Decorating: Martha Stewart Poms

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My friend, Amy, saw the mood board that I did for Mrs. Messi and fell in love with the Martha Stewart Poms that I included in her Mood Board.

So on Saturday while the electric was out for 10 hours, Christopher and I headed to Amy's house to borrow some heat and electric. Chris and Amy's husband, Bill, watched movies with their daughter, Addison. Amy and I, tried our hand at the Martha Stewarts Poms. These Poms will go in Addison's new Big Girl Room, once her new brother gets her in June.

Here's what we did:

1. You'll need 8 pieces of tissue paper, monofiliment, floral wire and scissors

2. Fan Fold the 8 pieces of tissue paper (about 1 1/2 inch folds)

3. Cut an 18 inch piece of floral wire

4. With the folds facing up, wrap the floral wire in the middle of the fan folded tissue

5. Cut the edges (round, pointy, etc)

7. Seperate the layers of tissue

10. Finish Fluffing

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Decorating: Baby Room Mood Board

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My wonderful bloggy friend, Mrs. Messi, contacted me wanting some help with her nursery. She is having a baby girl. Here is here email:

"I would love if you made a nursery idea board for me!

So far I am thinking blue walls, with some pink or white horizontal stripes...just a few, white bead board on the bottom half, "Dream" somewhere, white or pink curtains, white furniture, and pink accents.

You are so creative...and I just feel lost!"

Here is the breakdown:

1. Crib and Dresser are from Babys R Us
2. Curtains are from Target
3. Quilt is from Sandra Baby Quilts, this is where the inspiration for the room came from
4. Pictures on the wall are an I idea I saw at Spearmint Baby. I think you can make these yourself with scrapbook paper.

5. Lamp is from Target.
6. Diaper Genie I put in there for a realistic effect (he, he)
7. Poms are from Martha Stewart and here is the DIY instructions
8. Rug is from Pottery Barn
9. Dream is from one of my favorite blogs, Life in the Fun Lane but Target also has a cool wall decal
10. Glider is from Target
11. Paint (above beadboard) is Behr Blue Feather

Mrs. Messi, I hope this gives you some good ideas for your baby girls nursery. I'm so excited for you to meet your little girl.

**Don't forget to register for the EcoStore USA $25 Gift Certificate Giveaway**

Nursery Mood Board

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Since we all know that I have lost my "baby fever" mind. I've created my perfect nursery. I'm in love with this Alphebet Wallpaper. I would love to do one wall with primary color wallpaper and the other three in lime green. The rest of what is here is listed below:

Nursery by domesticprncs on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:
Da Vinci Kalani Convertible Crib - White - DaVinci - Babies "R" Us, $310
IKEA | Children's textiles | Baby textiles | VITAMINER RAND | 4-piece..., $13
Harmony Adult Yellow Micro Maybury Glider - Harmony Kids - Babies "R"..., $400
Harmony Adult Yellow Micro Maybury Ottoman - Harmony Kids - Babies "R"..., $150
Koala Baby 16 inch Tan Teddy Bear - Babies R Us - Toys "R" Us, $17

So how did I do for my first Nursery mood board?

I'm a star....Baby Star that is!

Tweet You all know my love for the company, Baby Star. I just love how their clothes have such cute contemporary patterns but are organic also. I registered for Thediaperdiaries.com contest giving away a poodle blanket from Baby Star a while ago. Welll......I won....I won! This wonderful blanket:

It came so adorbably packaged with a Baby Star ribbon wrapped around it. I'm in love with it. It's so soft. This is the exact bedding I want for future Baby P.

I'm ovulating!

Tweet I know it's weird to show you a stick that has my pee on it but go with me here.

This weekend I was wondering around Deals (it's a dollar store) looking for a vase for our new bookshelves and found $1 ovulation tests. I thought to myself "How cool" so I picked up one (or 10).

While I was checking out, the lady rang up one of the test, looks at me and says in her old lady southern accent "Sweetie, are you sure you don't want the pregnancy tests." Why did I feel like I was 16 years old buying a pregnancy test? My face turned bright red and I said "No."

I think this getting pregnant stuff is so cool. If only we could "baby dance" today.

Baby Discussions

Tweet are happening in the 'P' household and the verdict is:

We're too broke to have kids!

Christopher and I took a hard look at our budget to see if we could comfortably bring a baby into it and the verdict is NO WAY! One reason why is the high cost of daycare around here. We've heard from many of our friends who send their kids to daycare, the cost is around $1100 a month for infants. That's almost another mortgage payment. Who can afford this? We're so worried that we're never going to be able to afford a baby.

From my calculations, we are about $400 a month short of where we want to be. Anyone want to hire me part time? lol!

Here is some ways I've come up with to get some extra money:

1. We're going to petition the city to get our property taxes lowered. Currently we're paying taxes on an appraisal from 3 years ago. We had the house reappraised when we bought it and it was appraised for $30K less than what the owners paid for it originally. So we're still paying taxes on that amount. This should give us an extra $100 a month.

2. We're going to save $9K and try to pay off one of my student loans which currently costs us about $150/month.

3. Stop eating out once a week ($25/per week), which should give us an extra $100 a month

With just those things that gives us an extra $350 per month. Which is really close to our goal of an extra $400 a month.

Now I haven't forgot that once baby comes, we can use the Dependent Pretax Expense Account that allows you to have money taken out of your paycheck before taxes come out. So if you're putting away $400 a pay for day care, it's actually only like taking about $260 out of your check. We also will be claiming 1 instead of zero on our taxes, which will give us a little bit more money in our pocket.

It's going to take a while to save that $9K, that will definitely be pushing the possible 2010 start date back.

I'm super excited to start trying to expand our family and kinda bummed it may take that long to start trying. Anyone want to donate $9K to the "make a baby" fund?

Have you and your husband/significant other had this conversation? How did you handle waiting to have a baby?

Vitamins, To take or not to take?

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Christopher and I have started taking our vitamins. After a lengthy conversation with my cousin last weekend, I have decided to start taking prenatal vitamins. We have a family history of miscarriages, that some doctors have explained as not having enough vitamins in our systems to sustain a baby. So, Christopher and I figured that I had better get on some prenatals just in case we had an "accident" *What I mean by that is adorable, cute bundle of joy*

Christopher is also getting his recommended daily dose with a Men's Mulivitamin.

Do you take a multivitamin? What kind do you take? What vitamins are important to you right now?

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Baby Fever?

Tweet Anyone want to talk Baby Fever with me? I think this house has started controlling my uterus! It seems that since the minute we moved into this house, the baby fever started in on my brain. Here's a good example:

This weekend my husband, Chris and I, went to some garage sales on the other side of town. Well, my baby brain knew that if we went to these garage sales we would be able to stop by the mall, which happens to have a POTTERY BARN KIDS. But did I tell my husband that? No way! So we went to the garage sales, finding nothing too interesting. Ofcourse, as soon as we jumped on the highway heading home, I said: "Hey you wanna stop by the mall?". Chris is always down for shopping, so he said Yes. After two trips up and down the mall, window shopping, I asked to go to Pottery Barn Kids. His answer: "I'll wait outside." He's obviously not ready for that part of our life. But as soon as I saw they had Star Wars Bedding I came out and told him he had to come in to see it. These words were actually muttered out of Chris' mouth "Maybe this would be fun" as he's playing with all the toys and sitting on the little kids bed.
Has the baby fever hit Christopher too?

Anyone else have baby fever?