The Little Birds Nest

I'm really proud of what we did with the nursery for Little Bird, and since everyone loves nursery photos, I thought that I would share them here with all of you! I'll do my best to remember where we got everything!

crib; target

  bedding; target/amazon

 lamp; kirklands (no longer for sale on the website)

 paint colors: ballet pink and fairytale pink (both from valspar); 

decal; zulily

warmer on the nightstand; scentsy

[Please disregard the lamps on the floor... they're still there and still homeless. Whoops.]

Amazing artwork inspired by pinterest

but made especially for the little bird by our dear friend EM

who should soon be opening her own Etsy Shop!!

(She makes excellent burp cloths too!)

glider and ottoman; babies 'r us

[which caused us much grief... the glider is/was discontinued AFTER we got the ottoman as a gift. 

Really Babies R Us? Really?]

lamp; ikea (about 5 years ago. I don't think they carry it anymore)

curtains and sheers; ikea

little rug; lenox

yeah... I think I went over all of this already...

changing table/dresser; storkcraft (though we scored it on craigslist!)

lenny the lamb; scentsy

prints; zulily

frames; ikea

shelving; lowes

diaper pail; amazon 

(we cloth diaper and this pail is just the perfect size for one load of laundry in our machine)

diaper pail liner; planetwise (the pink that we have isn't available at the moment)

some other awesome stuff.

bookshelf close up of all of our favorite books!

vases; ikea

custom made shadow box is by our very dear friend SH

who has her own Etsy Shop! 

You can have one of these too at Owl House Designs!

tall dresser; storkcraft

laundry hamper; thirty-one

humidifier; target

polka dot toy bin; babies 'r us

frames; ikea

[They're $2, and we got a trillion of them.]

There is actually an entire wall that I don't have pictures of, with another really cool decal. I would go back and take pictures of it right now, but the Little Bird's room is a disaster mess because I've got some BumGenius all in ones laid out to finish drying... and I haven't picked up since one of the cats had a zoomie overnight and rearranged EVERYTHING. I blame Sookie.

All in all, I love her nursery, and she does too. The best part of her day is when she gets to be naked on her changer. She's all laughs and smiles. This doesn't bode well for her as a teenager, but for now, it's the best part of my day too.

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tuesday 10: what I love about...

A second post today! Seriously? Seriously.

Read on. Prepare for having your mind blown.Just kidding, probably. But you've been warned.
Linking up with one of my favorites, Lena @ Mom2MemphisAndRubyfor her final 10 for 4 whole weeks!*gasp!*
This weeks theme is
What I love about _____.Fill in the blanks! I was always so good at those.
So, I read through everyone's lists that have posted so far, and I'm so torn about what to share! Everyone is sharing why they love their family, boyfriend/husband, etc. Julie at The Funny Thing of it is... made my day with her love note for her cell phone. I actually lol'd. No joke. I almost didn't write a 10, because hers trumped my unwritten 10 in every possible way. 
It's with much consideration that I present you with...
The Top 10 Reasons Why I Love...My Bed.
1. It generally provides me at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night.
2. It is not too hard and not too soft - it really feels like a firm snuggle.
3. It is my very first big girl bed. I mean, not like I've been sleeping in a crib for 29 years. I haven't. But, I haven't had a proper bed before this one. Just a mattress and boxspring on a metal frame. Mine is a real, honest to God, beautiful black wooden sleigh bed. I've been begging B for one since we moved in together, and finally got one when we bought the nest.
4. I can do work while laying in it and my back never hurts.
5. It's accessories are the best. I have a gorgeous light blue and green paisley quilt that I LOVE, and throw blankets coming out of my eyeballs, and two throw pillows (one with roses and one made of burlap with birds on a wire in vintage-y material) that I also love.
6. Memory foam pillow. That's it.
7. It's big enough for my entire family to fit into. That's right. B and I co-sleep with our kids dogs and cats. Conrad always sleeps in my armpit or in the basket of my arm if I sleep on my side. Or with B in his basket. Or under B's butt. Actually Conrad isn't really picky about where he sleeps, as long as it's warm. Lexi generally sleeps along the bottom of the bed, or when she's feeling sassy, on my side of the bed and I have to move her to actually get in my spot. The cats come and go throughout the night. Cessie's favorite spot is somewhere that cuts off my breathing (chest/face/pinching my nostrils shut). Sookie generally stays near my feet... the better for biting them while I sleep. I know this sounds unpleasant, but for me, it's my favorite.
8. I write best in my bed. I swear, the darkness combined with the sheer comfort of the bed itself, is the very best muse I've got.
9. I can look out of my bay window and see the morning sun and super blue sky first thing in the morning. And when I'm not being a total mushroom, that makes me happy.

10. Because I get to wake up and see this...

yup, that's Conrad's foot in a sleeping B's nose. It's the cutest thing that I've ever seen.

B, don't be mad. You look adorable with min pin toes in your nose.

That's it, babes.... Have a great rest of your Tuesday!!!

father's day weekend/tuesday reviewsday

 You guys. This weekend was so jam packed. I literally didn't take a single picture.

That's a lie. I took one. This is it:

Some pretty dismissive graffiti as seen in Park Slope 

oh! And this one:

There is a coffee called Jet Fuel.
I don't think anyone should drink this.

They really have nothing to do with anything that I did this weekend at all.

My mom and dad got into town late on Friday night. We spent most of the weekend eating - which is a favorite thing in this family. Honestly, we just leave food out on the counters at all times and graze like cattle. It's totally different from what I'm used to, because I never really get to eat during the days normally - except for regular meals - because I'm all runrunrungogogo all the time. But it was nice to have the weekend to be a little lazy and spend time with my people.

My dad was definitely in "fix up the nest" mode. He installed some lights over my sink (which I had no idea that I needed until they were there), rigged up a towel bar in the guest bathroom, and hung my new jewelry case (this fancy, wall mounted, mirrored, vintage looking thing that my mom got for me. Totally amazing from Kirklands - where she works! Check it out here.) up with B. I should've taken pictures of these processes, but I was too busy eating Eat N Park Smiley cookies and laying on the couch with my mom and the cats.

Saturday, we went to Lowe's and did laps of the inside of the building until I thought I would drop of starvation (note: eating your weight in Smiley cookies and iced tea doesn't store up calories for a long trip to the hardware store. I know, I was shocked too.) Then we went home, dropped my dad off, and my mom and I went on a little excursion to Manhattan for errands like Target and Marshals. You know, really important stuff.

We were all so done when we got home that we ate chinese take out together at the kitchen table instead of going out to eat for dinner. I then proceeded to pass out on the couch, sleeping on my moms shoulder, while we watched Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes for the second time. I could not be woken up. Eventually I zombie walked back to my bed and passed out on top of the covers. I do not remember any of this. Ben also tells me that I said sleepily, "I need a cookie." before falling face first onto my pillow. Clearly Saturday wasn't my most attractive day, but luckily I was surrounded by people that would like me anyway.

Sunday, we hung around for most of the day. We went to Coney Island (I am SUCH an idiot for not taking pictures), specifically to Nathan's, and ate (some more!). My dad was happy with his hot dog and soft shell crab sandwich. Ben and I ate cheese fries and ice cream.We couldn't find a parking spot, so we ended up just hanging out in an illegal parking spot with the windows down, watching cops not ticket anyone and eating our amazing beach food.

For the finale of our weekend, we went to father's day dinner (I know, you're fully shocked that we still had room to eat more food. I am too. It's a miracle.) at a VERY sweet little Park Slope find called Scalino. It was SO GOOD. SO GOOD. I actually said, "This sauce is made from the tears of angels, it's so good." My mom proceeded to tell the owner what I said, and I couldn't tell if he was rolling his eyes or genuinely tickled by my fancy metaphor. The meal was ridiculous. I would tell you about everything I ate, but I think we tried one of everything on the menu. And, for four of us, the bill was only $150. Seriously. In New York, this is practically a miracle. If you're local, go to Scalino. And take me with you.

A brief word about my dad...
My dad is great. He's smart, fun, and affectionate. He knows SO MUCH stuff about so many things. He's warm, and funny. I've just spent an entire weekend with him, so I'm a little spoiled. Thank you for putting things up for me, showing me how to do things that I never would've thought to do. Thanks for teaching me about baseball stadiums, Sherlock Holmes stories, and how to be real person. I appreciate it more than I ever say. I love you a whole bunch. <3

A brief word about my husband...
You're a great dad. I love you. Thank you for sacrificing your time and working so hard to provide for us. We all love you. Even Sookie. No one emailed me and told me that you were the worst today. ;)

Happy Father's Day guys.

This sort of became an epic post.

The short story is, I wish they could've stayed longer.

...

Also today...

I hit 50 GFC followers. I cannot believe that 50 people care to read what I write. Thank you friends. It means a lot.

I'm participating in this little GFC bloghop sponsored by The life of a not so ordinary wife and a bunch of other fab gals.

I'm also fully planning to do a Tuesday 10 today... just dragging a bit from the wicked weekend.

friday letters

Dear woman on the B train wearing teva sandals with socks, I don't forgive you for elbowing me in the face yesterday in your need to get off the train FIRST. I was sitting there, minding my own business, putting my book in my bag, and half starting to stand, when you stand up from the seat next to me and all of a sudden I'm shocked back into my seat by your bony, wrinkly skinned elbow into my cheekbone and the audible knock of my teeth against one another. G'damn. You didn't apologize. In fact, you looked at me like I inconvenienced you by slowing you down. The very sweet young gay beside me asked if I was okay. I just rolled my (tearing) eyes, and he said that you must've been super mad that you had on sandals with socks while I looked so fabulous. He said it loud enough for you to hear. I hope you did.

Dear Sweet Young Gay, Thank you.

Dear Mom and Dad, Absolutely CANNOT wait to see you this weekend!!! Looong overdue.

Dear Nest, I'm gonna clean you. I'm gonna clean you so hard.

Dear Cessie, What's this new thing with you sleeping on the kitchen table? You leave your hair all over it! This is frustrating. I understand that we're roommates and I have no control over you whatsoever, but can we please discuss the common courtesy that you don't nap where I eat? No? Well, at least we talked about it.

Dear Time, Where do you go? I feel like I never have enough of you.

Dear Weekend, I hope you kick ass. No doubt you will.

My parents are on their way right now, so I'm hoping the weekend will be full of adventuring!
I hope you have some adventures too.

a peek inside.

So, many of you (Yes, I'm looking at you Eva!) have been demanding to see the inside of the joint. I don't think it's ready to post pictures for all of the internet to see (judge), but here are a few little "in progress" moments of projects that we've been working on.

Now, before I post anything, I need you to repeat after me:
I, [state your name], do solemnly swear to not judge the nest by the amount of shit laying around and/or the cat hair on the floor. I acknowledge that when I come to visit, the owlet will have worked hard to make sure it doesn't look like she and B just moved in... because they did... and they're crazy busy. And my nest is messier [I don't care if it's not just SAY IT!], and I think cat hair looks nice against the wood floor. Amen.

On with the show...

So our living room area is painted grey (Manhattan Mist by Behr). We thought that we should have a little brighter accent color to wake up the grey a little bit, so this little inset square became cream (some cream color, also by Behr)

ignore the gross dirt on the grey... we fixed that.

and with a little canvas painting from Papyrus (this isn't the style we have, but it's the only one on the website) and viola! a little accent square!

It's pretty high up there....
looks weird from this angle.

NEXT!
We had two Ikea wall shelves that looked something like this...

Except they have a small bracket for the wall, they don't float. A hold-over from former roommate S, this pretty blue is pretty, but doesn't work for our color scheme. So what's a girl to do? PAINT!

I make home improvements look good!

B can only handle a tiny brush ;)

working working working...

Three coats of the same cream (I really need to look up that paint color) from earlier and VOILA!

Shelves above the TV for photo frames. Just making sure they bear weight.

remember how you said you weren't going to judge?
Stop judging the kissing bears.
THEY CAN HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS.

Last few little projects.

Ben turned this Ikea bookshelf into this fab TV stand...

we're still unpacking... shhhhhh!

And then we needed more space (because we have too much crap) and we used the same expedit line to make a little wall unit here:

It's organized chaos

So, that's all for now.
We're currently working on painting our bedroom. And by we, I mean, I was away all weekend and B painted. Maybe, if I can manage to clean the counters, I'll show you the rest of the joint.

Until then!

xoxo

  

the long-term nest.

So, for all of you that don't know...
B and I bought a condo!
In Brooklyn!

It's pretty hard to take a decent shot of the Brooklyn Bridge
through the windshield.

Crazy, right? I don't think that I envisioned us as homeowners here in the city, where our little three bedroom condo cost more than my parents [very big] house.

I truly have no understanding of how we did this, but I'm really happy that we did. It's a little slice of heaven.

BUT, it wasn't all sunshine and daisies at first. My first few weeks were hard. My commute was longer (about an hour now), meaning I got home later. The neighborhood was foreign, and I had a remarkable difficulty trying to figure out how to go to the grocery store. (There are 100 "groceries" but not a single one had things I needed, like Skippy peanut butter, cereal, and cheese packaged in a way that I understand!) I was used to at least 2 "regular" grocery stores within walking distance, and now, there's one - but it closes before I get home from work - and the rest are FOREVER away. It didn't help that B was happier than ever, because when I'm down and totally overwhelmed, the last thing I want to see is him floating on cloud nine over his 30 second commute! I was sad. I missed Manhattan, and I just wanted to go home to my 20 minute commute with no transfers, normal grocery stores, and accessible peanut butter.

Really, isn't that what we all want?

As with all things with me, I eventually got over myself, stopped feeling so much, and starting seeing the good things. I had a home, that was mine forever. I was paying rent to myself (and paying LESS than while renting) every month instead of flushing a couple thousand dollars down the drain never to be seen again. My critters don't have to answer to a landlord - who would let anyone have two dogs and two cats? - eventhough they're no trouble at all! - and my little family has a place to truly call home until it's time to do it all somewhere else.

Welcome home, G family...
Welcome home.

Over the next few posts, I'll show you all of the projects we're taking on to make this joint into a home.

Until then...