Nursery Update

Don and I awoke Saturday morning (after sleeping in) to find ourselves staring down a whole entire day with no agenda.  That, I have to say, is the best way to start a weekend.  So after brainstorming a few ideas for the day, we decided to take on a project in the nursery.  I attended a friend's daughter's first birthday a few weeks ago and she took me into the nursery and gave me an awesome tip.  She had shelves installed up high around the perimeter of the room and she kept all the toys in small 12" x 12" storage bins on the shelves.  Then she would take one box down at a time for her daughter to play with until she got bored of it.  It was a great system because for one thing, you only ever have one small box of toys making a mess around the house at any given moment.  Plus, every time you pulled a different box down, it was like Christmas for her daughter, discovering new toys all over again.  And even beyond that, the practicality of the idea was perfect for us.  Since we have decided to use the office nook in our Master Suite for the nursery instead of the spare bedroom , the lack of an actual closet in the room and the unusual arrangement of space with the extra wide doorways makes for limited storage options.  So this was a great solution all the way around.  We picked out our shelves and then I discovered the most perfect turquoise storage bins ever that totally went with the theme of the room and matched EXACTLY the beautiful handmade blocks that the Buell family made for Caitlyn with her name on them.  The storage bins cost about as much as the shelves themselves, but after Don frowned at the price tag and asked me the question "how badly do you want them?" I knew my answer right away was REAL BAD.  So we set aside financial responsibility and indulged and I'm so,so  happy with how it turned out that I don't regret the decision one bit.

So it's really starting to look like a real nursery now that's almost ready for Caitlyn's arrival.  We have a  nice glider that I picked up second hand off of craigslist that will go in the back corner by the window and the dresser which we've been using as extra seating in the living room for now.  We still need to pick up a crib mattress and I would like to replace the window valances with something brown and teal and get some blackout blinds.  I have two showers coming up in the next month, one in Seattle and one at Church.  I'm sure those storage bins will fill up fast.

Oh, and Caitlyn, in case you are ever building your own nursery (a long, long, long ways down the road) and find yourself wondering what music daddy listened to while he put your crib and shelves together, the answer is 80's Hair Metal.  I hope you will be proud of this some day.