Another Before & After

Today's debute....the desk nook!

When we were planning our small, urban house redo last summer I started to wonder where I could fit a desk and a little space for myself. I had an idea to turn our coat closet into a desk nook. First, let me say that it was my idea, but it was my husband's complete DIY project (as was our kitchen---totally Daniel's doing!)

Here is the before pic---ICK, that paint job was by our renters! That half-wall was ripped out too...and the carpet and the paint was redone...wow, do I love before pics!

During construction. The closet was opened up all the way...width and height.


After! My desk nook. Daniel made the shelves and desk himself.

I love the fact that he drilled a circle in the back of my desk to run cords through...makes it a lot cleaner!

Family tradition. Years ago when my parents were having their babies, my grandmother would have these blue and white tiles made for each birth. Now my stepmom has them made. They are delft tiles from Holland, MI. Google if you are interested. They make great gifts. Sidenote: Yes, Maryn was born in Ft. Mill, SC (20 mins away) as she was delivered by midwife at a birth center...which is illegal in NC. (more on that later-another post for another time!)
Favorite verse. Daniel gave this to me for Christmas...ordered from www.redletterwords.com
Thanks for looking at my desk nook. I love it---I love displaying my cookbooks, my collection of things, having a place to sit and work on the computer and, most of all, I love having this as something that is seen when people walk in the front door rather than a plain ole' coat closet.

In the kitchen...

I'm not sure how many of you out there are actually reading this blog, but if you are and if you have been reading it for sometime you may remember that Daniel and I moved back from a year in Malawi, Africa this past summer (2010). When we moved back we moved into a house that we had owned for a number of years but always rented out. It is basically in Uptown Charlotte area..with an awesome view of the Bank of America skyscraper and other buildings and close to NC Music Factory (awesome in the summertime, free concerts on our front porch). Anyway, we love our urban life here in Charlotte. Maybe someday we will trade it in for a bigger house and more land, but for now we feel very much a calling from God to live out a missional life in our neighborhood and city...loving the poor and the disenfranchised around us. (another post for another day...promise).

So with urban living comes small spaces. As mentioned, Daniel and I rented out this small, 3 bedroom house as it was when we bought it...so when we came home last summer we knew we had our work cut out for us. Hardwood floors, new ceiling, painting, knocking down walls, putting up walls, new bathrooms, and re-doing our kitchen. WARNING: the following pictures could be harmful to your healthy...beware of shock! :)

Before pictures. Our renters painted the kitchen a BRIGHT yellow....and those cabinets, ICK. and the old floor. Oh MY!

DEMOLISHING and construction of Ikea cabinets.



AFTER: All cabinets from Ikea (put together by my awesome husband and our friend, Zach. Oven and overhead microwave from Lowes, dishwasher and fridge from local Habitat ReStore, countertops are from a local wholesaler (they are actually laminate but have a beveled edge and a marble design--we didn't want to put marble in such a small kitchen that we may not be in forever and maybe one day knock a wall out and redo again for more space). Curtains I made myself...a faux roman shade!



I LOVE Ikea cabinets for all their space-saver designs! We totally needed it for this blocked-in kitchen. I took down most of the above cabinets because I didn't want to feel so closed in. I really love the open shelving that is so popular now days, so maybe we will do that at some point. But I am loving all the organization and space-saving ideas that Ikea has for kitchens. My favorite is the lazy-Susan type cabinet that we have in both corners--it turns and pulls out to use ALL the space in the corner cabinets...oh, Ikea, you never cease to amaze me. Thankfully, our local Ikea is only 10 minutes away. YAY!


And, I am loving my new faux roman shades! I just finished this the other day. I've been dying to use this fabric somewhere...I love it! Since we live in the city we couldn't get away with just a valance or a cafe curtain, we still needed full window coverage from the street. So I hemmed my curtains and used a backing fabric and actually adhered the fabric to the already-there blinds, taking out the blinds that I didn't want to create the roman shade folds. I still need to tweak a few things--let's face it, I'm no seamstress, but I am pretty impressed that I actually made curtains that are functional! Never did that before.

nice--you can see our garbage cans on the sidewalk outside...ha, just keeping it real here, guys!
Thanks fo going down memory lane with me and viewing our before/after small, urban kitchen! We still have to do a few more things...aka light fixture, but we love it so far!

Chalk it up to Pinterest

Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with Pinterest.com? Maybe I haven't mentioned it on my blog but I have on facebook. Seriously...I was laughing how M has been sleeping through the night the last couple of months and you would think that I would head to bed early myself, but Pinterest it's been my new late night hobby! ha ha.

Anyway...I blame Pinterest on my latest attack of projects around here. I seriously have had 4-5 different projects going on at one time.

SO...here is Project #1. Mirror turned chalkboard. I have this small little wall that is a load-bearing wall (a la can't-be-torn-down-wall) and had an old phone jack sticking out of it (hello 1990's) that I wanted to cover up. I could have put a photo or another decor of some type but I decided to make this chalkboard for something a little different.

M and I visited one of our fav places around here..the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (we're lucky enough to have 2 in Charlotte). We found this old oak mirror for $10. I snatched it up, took it home, cleaned it up and spray painted the trim white. I should have taken the mirror out but it was kinda of a pain as had an old-school encasing around the back that I didn't feel like messing with. After a day to let it dry I painted the mirror with chalkboard paint. Not going to lie I did need to touch up the white where i bumped it with black but it wasn't a problem.

Before:

After: Our first message was for my mom and stepdad who were visiting us this past weekend.

Baby Blues

M has a little boy friend arriving in November! Three of our good friends are expecting...yay for more baby friends. One of our friends had a "gender reveal" party the other night. They had a few people over to their house on the day of their ultrasound. She made blue cupcakes. On her and her husband's cue we dove in for a cupcake, peeling back the wrapper and rejoiced with them on the little BOY on the way! YAY!

Speaking of babies, my little baby is now 6 months. 6 MONTHS! That is half a year. I took her to her 6 month checkup yesterday...M is 90% in height, so maybe she will be a tall one? I hate going these wellness checkups all for the reason that I know the shots are coming. She doesn't know...but I do. I just want to cry each and everytime. Thankfully she only did two shots yesterday (Hib and DTap round 2).
Here are a few this week.

To sew, or not to sew

I just got my kitchen fabric delivered this morning. Yes, I am one of those that ordered fabric online...I know, living on the edge right? There is a HUGE fabric store near Charlotte that I like too (Mary Jo's for the seriously interested) but with a baby who still naps every 2-2.5 hours it is difficult to make it there during the week. So online ordering it is!

Anyway, I already knew that I loved Amy Butler fabric and was dying to have an excuse to buy this pattern that I have fallen in love with since I was fabric shopping for the nursery curtains last fall. So I ripped open the package today eager to see my fabric and was a little taken back by how lime colored it was. I had to leave it in the kitchen, walk away and walk back in several times to get used to the idea. I toyed with sending it back (love Fabric.com's return policy!) but I decided I am going to keep it! What do you all think?

So I am going to attempt to make some Roman Shades out of it. The only thing is that we have old windows and nothing can be nailed/screwed into the inside window frame itself (BOO!!!) so I am afraid the roman shade might look a little funny on the outside of the actual window...so stay tuned. If I do the roman shade I think I found a tutorial online that I won't have to use a sewing machine for (double yay!).
Stay tuned...

Picture of the Week

I can't believe that I am posting AGAIN this week. I think I'm making a new personal blogging record here.

BUT you all have to see this picture. It is the "picture of the week" around our house.

I mean, seriously! Daniel and M were inside watching me spray-paint my little project this week. M loved watching me and was laughing hysterically and then D put her a little too close to the sliding glass door and this is what she did. We all then burst into laughter...she is becoming our little ham!

Seeing Red

My blog has been so consumed with all things baby the last 6 months, that I am just now feeling like I am able to catch up on it and post about other things that are, well, not so baby-ish. Where I do feel like my days do revolve around naps (3 still a day) and feedings...it seems that we have eased into life a bit more. I probably said the same thing when M was 3 months old, but each month it seems easier and easier.

So, this post is two-fold. First to show that I actually do have other things going on in life than just baby feedings and baby naps. And, secondly, to update you on our house projects. Don't worry, I don't have any intentions on turning this into a DIY blog...though I do love some DIY projects and reading DIY/design blogs! (rabbit trail: have you ever played on www.pinterest.com ? OH MY GOSH, I could waste some time on that site searching for things...LOVE IT!)

I think I have mentioned in the past that we live in Uptown Charlotte...very urban. We love it. We bought this house right before we were married and up until last summer had it rented out. We had quite the project to come home to when we arrived Stateside last summer from Malawi. (wood floors, whole new kitchen, tile in the bathrooms, paint, ceiling re-do, addition built). It was fun and stressful at the same time. Since we have been able to sleep a little more these days, we have updated our project list and are having fun dreaming, planning and attacking the list together.

Here's just a small project that I finished last week before we left for vaca. The previous owners left these old-school benches on the front porch. We were going to toss them (like we would, they weigh a ton each) and get new porch furniture but decided to keep them and save our pennies for new furniture for our side-porch add on (further down our project list). So I decided to update the benches and spray them red. Sidenote: make sure you remove running shoes when spray-painting otherwise you end up with pink socks! I love how they turned out...and plan to make a few outside pillows to add to it. We spend lots of time out on the porch with Maryn...watching people and checking out our view. I think even a small table with a lantern on it would be nice too!

Summertime

July 2, 2011 - Here I am, sitting in our dark living room, uploading pictures from our first "family" vacation (that being our first 3-of-us vacation). We just returned this afternoon from our beach week on Edisto Island, SC. If you haven't heard of Edisto, it is a small beach vacation spot just 45 minutes south of Charleston..only about 4.5 hour drive for us from Charlotte. Just vacation rental homes, one grocery store (Piggly Wiggly--you know you're in the south) and a handful of restaurants. We love vacation spots that frees us of commercialism and consumerism. Daniel and his family vacationed there each year growing up, so it was extra special for him to take us to their spot, hear his stories about their beach explorations, golf outings and other family memories.



Maryn was a trooper and did great considering it was her 3rd time (last trip was to VA for Easter) being in a pack and play crib and being in a totally new setting. We had a first rough couple of days adjusting, but that was to be expected. I think Daniel and I had to really learn that vacations, as we knew them to be, have changed. And as for now, our days even on vacation revolve a little around nap times and feedings...it's just a season, right? On top of the change of environment, Maryn was battling her first cold and terrible diaper rash (I think from starting to eat solid foods). All in all, we had a great time...some fun in the sun (we alternated staying back during nap times), lots of seafood consumed, some books read, memories made and even our friends joined us for a few days (one couple at the beginning of our week and one couple at the end of our week).


Not only does July 2nd mark our return to our sweet, little life in the "Queen City", but it also marks Maryn's "half birthday". Yes, our sweets is now 6 months old. At the risk of sounding so cliche, I will say that she is changing each and everyday. She has really proven to be a Daddy's girl this week (I think being on vacation and so much quality time helped.) She is always looking for him and cracking up at him, it is quite endearing. She is rolling a bit, making efforts on her belly to doing "crawling-like" movements, saying "ba-ba-ba-ba" all the time, just starting to eat solids (oatmeal, sweet potatoes and peas), teething and drooling like crazy (no teeth yet), and mimicking some of our silly movements to her. She is also really starting to show her sense of humor with initiating "silly" times, and copying Daniel and I when we are laughing at something together. It is just so fun right now with her. I'm really trying to stop and take it all in. I see so much of Daniel in her. She (unless very hungry and very tired...again a daddy trait, ha) is happy, smiley and easy to make laugh. I'd really like to say that she takes after her mama, but I think she is like her daddy through and through. In fact, when Daniel was younger he smiled so much that his nickname at school and church was "Smiley Dan". Ha. I love it...he probably wouldn't want me to post that, oh well.

So that is our latest and greatest from our home. We continue to ask God for wisdom and guidance in this area of parenting. Though I rejoice in little achievements and am a bit more confident in the areas that I have seen accomplished, I'm still adjusting to this mommy role of "trial and error" and questioning what to do next. All the questioning at the beginning of what to do drove me a little batty...I'm so thankful for friends and family that have given me advice and helped me to know what to expect next. :) This parenting thing is not for the faint of heart that is for sure!