Baby Boy Nursery

While the title of this post should read, "The Nursery that Never Got Finished", I'm still giving myself a B+ for effort.

Ever since we moved into our house, I've been so excited to put together our little boy's nursery. I had half an idea of what I wanted to do and was convinced my hunky husband could pull it off. You see, way back in the summer, Brent and I were gifted tickets to the Utah County Parade of Homes. It was there that I fell in deep deep love with a boys bedroom that had a barn wood (aka restored wood) wall. So, I was determined to make it happen in Jense's nursery.

After weeks of searching stores, KSL ads and craigslist posts with no luck, my amazing sister-in-law Janae surprised us with a truckload of barn wood she'd picked up from a friend who was tearing down a barn out in Mona. It was perfect.

One Friday night, Brent did his magic and built me the cutest barnwood wall and barnwood shelf. I hadn't expected it to be this great, but you really can't expect any less from this husband of mine.

The wall is definitely the highlight. I'm obviously still working on adding a few details, but I've realized I get very little done these days. I'm hoping to add some canvas storage bins to put toys and books in on either side of the crib, some cute blocks, and whatnot, but that'll happen when I teach Jensen how to take a binky so we can actually go into a store.

Also, I'm apologizing in advance for the quality of the photos. I've resorted to using my iPhone due to ease and availability.

Painting the nursery. 
We love the light grey/blue we chose. 
I especially love how gender neutral it is. 
I might just freshen up a few other rooms in my house with it. 
Please note, I did help with small portions of this project, although Brent is generally the only one pictured. Geez, I was pregnant people.

Building the barnwood wall. 

One of the reasons I especially love the barnwood, is that it isn't really typical for a nursery, so I'll be able to easily convert it into a child's room, office or guest room when/if the time comes. 

And, we put enough nails in the wall, that its not coming down.

Trust me.

Crib Sheets.

I sewed my own crib sheets, cause the cute patterned ones I wanted were a ridiculous price. 

Who pays $39 for a single baby crib sheet? 

Come on.

Mine ended up costing $3.25 each.

And, I love them. 

I might need to make more because this kid loves to barf.

The project in it's semi-completed state.
I'd still like to print out some prints of Jensen from the hospital and our newborn shoot, but haven't gotten that far. 
I also think I should probably replace the Africa canvas with a Noah's ark silhouette? 
I started out with African animals and then somehow added deer antlers and a baby lamb in the crib. 
Who knows what kind of theme that is. 
Oops.

Patterned Rug.
This guy was a steal for $24 from Walmart.
Do we not all hate how much rugs cost?

These antlers.
Brent let me wrap an old antler rack in hemp.
I like it better than I though I would.
Oh, I might have also had to wrap it twice because I dropped it on my tile floor and broke the antlers in two pieces.
Super glue is a life saver.
Don't tell my husband.

Nursery Wall Art.
Once again, the fabulous sister-in-law.
Janae gave this to me at my baby shower.
Love the matching barnwood.

Dresser Re-Do.
Found this guy at savers for $20 and updated the drawer pulls.

I think in total, our nursery was a steal.

Paint/Supplies - $55
Crib/Mattress - $130
Barnwood Wall - $0 - Best Gift Ever.
Crib Sheets - $10
Rocker - $130
Canvases - $10
Rug - $24
Curtains/Curtain Rod - $32 - TJ Maxx
Porcelain Elephants - $20
Hemp - $5
Random shelf/stuffed animals and whatnot: $10
Giraffe - $0 - Gifted from my parents when I had a jungle room when I was like 12
Pillows -$0 - Repurposed from old pillows with scrap fabric
Turquoise Throw - $17 - TJ Maxx
Dresser - $35

Total Cost - $478

Yes. $478 includes a crib and rocker. Pretty sure I love this cute room that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Hope Jensen likes it when he starts to actually sleep in there. We're working on it.

For Miss Capri

Last week I got to meet up with a bunch of good girl friends from high school and my growing up days. We all got together for Haley (Swenson) Pruitt's baby shower, which was so cute thanks to Lindsey. I loved seeing everyone and wish we would have had longer to catch up. If any of you are reading this, we should all get together for lunch soon!


Anyway, Haley is having a little girl and they are naming her Capri. I am so excited for Haley and hope to look like her when I'm pregnant. Seriously, she is gorgeous and doesn't look pregnant at all. 


In an effort to be more domestic I've been sewing and stitching up a few small projects (ok and using the fabric iron on adhesive that makes sewing = not sewing), and decided to make a few cute onesies for Capri. I also made a few for my friend Whitney Bott's new baby Aleeah, but forgot to take pictures of hers. 


And, while we're at it, a headband to match? Everything baby is so much cuter.


Oh, and can we please ignore that all the onesies are wrinkled at this point. Thanks.

Can someone else have a baby for me to dress? Thanks.

DIY Earrings

I think the only expensive pieces of jewelry I will ever own are my wedding band and engagement ring. Those I never take off. Everything else, mysteriously gets lost.  I honestly have no idea where any of it goes after I take it off. So, I'm really not allowed to buy anything of worth in that department. Thus, lately I've had some fun experimenting with making my own earrings. It makes me happy in three ways:

{Super inexpensive}

{Make to match any outfit}

{Always unique (or as my cute husband would say, "I"m not sure those are normal")} 

I got a bunch of posts and earring backs at Roberts during their going out of business sale, and most of the time I just use fabric or ribbon scraps to make the earring. I've even used wallpaper, scrapbook paper and scrapbook accessories to add to some of the earrings (not pictured). While I'm a bit amateur, I enjoy them all. Its always fun to make something nobody else is wearing. Here are a few of the ones I've made.

Now that Christmas is over...

You know those tubes of cookie dough in the refrigerator section of the grocery store? The ones that literally call your name every time you walk down the aisle to grab a gallon of milk or carton of eggs. Yes. I know you can picture it, now picture me sitting on my couch with that very tube of cookie dough and a fork in hand, happily eating that cookie dough (which didn't cause a mess in my kitchen to add to the beauty of it all) to my hearts content.

And if you can't imagine, my sweet hubby has captured the moment as documented proof for the next time I complain about feeling fat. A good man he is.

Now that I've babbled on about my spontaneous and atrocious eating habits, I'll share a short recap of our 2011 Christmas at the Staheli residence.

We partied.
We got spoiled.
We had a great time.
We got to spend a lot of time with our favorite people, our families.

Here is what the Staheli house looked like over the break... and since we actually celebrated Christmas day at our parents' houses... we don't have any gifts pictured.

Made a cute little tree skirt with some thrifted fabrics (I think they started out as somebody's curtains)

Thanks to Alyse and Bob for the sweet stockings

And somehow the little birds could stay for the winter because lets just all agree that it wasn't cold enough to fly south yet at this point... and I didn't have anything else to put up there.

Used my leftover tree skirt scraps to make a wreath out of this  random deer wreath I also thrifted.

 It was a great Christmas. I loved every second of the time we got to spend together. Maybe next year I'll actually take pictures of people:) I think the only one we took was of the pathetic gingerbread houses we attempted to decorate.

Little Ricky

Since my parents are vacationing in Italy for the next month, Brent and I are experiencing our first attempt at raising a teenager.  This is my sister Ayrika, better known as Ricky. She is a senior, 17 and probably the least rebellious teenager I know.  Thanks for making our job easy:)

Getting asked to my first prom ('05, yellow dress)

Anyway, last weekend was the Homecoming dance so we had fun getting Ricky all dressed up for her date. Due to having two older sisters, she has a plethora of dresses to select from, so she decided to alter my first prom dress to bring it "up to date" (I'm sooo old, I know).  Well it turned out gorgeous as a knee length party dress and she definitely out did me in it. So fun for us to wear the same dress.

 

I smell like campfire.

I love summer and I love outdoors. Since getting married, I've realized my ideal outdoor adventures are rather tame. For example, I like peeing in toilets and not in the wilderness. Brent on the other hand, basks in the opportunity of "roughing it".  Now, obviously it is more enjoyable for men to pee in the wilderness as they have complete control over that activity. Me, I don't enjoy squatting by a bush with a fear of potentially peeing on myself. (TMI I know).


Anyways, over the past month, Brent and I have had some great outdoor adventures and he's been kind enough to find me toilets all along the way.


The weekend of the 4th, Brent and I took my dad's four wheelers down to a random little place called Vernon. Its way the crap in the middle of nowhere... think Eureka and then 50 random miles after that. But it sure was pretty. There is a nice little reservoir and a whole lot of pretty mountain views. I like to forget my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but we enjoyed our time playing with all of Brent's friends who we met up with.


We shot shotguns, went fishing, took the four wheelers on a fun rider, sat around the campfire, accidentally burned holes in some camp chairs, made s'mores {my favorite} and slept under the stars.  


The weekend before that, Brent and I had a bonfire up Payson Canyon. 

My Cute Husband

Last weekend, Brent's cousin Derek got married down at the Brian Head Ski Resort. Brent's family friends have a cabin at Panguitch Lake which is just about 15 miles from Brian Head, so we spent the weekend there. As usual, I didn't have my camera for the important event (sorry no wedding pics), but I did grab a few shots of Brent fishing and of my nieces at the cabin.

Pretty Rainbow Trout

Cute Nieces Audrey and Sidney

My Mother in Law Karen and Newest Niece Jordyn Kate.

Altogether, we've been loving spending time outside together this summer. We're excited to keep the adventures coming as we head to Lake Tahoe for the Hales Family Reunion in just a few weeks!