Five on Friday

Life has been so crazy lately and I keep wanting to get on here to document all that is going on with us, but the time to do so just seems to elude me. And then when I do manage to find the time, this pregnancy has me run so ragged that I just want to lay on the couch and let my belly hang out, ha!

So, I figured, what better way to play catch up than with a quick list of five things that have been going on as of late with this nest of ours:


1 -  It has been HOT and HUMID this past week. I mean, miserably so. When the thermometer outside reads 90+ degrees, and inside your house is reading 80 degrees even with fans, AC, and window units on... there isn't much else to do other than go dip yourself in the kiddie pool outback and chow down on ice cream.

Add caption

2 - In the same token, would you hate me if I said I'm ready for fall already? Just thinking about wearing layers and feeling that crisp, autumn air (instead of sweating my butt off in a t-shrit and shorts) has me all sorts of excited! Plus, fall = baby time!

3 - Even with this heat, I am ready (so ready!) to tackle baby boy's room. We were hoping to sand down the hardwoods in his room last weekend, but that ended up not happening. So, I sure hope that we can get it done this weekend. We have it basically all prepped, other than replacing a few boards near the door before we get started and the sander is on hold for us to rent at our local hardware store, so it looks like it's all green lights from here! My only concern with this floors is that they're old; and old floors creak. And babies and creaky wood floors do not mix well when you are trying to lay them down in their crib and sneak away, undetected. Perhaps the area rug we purchased will help cushion our footsteps just a little enough? We'll see! ;)

4 - Has anyone seen the trailer for The Girl on the Train, yet? Oh man, it looks super good! I loved Gone Girl and I feel like it has a similar dark, suspenseful vibe to it. So, last week I decided I should read the book to see how/if I really like it. Besides, I think it's best to ready books-turned-movies before you see the actual movie so you know more of the details that they just couldn't fit or had to change in the film to make it work.

I read the sample off of iBooks in, like, two minutes (I was hooked!) and had the hubs download it for me. I finished it that weekend since Peyton was away at the beach with some family and I had a little more time to myself. Seriously, so good, guys! I'll probably have to read it again before the movie comes out, since that isn't until the beginning of October... which should be when we're having a baby! So, who knows if the hubs and I will be going on a date to see it with my big belly in tow.

5 - I had to take my 28 week glucose test this week (I'm 29 weeks, 30 on Tuesday - oops!) and I was dreading it. I just had this feeling that it was going to come back high and that I would have to take the 3 hour test. Buuuuut, lucky me, I passed! Hashtag confetti cone emoji. I celebrated afterwards by indulging in some Dunkin Donuts, because tired mamas run on Dunkin, amiright?

BOTTOMS UP!

6- (sorry, but I have to include this one!) Three years ago, this past Wednesday, I woke up to the sweetest and best thing a lady could wake up to: a marriage proposal! (Original post: here.) I can't believe it's been 3 years since that day that Nick asked me to spend forever with him, but at the same time, it seems like forever ago. This is going to sound cheesy, but I know that I am so blessed to be with someone who loves me the way he does and to spend our lives together, loving on our little ones, too. 

That's all, folks! I'm hoping to be back soon with more nursery progress and life happenings.

xo,

Sara

Our Third Baby Bird // Nursery Design Board

After much thought and hard work, I finally present to you the design board for our newest little man's nursery! I am so proud of the look that I've come up with thus far (it's always subject to change) and I am chomping at the bit to get started on making this dream come to fruition. 

whale print  //  swaddle blankets  //  cart  //  crib  //  floor pouf  //
wall decor  //  whale plush  //  small basket  // large basket  //  dresser  //
table lamp  //  floor lamp  //  whale shaker  //  rug

The whale print is pretty much where my design inspiration took off. When Nick and I initially began talking nursery design, he mentioned that he liked the idea of "under the sea". Now, as much as I love anything under the sea, I didn't want this space to be all bright colors and in-your-face sea creatures.

Peyton's nursery was a BRIGHT pink and orange and kind of overboard with the crib bedding, wallpaper border, lamp, mobile, etc. allllll matching. It was super cute... but just not where I want to go now. Even Everett's room was kind of a bold color choice, though his "theme" is way more toned down and I actually still love his room.

You can see Rhett's nursery reveal here.

I think I've learned my lesson that, although I love bold color choices, they are best saved for accents in a room and not an all over wall color - at least for my personal design taste anyways. I say this as I'm sitting in our TEAL living room... with the navy and yellow dining room right next door. To mention that I am dying to repaint the whole downstairs would be the understatement of the year.

But, I digress. I am really craving a super light gray color on the walls for this room. Just enough gray to give some contrast to all of the white pieces I am hoping to fill the room with, but light enough to keep the space bright and airy-feeling. 

Our next door neighbors moved not too long ago and one morning, they left this beautiful old rocking chair out on the curb for the garbage truck. Luckily, I scooped it right up and brought it over to our house and I have big plans to sand it down and paint it either white or a shade of blue or grey. I wanted a rocker/glider for little man's room and, since Rhett's current glider doesn't really match the design for this space, I was more than happy to come across this relatively inexpensive alternative!

Speaking of inexpensive alternatives, I LOVE the aqua floor pouf from Land of Nod... but also don't want to spend $100 on something to prop my feet up on. I'm hoping that maybe I can find some beautiful aqua colored yarn and knit my own cover for an ottoman that we already have; or maybe find some other (less expensive) option. But it sure is pretty. #swoon

We will be ripping up the carpet here soon and refinishing the hardwoods in his room, and I am pretty undecided regarding stain. Do we go dark? Light? Paint them?! So many options. So little ability to make a decision easily on my part. Oy. 

Overall, my idea is to keep it clean and simple, with basing the accent colors of the room off of the whale print - that I plan to purchase in either an 8x10 or 11x14 to place above the crib and hopefully have Nick build a simple wood frame for.

I feel like this will create an "under the sea" feel for the room, while not really being all about sea creatures and still keeping it neutral. What do you think? What would you add or take away?

xo,

Sara

Our third baby bird // Nursery Progress

Wasn't it just yesterday that we were getting a room ready for Everett?! It sure feels like it. Except now we're prepping for our second little man to join us, and it is just as exciting! These are a few of the pins that I've come across that have inspired my design for little man numero dos' nursery:

[via]

[via]

[via]

I'm loving this color palette ^^ and can't wait to turn this room into the bright, airy space that I am envisioning. The thought is to go with a little bit of a whale theme, but not go overboard with it. Just enough to hint at the idea of it and give the room a little bit of direction.

This pregnancy has gone so very fast. I mean, I'm already at week 25. Which means there's only a little more than 14 weeks left to go at this point and that really only translates to about 3.5 months. When you think about the fact that pregnancy is basically a 10 month process... we're really down to what seems like the end of it here! That third trimester is right around the corner, my friends.

So, in true Eagle fashion, we are (and by we, I mean my husband is) having to work pretty hard on getting some substantial room renovating done before we can actually start putting together baby's nursery.

The room that we are putting baby in was dubbed "The Lizard Room" as it held a Bearded Dragon, Frilled Dragon, Vietnamese Mossy Frog, a Veiled Chameleon and a Chinchilla. Unfortunately, the Chinchilla and the Bearded Dragon both passed away recently, however the remaining animals were sent upstairs to the other half of the attic (opposite of where our bedroom currently is) to help clear out that room for little man #2. Because of there being lizards and technically a small rodent living in what is now "Baby's room", there is a whole lot of cleaning that needs done.

My main goal is to rip up the carpet that is in that room because 1- it's old, 2- the animals were stinky and I just want it gone, 3- there is a salad plate sized hole near one of the windows due to one of the heat lamps for the lizards falling and burning a perfect hole into the carpet (basically in the very first week that we moved into this house. So glad it didn't catch on fire and just stayed contained beneath the lamp!). Unfortunate as the hole in the carpet is, it actually revealed some pretty decent hardwoods underneath of it and since that day that we found out that little bit of information, I have been daydreaming of the potential that room holds with some pretty, refinished floors!

[via]

[via]

Neutral but with some blues thrown in. Whale inspired but not theme-overload. Simple and not over the top. Those are my thoughts going in to the design of this space for our new, sweet boy.

Can't wait to get the room cleared out, the floors finished, and start decorating. Like I said, little man will be here before we know it!

xo,

Sara

In Bloom

Every Spring, I hold my breath and wait for our peony bushes to bloom. They run basically the whole length of our sidewalk and they are so beautiful. Unfortunately, this year it seems they're literally all blooming at once which means that in a week or so, they'll all be gone. But for now, I'll enjoy every square inch of them.

We also have these terrible weeds that grow up, in between the peony bushes every year. They're sticky and pretty much the worst to try to remove. I wish I knew how to prevent them from ever coming back. 

"Ma, this picture would look cute and all, but I need to get up and run towards the swingset..."

 Yesterday morning I went to open up the windows to let some fresh air in before the heat took over and was greeted by this rose bush explosion. Love, love, love me some peach roses and I am SO happy that we have this giant bush to call our own and I'll be sad to leave it whenever we move.

Seriously, my most favorite flowers. Wish you could smell them! ;) Also: Peyton calls peonies, "panties" and it. Is. Hilarious.

Rhett and the Peonies from Sara on Vimeo.

xo,

Sara

a little bit of life lately:

**This post was originally written back at the end of October, but I am just now getting around to posting it... Such is life, am I right?**

It's been a while since I've done any sort of "what we did this week/weekend" update and I know that I will regret not capturing those moments here to reflect on later. This past weekend was simple, but filled with fun - my kind of time well spent!

On Friday, Peyton went to a fun trick or treat event at a state park with her Dad and his family (one of their yearly traditions) so my Dad and Nick worked on the mudroom for a bit, before we headed out to Home Depot to pick out our "faux wood" tile. I've been so excited to see this room come together because, considering what it looked like before, it is going to look SO much better now! There were decisions to be made about which tile would look better...

Originally, we had planned on the right - "Rustic Bay", I think it was called) but instead I liked the lighter "Dapple Grey". Ironically, our first picked just looked too "muddy"... for the mudroom ;)

After we loaded up the car with our tile purchase, we headed towards Walmart for some much needed baby formula and other essential food items. This little munchkin man was so good for us, and it is so much fun shopping now that he can sit in the cart like a big boy. 

Since it was so late, neither of us felt like cooking dinner. So, Little Ceasar's pizza and crazy bread (while snuggled in bed!) it was! Hashtag fatties but we love it.

Saturday started off with a bath for little man. He loves bath time and will splash around and play with his bath toys 'til his little heart is content. 

Nick and my Dad spent the morning working on the mudroom, so Peyton, Rhett and I got ourselves together and hit up the library for some new book selections for my little which, Peyton and then we made the drive to go pick up my Dad's birthday presents (his birthday was Sunday!).

Once we came home, we relaxed and were bums for the rest of the evening. 

The next day, Peyton and I took a trip to the hair salon down the street!

She got her bangs trimmed and Mama became a redhead! 

When we got back, Dada and Papa Ron worked super hard to finish up the mudroom floor.
The day before, they had laid the tile and then Sunday they filled in all of the gaps with a dark grey grout. It looks so good!

^^ The tile before the grout was applied. ^^

Me, Peyton, and Rhett spent the afternoon preparing for the evening of Papa Ron's post-birthday celebration by baking a cake. Which was, not without a few whisk and spatula licks - because icing is tastyyyy, duh!

^^ Peyton showing Aunt Nenna the card that she made for Papa Ron while they were facetiming. ^^

It was a wonderful weekend, indeed. And then that Monday we carved pumpkins and listened to Halloween music. There was also an in-living-room screening of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that I was more than happy to be a part of. Life with this family of mine could not be better.

Life is good. So, so good.

xo,

Sara

mudroom inspiration

Since we have moved in to our home... actually, since the day that we walked through the house before we even made an offer, we knew that we would want to renovate the mud room.

It was a dark, very dingy room that was just kind of thrown together and neglected. I think it was actually a porch that was converted into two spaces, our laundry room and mudroom. The laundry room was actually finished out nicely, but the poor mudroom was just in shambles. Considering we almost always enter the house through the mudroom, it was driving us crazy to be greeted by old, nasty carpet, weirdly dark slate blue/grey walls that were peeling, and depending on the season - either freeeeezing or scorching hot temperatures (since it was so poorly insulated).

Thankfully, after two years of living in our house, we have finally come to a point where we are ready to renovate and make this space the beautiful room it deserves to be! So, I present to you, my design board for this soon-to-be-fresh space of ours:

Isn't it beautiful?!

Thanks to Pinterest (picture 1 and picture 2), I've had so much visual inspiration for what I wanted for this space. I craved an area that was fresh and light to walk in to -- as well as a functional and practical place that served as a holding tank for the mountain of shoes that we accumulate during the week as well as for our jackets, winter accessories, and other random things that come with being a family of four (+ a dog!).

I am a sucker for the bright and airy and ever since I watched my very first episode of Fixer Upper (Love me some Chip and Jo Jo!), I've been wanting to implement some shiplap into our home somewhere, anywhere, everywhere!

Here's the (rough) floorplan to give you an idea of what we're working with:

The floors: We laid the tile a few weeks ago and it is just so, so gorgeous that I can't even contain myself. We went with the Porcelain "Wood" Tile in a Dapple Gray color and it looks amazing! Originally I had wanted the herringbone pattern on the floors (similar to pictures in the design board), but we went with just the standard, staggered design and I am pleased as punch with the way it turned out. We are thinking that eventually we will want to lay a similar tile in the kitchen and foyer and I was worried that having the herringbone in the mudroom compared to the regular design in the rest of the rooms would just not look right.

The benches: Next up from the floor would be the bench(es). I wanted a place where the kids could sit down and either put on or take off their shoes. We came up with an L-shaped bench with half of it being closed off on the bottom and having an opening top for storage (think: hats, gloves, scarves, umbrellas, etc.) and the other half being open on the bottom to keep all of the shoes out of the way. So, I was thinking of making the bottom portion of the storage bench a white shiplap frame and then having the seats resemble the reclaimed wood pictured at the top.

The walls: I'm still not sure what I want to do about the walls. I would love to shiplap the whole room! Buuut, I think Nick would kill me after all of the hard work he has done on the dry wall in that room. So, we shall see what we come up with. For now, I'm definitely thinking to keep all of the walls a neutral white to keep the space feeling bright, since it is such a small room.

The doors: Months ago I painted our kitchen door that beautiful Robin's Egg blue color with spray paint from Home Depot. I absolutely fell in love with it and, to this day, I am still so happy when I walk into the kitchen and see it. I am not quite committed to painting the outside door any other color than white, so that'll probably stay a blank canvas until the room is mostly complete and I can gauge what color would suite it best.

The coat hooks: We have these hooks in our foyer and I think they are so classic looking. I am super excited about putting some at not only adult height, but kid height so that it's easier for Peyton, Rhett, and any future little ones to hang up their own jackets or backpacks.

The ceiling: First, and foremost, we've already purchased and hung this light fixture and I can't tell you just how beautiful it is! We tried it with an Edison bulb, but the light that it gave off was just too yellow. So, for now we just have a regular light bulb there. As far as the ceiling goes, if we don't end up decking the whole room out in shiplap (or even if we do!), I would LOVE to do a white bead-board ceiling.

-----------------------

And there you have it. I can not wait to see this room reach completion! Hopefully finishing that will give us the gumption we need to get started on our kitchen. Or maybe to at least re-paint the rest of our 1st floor.. and by "we", I mean "Nick" --  Just don't tell him I said that ;)

xo,

Sara