Archive for the ‘house stuffs’ Category

Adios crib. Hello big girl bed.

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Posted 11 Dec 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, motherhood, paparazzi

Three hours and one effed up shoulder later, we have this.

I have to say, I love it. I got choked up when I started taking apart her crib/toddler bed. When the hubs and I brought the pieces down to the basement, I wondered if we’d ever put it back together again. (I made sure to separate all the screws and bolts and label them accordingly, so I don’t curse the day I ever took it apart. You know, just in case.) And then I started feeling panicky and sweaty so I decided to worry more about getting an Ikea bed assembled and less about procreation and the next five years of my life.

Anyway, Abby loves her new NEW big girl bed.

I’m probably going to cry.

1 Comment
Posted 11 Dec 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, paparazzi, toddler business

Today, we are starting another new chapter in Abby’s life. The REAL big girl bed.

She’s been sleeping in her crib-turned-toddler bed quite well, but with the recent (and successful, might I add) removal of bottles from the bedtime routine, the focus is now majorly on book reading. And she is almost too big to be held in the rocking chair anymore, so we’ve been reading to her in bed. Mostly, I’ve been laying in her effing crib reading to her. (Go ahead and picture that in your mind. Now imagine me trying to get out of her bed without waking her. It’s slapstick comedy at best.)

Anyway, I started moving things around in her room to accommodate said big girl bed. Here’s an in-progress photo shoot:

I’ll update again while in progress. Wish us luck. Ikea can be a bear on Sundays.

 

What to do in my free time…

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Posted 06 Jul 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, LadyCave, RAD, retail therapy

(And by “free time,” of course I’m eluding to the hour I have after Abby goes to bed and when I go to bed every night.)

So, Summer’s nearly half over. Go ahead and punch me in the e-face for saying that. I just did. Regardless, this means a few things:

  • BlogHer is less than a month away and I haven’t ordered business cards yet, procured an outfit fit for SparkleCorn or had my third mental break about how HOLY CRAP IT’S LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE I SEE ALL MY FAVORITE BLOGGY FRIENDS.
  • I haven’t gotten ANYTHING done on the house that I was hoping to. (This includes but is not limited to painting our bedroom & putting up curtains or painting the exterior of the house. Or planting flowers. Or getting rid of that damn dog kennel.)
  • It finally just got nice out. And summer is almost over. (Go ahead and punch me again.)

Anyway, since I clearly have nothing else to do-slash-worry about, I’ve decided to add a few other endeavors to my never-ending to-do list. Two of which I don’t want to talk about yet lest I jinx myself and then they don’t happen because I’m SUPER excited about both of them (stay tuned). HOWEVER, the one I can talk about is this:

I plan on creating a LADYCAVE in my attic space.

No, that was not innuendo. As much as it sounded like it was. Maybe we should just pretend it was innuendo because it’s funnier that way.

Right now we have a full finished atticspace that is currently functioning as a spare bedroom/dumping ground for old baby clothes & gear/dumping ground for my purses, doll collection…

Okay – it’s just a dumping ground with a bed, desk & dressers that is totally not working for me.

I really want to create a space where I can disappear to if I need to write a blog post, or load picture to the laptop from the camera, or just relax for some “alone” time. In 18 years when Abby’s out of the house. Hopefully.

SO. I’ve armed myself with a new subscription to House Beautiful magazine and a new pinboard on Pinterest, titled LadyCave.

I’m super serious about making this happen. Well, as serious as I am about painting our bedroom and getting rid of that dog kennel. BUT I’M FOR SERIOUS. I will make this change happen. I’m sure IKEA will be my muse.

Anyone see anything awesome I need to pin? Let me know.

 

(oh, and a post with pictures from the weekend and one of the new ink to come. PROMISE.)

The Nursery – where is it now?

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Posted 19 Apr 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, baby business, house stuffs, paparazzi, retail therapy

Since I posted a “Nursery” tab at the top of the this blog, I realized how much we’ve added to it since then. The biggest addition being a toddler.

Not that I had another baby, but let’s be honest – this isn’t a nursery anymore. It’s Abby’s room.

I look back at all the initial photos I posted, and they’re so organized and minimal. This is due to two reasons – one being that Abby really WAS a baby, and was not able to do anything in this room but sleep in it. The second is that – and I’ll be honest here – I was trying to impress the folks at Ohdeedoh. And it didn’t work. I still get a lot of traffic from there, but it’s mostly people checking out the paint color on the walls. (It’s Benjamin Moore’s Grey Wisp if you’re curious).

Anyway, this room has changed from my version of baby heaven to Abby’s. There’s more toys, more books, more EVERYTHING because she needs deserves everything.

view from the doorway

detail: pictures opposite dresser

changing table, glider & shelves

detail: hook under shelves

detail from top shelf: personalized crest waiting to be framed

bookshelf, crib, diaper genie (gross), mounds of toys

And a more interesting view of the same picture:

VERY interesting

 

So, that’s a good vision of Abby’s room today-much more lived in, more crap, still more to do, but loved so very much by a little girl and her parents.

(if you have any questions about where we got anything, just let me know and I’ll add it to the bottom of this post!)

(oh, and sorry but not really about the photo quality. the fancy camera’s batteries were dead so I was stuck with ye olde point & shoot. my bad.)

Baby Announcement Crest – Found at a gorgeous Etsy shop called Spread the Love. Melanie was awesome to work with!

The interwebs pull through again.

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Posted 12 Apr 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, I am awesome, other people are awesome, retail therapy

So, remember a few weeks ago I ordered that sassy bamboo dry erase board from CB2? And then it got here and was HUGE and I had to send it back?

Gwen, the designer of said bamboo boards and owner of Three by Three Seattle contacted me to let me know there’s only a billion (exaggeration) different sizes and options of their bamboo dry erase boards. I checked out their site and found THE PERFECT one for us. Gwen was kind enough to provide me with a discount code in exchange for a Facebook “Like” and I proceeded to add to cart.

My perfect little bamboo board came yesterday.

The Bamboo Butler

It came with mounting screws and a little dry erase pen. So, I went to the workbench downstairs, grabbed my drill & level and got to work. And after only one cut to the knuckle (who the hell knows how I managed to do that) it’s up and AWESOME.

 

View from the kitchen sink.

Up close.
Hell yeah I watch Idol.
And you are not invited to the makeout party.

It’s really everything I needed when I ordered the original one, and more. Now we have a place to put our keys that we will A) remember and 2) not have Abby be able to reach them and hide them in her play kitchen. She’s a sneaky one, that Abbers. It’s even got a little slot in the back to put mail or other documents you need to pay attention to. (I’m looking at you, hubs.)

Long story kind of long, I love it. It was super easy to hang and it looks killer.

Gwen is also being kind enough to extend a discount to you guys! Either “Like” Three by Three Seattle on Facebook or shoot me an email and I can whisper the secret code to your email. But, you should probably just “Like” them on Facebook anyway because they have cool, modern looking products that I know I want to keep tabs on…and you should too. You ARE my readers. I assume you have style.

The Fine Print: Gwen and the folks at Three by Three Seattle didn’t pay me or compensate me for this post. I don’t get anything if you get a discount code for yourself, except knowing I made your home that much more awesome.

Loose ends & online shopping hiatus wrap-up

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Posted 30 Mar 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category blog bidnass, house stuffs, retail therapy

I’m still alive! I promise. I’m busier than I can even explain, my mom’s in town to keep an eye on Abbers while the hubs’ parents are on vacation, we have a wedding to attend this weekend, blah blah blah. So yeah. I’m busy.

HOWEVER, loose ends to be tied:

1) My mammogram was without fanfare and also without anything out of the ordinary. So, I’ll have another again at some point. Maybe in 2 years. Although I got some weird rash where my shoulders touched the machine. Minus two points.

B) That kick-ass bamboo dry erase board? It arrived and OH SO PRETTY. And yet, was too large to fit anywhere in my house where it made sense. SADFACE. I put it back in the box and shipped it back to CB2 on Monday. A little piece of my heart broke. Although I learned a lesson: measure once, order once.

and the biggest bullet point:

#) Tomorrow is the end of the month. Which means this is the end of my first ever online shopping hiatus, which I failed miserably. When all was said and done, I had ordered that dry erase board, 2 pairs of Toms shoes (one for me and one for Abbers), and a Groupon for auto work, which kind of doesn’t count since we saved money on something we would have purchased anyway, but in the interest of full disclosure – there it is. And I TRIED to buy my Toms at Nordstrom but they didn’t have my size in stock and apparently wouldn’t FOREVER, so I bought them from Nordstrom.com instead.

Grand total spent online: $155
Minus Groupon and dry erase board (since I sent it back): $85

So, I did better this month, but not awesome.

I dare say I will try again next month.

Also, I got an iPhone last week, so I hope to be posting random photos of le bebeh more often since she’s turning into a stranger around these parts. I know you’re all really here for her anyway. Who wouldn’t be?

My therapist made me do it.

3 Comments
Posted 18 Mar 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, I am awesome, marriage, motherhood, other people are awesome, retail therapy, TheRapists

I bought something online.

But it was necessary.

I visited my therapist this week and unloaded on her.  She agreed that the culmination of the past month’s events would be enough to send anyone over the edge, no less someone who’s very familiar with PPD/A.

Sometimes it just takes hearing it from someone else’s mouth to make it all the more easy to deal with.

I can’t control a lot of things, like when Abby gets sick, or when scary stuff happens at work. I CAN try to control other things, like how much sleep I get, or stopping myself from feeling overwhelmed.

So, we devised a plan which I later shared with the hubs about how we as a family can help me, the mama, not go off the deep end. One plan is how we handle our sleep situations when Abby’s sick (like alternating having someone sleep on the couch (and that person gets the uninterrupted sleep) every other night). Another is assigning chores and days to complete them for the house.  I left her office feeling optimistic; still on-edge, but optimistic. Once I finally got enough cojones to talk to the hubs (like I said before, I have communication issues) and we discussed things, I feel better.

Immediately, I knew what I had to do.

I had to buy this:

The bamboo dry erase board by CB2. I had the remnants of the gift card left after making our combined birthday purchase of this duvet. So, after docking the $35 I had left on there, this only cost me about $35 (with shipping).

I know, I broke my month long online shopping hiatus. But I really feel like this will be SO VERY HELPFUL in our kitchen so we’re both reminded of our daily chores. If we know I’m only going to do laundry on certain days of the week, I know it should all be downstairs near the washing machine or it’s not going to get done. And if the hubs sees that it’s Sunday night and he should take care of the recycling & garbage, then I wont’ have to be a nag. Hopefully, it’ll turn our house into a well oiled machine, instead of being on OSHA’s watch list with a manic, chocolate & wine inhaling micro-manager at the helm.

Not to mention this so much prettier than those ugly white dry erase boards. Am I right? Can I get a witness?

In any case, I will not buy anything else this month. And if I don’t, I’m still $165 richer than I was last month.

In other news? SNOW IS MELTING. ABBY IS GETTING BETTER. LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WINTER TUNNEL.

And I think this weekend we’re going to finally replace the point & shoot camera I lost on the way to Mexico earlier this year. (Hence the lack of cute Abbers videos lately.) Get ready to be bombarded by the cute.

I will not make her room a pink nightmare…

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Posted 20 Oct 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category baby business, house stuffs, RAD, retail therapy

…but DAMMIT. I want ALL OF THIS FOR HER.

The new Zinnia collection from Dwell Studio. Is it not presh? I love all of it.

This will be funny someday.

5 Comments
Posted 17 Oct 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, not so much, the cats, The Hubs

Scene: Saturday morning. My basement. Recently refinished with new flooring, and remodeled bathroom.

Players: Myself, and my friend who’s been helping me for the past few weeks with said bathroom.

He hasn’t been over since the floors were finished and I’ve painted the bathroom. Today we are just wrapping things up – putting the toilet back and installing the sink and vanity. Needless to say, I’m SO EXCITED to show him how good it looks.

Me: OMG! Doesn’t it look awesome! Now, come look at the bathroom. It looks so good, doesn’t it?!

Him: Uh…is that supposed to be there? (maybe not what he said because OMG I can’t remember specifics at this point)

Me: What?

He points to the floor behind me, underneath the laundry sink.

I look down, and see this:

Thats not a mouse.

A FUCKING RAT.

IN MY BASEMENT.

RIGHT NEXT TO ME.

Okay, I don’t care that it’s dead WHATHEMUTHEREFFINGHELL is a RAT DOING IN MY HOUSE?! !?

At this point, I’m like, hyperventilating, jumping all over the place and trying to form complete sentences but HOW CAN I WITH A RAT RIGHT THERE. My friend is just laughing and also being slightly grossed out and simply cracking up because I was all “Look at my beautiful basement!” totally oblivious to the dead animal with a 12 inch tail inches from my feet.

Once I gained enough composure to start breathing, I thought long and hard about how we could have gotten an animal THAT SIZE in our house, and how I didn’t notice. Then I remembered the gaping hole in the floor where the toilet usually sits. We had stuffed paper towels in it 3 weeks before so the sewer fumes wouldn’t stink the house up. I looked in the bathroom – paper towel is no longer in the hole. This thing swam through the sewer (vomitvomitbarfGROSS) and somehow ended up in my basement.

Wait. I should pause this story to add the following sad sidenote: We had to put our cat Boo-boo down on Friday. He had come down with the same disease that was our cat Miles’ ultimate demise. He was getting really sick and we just needed to take care of it before it got out of hand. It was super sad, and we were lucky enough that the sister-in-law was able to be with him when he was put down. (I was at work, and the hubs couldn’t bear to do it – he did it with Miles and couldn’t do it again.) We’ll miss you Bubs. :(

It dawned on the hubs and I that more than likely, before Boo went to the scratching post in the sky, that he must have killed this rat. I shit you not when I say this rat was half the size of Boo. Like, no effing joke. And Boo killed it. Even as sick as he was, he was still defending his territory.

I told my dad about what happened. His response? Good luck getting your mother over to your house again.

Sometimes, when I get an idea…

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Posted 30 Sep 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, marriage, motherhood, The Hubs

With all the basement revamp talk happening (I refuse to call it remodeling because we’re only getting new floors and maybe a new coat of paint but yes A NEW BATHROOM (sort of)), I’ve been thinking a lot about our house and how we use it. I’m just so excited to get our basement back and have a space for entertaining and SPORTSSSSS and watching movies complete with our fancy sound system that we haven’t used in over a year {deep breath} that it made me RETHINK the fact that all this should be done with our dear Abbers in mind. As much as the hubs (whose birthday is today – HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD BALLS!) would like to call the basement “The Man Cave” – let’s be real. I’m going to use it just as much. As is our Abbers. So let’s at least make it appropriate for all of us, mmmkay?

The other day I started thinking about a room down there that will still have carpet (since it has a door and thus, no cat pee) and how it has always been “the music room” complete with drums, bass, guitar, bongos blah blah blah I never go in there. I’m happy that the hubs has a room in our house where these things can go (even if when he plays he may as well be sitting right in front of me since it’s like, negative sound proofed), but suddenly I had a vision. A vision of the hubs and I watching a movie or entertaining friends while a football game is on…and Abby having that room as her playroom full of toys and play kitchens and dress-up costumes…and HOLY CRAP THAT IS THE BEST IDEA EVAR. And like in the movies, there was the screech of braking tires in my brain because that will more than likely never happen. Because…where would the precious drums and cymbals and other such equipment that gets used once every 3 months go?

{you sense my sarcasm here, right?}

I don’t want to take that room away from my husband. This is obvious mostly in the fact that I’ve never mentioned this idea to him, because I don’t want him to think I don’t understand how much he LOVES that he can have that room. I’ve run through scenarios where he puts the drums in the laundry room and I get that room for Abby…but the litter boxes are in the laundry room. I couldn’t expect him to play in there. I WOULDN’T. But…but…THAT ROOM. IS PERFECT. FOR A PLAYROOM.

A girl can dream. It’s a good thing for Josh that Abby doesn’t understand much that I’m saying yet and also doesn’t understand the concept of a dedicated playroom, because if I told her my idea? HE WOULD NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT. FROM EITHER OF US.

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