Living Room Design Plans

I’ve bemoaned the hardness of figuring out our living room’s design potential in the past. But I think I have finally solved the puzzle. (And my third trimester nesting urge is kicking in hard, so I’m feeling some extreme pull towards at least some execution of the plans.)

For a brief overview, it’s tricky because it’s long and narrow.

(These photos are crazy, because the room has been crazy since we lived here. The goal is to reach un-crazy!)

 It has doorways on each end of the room on the south wall, and a french door going into the sunroom, taking up most of the east wall. (The doors open up into this room.)

 And a fireplace in the middle of the north wall -- which honestly is kind of an odd scale next to a lot of furniture pieces I’ve tried in the room. It’s so flat to the wall, without really being flat that it makes many a piece seem uncharacteristically bulky next to it.

 From the entryway looking in.

It currently has no over head lighting either. We improved the natural light situation by taking down the awning outside the window.
But I had been having the hardest time committing to a color choice for the walls, since it turns out I hated my first choice. (Too purpley.)

(No where near as much as the original yellow…but still.)

So I pondered in deep thought, with immense amounts of pinterest and blog researching. Getting nowhere for a LONG confused time. And Blake and I getting on and off of color agreements repeatedly.

Then, one glorious day, one picture I saw on Pinterest united us.

via

This is clearly an entryway. But we can see it’s essence in our living room.

What we are getting out of this picture is: the walls are white, and are detailed in pretty woodwork. And the ceiling is where the color is at.

I could get on board with this general idea because, prior to this picture, no matter what color I had tried to envision the walls, it seemed like it would look crazy from the entryway. And since this room is the first thing you see when you come in it always felt wrong. 

White admittedly feels right for the space.

And since you can’t see the ceiling until you get into the room, the entryway view wouldn’t be affected…. and a surprise color in the room would be fun.

I’m normally a white ceiling kinda girl (especially on boring 8’ ceilings), but in this case, it feels pretty meant-to-be for me to flip-flop my norms.

 

Also I’ve painted our french doors black, so it’s got the black door vibe already.

(It will need crown moulding to get us there.)

 

To be honest, I guess because I am so much a white ceiling girl -- part of me is getting a bit nervous about the ceiling and color. I don’t want it too feel too cheesy. And to me the blue in this picture is ok, but if we aren’t careful it might wind up just a bit too chipper for me. I might want just a bit more of an angsty, pale, dirty, minty-aqua. (That description is stunning! lol. But I just don’t want overly happy robin’s egg blue -- I feel like that would be too shocking for the space. ) I’m still not sure I’m gonna pull the trigger on it exactly. But overall this picture still holds our main inspiration. And I just might have to try and break free of my regular-ness for this space, since it is an irregular kind of space.

The way we want the woodwork on the walls is still very much up for debate in my mind. I’m pinning different rooms for ideas, but have to nail down just which way is right for us.

This one feels almost trendy (in a way), and not quite how I see this room. But I still like it.

This would be simple but effective. 

It could perhaps make the room feel taller (although this room IS clearly taller than ours.) 

And side note, Blake I’m sure would LOVE how dark this ceiling is. 

He’s got his vote down for dark. I just don’t know if we get enough light to support that nicely. Especially without those great tall ceilings.

This very traditional look on the walls is where I am heavily leaning. 

(Source links can be found on my pin board here.)

My goal for the room is for it to be very staunch and traditional at it’s barebones. But with our furnishings for it to go the other way, turning into a funky musicians’ play space. 

Via

I love this space’s take on that idea. And I want to pull it off in our own way.

We plan to hang Blake’s guitars on the wall. I think he has like 7? We have our piano in there now. And a big black amp. 

So it won’t look like that picture (I’m not gonna achieve as much grandeur, due to them starting at a cooler level of architecture overall) -- but at the core, I want this sort of essence to come through.

As far as layout is concerned that was hard. 

The room really is too narrow to float much in the middle of the room. I’ve tried. And it just feels crowed and hard to walk around.

It was tight getting into the room like this. Couches closer together feels strange.

 Especially with the piano in the mix. (It’s location is really the only technically sound place for a piano in that room, for tuning purposes. Outside walls aren’t good for tuning... I know, right? I need more challenges. lol.) So that really limits how you use the center of the long room.

 

I kept trying to figure out how I wanted to use the space. Like figure out what we will do in there. Which is strange since we've never used the space for real yet. Seeing as how it was under construction with no floors and tools strewn about for so long. 

 

See what I mean? Yikes. At least I’m not nesting with that around!

And now it’s just a random whatever space. So I’m still not totally sure how we use it. But I think I just want it to be a room that’s nice for gathering in, without a TV. Reading by the window. Chilling with guitar. Having company over and a grown up place to sit.

 I debated if we needed a desk area in there -- maybe towards the back. But so far I don’t see that getting any use. It felt like an excuse to “attempt” the room design wise.

After taking it all in. What I think I’ve come to is, a streamlined section going under the front window and across the back wall towards the fireplace.

I never thought of myself as a sectional gal. But this house has taught me sectional are sometimes the only way. (We needed one in the family room too -- another long narrow room.)
I couldn’t figure out how to do a couple couches/couch-n-loveseat in the space well. I tried the thought of two settees facing each other. But it all wound up weird and underused.

 

Via

So after much thought and some blog researching I feel pretty set on getting Ikea’s Karlstad corner sofa. (In the sivik dark grey.) (If it turns out we think it’s awesome and keep it forever, I might consider getting a not-from-ikea cover in a funkier color. Like royal blue -- because I’ve fallen head over heels for any royal blue furniture Emily Henderson uses -- sooo pretty! But time will tell if that crazy scheme ever comes into play for real. I mean her couch is just way cooler in general anyway.)

Why I wanna go this route?

1) This couch is streamlined and has such an easy style.

If I want I can DYI tufted the back cushions and change the legs for a more mid-century vibe.

2)We have young kids.

That means I don’t wanna spend a lot on a couch right now. This is a good price for a new sectional. (I’m all about craigslist, but streamlined sections and our area’s craigslist are not acquainted.)

It also means the fact that these seat cover are machine washable is AMAZING!

In a nutshell that pretty much sells me on it. I’m not expecting it to be super comfortable. But this isn’t gonna be our cozy up space. (That’s our family room.) So a bit more stiff of seating in here will be fine for how I see us using it. But I have read a lot of bloggers talk about their Karlstad and they always say they are happy with the comfort level.

So that will go up front in the room.

We were given a cool retro round coffee table recently. (Someday I’ll refinish it.)

So that will nestle in with the sectional.

In front of the fireplace I see two chairs. 

I think I’m happy with the black ones we have now. (I haven’t liked them in there yet -- but I think that’s just because the room is crazy looking.) I kinda want them to read a little more mid-century than they do. But I think they will work. 

If not, they weren’t too pricey -- a craigslist find. So I can always resell and reshop.

And down at the french door end I think I will sort of float a chaise lounge. The head going towards the back (left) corner, the feet out into the room a bit. Maybe a desk or table next to it, against the back wall. (Closer to the fireplace, than the corner.)

I’ve had such a hard time figuring out that back part. But I think this will work.

The only other thought I had was a LARGE square ottoman, sitting in the center of that part the room -- kinda working like a couch/sit-n-play guitar spot.

But I’m not super sure about that. AND I’d likely have to DIY the thing. And you all know how much time I have on my hands for more projects. :) Plus that still leaves that back left wall bare…and I don’t know what to do there in that case.

I think a chaise is better form and function.

At first I thought I’d get the matching Karstad stand alone chaise. (Not in white)

via

But then I saw this cool chaise Ikea came out with.

via

Blake and I both like how this one would look at lot for the space.

But I have no idea how it would feel to sit in. It’s rattan. Might be good. Might be totally crazy.  I’ll need to sit on it, and think about it.

So those are the basic goals of the room.

To pull it off (or mostly off for the time being) I just need to sand the mud patch on our walls, 

and paint the room white.

(The wood work and fun ceiling can come later. I don’t mind waiting for the pizzaz, as long as we get it to look like an actual room for the time being.)

And then somehow get my motion-sickness-prone pregnant butt up to Ikea for the furniture.

And after that it would just be cutesy styling stuff. (And selling some stuff we don’t need. By the way, that round mid-century table randomly sitting around in there -- I’m not sure I can bare to part with it -- but it has no where to live in my house. The pain!)

The idea of me getting up to Ikea is terrifying. (Due to how bad my last bout of motion sickness was.) But my nesting instinct has taken over and I am powerless against it. So I’m brainstorming ways to achieve!

I can think of pretty much nothing but having this room be acceptable before this baby arrives.

My girls birthdays are right around my due date. So we will have lots of reason to celebrate and have company. It would just make my mothering hormones feel so much better to have that room (the first thing anyone sees when they come in) to be nice, and for it to be a place to spend time.

29 Weeks Pregnant with #3

I’ve had to answer the question “How do you feel?/How are you?” so many times, I have no idea how to answer anymore.

This week, I do not feel like my normal self. And I do not feel third-trimestery. I'd still say this feels first-trimester-y, BUT I don’t feel like death. (Which is how I felt for, oh the majority of 28 weeks.) So in a way my answer to “How are you?” could be “good” -- because not like death is good, or maybe more accurate would be “ok” but that’s so vague. And neither really convey where I am, because compared to my old pregnancies (and definitely not compared to my un-pregnant-self) I’m not really up to those descriptions. If I say “good” people tend to take that as me saying “all better -- normal pregnancy now” -- but that’s not it. But I am clearly improved. Which is good.
(See what I mean, too confusing for words.)

I have some nausea still. Just not all the time. And maybe with a day off, or most of a day off, here and there. But I have a new thing often that’s sort of nausea-heartburn. I don’t think it’s really either of those, but it feels like... if they had a baby, and that baby came to live right above my baby. I’ve tried heartburn medicine, I notice zero change at all from it. So I’m inclined to skip it since I already feel like I’m taking too many pills this time around.

I am of course, very third trimester sore, tired and achey -- but that’s not new --- since for some reason I have felt that way since like two months in. So in a weird way I don’t care. In another way it’s super annoying. I just know I REALLY hope it goes away after baby comes out. I mean, I want to be able to get up off the couch without my hips feeling dislocated. (With the goal of some day doing a work out again!)

But with all that in mind, this week I’ve been trying to think happier thoughts. (I’m really ready to move out of my funk. And I want to at least attempt to prepare my mind for postpartum, so I am able to move on once this is all over.) Thinking better thoughts works sometimes, until I realize I still don’t feel too great and still have tons of obstacles…. and have a cry vent fest to Blake on Saturday. But after said fest, I am able to try and at least attempt to have some happier thoughts again. And if not happy -- at least strong.

Sunday, Blake’s friend (a guy, no less) came over after church and helped Blake clean our house for us. That was soo nice of him. To be honest, I had a hard time accepting the niceness -- I was embarrassed of the state the house was in. But they sent me upstairs to rest while they cleaned, mopped and vacuumed! I had just been thinking how epicly bad our eating area floor needed to be mopped! (It feels like a decade since I’ve done it.) It was really sweet.

In other news,

This week I’ve been focused on smells. I guess I figured that smelling good-smelling-things can’t hurt... and just maybe it could help.

This whole week I’ve been wearing this necklace that I’ve had since junior high which I’ve turned into an essential oil necklace.

 

It’s this necklace, where you find a pearl inside an oyster and then set it inside this pendant. (Which I found to be oh so amazing in jr high.) And now what I’ve done is set the pearl aside, and placed the top of a q-tip inside the pendant and dripped lavender essential oil* onto it. I also tried peppermint since that’s supposed to help nausea, but that kinda grossed me out, defeating the point. I thought about getting ginger oil for nausea reasons, but will need to smell it to decide -- there’s no point if it smells bad to me. But I’m very into the lavender. I think it’s helping. So maybe I don’t need to mess.
     So if you’ve seen me in person this week, you might have noted lavender. My kids keep asking “what’s that smell?” when I’m by them, and I don’t think they are a huge fan. But I just keep telling them it helps me not feel so sick.
     I make sure to re-load it if I am leaving the house. It really helps me not freak out if I smell gross smells,  and if anything is really gross to me, I can lift it up my necklace to my nose and override it. I feel kinda dorky -- but whatever.
   ( You can actually buy necklaces with this essential oil use intention. Some are made of clay which you just drip the oil onto, and some are basically what I have where you have a cotton ball kinda thing inside a pretty-ish holder. Google essential oil necklace. I just wanted to use what I have around.)

*In case you are wondering, I do not have a brand of essential oils I believe in. So far I’ve just used Aura Cacia because it’s easy for me to buy in person at stores. I’ve gotten curious this week and have been looking into essential oils and I found these two blog posts helpful when shifting through the essential oil brand hype. Helpful post 1. (More succinct.)  Helpful post 2. (More in depth.) By the way, of those who look into these things, no one seems to have a problem with Aura Cacia brand, they just might not find them quite as high of quality -- but not bad quality either. (And you might be surprised to hear the “big brands” you’ve very likely seen on Facebook/Social Media, might not be what you wind up wanting. Not that they are bad for you, but they might not be worth the cost for what they are. Not to mention, if you are like me, the sales pitches/presence/pressure get annoying.)


Besides essential oil smells, I’ve also become obsessed with soaps -- good, fresh smelling soaps. (By the way, none of these links earn me money -- I just like sharing.)

Method soaps are a big winner for me right now. Their scents seem so genuine (not like a faux perfume version of said smell) and last a long time on your skin.

• In our bathrooms we have foaming pink grapefruit.

   Buying this soap has turned out to be a very happy accident. I just liked the smell. But I’ve had a hard time getting the kids to wash their hands. However since this is foamy, smells good, and is PINK, no less -- they volunteer to wash their hands now, they can’t resist it. (Umm major mom-win right there. I had no idea that would be an added benefit! I just wanted good smelling soap.)
   Another cool thing I figured out is that I can refill it cheaper with a smidgen of magic. I bought the dispenser at Target. And they don’t sell the foamy refill package in this scent, but they do sell the regular hand soap pink grapefruit refill. So after some googling, I learned you can just put mostly water --- like 9/10ths (ish) in the dispenser (hot water is a good idea), and top it off with the regular soap and shake up. Now you have foamy ready soap. It’s that easy. {Since we are slightly obsessed with the fact that it’s pink, and that’s a big reason the girls like to use it, I added one drop of red food coloring, since it was very,very light pink with all that water mixed in. (Next time I’ll try just a half drop because it’s almost too dark, venturing towards red -- it still passes inspection, but I could improve my technique.)} 

I have no idea how many refills we are gonna get out of that refilling packet -- but it’s gonna be a TON. Quite the money saver (on a small scale of the world -- but hey I kinda find it fun too.)

• In our kitchen I have this kitchen lemongrass handwash. (Also found at Target.) It’s supposed to be good for cutting cooking smells off your hands (like garlic and onion) which I find the concept of AMAZING. (I say the concept of, because I rarely touch said items right now, so I don’t have much to say about that for the time being. I did touch them briefly this week and the soap did seem to take it off nicely.) But I just find the smell amazing, and use it every time I change a diaper, or just randomly need to wash my hands. The method soap smells stick to your hands, which I am seriously loving right now.

• In the shower/bath I’ve been using their olive leaf body wash. It’s kinda citrusy and herby. I love it. 
  

• And for dishes, I just picked up Earth Friendly Dishmate Natural Lavender dish soap. (Which I found at Walmart, on the bottom shelf. It’s not really any more expensive than the others. But it smells just like lavender essential oil -- not a fake weird smell. And that’s important to my crazy nose right now.) I haven’t completely run out of the old dish soap we have, so I’ve yet to use it. But I’m excited to bust it out. Hope it works nicely. (We mostly use the dishwasher anyway -- so I’m really just in it for the occasional smell to quick wash sometime randomly.)
  

In baby news,

Baby seems just fine. But he or she seems to be trying to flip around in there lately. Some days I can feel him or her try to rearrange, and they are getting big enough that some times that really hurts. When they do that I wind up doing “hands and knees” for a long time -- hoping to give them enough room to be happy in a less painful place.

Sunday night I was positive baby had flipped breech for a while -- feet at the bottom has a pretty intense sensation. Plus I stared feeling around with my hands on my belly and found their head on the top. That was actually fairly amusing to me, because I was rubbing my baby’s head through my body -- the craziness-coolness of that really can’t get old. So I did some forward leaning inversions off my couch for a while. And while I didn’t feel a flip happen, I knew I was feeling feet in my ribs again afterwards. Much better.

Not sure if baby will stay put yet -- overall I’m not too hung up on it now, it’s still too early to really matter a ton. But of course it’d be nice if they do. (Especially since I DO NOT like feet at the bottom kicks -- it’s crazy.)

In House News,
I kinda hit an emotional breaking point this week. (This was the day I cried.) Because I am JUST SO READY to get this house done. It doesn’t have to be full-on detailed out, every dream project done. But I just want my house to feel like a house, not a “project” anymore.
I know once baby is here I’m not gonna be painting for a while. Not unless grandma wants to come over and live here. ;) But even still I’d have to take breaks every two hours to nurse -- and paint doesn’t really like that idea.

So I’ve become outright angry-determined (for lack of a better word) to get this house at least painted before June. Like no matter how I feel --- no matter if I puke on the walls, or take 300 naps or am just in total pain the entire time --- I will be making myself finish the painting in this house. Because when you mix 6 months of stir-crazy with nesting -- you get me NEEDING this house to be painted…..And ….. it will be painted! My body no longer has a say in the matter.

So with that in mind this Saturday I painted the trim in the hallway upstairs, 

I CANNOT understand the cream/almond/off-white of the past. It breaks my brain.

as well as the trim in the main bathroom upstairs.

The doors still need more coats, but still much better than primer and old trim before:

 I didn’t feel great. But I was gonna do it. Blake hung out with the girls, and I painted all afternoon. I just got one coat on the hallway. Two coats in the bathroom (there’s way less in there.) So I need to get at least one more coat on in the hallway. (Not sure if it will take 3 -- I hope not -- but semi-gloss is just kinda a pain and can be see through, even when you are doing nice-white, over ugly-white.)

One end with trim UN-painted: 

The other end with trim painted:

But just that one coat really does up the classy feel of the hallway. I may never get over my deep love for “Swiss Coffee” white on the trim and ceilings of this house. They are a match made in design heaven. (Not every house loves every white. This house LOVES Swiss Coffee by Valspar.)

So in order to accomplish my nesting goals, I need to:

• Get that trim done.
•  Paint the hallway walls (Potter’s Clay by Martha Stewart color matched to Valspar.)
• Sand a big patch of drywall mud on my living room walls. (The paint of olden day peeled up in one spot so we had to cure it -- actually my mom did that for me.)
  
• Paint the living room. (I finally came up with a plan for that room, so new paint is a mental must for me.)
• Paint the cooking part of the kitchen to match the eating part of the kitchen.

  

  Need to say goodbye to this green-gray … and that brass light switch.

   (Dogwood Blossom by Olympic, color matched into Valspar.) (I was kinda nervous about this color accident when I first did it. But since then it has grown on me to the point where I just think “nailed it” every time I walk in there. I’m REALLY happy with it. Accidents can be good.)

So that’s not really TONS of painting left to do. Especially looking back on how many things I have painted. And taking into account how these rooms are already prepped and the trim is pretty much already done -- so it’s just the walls I need to worry about.  So I know I can get this done before baby. It’s just mind over matter.

The other thing I’d like to do. But isn’t as “MUST DO OR I WILL LOSE MY MIND” -- I’d like to repaint our stairs and our banister.

     In the long run of our house, we want to reconfigure our stairs at the bottom. And change the spindles. They aren’t really to code (they aren’t as bad as I saw in lots of other houses we walked through, but) kids heads can still fit through (don’t ask how I know) --  which is not great. (Code is essentially that you can’t fit a quart of paint through the spindles. And ours are just wider than that.) SO eventually the stairs and spindles are gonna go. But I know life is gonna make that take a WHILE. So for the time being, I’d like to make them look a bit better.

I think I wanna just paint it all white (Swiss Coffee of course.) I did the stair treads black when we first got here -- and I don’t like it. It looks decent in the pictures, but they are hard to see at night. And the stairs are weird anyway, they are flat, with no bullnose, just 60’s old construction plank. 

So they will look odd and unfinished no matter what (till we finish them!) -- but I think in all white they might stand a better chance of looking like something. (For now.) They will get dirty, but whatever. They aren’t permanent. And for the railing. I’ve gone back and forth on if some black, or all black, would work. But since I hate the stair treads black, I am really not sure I wanna try. I’m thinking white will be better. (?) I don’t know maybe it’s just the whole entryway that’s crazy till we fix the walls, and I’m just grasping at straws?

Anyway, if I get that wall stuff done.  Our house is essentially a real, done, house.
     Well All except our haunted-looking 2 story, half-un-wallpapered entryway.

 

But I have some kinda killer plans for that area (both in terms of how awesome it will look, yet also in terms of how much work it will be.) (But two stories and wallpaper removal meets stairs sucks no matter what, so…) But I can TRY to ignore that till we tackle it, because it’s not something I can accomplish with mind over matter. It’s not something I will likely have much physical part of -- Blake and some help much more likely, than me. 

The one other thing I REALLY want to accomplish befor baby gets here is the furniture in the living room. Right now that room is basically “thrift-store-threw-up-chic”(minus the chic.) And It’s basically the first thing you see when you come into the house. And right now it’s so ugly and random we still don’t use the room.

So all around not great. Since I have finally decided on how I want to furnish the space, I want to go get the furniture and make it happen. I would feel so happy to have that "be a room" in time for all the baby-visiting and the girls birthday days party(ies).

The problem is -- I want furniture from ikea…. and that’s about 2.5 hours from my house. And so far I’ve not allowed myself to drive further than 20 mins from my house due to epic motion sickness. But I’m telling you, something just snapped inside me this week and I’ve decided I will figure out a way to get there. I’m working on my plans now. We shall see if I can accomplish or not. But let it be known, I am feeling rather determined. (Who knows if that’s a good thing or not?)

This post is pretty long, so maybe I’ll cut this one here, and put together another where I actually show you my plans for the living room. (Yep! I went ahead and wrote it! Check it out here!!)

Belly Pics:

And back to the black dress -- last time I had my act together enough to wear this for pictures was a month ago.

Today

28 Weeks Pregnant with #3

I wrote a whiney blog post on Monday night.
I decided to skip it Tuesday.

That has essentially been my blog routine now for two months or so.
Vent fest.
Decide its too much for internet.
Re-write.

I didn’t post it Tuesday because I was thinking I’d try to take a picture on Wednesday.
And then Wednesday morning, 5:00am, I woke up to a LOUD thunderstorm, complete with hail.
     I think the baby could hear it ,or feel it. (I actually think I woke up from the air pressure shift, before it really let loose. It was one of those storms that just carries that really freaky vibe with it.) But the baby was really, really kicking around in there. And I wasn’t about to fall back asleep. And as predicted the girls woke up too. Blake and I tried to go back to sleep in their beds, but gave up at 6:30 and got up. This lead to me not even attempting to get dressed or put on make up. And… to me taking two naps for the day -- one before Blake left for work, and one during Ruby’s nap. (This pregnancy wakes for no storm -- and if it has to, it needs severe make-up sleep.) So I haven’t bothered getting a picture today.
Honestly I don’t feel like the belly’s in a rush to grow right now. (Which is good, since it was early on.) So you aren’t missing much.

So anyway here goes nothing on this week’s post…
(It’s still whiney -- just hopefully not obnoxious.)

This week I’m nauseous. Less nauseous than before. But it’s still nausea.

In my last two pregnancies. I had normal, by the book, first trimester nausea. I was nauseous from weeks 6 to 14 on the nose. I never threw up. But I was just really tummy yucky all the time. And EVERYTHING smelled gross. And of course I was tired. But week 14 was magic, it wasn’t overnight that it left, but there was a clear major improvement over that week. And for sure by week 15 I was kissing first trimester goodbye --- nothing but a memory. Hello “I feel like me, only with a tiny bump.”

So that said. Week 13, was usually quite hard because I was burnt out from two months of being totally grossed out by everything. That week I was really hoping the neausea would leave early, and... it was sorta less bad, but I was still very first trimestery. It was right around then that I thought,  "I’m just not up for this. Someone wake me up when I’m through this -- it’s not worth it."

I’d say, I’m feeling very "week 13" right now.
     I’m not as sick as before. But I’m still sick. And I’m really stinking tired in general but also even more so from being sick for so long.
           The big problem is, I’ve been living "weeks 9 and 10" (You know the ones where you think, “This is just total Sucksville", and your really in the thick of things) for what feels like my whole life. Seeing as how this "week 13" of mine is actually week 28. (Leaking into 29.) which means something like 24 weeks of Sucksville. (That’s a solid six months.) (I left out month one, because I think I made it through the first couple weeks ok. And technically the first half of month one isn’t even pregnant.)
     The other problem here is, I have no faith that there will ever be a week 14 or 15. Perhaps just an eternal week 13 till baby comes. Or maybe I'll even wind up right back into week 9 or 10. Or a fun combo. (Or maybe even some more fun twists like another faux sprained ankle?) Maybe, just maybe I’ll cross over into my third trimester. But who knows. Maybe I’ll somehow live an entire pregnancy inside the first.

So that general burn out that I’m used to week 13 bringing with it -- experiencing it right now is like 767,363,476,843 times more intense.

That absurdly intense burn-out wants me to write some very crabby things in this update.
My small sliver of brain that’s still vaguely alive (which is shoved in some dark closet of the back of my mind, and I’m pretty sure is only alive because of life support) might be whispering in a horse cracking voice something about how it would be less than ideal to do that.

Functioning with only a small sliver of a brain left, one that’s barely hanging on by a thread, that’s a new form of existence for me. I don’t recommend it.

I don’t completely see how I’m gonna get to the end of this pregnancy with a dead brain. I mean even if I start physically feeling phenomenal, this experience is proving to provide a lot of emotional baggage I didn’t anticipate dealing with. I’m not quite sure how to think about life even on the few days I have felt ok. This pregnancy has really thrown me, like on a deep level.

So, that said...
Pray this baby wants to shoot for 38 weeks. 42 is my going rate -- and that just doesn’t even seem like ironically-evil-funny-fair. It just feels like cruel and unusual after all this.

I’m serious.
If you are praying for me, please just start praying now, that for once I go early. (Not too early, just right early -- 38 weeks.)
So we are clear -- my uterus is made of steel (I had quality contractions, often timetable to every 5 mins, much the time for a month and a half before Ruby was finally born)-- so I’m pretty sure having a baby exit my body before 42 weeks, is only a remote possibility if everyone prays, and prays TONS. Otherwise my uterus is all, “I’ll never let go, Jack. I’ll never let go.”

And well, also, if your praying, pray for my brain. I’d like it back in once piece.

Cause well, I think I’ll need it back to survive newborn days. (I’m pretty nervous, guys. I don’t really know how to imagine going straight from this state into sleepless nights, and 3 kids, and...not to mention postpartum body, all over again. I get that I will physically start improving. I’m just really nervous about my brain.)

Thrift Store Art Makeover

I just thought I’d do a short little post to show you a tiny makeover I did on some thrift store art.

I like to grab random art at thrift stores to help fill up my walls. 

I don’t usually know what I’m going to do with it when I buy it.

It’s just a grab for grab sake, with faith I’ll figure it out later.

I grab stuff sometimes just for the frame, if it’s got a really good looking frame. Or just a really large frame. (New frames are expensive!) You can always cover up the art/re-use the frame for something else.

Sometimes I grab it because I just love the art for itself.

I’m obsessed with this one I found for $4. 

(My girls are equally in love with it. What’s not to love about it?)

And sometimes I grab it just because it’s quirky, and I like that.

I saw this funny little squirrel for sale at GoodWill for $3.

I knew it was kinda a hit or miss piece.

I know tons of people hate squirrels.

I know this entire piece of art is rather hideous.

But I have a soft spot for squirrels. 

I found an abandoned baby squirrel when I was in High School and took care of it round the clock for a while. I think he was sick to start with, he didn’t make it. But I loved him.

I also just think squirrels are really adorable in general -- that tail just gets me.

And we happen to have tons of squirrels in our back yard here.

I watch them out our big family room window all the time. 

I just get a kick out of their scurrying about.

So I bought this little guy, not quite knowing how to fix him, but knowing I just thought he was really cute. No matter what anyone else thought.

I brought him home and took it apart.

This one was actually really hard to take apart, because the back was glued on.

And once it was apart I learned it was all one piece -- the squirrel was on the same page as the “mat.”

Which was kinda disappointing.

So, I took a gold pen and colored over the brown oval “mat.”

And then I spent a night or two cutting up some different whites, and sort-of-whites paint chips I had laying around, and glueing them over the faux wood grain area.

Once the weather warmed up I spray painted the frame flat white.

And I just really really love how he turned out.

He lives in my family room “gallery wall."

Sorry this is a not styled, lame iphone pic again. So I’m not gonna pintrest-woo you. But everything on this wall (besides the clock which we got for our wedding) came from the thrift store. Collected mostly over the past year, with a couple from longer ago.

It’s not like up to par with true design blog’s art walls -- but I think their art wall cost them a whole lot more than mine. And I’m pretty pleased with mine for now. (I’m sure I’ll tweak it over time.)

I bet I spent maybe $50 or less on all these pieces. And they each make me happy.

Anyway, just thought I’d show you my little makeover.