christmas tour 2014

I feel like there's no better way to celebrate my birthday than by showing off my truly underwhelming Christmas decorations. (That birthday thing was subtle, right? Ha.) (Also, not remotely true. I can think of a million better ways...off the top of my head: at a resort in the Caribbean, receiving a pet manatee, cuddling with my baby, and/or an all-expenses-paid shopping spree at Ulta.) (At least one of my dreams will come true today...)

Right, so, back to the topic at hand. Christmas decorations!! I always look forward to having the house decorated for Christmas, and this year was no exception. Now that we have Millie, everything is a first...and even though she's only four months old and probably couldn't care less about home decor (except for maybe the tree lights), it still felt a million times more special and exciting and magical decorating with her here. And when I think back to how hard the Christmas season was last year, how putting up our decorations made me sob...man, the joy and happiness of this year is even better. 

A lot of my decor stays pretty consistent from year to year...as do my complaints, ha. Like there is STILL NO GOOD PLACE FOR A CHRISTMAS TREE. Every year. Every year. Every year I swear that if and when we ever buy another house, "good Christmas tree spot" is going to be at the TOP of the priority list. Don't nobody care if there are enough bedrooms for everyone or whether there are active termite colonies...I need a decent place for my tree!!! 

But let's start with something I do like: the mantel!! 

 I've already blabbed at length about our three stockings, so I won't repeat myself except to say ohmygoshwehaveTHREESTOCKINGS!!!!! The whole mantel area ended up looking a lot different this year than last year- a little simpler, I guess. Oh, also there are three stockings (plus Lola's). Vast improvement. I saw the idea for making blank canvases into 'presents' on Pinterest; it was the easiest three-second craft ever! I think they look fun. And although I loved having the big balls hanging last year, I really like having them up on the mantel and down in a basket- they are just so festive! Also, they are big balls...and the jokes never get old. 

To the right of the mantel area is a little chest that holds random junk important things.

It makes a perfect spot to put the nativity set. This year we have this little felt Jesse Tree thing that we make and add an ornament to each night. There's a little guide and we read the Bible story that accompanies the ornament, then we help Millie velcro the ornament to the tree. It's fun and I'm sure she's really getting a lot out of it. :) And it gives Matt and me a great opportunity to work on our gluing and coloring skills, so really, everybody wins.

My nativity used to belong to my grandparents. My Nana bought it on a trip to Israel and I am so thankful to have received it. The angel ornament was hand-crafted by yours truly in 1990. I gave it to Nana as a gift and she always kept it with the nativity- so now I do, too! Gotta remember my DIY roots, ya know...

So, back to the tree that has no good home and is impossible to photograph. Part of the 'impossible to photograph' problem is the placement of the tree (couches/walls/pianos impede being able to get a full-length shot), part of it is because despite the existence of probably 28903 tutorials on How to Set Your Camera to Get the Perfect Christmas Tree Picture...I just can't be bothered to actually read any of them, so my pictures all come out looking like crap. The lights are either washed out and invisible, or everything is too dark, or...whatever. Just know that the tree looks way more awesome in person. Even though it's in a bad spot.

We've been using beads on the tree since 2006, but on an 80% off, post-Christmas whim last year, I bought a couple strands of giaaaaant gold tinsel.

I regret nothing.

That tinsel was SO much easier to put up than a million strands of itty bitty beads- it seriously took about 2 seconds. And it's so festive and gaudy and delightful!! I only wish I'd bought about two more strands- I had to stretch things a little thin to make it get to the bottom. I'll be on the lookout for a couple more strands after Christmas ends this year! And now our gold tinsel totally contrasts with our silver sparkly star, but mixing your metals is a thing now, right? So we're good.

I love this ornament that my friend Catherine made last year- it's our house!

A lovely reminder of my brief fling with wood burning.

I didn't do much with the piano this year. I'm too lazy to un-decorate all the normal stuff, so I just added a few touches and called it a day (season?).

My beloved book trees...a few of them bit the dust in their storage containers over the last year, but this guy survived another year.

Totally normal to display your own Christmas card, right? Right.

 I have yet to find a satisfactory way to display my cards. I feel like I try something different every year and so far, nothing's been perfect. I'm really phoning it in this year- taping them up on the door. Wow. Special. And the tape will probably pull the paint off the doors when I take the cards down, so that will be a fun problem to tackle in January! Also, I took this picture last weekend, when we'd only received cards from the earliest birds. There are more now...taped up with equal precision and care, obviously.

My Christmas tree craft from a few years ago is on a bookshelf...I think they're so cute, plus they remind me of the 11,000 hours it took me to sew them. I'm such a gifted seamstress...

My decorating skillz didn't spill over to the rest of the house much this year. Normally I'll do a little something in the bedroom, kitchen, and bathrooms, but this year...naaaah. I found some older than dirt tinsel and draped it around Millie's changing table area and that's about it. Maybe when she's older we'll put a little tree in there or something, but for now...I mean, I feel like I just finished decorating her nursery for regular life about two seconds ago. It's cute enough. It needs no more sparkle or glitz to make it through the month. Ha.

Wanna know how old that tinsel is? Okay then. My roommate and I bought it to decorate our FRESHMAN DORM ROOM. Yeah. In 2001. This trusty tinsel has stood the test of time!

Oh! There is one more thing! My favorite picture frame door art came back to the front door for season 3!

I made a tutorial for this, too!

That's pretty much it for Christmas 2014. Nothing too spectacular, but enough sparkle and shininess to make the house feel festive and fun! I'm trying to enjoy the decorations a little extra this year- next year we'll have a one-year-old, and I hear they're notorious for destroying everything, so we'll probably have to do an amended version of decorating. But that's okay. I'll take sweet Millie over red and green whatever anytime.

Have a wonderful weekend! If you're extra bored, feel free to check out my Christmas decor tours from 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. (Actually, I just looked at 2010 and it was pretty awful. I can pretty much guarantee you're not bored enough to want to see that, unless you want to see a progression in my Mantel Decorating Skills...because they REALLY sucked back then!!)

millie's nursery tour

It's weird- although I'd been dreaming about and planning Millie's nursery for years (since long before we knew it would be Millie), and then got it started last fall, and then ignored it for 6 months before cautiously opening the door again, and then working on it some more, and then bringing her home to it, and then finally having showers and getting it all REALLY together...it took a long time for it to occur to me that it was really done. I guess it was a work in progress for so long (years!!) that it only just recently hit me that it really is pretty much complete. Sure, I'm still waiting to get 'real' pictures printed for the frames...and there are a few things still in progress for the gallery wall...but for the most part, it's really done. And I realized I'd better hurry and take pictures of it before she's grown. Or at least before she learns how to make a mess.

So here we go. It's as done as it's been, and it is by far my favorite place in the whole house. Now don't go getting any crazy ideas about her actually sleeping in there. She has yet to spend a night in her own room, and I will probably put that off for as long as possible...maybe until we need to convert the crib to a toddler bed? Ha. But we enjoy rocking and reading in the glider, changing diapers and clothes on the changing table, swinging in the swing, and lounging on the floor to play (and not do tummy time, because homegirl will have NONE OF THAT).

I've included links to as many items as I could find, but a lot of it is older/out of stock, thrifted/gifted/handed down, or DIYed. 

So...welcome to the happiest room in my house!

Glider* | Crib* | Lamp | Ottoman

This is the view as you walk in. It's not a terribly large room, so I was happy to find a crib and glider with a smaller footprint. The art above the crib was something I crafted over the summer, and the picture of the framed vase was something I found at an antique store a few years ago. The curtains were the very first thing I ever made for the nursery, waaaay back in January of 2012! They were the fabric that inspired the color scheme for the whole room. A lot of the smaller furniture items (ottoman, side table, pillow) are from Target's college dorm 'back to school' line from late summer/early fall. It really worked out that they made EVERYTHING in that turquoise/teal color that perfectly matched my colors...and it was all dirt cheap!

Frame

 The pumpkins were part of the decor at my work shower in early November! My friend/co-worker Diana made the most thoughtful, fabulous, and nursery-colored decor...I was thrilled to bring it home and decorate with it (until it rots, ha)!

Swing*

The blankets on the swing and the glider were both handmade by some amazingly talented friends!! Brooke made the orange and turquoise striped one and Jennie made the turquoise and gray chevron one. 

The crib skirt and bumper (THE HORRORS!!!! Please recall- she doesn't actually sleep there.) fabric and the changing table were both adventures from last fall. The white trash can is our cloth diaper pail; the silver one is for actual trash. The white 'corner' shelf was a thrift store find and I change what's on the shelves at least twice a week, ha. The basket thingy (that is probably supposed to be a fruit holder?) holds her hairbows and pacifiers. Always important to keep those things handy!

Currently this shelf holds her blankets and a basket of socks!

I got the idea for the baskets on the wall from Pinterest (shocking!) and found the turquoise baskets in the college dorm section at Target (also shocking!). We keep her cloth diaper covers in the one on the right (the inserts are in a drawer). The left basket has some disposables (she wears them at night) and burp cloths (90% of them were in the wash when I took this picture, ha). I absolutely love the convenience and storage that those hanging baskets give me! And the wreath on top was a random two-second project with some leftover fabric from the crib bedding. That wreath moves around frequently, too.

If you ask Camilla, the most important feature of the changing table area (and probably the entire room) is what hangs over it.

This is Monkey, a random toy borrowed from her activity mat and hung from some linking chain toy that I rigged up. It was a desperate attempt to distract her when she was in an "I hate being changed" phase and ended up being QUITE effective. Now she loves to laugh at and talk to her monkey- it's SO cute, and actually doesn't look too tacky, so I let him stay. What a giver, right?? ;)

This is the wall opposite the crib. The shelf is one that was in my bedroom growing up; I stole it from my parents' house, painted it gray, and now it's Millie's! This is where (most of) her toys and books reside. The books in the basket in the corner are library books- important to not get them mixed in!

Wreath

The wreath on the closet door was made by a friend of my mom's! I absolutely LOVE it!

Great is Thy Faithfulness print

The child in the "Camilla Ann" frame is not actually Camilla Ann. Stock photography for the win?? Mama needs to order a 5x7 print? Something like that. The Jesus Loves Me was something Matt's mom cross-stitched for him when he was little! I found a frame and spray painted it and love that we have it in Millie's room! The 'believe' one is actually a greeting card that a sweet friend gave us last fall when we were expecting Ellison. I love the colors and am thankful for the reminder to continue believing, even when things aren't easy.

 Booooooooks!!! Obviously we are fans. I hope Millie is too!

And that's pretty much it. I'm going to come clean and admit that I did put some of the less beautiful things away in the closet before I took pictures (activity mat, Bumbo seat)...but this is pretty much how it looks! Last night we actually received an exersaucer/bouncy thing on loan from a friend...but it's still parked in the living room, so I didn't technically have to hide it away. And I have no idea where it's going to go because WHY ARE BABY TOYS SO HUGE AND PLASTIC??

My goal in my pre-pre-pre-baby nursery-planning days was that the room would be gender neutral and happy. I feel like I accomplished 'happy' pretty easily, and gender neutral became slightly less important once it was established that Millie is a girl. I have no idea if we'll ever have another baby to use this nursery, but I feel like I could pretty easily adapt it to be more 'boyish' (which really, I hate the whole girly/boyish thing anyway...so arbitrary and socially-constructed, but still. Whatever. At least it isn't pink??) if the opportunity arose. In the meantime, Matt and I love the room, Millie will hopefully love it one day (and not want to redecorate it in obnoxious cartoon characters or something ahhhhhhh!!!), and Lola seems quite appreciative that 'her' room is finally something besides four blank walls.
 

Photo credit Kristina Boothe Photography

 And really, at the end of the day, the room doesn't matter. It could be pink or black or non-existent and we would be fine. All I care about is the girl that (sorta) lives in it.

Photo credit Kristina Boothe Photography

Thanks for visiting! If you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to drop by and rock for a few minutes and soak in the happy. It's pretty fantastic.

*These Amazon links are affiliate links. In theory (this is the first time I've ever done this, so I have no idea if it really works, ha), if you were to click on a link and then purchase the item, I would receive compensation.

artsy craftsy

As I predicted, it was cool and rainy all weekend. I loved every minute of it. I didn't even mourn a weekend away from the pool. I feel like this illustrates that I've grown as a person or something.

Matt and I got up bright and early Saturday morning, because apparently now that we are old we are incapable of sleeping past 7:30 a.m. even when there is no reason on earth to be up that early. Ugh. But I'm awake, so I get up...even though then I'm grumpy and tired all day. Isn't this how it is with babies? Should someone try to sleep train me? Maybe I should cry it out? Something's gotta give. Anyway, getting up so early means that we were able to accomplish a lot on our rainy day. We headed to town and did some serious shopping, mostly for lovely touches to add to the nursery. We also hit up Michael's and got all the supplies we needed to finish (Matt) and start (me) some art projects we've been procrastinating. After we got home, we covered the dining room in newspaper and spent the rest of the day channeling our inner artistes. 

I found these prints on Pinterest several months ago and knew I wanted to recreate them for the nursery. The colors and style were totally perfect for the room- and completely 'me.' So 'me,' in fact, that I already have a canvas in the living room that I made several years ago that is basically the exact same style! That's why I figured I'd just make these myself instead of ordering them. Plus, I just like to do things the hard way.

Before I show you the finished art (which is not hung on the walls yet because it is going to go over the crib, which has not yet been purchased), first please admire my Corner of Happy: the glider, ottoman, and super fabulous blanket (crocheted by Jennie) and pillow (Target, several seasons ago). Matt and I basically fight over who gets to be sitting here at all times. Whoever doesn't win a spot in the chair just lays on the floor next to it in order to be close to the happy. 

Now you can see the colors for the nursery, so you will appreciate the artwork more fully. Since the crib stuff is all shoved in the closet, you can't get your color cues from it...so anyway, hope that helped. (Also, for a small fee, you are welcome to come sit in the Corner of Happy yourself. It's worth it.)

Aren't they lovely??! I am so happy with how it all turned out! And the melon-y colored one is much more melon-y than the red it appears here. It was at night, iPhone, blah blah blah colors didn't turn out right. It matches the other orange/melon colors in the pillow, promise. Each canvas is 16" x 20", so I think it will nicely fill up the space above the crib! I originally did the flowers in white, like the Etsy shop, but then I decided it was a little plainer than I liked. I went back to Michael's Sunday and found these coordinating papers that matched my colors and had a fun honeycomb print and went with that. I'm happy with how it turned out!! Unfortunately, my back was not pleased about being hunched over a table all weekend. Have I mentioned that growing elderly really sucks? Yes. It does. I can't craft because my back hurts. I am too lame for life.

Matt was finishing up a project he started for me for Mother's Day- a painting of a hydrangea! He's had it all sketched out for months, but finally got the painting part done. I am SO impressed with how it turned out!! It's weird-- I've always known Matt is artistic, but I've rarely seen him do more than a quick doodle in the margins of a notebook or something...so now I have a huge painting to remind me of his skill! And my favorite flower! This picture isn't going to do it justice- again, at night, my shadow is obscuring the bottom, etc. It looks way better in real life, so you'll just have to look at it while you're over at the house sitting in the glider. But this isn't going in the nursery. Maybe in the bedroom. Or somewhere. 

I feel like we accomplished enough art to cover us for the next couple of years. And to top things off, I even got all of the supplies cleaned and put away before we went to bed last night!! Painting like that makes a gigantic mess out of your studio dining-room-turned-work-space, so I'm glad it was only an Art Store Explosion for 24 hours and now it is all gone.

In other Rainy Weekend accomplishments, I must admit that 'reading parenting/baby books' did not make the list. Despite all of yall's amazing recommendations and advice on Friday's post...I pretty much just kept reading fiction. I bought The Time Traveler's Wife at a yard sale a couple of weekends ago. I've heard tons of people recommend it over the years but have never read it (although I do think I've seen the movie...but don't remember what happens), so now I'm knocking it off the list. So I may not know why my baby is crying, but if she ends up being a time traveler, I'll know how to deal...we'll call it a win.

coming soon to an overpriced craft fair near you

Yesterday we had 'staff fun day' at work. Although, I have to admit- I have fun most days at work. But yesterday it was officially condoned and sponsored, so that made it different. :) We kicked off the fun by having lunch together at my favorite Indian restaurant downtown. Good food is always my favorite way to have fun. Especially when I'm finally feeling better and getting my appetite back...I had days of bland undereating to make up for!!

After Indian food, we stopped by Starbucks. Nothing says 'fun' like a caramel macchiato on an unseasonably chilly and windy day! Coffee in hand, we walked as a huge pack down to our final destination: Good Dirt, a local clay studio.

Making pottery has always been one of those things that I've thought I'd like to try, thought might be fun, but never with enough confidence to actually want to sign up for a class or pay for it. So this was the perfect opportunity! Try it in the company of my friends and coworkers...and on someone else's dime! Perfect.

We started by putting on aprons. I grabbed the prettiest one I could find. It had a random monogram on it, but I didn't let that deter me. My name could start with K, right? Then we sat down at our wheels. 

Earlier that morning I had asked Matt what I should make. A vase? A platter? CEREAL BOWLS, he replied, without a moment of hesitation. We really need more bowls. Make cereal bowls. I'd laughed at his quick and emphatic response-- apparently I was unaware about how tragically low the cereal bowl situation in our kitchen had become! Later that morning, before we went to the studio, he'd sent an email reminder. Don't forget to make cereal bowls. (PS. His birthday is next week. Guess what I'm getting him??) 

First the guy taught us how to smoosh (technical terms, sorry, I'm a pro now!) the clay down onto the wheel so that it didn't fly off. Turns out this was an important lesson that I didn't fully grasp until later on...oops.

After the smooshing, there are a lot more steps (and no more pictures, cause our hands (and clothes, hair, arms, etc.) were filthy for the duration of the experience)...you squeeze water over it, use your hands to center and shape it...then do some magic stuff to squash down the middle to hollow it out...then do some other stuff to make the walls come up...blah blah blah. I understood it all in theory.

In practice...not so much. 

It's safe to say that pottery making is not my gift.

After about 10 minutes I came to the realization that Matt's request for cereal bowls was not going to be fulfilled. I was not able to actually create anything intentionally. Things just...happened. I smooshed and shaped and whatever appeared, appeared. It was a surprise to all of us! OH LOOK IT'S KINDA LIKE A REALLY SHALLOW VASE THAT YOU COULD STICK THE HEAD OF ONE ROSE IN!!!!! THAT'S GOING TO BE SO PRETTY ON MY- oh never mind, it collapsed. Now it's a...coaster! For my- never mind, now it's lopsided. Ummm...it could be...dangit. It flew off the wheel. Shoulda paid attention to how to get it to stick. NEW CLAY, PLEASE!!

It was TONS of fun. But don't anticipate receiving a new handmade set of serving platters and bowls from me anytime soon.

I ended up with two completed products that I was able to paint (and they'll glaze and fire and do other things to them later so that we can take them home and use them!). They are both bowl-ish. Small. You could technically eat cereal out of them if a) you're on a very strict diet and only want to eat about 40 Cheerios, and b) you have a really small spoon.

In other words, I'll probably be selling them for $400 each at a craft fair soon.

Here's a sneak peek for you! The colors will change a bit once they're baked or whatever. Maybe. Something.

 I think the subliminal message of yesterday's Staff Fun Day was don't quit your day job to 'make it' as a potter. Noted.

christmas tour 2013

Now that my birthday's a wrap (just kidding, you all know I'll keep celebrating and using it as an excuse to do whatever I want and not do whatever I don't want to do for at least another week), it's time to focus on what's up next: CHRISTMAS. But before we can have Christmas, we have to deck the halls. And take pictures. And look at everyone else's decked halls to get more ideas. And then redecorate our own halls. And really...it can all be quite exhausting, but it's FUN, so let's get on with it!

The annual Christmas Tour of Homes with Kelly's Korner! I look forward to this every year (is that sad to admit?)- making new friends and getting awesome ideas for crafts and purchases and styling and traditions? Love it. 

We'll start out front. To be honest, pretty much no one except the UPS guy uses the front door. But it's pretty anyway. This is my picture frame ornament art I made last year (and I made a tutorial!).

 I absolutely love having this on the door. Since our door is black, I love how the bright colors pop and stand out-- you can see it from the street! And I love that the colors are bright and fun-- totally different from the colors I use indoors, but it doesn't matter! Also- this post is by far the most 'pinned' thing from my blog. It's bizarre how many people pinned and repinned it all summer long. Summer. Seriously. Anyway...

Back to the inside. My favorite thing about decorating this year was that we just repainted and slightly redecorated the living room a few weeks prior to decorating for Christmas. So it really felt like a new space-- the walls are so much brighter...even though almost all of our Christmas decor is the same stuff we've been using for years, it felt fresh and new since the living room looked different.

The mantel stays pretty similar each year. This year I added the little (live) trees-- I found them at Trader Joe's and thought they'd be a fun accent. The stick tree was one of my first attempts at crafting a few years ago. I think it's quaint, haha. 

The mantel from another angle. Actually, the big balls (heh heh) are new this year. It's a Christmas miracle that they haven't plummeted to their deaths. The blue shelf with the nativity is temporarily being housed there. Normally it lives where the tree currently is. But this spot was perfect since we still don't have our glider, so...it worked out nicely.

Same thing, but the view from the couch/coffee table. And also the best candle on earth. If you learn anything from me today, it is that you don't need ANY DECORATIONS, ALL YOU NEED IS THIS CANDLE and your house will feel like Christmas. Promise. Also, the day after Christmas I plan on mowing down everyone at the mall in my mad rush to score about 40 of these candles on discount. Prepare yourself for pain, Athens. (PS. The candle is from Bath and Body Works. And it is amazing.)

This really isn't the greatest shot of the other side of the room, but it's the only one I got that included our new rug. The rug isn't Christmas-y, but I realized I hadn't shown pictures of it yet and it seemed like the right thing to do. So there she is! Also...our tree, Fred Roger. And one of my (many, many, many) yarn wreaths on the back of the front door.

The piano is off to the right, on the other side of the window. Normally I do a lot of decorating on the piano. I didn't do a thing this year. No particular reason...most likely I'd just finished decorating it (with 'normal' decorations) after we redid the living room...and I didn't feel like taking all of them down and redoing it with Christmas decor. Oh well. It happens. So no pictures because it's like a hulking Grinch. Until I start playing Christmas carols! 

Just kidding, I pretty much never play Christmas carols. I play I Dreamed a Dream and Foolish Games and call it a set. Best set ever.

A final parting shot of Fred Roger before you go:

Presh, aren't we?? I haven't even pulled out my wood burning kit this year. I'm falling apart, people!!

So that's my shorter-than-usual Christmas tour. If you're dying to know what it looked like in years past (with green walls and a festive piano), check out my 2012, 2011, and 2010 Christmas House tours.

If you're new from Kelly's Korner-- thanks for stopping by!! Feel free to stick around if you are interested in any of the following: laughing at ridiculous stuff, grammar, eye makeup, infertility and/or failed adoptions (I have both!), manatees, or you hate birds. You'll fit in fine here.

Regular people: Thanks so much for the birthday love yesterday!!! Since this home tour was scheduled for today I (obviously) wasn't able to do a proper birthday recap, but I put updates and pictures throughout the day on Instagram and Facebook, so check it out there if you're just dying to know how fancy we got at work...or if I got the Tarte LipSurgence set I was lusting after (spoiler: I did!!!!). 

Have a happy weekend! 

PS. Matt also got me the fixins to make the Yuletide...sooooo...yeah, I'll probably have an awesome weekend ;) Feel free to drop by if you're in town!

PPS. OOOOOH also he got me a BATHTUB PILLOW!!!! My bubble baths are about to be Code Red, yall.

still waiting

NO BABY YET.

In case that's the only thing you cared about, just wanted to get it out of the way first thing. :) Obviously Ellison is not as anxious to get here as we'd like her to be...and both of her mommies (and her daddy) are none too thrilled about this! Now it's true-- her due date is still 10 days away...but she should know that to me, on-time is LATE. Early is always better. So she should fall in line. 

It was a long weekend of having my phone permanently attached to my hand. I swear. I can't wait til this is all over and I can like...leave my phone in another room for 30 seconds without having a panic attack. And sleep through the night without waking up every two hours to make sure my phone is still working. THIS WHOLE ADOPTION AND MY LIFE'S FUTURE HAPPINESS IS HINGING ON MY PHONE WORKING, APPLE. No pressure or anything. Just get it together.

Speaking of sleep-- it ain't happening. I can't even blame DST, though I'd love to (who wouldn't?)...it's been like a week of sleeping like a newborn is in the house. I rest for about 2 hours...then I'm up for 2 hours...then I fall back asleep for an hour and a half...then I'm up for 2...then asleep for 3...repeat, repeat, repeat. Yesterday afternoon I found myself telling Matt "Ugh, I just need the baby to be born so I can GET SOME FRIGGIN SLEEP!!" and Matt was like "yeah, no, pretty sure that's not how it works." Oh well. At least I can lose sleep about something different? Variety is the spice of life and all that.

So despite the baby not being born, it was a pretty good weekend. We did NOT end up driving down to hang out in Random Small Town. I have started converting all money/prices into Cans of Formula...so like...one night in a hotel equals four Cans of Formula, so NO. Can't waste my poor money like that. So we stayed home, which meant we got lots of things accomplished!

I practiced using the newborn insert with the Ergo. I mean, who knew BooBoo would come in so handy all these years later? He's been a crucial part of our baby prepping and I know that Ellison will appreciate that we got all of our newbie mistakes out of the way on him and not her later. And I'm also kind of amazed that people on Instagram thought that this picture was of Ellison. Uhhhh...ha. As I said on IG-- I do anticipate her having gorgeous, creamy brown skin. I am not anticipating fur. But they say to expect the unexpected, so I'll try to keep an open mind.

We finished the bumpers!!! Wooooo!! That makes me seriously happy. No crib for them just yet, but that didn't stop me from tying them all together and standing them up, obviously.

Last night our friends had an Adoption Party for us and our other friends from church that are adopting soon! It was not a shower, since we are both trying to stick to some version of The Plan...but it was a time for everyone to get together and be excited and happy and eat and such. It was a wonderful evening!

There was chili and cornbread and yummy desserts. We were gifted some necessities like diapers, wipes, and wine...oh yeah. Obviously our church knows us well. :)

We got a Boogie kit, too. I am thankful for seasoned parents to let us in on their insider boogie-snatching knowledge from the beginning!!

They even made us diaper cakes!! Wooo!! So fun!

Matt and I made sure to take every opportunity to practice our baby holding/rocking/charming skills. I got this cutie to fall asleep immediately on my lap.

And then Matt held her for some playtime. 

We made it through like an hour of baby-holding with zero crying, so I guess you could say we are basically experts and masters at this thing. Excellent.

So in spite of Ellison's reluctance to join us this weekend, we tried to make the best of it. But seriously, baby. Now you can just come on and be born.