32 weeks and counting to our new baby girl...i think

As of today I'm in my 32nd week of pregnancy. If all goes as my previous pregnancies did, I should see the arrival of our mini papercut roughly 2 weeks before my October 26th due date. But as all mom's know, babies are unpredictable and prone to their own schedules, so I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be lucky enough to be early and not late!























We've based the majority of our decorating choices (mural, fabric and decoration) on the fact that when we went for our ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby, the technician told me "It is most likely a girl." Now I know that unless it's a 3-D ultrasound, the results are not always 100%, and I myself have always felt I was having a girl.























However, within the last few weeks the amount of people (read strangers) that have approached me and asked if I was having a boy, not to mention my family members who have also asked the same question based on the fact that I'm carrying very much like I did with my son, has put a lot of doubt in my head. I'm now a little unsure as to whether I'm having a boy or girl. I would be happy with either one, seeing as I already have one of each, but I am now wondering if I've decorated a little girl's nursery for a little boy. Hmm, I guess we'll find out soon enough if I'll be repainting my floral mural:)

cleaning

With only a month and a half left in my pregnancy, I have become obsessed with cleaning and organization. The kids' rooms have been purged and tidied, and as mentioned previously, the master bedroom/nursery nook is on it's way. But there's so much that still needs to be done! It seems that as my pregnancy has progressed, I've traded in my art supplies for cleaning supplies and a tool box. A friend of mine laughed at me the other day when she asked me what I was doing, and I told her I was organizing my tool box (yes, the tool box is mine...my husband likes to think he's handy, but everyone knows all the tools belong to me:)).

I have to admit, I'm DYING to get back to doing some artwork! I have high hopes that our new addition will be completely co-operative and allow me some time to create, but the realistic mommy side of me knows that Little Papercuts will have to wait until the mini papercut is good and ready:)

one more week and back to school

I can't believe how quickly summer vacation flew by! My hubby and I still have a couple of fun things planned for the kids before it's all said and done, but the kids have been preparing to return to school, which means lots of shopping. Luckily for us, MaMa and YeYe (grandma and grandpa) took us on a back-to-school shopping spree to make sure the kids are well equipped!























We still have a few errands to run, and some school forms to fill out, but the kids are ready to see all their friends again, and I'm looking forward to having some free time to myself! Are you ready for school?

it's a bird, it's a plane...

My son is 5 and a half, he'll be 6 in January. Recently his interest in superheroes and shows like Bakugan/ Pokemon have skyrocketed. What happened to the little boy who loved Cars and Sesame Street?

my toy sewing machine

A few weeks ago I purchased my very first sewing machine. It is not expensive or heavy duty, and by some standards might not even qualify as a real sewing machine. But I had a 50% off coupon at Michaels, and a desire to sew my own crib bedding, and I figured why not fork out the $25 it would cost for something that would save me a considerable amount of time vs. hand sewing.























I am by no means anyone who has any expertise when it comes to sewing machines. I prefer to have complete control, and over the years I have attempted to sew some quite ambitious projects, some successful and some not so much, with varied degrees of success. When I was decorating my eldest's room I chose to create a faux quilt duvet cover entirely sewn by hand, and while it turned out beautifully, it was a bit time consuming. I have no patience lately, so hand sewing was completely out of the question! Enter my new toy...























It's a tiny little thing, and is probably lighter than most of my kids' toys (my husband and mother-in-law both laughed and said "Are you sure that's not supposed to be a toy for the kids?'), but I am in LOVE with it. I am hoping that 'Santa" will bring me a real adult sewing machine for Christmas, but until then I am very happy with my toy :)




















So far I've sewn the bumper for the crib, a mini duvet cover and pillow, and today I flew through a couple of down filled pillows for my sister's mini muffin. I don't know why I've waited so long to learn to use a sewing machine, but it feels great to be able to make stuff for myself!

insomnia

I've been awake since 3 am (it is now 7:29am). In the past few hours I've watched Twilight, 'tweaked' my floral mural and looked at almost every guide on etsy. I know by about 10am when the kids are wide awake, I'll probably be begging for a nap :(

a painted room

Well, I'm happy to announce that all of the painting has been completed in my master bedroom/nursery. The painters actually completed the room last Monday, and over the course of the week I managed to paint the wall for the 'nursery nook' as well as the flower that adorns said wall. I also finished up all of the crib bedding, and I have to say that I really love how it all turned out. The mural is very reminiscent of what I had painted for my friend's little girl.























Right now the only portion of the room that's complete seems to be our little nursery corner, which at the moment really only consists of a crib :) Just wanted to give you a peek!

nursery inspiration

Shortly after finding out the sex of our baby (we're having a girl) I started thinking about how to decorate the corner of our room that would serve as the 'nursery'. Originally I thought I would stick to something in the browns and oranges, due in fact to whatever colours we chose for baby bedding would have to be some how incorporated into the overall design of our bedroom. Frilly pink is definitely NOT on the agenda! But after searching for ideas online, I found the colour scheme that I seemed to gravitate towards the most was grey, yellow and white. The combination of these colours is fresh and modern, without being too sweet or juvenile. Over the last few months I've found inspiration from websites like ohdeedoh, tinydecorblog and projectnursery, just to mention a few.























One nursery that really stood out in my mind belonged to Jenna Lyons, SVP of women's at J.Crew. Her home was featured in the pages of Domino Magazine. Although her nursery is yellow, white and black, I'm too chicken to paint my bedroom black, I immediately fell in love with the room.























What do you think...fresh and modern or boring?

where did summer go?

It's hard to believe that summer vacation is almost over, and the kids will be heading back to school in a few weeks. We've spent the majority of the summer getting ready for the mini papercut, but we've also managed to fit in a trip to the museum, walks and bike rides around the neighborhood, and my son got to move into a big boy booster seat! We've tried new recipes, been to the park, seen a magic show and a basketball game, but it seems like the summer weather came and went before our vacation really got started. Usually by this time of year we've spent so much time at the splash park that everyone's super tanned and a bit waterlogged, but without the heat, we've been forced to find activities elsewhere.


















We still have a long list of places to go within the next month: fishing, Canada's Wonderland, the zoo, the CNE, not to mention back-to-school shopping. I've got my fingers crossed that the warmer temps are on their way so that we can enjoy August before school starts. Anyone else wishing it was hotter?

today is a great day!

WOO HOO!!!! I'm very happy to announce that we are finally going to be making some HUGE progress as far as the nursery/bedroom goes. Yesterday, as I was perusing the kids' department in Ikea, my mother-in-law called me asking me if I had ever found the paint I was looking for in the storage locker. I replied no, not really giving any thought to why she was asking me, and she proceeded to ask me if I wanted her guy that was painting her other condo to pick up paint for me, as he was currently on his way to Home Depot to buy paint for her. Even though I do need paint, for the life of me I couldn't recall the name of the paint I needed, and I jokingly said, "I don't know the name of the paint I need, but if he'd like to paint our room for us that would be great!" Much to my surprise and pleasure she said "OK"!

Phew!!! That is a huge relief to me, because the painting was the one thing I was not looking forward to! Our bedroom has a lot of bulkheads and odd corners, and I remember when we first moved in here 9 years ago, what a pain in the butt it was to maneuver into all of those spaces to paint. Believe me, it is not something I really wanted to do now that I'm 7 months preggers, but I would've sucked it up and done it, just to get it done.

So...the painters are coming in TODAY to patch all the walls and by next weekend we should have a freshly painted room! I know I still haven't posted any nursery inspiration pics, but this news took precedence! I'll be posting more nursery stuff once all the painting is done...let's keep our fingers crossed that these new plans don't change ;)

creating a space for the mini muffin

I've posted a few times that I'm helping out my sister, muffin top designs, to create the perfect space for her mini muffin. I'm so thankful that she's allowed me to help her in this endeavor, seeing as my nursery or bedroom makeover is on hold for the moment...I'll get into that another time. We've made quite a bit of progress thus far, but since she lives downtown and I'm uptown, not to mention if I navigate my way to her place without the hubby, and her DH is at work, not much is really gonna get completed considering we have 3 kids between the two of us. Let's just say her nursery is a work still in progress :)

We've managed to do a good portion of the shopping online, while on the phone with each other, and we really lucked out the day we went shopping for all the bedding (we needed crib bedding and something for a twin bed fashioned as a sofa). We've been super focused on our trips to Ikea, scouting only items we need, and we're now in the last stages
of putting everything together. A couple weekends ago I took my brood to her place and I was able to paint stripes on an accent wall above the crib, as well as tidy up the mini's bookcase and dress the room with what we had. Unfortunately we were unable to put up a shelf due to a hardware malfunction...wrong size screws, but that has all been remedied.

I've also managed to finish the mobile that will hang above the crib. It consists of three balls: a paper flower ball, a ribbon covered paper lantern and a tissue paper pom pom. It turned out quite lovely, and I can't wait to get it in place! There's still a few things that need to be purchased, but we're in no rush at this point. I'll keep you guys updated as we go :)

starting fresh

So after my meltdown on Saturday with the kids, I decided that maybe what we needed was a fresh start and relaxing day filled with lots of ...nothing. Boy was I right! It was nice to just sit around and have some down time with the kids. We watched a couple movies and had some friends come over for a visit, but all-in-all there was no schedule or appointments on our list of things to do. It was nice to see that all the drama of the day before had melted away like a Popsicle on a hot day, and that my usually well behaved kids had returned. I guess I hadn't realized how hectic our schedule had gotten, even amidst summer vacation. We've been doing so much planning for the new baby, the nursery and my cousin's nursery, not to mention outings to fill the space of our usual trips to the splash park (It has not been a good summer weather-wise here in Toronto), it hadn't occurred to me that the kids just needed some time to relax at home.

And even though we did venture out of the house on Monday morning for about an hour or so, the kids were very co-operative and on their best behaviour. I guess we all needed to slow down a bit, mommy included :)

a bad mommy day :(

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like everything you say to your kids is "NO!!", "Stop that!!" or "Do you want a time out?". Well, I felt like that today. We've all seen other moms out there in action like this before. You know the moms I'm talking about...the one with the two kids and one on the way, she has absolutely no control over her kids, she's yelling at them, they're not listening and as you walk by all you can do is shake your head, thinking "I would never let my kids act like that!" Today that was me:(

I met my sister at Michael's this morning to pick up some ribbon and craft supplies, only to realize my husband had left the car with absolutely no gas, and I had forgotten to grab any money or the bank card. While inside the craft store, my son felt the need to constantly touch everything and run off, commencing my day of "Don't touch that!" and "Come back here!". Our next stop at Home Depot continued the numerous reprimands, and as my patience began to wear thin, as did the kids', we all decided it would be a good idea to head to the park across the street to let off some steam.


The park was beautiful, one we've never been to before, and it boasted beautiful gardens and gazebos, a sand/ play park for the kids as well as ponds and fountains topped off by a magnificent waterfall that cascaded down a stone wall. What should have been an enjoyable end to our early afternoon ended up as a continuation of our earlier escapades at Michael's and Home Depot. While I was OK with my son running around and having fun, I was NOT OK with him attempting to climb up the rocks surrounding the waterfall.

Chalk it up to being pregnant, but today I felt exasperated with my kids and like one of those moms whom I tend to shake my head at. It felt like not only was I ruining my own day, but my kids' day as well. I could've sworn every other parent at the park was staring at me with disapproving eyes and shaking THEIR heads. Let's hope this is not going be the norm with my kids, and that their behaviour was due to hunger and the heat. I love my kids more than anything, but my tolerance for bad behaviour has been very low lately. Hopefully tomorrow will be better...end rant.