Rivers Nursery

Here are the pictures if the finalized nursery. We hung the last piece of art the night before he came right as we were heading out the door to meet his brother actually. We were going to be late and I said lets just do it tomorrow, but David must have known better and insisted we do it right then.

After that it was a whirlwind with our new baby and my mom stayed in his room while she was here so I just got around to taking these pictures. Plus I had to find time to get it clean enough, it's amazing how a newborn can keep his room so messy.

I started working on his nursery shortly after I found out I was pregnant and spent months getting this room together, picking out the perfect furniture and accessories and sadly these pictures hardly do it justice. You can read about all the before stuff here in this post.

I wanted his nursery to easily transition into his "big boy" room when the time came, or into another nursery for a new baby and if it so happened to be a girl easily work for her as well.  The art I hope he will always keep in his room since it is all done by David and can easily be switched into new frames to match a new style.

I tried to keep it simple, I didn't want to feel overwhelmed in there (since I would be the one who would really be enjoying it)  and I didn't want it to scream baby or boy. So without further ado Rivers Nursery....

We went with the blue rug vs. the white shaggy one. There was already so much white I figured some color would be good. 

The Curious & Curiouser is a quote from Alice in Wonderland, something I would say to David because he is always curious about everything. Wanting to explore this or learn that. David made this for Rivers to remind him to explore what's out there. In the background are different "boy" things, a bike, scuba diver, space ship, trees. 

We had a dream of making these lights a reality for years! It only took having a baby to make it all come together. The bulbs we got from Home Depot, the fixture Ikea, and then I tied the twine around the them to cover the funny part in between the bulbs and the fixture. 

Funny enough this bears name is also Rivers. David took me to build a bear when I came to visit him in Seattle over the summer break when we were first dating and I remember he told me he loved the name Rivers so that's the name I chose for my new fluffy friend, and I slept with him almost every night before we were married. 

Now he is Rivers bear to love and hopefully when he sees this bear he will remember how much his parents love each other and him.

And the whole thing is all made perfect by this little guy! We love him so much!

Nursery Progress

 The Nursery is pretty much done I'm just waiting on one more thing to hang and then I can do the big reveal. But before I show it in all it's glory I thought I would share the long road it took to get there.

^^ At first it was just the crib and Mr. Owl we bought for him at Ikea. 

We had to re-assemble the crib from the move and Coco Helped once again.^^  

 ^^ The green chair lived in here for awhile. Mostly because I didn't know where else to put it.^^

^^ The closet was such a mess for a long time.^^

^^Then it came time to choose a rug. I looked for months for a rug just like the blue one on the right, but could never find one for a reasonable price.  But one day while purusing Target I saw that blue out of the corner of my eye and guess what it was on sale! The only one! So I bought it and immeditaly put it in his room. But when I got it in there I wasn't sure it looked right. So we tested out the one on the left, switching both of them out until we finally decided^^

^^ We finally got some art work in there, with a little more furniture.^^ 

^^ Then we found the perfect crib sheet, bumper pad, and bunny. For the most part when it came to choosing decorations for the nursery, I would find something I like and if David liked it too we got it but he wasn't too picky except for a couple things. This bunny and this crib sheet. 

We originally saw this bunny at Anthropologie and David wanted it so bad but we decided to see if we could find it cheaper else where. This was a mistake because we never found the bunny again and Anthro stopped carrying it. Randomly we found it at Pottery Barn kids for their Easter collection months later and we ended up spending more money on him than we would have at Anthro. But that's ok it was worth it to have, and it's seriously the softest bunny. The crib sheet we found at Target for so cheap but it was sold out and David hunted down the nearest one, and we drove 20 minutes across town that same night to get it.^^

^^ David hanging up the art work. I struggled to find a rocker that wasn't $500 and wasn't extremely ugly. David suggested this one from Ikea and I really wasn't sure about it, but after a couple visits to test it out I decided it was the best option and now I really love it in the room. The pillow was from the living room just as a filler and the banner is from my Mom that we will probably hang downstairs when he finally comes.^^

 ^^We looked around for a dresser for a long time as well and could never decide, we finally decided on this one, and I love it! We went on a Monday night to get it and I was so excited to see it in the room David kindly put it together for me that night. Little did I know it would take 3 hours to do, whoops! And of course Coco just has to be right in the middle of everything. I honestly think that she believes this room is hers and the crib is her bed.^^


After all this work the nursery still had a long way to go but I don't want to share too much without giving it all away, hopefully later this week It will be totally done!

*please note I do not let Coco sleep in the crib and immediately move her from it once she jumps in, and now that its all clean and ready to go she is not allowed in there. I'm not that crazy of a cat lady :)

Before and Afters: Bedroom

I was going to wait to do a big tour of our new place when it was totally finished, however decorating is expensive and takes time so I decided to start showing the small progress we've been making since it will probably be months if not years before I say I am "done".

Whenever we move into a new place we always seem to just half way decorate it. The last place that was really decorated was on College Ave. Above the Cocoa Bean, that took a lot of work but it was also the size of our current upstairs, much more manageable. Now with three floors to decorate it can be a little overwhelming and pricy! Why are decorations so expensive?  

The past year living in Rexburg we lived in a very undecorated apartment. I just never got around to really finishing the place. When we moved to Utah I knew I wanted our home to feel complete and a place we felt comfortable, especially with baby coming. But like I said decorations are expensive and it has been a long road of polishing this new home off. 

However that has been half the fun, slowly putting things together and finding pieces I like instead of just rushing and doing it all at once. For instance I have been stalking this nightstand to go on sale at Target since we moved here in December. Seriously every time we go to Target I check to see if it's on sale and since Target is right across the street you can imagine how many times I've been able to check. 

Finally on Monday I was there with a friend and it was on sale! But even then I wondered if I should get it... after a couple days of thinking about it I went yesterday to buy it and I love it. It's amazing how such a small thing can make a room almost come together. 

So here is the progress we have made on the bedroom. It is still very much so a work in progress there is so much more I want to do but it looks so much better from when we first moved in. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The bed spread we've had forever, we found it at Downeast Home for a good price, it's originally from West Elm for a very obnoxious price.  You can't tell in the pictures but it's a light grey.

The chair we found at Hidden Treasures in Idaho Falls for $40, it use to sit in our old living room in Rexburg. We moved the chair in here about a month ago and added the LOVE to the wall around the same time. David designed the Love for me for valentines day a couple years ago.

The flower pillow we also got at Downeast Home originally from Pottery Barn, and the strip pillow is actually a valentines pillow my mother-in-law bought for me that has a big heart on the other side.

The mirror and lamp are Ikea, the nightstand is Target. I just threw those things on there for now and don't mind it, we decided to get the same nightstand for the other side so I'm going to play around with them to see what looks best on each one.

So this is where the room is at for now, it still has a very long way to go and things will probably get moved all over the place. For now though it feels so much better and I can't wait to see it all finished. 

That time we got all this for FREE

So you know how I sold a lot of our house things because I thought we were moving to New York? But then we moved to Seattle and gave half of my kitchen away because it wouldn't fit in the car? Only to move back to Rexburg one month later? siiiiiiiigh Life is nuts.

Well after all of that we moved into a huge two bedroom apartment with nothing to put it in. Especially in the kitchen department. I do not exaggerate when I say I only had one cookie pan and some pots. I'm not much a cook but I mean come on! Not even a terrible cook can work with just a cookie pan. We've bought a few things here and there but kitchen stuff can be awfully expensive, so we went without.

But one day a good friend who happened to be staying at my house told me that her cousin was giving away a lot of extra wedding gifts all having to do with kitchen wear. In less than 5 minutes we were at this cousins house and she literally was handing me boxes of stuff she didn't want.

I was so overwhelemed with her kindness and the idea of actually owning a Crock Pot I lost it and started bawling right in this poor girls extra bedroom. Only to loose it again when she gave me that beautiful blue tart pan you see sitting on top the Crock Pot.

Never in my adult married life have I owned a Crock Pot or a Tart Pan. I was seriously overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. I could not believe someone would be kind enough to give away all of these things instead of keep them for herself or try and sale them.

 I felt so blessed in that moment and every time I go to use the Crock Pot or put something in the Tupperware I say a little prayer for the couple who gave to the couple in serious need.