Little Miss' Room Option #3

Alrighty - here is the final option for Little Miss' room. Like I mentioned in my last post, I was having a hard time coming up with a theme for the room. While thinking through countless of my favorite children's books, I finally thought of something that I think would be absolutely adorable. Maybe too adorable: Beatrix Potter

I absolutely love her illustrations, the books are absolutely ones that I will be reading to my children as they grow up, and I would have a blast recreating some of the illustrations to use as decorations in the nursery. Pottery Barn has a Peter Rabbit Nursery Bedding Set that would look, I think, quite nice in the room with the current paint. The bedding is a little green but, as I don't think I would be using the bumper, and might try to find a different crib skirt, shouldn't be overkill. Isn't it so cute? For my purposes, I'm focusing mainly on the quilt and the sheets:

Again, while they don't exclusively match the walls, the colors in this would enable me to bring other colors easily into the room, and the illustrations of Beatrix Potter characters would be absolutely awesome (or, at least, I think they would be).

Pros: gives me a direction to go, I like the concept of the illustrations as decor, brings in other colors
Cons: has the possibility of being too character heavy (BP everywhere instead of a few subtle touches), and I'm not sure I'm sold on the green

Okay, so, there you have it. Option #1, Option #2 (which is really several), and Option #3. Decisions, decisions. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions!

Goal Progress

As I posted earlier, I had followed the brilliant idea that I saw on Money Saving Mom to come up with 10 Goals for the Week.

My goals were:

Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Sit and play with Little Man with no electronics on or around (except music). Read with him more!
2. Go on an evening walk with Little Man (and My Love, if he'll join us) daily before putting him to bed.
3. Take a nap, drink a Coke, do SOMETHING to be able to stay awake and have a mini date night with My Love one night this week after Little Man goes to bed!

Personal Goals
4. Wake up early enough to get a quality quiet time in before the insanity of the day begins
5. Read for fun for at least 30 minutes a day.

Homemaking Goals
6. Go through LM's clothes, sort them into storage, cycle new clothes down, donate unneeded clothes, CLEAN his room, vacuum, steam clean carpet
7. Do at least one load of laundry a day, and PUT IT AWAY.
8. Finish catching up on laundry so laundry room regains functionality. Blog about it.

Business Goals
9. Finalize September Budget
10. Look into at least 3 different ways of bringing in additional income (i.e. art, multi-level-marketing, and blogging regularly)

As you can see, I have made some progress, though not as much as I had hoped.
I have also accomplished other things that I hadn't put on my list as goals. This is expected, but a part of me desperately wants to swap the things I have already done with the things I've yet to do, and get to cross them off my list. That, of course, would be cheating.

I'm sure you can also see that some portions of goals have been accomplished, but a partially completed goal does not a completed goal make. A super brilliant friend of mine read my goals post, and had a fabulous insight - my goals are too multi-faceted, and they're not S.M.A.R.T. This isn't exactly what she said, and she said it in love, but she was right on the money. I was a bit afraid of that when I wrote them and, honestly, that's very much why I struggle with making progress in general! S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
I am still going to work toward accomplishing as much of these by the end of the week as possible but, given that it's my first week and I sort of need to adjust how I set goals, I'm just hoping to do what I can, and continue making progress!

I think I'm going to edit my goals a little bit now, to try to make them a little more streamlined. I'm still going to go against some of the rules so I don't completely undo my original goals, but I'm hoping the changes I make will set me up better for the possibility of success:

Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Sit and play/read/interact with Little Man with no electronics on or around (except music).
2. Go on a walk with Little Man daily.
3. Take a nap, drink a Coke, do SOMETHING to be able to stay awake and have a mini date night with My Love one night this week after Little Man goes to bed!

Personal Goals
4. Wake up and get a minimum 20 minute quiet time in before the insanity of the day begins
5. Read for fun for at least 2 hours this week.

Homemaking Goals
6. Go through LM's clothes, sort them into storage, cycle new clothes down, donate unneeded clothes, CLEAN his room, vacuum
7. Do at least one load of laundry a day, and PUT IT AWAY.
8. Finish catching up on laundry so laundry room regains functionality. Blog about it.

Business Goals
9. Finalize September Budget
10. Look into at least 3 different ways of bringing in additional income (i.e. art, multi-level-marketing, and blogging regularly)

I'll check back in this weekend (for sure by Sunday, since that's the end of the week), and we'll see how I did! I definitely plan on doing this next week too! I think I need to write down my goals, though, and have them up somewhere for me to see regularly, as a reminder. That might help me keep on track.

Little Miss' Room Option #2

The second idea I have for our Little Miss' nursery is rather simple. Basically, it would involve just finding bedding that I liked that coordinated well enough with the wall color that is already in the room, and adding accents and features that I like to that.

This was the first bedding set I found that I really liked, Mudhut Dawn Pink Collection:

 

I really think it's pretty without being overkill girly (I do believe in such a thing, though I know others don't, haha!), and would go well with the purple (though, I'd have to see it in person to be sure). I love the patterns.


This next one is by Sumersault, and I believe it's called Chelsea:

It's awesome, has varying colors that would make it easy to bring in additional pops of color around the room, and again would coordinate well with the existing paint. It seems oddly fun and classy at the same time. Not sure how they accomplished that, but, I like it :)


This next one is a bit of a stretch, as the colors don't coordinate really at all. There is a purple stripe in the fabric, but it's a substantially darker purple than the walls are. It still might work, and might be a good direction to go to keep from making the room too monochromatic. It's Layla Floral Baby Girl Bedding by Sweet JoJo Designs:

Like I said, I think this one is a bit of a stretch, though I do like the pattern quite a bit.
Do you think it's too different to work with a light, dusty purple? Or, do you think it'd be different in a positive sense?


Acknowledging what an awesome ability it is to even be able to choose what bedding I want, and being able to decorate a room for my little girl is something I feel like I should communicate. I feel quite petty fretting over which crib set to get, or how to decorate the room...but I do recognize that I am fortunate to be able to do so, and it's just something that I get excited about and enjoy planning.

I suppose what's missing, inspiration wise, is a direction. I mean, instead of a theme, like Dr. Seuss for my son's room, I'm really using a wall for a starting point, and that's not as exciting as one might think ;)
Although, to be fair, it's really the same with Option #1 - I was just sold on the colors, rather than trying to work with them. 

I think, if I committed to one of these, I would be able to find some accent to go in the room to eventually be the focus and thematic inspirational element of the room. Once I got to that point, I would be able to paint a much more excited concept for the room. I really do like all of these options, I just don't quite have a handle on which direction they would go.

So, there's those options (lumped together under number two).
Pros: color variation, flexibility of theme, I wouldn't have to paint the room
Con: I'm not strongly drawn to one in particular- I do like all of them for different reasons
I've got one more to go!
(if you missed Option #1, check it out here!)

Little Miss' Room Option #1

When I was pregnant with our son, I stumbled across Bananafish's Migi Sweet Sunshine bedding...and fell in love. I can't remember now if I knew yet that our son was a son...but I knew that, should I ever have a daughter, this was the bedding I would want for her. I mean, look at it!

It has been awhile since I've seen it in person. I pass it every time I go to my favorite local baby store. I can't remember quite how vibrant the yellow is, but I thought yellow and gray would be such a beautiful, classy, soothing combination for a nursery.

Then, I saw this:

How incredibly precious is that?!?!?! I should probably mention that I love elephants. Plus, they (IKEA) have these too:

I particularly like the elephants and the giraffes, but the others are cute as well. The problem with the above is they're not all specifically yellow and gray ;)

Anyway, the silly primary problem that I have with just deciding to go with the bedding that I've loved since before I was ever having a girl, and run with the yellow and gray, is that the room we're going to use for the nursery is already painted. It's a beautiful dusty purple color - perfect for a little girl's room; just not a little girls' room in yellow and gray, as it is neither yellow, nor gray.
Being pregnant, having a toddler, being more fatigued and ill than I can remember being, probably more than with the last pregnancy, and possibly ever (for this length of time)...painting a room that is a perfectly acceptable color is a hard sell, despite my love for this bedding.

I don't have an extensive plan for the room itself - I don't know what color I'd want to paint the furniture (assuming I need to paint furniture), I'm not certain what accents I would add -- I just know that I really do love that color combination, and that bedding.

So...
Pro: I love the colors and the bedding.
Con: I'd have to repaint a perfectly acceptably painted room.

Now to the next idea...

Design Dilemma

I don't believe I mentioned this here yet, but we're expecting! AND we just found out that it's a girl! I'm excited, but a little apprehensive, as I'm accustomed to having a boy, and don't really know what to expect with a girl, except for a husband wrapped around her finger, haha.

When we were pregnant with our son, I had a bunch of great ideas for his nursery, and had a bit of a hard time deciding on what idea to go with. I finally went with a blue and red Dr. Seuss theme, and could not be more pleased with the results (see part of the process at my old blog here, here, here, and here; there are a few more posts there detailing my thought process, but I figured the posts with pictures would be the most interesting). I'll put some updated photos of his room on here soon - I still love it. Now that we have Little Miss on the way, I can't remember for the life of me what my other ideas were. :sigh:

My brain is now exploding with ideas, but none of them have really inspired me yet. I'm hoping that, by writing a bit about my ideas, and posting links all in one place for those ideas, that I'll be able to narrow down my options, and ultimately make a decision!

So, in addition to my 10 goals of this week, I will be working on this as well! If nursery decor doesn't interest you, no worries - I'll be on to another subject soon :)

10 Goals for the Week

I love this website. All sorts of phenomenal information, tips, tools, resources, and challenges. Starting last week, Money Saving Mom issued a challenge to set 10 Weekly Goals for yourself, in varying categories. I'm quite interested in this. 10 goals, with a limited period of time to achieve them, in different categories, are very appealing. I feel like I'm struggling in so many areas, and always seem to rush headlong into one area in particular, at the expense of the other areas. By the end of my charge, I've bull-in-a-china-shopped my way through some things, but still have left quite a mess in my wake...only to stumble backward to the starting point...to try to stampede into another area. It's exhausting, not to mention unrewarding and unproductive.

Aside from day-to-day things that I'm trying to do, this will help give me direction, purpose, and fulfillment (should I accomplish the goals, of course!). I'm also hoping for a little motivation. There's nothing like the taste of success to keep you going...am I right?

So, here are my 10 Goals For the Week:

Family/Marriage/Mothering Goals
1. Sit and play with Little Man with no electronics on or around (except music). Read with him more!
2. Go on an evening walk with Little Man (and My Love, if he'll join us) daily before putting him to bed.
3. Take a nap, drink a Coke, do SOMETHING to be able to stay awake and have a mini date night with My Love one night this week after Little Man goes to bed!

Personal Goals
4. Wake up early enough to get a quality quiet time in before the insanity of the day begins
5. Read for fun for at least 30 minutes a day.

Homemaking Goals
6. Go through LM's clothes, sort them into storage, cycle new clothes down, donate unneeded clothes, CLEAN his room, vacuum, steam clean carpet
7. Do at least one load of laundry a day, and PUT IT AWAY.
8. Finish catching up on laundry so laundry room regains functionality. Blog about it.

Business Goals
9. Finalize September Budget
10. Look into at least 3 different ways of bringing in additional income (i.e. art, multi-level-marketing, and blogging regularly)

Photo a Day Failure

:sigh:
Much to my own disappointment, I did not complete Photo a Day for July. Much as my husband mentioned in his blog, we picked kind of the worst time ever to start trying to blog again. Now that "summer" is "over," I'm hoping to get back into the habit of posting, and even show you what I've accomplished so far!

I have, in fact, finished the laundry room (at least to a point where I'm satisfied with it for now) and, once I tidy up from the havoc wreaked by our recent trips and insane schedule, I'll get pictures up!
Thanks for your patience! Let's get back to it! :)