Snakes, snails & puppy dogs' tails

Introducing: our little man, Lawson Michael Kirby!

Eeek! If I had any reservations about finding out the sex of the baby beforehand (hint: I didn't), they would have disappeared if I had known how much more REAL it all feels now! (Seriously... a BABY!)

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Trevor got a new job and went back to school (woot!), we found out our little "it" is a "he", and we're looking to move soon (fingers crossed!). In the midst of it all, I've done what any girl would do... spend my days pinteresting.

Knowing we're having a little baby boy makes it easier to start making nursery decisions, which is very exciting (although it is a little sad to not have an excuse to pin cute little girl things!). Here are some things I'm loving right now:

Pegboard? Both cute & functional!

Wall of books!

I WISH we could do this! Not quite so sure it's renter-friendly...

Something like this with our wedding bunting would be fun! Not sure it's mobile-y enough though.

I realize this is more girlish, but I LOVE that rug!

Baskets on the wall = genius.

If I could just copy and paste this whole room, I would. I'd do it.

Or this one! Gahhh.

Does anyone else feel like Pinterest has this way of making you ITCH to paint something, like, now?

Rug revival

Let's talk about our recent update, shall we? Or rather, let's just show pictures (but you knew I meant that, right?):

Pretty easy to see the difference. This, friends, is why I adore Ross. We bought the original rug at Target and love that it's squishy and soft... but it was just too small. Funny how that tiny rug made our tiny kitchen look even smaller! But that wasn't the biggest flaw...

Cue the collective "ewww"'s. This bad boy was not machine washable (and by "bad", I mean "disgusting", but maybe that was clear), and all my attempts to keep it clean were laughable. So when I stumbled upon this washing-machine friendly and slightly bigger rug in Ross, I hugged and and whispered sweet nothings into its, um, pile. Here he is again: 

Ahh. Much better. I clearly need new dish towels now though... and man, oh man how I wish I was allowed to paint those cabinets. Cabinets must be the renters' bane. Ideas on those?

Lamp lovin

We love our little apartment. Really, we do. Buuut (picture me covering it's tiny little ears), it has it's flaws--not the least of which is the fact that there is no lighting in the living area.

Fortunately we managed to pick up not one but two floor lamps along the way. Here they are in all their glory (lamp shades removed because I forgot to take a decent "before" picture... and let's just pretend that room is clean, shall we?):

The navy lamp was picked up from a donation tent at our alma mater (Point Loma Nazarene University, woot!) at the end of the school year. The silver was given to me by a department at PLNU that was renovating. Needless to say, they were mismatched and very... um... loved.

I'd heard a lot about the magical powers of Oil-Rubbed Bronze spray paint (who hasn't?!) and I was super excited to give it a go. So, I picked up a can of Rustoleum ORB (with built in primer--PUMPED).

I removed the shades and wiped down the lamps. I put the cords in a bag and taped up the rest of the cord. I didn't really care if the inside of the top lips were painted or not, since the shades would conceal it, but I did want to protect all that engineering schtuff in there (can you tell I'm an expert?), so I taped that off.

4ish thin and semi-even coats (I'm lazy and impatient, have you noticed?) and a few hours later, my poor sad lamps were happy and young and carefree again!

Lemme tell you... oil-rubbed bronze is exactly what it's cracked up to be. I may have done a little dance before bringing them back inside. I had always heard it described as a sort of semi-shiny black, but it looks more like a really really dark brown with a teensy bit of sparkle.

Notes to myself for next time:

• This stuff SMELLS. Buy a mask. Maybe buy extras for the neighbors.
• If you're not wearing shoes (which, let's be honest, I'm not unless I have to be), make sure to wear socks that can be ruined... and be ready to stick. to. everything.
• Shake that spray paint can well! And often! And for long periods of time! The stories of goopy, drippy paint are true... and avoidable.
• One can baaarely covered both lamps. Buy more than you think you need--if you don't use it all you have an excuse to start a new project. ;)

Not bad for a couple of free lamps, eh? Is it any wonder I have "So This is Love" stuck in my head?

June 16, 2012

Almost one whole year has past since our wedding, so I guess it's about time to review it!

Our wedding day was completely wonderful. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of mishaps (does anyone else read that as "mis-shaps" sometimes?), including:

• We very nearly did not have chairs. They somehow misplaced our order? Thankfully we scored a nice discount for that one, and got the chairs all set up juuust as people started arriving.
• The arch that we were to stand in front of got a little windswept and almost collapsed. Luckily we have some manly men that straightened it out juuust as I was walking down the aisle (sensing a theme?).
• We forgot to give the recessional music to our sound guy. The rest of the ceremony was live music (I have an incredibly talented family!) though, and the clapping and cheering covered it up nicely.
• Apparently, it was cold? I gotta tell you, I didn't feel it, and if you know me you know that's strange.
• Our wedding was the day before Father's Day, so for those traveling down to San Diego, traffic was not kind.

BUT. Oh my goodness, best day of my life. I'll let the pictures speak for me (but imagine me blubbering):