Twins' Nursery Sneak Peek

I won't be sharing the full nursery until the twins' are here. First and foremost, there are zero in-progress shots. And second, one wall is not complete until it contains their initials - which we are keeping a secret until their "birth"day. This thrills my mother to no end (insert sarcasm here) - she doesn't understand why I won't just tell her. Some things need to be a surprise, right?!

Until then, here are two pictures - one is my view from our room, and the other is their dresser & view into our room. Their nursery is so calming and sweet to me - maybe because it's (most likely) the last nursery I'll ever design, but also because it's super cozy. 10'x9' is a small space, but we made it work!

The dresser was a Craigslist purchase, and originally looked like this (photo taken by seller).

It was purchased when she was pregnant with her daughter, 18 years ago, and also used as her changing table. She was thrilled when I told her it would be finding a home in another nursery.

A little sanding, rub'n'buff and some new $2 handles from Lowes, and we had exactly what I had been looking for!


Hopefully only a few more days until our boys are here...  fingers crossed!

What I Read: 2013

Reading is one of the few things that I do only for me...
I love getting lost in a book, connecting with the characters, and thinking about the plot long after I've finished.

I tell my husband all the time that my dream job would be to read books and write reviews on them. I would love love LOVE to get paid to read books all day!

One of my 2013 resolutions had been to read 1 book a month. As someone who commutes by train daily to work, I read a lot. My reading happens to come in spurts, so while I do read at least 12 books in a year, sometimes I read 3 in a month and none in the next.

Here's a rundown of what I read last year, along with links to each book!

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan

Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand

The Silver Linings Playbook, by Matthew Quick

Praying Circles Around Your Children, by Mark Batterson

Where We Belong, by Emily Giffin

Defending Jacob, by William Landay

The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult

Bloom, by Kelle Hampton

Left Neglected, by Lisa Genova

Still Alice, by Lisa Genova 

When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets & Quads

The Hunger Games Trilogy, by Suzanne Collins

The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarty

Allegiant, by Veronica Roth



Affiliate links were used in this post.

Family Pictures - Fall 2013

Just wanted to share some of the family pictures we had taken this fall! A was a little ornery during this half hour session (he had a little cold, and had fallen asleep in the car = bad combo). But I still love looking at these, especially since our photographer was able to capture my belly, and some really great pictures of us as a family.

 

2013 Year-in-Review

Better late than never, right? It was so fun to look back at all of the posts over the last year - here are some of my favorites!

In January, I shared my 2012 Resolutions, and make some new ones for 2013. I also shared our current playroom, as well as my inspiration and project list for the new year to turn this space into a functional office/guest room/play space.

I also shared A's big transition to a big boy bed (via a dog bed - true story), which ended up being very successful for us!

And in some business updates, I shared some of my struggles as a start-up small business, and my decision to keep moving forward with my dreams (as well a picture of one of my favorite birth announcement displays, to-date!)

In February, I shared what we gave A for Valentine's Day, some updates to our Master Bedroom,
and celebrated C's birthday!

In March, I shared what I included in A's Easter Basket, and some progress that we had made in the playroom. Knowing that we were repainting shortly, I also shared a tour of our kitchen as part of our Home Tour Friday series.

I also completed two quick DIY projects: a mirror update with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and a fabric covered cork board (also for my new office in the playroom).

And last but not least, I shared some of my favorite "Mommy Must Haves" with 4 of my favorite bloggers!

 

April was a really big month for us! First we celebrated Easter, and shared A's new art space in our playroom!

 

And the following week, our little guy turned 2! We celebrated with a Little Blue Truck Birthday Party, that was nominated for party of the week on Project Nursery!

In April, we also completed our major bathroom renovation (thankfully, before the birthday party!) - our biggest DIY to-date, and shared our kitchen makeover (which was really just some new paint!)

 

In May, I shared how I make our family albums through Blurb...

and linked up with my friend Darci to share my dream patio makeover (on a budget, of course!)

 

In June, I started my "What's Not Working" series - which was the catalyst for a lot of organizing around our house. The first thing we tackled was our DVD collection, and then, our mail.

We also painted our kitchen door, which totally transformed the room. And I also made a few small updates to our dining room.

 

July is when we started to slow down with house projects - I was pregnant, but hadn't announced it yet, so projects started to be replaced with napping :)

I did manage to update our bedroom with some 2 gallery walls, and while we were away on vacation, I had my friends Emily, Lyndsey, and Colleen all share their "dream homes" via Pinterest. So fun!!

And we also shared our family pictures - some of my favorites to date!

August was a very big month for our family! We announced that we were expecting... TWINS!

And also shared some of our pictures from our family vacation in July. I celebrated my birthday, and also (finally!) shared our guest room.

In September, we had our big gender reveal and I also shared my inspiration board for their nursery.

 

And lastly I shared a little pregnancy update (at 19 weeks), along with some pictures of my every-growing bump!

In October, we celebrated our four year anniversary, and I also launched our 2013 Holiday Cards on Etsy!

I also shared our new family command center as part of the What's Not Working series.

November was the end of posting for me this year (oops!), but before I was done, I shared our anniversary trip, a 25-week pregnancy update and a little Mommy & Me post with my favorite almost-big-brother.

Wow! What an amazing year!!

I loved looking back at all of these posts, and seeing what we were up to in 2013. This year will certainly look very different with our two little boys set to join us any day now... but we wouldn't have it any other way!