and patterns is like asking my sister to choose between chocolate chip cookies and puppy chow: It's going to be a long, painful decision and the lost object will be mourned.

That's what it's been like to try to decide on bedding for Cameron's room. I can easily rule out the designs I dislike, but don't ask me to choose a favorite from the cute ones, for Pete's sake!

How cute are these options from Target? Both contain a blanket, crib skirt (chevron and criss-cross patterns) and a crib sheet. They both incorporate colors I love, too. I think I'll just wait and see which complements the new paint color and furniture in his room, once those are in place later this week.

To make matters worse (or even better, actually), my sweet mother-in-law has offered to sew a crib skirt and curtain for Cameron like she's done with my two nieces. Now, how do I even begin to choose fabrics I like out of the billions of fantastic options at the fabric store? Perhaps I'll go that route with Baby #2, but I may employ the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple, Stupid) here and roll with one of these two adorable options.

All joking aside, I'm extremely thankful to "worry" about fun decisions like this when I know there are others out there dealing with more serious issues with their children. God has blessed us with a healthy kid and my appointments have gone so well. I am truly thankful.

Don't Eat Yellow Snow

I snapped a few pics of the pups in the snow during my lunch break one day last week. Enjoy!

Cameron's Cabinet: Volume I

I bought this diamond in the rough at an antique store in Fayetteville for just under $50 with some convincing from my family (thanks Mom, Uncle Mike and Aunt Cindy).  It wasn't in terrible shape but could definitely use some TLC.

Purpose: Changing table for the baby's room
Cost: About $50 with tax + about $16 for materials
Result: To be determined, but I'm extremely pleased with the progress!

To the left are shelves that I removed

Now, I've DIY'd a few projects before but this one proved to be a little hairy. We sought help from Dale for construction advice and Andrew and Heather for furniture refinishing advice. We put our heads together and came up with an overhaul plan: Add legs to raise it up for the 5'11" and 6'3" parents, fill in the gaps with wood glue and use Annie Sloan chalk paint to make the design rustic looking.

Like many DIY tasks, step one - adding legs - proved to be more difficult than we'd anticipated. Props to Dale and Jerome who visited Lowe's twice to get the right tools for the job. I appreciate them working in the 60-degree weather and in the 25-degree weather two weeks later to complete the cabinet. I wasn't involved in this part of the process, but I know they went through several pieces of broken wood over several hours to attach the legs to this little booger. Oh, and some type of saw was involved.

Andrew and Heather provided some great construction help, too. After all, they've built furniture for heaven's sake! The most helpful advice they gave me, however, was to rub a tiny amount of Vaseline on the edges of the piece so the paint sands down easier when it's time to distress it. Let me tell you - it worked like a charm.

Here are those doggone legs. Oh the trouble my family went through just to attach these creatures!

This was taken after I applied two coats of Annie Sloan's Old White chalk paint. Love the texture and how it really looks rustic, even before chipping away and distressing the paint.

Now for the fun part: Sanding and sealing with wax. I enjoy the sanding step because that's when the piece starts to take on a life of its own. You can sand it according to your preference. I sanded this one down quite a bit today and went a little overboard with the edges on purpose to really rough it up. I took some keys to the top of it and had a hayday beating it up a little, too.

I'm very pleased with the look so far and can't wait to finish it up. Next step: Attaching the doors and finding some cute but boyish knobs to dress it up a little.

Finally, I need to figure out what to do with the tricky inside panels. Paint? Wallpaper? Mod podge? I'm open to ideas here, so hit me up!

Slowly But Surely

Winter weather in our area has brought many things to a screeching halt lately: schools, traffic, trash service, weeknight plans and maybe even grocery shopping for some of us who don't feel like fighting crowds for milk and bread. But I'm thankful to report that we may be at the end of it (well, after one more bout with 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow). We've had snow on the ground for about a week now, and it's simply killing me. I'm not cut out for this white stuff!

In spite of the gloomy weather, things are really picking up around our house as we prepare for Cameron's arrival. Our handyman is coming this week to paint his room and do some other work around the house. After his room is painted, I'll really be able to kick it into high gear when it comes to putting the nursery together and getting it decorated. Only 11 weeks left!

26 weeks (just before the snowpocalypse)

27 weeks (mid-snowpocalypse)