Ruby Jane

About a week ago I came across this post from a fellow blogger about a little girl named Ruby Jane who had passed away from liver failure at just 7 months old. 

You can read about her family and her story at their blog here.

Please take some time to read through their story.

Now that we have Lucy in our lives, stories like these hit a little closer to home. 

I can't even imagine going through what her family did over the past few months. 

A website has been set up to help the family as they now face numerous medical bills. 

You can purchase some of the most adorable accessories at Bows for Ruby. I personally plan to purchase a few headbands and bows for our little one. When she's older I hope Lucy will be happy knowing that she helped the family of another little girl.

You can also check out The Ruby Jane Foundation.

I figure I could at least do my part to spread the word in the hopes that you will fall in love with this little girl like I did and help their family out.

Where Do You Blog?

So, where do you spend most of your blogging time? 
At the kitchen table? 
In a home office? 
Maybe you need to get out of the house to a coffee shop?


I wish I could say that I have a nice office in my house. With a great desk that I retreat to when I need some 'me' time to scope out my blogs and check my email. An office that has tons of organization for bills and all my craft supplies. I actually did have an office once. But I never used it as an one, and it quickly became a junk room. The room eventually transformed into Lucy's nursery. Someday I will have an office. It just might not be in this house since we really have no more rooms except the junk room in the basement and I find our basement a bit 'icky.' But I eventually will.


In all honestly, when I'm using my laptop, I'm usually plopped on the couch. 
And the same spot of that couch each time.

This is my space. This is where I sit in the morning to peruse my blogs or check my email. And where I sit at night when hubby and I are checking our Facebook pages or I'm writing my blog post for the next day.

Yup that's my little nook. I'm not sure how I started using that as 'my spot' but it's been mine for quite some time. It's nice in the summer when the window is open and I can peek out back to the creek. The plug behind the couch also makes it a convenient spot to charge my laptop. These days I now share that space. Since it's the roomiest part of the couch it doubles as the 'diaper station' where we change Lucy. (Note the supplies on the side table.)

It also gives me the perfect view to keep an eye on Lucy when she's napping downstairs. 

Oh, and don't worry - the coffee is decaf. :)

In case you were wondering, this is Jordan's nook. Yup, we each have 'our spot' on the couch. Granted, it's on opposite sides of the couch, but it works for us. He checks his sports and music pages while I scan all my blogs. And we laugh with each other over silly videos or 'awww' over posts about dogs.

Don't worry, when we watch a movie or eat dinner in front of the tube (yes we do that from time to time), we do actually sit next to one another. We even sometimes cuddle (gasp!). But for daily computer time we each have our own routine.


Back when we would let Lyla on the couch, she would claim the corner between Jordan and me and plop down on top of ALL the pillows. We used to keep them all in that corner. They belonged to her. It was the cutest thing. We have since moved her dog bed into the living room to keep her off the couch now that we have Lucy up there with us. Needless to say, Lyla wasn't too happy in the beginning and she still tries to sneak on the couch at least once a day.


And here is my editor, Lucy. She finds my posts a bit boring sometimes.

So where do you blog or surf the web? Do you have the same spot you retreat to every day? Or do you mix it up each time depending on the day? Do you have an office with a desk just for your computer time?  Or if you're like me, you curl up on the couch with the laptop to watch TV and spend time with your loves.

Nursery Additions

I suppose I jumped the gun a bit when I posted a nursery reveal almost two months ago. Even in the post I said that I wasn't quite satisfied with the nursery and would most likely continue to work on it. I've made some small changes and I'm finally feeling that the room is 'finished'. I love all the little additions I've made over the past few weeks and figured I would give you all a look. 

Pillows:


I decided the toy chest needed pillows to add some texture and a splash of color to the room. Sticking with my yellow, pink and teal color scheme, I found all three of these pillows on Etsy.

Pink Tiger Pillow - BlueDoorStyle

Yellow Chevron Pillow - CastleCreekDesigns

Teal Dandelion Pillow - Modernality2

Framed Button Art:

My framed button art found a home beside the fabric pom poms I made back in March.

Octopus Print:

I love this little framed Octopus. (Octopi? Octopuses?) It was actually a card that a family friend sent after Lucy was born. Jordan and I thought it was the cutest thing and we decided to frame it for the nursery with an old painted frame I had stuffed in the basement. The colors go perfect with the rest of the room.

'Thank Heaven' Sign:

Jordan's Aunt brought this adorable wooden sign to the hospital as a gift when Lucy was born. She purchased it at a little shop down the beach while she was on vacations the previous week. I knew exactly the perfect place to hang it. 

Crib Skirt:

I made a crib skirt! DIY and no-sew. I told you in my failed skylight curtain post that I had a plan for the yellow fabric. I'll explain you more about this crib skirt including how I made it later. 

Owl:

My grandfather gave me this little white owl a few weeks ago. 

It belonged to my grandmother.

The head screws off and it is a perfume holder. How adorable is that?

I love the little gold accent on the eyes.

Additions to the Gallery Wall:

Lucy, Jordan and my hospital bracelets backed with scrap paper and framed in an Ikea shadowbox:

Lucy's horoscope from the day she was born backed with scrap paper and framed in a $1.00 gold frame from JoAnn Fabrics. (Also shown here.)

Skylight Curtain


Ok I don't have any pictures of this one because I haven't quite finished it yet. 
You can get a better idea of what I am working on in this post and this one. 


There you have it. The last few finishing touches to Lucy's nursery. I'll re-post a nursery tour in the next week or two with updated pictures of how the room looks today. 

Irene Aftermath

As I'm sure everyone saw on the news, Hurricane Irene swept through the East coast this past weekend and did some damage along the way. This week has been quite the roller coaster of events between the earthquake on Wednesday and the Hurricane Saturday mixed with Tornado warnings throughout the night. Needless to say we weren't quite sure what to expect.

They had warned us about flooding and possible power outages. Most of the East coast was put in a state of emergency with driving bans. We were all encouraged to stock up on water, non-perishables, and batteries. Jordan went out Friday to get bungee cords for our deck furniture as well as our trash cans out front. We were preparing for the worst and didn't know what to expect.

It started raining around 2:00pm on Saturday and was falling pretty heavily by the evening. The sun went down before we could really see any damage begin outside, so we were in the dark most the rest of the night (no pun intended.. ok maybe a little) with regards to how things looked. By 9pm we had a few minor spots of water in the basement that Jordan was able to clean with the Shop Vac and use towels to keep anymore from coming in. Between 10 and 11pm we received a handful of Tornado warnings for our area and were encouraged to seek shelter in our basement or central room in our house.

I fell asleep on the couch sometime around 1am. I was up at 3:30 to feed Lucy and again around 6:30. Jordan really didn't sleep for fear of basement flooding or one of the trees out back crashing into our deck or worse yet, our house. 

Once the sun came up we were able to survey the damage. 

A few months ago I showed you some pictures of our deck out back. 

This is how our backyard normally looks on a daily basis:

You can see the shallow creek in the back with a lot of weeds and grass down below. Whenever it rains the creek always rises a few feet, but nothing to ever worry about. 

After Hurricane Irene swept through, here was the view from our deck when the sun came out Sunday morning:

I took all these pictures from inside the slider on our first floor, not actually on the deck. The winds were still pretty high at the time and some of the trees were swaying pretty heavily so we opted to stay inside for a few more hours until things settled a bit.

I couldn't get a great picture of it, but the field on the other side of the creek was completely flooded. You could only see water from probably half a mile. You can see a little bit in this picture. You can see water between the branches and leaves all the way to the top of the picture:

Since the other side of the creek is lower than our side, the water luckily went that way instead of flooding our house. It's difficult to see, but there is actually an 8 foot slope at the edge of our property. So the water would need to rise more in order to reach the basement slider.

These were taken from the walk-out slider in our basement. 

Just to give you an idea of how far the creek was from our house. We had about 30 feet between the house and the water along with the 8 foot drop, so we really had nothing to worry about (thanks goodness). 

Other than a few broken branches out back, we had no damage. Late Sunday afternoon one of the trees two houses down fell. Thankfully it fell into the creek and did no structural damage to anyone. By 6pm the creek was almost completely back to it's original depth. 

We really lucked out that this was all that we had from the storm. We lost electricity for about 30 seconds that morning, but that was the extent of it. Others were not so lucky. A tornado touched down in Lewes and did some damages to houses. 11 people lost their lives across the coast. It was scary and bad, but it could have been much worse and for that I am thankful. I'd rather have the hype and preparedness for nothing.

Hopefully you all had a safe weekend and no one was seriously affected by Irene!

Little Gold Frame

Once upon a time the nursery gallery wall looked like this:

For the past two weeks or so it looked like this:

I added some of my favorite pictures of Lucy that I've taken in the weeks since she was born. I'm sure that I'll be swapping out photos every few months or so as I take new ones. But for the time being, these are a few of my favorites.

I saved our hospital bracelets specifically for this shadowbox from Ikea. The night we came home the hospital I couldn't wait to put this together and hang it on the wall. I originally just wanted to frame her bracelet, but decided to put all three in the shadowbox. The only downside is that they all have my name on them. I wish Lucy's had her name, but all in the name of hospital safety. Oh well!

For the past few weeks or so the wall has been 90% complete. 

Only 90% because I still had this little guy to fill and wasn't exactly sure what to put in it.

This tiny frame was only $1.00 from Joann Fabrics. In that sneaky rack they put by the register with about 50 other items under $5.00 just to tempt you while you wait in line. I'm a sucker and fell for it!

Originally Jordan suggested putting Lucy's footprint in the frame which I loved. We never did it for a few reasons. For one thing, I didn't want to go through the mess of trying to get an ink footprint from a squirmy infant. I knew it wouldn't be easy and I know I'm a perfectionist and would keep trying until I got the 'perfect' footprint. I also didn't want Lucy to have a stained foot for weeks.

We even thought about using the t-shirt footprint from the hospital, but I can't bear to cut up the shirt. Speaking of, I still haven't decided what to do with the shirt. Maybe frame it or turn it into some sort of gift for Jordan? Any suggestions?

Besides, my mom gave us a kit to do a ceramic footprint, which I plan to do sometime soon, so there is no need to do another one with ink.

Anyway, last week at my in-laws my MIL gave me a cut out from the newspaper of Lucy's horoscope from the day she was born. I didn't even think to look her horoscope up and I knew this would be a perfect fit for the tiny, empty frame. So I pulled out the scrap paper leftover from the gold 'Lucy James' frame project I did on her Expedit bookcase and picked a good background for the horoscope.

Now I have this:

The horoscope reads:

"Your tenacity and stamina are marvelous attributes that you'll apply to remarkable feats. Through the next five weeks, good fortune comes by way of community projects and sales. You'll be shown affection and will enjoy a large number of friends and acquaintances. An inheritance or unexpected bounty comes in February. Libra and Gemini people adore you."

Granted, it doesn't complete apply to a newborn, but I like the "You'll be shown affection and will enjoy a large number of friends and acquaintances" line. So many people already love and adore Lucy, so I think that this part of the fortune rings true. Also the 'unexpected bounty' line sounds pretty sweet although she won't be receiving that from us!

Here is the wall as it looks today:

Working on skylight curtain version 2 today along with another project in store for the weekend. Can't wait to show you all the final products. 

Happy Friday!! Good luck to everyone during the hurricane this weekend. Every state around here including Delaware has been declared a state of emergency. Here's hoping things aren't as bad as they predict. 

Blinded by the Light (Part II) - Trial and Error

I did it. I made my no-sew window treatment for the nursery skylight. 

Please excuse the crappy quality of pictures. I couldn't quite figure out the right lighting and everything around the window comes out super dark in photos. 

I'm not 100% happy with the window treatment. For one thing, I mis-measured the length so there is a small gap on either side between the rod and the wall. Plus the lighting in the room now suffers a bit with the addition of the curtain.
Let me break it down.


Pros:
- Blocks the bright sunlight (the reason for the curtain)
- Attractive fabric
- Spent much less $$ than custom blinds
- Took under an hour to create


Cons:
- Measurements are slightly off resulting in a gap on each end
- Because of the fabric color, it casts a yellow glow into the room during the day. It looks like it's 7pm with a lamp on at 12 in the afternoon. I'm a lover of natural light. I wake up in the morning and open all the curtains and blinds in the house to let the bright, blinding, gorgeous little sunlight I can get in. So I'm not too happy if there's no natural light into the room. 




Solution?
Since it does the job and my only real issue with the curtain is the color, I'm going to make another curtain in a lighter fabric. 

I chose a white fabric with just a little detailing to keep it from looking like an old bed sheet. I'm hoping that the white will allow enough light to come in without casting an awkward shadow in the room like the yellow fabric did.

Jordan has been working outside and trimming the trees in our backyard that have been blocking out the sunlight during the day. Hopefully a combination of a newer, lighter curtain along with the trimmed trees will keep the bright glare out, but allow enough light to creep in. 


Don't worry my yellow fabric will not to go waste. 
I have another project in the works and will be putting it to good use!


Stay tuned for a re-do of the skylight curtain reveal.
I'll also fill you in on the details of how I made this no-sew curtain.

Blinded by the Light (Part 1)

Guess what? I have a new project in the works.

But first... a little side story for fun and a good laugh at my expense.

I'm truly beginning to understand what it means when people say that being a mom is a full-time job. Believe it or not the day flies by and next thing you know it's 2pm and you feel like you've done nothing but feeding, burping, changing, and playing with your little one all day. And maybe, just maybe you had the chance to brush your teeth or scarf down a granola bar (or something equally as easy to eat with one hand). What I never have time to do (until Jordan gets home from work and I do the baby trade-off) is shower. The one time I did try to shower, I waited until Lucy had fallen asleep, and took literally a 5 minute shower. Meaning I jumped in, soaped up, rinsed off and jumped out. As soon as I turned the water off, I could hear her wailing from the bedroom. Broke my heart. I vowed to never sneak in a shower while she napped again. 

While showering daily is a treat for me, washing my hair is another story. I am lucky enough that I don't get a big grease ball on my head when I go a few days without washing my hair. I tend to get to wash my hair every 5 days. Eww (whatever..) Last night was one of those times when Jordan was on baby duty and shooed me off telling me to take a nice long shower. So I did just that. Washed my hair, shaved my legs, went all out. When I got out of the shower, Lucy was a little fussy so I took her from the hubby for a little snugging. What does she do? Spits up on my still-wet, just washed hair. So what did I do? Jump back in the shower? Dunk my hair in the sink? Nope. Wiped it away with a burp cloth and keep snuggling. I guess I'm officially a mom.

Now back to business....

You can see from these pictures that we have a rather bright skylight in the nursery.

And you can see when the sun comes in it casts a beam of light into the room. 

It's pretty bright, so much that I sometimes have to cover Lucy's eyes or walk her around the light when I bring her in to change her. At certain times in the day it even creeps into her crib. So I needed to find a solution before she begins sleeping or even taking naps in her room. (She currently sleeps in a bassinet in our room during the night.)

 I mentioned in my To-Do List that I wanted to find blinds for the window. I didn't realize how expensive they were! After looking online I realized to have blinds or already-made window treatments I was going to have to pay a pretty penny (some blinds ranged $300-400!) Since not having blinds really isn't an option, I'll need to DIY a window treatment.

Yesterday Lucy and I ran out to JoAnn fabric and picked up some supplies: this pretty yellow fabric and Heat-n-Bond. Last week we purchased two 18-24" tension rods.

While I don't exactly have instructions that I'm following, I have an idea of how I want to execute this project. I plan to create something similar to this window treatment I found on Prudent Baby:

via Prudent Baby

I'm hoping that by using tension rods and making the fabric the exact length of the window and keeping it tight I can prevent it from sagging and letting the light in. 

I'm off to give this project a try. Wish me luck! 

I'll will update tomorrow with a (hopefully) finished product. 

Happy Tuesday!

Fresh fruit

Blend

 Enjoy

1 Month

Our baby girl turned 1 month on Friday!

It's crazy to think it's been a month already. 

It has been the quickest but best month. 

Happy 1 Month Birthday Lucy James!