Saturday found her feeling a little sluggish, so after some errends and a nice breakfast, we set out to Lowe’s to get some paint to try for the nursery.  T-bone and Tiny E took it easy while I prepped and painted our nest.  After a long day I assembled one of the two matching dressers, and now we have this:

It’s almost there…some shelving and wall decor and we’ll be sitting pretty! I felt it was important to get this stuff out of the way now so Tori could lend a hand. I also wanted to avoid painting and sanding in 90 degree weather. I had hoped for a rainy day yesterday, and got a beautiful one instead…oh well. We used Olympic low-VOC paint (the color is Guacamole), and the dresser(s) are from the Malm series at IKEA.  I never would have guessed that the finishes between our crib, dressers and rocking chair would match so closely, we really lucked out.  We have similar ones in our bedroom (shorter, different finish).  This room has a gigantic widow which dwarfs the furniture in the top photo, but rest assured it all fits nicely.  We’ll use the dressers as a changing table but mounting them securly to the wall and placing a changing pad on top.  

The space ::feels:: awesome.  Welcoming, warm and earthy.  A smudging ceremony will take place before the baby comes to help purify the space.  But I feel really good about how it’s turned out so far.

Yesterday was all about house prep.  Next week is a planned visit to Ikea for furniture (baby and otherwise).  I had planned to work soley on the nursery; patching, priming, painting…but was relegated to the office to de-clutter instead.  I didn’t get into the nursery until it was 2PM and 85 degrees out.  My main issue is the seam on the north wall where it juts up to the ceiling.  Some jackass tried to caulk it years ago and did a horrendous job.  I scraped all the old caulk out, re-seamed and re-caulked it.  At some point this week I need to put a 90 degree angle in the joint, install a dimmer switch and start sanding and priming.   I’m glad we agree on the colors and such, this should be a real straightforward project.  We ended the night with our first dinner outside, just the two of us and capped it all off with a Clintonville canine walk in the (much) cooler evening.  

I really can’t believe how fortunate we’ve been.  Tori has had little discomfort so far outside of some gnarly heartburn (thanks for the Zantac, Dr. Murnane!) and our spirits have been easy going so far.  I can spend a lot of time just staring at her face, imagining life in a few years with Tiny E running around.  We have just about 15 weeks to go before we meet our baby!

Beyond nerdy nursery art, kid’s books and “flash cards” from Tiffany Ard.  This stuff has to make it to our nursery, and into toddlerhood:

This GD poster fits well with the forest theme we have going, don’t you think?:

• Modernnursery.com has some great wall stickers and decor, but crazy overpriced Euro furniture.  We’re a little crunchier than this.
• I like this print from sherriblumdesigns.  It fits well with the forest-y theme we’re going for:
  
• Coochicoos.com does a nice design blog with a baby slant.
• Babygadget.net; another design  blog.  The name is a bit misleading, and I was disappointed that there was no section for infant cell phone plans, we think Tiny E is gonna be a big txtr.
• Coolmompicks.com is more for moms, but there’s some fun stuff there.
• A great thread at treehugger.com about affordable low and no VOC paints for the baby’s room.
• Another higher-end design blog for nurseries and kids rooms, from the people that brought you apartmenttherepy.com: Ohdeedoh
• My friend Alina reminded me that she is the source for hip baby stuff.  How could I have forgot?  Check her out at Olive and Bean Boutique for lots of fun, modern baby gear.
• Another cool print…very 50′s,  but maybe a bit to pastel! I found this at Hello Lucky. Fifty bucks ain’t cheap, but Tori might make me splurge on this one!
  

In the future, I’ll be blogging things as I find them.  There’s just so much cool kids stuff out there now!

For now, though, I’ve moved to my backyard.  Columbus had an early cold snap that prevented me from doing half the stuff I wanted to do before the spring, so I’m getting a late start.  I cut down the old ornamental grasses (we leave them up for the winter, they look so pretty…) and raked the yard of eleventy billion locust pods.  I’ve been burning all my waste, due to the city not renewing it’s contract with Rumpke for yard waste recycling.  While I was out tending the fire, my mind started to list what needs done out there:

• My “flower” beds are not tamed.  They need borders of some kind to keep the mulch and dirt in.
• Numerous holes in my yard from our K9s and other animals.  Best way to fill, anyone?
• A stump of an old bush in the middle of my yard.  It needs to go.  I want to kill it in it’s stupid face.
• While we were in Indiana, I saw a friends sweet compost bin.  He used a 30 gallon plastic drum on a wood frame for easy turning.  Kind of like this.  I want one.
• My fence needs some repair.
• The “wants”: speakers on the deck, power outlet near the deck, some shrubs moved around.

I only have four days, and there’s plenty to do in the house, as well.  Fortunatly, I have three gigantic Phish shows to keep my ears happy.  Wish me luck!