Monday, March 31, 2014

spring cleaning the master closet 2014

In addition to putting away the clothes that won't fit me for the next few months I did the annual swap of putting away winter/fall stuff and busted out the spring/summer stuff. I went extra nuts this time and pulled out every single one of the 12 boxes I have so as to leave no doubt of clothing that fits.
And here's my magical kingdom where I spend my mornings.
We previously had a different dresser in the main part of the bedroom but we swapped it for two of these dressers and Matt moved his stuff into my old dresser and so all my clothes are in one place.
Here's the off season stuff and stuff that won't fit a pregnant body.
Sparkly flats, heels on top.
I used to have all my shoes up high to spare them from cats and dogs but since they're not allowed in here anymore I can keep everything down low.
Warm weather friendly flats.
The Nikes.
Dresses from down below.
All the jewelry hangs here too. 
As well as the hats and purses. And a clock to remind me to hurry up.
I also put all my makeup on in the closet. 
It's a one stop get ready spot.
Cardigans and coats.
And just a small sampling of the drawer organization. Here's the workout stuff.
Matt's side. I get 3/14, he gets 1/4.
 Luggage.
And I was particularly excited about this drawer with the belts and such being in such a nice state.
Look at the cute little belts.
Colorful!
On the other side there's the robes and such.
You can always add a little more space to store little things especially if they're pretty.
So that's my little slice of girly heaven.
It's a very convenient little haven.

Friday, March 28, 2014

window crazy

After a year of living here finally, FINALLY we checked "install blinds" off our to do list and our girl's room was the first to get the treatment. Here they are closed.
And here they are opened. While it does block out a lot of light when closed, it's not enough for me so she's gonna get some curtains.
The install was super easy, my pregnant self did it alone after work. The only thing left to do is trim off a mm off this rail that goes over the top of the blinds to cover the ugly plastic part. What's in the cardboard box you ask? Oh nothing… just the crib. I KNOW, I CAN'T WAIT TO ASSEMBLE IT! 
Not to be totally predictable but I'm going with gold/brass accessories in her room. I was going to get a more expensive curtain rod but they seem to be out of it at West Elm so I grabbed this one at the Depot. It sort of makes me think of Tulips which is Wonderland apropos i.e. "little bread and butterfly kiss the tulips" part of that song the flowers sing before they become bitchy towards Alice.
I also bought a thicker brass curtain rod for our master bedroom and I'll show you the final result of that plus the new blinds in that room soon. That room is really coming together. Painfully slow believe me, the plan for that room has been simmering for years and now it's starting to be executed.
Oh and here's the bamboo blinds in the daytime.
Whew, Team Fredrich really handled this window situation, high fives all around.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

painting the roses red… err… blue

Well we painted our little rose's room blue. The color we went with was Benjamin Moore's Colorado Gray which is not really grey but blue. I mean, it has twinges of grey and green but it's a cool blue. 
I could have done a baby blue type thing but, that's kinda predictable.
We tacked painting the closet which as of print time I decided to change the color to the same one in the laundry room. I went with elephant grey like the previous color of the walls but in a closet it was way too dark. Anyway, painting the closet meant everything had to come out of both rooms and it's great because it really kicks my butt into shuffling all this stuff out of here to make room for baby.
And here's what it will look like against the grey cabinet. Pretty no?
Man, it's so nice to have that out of the way.
I mentioned that I would love it if the basics of her room were ready by the time the party happened so people could check out her room in person. I'm glad that's two months away, gives me some time to get things done and it's a nice deadline clock.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

stuff my mom says

Both of my parents call me almost weekly to check up on me. It's pretty cute. I'm 32 years old and haven't lived at home for about 10 years but I've become their baby again and they're worried about me and their grandkid. Precious.

I asked my mom if she had post-partum depression. She said with so many kids "ain't nobody got time for that."

Then she asked me to send her a "selfie" of me and my belly.

- mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

is this what they mean by nesting

On the way home from work on Tuesday I stopped by Home Depot and picked up a lot of window situations. I came home to an empty house and had to install them IMMEDIATELY. First was my girl's room, then the laundry room:
Told you the bamboo would look good.

A strong desire to get the house in tip top shape has overcome me. Is this the famous "nesting" they were speaking of? It just feels like normal EvY type behavior still. Especially knowing a lot people will be judging our house soon.

- iPad Post

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

the laundry room: a breath of fresh air

Over the weekend we painted not one but two rooms! Huzzah! And seriously don't ask me why, maybe the madness of impending motherhood but I just did not want my baby girl to arrive in a home where the *gasp* laundry room wasn't painted. What a relief! And a joy because I adore it.
The winning color by accident was "breath of fresh air" by Ben Moore. I had ordered a gallon of it to use for the ceiling of my office in a flat finish but decided it would look good in here too so here we are. I was a little concerned about the flat finish but this room gets so much light that it worked in its favor. It's like a beautiful day no matter what the weather outside may be.
It did make the rest of the white in the room stand out and now I am confident that eventually buying dark grey front loading washers is gonna look dope x a million.
As I've mentioned before I want to do dark grey bottom cabinets and white uppers, like we'll do in the kitchen. And for some reason that little feather duster in there is telling me that wood or some sort of natural type materials will look good here too. Like bamboo blinds and maybe a wood counter top.
I actually very recently found this image and it's pretty on point perfect to what I wanna do in here. I was even scratching my head as to how can I do both open shelving for a few cute things and mostly closed for everything else. There's the answer. The bottom cabinets I've already purposed in my head. The right side thinner cabinet will house the big bag of dog food and the right side drawer (drawer, hadn't even thought of that) will have the leashes and dog stuff and the bottom cabinet will house the laundry basket. I even love that there's a less accessible but still closed upper cabinets where I'd like to store misc. stuff like lightbulbs.
I tried to like this window situation but I just don't. I think bamboo blinds that will mount inside the window are gonna be the way to go.
There's not a LOT of stuff in the laundry room that needs to be stored which is why the eventual cabinet thing will help alleviate some storage space from other areas in the house. 
Inside o' this cabinet is just the lingerie washing bag, other dryer sheets, oxy clean stuff, a basket with the cloths for the mops, and the iron and jar of lightbulbs.
I had the dog leashes hanging here but decided the little duster looks cute on its own.
This little corner is kind of awkward and I wanted to add something here but… less is more. The yellow bin still houses the dog food.
And in between the washer and dryer is still the little expedit.
The top drawer has doggy stuff including the leashes.
And the bottom has their beds and towels.
Not super in love with this scenario but they are accessible.
Hedgehog dryer balls. I mean, come on!
Just for pretties: eventually we'll put some greenery in here.
And this is also pretty much just for pretties. Though if we install a drying line, they will be useful.
And Matt's geeky posters look right at home in here. The frame is a shiny dark grey and because of how good they look with the blue wall I think I'll have to hit up Ikea and grab some more.
I love looking into the room from the living room now.
It's so happy!