So, a YEAR later...

I have tried to keep this blog chronological, but the longer I go between posts, the more hopeless it feels to go back and fill everything in...so I'm just going to start from here and try to fill in the holes...whenever I have time. Which is probably not going to be very often, but it's better than nothing! :)

So, we're having another baby! It's a girl due September 23, and we plan to name her Kathryn Elisabeth. Kathryn is my grandmother's and my sister's name, and they were both also born in September. It's also James's mom's name (spelled the same way!), so it was just too perfect of a name not to choose. And Elisabeth is a family name on my mom's side. Liam will be 2 1/2 by the time she's born, and *hopefully* potty-trained. He's not making any promises, though.

We moved Liam from his room into the back bedroom (my old office...now I work solely from the bonus room. It's actually a little more convenient to have the computer and all my supplies all in one room). The back bedroom is a smidge bigger, so that if we're still in this house for a while, his crib will fit better when we convert it to a full-sized bed. Here are pics of his new "big boy" room:

We added a ceiling fan, new blinds (the LAST room to finally get replaced from the plastic mini-blinds that were here when we moved in...YAY!), crown moulding and panelling and painted the top portion "Mudpie" from Valspar (how appropriate for a little boy's room!), all based on a photo I found in the Restoration Hardware Baby & Child catalog that I LOVED http://www.rhbabyandchild.com/rhbc/design-gallery/index.jsp?navAction=jump&navCount=0&categoryId=rhbc_cat115024#roomid=300018&roomtypeid=100002 (James is such a good sport, and thankfully, very handy!) Though he swears he will never put up crown moulding again. I think we did a pretty good job, but all the angles are so confusing, and combined with all of my raging pregnancy hormones, it made for good argument fuel :)

Cowboy theme...not too much, though. He's obsessed with Woody from Toy Story...I just couldn't do a Disney theme, so this is the next best thing until he gets old enough to really care about how his room is decorated! Ha!

My friend Mandy brought this sweet little sign for him when she heard of his "cowboy" theme...so cute!

I also painted a star on the wall above his crib and attached the letters from his old room (now painted a lighter brown than the wall), so that they stand out about 1/2 from the wall. I still want to make a lumbar pillow for the chair, and get a few photos framed from his cowboy birthday party, but other than that, I think it's done.

And here are pics of miss Katie Beth's new room (Liam's old room)! No new panelling or crown moulding in here (whew!) just new paint color. I fell in love with the crib from Restoration Hardware (on sale...thank goodness!) and since it was kind of a splurge, we made up for it by sanding and painting our old 1990's-fabulous master bedroom furniture pistachio (we got a new master bedroom set for my 30th birthday last year...I'm a lucky girl!) and replaced the brass hardware with chocolate brown cup pulls...looks brand new! I couldn't be happier!

There is a tiny bit of a bird theme, right now there is a fat little bird and a birdhouse on top of the armoire and a sweet little cast-iron bell with a birdie on top on the shelf above her dresser/changing table. I'm looking for bird-shaped push pins for her corkboard above her bed...so far I've found some pewter ones online that I thought I could paint the same color brown as the furniture hardware...

...but I'm not totally in love with them yet, so I'll keep looking. I also just found iron bird-shaped wine corks in the new Pottery Barn catalog that I thought might make perfect finials for the top of her crib...
...IF I decide not to do a fabric canopy. Decisions, decisions...

I ordered the fabric for the curtains online and it was *supposed* to be coral (my friend Catherine gave me the inspiration to use coral from her coral/aqua/celery nursery for her baby girl...check out her blog on my links...it's amazing!), but it turned out to be a bit more orange than I anticipated. I still loved the floral print though, and I thought the color still went well with the green in the furniture and green bumper backing, so I went with it, and I'm happy now that I decided to keep it. The rocking chair was my mom's that she used for both my sisters and me, and I also used it with Liam before we got the glider for Christmas. And I found the floor lamp at a model home sale a few years ago, thinking it would be perfect for a little girl's room...if I ever had one. I am SO happy to get to use it for exactly that purpose! God is so good!

And I found the seagrass rug on sale at Lowe's (it smells SO good!) and chose the wall color based on the edging. I would have rather had chocolate brown edging, but the price was waaay too good to pass up...and I actually like the tan edging better now, I think.

Here is the bedding...I used a natural colored waffle-weave fabric for the inset, dyed it brown and had it embroidered with her initials before sewing the whole thing together (I used the extra waffle-weave to make a matching pillow for the rocker).

My sister Amy gave us this sweet little flat bunny with "Katie Beth" embroidered in its ear. So cute!

The bumper backing fabric...also ordered online, but it was a Waverly pattern I had already seen at JoAnn's so I knew what color to expect. I just found it at half the price online :) And I ordered a giant 100-yard spool of brown grosgrain ribbon online for all of the trim for the drapes and bedding, the bumper ruffle and ties. So there you have it! My sister Brie was a HUGE help in painting both rooms and the furniture, I couldn't have done it without her! And Amy helped paint and arrange furniture, too, even with a newborn to care for...I have AWESOME family! Now I can't wait for our new addition to arrive! Only 8 more weeks to go...I never expected to have everything ready this far in advance...so unlike me! :)