Nursery Dilemma

One of the first questions I get after announcing I'm pregnant is if we've chosen a room for the nursery. For the most part the answer is no. The way our house is built, we have two real options, yet I go back and forth on which one would be most ideal.

First we have the room straight across from our bedroom...It only has one exterior wall, and a pretty nice closet:
The second room is in the corner of the house, and the closet doesn't have the lower shelf - which could be better depending on how you organize your closet...
Both are currently filled with random stuff that hasn't found a home yet...and I think they will both need to be repainted eventually, so that's pretty even.

The one thing that I think might be swaying my opinion is the location of the light switch in room #2.
It is around a corner, and I'm wondering if it will be more challenging to use when I'm carrying a screaming infant at two in the morning...

The current plan is to have the other bedroom turned into a guest bedroom for when Melissa comes over...so now she has to come over...she has her own room...

Confession

I haven't taken down our Christmas tree yet...In my defense, Brandon was gone all last week, so I spent most of my nights fighting off axe murderers...but I'm worried we're becoming "those neighbors"...

Moving Toward Fall

The fall Idea's House went with a theme that is very close to my heart...wine :) I absolutely LOVED these wine bottle chandeliers, and think it would be a great thing to do with the wine bottles we brought back from our honeymoon in Italy!

I may have also been a little partial to this house design due to their use of my favorite color...yellow!The living spaces looked so warm and inviting...and I love the books as bookshelves.

I also have a soft spot for this little kids room...I love the blocks as dresser knobs, and I might just have to make that lamp...if I can talk myself into drilling holes into perfectly good books.

Also - another quick look at the raised garden boxes...I think I might be slowly convincing myself to make them...
Overall this house seemed to have so many of my favorite things in it...I probably could have moved in on the spot...

Ideas House Summer 2011

Most of the inspiration from the Summer 2011 Idea's House was outdoors. Unfortunately, I don't have the greenest of thumbs, but a girl can dream, can't she??

And who knows...maybe I'll get up the courage to start with one of these raised garden?Another idea that I loved (though I'm not sure where I would put it...) was this wine hold table. Creative...functional...and keeping the wine in a convenient location? Seems like a fantastic idea to me...Again, though I was drawn to some of the details throughout the house...like the framed flowers and the his/hers framed towel hooks. They add so much character, yet wouldn't be that hard to put into your own home...And finally, again I loved the kids bedroom. It was more teenager focused this time, which I thought was really cool, since there is a ton of inspiration out their for girly rooms, nurseries and rooms for young children.I can definitely see us trying to work some of this inspiration into our own home...

Pregnancy and Science Fiction

I know people don't like it when design blogs go baby, but frankly, I don't really know that this is a design blog...or a food blog...or really just a place I go to ramble when I think of it. So, I thought I'd share some things I've learned about pregnancy...

1) Whenever you arrive anywhere - go pee. It doesn't matter if you just went, or you're just running in...just go. You won't make it through otherwise.

2) Some pregnant women don't get cute - some of us just end up looking more like Chewbacca (Image from here).

Not really the best look...
3) So, not only do I look like Chewbacca, but I eat like a hobbit. Second breakfast? Don't mind if I do. And since I don't really look pregnant...I just glare at people as they give me that sympathetic "she's really letting herself go" look. But don't worry...a glaring Chewie puts people in their place.
4) You cry all the time. For no reason. So remember when I said I glared and it scared people? That was a lie. I cry. So really, I'm an eating, crying Chewbacca. Luckily, that scares people too.

So what I've learned so far, pregnancy is pretty much like science fiction. I wish it were more like regular fiction...you know, with the hot vampires...because I don't read science fiction...nerds.

Better Late Than Never

It might surprise some people, but I write a lot of posts...a lot of posts that I don't finish, or forget to publish until they become irrelevant. One topics that I've written several posts about is the Bachman's Idea House. See, I've been going every season for over a year, taking pictures like crazy and then somehow forgetting to post about them...and end up deleting them. The issue is, some of the ideas I see each season inspire me, so I figure, they aren't actually irrelevant. So I figure, this week I'll post some better late than never favorites of Ideas Houses past? Pretty exciting huh?
Today we're going to start with Spring 2011

This Idea's House had some of my favorite wall hanging inspiration. I love the empty frame gallery over the couch, and I think the plates hanging on the walls in the dining room would be PERFECT over my buffet. Another favorite was the use of tea cups as planters. I don't know how realistic this is long term, but it sure looks pretty!Another thing I loved about this Idea's House was how they were able to create meaningful spaces around the house...which is something I'd love to be able to do in our home. Finally, I loved the adventure themed boys room. Wouldn't this have just been a blast as a young child? I am totally in love with the globe lights...

A Home for the Cookbooks

So – for the past several months (ever since we moved the living room bookshelves into the master bedroom) my rather large collection of cookbooks has been hanging out on the floor in the formal living room. Not exactly the most welcoming site. Last weekend we changed all that, and put up new shelving in the dining room.

We purchased the bookshelves and doors at Ikea, which was far less expensive than the other solutions I had looked into. Brandon put them together and I was excited to learn that I may need more cookbooks!! Seriously – I don’t fill up either! I’ve decided not to tell Brandon this little fact, because he seems to think I have too many cookbooks…weird I know.We still plan on adding the Anthropologie hardware, which I think will make them look a little more personalized. Now we just have to figure out a way to make the dining room look a little more warm and inviting since it is one of the first rooms people see when entering the house.

The Importance of Measuring Tape

This year for Christmas my in-laws gave me the chair from my bedroom inspiration board. I was super excited to get it put together and in place. Bad news…it doesn’t really fit.

Not here…

Not there…

Not anywhere…

I suppose I could keep it in one of these spots, but it does make the walkways a little tight. I know I’m going to want a chair nearby once the baby comes (okay – I actually don’t know anything about that…but I’m just assuming a chair would be nice). Anyway – I think it may be moving down to the formal living room eventually, which isn’t all bad since there currently isn’t any furniture in there. But for right now it will stay right here...Because even though it isn't perfect, I think this gives the most room to move around, and I really like having a place to sit in the bedroom...

Reflections on 2011

2011 has been a rather eventful year. It is amazing to think of how much can change in such a relatively short amount of time.

I changed jobs...and not only jobs, but completely different fields. This meant a lot of learning, and almost a shift in how I viewed myself.

We bought a house, and are slowly learning what it means to be homeowners. It's amazing how quickly the lawn grows, and that we really only use the same amount of room we had in our apartment...

And most recently I've learned that you can fall completely in love with a picture. Even if it does sort of resemble an alien.

So 2012 will prove to be a year of big changes as well. My dad has to move out of the state for his job, which will put a different strain on our family than we have experienced before. Oh, and sometime in July they are going to send me home with a little person. I can't even begin to imagine how our lives are going to change, but that's what makes life exciting.