I am getting really excited about the birth of my baby girl, Eliana.  She’ll be here very soon so we’ve been busy bees trying to get her nursery ready.  Like many people who have a spare bedroom, this room has been used a guest room and had all sorts of random things stuffed away in the closet – things that didn’t have real homes.

That’s why the first step in preparing her room was breaking down all the furniture and cleaning out the closet.  We spent a couple days doing this and moving the extra bed upstairs.  The hardest part was finding new homes for all the stuff in the closet!  You know, sentimental stuff that you can’t get rid of but don’t know where to store!  And, I was totally against just sticking stuff somewhere.  I didn’t want to keep anything that we didn’t have too!

The next step was deciding what color to paint these blank canvases called walls!   The first thing I do before I paint is determine the color scheme of the fabrics.  Paint is so readily available in any color – it is easier to pick the fabrics first.  So, my mom and I went to several stores and then fabric stores determining what to use for window treatments and bedding.  I’ll be posting the progress on those things soon!  After the fabrics were picked I took the fabric swatches to Walmart to pick a paint color for the walls.

We chose Early Morning Sun, Glidden 2 in 1 Paint and Primer.  My sweet husband spent a few hours over the course of two days painting her room.  It looks so warm and sunny – and beautiful!  The paint looked great after just one coat – since the paint is a type with paint and primer it really took well!  We thought about only doing one coat but since there were a few spots that he missed he decided to do a second coat.

The biggest worry for me being preggo and having a small child in the house, was the fumes that come with painting.  Glidden’s 2 in 1 paint and primer has no VOCs so I didn’t have to worry at all!  You know how you can normally walk into a place and tell they have just put a fresh coat of paint on the walls?  This didn’t smell like that at all!  You would never know that someone had been painting!

So, now that the room is all painted, we have bedding to finish, furniture to paint, a mural to paint, oh yeah, and a window treatment to figure out!  This room is the one with the big beautiful cathedral ceilings and cathedral type window.  Many homes have these windows on the front of the house now – but I bet they don’t even think about what they will do as a window treatment when they purchase or build the house!  I know I didn’t!  Lucky for me, I have a pretty crafty mama myself and she has come up with a solution for keeping the sun {and heat} at bay while being really beautiful too!  Stay tuned to see the next stage in our nursery decoration!

I am a participant in the Walmart Moms program. Walmart has provided me with compensation for my time on this post and with the paint for this project.  Participation in this program is voluntary.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

There have been several home improvement projects going on at my house.  Besides getting the baby’s room ready for her arrival I finally got my mud room completed!   The mud room is something we wanted to finish when we built the house but money ran out and it was something that could wait.  The house plan didn’t actually call for a mud room.  It is actually a closet right by the back door that was meant to house a vacuum, broom, etc.  But, we didn’t need the closet because these things had homes in other areas (linen closet, laundry room, etc.).  I knew from the start that this area would be a mud room.

I am so excited about this project getting completed because until now all of our bags have been a pile on my kitchen table and bar.  Make that 3 lunch bags, a library bag, a diaper bag, a purse, reusable grocery bags, shoes, boots, a pool bag, and empty glass milk bottles waiting to be returned to the grocery store all sitting and hanging on chairs and being shuffled around so we can sit down to dinner each night.  I know it will only get worse as my children get older with their own bookbags and sports equipment so this is a much needed “landing spot” for us all!

My mom and dad bought the materials for my birthday (it has been my birthday wish for 2 years!) and my father in law and my husband put it together one weekend while my in laws were down for a visit. After all the wood was installed my sweet husband put two or three coats of paint on the whole thing over the course of a couple weekends.

I found the coat hooks at Lowe’s.  I opted for ones with two hooks thinking each member of our family would get a hook that could house a bag and a jacket.   There’s a bench for other items (like our milk bottles) and for sitting to put on your shoes.  I found the baskets at World Market and had my husband build the seat supports to fit the baskets.  The baskets are perfect for shoes, outside play things (jump ropes, balls, frisbees, bubbles, etc.) and other items that need fast access outdoors and a home of their own.

It has been a few weeks since the mudroom has been completed and it is working great!  We’ve managed to keep all our chairs and bar stools free from clutter.  I purchased a large basket from Walmart’s Canopy line and had it shipped from Site to Store that I placed on the top shelf to catch thins like extra hats and scarves.  There are a few things I still need to do to make it complete; I want to find a mail center with a place to hang car keys, and I have a family wipe off calendar that I want hung on one side wall.

What do you think? Do you have any organization tips you’d like to share?

Spring has sprung and I’ve been doing a little work around my patio.  We love sitting outside when the sun is setting (did I mention I love these longer days?!?!) and enjoying the cool breeze of spring.  Judah loves to run around in the grass and play ball and blow bubbles and I love being outside with him!

About 3 years ago we bought a set of Better Homes and Gardens patio furniture and a fire pit from Walmart.  Each year as winter sets in I haul the cushions indoors so they’ll be good another year.  And, for another year, my patio furniture still looks great! If you don’t have patio furniture they have some really great pieces again this year.  We’re building Judah a sandbox in a few weeks and I have a feeling we’ll be spending even more time outside.  So, this year I’m thinking of adding a umbrella so I can sip sweet tea in the shade while he digs his little heart out!  Walmart has some pretty colorful umbrellas for about $60 I think.

See those planters in the picture?  I’ve had them for the past three years too and this year I have different plans for them.  In the past years I’ve planted ornamental plants and flowers – and they looked great!  But, this year, I want to use them to plant edible plants for the first part of the season!

Since Judah and I are the only ones in the home that eat salad, planting a salad garden is a perfect solution for my container garden.  First, I located some seeds for my garden, including some organic varieties at my local Walmart.  I planted romaine lettuce, swiss chard, 2 varieties of carrots, and one plant just for beauty – petunias.  My container already had some mint growing in it, and I left some of it – I love to add it to iced sweet tea in the summer.

First, we cleaned out the containers from any weeds that had been growing in it over the winter/fall and removed some of the mint that had taken over.  Then, we planted the seeds for my new container garden.  It only took a few days to see the sprouts coming up out of the dirt!

Now, with a little care and water I’ll have a few veggies to make a salad with!

What I love about my container garden is that it is easy to take care of.  I am not really a green thumb – I didn’t inherit that trait from my mom apparently.  But, I do have the desire to learn, so I figure this is a small step in that direction.  This year I’m taking on the small container gardens and we also planted some blueberry bushes in our front yard earlier this year.   We’re putting our focus on edible plants this year.  If I’m going to put time into growing them, they might as well give something back! =)

Judah loves blueberries and buying organic ones can get really expensive, so hopefully we’ll save money over the years by growing our own.  Plus, I know they are “organic” since I won’t be using any chemical fertilizer or pesticides on them.  If this goes well, I just might expand my little garden next year. =)

What are you doing to get ready for spring/summer this year?

I am a participant in the Walmart Moms program. Walmart has provided me with compensation for my time on this post.  Participation in this program is voluntary.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.