Before and After

Before

So I bought this ugly old desk from the D.I. for $10.00! I know what some of you may be thinking, "That's one ugly desk, you spent too much!" As we were loading it into our truck the bottom half of one side of it just fell off, but I was still determined that it would be cute with some hammering, a little bit (ok, actually a lot) of sanding, priming, paint, and lots of elbow grease! I think it ended up so cute and I had to show some pictures!

After

I love my "new" old desk. I gave it a "distressed" look by roughing it up with some sandpaper. I think my neighbors got a kick out of watching me being hugely pregnant (ok, maybe not that huge, I only lasted 33 weeks) working on this in my garage all day, bending over at that point wasn't exactly easy!


Notice my $4.00 chair I also found at the D.I. You gotta love a good deal. I really love it when something that was once so ugly can turn into something cute. Yesterday I found this website where it's full of before and after photos. Click HERE to check it out. And if you really want to see some amazing before and after photos then check out what this girl has done at THIS website. She is amazing! I think I could sit here for hours looking at all this stuff. I can be such a nerd!

McKinley's Nursery

I had to show some pictures of McKinley's cute nursery. My wonderful, amazing, creative, and talented mom and sister came and spent a week with me and pretty much did the entire thing! Thanks Mom and Shannon!

My mom and sister made all of the bedding.

They even made this quilt. I love the flowers. You can't tell by these pictures but they're 3d.

They made the curtains as well. One of my small contributions to decorating the room is I and my mom did the "M" canvas with leftover pieces of fabric from her bedding.

They are so creative! The picket fence wasn't a shelf before, they had Matt screw a piece of particle board on and it became a shelf! My 11 year old brother even contributed to decorating. He cut out the flower book ends. I made the "dream" picture that's sitting on the shelf a couple of years ago when I wanted to learn to embroider and it just happened to match. How convenient!

I had to get a close up of these metal birds my mom found, I love them. My mom also made the basket liner and the pink flower arrangement. My sister and I mod podged scrapbook paper onto the picture frames on both the dresser and the shelf.


They even helped me finish up other projects that I started years ago. I originally started making this quilt for my niece before she was born who is now 2 1/2! How lazy am I? Oh well, McKinley will appreciate having this.


I bought this frame and painted it green with the leftover wall paint and I'm going to hang it with ribbon on the other side of the room between the closet and door that you can't see.


And of course I had to post a picture of the star of the room! She's so stinkin cute! I love her!
The only thing left I want to do to the nursery is find some cute saying to put on vinyl decal in brown or white onto the striped wall above the window. Something about birds or flowers maybe? I don't know. Any ideas?

We're home!

It is so nice to be home even though everyone at the NICU was wonderful. The nurses were so fun. When they would change her bedding everyday they'd make sure all of it matched and was cute, and when they'd change her clothes they would bring me outfit choices so I could pick out my favorite, they even would make her hair bows to match!

This was her classic smile she would give me as she was refusing to eat!

Here she is ready to go home. Doesn't she look tiny in that gigantic car seat?

They let us take her home when she was 2 weeks old. She was put back on oxygen because of the elevation change from St. George but we got rid of that yesterday. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a baby that isn't attached to a bunch of wires and things. She's free! The first few days at home were interesting, she could tell when you set her down and she'd wake right up and so I literally held her all day long and since she was attached to an oxygen tank and oximeter monitor we literally didn't leave my room all day! I know she's going to be spoiled but as my mom's says she's entitled, at least until her due date.

The similarities between Matt and her are incredible. She definately has Matt's long fingers and she definately didn't get my short stubby feet!

The other day Matt was copying all of the faces she would make and it was so funny! She really is "Mini Matt".


I sure love this little girl. Isn't she cute?

We certainly will be spending a lot of quality time together. We can't leave our home with her for 2 months! I guess her immune system is pretty weak being so premature. We've been having lots of fun together. My wonderful mom and sister came and spent a week and decorated her nursery since I didn't have time and since they are way more creative and crafty than I am. It ended up so cute! I'll have to post pictures of that next but there are still a few little projects that I have finish first.