Cupcakes and Commentary » Mini Cupcakes

J’s Nursery: Part III

Cupcakes — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:28:42 +0000

The inspiration for these ideas was mixing “old” with “new”. It’s not necessarily old, but I wanted to incorporate items I borrowed from family with items we had and a few new purchases. I started out with a theme for J’s room, but ended up being more inspired by colors and patterns and went away from being too themed. One of the best ideas I ever got while looking for design ideas for the nursery was from Dear Genevieve where she discussed how there will be plenty of time for all the themed things the kids will want later and it’s nice to start out a bit more adult, because you are the one who really enjoys it at first. So here are some pictures with that idea in mind:

The rocking nook. Something we did not have with A and I said I would definitely have with the next baby. The chair is borrowed from my sister, the ottoman was a 25 dollar find from Marshalls. The ottoman is actually a cream color, I found this fabric (it’s Pottery Barn cotton) at a local shop and my Mom slip covered the ottoman for me. The blanket I made with this guide from Pinterest, and the pillow I made with matching minky dot on one side and the matching fabric to the blanket on the other.

For some reason the shelf looks crooked in the picture, but I assure you it is not in real life! The shelf is borrowed from my parents. The little pink bunny and music boxes were mine from when I was a baby, the drum is from plan toy (I love the sound it makes!), letter J tree, mushroom, owl, baby book, and little wood frame are from Anthropologie, the bird is from Target, and the letter J plaque is from Hobby Lobby. And of course Sophie the Giraffe.

I made these from washcloths purchased on etsy from Little Things Boutique, with a quilting hoop, and ribbon. I am going to get a fancier hook for the top hook, but haven’t done so yet.

The shelf above the crib. I had to be very careful with my choices and to make sure everything was secure because my husband and I debated for a long time about the shelf being above the crib. I am still moving some things around on it, but this is what I have so far.

That’s all for this week! I will post a completed picture of the whole nursery soon!

J’s Nursery: Part I

Cupcakes — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:20:44 +0000

I feel like a bit of a ticking time bomb these days. I remember this happening when I got down to the last few weeks with A, where they kept telling me it could be anytime (which you always think means that day) and then when it isn’t that day, I started to get a bit impatient with the whole process! This time I feel more calm about J’s arrival, I know he’ll arrive at his own pace and time. However, I am less calm about the unknown of A’s arrangements. We have made arrangements, of course, but the whole leaving in the middle of the night, etc. just makes me anxious.

I’m not quite done with J’s nursery, but I am very close (although my husband would probably tell you any decorating project I take on is always on going…I have a bit of Winchester Mystery House complex with decorating). So the next couple of days I wanted to share some of my favorite features of the room with you!

The one for today is his wall canvas. This was actually one of the last completed projects, but I love it and wanted to put it first to show! I had mentioned to my Mom that I had this one wall that had nothing on it and I just wanted a large canvas. I gave her the design idea, the color, and canvas size, and she asked her best friend (referred to at our house as Miss Paula ) to create it. Miss Paula is a wonderful artist and I am so pleased with how it turned out! Here is a collection of the process.

For some reason the wall looks gray in this picture and it is actually green…still working on figuring out my new camera lens and color adjustment! Thanks to Miss Paula and my Mom for creating it! I love it and it is so special!

Baby J Preparations

Cupcakes — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:57:00 +0000

We have been busy getting things prepped around here for Baby J. My parents took the mattresses out of the nursery for us, I am beginning to complete the process of decorating the room, and my husband has been busy getting things out of the attic (trying to muddle through my confusing labeling system…I really don’t know what I was thinking when I labeled half the stuff in the attic), and he has been putting together all the many items that we had forgotten a newborn needs. We have been really lucky to be able to borrow from my family a lot of the big items this time. However, one of the items we purchased was a new swing. Somehow when taking our last swing apart after A, it broke.

After the crazy process of putting the new swing together, I can understand why the old swing broke when we tried to take it apart. I told my husband that we are going to just leave it up forever. HA!

A prepping his drill…he takes putting together baby items VERY seriously.

A helping screw in a piece together. He does amazingly well at this…good hand eye coordination.

Testing out the buttons.

Testing the crawl through capabilities of the swing. Yup. You can crawl through it.

I didn’t take a picture of the finished product, but it looks great! I choose the swing because you can easily remove the seat to use as a bouncer, however, I am a bit bummed that the bouncer does not lay back unless it is in the swing. Which means the bouncer part is not really useful until Baby J gets older. Which means I will be calling my sister to see if we can borrow their bouncer again!

Instagram Picture a Day

Cupcakes — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:32:08 +0000

My picture New Year’s Resolution was to capture a picture a day, especially since our year is going to be filled with exciting new additions and family trips! So if you would like to follow our picture a day adventures such as this:

You can! Just follow us @cupcakesandcommentary on Instagram.

Power Washing the Car

Cupcakes — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:13:05 +0000

Thank goodness for warm days in January! A loved being able to use his new power washer!

Piano Playing

Cupcakes — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:32:02 +0000

A loves the new keyboard! I have to say for the deal that “Santa” got on the keyboard I am really impressed with the sound quality and the amount of different functions it has. I am looking forward to him learning the different keys, and I really like how he can learn to play along with the songs that come with it!

A’s Christmas Party

Cupcakes — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:17:31 +0000

A had his first school Christmas party this past week. He had such a good time! They did a few songs although surprisingly A was less interested in singing and more interested in dancing and enthusiastically performing the hand gestures. He got to have a little snack of cupcakes and showed me the Christmas present he had made for my husband and I.

And we made a craft together!

It was so fun to be with A at school and share his first school Christmas party with him!

A Bit of Homework

Cupcakes — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:35:53 +0000

A visited Granna at her school for a little bit the other day, so I could go to work! He brought me home a picture that he then told me that it was his homework, that he did at school. I hope he works as diligently and is as excited about homework in the future as he is now!

Notice that left hand usage? Between my sister and I all of our boys use their left hands right now to write and eat. We aren’t sure how that is even possible that they could all end up being left handed!

Lights and Santa

Cupcakes — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:02:07 +0000

This is really the first year that A is really excited about Christmas. He was excited last year, but this year the anticipation of the holiday for him has been really fun. Although we are still a few days from Thanksgiving we took A to our local botanical gardens to go on a walking tour of their lights and to see Santa Claus. After Thanksgiving you can only do driving tours through the gardens and we decided this year it would be fun for A to be able to walk through and see the lights up close.

Walking the path. The walk was a bit longer than we anticipated (and bumpy), but it was worth it for A to be able to see the lights up close.

Surprisingly A was most excited to get to see Santa. I say that because the year A was one he screamed and cried when we saw Santa. The year A was two A sat in Santa’s lap but was overall apathetic about it. However, this year A’s first question when we got to the gardens was “where’s Santa?” He sat in Santa’s lap shyly, told him he wanted cake for Christmas, and just about melted with happiness when he received a candy cane from Santa.

Pure joy. I am so glad my husband caught this expression.

Happy Pre-Christmas Festivities!

A Good Hat.

Cupcakes — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:57:00 +0000

On Thursday of last week A woke up with a bit o’ eye drainage. Not a big deal I thought. Then it continued for about four hours, and I thought “great pink eye”. However, combined with his snoring at night and the fact that it didn’t get worse the symptoms for pink eye didn’t add up. I called the doctor and spoke with the advice nurse and ended up with a trip to the doctor scheduled for the next day. So off we went the next day, me figuring it was just a cold and I was being ridiculous for taking him in. Not a cold. A’s pediatrician diagnosed him with yet another bad double ear infection (his second in less than a month). So he had to get an antibiotic shot and a round of antibiotic medicine. We are headed back in two weeks to make sure it clears up, or we could be headed down the road to getting tubes in A’s ears. I am hoping that this second ear infection was simply a fluke.

It still boggles my mind that A’s ear infection was a bad as it was with almost no symptoms (no fever, eating and sleeping decently). With the windy weather of the beginning of the weekend I was glad to have this birthday gift from Aunt A!

Excellent ear cover for those poor ears!