House Tour: The Nursery

Madison's nursery is, by far, the most completed room in our house.  It still lacks a few of those finishing touches, yet I'm pretty proud of where it is right now

It all started with this rug from Target:

I found it online, and was so excited to design Madison's nursery around it.  The hostesses for the shower my family was throwing us planned to buy it.  But before that could happen, Target sold out!  I was sooooo disappointed.  I had convinced myself that this was THE rug, and that nothing would be the same without it.  Well, it was true; it's not the same, it's BETTER!  I think the rug I settled on from Overstock(or the O, or O.co, or whatever they're trying to recreate themselves as this time) is waaaayyyyy better in quality, style, and function.  Based on reviews, I'm pretty sure it's better in smell, too.

One of the things I really appreciated about the new rug was that, thanks to the pink and butterflies, it allowed me to go a little more "girly" in the details.  These mobiles are a (not quite as good, but still fun) knock-off of a project that John and Sherry (who else?) did for their little girl's nursery:

Forgive me for the following picture: despite all appearances, the room is not slanting.  That would be the photographer.  Pat and I made the valance, and the curtains are blackout, which is great for nap time(s). 

Madison loves to crane her neck to see the pier one print above her changing table.  The fan, strangely enough, is one of my favorite things in the room.  I plan to steal it from her one day.  The fun lamp is from IKEA.  I love that place.

You already know all about the table and (soon to be) frame wall.  The glider, surprisingly enough (to me, anyway) gets hardly any use.  Madison just doesn't appreciate rocking gliding.  Maybe it'll be good for kid #2.  Not that we're in any hurry.  Don't start a bump watch just yet; anything you see on my midsection right now is most likely the result of my foray into the baking world.

This is one of the few to-do's in the nursery.  One of the drawer pulls came off a while back (two months, but who's counting), and we have yet to twist it back on.  Unfortunately, this is the wipes drawer, so I slice my fingers (not enough to draw blood, just enough to irritate the skin) on those threads on an almost daily basis.  Kinda like the proverbial howling dog on the porch that won't get off the nail. 

And because I think it's important to close on a good note, I'll leave you with this shot of Madison's diaper pail.  We considered the other route (you know, the Schmiaper Shmenie?), but decided we'd rather not have to buy specialty bags along with diapers and wipes.  I also thought the big plastic trash can was kinda ugly, and the few times I've been around said Schmiaper Shmenies, there was a distinctive diaper odor, anyway.  Instead, we just found a trash can with a lid at IKEA.  We dump a generous portion of baking soda in each new bag, and sprinkle in a little extra when depositing diapers that hold a little extra, if you know what I mean.  It usually looks better than this, but our Walmart doesn't sell medium trash can liners, so we're stuck with the too big tall ones until we get to Kroger.  In my opinion, it doesn't stink at all, but since I live here and may have acclimated to any smell, I can't be 100% sure. 

 

Our Nursery To-Do's:

• Reattach the drawer pull for the changing table
• Fill out the frame wall
• Iron (or toss in the dryer if I'm feeling lazy) the curtains
• Find a basket to set underneath the side table for extra toys/books/blankets

That's pretty much it!  Have you ever been disappointed not to get one item, only to find something much better?  What do you do with your diapers?  Is there any two-minute project around your house that you keep putting off (like the drawer pull)?

-Kelli

Piece of Cake!

I'm one step closer to one of my goals!   Remember that trip to Walmart we took Friday?  Well, I wasn't really just going for milk and spray paint, I just didn't want to spoil the big surprise:  I baked a cake!  (Almost) From scratch!  And it was edible really good!

First, I hopped on over to Allrecipes.com , which is also where I found my red beans and rice recipe, to look for an easy-looking recipe.  I scanned a few of them, but there were too many ingredients and steps!  Color me intimidated.  Finally, I searched for "basic yellow cake", and picked the first recipe on the list, "Scottley's Basic Yellow Cake."

I read over the ingredients list: pretty basic stuff.

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 2/3 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups milk

Here's the part where I realized how little we actually use our kitchen:  out of the eight ingredients, we only had two on hand (vanilla and salt), and one of those (salt) was purchased just a week before.  Of course, we do typically have milk, but I had drained the last of it into my raisin bran that morning.

After googling a few things (like how to soften butter, cream butter and sugar, and what exactly "just until incorporated" looks like) and buying my ingredients (along with a cake pan and sifter), I was ready to get started!

I started by leaving the butter margarine (I know, I'm terrible) out for a little while to soften.  After about twenty minutes, I mashed it around a little:

 And saw that we were ready to go!  I added my sugar and creamed them together until they looked sort of like my mom's mashed potatoes:

 After tasting (and promptly spitting out) a bite, I beat in the eggs:

 Then I sifted together the flour, salt, and baking powder (top right) and measured out the milk (bottom, duh):

 Side note: is sifting flour supposed to make your wrists sore for two days, am I a sissy, or did I buy a too cheap sifter? 

Anyway, here is the batter all mixed and ready to go:

 Remember how I said I bought "a cake pan"?  That's exactly what I meant.  I bought one cake pan, even though I knew I planned to make two layers.  Why waste $2.50, right?  So I poured out the first half and stuck it in the oven, then covered the rest of the batter:

 After baking both layers for about thirty minutes at 350 degrees, then letting them cool, I brought out my secret ingredient:

 Mmmmm, butter cream.  Sadly, I had to use the whole can on the cake.  There was none left over for mindless gnoshing in front of the tv. :-(

After letting Madison decorate the top with colored sugar (okay, it was me, they were supposed to be leaves, move on already!), I was done!

I'll admit it doesn't look all that great, but it tasted pretty heavenly.  As a matter of fact, as of about noon-thirty yesterday, it's GONE!

I'm pretty excited; my first attempt turned out pretty well!  Pat even asked me to make this instead of his typical (box) chocolate on chocolate cake for his birthday!  We'll see about that...I kind of hate to break tradition.

Have you done any baking lately?  Am I the only female over twenty that had no idea how to soften butter?  Do you blame your kids when your attempts at cake bedazzling go awry?

-Kelli

Date Fail #2

So, I'm still not good with this whole "babysitter" thing.  On Saturday night, Pat's supervisor hosted a party get-together with a few guys from work and their families.  Our original plan was to bring Madison with us, but we were concerned about a few things.  For starters, it was a cookout, and we weren't sure how the temperature would be.  I also wasn't sure whether she would be able to get to sleep in a new environment.  Finally, a few of Pat's coworkers are smokers, the host being one of them, so we worried that there wouldn't be a smoke-free place to keep her.

Of course, we didn't think about any of these issues until after we told Pat's boss we would go.  That left us with three options.  We could 1) not go, 2) have Pat go alone, or 3) both go, leaving Madi with my mom.  Since my mom was having baby withdrawals after her day-and-a-half ladies' retreat (she's got it bad), she had already volunteered to watch her.  We went with option 3.

Warning:  If you would rather not read about my milk production, I would advise skipping the following italicized paragraph.

Problem: we decided to try the babysitter route about three hours before we needed to leave, and I had NO milk pumped.  We're guessing that she eats about five ounces at a time right now.  I can usually only pump about three ounces at a time.  And I needed to feed her twice before we left.  Therefore, in order to be able to go, I would have to produce ten ounces to feed her directly plus six ounces for her bottle.  That's sixteen ounces (a whole pound) in three hours!!!  After pumping three times in a two hour span, I was miraculously able to get six ounces.  Phew! 

Mom got back from her retreat with just enough time to walk her dog and dash over to our place before we needed to leave.  Everything happened so quickly from when we decided we would go without Madi to our actual departure that I hadn't been able to really process what it was we were about to do.  When Pat started the car, I finally realized that, for the very first time, I would be more than an hour away from my baby. 

Thank goodness I had decided to wait for the drive to apply my makeup.  Before we turned off of our street, I was a swollen-faced, sobbing mess.  Pat was starting to think we would have to turn around when he finally managed to distract me.  The evening that ensued was a strange mix of enjoying myself, silently worrying about Madison, and planning the fastest route home, along with a quick explanation for the officer that would surely pull us over for speeding.

I thought I was doing a good job disguising my distress until Pat's supervisor started consoling me.  Apparently I was easier to read than I had thought.

Mom was kind enough to text me updates of how Madi was doing: "She's in her swing with her monkey", "She's asleep", and "I'm about to feed her."  I gradually started feeling better.  And then it happened.  What I had dreaded over the hour's drive came true: my phone rang.  We had a problem: the bottle was leaking milk all over Madison.  I felt like the biggest failure; I had forgotten to put the gasket in when I made her bottle!  I imagined the worst; half the milk must have spilled out! 

We left the party a few minutes later; Pat knew I couldn't handle any more.  On our way home, my mom texted me to ask what she should do with the "rest of the milk".  Thank God!  Madison got enough milk!  I could breathe again.  For a few minutes, anyway.  Then my next irrational worry hit; what if we got into a car accident and never made it home?

Saturday night was a lesson learned: I am not ready to be separated from Madison.  It hurts waaaayyyy too much. 

Does it get easier?

-Kelli