Call Me Crafty, the Bookcase Edition

Before I went back to work, we spent a weekend painting and decorating Wren's playroom. It turned out so cute, we're really happy with it! I'll post pictures soon, we just need to find some curtains that go and I have to finish one more "project" and we should be good to go.

*A note about my projects: I love being crafty. The only problem is that I can't decide on one project so I tend to have several different things going on at once. Sometimes I'll admit that it takes me a while to finish things, but what can I say? It's the artist in me! :) Okay, it's more like the procrastinator in me!*

But in the meantime, I am so proud of my upcycled bookcase! Most of the furniture in her playroom is white, so we looked for a while at different white bookcases. We checked out Pottery Barn Kids, we looked at Land of Nod, Target...you name it. I had an image in my mind and I just couldn't find what I was looking for. Or if I did, it was more than I wanted to spend. Since her playroom is in the bonus room, the ceiling is vaulted and comes down very low on the wall so the bookcase couldn't be too tall. I wanted something simple and sturdy enough to last a toddler pulling on it and roughin' it up.

One afternoon, Wren and I checked out Goodwill and a couple local "treasure shops." At our last stop, we headed into Trader Buck's flea market and there were a few different things that popped out at me and I actually walked right past this. On my second trip around the place, I stopped and investigated it a little further. I texted Josh a picture and at $37.50, we decided to give it a shot! Sure beats the $120+ that we found them for in the stores!

Here's the bookcase before. It reminds me so much of furniture when we were little. It is really sturdy and I like how the bottom is heavy and thick so it won't be toppling over on Wren when she's pulling up on it like I know she will eventually do.

I knew I wanted the doors taken off. When I was at Trader Buck's I opened up the doors and it was exactly what I had been looking for.

Momma got to use a power tool! I removed the doors, the hinges and the magnets at the top of the door closures. Kowe supervised.

Then I sanded it down. And then I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the progress. Josh helped me by puddying the notches where the hinges were. I was going to just paint it but he wanted it to be perfect so he rigged up a concoction to get them filled in.

We had paint left over from when we painted Wren's closet and I used it to paint her chalkboard which is also in the playroom, so I knew I wanted to use the same color. LOVE the aqua against the Asparagus color of her playroom!

I had a few different ideas for the backing of the bookcase. My initial plan was to find a fun patterned scrapbook paper or wallpaper to stick to the back. But Michael's had zero stock and Hobby Lobby didn't have anything I liked. Then I found a bunch of plastic ABC scrapbook pages on clearance 7/$1 and was going to paint them and paste them to the backing. But I didn't like the way that was turning out. Finally, when I was about to give up, Josh suggested I use these cute words that Shell had bought for the playroom. They matched the colors exactly and I had planned on putting them on the wall near the entryway, but Josh and I agreed they looked really cute in the bookcase, so that's what we did! I thought the words "Imagine," and "Dream" were perfect for her little storyland.

And then we filled it with {some of} Wren's books! We keep some downstairs for storytime when we're down there and we have some in her bedroom. Josh brings Wren down each night as I get her clothes ready for the next day and they read a few stories. It's so fun that she finally has a spot to put her books! She's loving it as you can see!

I'm going to post pictures of her entire playroom soon. We made little "nooks" for her so the bookshelf naturally goes near her reading nook. :)

By the way, can we make a note of how adorable she is in her "Little Green Tee" and Baby Legs?! Such a little tree hugger! I was amazed that the shirt still fit as it's a 0-3 month! We often think of her as huge, especially because her cloth diapers make it so she wears bigger pants, but this cute little shirt was a reminder that she's still a pretty tiny peanut.

Giggle Monster

I dare you not to fall in love with this sweet joyful little being!
As always, pardon my annoying voice!

Weeks 16, 17 & 18!

Oh my. It's been a while! We've been taking the pictures, I just haven't taken the time to upload them.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I went back to work on February 21 and Josh had 2 weeks of paternity leave to use, so he took those starting the 21st. He had a great time bonding with Wren for 2 weeks and then last week was our first week both being back to work.

We've done a pretty good job of getting Wren into a nice little routine at night and by the time I get her down, and then we get prepared for the next morning, do whatever tidying/laundry/etc that needs done, there is little time to upload pictures.

So here's the cutie pie at 16 weeks:

And 17 Weeks, tell me that's not a sweet face!

And this morning at 18 weeks
(note the wet onesie...we have a drool monster on our hands!):

Right now we're working on rolling from her back to her belly as well as sitting up. She really has no interest in either right now. She thinks rolling over is sooo 2 months ago. :) No, but really she will fling both of her legs over and hang out on her side with her head looking behind herself, so basically all she needs to do is flop herself over but she's not there just yet. As for sitting up, she does okay. Since she was born, she's had a thing for arching her back and she has never been a huge fan of sitting upright so when we sit her down, she tends to fling backward. (Thank goodness for the boppy!)

What else? ...

We've started using baby signs with her. She knows "milk" quite well! It's a little early for most of the other signs, but the book said that if we start signing to her between 4 & 6 months, she will start to sign back between 7 & 9 months.
She loves to give Mommy kisses. Usually when I ask her for kisses, she opens her mouth really wide. Nice big sloppy wet kisses!
She has been really giggling and talkative lately. I'll post a video of it if I can get it uploaded.
She officially turned 4 months this past week.
She loves her dogs.
She stares at our food the entire time we eat. It's kind of funny, she'll stare at the food on the plate, watch it on the fork and then watch you eat it. We're pretty sure she's ready for rice cereal but we're waiting until after her 4 month appointment. At that point, we will do homemade rice cereal and soon we'll start making her baby food! I'm so excited for that! (Yes, this coming from the non-cook!)

That's all I can really think of right now.