Denver is Here

I can't believe that one week ago, we became a family.  Denver Jude joined us on January 8...just as mommy and daddy both predicted he would.  This week has been an incredible learning experience.  As new parents, you really have no idea what to expect.  There is no instruction manual or how-to guide that can prepare you for the changes and experiences that come with a newborn.

One of the hardest things was preparing for this little man, when I had no idea what I would need.  Here's a few must-haves that helped us get through the first days with our bundle.

 Snugabunny

This swing is incredible!  We thought he might be too young to use a swing, but it put him right to sleep when he was tired, and let him sit with mommy and daddy when he was awake.  Any swing is probably great, but what I love about this swing is that it rocks in three different directions, and it plugs into the wall so no batteries!

Dr. Brown's Bottles & Bottle Warmer

We weren't sure what kind of bottles to choose.  That is by far the most intimidating aisle at Babies R' Us.  You have no way of knowing which nipple your little one is going to like.  A friend let us try a Dr. Brown bottle and we had instant success!  I think Denver appreciates the  little vent system that prevents air bubbles.  I appreciate the convenience of the bottle warmer!  I didn't think I needed the extravagant warmer and figured I would use the microwave or stove top, but there is no denying that this handy contraption is one of the best purchases we made.  I throw a bottle in, hit the button, change Denver's diaper, and it is just the right temperature in just the right amount of time!

Cloth Diapers

We use these for everything...except diapers.  They make great burp cloths, eye boogy grabbers, spit up catchers, and just about any other strange baby ooze getter you can think of.

Medela Nipple Shields

For some reason, the lactation consultant at the hospital let me struggle tirelessly all day and night to get little Denver to latch on and breast feed.  This was impossible, then frustrating, then a little depressing.  Then, she told me that she had a little trick up her sleeve...a nipple shield.  Why couldn't we start with this?!  It basically turns you into a bottle so your little one will latch on a little more easily.  Genius. 

 

Cute Socks

Just because they're so darn cute.

Amazing Husband/Daddy

Someone who will wake up with you in the middle of the night.  Someone who will help you with the laundry, dishes, and dinner.  Someone who will cheer you on when you wonder if you will be a good mommy.  Someone who will change diapers when you can't get out of bed.  Someone who will sing to the baby when he thinks nobody can hear him on the other end of the monitor.  Someone who will love that baby just as much a you do.

Ornament Remembrance Gift

Christmas was a little rough this year since all of our funds are going straight to baby savings.  We had to get a little creative with our gift giving.  I won't claim credit for thinking of this.  In fact, I found it via my new addiction, Pinterest.  I am not very sentimental and I tend to toss invitations and announcements...but never again!

From Glitter to Gumdrops shares a great tutorial on how to turn a special mailing into a treasured ornament.  I won't walk you through this steps since Christine does a great job.  Here is her ornament.  Lovely!

I decided to do this for my sister and her husband for their first Christmas as husband and wife.  I think it came out pretty good.  The little Eiffel Tower is actually from her wedding.  It was a charm that we attached to her wine bottle favors.  It was hard to get a good shot, but basically I used my paper cutter to cut her invitation into strips, then wrapped them around a pencil to make curly-q's, and then twisted them into the ornament.  I stocked up right after Christmas and bought a dozen clear ornaments for future gifts. 

It's all in the presentation.  It looked great in this red box that I have been hanging onto for years.  You know when you get a box for a gift and it is such a great box that you keep it because you know it will be perfect for you to use one day?  Well, probably more than 10 years later, this box finally found the perfect gift.

A Long Time Coming

Sorry again for the lapse in posts. I really do want to be one of those dedicated and devoted bloggers, but I always seem to lose touch. My dear husband bought me an iPad as an early push gift and told me he hoped it would inspire me to blog more...am I crazy to think I could resume blogging and take care of a newborn? Probably, but it's worth a shot.

In the spirit of my due date (which is today, though our little man didn't get the memo), I will share a super exciting project that we've been working on...our nursery! Let's see if I remember how to do this.

 Remember our junk room turned guest room?  In our short time here, this room has seen many changes.  The blue and red molding that once trimmed the dingy walls, soon became bright white on pale country yellow walls.  We did this knowing that one day, in not-too-far-off future, this room would become a nursery.  First, some not so nice pictures.

And then who can forget the crafting closet that Ian built for me?

Well, now the room has undergone another transformation.  Now, it is our son's nursery.  It started off like this...a holding place for my old furniture, tools and fixtures for our mini bathroom, and gifts from my story-book shower (more on that later).  I should make a hidden picture game out of this photo.  Can you spot the hydrangea, CD player, dalmatian, 2 vacuums, the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, and the toilet?

I hated to lose my craft closet, but my dad made us an offer we couldn't refuse!  If you've taken our house tour, you know that we rely solely on a single bathroom that is in our bedroom upstairs...awkward for guests, to say the least.  I am hoping to cloth diaper thanks to the inspiration of my favorite DIYers at Young House Love, so it only made sense to put in a bathroom downstairs.  This was not an easy task in our quaint little abode, so we decided to turn our craft closet into the tiniest bathroom you've ever seen.

We starting off thinking we wanted to go with a woodland theme...perfect for our setting here at Quaint Oaks.  But then I fell in love with bedding from Land of Nod...Glad About Plaid.  I had to go with primary colors.  I absolutely love the plaid!  This was my crib when I was a baby.  My little sister used it, too.  Now, thanks to my father-in-law, it has a fresh coat of paint.  He even painted the spindles for me.  In love.  We installed a cheapo shelf from Hobby Lobby to hold our baby monitors.  Yes, monitors.  One is your average monitor that we can use in and around the house. The other is the Bambino Wireless Internet Monitor.  This will allow daddy and grandma to tune in and see our little bambino whenever they feel like it through their laptops and iPhones.  Awesome baby gift from my team at school.

The photo wall underwent minor changes, with more to come over time.  I made the four primary color paper prints.  I love simple paper crafts.  The larger piece, shamefully blemished by my camera flash (still learning) is a collage of boy-terms inspired by an Etsy find.  The banner was made by one of my best friends who used it as a backdrop for the candy buffet at my baby shower.  It's cut short but you can probably guess...it says Once Upon A Time.  The little blocks spell the name of our little man, but I sneakily flipped them over for the pictures.  Can't take any chances!

 

I love this piece of wall art.  I'm surprised Ian let me get it because it's from Target, but I really fell for it.  Each state has the capital and illustrations that relate to each one.  The colors are perfect.  Did you realize that mobiles are oober expensive???  Why?!?  I could not bring myself to spend $50+ on a mobile so I made one.  I broke out my paper punches, again, and went nuts.  Some clear cord and 3 needlepoint looms later, I ended up with this crazy contraption.

Since I am using my old furniture, which was also used by my little sister after me, and our mother when she was a little girl, I do not have a proper changing table.  Also, since we turned our only closet into a bathroom, we sacrificed our only storage.  I have to get creative so I decided to buy 4 pails which I hung on the wall with simple wall hooks.  These hold diapering supplies and other things that I need to reach quickly.  The table just provides a place to put stuff while I'm changing all of those delightful diapers.  It's difficult to see in this picture, but I turned the small bachelor chest into a changing table.  It wasn't easy to find a mini changing pad, but I finally did!  I secured it to the dresser with Velcro.  The cover was another challenge, but I got one from Land of Nod to match the bedding.  I threw it in the wash and shrunk it down a bit, so it's close enough.

The lamp was another challenge.  I got the idea to find a fill-able lamp that I could fill with marbles, jacks, or Legos.  This turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.  After a number of stores and internet searches, I found this at HomeGoods.  It's awful, and it was a bit of a gamble because I wasn't sure if it would open nicely.

So, with a simple turn of the wrench, the bottom popped right off with a hole big enough to fill the lamp with anything I like!  The shade got swapped out, and...

And finally, the bathroom.  It's so tiny that it's hard to get a good picture.  My dad did the electric, his friend did all of the plumbing, and Ian did all of the drywall, painting, and bead board.  Though it's small, it has been sooo nice to have a bathroom on the first floor.

So here it is.  The hutch was a part of my furniture from when I was little.  My favorite part is the built in nightlight.  The shelves are from Ikea and offer some great storage.  I found that great oversized basket at HomeGoods for toys. 

Daddy and Booper are testing out our glider and ottoman...great thrift shop find for $12!  The rug is from Ikea.  Our little man is going to love it. 

Here's one more glimpse of the crib and changing table.  It took us a while but we finally got it all done.  It is so cozy in here. 

So I got through this entire blog and still no sign of our little man trying to make it on his due date.  Oh well.  I need to stop being so impatient and relish in these last days of quiet and independence!  ...but I really can't wait to just hold him in my arms.

It's been a while...

You would think that I would have been posting all summer when I had off from work.  Then, today is my first day back at work and I cook not one, not two, but three meals to get us through the week.  Go figure!  I'm hoping to be more diligent again, but baby steps.  That said, I'm not going to walk you through my recipes, but I will gladly share where I found them! 

First, I made an amazing pasta dish that I found on Pinterest.  If you want to see all of my favorites, stop in and check out my pins.  It's Orecchiette, Broccoli, Mushrooms and Roasted Garlic in a Light Lemon Butter Sauce.  Couple change-ups...as usual.  I couldn't find orecchiette pasta in my food store so I used campanelle instead.  This worked out perfectly because the toasted pine nuts found cozy little homes inside the nook of the noodle.  I love when that happens!  Also, I used all my basil this weekend in paninis so I was looking for something to jazz it up instead.  I topped with a spoonful of ricotta and a drizzle of olive oil...it was perfect!

 The next meal I made was a chicken pot pie.  I have had a serious aversion to chicken since I got pregnant, so this seemed like a salty, creamy, comfy way to disguise it.  I like to take the easy way out with these comfort food recipes so I found this piece of pie recipe.  Unfortunately for me, Ian was talking to me while I was mixing the simple ingredients.  I accidentally threw my egg into the chicken and veggie mix.  No big deal for Ian, really...it's more quiche-y now.  BIG deal for me because I hate quiches.  Ho hum.

The last thing I did was make roasted cauliflower...no biggie.  I used a very simple recipe.  I know how to roast cauliflower, but I liked the sandwich idea on this site, so I went for it.  I did leave out the balsamic vinegar.  Ever since I tried the South Beach diet 8 years ago, I can't stand balsamic vinegar!  So, for lunch this week, we will be having roasted cauliflower and hummus in pita bread.  Sounds kind of blah now that I think of it...I'm going to have to throw some cheese in there, or roasted red peppers! 

So, after my lull, I came back in full force.  Now I have to do some school work.  I guess it's true that you do manage your time better when you have more to do. 

Shutter Headboard, Part 2

It's done! It's done!  Thanks to Ian and his handy skills, we have a truly beautiful headboard.  I won't talk you through the process of how he hung it...I'm not quite sure myself.  But after some TLC, a lot of careful measurements and the help of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, we got them all up there.

While Ian worked on the shutters, I hemmed and hung no-sew curtains.  I love those glue strips!  I really wish I could just sew them, but why bother when I can glue them?!

So here they are, close up.

And here's the finished product!  Love it!

I finally feel like our bedroom is done!  Actually, we still need to carpet under the bed and there's a few other things on the to-do list, but it looks so much better than...

and...

Ick, I can't end on that picture, so here's one Ian snapped when we were exploring our yard at sunset.  Ignore the butt, it's the style of the shirt, I swear!  But check out that bump! ...also a little exaggerated by the shirt style, but still exciting!

UPDATE! Our shutter headboard has been featured on Bloggeritaville's Flashback Friday!  Thanks Leigh!

I also linked up with Gluesticks, one of my new craft blogs!

Shutter Headboard, Part 1

Ian and I made a great find at a local barn sale...it was a great barn, brought here piece by piece from Spinnerstown, and then renovated into a beautiful Bucks County home.  Unbelievable!  There were so many great items, including an antique child's drop leaf table and chair set and beautiful egg baskets.  But when we saw these shutters, we knew they were just what we were looking for to make our headboard...finally!  And she gave us a great price!

We measured them and realized that we needed four to fit the width of our bed and fit within the window frames on either side.  Two have a great patina on them and two have lost most of their paint.  It's hard to tell from the pictures, but they're an incredible shade of green and fade to blue on their sides.

Just look at the little wood pegs!  So charming.

Using a stiff brush, I wiped away all of the loose paint chips and dirt.

I'm going to look into whether or not I need to seal or lacquer these to preserve them.  Ian is working on how we're going to hang them to become our headboard.  I'll be sure to post the finished product as soon as it's done!

I almost forgot!  Ian spotted another great find at the barn sale.  He found a white door with the original hardware and a moon cutout.  He likes it because it reminds him of an outhouse door.  I was hesitant at first but it really looks great in our living room!  I'll post a picture soon. IT'S DONE! Click here to see our new headboard!

Grilled Pierogies... hoody hoo!

 Oh my pierogie!  Ever find one of those recipes that you're unsure about but you go for it anyway?  That happened to us today.  In between cleaning out the attic, finishing some antique shutters, putting together a new bistro set, and cleaning up the yard, I tried this recipe from the July/August 2011 Food Network Magazine...Grilled Kielbasa and Pierogies!  Seriously.  The best part, it only took about a half hour to whip up, oh yeah, and it was delicious!  Because I wasn't expecting much from this recipe, I didn't take pictures along the way, but when I saw the finished product I knew I had to blog about it!

In a bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of coarse whole ground mustard, 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar, and whisk together with olive oil until it's nice a smooth.  

In a bowl, coat 1 pound of pierogies and 6 white onion wedges (cut from one large white onion) in olive oil and some salt and pepper. 

Throw the kielbasa on the grill.  These will cook up in about 8-10 minutes.  When they are cooked about halfway through, add the pierogies and onions to the grill until they get nice grill marks and the onions soften up.  When everything is done, take it all back inside, slice up the kielbasa and chop the grilled onions.  Add everything to the dressing with a little salt and pepper and some chopped fresh parsley.

Delicious!