High five for Friday

I'm behind a couple of weeks with my usual high five for Friday posts but none-the-less good things are still happening!!

One | All of our babies are born! We now have ten of these little bandits running around and boy are they fun to watch!

Two| Spring is on it's way... I think... and hope... so its been fun to wear peep toe shoes and more spring-like clothes.  Fortunately, at 25 weeks pregnant I am still able to mix in some none-maternity clothes to wardrobe.  Oh - and I got my hair cut! I love it!!

Three| We are making progress now!! Our cupboards are installed.  Hopefully by Monday afternoon our counter tops will be in!  Then the plumber can come back, and the electrician, and painter, and...  Anyhow, hopefully by the first full week in April we will be moving back in.

Four| Our neighbor makes THE BEST cupcakes! I actually ordered a few from her as a birthday gift and when she delivered them she brought one for Adam and I.

Five| I will forever be a Minnesota Gopher fan but it's been fun to watch the Iowa State University Cyclones play in the March Madness tournament!  We'll be cheering them on tonight! :)

A couple more things...

I am offering a 25% discount  now through March 31 (Monday) in my etsy shop! Use code SHOP25

And, last chance pricing on e-designs runs through Monday as well! More information here.

Cheers to a great weekend!

I started an etsy shop + a discount code for you

After a lot of encouragement from my friends I started an etsy shop!

I've always loved being crafty (I get this from my mom) and somewhat-thrifty (I get this from her too). This is where my love for making greeting cards comes from.  My drive for starting my shop, besides my friends, was the fact that greeting cards are SO expensive - $4.00, $5.00, $7.00 - eeekkk! And let's be truthful, they are most often thrown in the garbage. I believe that sending a card to a friend or giving a card with a wedding or birthday gift should be affordable, spend the money on the gift not the card!

Here is a look at some of the card sets my shop - Beth Kohler Designs - offers.

Cards for kids - I love that kids can color these! They come with four assorted crayons!

Embossed Feather Card - currently one of my favorites!

Lemon Thank You Note - these make me think of spring and summer!

Forever and Always Wedding Cards - this is also a popular item! Give the couple a one-of-a-kind card!

Gold Glitter Bud Vase - Currently the most popular item in my shop.  Only 8 available!

I am always adding new items as I come up with new card designs!  I also do custom orders - if there is something specific you are looking for, let me know!

If you would, head over to my shop and let me know what your favorite items are and use the discount code!

Discount Code:

SHOP25

Enter discount at checkout

Discount available until March 31, 2014

Bump Day: Finding daycare

Our baby isn't due until July but nearly everyone asks - "Have you found daycare yet?!" Of course this question comes right after, "How are you feeling?" (By the way, I'm fine. Thanks.)

It wasn't until talking with a few neighbors that I realized the urgency of finding a daycare - I guess they fill up fast.  Which I can believe since nearly everyone who is of age to have a baby seems to be having a baby... anyone else notice this?!  This light a fire under me to figure out what our daycare plan was going to be.  Again, I've never been a parent so I had to lean on a few friends to help point me in the right direction.

First and foremost, this takes some serious coordinating with your partner in crime - for me, my husband.  He works within minutes of where we live while I work 1 hour and 10 minutes away, 3 days a week (2 days at home).  However, in the spring and fall, he spends long hours farming.  Our first question was - where do we look for daycare - near where I work or near our home.  We decided that near our home was the best option since I work from home 2 days/week and he is only minutes away and has the ability to be flexible.  I'm thankful he is willing to take the lead on this aspect of parenting.

We also had to decide if we wanted our baby to be in a daycare center or an in-home daycare.  We chose in-home daycare since our options are somewhat limited, living in rural Iowa.

Since we live in a small town, our friends and neighbors were more than helpful with suggestions of local daycare providers - everyone knows everyone around here so word of mouth is great for advertising and reference-checking.

Figuring out what questions to ask is where I needed help... thanks to a few good friends and a couple of websites I figured out which questions were most important for us.  That's the key, decide what's important to you as a parent.  As most of you know, everyone has an opinion.

Here are the questions I asked:

Do you have an opening? (If not, no need to go any further)
How long have you been doing daycare?
Are you registered?
How many kids are at your daycare?
What are the ages of the other kids?
Are there any other infants?
How you let the other kids interact with an infant?
What is your daily schedule with the kids?
Do you do any learning and development activities? (Important for when they are older)
Do you offer parents a daily report for their child?
What are your hours? Are you flexible? (Important since I work over an hour away and Adam is busy farming in the fall and spring.)
What is your holiday schedule?
What is your policy for sick days?  For you? For our child?
How do you notify families of sick days?
What are your expectations of parents?
What is your pricing structure?
What's included in the price? (food, baby wipes, diapers, formula??)
How and when do you like to be paid?

While these questions were really important to us, the best advice we were given was to Trust Your Gut. We did and are pretty excited about the daycare provider we found.

What other advice would you recommend for finding daycare? Weigh in with your thoughts below in the comments!!

Last chance e-design pricing

We'll friends, I hate to break it to you but I'll be raising my e-design prices beginning April 1.

This for a couple of reasons...

First, I've picked up a number of new clients - THANK YOU! (This doesn't mean I'm too busy to help you out if you are interested.)

Second, I'm putting a lot of time into each client's e-design. So to be honest, I feel as though my time is worth something. At least this is what my husband, and a couple of other design bloggers, keep telling me...

No need to worry though, I will not be pricing my e-designs out of the ballpark because I truly believe that living in a space you love should be affordable and I would never charge more than what I would be willing to pay.

Third, this will give me the opportunity to do some more customer specials and discounts!

What will change...
E-Designs will change for $100/room to $150/room.
The second e-design you purchase will change from $85/room to $125/room (bigger discount!)
Down payments will be $75.

How it works: For each e-design purchased for $150, clients get the second e-design for $125.

A note to previous and current customers: If you have already paid for one e-design at $100 your next will be $85 (old pricing).

What will stay the same...
I LOVE doing virtual room consultations.  Pricing for virtual room consultations will stay at the current pricing of $25/room.  The $25 virtual room consult will go toward your purchase of an e-design.

How it works: Purchase a virtual room consultation for $25/room, get an e-design for $125/room.

From now until Monday, March 31 if you book an e-design with me, you will receive the $100/room pricing.  So please book your e-designs now!

If you have questions, or would like to book an e-design. send me an email designyourdwellingblog (at) gmail.com.

Thank you to you all!

Bump Day: Tips for creating a baby registry

Happy Bump Day! (Get it?! "bump day" like "hump day"??) 

I'm considering a new regular series as this new life adventure unfolds... quickly... and calling it "bump day." Now, I need to preface this by saying that I am not a pro.  In fact, if there is a book called "Parenting for Dummies" I'd probably read it.  (Is there a book like this?!) However, my dear friends have guaranteed me that my "mothering instincts" will kick in.  I've begun to pray for this nightly.

On April 5 my mom and sisters are hosting a baby shower.  This means I have to register for things that (I think) the baby will need. I tell you what, as a first time mom, this is intimidating.  A wedding registry - easy-peasy, I know what I want and how to take care of myself.  A baby registry - eeekkk!! 

Fortunately I called on a couple of my best friends to lend me a hand.  Cynthia, God bless her, agreed to go to Babies 'R' Us with me.  Walking into this baby store had to be like a guy walking into a women's clothing store!  I was so intimated that I considered calling off our shopping date.  

Then, I told the girls (yes girls, I doubt they have kids) that I would like to create a registry.  Their first question was, "Is this your first baby?"  "Ummmm... yea..." 15 minutes and 20 questions later (that I didn't know the answers to) I had the registry gun in hand.  

Long story short: I survived and now have a registry - actually two of them.   

I learned a few things along the way.  Here are my tips for first-time moms for creating a registry.

Babies Don't Need Much

This is what my friends have told me which has helped me stress less about creating the perfect registry.  They need a place to sleep, a few changes of clothes, diapers, and food. And of course lots of love.

Use Online Resources

I did a few online searches for pre-made registries and new mom survival guides.  This helped immensely. 

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Bump

Baby Center

New Mom's Survival Kit

Skip the Clothes, Blankets, and Toys

Apparently everyone gets you these things. Understandably so - they are affordable and irresistible. I did register for a couple of things, at least that way people can begin to understand my "baby style."

Don't Over-Register for Items

My friend, Katie, had this great suggestion. She told me that you don't know your baby's preferences yet on things like bottles and passifiers.  Just put a couple of items or brands on your registry just to try.  If the baby doesn't like them, your not out much.

Go With A Pro

Take the advice of your friends with kids.  Take a "pro-mom" to register with you - they know their stuff and have experience with it!  I also gave my Target registry username and password to my friend, Katie, to log into my account and add things that she knew would be beneficial to have. (She has successfully raised 4 awesome boys!) Then I could easily edit the list and add a few things here and there. 

I hope these tips were helpful.  What would you add?!  Please share with other readers - I am definitely open to your thoughts and advice!!

By the way... while registering I discovered why people find out if they are having a boy or girl.  It's A LOT easier to register because everything is either "boy" or "girl." We aren't finding out...

Home renovation progress report

So many of you have been asking about the progress we've made on our home renovation update and I've not been so good an keeping you in the loop.  That's partly because progress has been real slow with the exception of a couple of productive spurts here and there.

If I said we were on schedule for completion, I'd be a liar. We should be done by now but it's all of a sudden looking like the beginning April.  Rule number one with home renovation projects - don't expect to finish on time!  This is not HGTV (unfortunately because I'd really like the $1,000 light fixtures they put in houses!) so we are unlikely to stick with timelines. Maybe if we had tv camera's rolling??

Anyhow... here is what our kitchen, guest bedroom and bathroom looked like before.  I keep in mind that our house has come a long way because it could still look like this...

or this...

Fortunately, we are here...

Second bathroom.

Guest bedroom.

Living Room.  (Yay for furniture!)

Here is our hold-up...

Kitchen.

We are waiting on our custom cabinets to be made. However, the base cabinets should be installed by Friday.  Once that is complete we can finish up flooring and trim.  Once the upper cabinet frames are in we should be able to call the painter to come and touch up the trim and paint.

Done

Created open concept floor plan

Re-structured kitchen floor

New insulation

New walls

New windows

Installed 3/4 bathroom

Paint

Some flooring

Carpet

Some plumbing

Living room furniture purchased

Some electrical work

Appliances purchased

To Do

Kitchen cabinets

Kitchen counter top

Finish plumbing

Finish flooring

Finish trim

Paint touch-up

Finish electrical

Decorate!!

High 5 for Friday!

Happy Joy Week!  I hope you have all found Joy in your week - if not, I hope that today something happens that makes your day joyful!

With that, here are my high 5 for Friday!

One | Joy Week. I celebrated Joy all week by reminding myself to choose joy when I found myself getting frustrated and doing what I could to bring joy to others (I hope the office like the donuts this morning!)

Two| I have awesome cousins. They sent Adam and I this really sweet card to congratulate us on expecting a baby! Each of their girls signed it to - love it!

Three| Progress. House progress has been slow lately but the tile floor goes in today!  The vanity and counter top were installed earlier this week to - so far I'm loving our new bathroom. 

Four| It truly is a good day to have a good day! This was posted on Facebook by our local Aveda salon. It made me smile.

Five| It Feels Good To Do Good.  I really mean that.  It so easy to get bogged down by all of the negative things that happen in our world but it's really amazing how awesome you feel when you choose to do good!

I hope you all have had a wonderful, beautiful week and wish a fantastic weekend!

Client Design - A Basement Bedroom

I'm still decorating rooms thru E-Designs and I'm still loving it!  Seriously, can this be my full time job someday and my full time job become my part time job?!  A girl can dream, right?!

I recently worked on this bedroom for Monica, whom I also helped to decorate the rest of her basement apartment.  Her basement apartment has been a Pinterest favorite!

Monica gave me a great idea of how she was looking to decorate her bedroom, she just wanted the help pulling it together to make it flow with the rest of her basement apartment.

I have to say, that her basement apartment has been one of my favorites to decorate!  I hope to be able to share some before and after pictures with you!

If you would like to work with me to decorate a room in your home, I'd love to help!  Check out my e-design page for more information or send me an email designyourdwellingblog (at) gmail.com.

Pimpin' Joy

Happy Joy Week everyone! 

Every morning (and afternoon) I listen to The Bobby Bones show on I Heart Radio - such a great morning show if you are in the market for a good one!  They have identified this week as "Joy Week" and have asked their listeners to choose joy and share joy with others aka "Pimpin' Joy!"  For the whole story behind Joy Week, go here.

I am 100% on board with the idea of Joy Week and spreading joy to others - something that is easy to forget to do.  It especially easy to forget to do when the weather is bad, work isn't going the way it's supposed to, a hardship has hit you, your friends or family, or you are just having a bad day!  Regardless the statement above is true, "Life's hard. Choose Joy Anyway."  Thanks House of Hendrix for the motto.

This week, as a way to choose joy and share joy among family and friends who may, or may not, need it I'm sending them Sprinkles of Joy!  Thanks Oh Joy! and Caroline G from Chasing Big Dreams for the idea! 

Everyone who is being sprinkled with joy with also gets some joy to share!  I've sent each recipient a an extra packet of sprinkles and card to pass along to someone who could use the extra joy - now or in the future.

Choosing Joy and sharing Joy can be as simple as smiling at a stranger, asking the clerk in the checkout line how their day was or just saying to yourself "no big deal" when something starts to bother you.  Remember, it's easy to get caught up in the negative things that happen in our world, it's a tough place.

Here are a few other ideas for choosing Joy or sharing Joy to pay it forward:

Send a card to someone that needs a pick me up.

Offer to tip the person who brings the groceries to your car.

Send a text message to someone you haven't talked to in awhile just to say hello.

Leave an un-used or extra discount coupon at the checkout counter for the next person that comes in the store.

If you are stopping for a coffee, pay for the person behind you.

Bake a cake to share with the people you work with.

Take a friend (or stranger) out to lunch.

Write down at least 2 good things that happen to you each day.

How do you choose Joy?!  Please share in the comments! :)

The first 5 people to leave a comment with your email address will receive 5 joy cards  (like the ones above) to send to those who need some extra Joy! (Free! Plus no shipping and handling!)