* Back to good old Isla Mujeres!
After May we will have one month left before baby comes and that is both an exhilarating and terrifying thought all at the same time! We are far from ready, but then again, are you really ever ready for a child?
Welcome long lost friend ...
Welcome back weekend! It feels like it has been far too long since I have seen you last. It may be the newly frigid temps or that I'm just basically tired all day everyday these days, but the weekends seem way too far in-between. Thankfully, we have a nice little vaca lined up for early April. That is about the only thing getting me through right now. That and a few other fun events with friends coming up in April and May!
After May we will have one month left before baby comes and that is both an exhilarating and terrifying thought all at the same time! We are far from ready, but then again, are you really ever ready for a child?
After May we will have one month left before baby comes and that is both an exhilarating and terrifying thought all at the same time! We are far from ready, but then again, are you really ever ready for a child?
As promised ...
We have uploaded our bathroom renovation photos (now if that wasn't speedy, I don't know what is!):
*Paneling and framing that my Uncle created ...
* My Uncle built in a fan that leads outside ... he also instsalled a timer for showering.
Like I've said before, we still have a few more things to add to the room (ie robe hook, new door knob and more mirrors), however, we are REALLY digging the fnished product so far! My Uncle still needs to do the base boards, another coat of paint, glass shower door and a glaze on the floor to protect the marble, but the black upstairs bathroom really turned out better than we had expected.
Teaser ...
As per usual, we have not yet had the time to upload our camera photos, however, I did manage to snap a couple pics over the weekend on my iPhone to give everyone an update on the upstairs bathroom progress!
The bathroom is pretty much done minus the glass shower door and baseboard. All that is left to do now is buy a hook or two for robes/towels, new door knobs and possibly another mirror for the wall opposite the sink! I promise we will be posting more photos within the next 2 days. I'm really excited how the bathroom has turned out so far... who knew black could open up a room as much as a lighter color?
Another kind of update ....
* 26.5 Weeks and getting bigger Every.Single. Day! (Don't mind my sister's messy bedroom)
I cannot get over how fast this pregnancy is flying by! Between the booked up weekends and busy work week, I sadly feel I am not really able to fully enjoy being pregnant and take any time out to "bond" with the baby girl growing inside of me. I feel like I should really try to carve at least 10-15 minutes out of my day to play music .... or just talk to my belly (no matter how silly that always makes me feel).
Not so positive side of pregnancy ...
I really try to keep things on the bright side here on this blog of mine, however, can we just discuss for a minute the downside to being pregnant and taking the subway daily? The way people act once they have secured their seat is unbelievable! People will look at your belly, then immdiately look away and pretend they are either: A. sleeping, B. never even saw you and look around at everyone BUT you or C. SO caught up in their book/music/kindle that they couldn't possibly have had the time to look up and notice who was standing in front of them. Now as an avid subway rider, I know for a FACT that you will always notice who is standing directly in front of you... I mean come on! Their crotch is directly in front of your face!!
Chances are I will turn down the offer to sit anyway, because for the select few who were nice enough to offer up their seat, I generally turned them down. However, it would be nice to even HAVE the option to take a load off and not have your legs swell up like elephant trunks first thing in the am.
Attention NYC subway riders .... PLEASE be a gentleman or nice fellow woman and offer the poor preggo person your seat. It's the right thing to do and your parents would be proud!
Chances are I will turn down the offer to sit anyway, because for the select few who were nice enough to offer up their seat, I generally turned them down. However, it would be nice to even HAVE the option to take a load off and not have your legs swell up like elephant trunks first thing in the am.
Attention NYC subway riders .... PLEASE be a gentleman or nice fellow woman and offer the poor preggo person your seat. It's the right thing to do and your parents would be proud!
House Project Updates ...
This weekend we will be headed upstate to view the ongoing progress of our upstairs bathroom. I'm really hoping that there is enough change that I will finally start to see how the finished product will look! As promised, I finally have some pics of the new shower (they may not quite portray how it looks in real life color wise though).
* Don't worry.. this bucket is not a permanent fixture.
We had to test out the new shower heads washing capabilities!
* Pics are very yellow, however, the tiles are bright white!
I also have a couple pics of the new coffee table we purchased from West Elm during their President's Day sale. YAY for good deals!
* As much as I loved the idea of having 2 side tables
instead of a coffee table, it just wasn't enough surface space in the end.
Since I'm on the topic of house projects ... this summer we are going to tackle our backyard. Nothing crazy, but we are planning on planting trees along the fence on the left-hand side of our yard to give us a little more privacy. We also are going to be putting in a stone patio that follows along the backside of our house. I'm sure there are 10,000 more things we could be doing back there, but those two projects seem like enough to take on for one year!
* Trees will follow along the fence above!
I'll leave this post on a less serious note (since house renovations are SUPER serious and all!) ... I give you a photo of Hubs at a PopUp Shop he stumbled upon this afternoon in Soho. Apparently a new social media site had a store setup with ping pong, drinks and a photo station where they styled you and put some makeup on you before snapping your pic. Do you think he would willingly sit down for me at home and let me apply makeup?
* Love it! He already looks like he has settled into the roll as "Cool Dad"
It's spring out there!
This weekend was glorious in terms of weather. The mornings may have started off a bit chilly and cloudy, however, once noon rolled around, it turned from gloom into sunshine! We had a pretty low-key weekend .... brunch with friends on Saturday and dinner at home. However, Sunday we knew we wanted to capitalize on the sun and headed to Stone Barns for some fresh eggs and walking trails (it's in Westchester).
Once we got to Stone Barns we headed straight to the Cafe for the eggs, a latte for Hubs, a croissant to split pre-walk and then some desserts for later that night. The croissant was delectable and just the perfect amount of buttery!
We took a walk around the grounds and looked at the animals that were out this time of year (pigs, cows, some of the caretakers dogs ...) and noticed the trails surrounding the area were much larger than we had noticed in the past. There is NYS owned property all around Stone Barns for everyone to use for walking and/or running trails. We also spotted a few people out riding their horses on the trails. If we had more time I'm sure we would have capitalized on exploring some new (to us) trails, but we had a list a mile long of errands to run.
This brings me to the above pic .... how sad does our Terrace look right now? Granted the chairs have no cushions on them (they are stored in a bench where I was standing) and are smooshed together ... but still... we need to do some serious work on this terrace since we will be spending more and more time out there once I am on maternity leave. The plan as of now is some fake grass so we don't burn our feet and to make it more child friendly, a new lounge chair or two and at least one new tree or tall plant. I also have hopes of flowers and an herb garden. Time to get crackin!
The projects never seem to stop.
Once we got to Stone Barns we headed straight to the Cafe for the eggs, a latte for Hubs, a croissant to split pre-walk and then some desserts for later that night. The croissant was delectable and just the perfect amount of buttery!
We took a walk around the grounds and looked at the animals that were out this time of year (pigs, cows, some of the caretakers dogs ...) and noticed the trails surrounding the area were much larger than we had noticed in the past. There is NYS owned property all around Stone Barns for everyone to use for walking and/or running trails. We also spotted a few people out riding their horses on the trails. If we had more time I'm sure we would have capitalized on exploring some new (to us) trails, but we had a list a mile long of errands to run.
* Why Hello there Mrs. Cow!
We packed up and headed back into the city to relax on the terrace for a few minutes and then to get the Mr. some new shoes for the summertime!
* Not quite looking like spring yet without all the green and tree buds
This brings me to the above pic .... how sad does our Terrace look right now? Granted the chairs have no cushions on them (they are stored in a bench where I was standing) and are smooshed together ... but still... we need to do some serious work on this terrace since we will be spending more and more time out there once I am on maternity leave. The plan as of now is some fake grass so we don't burn our feet and to make it more child friendly, a new lounge chair or two and at least one new tree or tall plant. I also have hopes of flowers and an herb garden. Time to get crackin!
The projects never seem to stop.
Awaiting uploaded pics...
in order to be able to post the progress of the upstairs bathroom. Hopefully by tomorrow... so sit tight!
In the meantime, I have this lovely photo of a Woolly Bear making his way across the B-G football field. If this isn't a sign of Spring, I don't know what is people!
In the meantime, I have this lovely photo of a Woolly Bear making his way across the B-G football field. If this isn't a sign of Spring, I don't know what is people!
It's the weekend again ...
YAY! The Mr. is picking me up from work tonight to drive upstate and spend some time with the family and check in on the progress of our upstairs bathroom at the UpstateHaven. After the glorious weather we had in the city yesterday, I'm hoping we get another taste of spring while we are upstate on maybe Sunday? The forecast is calling for warmer temps.... so fingers crossed!
Since I struck out on the preferred sink and washstand, we put in an order for a smaller unit through Amazon. It is a Porcher white ceramic sink with chrome washstand (I'm still not over having to return my beloved carrera marble sink though ...).
Here is the latest purchase:
Since I struck out on the preferred sink and washstand, we put in an order for a smaller unit through Amazon. It is a Porcher white ceramic sink with chrome washstand (I'm still not over having to return my beloved carrera marble sink though ...).
Here is the latest purchase:
wanted to order via Home Depot was no longer stocked)
I had more high hopes when it came to the faucet ... however, when most of the styles we wanted were discontinued via Porcher .... we checked on the Kohler site and found they were just too pricey for something we may want to swap out in the next couple years... so that leads to our next purchase via Amazon:
*Faucet courtesy of Kingston Brass
Why stop at the faucet while online shopping? We threw in a simple medicine cabinet from Kohler to complete our furnishings "to-do" list:
*Kohler recessed medicine cabint via Amazon
We seem to be well on our way to a finished bathroom in no time! The floor tiles were picked up this past week and I have been told that our shower has the faucets in place and the ceiling tiles are complete. Also, the person who is cutting/installing our glass shower door will hopefully be coming this week to measure.
As stressful as it is to assemble a room with all the perfect things and pray it all comes together, I much prefer work like this when I get to call the shots ;) I think in my next career I will be the boss!
Productive Weekend ...
This past weekend was a nice weekend to be in the city... we had a Birthday party to attend on Saturday in Jersey City for a very cute one year old and then a to-do list a mile long. Plus the weather was gorge on Saturday... very spring like!
Our to-do list included the following:
Book flights to Mexico in April - Done
Clean out upstairs closet - 1/2 Done
Organize our clothes cabinet upstairs - Done
Prepare items to bring upstate for storage - Coming along haha
Order a NEW new sink/faucet and bahtroom medicine cabinet - Done/Done/Done
The usual chores (laundry/dishes/vacuum/groceries) - Done
Launder drapes and shower curtains - Done
Return to Restoration Hardware - Done
Dry Cleaner/Tailor - Hopefully tonight or tomorrow
Hubs just happened to be moving into a new office on Sunday, so this allowed for me to have free reign over the apartment all day long (9-4). At first I was overwhelmed at the thought of the mile long list of to-do's, but once I got into the groove, I whipped through most of it and was finished when Hubs arrived home later in the day.
We also have been thinking of what we want to do with the nursery/guest room. The babe will most likely be shacking up with us in a bassinet for the first 3 months, but we needed to get her her own room and her ever-growing clothes collection their own space.
Below are the main ingredients for our nursery so far ...
Our to-do list included the following:
Book flights to Mexico in April - Done
Clean out upstairs closet - 1/2 Done
Organize our clothes cabinet upstairs - Done
Prepare items to bring upstate for storage - Coming along haha
Order a NEW new sink/faucet and bahtroom medicine cabinet - Done/Done/Done
The usual chores (laundry/dishes/vacuum/groceries) - Done
Launder drapes and shower curtains - Done
Return to Restoration Hardware - Done
Dry Cleaner/Tailor - Hopefully tonight or tomorrow
Hubs just happened to be moving into a new office on Sunday, so this allowed for me to have free reign over the apartment all day long (9-4). At first I was overwhelmed at the thought of the mile long list of to-do's, but once I got into the groove, I whipped through most of it and was finished when Hubs arrived home later in the day.
We also have been thinking of what we want to do with the nursery/guest room. The babe will most likely be shacking up with us in a bassinet for the first 3 months, but we needed to get her her own room and her ever-growing clothes collection their own space.
Below are the main ingredients for our nursery so far ...
* Alma Papa Crib via Pamperedtot
* Jenny Lind Changing Table via Giggle (simple yet a classic)
* We are thinking a futon or daybed, such as this one via Ikea
so our guests can still have a proper place to sleep
We have also purchased a beautiful rocking chair from ABC Home when they were having their President's Day sale (score!!!). That is currently in our master for now since, realistically, that is where most rocking-to-sleep will happen at first.
It really blows my mind all the things that one small baby needs ... dare I say they require way more than an adult?
Luck for you baby, your Momma loves to shop ;)
Yesterday was a sad day for UpstateHaven ...
I found out that our new sink and washstand from Restoration Hardware was not going to fit into the space set aside for it .... *sigh. I had been talking about this sink for YEARS ... seriously! That is all I have dreamed about since even buying the house upstate (I know this sounds a bit ridiculous). Once I get a clear vision in my head I have to go with it... there is no deviation from the plan for moi!
We will probably not be getting the marble we had hoped for (and by WE I mean I) so we are probably going for this sink to take the other one's place:
We will probably not be getting the marble we had hoped for (and by WE I mean I) so we are probably going for this sink to take the other one's place:
* Sink and washstand is Porcher via Home Depot
Maybe I will treat us to some fancy schmancy faucets just to make up for the heartbreak over the sink ;)
