Baby Dreher

Well, we spent the weekend Decking our Halls, and our walls, and just about every free space left in our little house. And, even though the nursery is not even complete our little Baby Dreher already has a tree of his/her very own. And he/she also has an ornament on the tree.

Here is our little carrot (I say that because that is apparently the size he/she is this week - he/she has progressed from the size of a banana last week). And my, I just noticed that the above is not at all a flattering photo. (Poor way to debut he/she into this world!) So, below are some more ...

These were taken several weeks ago at our 18 week appointment. At the time he/she was 18 weeks and three days and measuring at 19 weeks. And just look at that foot - it's our little big foot.

Love this side shot of his/her little face. Speaking of his/her - typing he/she, his/her, etc. is getting kind of annoying. But, we did not find out the sex. Roger wanted to know, I didn't - he joked that he could find out and keep it a secret. Yeah, me knowing Roger as I do, that secret would have lasted until ... we got to the car - if that. :)

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Since the moment I found out we were expecting I just had this feeling that it was a girl. But from the first photo above there appears to be little something, something - if you catch my drift. Now that could very well just be an umbilical cord or some weird illumination, but now I'm almost positive it's a boy. So, I guess either way I'll be surprised and we'll all know in 19 or so short weeks.

I've been able to feel little big foot kicking since October 30. At first it just felt like a flutter, but now the kicks are feeling more real. And over a week ago, he/she kept me up by doing an entire gymnastics routine in my tummy - I could actually feel parts protruding from my little belly. And when I say little, I still mean little - especially then. I don't have much of a baby bump yet. I've been trying to wish it to grow - especially since I have Roger's families baby shower this weekend. I've joked that I need to borrow one of those fake baby bellies just so I can pretend to look preggers at the shower. Now, don't get me wrong, my stomach is larger than my stomach of old - quite a bit larger but it just doesn't look like a pregnant stomach yet. At 21 weeks, it still looks like a bloated stomach - you know, kind of what your stomach looks like after you've eaten way too much - for me, it looks like I've eaten way too much for several weeks now. Not too flattering. Although, I've noticed it protruding a bit more over the past few days - maybe I'll get lucky and it'll 'pop' just intime for the shower. :)

Roger still hasn't felt any kicks - as soon as the baby feels a hand on the stomach it shys away. I'm sure he'll be feeling them soon enough.

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When we return from the extended Thanksgiving Holiday, I promise to post more photos of both the nursery, our newly re-done sunroom, my office (which was re-done this summer), and all of our holiday decor.

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Hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday filled with lots of tasty treats and most importantly family!

Dressers - Revealed

I've just realized that it's been weeks since my last post. Between work, home projects, and the business time seems to fly by! If anyone at all is curious, we did get around to re-finishing the dressers we purchased the day after Halloween. Actually when I say 'we' I mean Roger as he had a brilliant idea to not just re-paint them, as I had planned, but to strip and stain them. Yeah, being pregnant and all, I couldn't be around all the fumes (perfect excuse, don't ya think?) so while I worked away on business stuff Roger spent an entire weekend stripping and staining the furniture. And we ended up having gorgeous weather so he was able to do most of it outside and save a few of his brain cells (and mine and the babies) - which is good.
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Anyway, above is the before picture of the first piece. (Roger had already kidnapped one of the drawers before I shot this photo.)

And above is the after shot. Roger thought it would be fun to strip and stain the drawers and repaint the outside white. It turned out so much better than I had imagined. And now it won't bother my perfectionist self that our crib is white and our wardrobe is natural wood as this dresser brings it all together. And, we really ended up loving the color of the wood hiding underneath all that white paint - it's mahogany (or so we've been told - I'm not at all good with identifying woods) and has a beautiful red-ish tint which is perfect as we will also have hints of red in the room.

And above is the second piece. Can you believe the ugly brown color that someone had painted this? Awful! But, for only $125, it was a steal and will provide plenty of space for all of those baby socks, hats, undershirts, etc.

And here is the piece after. Roger decided to strip and stain the side and front and paint the drawers on this piece - so opposite of the other dresser. The natural wood isn't as beautiful on this one - not even sure what it is. Oak, maybe? But I still think it looks fun and child like. :)

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I really do owe Roger as he's been spending every weekend (all weekend) since early September working on baby projects. He's my handyman and I think he likes to torture himself with these projects even more than I like to suggest them. :) I do have the best husband.

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Since these photos, I've been doing what I do best - buying items to accessorize the room - picture frames, blankets, baskets, etc. so whenever I get around to photographing some more I'll certainly post. And, Roger's project last weekend - turning our sun room into a children's playroom. As soon as I accessorize that room there will be more photos to come too. :)

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Well, work is calling. Home that everyone has a wonderful weekend. We have plans of decorating for Christmas. Yay - I'm so happy that the Most Wonderful time of the Year is almost here. :)

Seeing Stripes

The weekend isn't the only thing that has come to a finish. We are also finished 'striping' the nursery walls. More of a work-out than I had imagined. I was actually sore all day Sunday. Guess this tells you how out of shape I am. :) We did 7" stripes around all walls of the room and boy did this involve A LOT of taping. We used 3 entire rolls of Frog tape. Which meant there was a lot of getting up and down (hence the soreness). I feel like I've done hundreds of squats. :)

The taping alone took over 4 hours, but the painting was rather simple and only took about 1.5 hours. While Roger painted, I followed behind and removed the tape. And boy, the Frog tape worked. So worth the additional $1-$2 extra per roll. No seepage - at all. Yay for the Frog!

I love the room. :) And not only did we finish painting the walls this weekend we also found two dressers for the room. Both were bargains at our local downtown Indy antique store. Although both are solid pieces of furniture - bargains at antique stores usually mean more work and both of the pieces do need some tender loving care. Guess I know what I'll be doing the next few weekends - sanding and re-painting two dressers. The fun never ends. :) Stay tuned for more photos ...

Nursery Update - Floating Shelves

Soon after Roger and I were married I discovered that I inherited hundreds and hundreds of books and musical scores. Now, our tiny little house didn't have enough room to hold all of this 'stuff' so Roger decided to build built in floating book shelves near the ceiling of our office.

Not only are these shelves beautiful, they've also performed remarkably well by holding all of this 'clutter' since 2006. So, when we first discussed nursery plans, we of course had very little room in the nursery too. Since I knew how labor intensive the shelves were to build, I didn't dare mention to Roger that perhaps he also needed to build similar shelves for the nursery to hold books, stuffed animals, etc. But, since Roger evidently likes to torture himself with home improvement projects he brought up that maybe he could create the shelves again. Of course I jumped for joy. Many weeks later, after thinking about how much time they took to create and how much money they would add to the already ballooning budget for the nursery, I gave him the opportunity to bail. He did not. So we went full swing ahead for planning for floating shelves in the nursery.

This is what the nursery originally started out as - a sitting/TV room. The stenciling above actually is 3D. Boy, it took some work. I was so sad when Roger had to scrape it down so the walls could be painted. I was originally 'kind of excited' about getting rid of the TV in this room, but now that it is gone I realize how much I miss this room as a TV room. It was just super cozy and right next to our bedroom (so convenient for late night TV watching - we don't have a TV in our bedroom).

Anyway, while we had painters come in to paint our staircase a few weeks ago (we usually don't pay painters (I usually torture myself), but the staircase walls are super tall - too tall for us to paint) the painters also agreed to paint the nursery (for practically nothing) so we took them up on the offer. We chose a lime-ish green color. It's a bit brighter than I expected - I seem to have a problem for picking too bright of colors - they never quite look like the paint sample. :)

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Anyhoo - we will be painting vertical stripes in a darker (but coordinating) shade of green this weekend. Hope it goes well. I've fought with painters tape and creating clean lines before, but I've heard that the green Frog tape is supposed to be so much easier than painter's tape so we'll be giving that a go. Fingers crossed that the stripes turn out straight and not wobbly!

Last week was Roger's fall break so he got to work on creating the floating shelves. (I helped out when I could too, but I couldn't do much.) He started out by creating wooden cleats and drilling them into the walls. Then he cut the boards for the shelves (pictured against the wall).

Then the boards were sandwiched onto and screwed onto the cleats.

Then decorative molding was glued onto the edge of the shelving - it's hard to tell from the pictures, but the molding is quite ornate and really dresses up the shelves.

Then he primed and painted the shelves in white. And voila - they were done. It ONLY took him an entire 4 days to complete - he worked his entire fall break creating these babies for our baby. I love them. They will provide the perfect amount of decorative storage for books, small toys, stuffed animals, etc. that we really don't have much floor or closet space for.

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Speaking of closet space, the poor baby literally won't have any. Our house does not have walk-in closets - only the built-in sliding door type closets. So, Roger uses the closet in our bedroom, I use the closet in the nursery, and of course our third bedroom (the office) houses all of my business paperwork and pinwheel creations. So, we had a real dilemma. That is until I went shopping with my mom a few weeks ago in Noblesville - a cute little town with antique type craft shops. Our favorite shop did not disappoint, they had this beautiful wardrobe. I'd been looking at wardrobes for months at furniture shops and all were too small and all were quite expensive. This wardrobe is not only huge (it will hold two rows of baby and toddler clothes), but it was a bargain. Only around $400! But, boy was it a bare to fit into the room. My poor dad and Roger helped us get it into the room late last Saturday night. It was so huge that Roger had to remove some trim from the door. (For such a small house, I sure have quite the knack for picking huge furniture!)

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Anyway, I had originally thought of painting this piece white (I also have a tendency of painting everything white) since the crib and dressers will be white. But, the woodwork is just so beautiful - my mom actually pointed that out. At first I was like, whatever, I'm painting it white. But the more it sits in the room, the more I like the color. So, I might just leave it how it is. We'll see.

Roger also assembled the baby crib last weekend. Yay! And, I found the perfect white lamp with a black and white damask shade (for only $29 at TJ Maxx) for the room. So, after much debating, I am going with black and white hounds tooth and black and white damask accent patterns for the room.

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I'll most definitely be posting more pictures once the stripes are all painted. :)

Until then ...

Announcing ...

Announcing ... our new Pinwhirl Parties blog. It's been a long time coming; I think I mentioned something about a new blog and design earlier this summer. Sorry to keep you waiting. Although it was actually designed this summer (didn't MyDreamWeb design do a great job?!), unfortunately the time got away from me and until now I just wasn't able to publish my first official blog at the site. I wanted to wait until I could post a really great blog about a really great amazing product/idea and I believe the post is perfect. (You'll have to visit the post yourself to see! The above pinwheel invite is highlighted.) It is my hope that with this new blog I'll be able to showcase some great pinwheel products - not just my own, but integrate others as well. I also hope to highlight how other's have used my pinwheels in the past. So, if you are a previous client and you've forwarded photos in the past and haven't seen them posted yet, don't worry - I hope to get around to this soon.
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I do plan to keep this current site active; however, in the future most of my updates will occur on the new site. So be sure to 'favorite' me there as well. :)

Nursery and Chubby Pants

Even though I'm only 14 weeks along (almost 15) Roger and I have already made some major baby purchases. Guess I just couldn't wait to decorate the nursery. The nursery is small, only about 10x10 so we need lots of items that don't take up much space. When we found the above crib, we thought it was perfect as not only does it have lots of drawers for storage (something we'll be lacking) the changing table is also attached. It also converts into a toddler bed.

Since we aren't finding out whether baby Dreher is a boy or a girl, we needed neutral nursery colors. And since I'm not a huge fan of the traditional pastel yellows and greens used for neutral nurseries, we've decided to go with not quite lime-ish green striped walls and black/white and cherry red accents throughout the room. We purchased the above glider from Wal-Mart (of all places) - their free ship to store feature is the best!. It's the perfect look and very comfy looking. Although I've still not gotten to try it out - it's being kept in it's plastic sheeting until the nursery is all painted, etc.

And while making a quick trip to TJ Maxx (to look for my sister's bday gift last Friday after work), I found the perfect ottoman to go with the chair (although I didn't walk out with a bday gift). It's shaped like the above, but has the below houndstooth fabric. I'd been debating on what black and white fabrics/designs to use in the room and finding the houndstooth ottoman sealed the deal on using houndstooth throughout the room. And the best feature of this ottoman, it was on $25. Don't you just love TJ Maxx???!!! The worst part about the ottoman, I was shopping at our Downtown Indy TJ Maxx store since it's closest to my work. After purchasing it I had to walk 15 minutes through the mall carrying it and another 5 minute outside walk to my car in the parking garage. I think my arms shook for half an hour afterwards.

I've also purchased houndstooth crib sheets - which took forever to find. Damask seems to be prevalent in nurseries, but not houndstooth. Which leaves me with a quandry. I know that I want to mix some other black and white design/pattern with the houndstooth, but since my house has so much damask and toile already, I was initially very hesitant to use it in the nursery too. But, after searching for weeks I've not found many other black and white alternatives other than toile or damask. Sure, some high end baby boutiques have $300-$600 sets that offer other varieties, but I'm a bargain shopper and those prices just won't do. Plus, I've heard so much lately about how baby bumpers are not to be used with babies so seems like kind of a waste to purchase one of these sets and not even use one of the most expensive components. Anyway, I digress, I think I may just have to give into the damask pattern as it goes so very well with the houndstooth, plus I think damask curtains w/red piping would just look so gorgeous up against the green striped walls. Thoughts?

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Our weekend plans involve painting the nursery - yay! So, hopefully in a few weeks, after Roger has installed the floating bookshelves, and we've done the striping on the walls, we can officially start putting the nursery together. Fun.Fun. Can't wait.

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In other news, I found some 'chubby' pants while taking out my winter clothes last week. (Some pants that I used to wear when I was a size bigger). I thought that I had thrown away all of my chubby clothes so I wouldn't grow back into them, but thankfully not as I'm now able to breathe again in my clothes. And I actually have dress pants that fit to wear next week for the conference. Super excited that I don't have to transition into maternity clothes just yet.

We are ...

Expecting! Yep, Roger and I are going to have a little boy or a little girl on/around April 5 of next year. I'm now a little over the 12 weeks. We found out that we were preggers while we were in Hawaii on vacation in late July - hence the reason for the pregnancy test and lei photo. :) It took a few days (three days) for me to actually believe it and more than one trip to buy tests as I was still rather confused about the faint second line. We had to go out and buy the ept tests that actually said the word pregnant before I was convinced. After over a year of trying and countless negatives guess I was a little reluctant. :)

Above is out little jelly bean at our 8 week apt. It must be a hyper little thing - it's heartbeat was already 182 beats per minute - yeah, it's definitely related to Roger.

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Well, my first trimester is almost coming to an end and I'm blessed to say that I didn't have terrible all-day morning sickness like some. Although, that's not to say that I've felt great. I have felt sick most days but just nauseous. And I did actually get sick three times - two with migraine headaches (nothing worse than a migraine that you can't medicate) and once while driving into work - driving in parking garage circles just didn't sit well that particular morning. And tired - I've never felt so tired. I come home from work and feel like doing nothing but crashing and sleeping.

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I'm still not loving feeling fat and bloated and I can tell I'm getting a baby bump. (For the first 11 weeks the baby made me want to eat hourly - like seriously if I didn't eat something every hour I felt super nauseous. For someone who never snacks, I hated the feeling of making myself eat so much.) I'm just at the point now where my regular clothes are feeling too tight (and tight clothes make me cranky!), but so do not want to wear maternity clothes yet. In my summer wardrobe I'm down to one pair of capri's that still fit and several skirts and my fall/winter wardrobe is looking even less promising. Nothing worse than a tight fitting pair of jeans to make one feel chubby. In three weeks I'll be working our annual conference in DC and will be at that stage where I don't look pregnant yet; attendees will just think I've put on a few pounds in my waist over the past year. Arrggghhh.

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I have loved shopping for baby stuff though. Very exciting. Perhaps we are a bit ahead of ourselves, but we've already purchased a crib and glider for the baby nursery. We are trying to spread out the spending that one must do to prepare for a baby. We don't plan on finding out the sex, but every time I see cute baby clothes and can't buy any it makes me seriously want to give in and find out. :) I'm trying hard not to give into the pressure.
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Well ... I must be moving right along. Work is calling my name. Speaking of work, we've decided that after the baby is born I'll give up my day job and just be a mommy and pinwheel maker. Yay! I'm counting down the days.

The reason for my absence ...

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The above is the reason for my absence in the blogging world. This is what my house looks like on a typical Sunday night. My kitchen and living room are taken over with boxes. Boxes and boxes of custom pinwheels, party hats, and banners. Think tomorrow's shipments will require both Roger's and my cars.
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Other than the above, not much new here. The summer is slipping away without much time for enjoyment because of this craziness although our Indiana summer has been very Seattle -esq so I haven't been missing much. Looking forward to vacation next week, but kind of wondering if I can really escape from all of this. Guess we will see. :)
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Maybe one day I can return to regular blogging and officially open my new blog site. Until then ...

I'm Back

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I'm back. It's been forever. Don't even want to count the weeks or is it months? I appreciate those who have checked in with me over this time period expressing concern over my whereabouts. (And no, I did not die after running the mini marathon.) I'm perfectly fine, so no worries. I should have posted much sooner, and have had every intention. On several different occasions I've even taken photos of my yard and various projects with the sole purpose of posting an update. As you all know, that never happened. Why because I've been swamped. Yeah, yeah, I know - I've said this before. But this time around I've been really swamped. Like from the time I get up in the morning until the time I got to sleep at night - literally, even on weekends. No exageration. Mix in several family visits and the added house and yard work necessary for visitors and I've doubly had no time - or life. Excuses. Excuses.

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In the midst of the craziness I've also come up with a brilliant idea to start another blog. I know all of you just have to be thinking - What? You don't even keep the blog you have updated! So true. Anyhoo, I plan on eventually transitioning out this more personal blog and moving more towards a blog that centers around my Pinwhirls and Party Planning. Some days Pinwhirls. Some days Party Planning. Some days Pinwhirls and Party Planning. (Actually who am I kidding - my goal right now is a weekly update and even that may be pushing things.)

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My new blog is currently being prettified (by someone other than myself - thank goodness, huh. If I took on yet another project this new site wouldn't launch until 2011.) but, I'll be sure to forward you the new blog whenever it's born. Yay! To tide you over, in the meantime, please feel free to visit my Etsy shop as I've recently added some new products and plan on adding tons more in the upcoming days and weeks. (A special thanks to my older sister who is now officilly whirling more pinwhirl pinwheels daily than me!)

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Thanks to all who are still 'following' me despite my disappearance!

I hope to be stopping by and visiting many of my blog friends soon. :)

Tablescape Thursday

So, I've heard about Tablescape Thursdays, hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch, for quite some time. Not quite sure why I haven't participated in these posts in the past, but I just haven't. But, there is a first time for everything and today I'm leaping right in.

Anyhoo - a big apology to to my regular followers - as I'm only posting a link to the tablescape I featured on my site a couple of weeks ago. You will be bored so my feeling won't be hurt if you dodge from this post now. Or, better yet, stop by Susan's blog to browse all of the other wonderful tablescape - I'm sure you'll find lots of great ideas - just in time for Easter. :)

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To all my new visitors, who follow Susan's blog, welcome to mine. You are cordially invited to visit this link for more photos of my Easter tablescape. You can also view an entire slideshow here. Enjoy!

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Shana