Nursery Ideas and a Sneak Peak !!

For so long I have wanted to decorate a nursery.  I am so excited that now is finally our time to do this, that in two months we will have a beautiful baby boy to bring home and love.  I know there will be many beautiful moments in this room.  Hopefully there will also be A LOT of sleeping, especially in the middle of the night going on in there too.

Ever since Paul and I went to OBX for our 4th anniversary and saw this picture of a chocolate lab playing in the surf, I knew I would do a beach and Bailey nursery. 

I love a blue, orange and white color theme and knew it would be perfect in a boy or girl nursery.  I really loved this serena and lily bedding but with a $400 price tag that wasn't going to happen.  I tried to comission my Mom into making our bedding and while she agreed, I had doubts that she would actually get to this to me in time. 

Unfortunately I had to scrap my desire for blue, orange and white bedding and settled with a cute whale set from pottery barn kids.  I had a $100 gift certificate from christmas so I only had to pay about $40 for the 100% organic set after they gave me 10% off for completing an item from my registry.

I highly recommend getting your bedding from PBK when you are in the market.  Customer service is worth the extra $10 you might spend.  I looked everywhere for close to a month and couldn't find anything comporable in price, cuteness or quality.  Even at babies r us, buy buy baby, target and amazon a bedding set will set you back $150 and the quality and service is just not the same for the exact same price.

On our 5th anniversary trip to Cape May NJ, we saw the Bailey picture again in an art gallery.  This time we purchased it and had it framed in anticipation of starting to try for a baby once Paul was done with school.  We spent about $120 for the picture and frame.  For about two years the picture was hanging above our awesome craigslist desk in what was the office now nursery.  Now it is hanging above a beautiful changing table my sister bought for us off our amazon registry.

The duatilier glider/ottoman and pottery barn bassinet on the left were passed down from my best friend's brother in law (thanks Laura and Rob), the pillow also came from our cape may trip as did the two pictures with beach dogs to the right of the glider, the changing pad and cover I purchased for $5 (came with three covers) from a yardsale last year.  The lampshade I purchased earlier for the office is from pottery barn and was $20.  Unfortunately I had wanted to use the lamp we already owned with a small table but based on the lack of space we had to purchase the tall lamp from Walmart for $50.

That is it for now, once we get a few more items up, I'll show off some more of the nursery :)  Enjoy

Frugalicious Nesting

I am going to assume by the amount of online and regular shopping I have been doing for the house and for the new baby that nesting has hit me BIG time.  An apology to my bank account and to Paul for a honey do list.  I am loving it so much, it feels like I am a newlywed again getting my house exactly the way I want it. 

A few weekends ago I had the privledge of going to Connecticut in order to meet my sisters much prayed for, long awaited and much anticipated new baby Lana.  She was two weeks old.  She couldn't be any cuter, especially when she stretches like she has worked a super long day or really needed that nice long nap. 

Here she is with my sister at the hospital not too long after birth (I love the little bow):

Slightly less exciting than new baby Lana (jk) was my sister taking me to the christmas tree shops which put my nesting into over drive.  Below are some pictures of what has been frugaliciously nested into my home as of late.

Christmas Tree Shops:  I was super excited about finding these curtains since for the two years or so I have been meaning to make my own regular roman shades but was too chicken knowing my lack of sewing and crafting skills.  During my CTS run, I also purchased a bunch of scrapbooking supplies, some cute christmas kitchen towels, awesome picture frames and a birthday present for my mother in law.

William and Sonoma Summer Sale:  I wasn't going to let this bee set slip away from me again this year.  Last year I waited for it to go 75% off and it all sold out before it did.  I'll take some better pictures when I use it all for the first time, but I bought the 70x90 table cloth at 50% off (still $$ at $40), 2 sets of 4 napkins for 75% off ($10/set) and the little cake stand for 50% off ($10).  Aside from what I believe was over paying for the table cloth, I'm so happy to have what I have been wanting for 2+ years!  This was actually something we needed too, the last time I bought some dinner napkins was 6 years ago!

Pottery Barn summer sale, I got this beautiful towel in red for our guest bathroom for $10 (60% off) it looks awesome and is luxuriously thick!

 I'll post some more nesting/nursery pictures soon.  We are almost done!



Online Coupons and Facebook

So, one of my frugalicious tips for saving money is always looking for an online coupon before making a purchase.  All I do is simply google the place I want to buy from and then either get an online code or if I'm standing in line in an actual store I google the store plus printable coupon.  I normally use retailmenot of edealinfo for coupons.  These work almost everywhere including the outlets.  If you have a smart phone most stores let you just show them the phone instead of having to actually print the coupon.

Right now most of my purchases are for the nursery which, we are trying to finish up.  We are doing a beach and Bailey theme and I wanted to put something specific around that theme above the crib.  I found a great website called Dali Decals.  I couldn't find anything perfect that was off the shelf, but they do really awesome custom orders.  The service I received was AWESOME!  Here is the final result that I'm going to order with a coupon.



I'm waiting for a good coupon code to order so I save a few $$.  They are right about to hit 10k fans on their facebook page so I'm thinking they might have a good code from that.  Unfortunately a few days before I started searching for the decal to put above the crib, I learned that they did an amazing groupon which I missed out on.  This is still sticking in my mind which is why I'm on the mad hunt for a coupon!  Reading the dali decal facebook page I saw that the mommy blog was giving 5% off and a giveaway starting on July 14th.  So, either I use the 5% off from the mommy blog or fingers cross I hopefully win the mommy blog dali decal giveaway (i can wish right) or dali decal gets to 10k fans and a code comes from that.   They also always offer free shipping on $50, so that is a great savings too.  Dali Decal prices are fantastic even without the coupon based on my comparison shopping to etsy, ebay and stores like pottery barn.

So rule of thumb which I'm sure most of you use is don't purchase without a coupon!  Use online coupons and facebook before making any purchases, online or in store!  Happy shopping!

Summertime, when the living is easy!

Thank goodness it is summer!  We have been having a blast relaxing, traveling, going to weddings and getting the house ready for Sammie to make his arrival in October.

This post doesn't really have anything to do with the above, but I wanted to give some tips on saving money during pregnancy starting with maternity clothes.

I remember very clearly the day I realized my fat pants weren't going to cut it anymore.  With the stress from Paul having been sick and me being sick, I was pretty slim for my standards when I got pregnant so I wasn't anticipating getting huge so quickly.  That was fail #1.  I was about 10 weeks when I was trying to get comfortable in my office chair during casual friday at work.  My coworker and I decided to hit up the Indian buffet for lunch and when we got back that was the end of my ability to wear fat pants instead of maternity pants.  That morning I had already tried just unbuttoning the top button, then using my friend's suggestion, I tried fastening a rubberband to connect to the button so my pants wouldn't fall down when I walked.  When we got back from lunch, I was miserable, sitting practically horizontal in my desk chair to take the pressure of the waist off my tummy.  Imagine this but me behind a desk, feet propped up on a xerox box:

Then right as I was about to call it quits for the day, I got stuck in a 3 hour meeting with a VP pants buttoned and all, I seriously thought I would die.

Fortunately, my good friend Kari and I had a shopping date planned for the leesburg outlets (one of my fav places, just FYI).  There is a motherhood maternity outlet (carries pea in a pod, mimi maternity and destination maternity clothes) there that has decent prices in maternity clothes.  I have found that maternity and pregnancy are a lot like weddings.  Kari was so excited for me to go maternity shopping and I aside from the sweet relief of having an elastic band I was dreading it.  All I could think was do I really need to spend $30-40 on basics I will only wear for 6 months when I already own a perfectly good pair of the exact same pants sans elastic waist band?  They know you have no choice in buying certain things and they totally take advantadge of you.  You really can't buy out of season clothes on the sale rack, who knows if you'll ever be pregnant in the summer and need shorts again.  FML

So, personally I refused to go crazy with the maternity shopping and thus far 6.5 months in I am doing great with my plan.  I figured since I am petite in height (key word), I could just buy the normal size small and tops would be long enough to cover my belly.  So far that has been very successful and I have new shirts I can wear after Sammie is born.

Here is what has gotten me thru 6.5 months of pregnancy:

• From the MM outlet:
• 1 pair of jeans $30
• 1 clearance skirt $20

• From Kohls:
• 1 pair of Khaki Capris $30
• 1 pair of clearance (YAY) brown dress pants

• From my Sister:
• 1 pair of black maternity pants from target that didn't fit her

• From my Neighbor:
• 1 pair of shorts
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 maternity shirt

Since I'm big and pregnant in the summer what I've enjoyed wearing the most is my summer dresses.  I fortunately had a small obsession with them over the last several years so I have plenty to choose from (mainly from target or ross).  Everything else that I've gotten has been loose fitting tops on clearance in smalls or mediums.  Some from Macys, 2 from Old Navy @ 2.50 a piece during their memorial day sale (go me!) and that about sums it up!  The only thing I really want/need is another pair of maternity shorts.

I even made it through weddings without having to buy special maternity clothes.  Here are some recent pics from said weddings.  Enjoy

Me and Paul in Miami, I am about 23 weeks

Me and my sister in law, she was about 34 weeks, I was 20 weeks.  This fitted bridesmaid dress was purchased before I found out I was pregnant and unfortunately had to have the zipper switched with a laceup back to fit, however it worked out perfectly!

And as luck would have it, just as I bought myself a brand new bikini thinking after all my bootcamping I'd look like hot shit at these weddings, I finally end up pregnant.  Well I rocked the bikini anyways.   As my cousin said, maybe it will fit later...thanks Will, so sweet of you!