Life

I owe you all some major life updates! Now that Eleanor is 11 weeks old, I'm starting to come out of the haze of exhaustion that was my pregnancy and newborn days.

First up, the main attraction, Eleanor Elizabeth was born October 17th at 3:13 in the afternoon. She was 8 pounds 14 ounces and 22 inches long. Perfectly healthy and beautiful!

She came home to the dream house and turned out to be a very sweet and sociable baby, with a bit of tummy fussiness.

She grew and grew,

And enjoyed a wonderful first Christmas with her whole family!

We love her dearly and she is such a joy now that her personality is starting to emerge. She loves to smile, kick her legs, play the stand up/sit down game, and "read" books.

On to the house (these were taken right before Eleanor was born - it now looks like Babies R Us exploded inside my house!) starting with the living room.

Library

Dining Room

Guest bedroom

Master bed and bath

Hall bath

And the best room, Eleanor's nursery!

Blogging has been a wonderful season of my life, but between a new baby and a full-time teaching job, the time just isn't there at this point in my life. I may still pop in from time to time with updates, but it could be a long time before I return to regular blogging. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me and checked up on me during the long months between posts!

<3 p="p">Hattie 

Downstairs - a month in

The dream house is starting to feel a lot more homey, even if I'm a long, long way from being finished with decorating. I thought I'd share where I am now, and what I hope to accomplish before the baby arrives in October.

Kitchen

This room is probably the most "done." The stools are science lab stools from School Outfitters, the same place Young House Love bought their bar stools. I'd been contemplating buying them for a year, but worried they would be too cheap looking in person. After YHL gave them a rave review, my fears were calmed and I decided to go for them. They are sturdy and comfortable.

Still to do: find a kitchen rug and hang some art.

Dinning Room

We purchased the table from Ikea and the metal stacking chairs from Overstock. I like the modern meets classic vibe, but we really need a rug to tie everything together.

Still to do: rug, artwork, buffet for the other side of the room, floating shelves above the buffet.

Living Room

We bought the sofa (I love the chaise - feet propping is necessary during pregnancy!) and TV stand from Ikea. Everything else came from the old house.

Still to do: Art! especially above the mantel, larger rug, replace chair with smaller, more colorful chair, move sofa back about 6 inches.

Library

We found the sea grass rug on Overstock and the chairs at The Christmas Tree Shop. The desk and chair were flea market finds.

Still to do: finish arranging shelves, art, move white chest to guest room, find summer throw for chair.

Bathroom

This room is so tiny that it's hard to get a good picture. The mirror came from HomeGoods and the shower curtain and bird print came from Marshals.

Still to do: art for the other side of the room

Craft room

This is the room that houses every random piece of furniture from the old house. So far, the only new things we've bought are storage bins from Target.

Still to do: Figure out if things work where they are, hang art, decide if we want a rug.

We also need curtains in every room. Who knew curtain could be so $? I think I may end up making some of them.

That's where we are right now, I can't wait to tackle some of the projects!

<3
Hattie

I married a good man

Look what showed up at my work today,

Gerbera daises are my favorite!

But more than the flowers,

the card is what I treasure. I have a pretty amazing husband!

<3
Hattie

Where I've been

I have what I hope you will find to be a very good excuse for being blog absent for over two months,

I'll be 17 weeks tomorrow, and just starting to regain some energy. I've had pretty rough morning sickness that still hasn't left me yet. I tried to go without any nausea medicine this past weekend, and ended up sprinting from the car to the church bathroom on Sunday morning. Our little baby will be worth it though!
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In other news, we've been in the dream house for a little less than a month. We still have a lot of settling in left to do, but I do have some pictures from move in day so you can at least get an idea of the house. Warning: they are not the best photos in the world. I need to take some better ones pronto - or at least as soon as I can count on not falling asleep immediately after getting home from work :-)

The front - we still need a sidewalk of some sort. We are over budget, so pavers are not something we can swing at the moment. I'd like to plant some limelight hydrangeas out front as well - we'll see how that goes with my black thumb!

Living room

Library - my dad built the beautiful shelves

dining room

kitchen

craft room

Master - the tub is one of my favorite things!

Upstairs hall

kid bathroom

guest room - super dark, but you get the idea at least.

nursery - we're planning to do a vintage circus theme. When we know the gender in a few weeks we'll know whether it will be lion tamers and monkeys or trapeze girls and Ferris wheels.

That's what I've been up to all this time!

<3
Hattie