T-minus 25 days

We're getting down to the wire and Sally is still the hottest lady around. Almost 37 weeks and a knockout!

We spent the weekend washing several loads of baby clothes, building a bookcase for the nursery and beginning the decoration. We're pretty minimalist when it comes to design, but with so much cool stuff, it's hard not to put everything out!

Austin is known for bats. Furry blue bats are cute.

The new bookcase is 'home' to a couple new whatchamacallit friends.

Every Texas girl needs boots. Purple cowboy boots with flames to be more precise.

We love this Flensted mobile. Appropriately enough, it's a flock of 4 white and 1 black sheep. We're hoping they'll be counted successfully for many nights to come.

Nursery step 2: Assemble Crib

Thanks to the generosity of Grandpa G, we now have a crib for Hoagie. It's sleek, modern and above all, functional. I've heard a ton of horror stories regarding crib assembly, but luckily it wasn't the case this time. In about as much time as it took to open the box, the crib was assembled and ready to go.

Here's an action shot.

Here's the crib all set up and in place. 

What a Month!

Well, I'm finally home again after almost three weeks in Kentucky with family.  It's been an adventurous time, complete with 3 baby showers and a tremendous amount of babygirl loot.  We decided to begin decorating the nursery today, and since the furniture has not arrived yet we went to Lowe's and picked some paint colors.  Ryan spent the evening painting...



...and painting some more!



We're going to sleep on it for now and see if we still like the colors in the morning, but I think we're on the right track. The 1960's metal blinds, though, definitely need to go.

Ryan and Katie did some shopping yesterday and found a HOT DEAL at our local vintage store, and now our front living room actually has furniture in it. HooraY!



I want to say thank you to everyone who made an effort over the holidays to host and attend our baby showers. Baby girl now has a complete wardrobe up til age 2. Let's just hope those ultrasounds were accurate, because otherwise our baby boy will be wearing a lot of pink.  Here is a random sampling of some of her loot: 

We found these guys in rural Kentucky at the same mall where Ryan found a foot-wide bling Obama necklace.

This little outfit is from Ryan's Auntie, who has a children's clothing business (www.mulberrystreetinc.com).  Notice the frog bum on the back.

Here's a onesie that Katie personalized for us.  And yes, it's personalized on the butt.  Soooo cute.

These two outfits are from our cousin Karen in Chicago.  Because everyone needs a onesie of a milk carton riding a cow AND a baby kimono.

A balance

It might be me, but it seems a popular design solution for a nursery is to throw as much crap in there as possible. Preferably a bunch of stuff that doesn't go together.

We've been thinking/talking about the nursery set up the last week or so and we have some pretty clear cut ideas of what we'd like to do with the room. After looking at other nursery pictures for inspiration, we also know what we do not want in the room. We prefer not to overwhelm the child, nor frighten her before she gets to know us. With that in mind, I have a short list of items you won't see in our nursery.

1. 360 degree murals
2. Massive fabric letters for spelling
3. Glue-gunned accessories
4. Clowns

I'm sure I've just offended everyone who's ever designed a nursery.

Just for fun, what design ideas didn't make your nursery list?