Christmas Pajamas -- A Look Back

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Christmas Pajamas

We had fun taking our annual Christmas pajama pictures at our new house this year. We actually took these the night that we moved in, which was exactly one week before Christmas!  One of our favorite features of the new house is our fireplace on our back porch.  It was a last-minute addition, we added it during framing, and I'm SO glad we did.  We have enjoyed it so much.  As you can imagine, Graem was itching to build a fire in it, and since we didn't have a tree up we thought it would be a good backdrop for the boys in their Christmas pajamas.





This is Duncan's "Say Cheese" face :-)

Framed Letters

A couple of people have asked me how I made the framed "D" for Duncan's room...way back when I was pregnant with Roper I made an "R" for him and an "M" for Mason (see this post). I also made one for my nephew that was horizontal with all three of his initials across it. The original inspiration was something I saw in the Restoration Hardware catalog, and since that was almost 3 years ago I can no longer find the picture!



These are pretty easy to make...I should have taken pictures as I was working on them but I didn't (sorry). I hadn't planned to post the "how-to" on my blog, but it should be pretty easy to explain.



You will need:
-a frame
-matboard with a letter cut out
-leftover fabric
-spray adhesive

The Frame:
You really could use any size, and it might be determined by how much fabric you have. For all three of mine I used a 16x20 frame that I picked up from Hobby Lobby (their frames are 50% off for three weeks each month). The frames that I picked out did not have the metal cording on the back for hanging, but the nice lady at Hobby Lobby put it on them for me and only charged a couple of dollars.

Matboard:
Hobby Lobby also sells matboard and they will cut out letters (and other shapes) for a small charge (maybe $3.00 or so?). I asked them to cut the matboard to 12x16 (note that if you choose a different size frame you will need to adjust the outer dimensions of the matboard -- it will "float" inside the frame so just decide how much space you want between the outside edge of the matboard and the inside edge of the frame).

Then I asked them to cut a letter out of the middle of the mat board (centered of course). Note that you won't need the actual letter that they cut out, just the 12x16 matboard with the silhouette of the letter cut out in the middle. They let me choose from different letter styles, and I chose a simple Roman font for all 3. In hindsight I kind of wish I had used a lowercase "d," oh well.

Fabric:
I used leftover fabric in mine, but there are lots of possibilities here...you could use scrapbook paper or wallpaper or wrapping paper. I like the fabric because I just used leftover scraps and it ties in with your bedding, window treatments, etc.

Make sure the fabric is ironed out flat. You will need one larger rectangle of fabric for the outer edge, cut to 16x20 (I just took the glass out of the frame and traced around the edges & then cut). The smaller rectangle of fabric will need to be slightly smaller than 12x16.

Spray adhesive:


Assembly:
Apply the spray adhesive to the back of the matboard and then stick it to the smaller piece of fabric.

Then, apply the spray adhesive to the back of the smaller piece of fabric and stick it on the larger piece of fabric (centered of course, unless you just don't want it centered).

Now you should have your matboard on top, stuck to the small piece of fabric (which shows through the letter silhouette), stuck to the large piece of fabric (which shows on the outside edge of the matboard).

Then frame the whole thing like you would a picture. I'm not used to writing up tutorial type things so I hope this all made sense!

I'm not sure what the total cost of this was, I'm terrible at remembering prices, but I think this is pretty close:
$25 for frame (normally priced at $49.99)
$2 to add metal cording to back of frame
$8 for matboard
$3 charge to cut matboard
$6 for spray adhesive

So about $44 all said and done, unless you also have to buy fabric. You might have noticed that Duncan's "D" has a lot of flaws because I didn't have one big piece of fabric to use inside the letter cutout. I had to piece together a lot of little pieces and when you look closely you can totally see it. But I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to these things so I'm okay with it. And I don't think he'll mind. :)

Tying the Perfect Bow

Hopefully you aren't growing tired of my Pinterest finds. I'm trying to share only the best pins!

I found this pin on "tying the perfect bow," which was particularly helpful when tying the bows for baby Duncan's crib bedding...


and for his curtains...


I'm sure all you mom's of girls know how to tie the perfect bow on your daughter's Easter dress sash, but if not, here you go...

Source: ellinee.com via Brantley on Pinterest

We're Ready!

I had my 35-week ultrasound on Monday afternoon. I have been feeling great, so it was a bit of a shock when the doctor told me that I'm 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. She said that there is no telling when the baby will come, it could be days or it could be weeks, and that ideally the baby will wait until 37 weeks, which is considered full term. She said she seriously doubts I will make it much past that, especially since M&R were both born at 37 weeks, and third babies come faster. If I go into labor before 37 weeks they won't try to stop it since the baby is fully developed at this point and is just growing. So we are hoping and praying that he will stay put a little longer, but if he doesn't, we are ready for him...

He has a place to ride. The car seat has been disassembled, washed and reassembled.


He has clothes to wear. The "going home" outfit that both of his big brothers wore home from the hospital has been washed and pressed.


He has a place to sleep. The crib is ready!

Ta Da...Our Finished Kitchen!

I first posted about our kitchen renovation waaayyy back in June!! The renovation began in July...with a couple of update posts later in July and then in August. I was starting to wonder if I would ever post the "final" pictures! Maybe you were wondering the same thing! :)

Everything was pretty much complete in August, with the exception of 2 things: a new kitchen table and a light fixture for over the table. We found a table that we love at the Pottery Barn outlet in Gaffney over Labor Day weekend. I convinced Graem to take a detour through Gaffney on our way home from the football game in Charlotte (haha, not really "on the way" at all). It was just what we were looking for -- dark wood (to contrast with our new lighter cabinets), oval, and a good size for the space. Unfortunately it would not fit in our car. So I headed back up on Monday in the truck, which turned out to our advantage because they had tagged our table as a Labor Day doorbuster! That kind of stuff never happens to me! I brought it home and it sat in our garage waiting to be assembled for...a while.

I was indecisive on a light fixture...the hardware on our cabinets is dark, almost black, and the metal on the light fixture above our sink is gray. I finally settled on a simple chandelier...the clincher was the name -- the Graham chandelier. :) It's not as dark as our hardware but it works.

The week before Christmas I finally conceded that the kitchen will never be 100% done (sorry, Graem). Our house is a work in progress. I just dropped off some prints to be framed last week which will hang on the wall beside our kitchen table. Point being, I better go ahead and post these pictures because if I wait for everything to be perfect I will be waiting forever!



























{I had originally planned to use shades on the bulbs, but I've decided I like the bare look. I want to switch the bulbs out for some round bulbs, like these.}




For our backsplash we used subway tile in a herringbone pattern behind the cooktop stove...


...and the standard pattern (I think its called railroad...or maybe train track) everywhere else...


I am really enjoying everything about our {mostly} new kitchen. I feel like there are so many things I agonized over...the hardware, the backsplash, the granite, the lighting, the paint colors...but everything really came together. I have always dreamed of building a house...well, you know, not actually building one but paying someone to build one for me. But after going through this kitchen re-do I'm not sure I could handle all the decisions that would have to be made!

Update on Baby

Time has been ticking right along and much to my amazement I am now in my third trimester! It really hit home this morning...I had an OB check-up...the one with the dreaded glucola test...and afterwards they wanted to book all the rest of my appointments through my due date, starting with an appointment in two weeks. I can't believe I'm already at the point where I have appointments every other week. For so long, March seemed forever away...and now it is just around the corner! This third baby boy is going to be here before we know it!

We settled on a name...if you know us it won't surprise you that it's another family name. Some people say that family names are traditional...some say that they are unoriginal. Both arguments may be true, but the reason we prefer family names is because they mean something. And our families have pretty good names. :) We are using both of our mother's maiden names...Duncan McKendree. McKendree was also my middle name...which I hated for most of my life...until I got married and dropped it, and all of a sudden it made me sad to get rid of it. So I'm glad to pass it down, and hopefully baby Duncan won't hate it like I did!

I haven't even started on the nursery yet. The first step will be to get Roper out of the crib and into his big bed so that we can move the crib back to the nursery. My mother is coming down one day next week to help me with that. A few weeks ago Mason told Roper that baby Duncan was going to take his crib, and Roper started bawling! Hopefully once he realizes he has a big boy bed to sleep in he won't be so upset about it. I have a set of twin beds for the {big} boys' room, and I'm anxious to get it all set up!

I have shopped a little for nursery bedding...I've looked at catalogs and checked out some local shops. Back in 2009 I ordered the bedding for Mason & Roper's room from Javis Davis & was beyond pleased with how it turned out, but sadly, they have gone out of business. I found a shop on Etsy that carries some nice bedding. Quite honestly, I've been disappointed with what's out there. I was expecting to find more of a selection on Etsy. Maybe I'm missing something? I'm over the "cutesy" stuff...I don't want a theme or motif...I just want something different and a little modern without looking too bold or harsh. Please send me ideas if you have any!

Here are some of the fabrics I like in the one Etsy shop that I found...I should be receiving swatches of these and a few more any day now. I didn't search out a gray & yellow color scheme, I just really like this one fabric with the animals on it & then tried to pick others that I thought would complement it. What do y'all think?



















I tried to put these all together in a collage for better viewing, but I couldn't figure out how to do that on Flickr {sorry}.

Here is an example using different fabrics, just to help you visualize how she puts the coordinating fabrics together into bedding...


Here is the link to the Etsy site.

Roses in November

I know its December now...but when I was going through my Thanksgiving pictures, I came across this picture of a rose that I cut out of my yard the day after Thanksgiving! I'm glad I got a picture, because it's probably the last I'll see of my roses until the spring. The past few days have been so cold, I'm pretty sure it's officially winter!

Simplifying...

One area of domestic life that often overwhelms me is LAUNDRY. It is a neverending battle. Me versus the clothes.

Amanda had the wheels turning in my head with this post. She found her hamper at Kohl's over a year ago. I checked the store and their website...no luck at the store and the one I found on their website seemed to be priced way too high for a laundry hamper (I seriously can't justify paying $93+shipping for storage for dirty clothes). Pottery Barn had a nice one, but it only had two sections and I wanted three, plus it was even more expensive -- $179, on sale for $149. No thank you. I swore off Wal-Mart (the store) back in December...but I'm not opposed to shopping on their website, which is where I found my favorite new home accessory. After shipping and all, it was less than $30. Money well spent!



I put it together myself, no special tools required, in less than ten minutes.

No more dumping of clothes in my bathroom floor to sort into piles to figure out if I have enough whites, darks or brights for a load. The hampers equal out to about the size my machine will accomodate for a load, so I can just eyeball it!