Category: Pregnancy

Nesting

~ Crystle ~ 10 Comments

As the third trimester of this pregnancy quickly approaches, I’m feeling both eager and apprehensive about having baby Margot join us. Pity us first time mothers, because we really have no clue about what we’re doing, but we’re super excited about it!

I’ve purchased nearly all of her baby clothes for her first three months, all second hand, might I add. Paying $1 for a gently used onesie instead of $5 really frees up some cash for us to put into more important (but probably not so important) things like really cool wall art, and materials to refinish our old furniture to use in her nursery. Those are the things that she won’t outgrow, I figure.

I should mention that since the moment I laid eyes on Heather Mattoon’s Cats in Clothes series, I’ve been a huge fan. I’ve been waiting for the right time to pick the perfect print and order away; this baby kicking in my belly persuaded me to finally click ‘purchase’.

‘Elise’ is the print I landed on, mainly because she’s the youngest cat in the series with an adorable bio:

Elise is 3 years old. She likes to eat clovers from the back yard. She says “I love you clover!” and then gobbles them up, she says it tastes like lemon.

Heather also sent a greeting card of her ‘Morris’ print thanking me for the purchase and for making her art a part of Margot’s room. It was genuinely touching. Please check out her art on Etsy if you have the chance!

To add height to the otherwise washed out room, I went with a mosquito net to hang over her bed; it also does a great job of framing the fabric pom ball I made to function as a mobile. Those will probably need to come down when she starts standing up in the crib, but for now they look pretty neat.

I’m also elated to report that the old mid-century desk I used in college is no longer coated with scruffy white paint and gone are the stripped pulls that failed invariably when I tried to open the drawers. I spent a couple of weeks in the garage painting and sealing away, in hopes that the new silver coat would breathe new life and new purpose to the piece.

We’re planning on using the desk as a changing table, and eventually Margot can have it as a desk of her own. I’m in love with it, especially when paired with the stool we got for it at an antique mall for $11. I’m also head-over-heels for her vintage Bulova clock.

There are still a few items coming in the mail for her room, and we haven’t hung anything on the walls yet, but I’ll be sure to share the final product when I settle on arrangements for everything. That’s the most time consuming part of the entire nesting process, I think.

Settling Into the 360

~ Crystle ~ 11 Comments

Happy Halloween, Friends and Family!

This post is coming to you from our new house in the suburbs of Olympia, WA. We closed on our house Friday, and absolutely couldn’t wait to move. We picked up the keys and a moving truck in the same afternoon and got to work.

Let me tell you, this is the first time during this pregnancy I’ve felt rather useless. At five and a half months, I wasn’t really in a position to pick up heavy boxes or help lift large furniture. The combination of a shifting spine and a large belly limited my activities to packing and unpacking only. Somehow, it worked out.

Unpacking in a home with ample storage and a two car garage was absolute paradise. It may be something most people are used to, but trust me, we’re in luxury mode here.

Our kitchen is huge in comparison to our previous kitchens, and our oven HAS A WINDOW! That means I don’t have to open the oven to check the status of our meals! We’ve only been here a few days, and I’ve already broken the oven in with a tasty lasagna.

It’s also really nice having a half bath downstairs so guests don’t have to use our personal bathroom. Lord knows we have so many guests around here. Sarcasm.

But really, hint hint. Family and friends, it’s time to come visit again and baby Margot will be the perfect excuse next Spring.

Home Decor

What I most love about moving is re-decorating. I use the same items to decorate every place I live in, but  there are always variations in paint color and flooring which require a bit of creativity. Our house now has the same sterile, builder beige throughout, which I was not very excited about. I was hell bent on painting, but after that move I couldn’t ask my husband to do that (since again, I wouldn’t be able to assist). So, as a compromise, we bought a new duvet cover for the bedroom, and new bathroom linens to add more color and character to each respective room. It worked out really well.

Our yard is tiny, but with parks and a labyrinth of running trails in the immediate area, we won’t miss it.  And thankfully, a small yard means less maintenance.

Now that we’re almost entirely settled in to our new place, the next project is taking on the baby room.

So far we’ve accumulated a bit of clothing, and a crib. We’re hoping our generous friends and family back home will have fun kicking in for baby Margot as well.

I’d really love to see her book collection grow, but we also need a lot of those baby essentials like a first aide kit, bath, receiving blankets etc. Who knew babies required so many things?

Wish us luck on that new venture, because as first time parents, we’ll need it.

Confronting (Grown Up) Uncertainty

~ Crystle ~ 18 Comments

Hello, Friends!

I know I haven’t been reading or writing much lately, and I really have no good excuse. For me, October has been marked by long naps, Netflix marathons, and mini-feasts of Halloween candy. Shameful, I know, but my mind is heavy with thoughts of the now and the future.

You guys know how prone to hyperbole I am, so let me tell you that bringing a child into the world is the most monumental feat I’ve faced in life. With parenthood comes a ton of responsibility, the mere prospect of which has ushered Isaac and I down the path to confront uncertainty. My lazy and laconic October aside, progress (months in the making) has been made.

Allow me to elaborate:

First and foremost, we found out we’re having a girl. This literally took no skill or effort, but it’s just nice to have that uncertainty behind us. I was reluctant to share the name until she arrived for fear of copycatting, nitpicking or naysaying. I got over that pretty quick. Critics, and copycats: in March of 2013, baby Margot Bryn will be joining us. We like the name, and hope she does too, and that’s all that truly matters.

Hopefully she settles into our new house near Olympia, Washington nicely. We’re in the process of moving now, which prompts frustration when something you need is already packed up. Where is my hot glue gun?! 

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention we are now homeowners! Gone are the days of wasting money on rent, and upon us is a future of equity building. For months we’ve been searching high and low in a variety of neighborhoods and towns for the right home. Ultimately, we decided upon a two-story, new construction in the suburbs of Olympia.

I know what you’re thinking: the suburbs? Crystle, why are you eating all the words from your twenty-something lifestyle-manifesto? Do they even taste good? The answer is yes. They taste rich, like a European candy you need only try once, which is exactly how I now regard my idealist ‘me-against-the-world-Neon Bible‘ days. I’m trading that up for a more analytical and inquisitive ‘Helplessness Blues‘ era. For the sake of this post, I hope you’re familiar with those albums.

“Early Onset Parenthood” (as I refer to it) is bringing on a renewed perception of the world. It’s great.

So a final thought on the suburbs: I just wanted a crime-free neighborhood for our new addition, which was hard to come by in Tacoma Proper. We also need to be able to rent the place out when the Army whisks away to the next duty station. Moving from place to place in the US and around the world will be a certainty for us.

As evidence of our nomadic lifestyle, in a year’s time we’ll be residents of Fairbanks, Alaska! Be excited for us, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. Most people never even visit the Last Frontier, let alone live there for an extended period of time. Six months of bitter winter weather (think -60°F on a bad night) giving way to warm summer hikes in Denali and brilliant shows of Aurora Borealis is a dream for a Bakersfield girl like me. I cannot wait to experience the extreme weather and immense beauty in our nation’s largest state.

Color me happy.