I {heart} Etsy.

I made my first purchase on Etsy today. Look at my new wristlet by Buttercuppity, made with Amy Butler fabrics:I love Amy Butler Fabrics. Her website is so neat, and she offers FREE patterns for quilts, scarfs, and other projects. I printed some out tonight.

Buying this wristlet on Etsy was an interesting experience because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. I was actually looking for a wristlet wallet - basically a wallet (with a coin pouch, credit card slots, etc.) with a wristlet strap. I couldn't find one - at least not in pretty Amy Butler fabrics. It has made me feel a little motivated to open my own Etsy shop and sell the style of wristlets and wallets that I couldn't find. However, I think I would need to get a lot of practice making them before I would feel comfortable selling them. My lovely sister-in-law, Jenn, is also thinking of starting an Etsy shop and inspired me to shop on Etsy today.

I was looking around Etsy and found so many pretty, wonderful things that I would love to buy. I need to learn a craft really well and start my own business! Here are some cute things I love:
Crochet hat by LovelyKnits: $18.96


Fresh Poppies Coin Purse by Girl... by Aileen: $20 (This would match my bag!)


Wool Felt Finger Puppets by StayAwake: $6.50 each

The Gwenna A-Line Maternity Skirt by SeeMommySew: $45

I enjoy shopping from Etsy because I feel like I'm supporting fellow stay-at-home moms and entrepreneurs. And there's just some neat stuff on there. I found purses I LOVED, but they were listed at $60-$80, which of course isn't in my budget.

Oh, and if any of you are feeling generous enough to buy me one of those things, feel free!!! :)

What's new?

Hello. It's Sunday and I thought I'd post a short update. I was going to post photos of Tony's projects he's completed around the house so far, but unfortunately our camera is dead. :-( It will have to wait for another day -- hopefully tomorrow if I remember to charge the battery.

The snow is finally melting, and our spirits are lifting! The temps have been in the 40s and 50s this week and should stay that way next week. We can see patches of our yard! Honestly, some spots don't look so good. They will probably have to be weeded really well and re-seeded. There's a lot of landscaping work to do. We live on a street that gets a lot of foot traffic, and there seems to be a lot of trash in our front yard near the sidewalk, so we will have to go out and pick that up this week.

We are making some progress on our decisions about how to decorate the house. We are going to take down the paneling in the dining room, although it probably won't happen for a while (probably this summer). We are also going to paint the living room a basic neutral taupe color and get some fun fabric for curtains and pillows. I think we'll paint the upstairs a nice cream color and possibly add an accent wall. That's about as far as we've gotten. :) We are also looking forward to a total redo of the bathroom. We were hoping to do it this month but probably won't get to it. Right now we're trying to decide whether or not to replace the tub, which is in okay shape but it's aluminum and pretty shallow. A new tub and liner will easily double the cost of our project, so we'll just have to wait and see how rich we are when we go to buy materials. :) The idea of a nice, deep soaker tub does sound good right about now, though...

We still have some unpacking to do. I need to get it done this week because we have company coming into town on Saturday. We are excited to show our house to some good friends!

Tony has one week to go until Spring Break. Boy, does he need a bit of a break. Poor guy works his bummy off. And then in three weeks we are going to Walt Disney World!!! We've been so busy with other stuff that it really hasn't sunk in yet. But we could really use a vacation, and we are SUPER EXCITED to see all of our family! I'm sure I'll blog more about it in coming weeks.

As for me, I've been pooped and not feeling great. I have to eat every couple of hours or I feel nauseated. I think I'm going to have to start working a nap into my afternoon routine because I'm exhausted by 8:30 or 9 p.m. every night. I've lost my workout routine since we moved, so I'm going to try to get back into that this week. However, I have started using this nifty page from SparkPeople called BabyFit.com to track my nutrition and set fitness goals. I've been doing well with my calories so far. I find that I actually have to make an effort to eat enough calories for the day. If only it were like that when I'm not pregnant!

More pictures and updates to come this week!

Numero Dos

In case you haven't heard yet, I am pregnant with Gardner baby #2. We are affectionately calling him/her "Numero Dos" right now. Maybe we will just end up naming the baby Numero Dos Gardner. Just kidding.

I'm about 8-9 weeks pregnant, and I'm due October 8. The baby is about the size of a kidney bean right now.


(Image from Babycenter.com)

I had my first appointment with my midwife this morning and everything is going well. I am feeling very tired and sometimes nauseated. The midwife said (paraphrasing), "I'm glad you're feeling so bad. It means your pregnancy is going well." So yay for feeling bad and having a good pregnancy so far. :) We are excited. Ruth is going to be a wonderful big sister.

My big girl

Ruth is becoming such a big girl and she has done some really cute stuff over the last few months, so I have a handful of photos I wanted to share.

First of all, she has really gotten into hats. She loves taking them off and putting them on all by herself. This is one of my new favorite photos of her:




Notice how this hat actually goes with her outfit. Luckily for Ruth, her love of hats is being encouraged by her Grandma Christensen, who bought her two new ones during their shopping trip to Target last weekend.

Secondly, as is evident from this photo (hair style by Tony), her hair is getting REALLY long.

She had a trim back in November, but I think I'm going to take her in for another one during the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to let her bangs grow out so we don't have to deal with cutting bangs all the time.

Thirdly, Ruth LOVES coloring. Her self-appointed job during our move was the "box decorator" :


The girl would spend hours coloring boxes. She came up with this idea herself, and she was actually very good about not coloring on walls. When she's really into her picture she gets this very focused look on her face, and she makes really little scribbles. I think she's actually starting to understand the concept of coloring within the lines, although she's not good at it yet.

Thirdly, the girl is a little ahead of herself with her interest in women's undergarments. She thinks her mommy's bras are quite peculiar, and whenever she can get her hands on one, she likes to see if she can try it on herself.


In this situation, she was "helping" me fold clothes and found one she wanted to try on herself.

I don't have a photo relating to this, but she has also taken a very sudden interest in butterflies. She loves going through books to see if they have pictures of butterflies and pointing out all the butterflies. I think I'm going to buy some vinyl butterfly wall stickers for her room.

Anyhow, that's what's up with Ruth! More updates tomorrow!

New House!

I'm sorry for the long delay in posting! The last two weeks have been very busy and exhausting. But we moved and we love our new house! We are so glad to be done with renting (hopefully) forever. Our mortgage payment is slightly higher than our rent payment, so it's incredibly affordable for us. And this house has so much potential! I took some pictures of it before we moved in all of our stuff.


This is looking into the living room from the dining room. The front entryway is on the right side. There is a lot of old wallpaper in this room and the dining room that we will be taking down. We are going to put slipcovers on our furniture that will be a darker sage green. Not sure what color to paint the living room.


This is the dining room. There's a nice window seat (I will be making a big cushion or two), and it's a fairly big room. It also has a bar, so we're going to get some bar stools. I think we're going to take down the wood paneling because I generally don't like wood paneling, and I don't really want to paint over it. We'll see, though. What do you think about the paneling?


This is a corner of Ruth's room. Her wallpaper border has unicorns on it. She loves her room and has an awesome closet. We're going to paint this room a very light sky blue color.


This is the other bedroom on the main floor. Tony and I are currently using this as our bedroom, but it will eventually be a spare bedroom/office. It's got this really cool old, glass light fixture that I need to take a picture of. We're going to clean it up and keep it. The wall color in this room is currently a very light pink. Not sure what color we will paint this room.



This is our one and only bathroom. It is currently covered in some very old wallpaper. We will be painting this room a nice light sage/celery color. It's also going to be one of our first big projects. We're going to replace the molding and base boards, vanity, and possibly the medicine cabinets.

This is the entryway to go upstairs, and you may not be able to tell this, but the stairs are very narrow and steep.




The loft spans the entire length of the house is divided into two very good sized rooms.



We've decided not to put anything upstairs yet so we can make it the first area of the house we paint. I don't know what color we will paint it, though!


This is the master bedroom. This picture doesn't do justice to how large it is.

And finally, this is our kitchen, which is ENORMOUS compared to our old kitchen:


The walls were painted using some kind of faux finish that doesn't look so hot. It also has giant florescent lights in it. Ick! My dream is to paint the walls, sand and paint the cabinets, get new flooring, and replace the florescent lights with some cool track lighting. It will probably be the last thing we get to, though.

We also have a huge unfinished basement that will be Tony's mancave and a big backyard that will probably take a couple of hours to mow. We love it!

I've already picked out the colors I want to paint a few rooms, but I'm having a lot of trouble picking out paint colors for the main living spaces. Tony is leaning more towards greys and blues for the main living spaces, while I am trying to decide if I'm brave enough to paint the living room something bold like cranberry. I think if we did that, it would probably only be an accent wall. But I don't know that I'm actually brave enough this time around! I don't have a particular style yet, although I like things to feel warm and homey. This house turned 100 years old this year, and I really want to honor the old charm of the house with our decorating. If you have any color/decorating ideas, let me know!

I have a lot more to blog about, but I'm limited on time this morning. I have some fun pictures of Ruth I've taken recently that I want to post. I also want to take some pictures of the handyman projects Tony has already completed. He's such a good handyman! My house is a total mess right now as we try to unpack, but I'll take some pictures as we get everything picked up. I'll try to blog more later today or tomorrow! Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas!

Busy, busy

Hello, hello. We've been busy the last couple of weeks. Tony's always working hard with full-time school and work, and during his days off we've been trying to have fun family time. Last week we went on a spontaneous trip to the zoo, which ended up being great because there was hardly anyone there. It was chilly out, but we just did the indoor exhibits, and Ruth had a fun time. She's become much more aware of the animals since last time we went to the zoo in the fall, and I think she's getting more out of it. Yesterday we went to the Nebraska Furniture Mart to look at furniture and appliances, and we have our new washer and dryer and dishwasher picked out.

Everything is still good for us to close on our house on Feb. 19th! So last Saturday I took the list of things that needed to get done before we could start packing and divided them up among all the days this week. (Cleaning out dressers, closets and under-the-bed boxes, etc.) And I haven't done ANY of them yet! I need to get on the ball! I don't feel too bad, though, because I've been much, much busier this week than I expected. I was able to do a little shopping for homeowner's insurance and then pick a provider and get all that squared away. That took more time than I thought it would. We also got our taxes filed, which, again, took longer than expected. I've worked out every day this week so far except for Sunday and I'm feeling good. But I'm getting stressed about all the de-cluttering that needs to get done, so I suppose I should quit blogging and get to it!

I'm leaving you with a video of Ruth. She's recently discovered Tony's book light and likes to wear it as a necklace. I was trying to get some video of her wearing her "necklace" and playing "basketball" (thanks for the suggestion, Jenn), but she stopped playing when I started shooting video. Listen for her new favorite word, "silly," at the end. :)

Baby rock!

Ruth and Jack decided to start their own percussion band on Friday.


They got out a couple of big metal bowls and some cooking utensils and rocked out. You can't tell from the videos, but their banging is extremely loud! I love how every once in a while Ruth taps on Jack's "drum." And in the second video, Jack decides to lick the spoon. :-) They're so funny.





I am looking for more things for them to do, though. Ruth has been getting bored in the house, and Jack gets bored when he is here, too. We read books, play with blocks and color every day. Ruth also enjoys her little play tent. I'm trying to keep movie time to a minimum. I tried getting them to play with playdough, but they try to eat it. Any toddler activity ideas are welcome!