Loquacious Lady

This Saturday, the walls in JoJo’s nursery got a big makeover. Want to see?

Here’s the nursery before anything went up:

Now, we’ll look all around.

Curtains

I had picked out three fabrics I liked together, and ordered them online. My sweet mom paid to have them sewn into curtains and hung up in her nursery. I was really happy with the results!

The sheer curtains are from IKEA, and they’re super girly. Lacy sheers with scalloped edges…I picked them out a long time ago for her room.

And the curtains are lined with blackout fabric. Tom and I became jealous of Josey when we saw how well they worked. In this next picture, you can see how the room looks with the lights off on a cloudy day.

And here is the same room, same camera settings, thirty seconds later, but the blinds and curtains shut:

DANG, right?! I mean, what I wouldn’t give to have our room get that darkened when we sleep!

Entrance

When you first come in the room, there is a wall to the left. It needed something.

A few months ago, I went to the Yellow Daisy Festival with my mom and mother-in-law. I saw this little plaque and had to get it.I didn’t even know if I was having a boy or girl yet, but I couldn’t pass this up.

Now it’s up on the wall!

Mirror

Originally I really wanted to get a fancy round mirror over the changing table. One like this or even more detailed on the edges:

(source)

I looked and looked for the right fit, but I couldn’t find anything like that that was also the right size and in our price range.

After looking for months online and in stores, I finally ended up grabbing a fairly simple, white rectangular mirror to go above the changing station. And I ended up liking it!

Chanel Quote

Over by the closet, I have the Chanel quote I was given as a gift at the Decatur baby shower. Seemed an appropriate place to have it!

Reading and Toy Corner

In the corner by the changing station, I set up some baskets to hold Josey’s toys and books. Originally I was going to do some baskets on the floor, and some planters on the wall, like I had seen on Pinterest:

(source)

I had had my eye on some certain soft baskets from IKEA for a long time, but they no longer carried them when Tom and I went to buy some the other day. I about had a hormonal breakdown and started tearing up right there in IKEA on a Saturday (which I only mention to let you know we were surrounded with shoppers as I almost cried over baskets).

Tom promised we would keep looking until we found something else I liked, and then he found these baskets. Yay! Dad saves the day. =) But the baskets needed a little help, and I had already decided planters were too expensive to do in addition to baskets.

Back to Pinterest, and I found a quote that I liked. Since it was a reading corner, I thought that this was perfect:

I printed the quote onto some photo paper and framed it. In case you can’t make it out, it says, “You’re our happily ever after.” The quote I saw on Pinterest said “my” instead of “our,” but I changed it to fit our family.

So that’s what we’ve added to the walls in Josey’s room so far! More about future plans in a post to come…

~Meghan

You all were so sweet with your comments from yesterday’s post about Josey’s changing station. Thank you!

One thing I noticed was that several of you commented on how much energy I have this far into my pregnancy. I had to laugh. You are seeing a few photos of work that took me roughly two weeks total to complete when it should have taken half of that. Or less.

What you didn’t see was that my entire house was covered in dog fur. Our bathroom was disgusting. Our floors looked awful. Dust was on every surface.

All my effort had been going into Josey.

Shopping to get final things before she arrived. Putting things in place- her pack’n'play, her carseat, etc. Putting together meals that I could freeze. Packing bags for me, Tom, and Josey’s stay at the hospital.

Tom and I had touched up the walls in Josey’s room with caulk in areas where the beadboard had seams, and we had begun a second coat of paint… but we hadn’t finished it.

And at the end of every day, I was completely exhausted. So the housework, which I wanted to get done before she arrived too, just slid.

Enter my amazing sister-in-law, Lisa. She and my brother Jonathan have 4 kids. On MLK Day, she asked her mom to watch them for her, and instead of doing something for herself, she came over to our house.

She painted the rest of the beadboard while I worked on Josey’s changing table box.

After that, she busted out her vacuum cleaner. It’s one of those MEGA cleaners that can work on carpet, hardwood…pretty much any surface. It has a tray of water to let it steam clean, and it works really well!

So. She busted out that sucker as well as some of our cleaning supplies, and the next thing I knew, I had a squeaky clean house. She scrubbed, vacuumed, and wiped until everything gleamed. She worked until well after the sun went down.

While Lisa did that, Tom touched up spots on the wall that needed it. Spots that required a step-ladder to reach, only I’ve been told not to climb any ladders.

And I was cleaning up. Lots of scraps of fabric and batting, staples that malfunctioned, a paint tarp, and more. I cleaned out the trash and put away the rest.

By the time we were done, it was time to eat.

Lisa had, in one day, done what would have stretched out over a week for me at this point in my pregnancy. I had so many things to do and move so slowly these days, there’s no way I could’ve done it all so quickly.

So we ate some Mexican food (no, it obviously did not jumpstart labor for me), and Lisa headed out around 10pm.

She a is a total super-star, and she kept saying with all the projects I’ve been doing, she wanted me to have one day to just put up my feet before Josey arrived and not worry about cleaning or anything else.

I am so grateful for all she did that I can’t really find words to show my appreciation. So I thought I should at least publicly sing her praises.

Thank you, Lisa!

  ~Meghan

Josey’s room is the second biggest bedroom in the house, so when it came time to look for furniture, I needed things that fit the scale of the room.

Her changing table was a challenge. I knew that I wanted to get a dresser and fix it up, but I couldn’t find one that was the right length AND the right height. Dressers tend to be shorter than you would expect.

Finally, I found just what I was looking for at an estate sale back in December. I had gone looking with some girlfriends, Jenn and Megan, and we found the perfect fit- a 72″ long dresser.

The first issue was getting it home. Thankfully, one of our friends from small group was willing to drive over to the house with his truck and help Tom load it up and take it up to Josey’s room at our house. We couldn’t have gotten it without him!

I was also excited to get the dresser for less than a third or what they originally wanted for it. That was a good thing because I had plans for it. The hardware was all going to be replaced, and the dresser itself needed to be sanded down and painted black.

The sanding process took forever! I took out each drawer and sanded it down, including all the little crevices. I also had to fill in the holes from the hardware where I didn’t want them. Any holes in the middle of a drawer, I left for future knobs.

Those little crevices ran all the way along the dresser as well, so it took some time. After the sanding was over, I could finally start painting. (In the picture Tom took, below, you can see the baking soda covered rocking chair too.)

After the painting was done, I went on the hunt for new hardware. At Hobby Lobby, I found just what I was looking for: some colorful knobs that would add interest to the piece and go well in the room.

Unfortunately, I needed 10 knobs, and they only had the two. So now I’m waiting on 8 more to come in, and the dresser isn’t complete without it. But it won’t be long until I have my hands on them, hopefully.

I also needed a changing station on top of the dresser. There were three problems with just putting her changing pad on top by itself.

First, it would easily slide right off, and that was scary dangerous. Secondly, it had a little belt running under it that made it uneven and wobbly. And third, I wanted something more like a box to hold it, and I am no good at giving up what I want.

What I decided to do was build a customized changing station for the dresser. It would sit on top, and I could take it off when she was potty trained. I wanted it to have a section for the pad, for the diapers, for the wipes, for lotion and powder, and for diaper cream and vaseline.

After enlisting Ben, my brother-in-law, to let me use his nail gun and showing him my plans, he told me it’d be easier if he just built the box himself with his table saw. I was so excited when I got my box from him!

I began by painting the inside black.

Then I covered all the edges in batting.

Next, I took leftover fabric from the chair and covered the box with it. I also covered some cardboard pieces with fabric and laid it down in the smaller boxes where you’d see the bottom of them at times.

Then I filled it up and it went on top of the dresser. It fits great, and it’s so heavy, there’s definitely no chance of her sliding off while I change her diaper!

So, here’s the dresser, complete with the changing station:

Again, it still needs eight knobs. But it’s almost done!

And soon, a sweet little girl will be using it. Kind of funny to think that all of that work is to make it easier for us to wipe her behind.

But it’s totally worth it. I’m happy with the way it turned out!

 ~Meghan

A while back, I showed y’all some stuff that was going on in the nursery.

Remember the mallard rocking chair from my parents’ basement and the old ottoman I found at a flea market?

As….stunning…as that look was, it was NOT what I was going for in Josey’s nursery.

A friend had recommended a person who does reupholstering, and he did a great job! Want to see it now that it’s in a fabric I picked out?

Ta-daa! Quite a change from the ducks and old leather, no? He fixed something that was broken in the chair and added padding to the top of the ottoman. I love how it turned out.

The only issue we had was that when we got the chair back, it reeked of cigarette smoke. Our friend had not experienced that problem with this person, so they had no idea to warn me this would be an issue.

I HATE the smell of cigarette smoke, and I’m asthmatic, so that was a problem on its own. But when you add in that I needed this furniture to go into my sweet infant girl’s room…no way was I going to leave it like that.

I tried a bunch of stuff. First, I opened the windows and let it air out for days. Unfortunately, it was rainy, so it couldn’t just go outside. It was also cold, which I am sure made a nice dent in our bills for heating this month.

While it was airing out, the first product I tried was Febreze for fabrics. I saturated both pieces with it (with the cushion removed and sprayed all over), let it dry, and then did it again. It didn’t really make a dent.

Then I read that vinegar breaks down smoke on a molecular level, so you should spray furniture with it. I tried that a couple times, and all I got was a vinegar-smoke smelling room.

Then I tried covering the entire thing in baking soda to draw out the smell (another thing I read online, which makes sense since people do this in fridges and freezers). I left it on there a couple of days, then I vacuumed it off. The smells were starting to lessen, but they weren’t gone. I repeated this, and when I could, I left the windows open.

By that point, we’d had the chair for a couple of weeks. I’m not sure if it was a combination of all of those things or if it was the baking soda in the end, but when you go into her room, it no longer reeks. And you only smell the chair if you put your nose right up to it and sniff. And even then, it’s not a strong smell.

Phew! So that was the drama with getting a good deal on reupholstered furniture.

Lesson learned- always ask people who work with fabrics for your home to not smoke around them. My mom said she always asks, but I never would have thought it even necessary. Now I do.

Thankfully, it’s over, and we can just enjoy having a nice, customized chair and ottoman for JoJo’s room! It’s super comfy, now that we can use it.

I see many an hour being spent in that rocking chair with our baby girl. Can’t wait!
~Meghan

Man, I LOVE Pinterest. It has been a great resource for many things (recipes, craft ideas, etc.), but I’ve found it especially helpful in planning Josey’s nursery.

I could see all the things I wanted to remember (fabrics, organization ideas, decorative things), and crafts I wanted to do for her room as well.

Today, I’m going to share a craft that I did for Josey’s closet. I actually did it all last night, so most of the pictures were just taken quickly in between steps with the on-camera flash (feeling lazy), and the pictures are kind of awful.

But they do show what I did, step-by-step. I also took a few photos this morning of the finished product.

I had seen some pins about clothes dividers for hanging clothes in nurseries. Babies clothes are generally in these categories: NB (newborn), 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, and 9-12 months. Then they also have 18 months and 24 months, and then you’re just in kid’s clothes sizes instead of sizes arranged by month.

To make it easier to figure out where to reach in the closet for the right size for babies, these moms had created adorable clothes dividers for the hanging clothes in the closet.

I actually read the tutorial on this blog that I love, but her closet rod is the kind that lifts out, and mine is not. I needed to work around that. Here’s what I did.

I bought wooden letter “O’s” at Hobby Lobby and used a jigsaw to cut slits into them. That made it where I could slip them over the rod in the closet. But they were also kind of rough, so I needed to sand them down.

I did all of this crafting (minus the jigsaw- that was outside) over an unfolded box from Amazon (hello, Christmas shopping!) to keep our living room coffee table free of crafting mess.

After I sanded them down (that picture above is pre-sanding), I had to choose a scrapbook paper to use for the front. I had bought three sheets each of two different ones because I couldn’t decide in the store.

In the end, I went with the birdies. They were so cute. Once I had my paper picked out, I picked out my paint color- light pink. And I painted the “O”s on both sides.

The paint dried fairly quickly, so I then traced each “O” on the back of scrapbook paper and cut it out. I tried using my x-acto knife, but it was easier to use the scissors.

Then I used Mod Podge to stick the paper cut-out onto the front of the “O” it went with. They looked like this (front birdies, back and edges pink):

Then I used some black scrap-book stickers I already had to stick on the months for the dividers. I put another coat of Mod Podge over the front- paper, numbers, and all.

I also made sure to put it on the edges and push down any overhanging paper onto the edges of the “O”s to make it smooth. Then I let it dry. Again, that didn’t take long.

Once, that was dry, I felt like it needed a little something extra, so I tied a sheer black ribbon into a bow on the top of each one. I used no-fray glue on the edges to keep the ribbons from being stringy/unraveling at the ends over time.

With that done, I put them in her closet.

It’s easy to see where to put her clothes after washing them. And I’m sure it will be nice to have when I’m trying to pick something quickly to wrangle her into in the mornings.

But for now, I’m just loving them because they’re cute.

Also, these were not expensive to make.

It cost me $1 for each two-pack of “O”s at Hobby Lobby (I needed 3 packs), 59 cents per sheet of scrapbook paper (I needed two), and the cost of Mod Podge, which I was out of. But I used so little of it, that I would say that added up to about 30 cents worth or less.

I already owned the paint, the stickers, the no-fray and the ribbon.

So this whole project cost me about $4.50. Not bad!

Paired with a pack of hangers or a cute outfit, this would make a sweet baby shower gift for someone as well. It’s inexpensive, but it’s homemade- and that costs time. It’s also cute and easily customizable. So don’t forget it as a gift idea! Or just try it for your own little one.

~Meghan

A few weekends ago, Tommy, Ben, and Tom all went to work in the nursery, putting up the last of the crown molding, bead board, chair rail, and baseboards. Then everything wooden got a coat of white paint.

A few days later, Tommy came up and smoothed out some areas that needed extra work and caulked some crown molding and chair rail that was too far from the wall (our walls curve all wonky).

While the guys were hard at work, Lana, Patti and I hit up the mall for some shoe-shopping. Life is tough when you marry a hard working man.

There are still a few areas that need to be touched up on the gray paint from where the caulk went up, and all the wooden parts of the wall need another coat or two of white. One corner needs a corner-trim piece. Other than that, the walls are done!

I went ahead and put the crib and rocker/ottoman in there too, along with some other things.

Big difference from where it started out right?

Don’t worry…the duck fabric on the rocking chair my mom and dad gave me is going to be gone, and so is the old leather/fabric combo on the ottoman I found for $20 at a flea market. I have a great white and yellow fabric picked out for them….but you have to wait to see it!

Those books on the floor also have a spot in my plans, but again, you have to wait. See where the lamp is on the floor? I’m thinking that would be a good spot for a table, and I might paint that lamp or replace it all together. It used to be in my room at my parents’ house.

Here’s her crib! I still need to make the bumper and bedskirt (and the curtains…) with mom. I also hung it for now with a banner my friend, Esther, made for the Covington baby shower.

The artwork on the floor will most likely go on the wall it is leaning against, beside the closet. But it will be on the gray part of the wall, not the bead board, obviously.

I’m waiting to hang art until the end, though. Here’s a better view of that wall:

Notice Liam looking in? The dogs aren’t allowed into her nursery anymore. But they like to think about it.

While we’re facing her closet, why don’t we look inside?

This should change a good bit as the nursery gets finished. Starting on top:

• The things right in the middle, still in packaging, are grocery cart covers and baby carriers (for us to “wear” her), so they will probably stay in our cars once she’s here.
• One of the monitor screens is up there, and that will obviously be in use elsewhere in the house when she arrives.
• Her brushes, thermometer, suction bulb, etc. are in boxes, but they will come down and be put in drawers where they can be reached.
• To the right is her huge pile of blankets, and those will be in baskets in her room, where I can reach them.
• To the middle, left  (beside the grocery cart cover), is stuff to go in the car or on her car seat. So that will be with her carseat. Or in the car. Duh.
• And her burp cloths will be down where I can reach them too, instead of in a pile on the top left of her closet. (There are some frames on top of her burp cloths, and the box beside it is full of lightbulbs.)

On the bottom of the closet:

• Her playmat (collapsed right now) and “super seat” will both come out when she’s ready for them! I will probably move them to the top of the closet as well, when room is available.
• The paint that is beside the dresser will obviously be moved out (to the garage) once we finish touch-ups.
• On the other side, there are two pink bags full of toys. The toys will be put in baskets/storage in her bedroom, where she can play with them.

So all of that will change.

The dresser belonged to my Nana, and Lisa had used it for her girls, hence the pink and green knobs. I haven’t decided if I’m going to give it a makeover in the future or not. Since it’s just in the closet for now, we’ll see.

On top of the dresser are:

• A tote box with shoes (I love shoes, and I LOVE baby shoes!).
• A basket with hair accessories and hats (and a feathery tiara and some sunglasses- she is SO my daughter).
• A flower pot that was painted and filled with gifts from a friend. Now it holds jewelry that Josey’s been given (and some pretty rattles she was given that I plan to put out in her room).

Drawer 1: Bloomers, socks, tights, and legwarmers.

Drawer 2: Onesies.

Drawer 3: Leggings, pants, and shorts.

Drawer 4: Pajamas.

Drawer 5: Crib sheets and changing pad covers.

As for her hanging clothes, I plan to make some dividers (got the craft supplies for it yesterday), and I will definitely take pictures and show how I do it and how it looks in the closet when it’s done. Can’t wait to do that project!

Okay, moving on from the closet.

Standing beside the crib, you can see the rest of her room. We plan to put a rug down in the center of her room. I’m thinking something neutral with a lot of soft texture would be nice. She would like the way it feels, and once I add fabrics, it might be too much to have a colorful rug as well.

The toys that are in the corner (the jumparoo and the baby bouncer) will probably find their way into the closet, once there is room for them. And then they will come downstairs so she has somewhere to hang out with us when we’re working on our computers or I’m doing house stuff.

That corner is where I plan to make a little book/toy center for her. Can’t wait to get that done and share it with you!

The place where the changing pad is on the floor is approximately where her changing table will go…once I find a dresser with the right dimensions and right price AND convert it! =) (Another blog post, I’m sure.)

And, of course, the new chandelier is a happy addition to the room. I love it against the striped ceiling!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’m so grateful for family members who are willing to share their skill and time with us to make this room beautiful! It would not look like this without them!

From the beginning, I have said that if we have a girl, she is getting a super girly nursery with a sparkly, girly chandelier. I love chandeliers in bedrooms and other spaces outside dining areas.

As soon as I found out we were having a girl (well, okay…even before I knew for sure), I started looking for chandeliers online. I wanted something with lots of crystal and sparkle. I also wanted something affordable. And something that wasn’t too big or too small for her room. This was a challenging list.

I hunted for months, and I found ZIP. Nothing I loved. Then, one day I went to Lowes to get some air filters, and I decided to stroll through the lighting section, just in case.

I saw a chandelier that looked like it might be the right size; it had an antique-y looking silver finish, and it was lined with clear beading. It had smooth crystals hanging from it, and four arms, so plenty of light.

(image from Lowes website)

I hated the candles on it. I just wanted plain, white tubes. I also would have preferred more crystal, and for the crystal to not be smooth, but cut, so it caught the light more.

I figured I could buy some crystal to string from arm to arm. And I planned to use round, more modern, lightbulbs instead. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought with some work, it could be a good fit.

I asked someone in the lighting department to help me find the right lightbulbs, and I bought 4 of the ones he suggested (for a total of $5 in lightbulbs).

I cannot begin to explain to you how much torture it was putting up this stupid chandelier.

Tom and I HATE this chandelier.

First of all, I get it home and assemble it, only to find that the light bulbs I was told to buy didn’t fit at all. That was so frustrating.

Thankfully, I went to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in Atlanta with Jenn, and for the same price of those 4 bulbs, I found a box of 20. And these ones were the right size. Twenty bulbs for $5? Yes, please.

Oh, and one of the places where a hole should be to hang one of the crystal droplets had no hole.

But that’s not the worst part. Not by a long shot.

Tom and I had to put up this stupid chandelier four times. FOUR.

Time #1- The wires came disconnected, so we couldn’t get the lights to come on.

Time #2- The screw was too short, and the whole thing freaking fell from the ceiling. WHAT.

During that one, the crystal droplets went flying everywhere, and two of the lightbulbs shattered. We had to stop, find all the pieces, and then clean up the broken glass. Thankfully, I had bought 20 lightbulbs, and not just 4.

Time #3- We had to stop in the middle and replace more screws because the ones they gave us were awful.

Time #4- The wire kept twisting, so we had to pretty much disassemble it from the ceiling, put it up, and then reassemble it.

By that time, we both hated this thing so much. After putting up ceiling fans, we didn’t think that it would be a big issue, but it was a thousand times worse. Mostly because the whole thing was shoddy.

On top of it all, I needed to buy MORE crystal to make it sparkly enough, AND we had to replace the ugly candles that came with it. The longer it was in our house, the more aggressive our adjectives became for this miserable excuse for a light fixture.

Tom’s the one who suggested it was manufactured in the fires of Hell. I agree.

So, the night that we finally get it up, and all of it’s working, I get online to find replacements for the “candles” on it. And I see a chandelier that I like a thousand times better, which requires no extra crystal, and it’s $40 cheaper. At Home Depot.

WHAT THE HECK.

Why had they not had this chandelier up on their site two weeks earlier when I was looking online before I went to Lowes?!

So I turned to Tom and said, “What would you think if I said I want to take that chandelier in Josey’s room down and put up a different one?”

He just looked at me. An hour later (not really, but that’s how it felt), he said, “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Um…no.”

I told him all the perks of replacing it, my number one being the money saved. Then I told him to think on it.

Five minutes later, he said, “Well, actually…I hate that stupid chandelier so much that I don’t care if we take it out and never see it again.”

YES!

So I ordered the replacement, which came with white candle tubes with drips. I went ahead and ordered some plain white tubes to replace them as well.

And I never got a confirmation email. The next week, I was getting antsy. I knew the order had gone through, but I wasn’t able to track it anywhere. And of course, I hadn’t printed the order number. Great.

I had Tom check the credit card statement online, and it had no documentation of our purchase.*Sigh.*

I went ahead and ordered it again, and this time I made darn sure I could track it all.

And I also paid for two day shipping. I needed to go on and return that other chandelier to Lowe’s, and it was the only source of light in her room once the sun had set. I needed that to work on putting away her things.

Of course, the day after I ordered it again, the first shipment arrived. What was up with the light fixtures in her room? Some kind of bad juju going on.

I called to cancel the second order, and it was already shipping. Whatever. I was over it.

We took down the chandelier that Satan made and put up the new one. I went ahead and replaced the candles, only to find that all the tubes I’d ordered were about half an inch too long, and they kept the lightbulbs from screwing in all the way.

This time, though, I got clever. The candles that came with the chandelier were white, and the “drips” were only at the top half. So I flipped them over, and they look just like plain white tubes when you’re standing on the floor (versus a stepladder). Yay!

Of course, that might just be because I’m really short, but I don’t care. I can’t see the drips, and that makes me happy.

Once we had the whole thing installed (which went MUCH faster, thanks to directions that made sense and pieces that weren’t awful), I spent a couple hours on a step-ladder stringing up little pieces of crystal.

It was totally worth it.

YAY! Lots of sparkle, a couple extra arms for more light, and no ugly candles.

It’s also not about to fall and explode all over her room.

I think Josey will have fun looking up at it when she’s crawling around on the floor, too. “Girls like sparklies.” (Name that movie.)

Just for the record, when I went to Lowe’s, they took back the chandelier AND the lightbulbs I had purchased. I brought the receipt, told what happened, and had no problems.

And when I went to Home Depot with my extra chandelier and the tubes that I had opened already, they not only gave me back my money, but they refunded my two-day shipping.

Good for you, home improvement stores.

And thank you, chandelier #2, for not being made by Satan himself. I love you so much.

~Meghan

ps- check back tomorrow. More nursery pictures!

Today I’m going to share with you a recipe for something my friends call “White Trash.” I call it “holiday crack” because people make this around the holidays, and it’s SUPER addictive.

It’s also super easy to make. I first sampled this recipe at my baby shower in Covington, and the next week I was getting in touch with Kate, who had made it, to ask her for the recipe because I couldn’t stop craving it. It’s that good.

Kate had gotten the recipe from her Aunt Angela, and she graciously gave me permission to share it with all of you!

So here’s what you need:

1 box of Golden Grahams

1 bag of pretzels (I use the stick kind), broken into pieces

2-3 cups of salted peanuts

White chocolate bark (the recipe says one package, but  mine was a small box so I used more.)

1. Take the first 3 ingredients, and mix them together in a large bowl (or two, because this is a lot of food, and you don’t want to spill it).

2. Put the white bark in a microwave safe bowl, and melt it at one minute intervals, stirring in between, until it is smooth.

3. Dump the bark into the bowl(s) with the other ingredients, and toss with two large spoons until all ingredients are coated.

4. Spread out on large surface covered in wax paper and allow to dry.

5. Break into pieces and enjoy!

I have a few photos I took on my phone of the batch I made.

Here it is cooling:

And here is a little bit of it when dry (very close up):

I’m not kidding when I say it makes a LOT. I filled several large tupperware containers with it, and I took it to share at Thanksgiving with both my family and Tom’s. We are still eating it. (Not that we’re complaining.)

This would be the perfect recipe to make for Christmas because it makes so much that with one batch, you can set it out at parties, and you can package some of it up as part of your gift to neighbors, teachers, friends, etc. They don’t have to know how easy it is! (Unless you have a blog.)

So try this out. Trust me- you’ll love it!
~Meghan

Today, I am wearing my “housecleaner” hat. I am finishing the laundry as I type this. But I have WAY more than that to do.

My to do list:

*Vacuum

*Sweep

*Mop

*Dust

*Dishes (put away and put in dishwasher)

*Clean Kitchen

*Sort through stuff in guest room before our friend arrives tonight and realizes there’s no way to get to the bed right now.

*Clean guest bathroom and downstairs bathroom.

Guess what I’ve done so far? Laundry. And I straightened a little in the living room. But I am getting a blog post out! =)

I have a lot to accomplish in the next few hours.

Goodbye forever.

~Meghan

Some of my girlfriends have begun to point out that I have been suspiciously quiet about the nursery progress on the blog.

The reason for that is that I was planning to wait until her room was finished to post before and afters. But the reality is, it’s taking a while.

I’m the kind of person who simultaneously wants the room to be DONE- completed and perfect, and who wants to take her time to agonize over every decision.

Usually the agonizing wins out. And because I take the time to be SURE of every item that ends up in a finished room, I usually am very happy with each decision. This also means that we don’t have a single room in our house that is completely done. Hmm.

Back to Josey’s nursery.

I’ve decided to share it with you in bits and pieces. At the end, I’ll show you the “before” again, and I’ll show you the completed “after.”

The room we chose for her nursery is the second biggest room upstairs. We figured that eventually, when JoJo has a sister, we’ll put bunk beds in there and let them share the space. Or if we have two boys first, we’ll have her trade rooms with them.

This room was also completely covered in stuff. Stuff everywhere. I mean, you couldn’t even see the floor. It KILLS me that I didn’t take a picture of it before I started throwing stuff away.

But that’s what happened. I threw away LOADS of stuff that had been sitting there ever since we moved in. I divided the other stuff into piles of things to keep  and use right away (smallest pile), things to keep and put in storage (aka: the attic), and things to sell/give away.

Anyone want to come pick up that big, blue lazy boy? The dogs have loved having it, but we’re ready to get it outta here.

Then I decided to come up with an “inspiration board.” I wanted the room to be gray and white, because I love those colors for boy or girl. I knew if I had a girl, I would do accents of pink, coral, yellow, and orange. I also wanted it to be super girly- think crystal chandelier instead of a fan.

I had a boy inspiration board too. It was made by July, and the girl one by the end of August. I didn’t know what I was having yet, but dang it, I was going to be prepared.

By September, we knew we were having a girl. We moved all the stuff that was still in Josey’s room out…and into the hall and the guest bedroom. Our  (er…uh…Tom’s) workout room became a collection center for gifts from baby showers.

Needless to say, I have my work cut out for me. I need to have a yard sale, and I have a ton of things we’re keeping to sort through. As for the gifts, they have nowhere to go until her room is done being painted.

I went to the store and picked up samples of various grays and a couple of whites. (Next four images taken with my phone. Enjoy the grainy blurriness.)

After looking at it with some paint swatches I brought in the accent colors of the room, Tom and I decided our favorite was the gray that was second from the left, and we went with the white on top. The bottom one was way too bright.

But the paint can’t be done until the bones are up.

See, I didn’t just want to paint her room. I wanted to transform it. So Tom and I bought crown molding, beadboard, and chair rail to go up in her room.

It was interesting getting it all home (as well as about 6 gallons of paint) in our two small cars, but we did it. And we leaned it up against the wall until reinforcements arrived.

Enter the McFarlins. Tom’s mom (Patti), dad (Tommy), brother (Ben), and sister-in-law (Lana) all came over to make it happen.

We painted the top half of the walls first. Well, actually, the baseboards got ripped out first, to make room for beadboard. Then we started painting.

While we worked on that, Ben was in the backyard working on the wood for the room.

Sam and Liam supervised.

That was in September. Some beadboard went up, some chair rail, etc. We would need some more days to get it all up and finished.

But while all that was going on, Tom and I were also living in the mold removal chaos. It was mostly taken care of, and we needed to get the baseboards repainted.

We hired a painter we had used before with good results, and while his workers were there, we went ahead and hired them to paint stripes on the ceiling of the nursery for us. That was something I had known from the beginning I would want. (Back to phone shots.)

Just looking at the tape, I knew we had made the right decision to hire pros for the ceiling. That would have been a headache to line up perfectly.

A few weeks later, Ben and Tommy came back up while Patti, Lana and I were at the baby shower in Decatur. They and Tom worked on the room some more, and most of the wood has gone up now.

And while at the shower, I received something for Josey’s room that the hostesses had paid for/Jenn had made for me. It was something I had wanted for her room, and I have the perfect spot for it already!

I fully intend to raise daughters who understand that you can have a fabulous life/wardrobe/attitude/etc. while still being a classy lady. Love that quote.

Since then, I bought a chandelier, and Tom and I have installed it. That deserves its own post, so I’m not including it today.

Saturday, Tommy, Patti, Ben, and Lana are trekking out one more time to finish the nursery. I am BEYOND excited about having the walls finished, because then I can start moving all of her sweet gifts into her bedroom and putting them away! Tom is quite ready to get his workout room back too.

So that’s where we are in the nursery right now. Fabric, chandelier, etc….more posts to come!
~Meghan