Bump Day: 3 diaper bag essentials

A couple of weeks back we experienced our first diaper blow-out while visiting my grandma in the nursing home - talk about stressful! I swear we bathed our child in wipes and once that was all cleaned up, he peed. Since we were changing him on my grandma's bed when all this went down we had to ask the nurses to change her bed linens.  Embarrassing. Disaster. Stress. Uggghh... This was followed by a 3 1/2 hour trip home.

This whole diaper blow out and the extreme amount of poop really grossed out and stressed out my husband and sparked the discussion about why baby clothes are made so "stupid!" I couldn't argue his point that there should be snaps on the top of the clothes rather than, or in addition to, those at the bottom. Let me tell you, when you have squirmy baby, with lots of hair, and you have to pull the clothes over their head it makes for an even bigger mess.

The next question from my husband was, "how much do baby clothes cost?" We figured about $2/piece of onsies. At that point, we determined that we could just cut them off of the baby next time a blow out happens. (It's happened again, and yes, we did cut off the onsie.)

Besides diapers, wipes, extra clothes, burp clothes, etc... here are three diaper bag essentials that are necessary!

1. Scissor - to cut the icky clothes off.
2. Wet bag - to throw the icky clothes in, in case you want to try to save them.
3. Plastic shopping bags - for the icky diapers when there is no garbage in site.

Anything else you would add?

House tour: guest bedroom

Many moons ago (at least it seems like it) we renovated the first floor of our home to create an open floor plan, find extra space, and turn my husbands office into a guest bedroom.  We accomplished all of that just in time to have our first baby! Now, I am finally getting around to taking pictures for this house tour series - I hope you enjoy it! 

This room was the easiest of all to decorate - I knew exactly what I wanted and easily found the items I was looking for.  Plus, I always knew I wanted a dark gray room and here was my chance.  Despite my husbands attempts to change my mind, I went with Sherwin Williams Gray Matters - SW7066.  The color is a true gray, not too blue, purple, or brown.  The reason this color works in this small space it because it faces the south so natural light pours in all day long. I also chose very light-colored bedding so that the natural light would reflect throughout the space.

Sources

Dot Sheet set in Guava - West Elm

Duvet - Target

Throw pillow - TJ Maxx

Gray crochet throw - gift

Headboard - gift

Nightstand - Slumberland

Lamp - Home Goods

"Be Our Guest" wall hanging - DIY project

Dresser - estate auction

Watercolor art - Gallery Wall

Flowers - Hobby Lobby

High five for Friday

These weeks have been flying by - yikes!  But, none-the-less they have been fun weeks to be around home.  Especially since the weather has been great. I love summer! 

One | On Monday, Colton celebrated his one-month birthday and Adam celebrated his 32nd birthday too!

Two | We took a little shopping trip this week to a Gap outlet store and I walked out of the store with a pair of jeans, the size I usually wear! Woohoo!  The 30 day squat challenge I'm doing is working! :)

Three | Our garden is producing tomatoes like crazy! These beauties are turning a vibrant red in our windowsill!  Soon we'll be making salsa and canning all kinds of tomato-related things! 

Four | I love when I get cards and gift tags that I made attached to gifts! It always makes me smile. You can find this tag in my etsy shop.

Five | My husband helped me to hang up curtains this week! I like them - pictures to come (hopefully) soon!  I'm just waiting on my wall prints to arrive.

Redecorating? 5 reasons to consider an e-design

Lately I've spent a lot of time around our home which has lead me to think of ways to make it feel more homey and feel like us!  And, even though I work with people to style their spaces I've considered purchasing an e-design to help decorate my own space (can you believe that?!) Yeah, yeah, I know, we just remodeled our house but it would be nice to have someone source some items to hang on our walls. (I hate selecting artwork for us.)

If you're considering re-decorating and working with a professional interior decorator or stylist, here are 5 reasons to consider an e-design.

one | E-DESIGNS ARE INEXPENSIVE
While there are definitely benefits of working with a real, live interior stylist (like the fact they come to your house to decorate it) they can be spendy.  Working with a virtual stylist to create an e-design for your space is less expensive.  Ranging anywhere from $75 - $350/room depending on the virtual stylist you choose.

two | E-DESIGNS PROVIDE A VISUAL SHOPPING LIST
Do you ever go shopping for furniture, or anything for that matter, and say "I'll know it when I see it" and in fact, have really no idea what your looking for? I do that time and time again and always leave empty handed and frustrated.  E-designs provide you with a visual shopping list so you can purchase exact or like items.  This helps you to identify what you are looking for or can help you find a like item that can more easily fit into your budget.  They are especially handy if you like to shop local!

three | QUICK TURN AROUND TIME
Re-decorating can be a long process and often the part of the process that takes the longest is coming up with your design plan!  After you submit all of your information for an e-design you often will have a first look back within a couple of short weeks! Once you confirm your design and get your shopping list all it takes is ordering the items and decorating your home (the fun part!)

four | VIRTUALLY "INTERVIEW" THE STYLIST
I've heard too many times from people that they hired an interior decorator who came to their house and started decorating and in the end, they hated it because it wasn't their style.  Since there are a number of bloggers across the worldwide web who offer e-design services you can shop around until you find one who has a decorating style similar to yours. That's a win for everyone!

For e-designs for a variety of bloggers check out this pinterest board.

five | DECORATE ON YOUR OWN TIME
A lot of the e-design clients I work with take their time implementing the e-designs I create for them.  Often for budget purposes, waiting for items to go on sale or because of timing.  That's a huge benefit of working with a virtual stylist on an e-design - you can decorate on your own time, when you feel like it, and when you have the money!

For more information on my e-design services go here or send me an email at designyourdwellingblog (at) gmail.com!

Below are a few examples of the most popular e-designs I've done for clients. For more e-designs by Design Your Dwelling visit my Pinterest board!

Bump Day: Colton's newborn pictures

Two weeks after Colton was born, we got his newborn pictures and our first family pictures taken by my friend Julie from Julie Leuth Photography.  I couldn't be happier with the pictures she took.  I like that they capture our lifestyle and us in our natural state which makes them timeless!  Here are some of our favorites!

Colton has grown so much, just since these pictures were taken! I guess that is good but everyone is right when they say it goes too fast.  He is still this peaceful when he sleeps and is all boy when he is awake because he is a mover and a shaker! :)

If you would, do me a favor, stop over at the Julie Leuth Photography Facebook page and give her a like! I know she would appreciate it as she builds her business, plus her pictures are really fun to see!  Julie also took my maternity photos.  You can see those here.

Babies make people happy

I believe that babies are an extra ray of sunshine from God.

Every time Colton and I are in public I am stopped by at least one person who asks about the baby, smiles, says "he is beautiful" and then begin to share stories of their own children when they were babies. All of their stories are happy stories.  For some reason I've become drawn to these stories and no matter if I am in a hurry or not I stop to listen.  Really, truly listen.

Last week I noticed two specific instances where Colton shared his ray of sunshine.

I have become a frequent WalMart shopper. (The nearest Target is an hour away and I have learned that I just need to get out of the house, for my own sanity.) While I was in WalMart there were a group of handicapped gentleman shopping with their aid.  I walked past them with Colton in his car seat in the back of the cart.  They all said, "Oh, look at the baby!" and headed toward me.  I had two choices, act like I didn't hear them and continue my shopping or stop, let them meet Colton and tell them about him.  I chose to stop and let them meet Colton.  They touched his hand, asked his name and wanted to talk to him.  I let them and took as much time as they needed to without being in a hurry. They were so happy and all said thank you for letting them meet him.  This sweet baby boy of ours has taught me how to stop being a rush and take time for those who need the happiness.

We also took a trip to Northern Iowa and then on to Southern Minnesota last week so that Colton's grandparents could spend time with him and we could introduce him to his great grandparents. The trip was a success and he proved to be a good traveler.

While in Minnesota my dad so badly wanted a picture of four generations of his family that included my grandma, my dad, Colton and I.  We made a special trip to the nursing home to get this picture.  My grandma now lives there after a severe stroke.  While Adam was feeding Colton in the lounge area he had a lot of "old folks," as we say in Minnesota, stop to ask about Colton and share stories about their kids and grand kids as babies. Even the residents we past in the hall wanted to see the baby.  We stopped to visit with each one of them simply because we knew that he had the power to make their day a little brighter.  This proved true for my grandma too.

While she may no longer know who we are.  She recognized Colton as a beautiful baby she just couldn't take her eyes off of.  It felt pretty magical and just for a moment we felt she probably understood that this was her great grandchild.

We always hear about how happy parents are with their new babies but this love and happiness goes beyond just parents.  It extends to way beyond that and they ray of sunshine they bring to others can sometimes reach the most dim corner.

I want our son to know the true power he has to bring sunshine to others on, what may be, a cloudy day.

High five for Friday

 Happy Friday to you all!  We had a big week this week with Colton's first road trip to northern Iowa and Minnesota to see grandparents and meet great grandparents.  He is a good traveler so it's nice to know we are able to feel comfortable picking up and going here and there!

1 | Since I'm spending more time around home during maternity leave I  finally figured out a plan for something to hang on the wall behind the couch.  I ordered prints from here. 

2 | Colton and I got out and went on a walk this week.  We both enjoyed it!

3 | One of things I was looking forward to post pregnancy was having a drink here and there with my husband.  I'm finding ways to fit one in here and there.

4 | I mentioned that we did a two-day road trip with Colton to see grandparents and meet great grandparents.  Colton got to meet my grandma this week.  She recently went into the nursing home due to a stroke.  She doesn't necessarily know who we are, which is tough and not at all like the grandma I know, seeing Colton made her happy, which made me happy.

5 | I finally got my thank you note written for all of the nice things Colton was given after his arrival. 

Have a super weekend! :)

Healthy Summer Treat

I love summer. I should really live somewhere with summer temperatures all year round. Unfortunately that wont happen any time soon.  Something to look forward to in retirement maybe?

With summer comes my love for summer treats!  Fortunately I'm not an ice-cream lover. Whaaaatttt??! Yep, it's true, I only like ice cream on a rare occasion. While I was pregnant with Colton ice cream was my craving here and there.  Since he was born, I could care less about ice cream.  This works out well while I hope to shed a few "baby" pounds yet this summer.

This frozen graham cracker sandwhich recipe is both easy AND healthy.  I learned this one from my aunt Julie a few years back and just started making them again.  You can use all low-fat ingredients and it's just the right amount of sweet to cure your craving.

Here is what you need:

Graham Crackers

Whipped Topping

Fruit (optional)

What you do:

Break graham crackers in half.  Add whipped topping and fruit to one half of graham cracker. Place the other half of the graham cracker on top and stick in the freezer for a couple hours!

You can spice up this recipe by using chocolate or cinnamon graham crackers or a different berry!

Remember, you can choose low fat ingredients too!

Yum!

High five for Friday

It's been a couple of weeks since I wrote my last high five for Friday but I had no idea how much time a baby would take up - mostly because I just want to snuggle him and hold him. :)  Regardless, there have been a lot of highs over the past couple of weeks.

One | This little man is growing up (although he is still just a little peanut, weighing in at 8lbs). His little personality is starting to come through.  We are thankful that Colton is a good baby and that we are figuring each other out. 

Two | I'm getting out of the house! I never realized how important this actually is when you have a newborn. Yesterday Colton and I headed to Des Moines to do a little shopping.  It was a successful trip, he proved to be a pretty good shopping companion.  I just need to learn to drive the shopping cart a little more delicately... or Target needs to widen their aisles. Ha!

Three | I'm getting to spend time on e-design business! A bonus of being on maternity leave.  While my turn around time has slowed down just a bit, I'm glad that I have these clients to work with while I'm on maternity leave. 

Four | Axe and I are back to going on a few walks here and there. It was crazy to see how much the corn had grown since I had Colton. 

Five | Last weekend was a great 4th of July weekend! My parents came to visit us Colton, we headed to a neighbors 4th of July party, and visited some friends who were camping at a local campground. 

I hope you all have had a great weekend - enjoy your weekend!

Bump Day: Meet our sweet baby boy

Happy Bump Day! You  may have noticed that I haven't updated by blog in a few weeks.  That's because this little man has occupied my time and I'm not going to complain. :) 

Our beautiful and perfect blessing, Colton, was born June 21 - 16 days early! I had a hunch he would be early but I didn't think he'd arrive more than two weeks early.

When my husband woke up on Saturday June 21 I was looking straight at him and said, "Today we are going to have a baby!" By 5:22pm the most handsome baby we had ever seen was born and we fell in love instantly and deeply.  He is absolutely perfect.

Adam is thrilled to have a boy and I couldn't imagine having it any other way. Although, the doctors had us thinking we were having a girl based on the baby's heart rate, hair and his eye lashes prior to being pronounced a boy. 

Here are a few pictures from his first couple of weeks.

 Adam is probably the most proud dad I know and this melts my heart.  

Colton still has all of his hair, has gained nearly a pound since he was born, and lets us sleep 6-7 hours a night. Overall, he is a really good baby. :)

I just love his eyelashes...