The (finally!) finished nursery

Yes, I acknowledge that we have not blogged in a really long time.  We are just going to skip over the last 8+ months of missed life and get to the now, which is going to be Jeff & Meghan +1 in just a couple weeks now.  In preparation for +1 (yes, she does have a name, we just aren’t sharing it yet) we totally redid (for the 2nd time) our upstairs guest room turned nursery.  It was about a 6+ week process of painting, sanding, more painting, random stuff collecting, etc.

Back in May, we picked up the furniture from a family in Plainfield a la Craigslist.  It then sat for a couple months until we really got the whole project going in July.  I’ll show just a couple photos along the way and then get to the reveal of the finished product for those that haven’t already seen them on facebook.

old walls and black furniture (goodbye africa room 😦 )

First we painted the yellow walls green. Shock to the system! Then we had several showers (this is from 2 of 3)- such generous friends and family- thank you!

Next, we sanded and primed the furniture before painting it gray (I swear, it’s gray)- this was the longest step (by far.)

obligatory “daddy putting the crib together” shot

Next, Jeff and I (about 95% Jeff) did the tree wall mural.  Jeff posted his own blog about how he did that for anyone that is interested.  I love it.  So, without further ado… the new nursery!

Owl birch tree mural, new furniture, pink accents, great big teddy bear from “Aunt Stephanie”

close up on mural with paper lantern owl mobile

changing table with owl decor from owls made at baby shower

close up of branch decor

close up of lantern mobile

dresser with lamp and daisy

Well, there it is!  Next post very well may be an introduction to our baby girl!

Wildlife 2010

This year we have a duck.  With a bunch of eggs under it.  We were trying to scavenge for birds nest in our trees this year, but forgot to look at the ground.  I was trimming this bush today, when I noticed a duck on the other side of it.  She wasn’t leaving as I approached, which I thought was a little strange.  Then I walked back to this side of the bush (where I had just been stepping all over on the concrete) and saw the nest with about 10 or so eggs in it.  I can’t believe she just stepped away instead of charging me when I was standing so close.  When I left (and abandoned weeding in this area… until the babies are born I guess) she came back and sat down on them again.  When I came back to take this picture she started puffing up and hissing at me… not so friendly this time around I guess.  This is also right by our garage and Jeff has to drive his car about a foot away from the next every day, so this could be interesting.

Ironically, Jon and Caitlin (that we visited memorial day weekend, mentioned in previous post) were just telling us about a duck that had laid a bunch of eggs by their front door and the fiasco they had with that.  I hope these eggs just hatch uneventfully and then they all leave.

The African plains of our upstairs

It has been quite awhile since we posted.  We have both been working mega-hours.  We finally had some time off together this weekend so we finished the guest bedroom.  About a month ago we realized we had been in our house almost a year and had hardly touched the guest bedroom from when we moved in.  It was kind of our “waste basket” room where we put all the extra odds and ends.  Plus it was a not-so-lovely shade of bright teal.  The before:

So, two weekends ago we emptied the room and primed it.  Last weekend we painted it- yellow with an accent wall of brown.  This weekend we put all the furniture back in, hung decorations, and actually organized the room.  It feels so good to have it done!!!  We got the office a little more put together too, which is nice.

We used all of the African decor I have collected over my many trips there.  Never thought I’d be able to use all this stuff and I’m excited at how great it looks!

Jeff made these frames out of some bamboo-y reeds that we cut from our back yard last fall!

I'm so proud of my shelves! All of our wooden figurines and fabrics!

Merry Christmas!

I finally snatched the computer away from Jeff.  He has been playing with his iPhone pretty much constantly since getting it yesterday morning.  Besides sleeping and churching and a little eating.  O yeah, and watching Julie & Julia with me (yeah, he’s a pretty great husband :)).  Good movie too!

No white Christmas, but we have had a lot of white today!  We finally got out to take pics of our outdoor lighting and some other snowy shots.

the house

the tree

some more Christmas decorations...

A little bit about our Christmas too…  Kind of crazy this year because Jeff played piano at church on Christmas Eve.  The Miller parents came down around noon Christmas Eve and we went out to lunch at Boulder Creek in Brownsburg.  Then Jeff went off to practice and I hung out with the Millers at our home until we followed.

a sweet candlelighting during service

Jeff on stage at the piano

After church, we drove up to Kokomo for the Miller Christmas celebration.  We had a “program” including piano, flute, Christmas carols, scriptures, and poems.  This is a tradition from Jeff’s childhood.  Then we opened presents :).  I got lots of great things, including two jewelry boxes (one from Jeff, one from his mom).  Not telling which one I took back ;)!  We stayed the night and then drove back to Indy Christmas morning to head to my parents for the Kelly side get together.  It’s always great to see family, including my brother in town from Atlanta with his fiancee.  Hope you all had a great holiday and have a great year as well!!!

Merry Christmas!

Yay for weekends!

I have my second day off in a row today.  It is really fabulous.  I am on “home call” which means I get called about kids that are sick, but I don’t have to go anywhere, just answer phone calls.  Yesterday we made good on our continued avowal to decorate our home.  We compiled a bunch of picture frames and other decor that we had registered for but hadn’t gotten around to displaying.  Then we went through about 2000 pictures from our wedding, engagement session, and honeymoon that we hadn’t gotten around to printing.  Jeff did his photoshop thing and we printed a bunch of them and put them in the frames.  Then we measured, leveled, re-measured, re-leveled, and hung everything.  It pretty much took all day, but we are very proud that we actually got it done.

Ta Da!

You’ll have to come over to see the pics up close 🙂  Sorry if you live in another state… or country…  It was great to get something done.  Jeff has been quite productive with me working all the time and our lawn is looking quite nice.  I have a tendency to get ideas about doing things but then fail to follow through.  We were definitely at this point with this room.  I had laid out all the frames in this order months ago, but then didn’t get the pictures picked out.  It definitely took a team effort to get started and keep going on it.  Go team!