I'm alive!

Hello all!

This is just a note to say I'll be participating in the Salvage 2014 sale in Atlanta on September 13. We'll be at the Ambient Plus Studio from 11am to 6pm, and I'll be sharing a booth with my friend Becky, who operates Sohn Vintage. She has some beautiful things made from vintage linens (skirts, dresses, baby bibs, blankets, etc. etc. etc.). We can't wait to see you all there! And just for fun, here's a sneak peek of our "booth." We had a dress rehearsal in my teensy little dining area.

You can visit me on instagram now: www.instagram.com/the.atomic.lilly

and at my etsy shop that I will start listing in after the Salvage show: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mamalikey

Thanks!

Hey hey hey!

OK, so the lovely ladies at No Pattern Required added a kindly mention of little Nadine's room over on their FB page. Obviously, this guilted me into making a post. Sorry for neglecting my blog and all of yours! I read when I can, but between work, school and now two kiddos, I just haven't had as much blog-writing time. So, here's Nadine's room now that it's all done. It's never this clean though. Baby clothes multiply in the night. And drape themselves all over everything.

First of all, here's Nadine in her new high chair. She's five months old now!! Ah!
I think this high chair fits right in around here. The graphic on it is by Dwell Studio, but since it's a Fisher Price chair, it was actually really reasonable. I got it on eBay.
Here's where the grainy pictures of her room start. I know they are awful. They were taken with an iPod. Sorry. Our camera was broken at the time.
The pouf is now one of the cat's favorite place to sleep. It makes a great cat bed.
Good gravy this is terrible looking.
I love these colors.
Ok, so this has changed a little again. Now, the table is to the right of the chair and there's a simple floor lamp next to it. Mr. Modtomic was right that the lamp is too big for that little table. My mom suggested moving the floor lamp in there, and it was the perfect idea. The shade is a gold/yellow velvet.
This is Nadine's long-awaited crib! After IKEA pulled their cribs, we started looking elsewhere. This is a BabyMod crib from Wal-Mart. It's perfect, and I got it on sale. It's super super sturdy, and has a great modern look io it.
Pretty cozy.

So yeah, sorry for the grainy photos. Someday when I get my act together I'll take and post some decent ones! I was given a Canon Rebel camera for Christmas (via giftcard from my employers) so I now have no excuses for terrible photos.

I hope you are all well!

She's here!

Just a quick note to announce that baby Nadine Patricia arrived on August 7 at 7:45am. She was a little early, but still weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces and measured 20.5 inches tall. We're all doing great and just adjusting to our new addition! I'll try and post photos soon of Nadine's room. My mom found some super fun thrift store gold that has really made things perfect in there. Oh, and yes, in case any of you recognized it, her first name was inspired by one of our favorite mid-century musicians.

Pregnancy Brain is a REAL THING

I put these flash cards up over the course of like two weeks because it's so impossible for me to finish anything... I took this photo of them, loaded it on the blog, and then realized (after typing a happy commentary about how much I like them) that I did in fact put up the letters in the wrong order. I fixed it now, honest. But I felt guilty keeping my mistake to myself and hiding it from the blogging world. So here you go. The reality of mom brain. In any case, these are cute, aren't they? Even cuter when they are correct.

Trying to Wrap Things Up...

I've been working on the baby's room this weekend again. I still have to work schoolwork, but this has been a nice distraction. I've got two more weeks of school, and one big paper left. Ugh. I'm about half done with it, but still. The baby's room is almost done, we just still need to purchase and assemble the crib. We're hoping August will be the month for that. I've been keeping an eye out for second hand cribs, that are SAFE, and not drop-side, etc., but most consignment stores won't carry any cribs at all anymore because of all of the new regulations. I've been calling around, and the consignment stores all tell me the same thing. Maybe it's just meant to be. I know we'll feel better having a new crib, and the IKEA crib isn't that much more than a second hand one anyways. Sometimes I am just very very thankful that we have IKEA as an option. The only other cribs in that price range are the portable folding cribs which really aren't very sturdy and most babies age out of within nine months or so. Um, sorry for rambling. Here's some photos of how things look right now.
Here's the view from the doorway. As usual, dark photos. Sorry! But, as you can see, I hung the curtains higher. I bought a double rod from Target (one of the super cheap white ones) and I think it makes a nice difference.
Here's my pouf! Finally done! It's got a twin-size white comforter in it that my mom handed down for the cause. It's lumpy, and I know I could have stuffed more in it to fill it out, but I was worried about having a lot of white showing through the stitches, and I also didn't want it super stiff. Roxanne likes to sit on it, so maybe it will become a nice bean bag type chair for her to sit on in here when she's visiting with the baby. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the project though. I love the color and the texture.
I hung some basic taupe curtains we had left over from our old apartment in this closet. They are on a tension rod inside the closet doors. They aren't a perfect match, but they are neutral enough to work for now. Justin hopes that once we get things de-cluttered in the closet, we can just leave it with no curtain, but I'm thinking it would be nice to keep at least one panel on this side to cover the giant utility box thing that seems to be part of the HVAC system (and is currently hidden behind the curtain). Oh, and I turned on the mushroom lights for the picture. I love them!
Another shot of the pouf/chair combo.
Cozy. :)
Not much new here, but that brown box behind the changing pad. It's perfect! My mom found it at TJ Maxx, and it's a SkipHop tote. It folds up really easily, but I love it where it is. It's currently full of baby soap, and wipes and pacifiers, etc.
I need to hang this somewhere. I'm not positive where yet. My mom found it at the thrift store for about $2, and I think it's so cute. It picks up a lot of the colors we have in here, and it still works! It's petite, so I'm just trying to find a spot where it won't get lost. Oh, and I love how it picks up the mosaic on the side table I have.
I added these square shelves here next to the Charley Harper puzzle, and filled them with goodies. I know it still looks kind of weird, but I moved the glider and table there to see how it works, and it looks much much better. But I'm not going to move them there permanently until the crib comes in.
Here's a close-up of the shelves. These were thrifted a while ago and I had them in me and Justin's room. But I really wanted a little place to display some vintage toys and photos. The two white frames are from IKEA and are reversible. I put a different picture on each side, so we can turn them back and forth for variety's sake.
Hello dark and scary photo... This is just to show the curtains a little better. I'm not crazy about the white metal rod that is so plainly visible, but at least it somewhat blends with the white sheers in person. It's not quite as "sore thumb" as it is in the photo. Honest. :)

So I'm close to done in here. I need to make the mobile as my next DIY project. I bought an embroidery hoop, and my idea is to use felted balls to hang from them. I'm torn between buying wool and doing some DIY felted balls or just ordering some on Etsy. I found a seller who has a set that are subtle gradations of orange and yellow that I think would be adorable.

Baby Room Progress

The three day weekend was supposed to involve me doing a lot of homework and also getting a lot done in the baby's room. The baby's room won though. Oops. In any case, we got a fair amount done in the baby's room. Some of that was washing, sorting and folding baby clothes, which is not exciting in terms of decorating, but important to get done. We still have some more things to do, like buy the crib, but it will wait. As most parents know, you don't use the crib right away anyways, so we have a little time. We plan to get the IKEA Gulliver crib in white. We tested it out at the store, and it's actually very sturdy feeling. Yay for European safety standards! OK, time for the photos. By the way, there are a lot, but only because this room is insanely small, dark and hard to photograph, so I had to do lots of angles to try and show how everything links up.
I moved the chair and side table to in front of the window for now. The crib will go here eventually, but in the meantime, this is a nice spot to sit and it makes the room seem less empty to have the chair here. Also, I can prop the laptop up on the dresser across from it and watch the X-Files while I fold baby clothes. Which is what I did for several hours this weekend...
Here's a badly lit photo of this same spot, but I tried to get the curtains in for perspective. I finished the left panel on Saturday, and Justin and I both love these curtains. When closed, they actually block quite a bit of light, so the room stays pretty dark during the day. A little depressing, but good for naps.
Here's a close up of the curtain fabric, just because I love it. And the way it looks on the wood grain of the dresser. So nice!
And here's what it looks like next to the sheers. I still like the mix of the two textures. If I do say so myself...
For a sense of size, here's the dresser across from the chair. I'm telling you, this room is LITTLE. But cozy. Also, I have plans for the heinous ceiling fan to get out soon. I hate it. A lot. I think we have a few extra IKEA fixtures we can look at putting in it's place. I'm at that point where a bare bulb would be preferable. You can't see here, but there is blue floral stuff on the glass globe, and one of the dongles (technical term) that hangs from the chord is a tiny birdhouse. Not our taste...
I was trying to get a better angle of this dresser, but I was wedged into the closet as far as possible, and this was the best I could do. Use your imagination please.
I love the way this changing pad cover that my mom found compliments the designs on the pulls of this gorgeous dresser. I know both this dresser and the one in the closet need some cleaning up, but I'm not messing with all of those chemicals in my current state. Maybe in a few years... Also, that cover is soooo soft. Baby stuff is often ridiculously comfy and cozy. It seems a little unfair.
This is the "gallery" wall over the changing table. I've had these red frames around the house in different areas for a while, and never could seem to make them look like I wanted. They are all just thrifted wood frames that I painted, but I think they are working pretty well here. They compliment Roxanne's artwork so well. All of these drawings were done in the past month or so, and I figure we can rotate them out every once in a while. These are all animals and people that Roxanne draws. She LOVES drawing and painting. If you click on the image, it will get bigger and you can see her "guys" a little better. Justin's favorite is the blue guy on the bottom left. I like him, too, but the little one is my favorite. It looks like a big kid standing with a baby. So Roxanne and I decided it's her and the new baby. I know these look a little (or a lot) scribbly, but it's her current style. She likes her guys to have curly hair and she tends to draw several guys on a page so they blur a little. Justin and I just love looking at her artwork, and figured it would be perfect to put in here. She was very proud when I showed her this wall when she woke up on Monday morning. She did a deep gasp and said that her pictures all "looked great!"
Moving to the other side of the room (my back was to the corner between the window and dresser/changing table), you can still see some clutter. Sigh. On the wall is one of my favorite providential things. When I was taking the red frames apart to put Roxanne's art in them, I took out some Charley Harper flash cards that had been in there. I had cut them in half, but I was VERY careful to save all of them. I realized when I got the box out that the flip side of the flashcards made a "floor puzzle." Well, two actually. One was this lovely sea anemone image. It's about 16x28 inches, and I mounted each small square with Command tape. I'm not sure if it translates in pictures, but the blue/green in the image matches perfectly with the curtains. It looks small and lost with the baby piano under it, but I think once we move the chair back, it will be lovely. And yes, that closet is a mess. All of the visible toys on top I am hoping to put into some bins, but I haven't found the right ones (especially at a decent price) yet.
Here's the other dresser, complete with some of my favorite vintage toys on top. And the mushroom lamps! I love them! They have the nicest soft glow.
Here's the knit part of the pouf I'm making for a stool for the rocker. I have to stitch it up and stuff it, but look how long that thing is!
I think the red of the chair and the red of the knit is a great match. Phew.
And last, here's me in a wonky photo. 33 weeks pregnant. And very tired. Gah, that mirror is dirty. Another thing to clean...

One panel down...

Here's my one curtain panel up! The other is sitting on my fancy new ironing board with my fancy new iron waiting for me to have another hour or two to finish it. But, the good news is that even with my less-than-perfect ironing abilities, the panel looks pretty good with the fusing tape! Don't look too closely, since you'll see how wonky some of the lines are, but whatever. That color is just so so good. I love it with the wood of the dresser. And I think it brightens up the whole room quite a bit. I also think it looks nice with the sheers I got at Target. I even think the length is pretty good. I'm a fan of a little bit of pooling. Oh, and I know you are supposed to have your curtains hung close to the ceiling, but there is some old water damage close to the ceiling in this room (from when the roof leaked, which we have fixed since then) and now that it's all painted over and won't be leaking anymore, I didn't want to deal with trying to screw the curtain rod in anywhere near it. Plus, I think with the sheers hung on a tension rod inside the window, it would look weird to have a big gap in between, and I'm not about to spend the money to get a double rod. Long story short, this is how it looks, and I like it. :) The other great thing about this fabric is that it's pretty heavy, so when it's pulled closed, it actually blocks out a lot of light. Great for baby naps...

I promise to catch up more soon. Summer classes, work, pregnancy, family, bla bla bla. Things are crazy!