gender neutral nursery...hopefully.

My idea for a gender neutral nursery was to go with an outdoor theme. I had some ideas, but wasn't sure how it would look once it all came together. My ideas began to change as I went, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

The room before...our closet...surprisingly those are not my clothes.;)

after..the nursery.

the hanging duck isn't in it's place yet...but will eventually be hanging somewhere in that area.

The thrift store painting I painted over..inspiration for the room. $5.00

Rocker found in Grandmother's attic-$0.00

Fabric to recover cushion-$ don't remember price:)

Blue side table ..Grandmother's $0

Covered paper boxes in dark green burlap-$ cheap

handmade curtains $3.99/yard

Up close shot of fabric

Duck found at antique store $5.00. Thought it would work great as a mobile.

My attempt at a gallery wall...on a very uneven wall so the pictures are rarely all straight at the same time. The blank area is going to have a yarn covered letter of the first name of the baby...I went ahead and bought both letters, but am waiting to see what we have. I love not knowing!

I'm not sure how I feel about this deer. I wanted one like this, but couldn't make myself pay $15.00 for pieces of cardboard. I looked up how to make your own and found this. I found the frame in my parent's attic and spray painted doilies with metallic gold paint to use as a backdrop. It will do for now;)

Framed some fabric I had that I stamped a Bible verse on. $0

Framed some 4x6 pictures I took. Had the frames... $.67

Bought this lamp at a yard sale for $1.00. Added a shade I already had that I covered in leftover fabric from the curtains.

I'm sure you were wondering where in the world we put all the stuff that comes along with a baby...

I know it's different but I really like it...especially how much it cost to complete;)

Give Thanks

When I started reading One Thousand Gifts, instead of making a "list" I decided to do a picture of something I'm thankful for that day. I had all intentions of printing these out and putting into a journal, but money is tight around here and 365 prints add up...but mainly I'm the worst when it comes to taking the time to download pictures from the camera to the computer, and keeping them organized and in order got kind of annoying. This is the main reason my blogging is so sporadic. So basically my laziness got the best of me I guess, but I love the pictures I do have and hope I can start over doing one picture a week instead. Here are some of my favorites:

Thankful for:

Waking up beside this man

sweet puppies (most of the time)

no debt

Clean dishes

Jack stopping work to love on Georgia

Sun cutting through mist

the brightest sunlight after rain

waking before dawn

color in nature

Jack surprising me with my pregnancy craving that day

Celebrating the miracle of new life with a best friend

change in seasons

having more than I need and getting to give some away

a different sky every day

moonlight shining through the clouds

sunsets while driving home

everyday things that so often get ignored.

hawks & must reads

I've been a little obsessed with hawks lately. I actually called them eagles for awhile because I wasn't used to seeing birds so big, so I naturally assumed it was an eagle, but Jack quickly corrected me;)  I became obsessed with them when I started reading One Thousand Gifts. The Lord definitely used this book in a huge way with me. I began to see things differently and give thanks for the small, mundane things that are normally taken for granted. "Faith is always a way of seeing, a seeking for God in everything". I was going for a walk one day and saw a hawk in the tree above me and the beauty and awe of it made me stop. The Lord had to have been working on me because normally I wouldn't think twice about this bird, but I saw His beauty through a hawk and right there gave thanks. It's unreal how much we all have to be thankful for if we look through His eyes.

I've started keeping my eye out for the hawks when I'm outside. It's fills me up when I see them. There are a couple that I see in the same spots every time, and I try to get as close as I can before they see me and fly away (I'm aware that I sound like a kid and am sure I get weird looks by people passing by).

One day recently I was walking to go inside when I happened to look up and saw this...

It was amazing...I was ecstatic and beyond words. There were so many! I grabbed my camera and tried to capture what I was seeing. I've never seen that many hawks at one time, and they happened to be right over our house. I knew it was a gift from above. He loves us so much.

 Must Reads:

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Desiring God blog from today

My friend Melissa started a blog and is a beautiful writer

christmas card

Our Christmas card that never went out;)

Merry late Christmas!

counting weeks

I always found it annoying when I asked a pregnant friend how far along she was and she would respond with the amount of weeks. It meant I then had to take a minute and do the math in my head (I'm horrible at math so it would take longer than most people). I just wanted the answer in simple months. Now that I'm pregnant, I of course am counting by the weeks and they are flying by! The first 12 went by incredibly slow but now that I'm 27 weeks I'm getting a little nervous about this whole thing, and excited of course. Nervous mostly about raising a well-behaved child that loves Jesus. I feel like I need to read a whole library in the next couple of months on parenting. Also feeling very challenged lately with my relationship with Jesus and the affect that it will have on my child...they will see my every move and hear the words I speak...I want them to see Christ in all of it. This will be tough and many mistakes are bound to be made.

I've been spending most of my time editing some pictures and studying for an online class that is a thorn in my side these days. I HAVE GOT to start working on projects for the baby room and homemade gifts for Christmas! It's November 11th already! sheesh! Sloooooow down time! I'll try to post some pictures of the projects I do in case any of them turn out cute.


I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from a recent photo session. so sweet.




WARNING: Stop reading now if you get grossed out easily. 


And a picture to prove that we're counting weeks...
I'm wearing the same thing in some pictures because we forgot to take the picture for that week...Also, week 17 Jack started to write "months" instead of "weeks". I wanted to use it anyways because I thought it was cute and shows how forgetful we are I am these days.

DIY-wooden lamps

available at Target for $49.99 (without shade):

available in your backyard for less than $20 (with shade)

So, they're not exactly alike, but I've seen the one at Target and it just looks way too fake. I found a dead tree in our woods. We cut it down, soaked the pieces with ant spray (ants love to live in dead wood apparently), and sprayed them with a sealant to bring out the color and give the wood a more durable outer covering since the wood was dead and chipping off pretty easily. Added a light kit and a shade and I now have two new bedside lamps for about the cost of one had I purchased them. Love the feeling after finishing a DIY project; especially if it saves you money!

neutral nursery

Well, we are 23 weeks along in this pregnancy and time is flying by. We decided not to find out the sex of our baby after talking with many couples who waited. Their stories of that moment when the baby was delivered were all so special and exciting. We decided that we wanted that moment of surprise at the hospital after 9 long months. So, gender neutral nursery it is!

I'll be honest, I'm really not into the gender neutral things out there. I'm not really into "baby-decor" at all actually..like ducks and cartoons. I want most everything in the nursery to be able to be used as the child grows older or placed somewhere else in the house. I am such a tomboy still that most of the things I'm drawn to tend to be on the boyish side, even though I'm pretty sure we're having a girl.

I decided to do an outdoor theme. I found this picture below at a thrift store. I took a picture of it and doctored it on photoshop (brightened and smudged). I then painted over the entire image referring back to the photoshop image which is below. I have yet to take a picture of the finished piece but I really like how it turned out. This was the inspiration for the room.

Crib from IKEA has caught my eye. Love the simple lines and natural wood...and affordable price of course.

thinking blue gingham fabric for curtains

we have an old rocking chair we plan to use

thinking a fabric like this or either a yellow print for chair cushion

multi-colored fabric rugs from K Mart... bought 4 that I plan to sew together

Source: sixtyonea.blogspot.com via Madame Marjan on Pinterest

Source: spoolsewing.com via Meredith on Pinterest

thinking of making a mobile with fish and birds out of different fabrics.

As you can see there's a lot of mixing and matching going on and perhaps a little on the boyish side. I may change some things as I go if it looks ridiculous. It's hard to tell until everything is in place, and I can always add some girlish things in once we have confirmation. I'm trying to keep myself in check with decorating the room when it comes to spending money and time on it because ultimately that stuff isn't important, but it is a fun way to be creative;)