Prepping... the vintage (Part 1)

Prepping for this little baby continues.  We're at 31 weeks now, people, and boy is it getting exciting.  And exhausting and slightly uncomfortable.  and according to extensive internet research, baby is somewhere between the size of a melon, a coconut, and a pineapple.  Yes, a pineapple. 

I have a few vintage finds that I'm going to share, but broke it up into two posts because ISN'T THE ANTICIPATION KILLING YOU???  mwahahaha.

I'll start with the smallest and work my way up!

I found this hat at St. Vinny's in town when I was thrifting with my friend Jamie (my goodness we did a lot of thrifting/antiquing!) in November.  It was tucked away near some Christmas clothing, and I fell in love with it and the $1 price tag.  It needs a small snap repair, but otherwise is in great shape.

As I was taking this picture, I was looking for a "model" that would work a little better than laying it flat, but couldn't find one.  You guys, we don't even own 1 stuffed animal.  We are so not ready for a baby!

Back

Front

Next up is this dress I spotted at the most glorious antique mall in the world.  I'm sure I paid around $3 for it a few years back.  It's so hard to find colorful vintage baby clothing, or any vintage boy clothing whatsoever, so this beautiful little dress was a great find!  It has a small amount of discoloration on one of the ties in the back, but WHO CARES?  I'm sure the stains won't end there as I really plan on putting a baby in this thing if it's a girl.  and the puffy sleeves???  So cute.

Finally (for today), a set of play chairs that I won.  Technically, back in December I entered a contest on HandmadeCharlotte, and just found out a few weeks ago that I won!  It was a $250 credit to the online store Chairish.  Chairish is filled with pre-loved furniture and decorative items and has several brick and mortar stores along with a great online store.  So here's my review of Chairish: wellllll its nice, but as a Wisconsin girl, I found everything to be extremely overpriced.  As in, insane.  As in, I could make millions by going to a thrift store, snatching things up, and then reselling them on Chairish for a crazy profit.  There are a few really nice things on there that are worth the price listed. 

Needless to say, I paid $114 (including shipping) for two children's chairs, that aren't even vintage.  They're from Restoration Hardware (Warning: only follow that link if you are prepared to spend a long amount of time looking at beautiful things) and one is missing one of the little clear plastic feet.  If I didn't have that store credit, I would never buy anything there.  The chairs are adorable though, and I am so excited to have a future place for our kiddo to color, eat snacks, have tea parties.  In fact, I made Dillon test out the weight limit on one to make sure an adult wouldn't break anything, and it actually looked fairly comfortable for long-legged Dillon to enjoy a tea party or two someday!  All we need now is a table, maybe this one??? Just kidding, I'm never spending $300+ for a table that a child will get all nasty.  Our dining room table came from a garage sale, for pete's sake!

I could have found something to use up the rest of my credit to Chairish.com, but instead decided to give the rest of the credit to a friend. Hope she finds something wonderful!

So, to recap, a few thrifting tips:
-if you're thrifting or antiquing and spot a great vintage outfit, snap it up.  You will never see that one again. Ever.
-Look for colorful children's clothing, white stuff is much more common but who wants their kid in white?
-Look for vintage boy's stuff.  It's so hard to find!
-Come to Wisconsin if you are looking for a great deal.  Then, you can make a profit in places like Chicago, San Francisco, and New York by calling something "mid-century modern" or "vintage". (That's why we did all that thrifting here, right, Jamie???)

Monday, monday...

I thought I'd do a quick update on life around here, bullet-style since that's how I want to do it:

• I lost all energy and motivation.  Upon googling it, there appears to be a 30 week slump in pregnancy where energy is depleted and one has the desire to sleep constantly.  That's me.  I keep falling asleep on the couch at 8:30, even with naps during the day!

• Even though the forecast calls for 5-7 inches of snow today, I feel like spring is around the corner.  I think it's because we sang one of my favorite hymns in church yesterday that reminds me that Lent is almost here which means Easter is almost here which means SUMMER!

• What do you guys think is happening with this plant?  It grew this little baby plant recently and now the mama plant looks to be dying.  Can it be saved?  



Just ignore the Dinosaurs. That's where they live. The dying mama plant is on the left, the new sprout is on the right.

• We finished installing our transitions from our new tile floor to our wood ones!  And, miracle of miracle, we got the perfect stain color!  This gives me renewed confidence for the railing (since we'll be staining the newel posts, landing tread, and handrail to match the floors).  Hopefully soon I'll have a big post of all the research and prep we're doing for the railing.

Beautiful finished transitions in a matching stain color.

• My incredible husband switched out this outlet for me.  It makes me so happy that all the outlets in the baby's room are white with white covers, to match.  Unlike this situation in our dining room.  I didn't even know that switch covers came in 2 different beiges, black, white shiny and white matte (not to mention the unpainted portion of the wall that was behind the previous owner's TV)

Beige outlet, different beige TV cable outlet, black TV mount, white light switches and thermostat, unpainted and dinged up wall...

• I had a sick week last week.  I had to leave work early on Wednesday and missed our first installment of our Breastfeeding and Newborn Care class!  Boo!  I even called my doctor, which is unusual for me, because I was so concerned as I don't ever remember having a stomach bug that bad before.  But I'm fully recovered and fully hydrated now, though it really took the wind out of my "I'm a pregnant superhero" sails.

•  I think I must really be starting to look pregnant because various strangers are asking me how the baby is doing, church people give a few glances at the belly, and I must look really awkward because Dillon keeps offering to help me get up off the floor if I've been sitting there, telling me I should stop sitting on the floor. I'm trying to be cool with it.  But God help you if you ask me if I'm having twins.

• Lastly, we got our taxes all ready to go this weekend.  In previous years, we had to pay in a decent amount so we really fiddled with our withholdings this year so that we would get a return.  That fiddling combined with the house purchase and taxes and such resulted in a delightful return for us.  Praise the Lord we did that planning ahead, because now we can pay for baby expenses, railing, and maybe able to have Dillon stay home longer with his *bummer* unpaid paternity leave.

Here's to a great week ahead and lots of productivity!

Mini-vacation

We packed up and headed out around 8:00am, with a long day ahead of us.  Hot breakfast in our tummies, hot coffee in our cupholders, and a bag of snacks, change for tolls, pillows, sweatshirts, water, and Tums in our car. We stopped at Olive Garden for lunch (a gift card for $25 and a bill for $24.75---oh yes we are THAT good).  Then, we saw it:

Like a beacon, the blue and yellow calls to us...

The most glorious place in the world.  Ikea.  3 floors and thousands of products. 

I had done quite a bit of research on what we were going to buy, so we were prepared.  Several hours later, we emerged with this loot:

The loot.  You also get a sweet view of our soon-to-be finished staircase. 

-A silverware drawer separater.  Our kitchen drawers are so narrow we couldn't find one that fit, and I even had to cut this plastic one a bit but it works!  Huzzah for organization.

-3 spice racks.  The goal is something like this.  A place for our kiddo to put his or her books facing outward so that the cover is visible. 

-a recycling bin that we thought would be perfect as a cloth-diaper pail.  We registered for a drawstring bag that will hopefully fit inside here perfectly.  And the lid will hopefully keep any stinkies in.  

-A stepstool.  We just needed one.  Dillon is in the process of staining the step and top a dark color and painting the rest white. 

-A tea infuser.  My favorite tea is Rooibos, which is surprisingly hard to come by in the US.  And it often comes loose. 

-2 table legs.  I had been using saw horses for my craft table legs downstairs, but it was slightly too tall and the sawhorses recently were used as actual sawhorses and are cut and stained and icky.

-a picture.  It was on sale and will match baby's room perfectly.  I'll give you a better photo someday when it's hung up.

-A giant pillow and cover.  It was pretty and I was planning on cutting up the cover to make a cushion for the rocking chair (that my shoulderblades poke through) but I don't know if that will ever happen.  Wish me motivation and creativity!

-This table thing.  We were looking for some sort of inexpensive nightstand-type thing to have next to the rocking chair in the bedroom for reading materials and water and things.  This is what we came up with.  The wood color matches the crib and dresser that will be in the room, and it was pretty inexpensive.  Works for me!

-This gray and white striped rug that will go by our front door where we take off shoes.  Anything more "welcome mat" was too thick and wouldn't allow the door to open.

-This candy bar.  Which I am going to buy 10 of the next time I visit an Ikea.  It didn't even make it home.

So our trip to Ikea was a success.  Although, as Dillon correctly put it, "Ikea is one of those places where you are so excited on your ride up the escalator to the 3rd floor, and by the time you leave the checkout lane you are ready to murder someone."  I'd say that sums it up well.  Although I also get a lot more satisfaction from putting my furniture together than he does.  Those tiny hex wrenches--so handy!

The following weekend, we went over to Green Bay to force our presence upon some friends.  We had a blast, although it felt so short!  If you saw our picture on facebook, I have to share that we were in a brewery  Nothing makes a gal feel classier than looking pregnant and walking through the busy bar area 3 times to visit the bathroom. 

We're so cool we took a picture of Lambeau field out of our car.  I'm sure we're not the only ones to have ever done that.

Josie is a spectacular cook, and she graciously fed us.  Over and over and over.  Homemade soup and rolls, lemon muffins, egg sandwiches, apple crisp, homemade pizza.  It was delicious and I would live in their spare bedroom if I could. 

There was also a trip to a great mexican restaurant, a small purchase at an antique store, and a coffee shop visited while we were there.  What a great time and I'm so thankful for great friends. 

Dillon and I very practically stopped at Lowes to look at handrails, balusters, and newel posts.  This railing will be done--SOON. 




TO BUY:
-Rug for nursery (still waiting for a 75% off sale at Rugsusa)
-anything that's not a gift off our registry
-diaper sprayer
TO DO:
-read birthing books
-tour the hospital (by the way, I was the only mama there writing things down and asking questions!!! Do these ladies not understand this stuff is IMPORTANT??? or am I just a little too type-A for this?)
-preregister at the hospital
-make sure our insurance will still all work out since Dillon's place of work changed providers (grrrr)
-Take our birthing classes (we still are practicing our hypnobirthing every day!)
-Take our "breastfeeding and newborn" class (Starting today!)
-Finish up our registries (since Target's in-store selection was limited and we haven't even started the 2nd one)
-Look into placenta encapsulation (anyone had any experience?  Is it worth it?)
-Attend shower
TO MAKE:
-sheets
-cushion for rocking chair
-footstool
-mobi wrap (don't have to! Thanks, Meghan, for offering to send us one of yours!!!)
-mobile
-portable high chair thinger
-Nursery decor (some sort of sign with a favorite hymn written on it)
HOUSE TO DO:
-Paint nursery
-Finish Railing
-complete flooring (transition strips and heating vent)
-Finish our pantry cabinet (add shelves, paint, and fill with all the crap that's covering my counters and stressing me out)
WANT TO DO:
-mini-babymoon by showing up at a friend's house for the weekend (thanks Ryan and Josie!)
-Ikea Trip
-Knit a onesie
-Make and freeze a bunch of meals

Prepping... the homemade

The preparations continue as we have officially moved into the third trimester of growing a baby!

I hope you're ready for a few more "I've been baby-obsessed for years" confessions.  I've been making a few things for my future kiddo for a long time (or at least stocking up supplies to make things) so these are a few of the homemade items that I've got so far.  I usually follow online tutorials or patterns, so I'll link to as many as possible in case someone out there gets inspired, too!

First off, I recently knitted this pair of teal baby pants.  Hootie pants, actually.  Although you can barely see the owls along the top in this picture, they're there!  and I'm in love with the pattern.  Hopefully these will fit, I never check my gauge so they ended up a bit small.  And the cloth diapers we're going to use (wait, didn't I tell you that??) will add a lot of bulk so we'll see!  I used some cotton yarn thrifted from the St. Vinny's in town, which was my first project with recycled yarn.  I had to use two strands of thrifted yarn held together to get the right amount of yarn, and pulling apart a sweater takes FOR-EV-ER, but it was totally worth it for the mucho bucks I saved.

Next up are the tiny shoes I whipped up awhile ago.  Based on Tom's shoes, only for cheapos like me.  I actually had all the fabric needed for these little guys in my stash, including the textured grippy bottoms.  Yay for saving every little piece!  Go hoarding!  The pattern got me stumped a few times, but by the second shoe, I had the hang of it. 

Next up: the little red dress/smock.  It's actually a reversible smock that I made a few years ago also.  I was super inspired by a dress on a tiny family friend so I searched and searched the internet for a similar dress.  Can't you picture it with a pair of leggings and a long-sleeve shirt underneath???  Or a huge cloth diaper sticking out the bottom??? OH so cute. The back of this smock is a criss-cross (you can see it better in the next picture) and the pattern was a breeze to sew.  This was made before I was confident with buttonholes, so I used snaps instead.  Buttons would be adorable though.  (YIKES. I just looked for the pattern from my "finished projects" board on pinterest and it's gone!  Hopefully it can be found again someday, there were lots of other sizes for bigger girls)

 

Finally, in that first picture, we have the vintage sheet I turned into a crib sheet.  I've been saving vintage sheets for this purpose for awhile now (*sigh) and finally whipped one of these up!  I want to try the fit out on our hand-me-down crib before I make any others, but this pattern was a breeze as well.  And this is definitely the way to go if you want cute sheets but don't want to pay much for them.  I had been dreading the cost of the elastic, but when I went to JoAnn's, I discovered I can make 3 of these sheets for less than $4.  And each vintage sheet I got is a full or queen size, so for $2-$3 per vintage sheet, this is a super thrifty option!  The yellow flowery pattern on the sheet is a bit girly, but I have this super-manly brown polka dotted vintage sheet that I'll make some sheets out of next in the event we have a young fella instead of a young lady.  

 Up next on the tour of "Lindsey has been crazy for years" is this collection of knitted clothing.  The adorable wrap sweater with buttons, the baby bonnet and booties were a gift from the lovely Jamie.  She's a much more talented knitter than I (actually, she was the one who introduced me to using recycled yarn when she visited me in November!) so you know they are well made and have all sorts of fancy stitches that I'm too lazy to try.

The darker blue sweater I knit up a couple months ago when I was stuck on the couch during the depths of my pregnancy-nausea.  And I can't find the pattern for this one either.  Sorry!  The yarn I used is so incredibly stretchy that this sweater will probably fit until our kiddo is 2 years old.  Not a joke.  It's miracle yarn.

 Last, but not least, is this sweater I knit up a few years ago also.  I believe this pattern was my first adventure into sweater-knitting, so I am incredibly proud.  And the purple won't be too bad for a boy or a girl, I think.

So that's it.  Only a few things.  I am currently unraveling a thrifted sweater (super soft and fuzzy angora/wool) to knit a pair of leggings.

How about we revisit that list of to-do's? (Only the most recently completed are in RED.  The other completed items are crossed off)


TO BUY:
-Rug for nursery (still waiting for a 75% off sale at Rugsusa)
-anything that's not a gift off our registry
TO DO:
-read birthing books
-tour the hospital (by the way, I was the only mama there writing things down and asking questions!!! Do these ladies not understand this stuff is IMPORTANT??? or am I just a little too type-A for this?)
-preregister at the hospital
-make sure our insurance will still all work out since Dillon's place of work changed providers (grrrr)
-Take our birthing classes (we still are practicing our hypnobirthing every day!)
-Take our "breastfeeding and newborn" class
-Finish up our registries (since Target's in-store selection was limited and we haven't even started the 2nd one)
-Look into placenta encapsulation (anyone had any experience?  Is it worth it?)
-Attend shower
TO MAKE:
-sheets
-cushion for rocking chair
-footstool
-mobi wrap (don't have to! Thanks, Meghan, for offering to send us one of yours!!!)
-mobile
-portable high chair thinger
-Nursery decor (some sort of sign with a favorite hymn written on it)
HOUSE TO DO:
-Paint nursery
-Finish Railing
-complete flooring (transition strips and heating vent)
-Finish our pantry cabinet (add shelves, paint, and fill with all the crap that's covering my counters and stressing me out)
WANT TO DO:
-mini-babymoon by showing up at a friend's house for the weekend (thanks Ryan and Josie!)
-Ikea Trip
-Knit a onesie
-Make and freeze a bunch of meals

Wish us luck making progress on the transition strips and railing this weekend. Come on, Tax refund!)