It’s another one of those days where my brain is on overdrive and I just dump the things I’m thinking about here. Ready? Here goes!

1. We made a trip to Ikea on Monday (thank god for 3 day weekends!). It was only the second time we’ve gone since Easton was born, so it was nice be back in the land of Expedits.

While there we restocked our frame collection for another gallery wall and bought some ledges for book storage in the playroom. We grabbed quite a few of these new (at least to me, it’s been a few months) glossy gray Ribba frames.

(via Ikea)

I’ve made it my own resolution to hang these things ASAP so they don’t sit around driving me nuts. But…

2. It’s Pinterest Challenge time again, so I have an excuse to be unfocused! Probably for the first time since these things started, I know exactly what I want to make… a play tent for Easton. Wish me luck as I buy dowels and sheets this weekend…

(from Twirl via Pinterest)

3. We’ve been behind on posting Easton’s monthly laundry basket pictures, but we have them hanging around on a memory card. I’ll get them all caught up on one post soon.

Yeah he doesn’t even fit laying in that basket anymore and he’s, um, almost 9 months now. Whoops.

4. We recently lowered Easton’s crib to the middle setting. Just as I was going to tweak the no sew crib skirt I made to fall flat with his crib, I woke up to this at 2am yesterday.

The face says it all, he’s not a morning person either. Luckily, I didn’t take a picture of my face at that moment. My hair was sticking up way more than his 🙂

We lowered the crib fully yesterday and now I have to decide how to work the crib skirt for the small amount of space left. Seriously, the nursery feels like it will never be “complete”. Every time I plan to take room reveal pictures, something happens, like I ram a vacuum into a piece of molding…

I’m such a jerk.

5. Speaking of my baby growing up, his first birthday isn’t too far away (3 months! only 3 months!! :() so all of that planning is stashed in the back of my head. I don’t want to do a set theme, but I’ve been playing with his Zany Zoo beads and I think I’ve settled on a color scheme…

Aqua, orange, lime green and royal blue/navy (whichever I can find more easily). My only expectation is that it be fun and fit for a one year old. I’m not trying to win any Pinterest party planning awards here. A happy baby and some full bellies works for me!

Considering all of these are on my to-do list, I’m obviously not doing a very good job at my New Year’s resolution to streamline my life. Good thing my current resolution is to get more sleep, though my miniature boss is in charge of that one.

I decided to try out a new series here… our current wish list for the month. I figure I am always eyeing up something (pretty much on a weekly basis) that I desperately want. Lucky for my wallet, I don’t buy most of it. Usually you only get to see the things I follow through with and put in our house, but I’ve been itching to post more of my ideas here. I have been terrified of making any type of mood board in Photoshop since I started this blog, so I usually stay away from these type of posts. But, I figured it out! All on my own, and it was lots of fun for me.

1. West Elm Tali Window Panel: I’ve been eyeing these up for our dining room for months. The only thing I don’t love is the price. I’m playing that gambling game where I hope they go on sale, but I’m risking them disappearing.

2. Land of Nod Stripes Around the Cube Bin: I wanted to bring some more navy into Easton’s bookcase and closet in his room (which are both painted green along the back). At first these were a “would be nice to have” item but now that he’s mobile, he clunks his head or pulls at his current wicker basket constantly. A softer option is now a necessity.

3. Allen + Roth Edison Pendant Light: Mike and I have been eyeing these for months, if not a year to change out our current kitchen pendants.

4. Play Tent (this one from Such Great Heights): Easton loves hanging out in the cubby holes of the Expedit or underneath his jumperoo, so I’d love a cute little tent for him. Though I’m totally thinking of DIYing one for his first birthday…

5. Target Threshold Frames: The gallery wall in our entryway is creeping closer to the front of my mind and I want to bring in some wood tones.

6. Farmer’s Market Basket from Anthropologie: Because it’s adorable. I’ve seen a knock off version at Michaels…

Did I mention this was fun? Mike told me ages ago that if I put some time into it, I would probably love Photoshop. I think he may have been right…

Here’s to learning something new, on a Friday night!

About a year ago, I pinned this picture on Pinterest…

(from Tar Paper Crane via Pinterest)

It got me thinking about painting our front door, which is currently the same brown color as our shutters (this is an old picture from the fall).

Then I saw this picture on Pinterest and I loved the blue door with the blue hydrangeas.

 (from House of Turquoise via Pinterest)

So I started thinking that color could work because we also have blue hydrangeas. I love them, so why not make them stand out a little more? Btw, look at how big they are now after just 2 years!

After teaching Mike what robin’s egg blue was, I did a little Pinterest search to find some more inspiration. Why not share, eh? Since I don’t have much time for projects, I spend a lot more time brainstorming and googling for ideas these days 🙂

#1. Love this blue gray color, so classy

(from Pink Wallpaper via Pinterest)

#2. We’ve even talked about putting some numbers on the door itself, sort of like this (I also love the door itself but buying a new door is not in the plans…)

(from House of Turquoise via Pinterest)

#3. This looks nothing like our house, but fabulous none the less

(from Katy Elliot via Pinterest)

#4. Nice and clean, and looking more like our door

(from Desire to Inspire via Pinterest)

I’ve been itching to spruce up our front porch (replace the lights, get a bench, do some cleaning). Why not add another goal to the list? We just started giving Easton bottles, so maybe once this heat wave ends I can spend some quality time out there. I mean, it’s been almost a year since I pulled a weed myself 🙂

As promised, I am back with more pictures of the house we stayed at while on vacation in the British Virgin Islands last week. These pictures cover the common areas of the house. There were actually 4 (yes 4!) other bedrooms in the house, 2 of which the owners rented out to us and 2 that they kept private. The 2 we rented were being used by our friends and I didn’t want to invade their privacy with my house tour. The other 2 belonged to the owners’ children and I thought it was nice that they didn’t let strangers sleep in their beds. If I was a kid and lived part time in another country, I think I would like to have my own little space kept private! Each of the 4 remaining bedrooms had their own bathrooms.

Once again, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking 🙂

The view from the upper deck by the entrance of the house, which had a mini-putting green. Master bedroom is on the right.

On the left side is the kitchen and dining area.

The kitchen had a few sets of double doors that led into it. We kept them open during the day and closed them at night, but since I took these early in the morning, I forgot to open all of them.

And there’s Mike checking his email! There’s another bedroom behind him and one on the floor below that.

The kitchen was in use for breakfast, so I only snapped a quick picture.

There was a small sitting area off of the kitchen.

The views from the patio area outside of the kitchen were unbelievable.

Down some stairs from the patio outside of the kitchen was a deck area with a small plunge pool. It was like a stunt infinity pool… sort of looked like it, but not quite the real deal.

Then on the opposite side of the pool was another part of the house that was a newer addition. It had a family room and 2 more bedrooms with bathrooms.

The family room had a big tv that we had no luck getting any good channels on (they had a satellite). So we only sat in there for a few hours one night.

The crooked cable box and wires are bothering me. Which is weird because we had a wire hanging from our TV for over a year and it didn’t bother me…

This room also had an awesome ceiling. AND it was painted a pretty blue color. I love ceilings that remind me of the sky. More about that another day 🙂 (hint: on the nursery list)

And the views! Are you seeing a theme to this house? All about the views.

There was a bedroom and bathroom behind the TV area and another one underneath it, which was accessible from these stairs…

Here’s the view from this portion of the house looking back towards the kitchen area…

The property was huge and had gardens, walkways, banana trees, papayas, a laundry area underneath the master, an outdoor shower and a library room. They were all hidden around little paths that I only walked down a few times (stairs are not my friends right now).

Here’s a video of some of the areas in the pictures. I tried to go down a few steps of the path to some of the more hidden areas so you’d get an idea of how big it was, but I changed my mind. Sorry for the shaky camera work, it ain’t easy walking and filming!

And that’s the end of our vacation posts (and our vacation) Thankfully it’s been pretty warm in NJ this week so the transition hasn’t been awful. It’s going to be a sad reality check when the freezing cold weather comes back though 🙁

ps- the downside to staying somewhere not accessible by car? Carrying your luggage up a hill to get home….

Which was followed by a taxi ride, a ferry ride to Tortola, a ferry ride to St. Thomas, a taxi to the airport and finally, a flight home…

I planned to share all of the pictures of the house we stayed at while on vacation in Jost Van Dyke, but as I started going through them I realized that I’m going to have to make this a 2 part post! There are just too many great parts I want to share without overwhelming you with a 50 picture/video post. For today, I will share the master bedroom suite area that we stayed in. I loved loved loved staying in this room. Sometimes I just layed in bed and stared out of the windows. It was like going to the beach, minus the maternity bathing suit 🙂

Our bedroom was the first one you came across when walking down this path from the entrance.

The house was actually made up of several different buildings, connected by patios with loads of outdoor living. Like, if I wanted water in the middle of the night we had to walk outside.

Hey look! I have a tour guide 🙂

The room started with a small sitting area.

Yes, I am kicking myself for not opening these shutters above the desk so you could see the ocean…

It just rained a lot at night and the water would blow right in through those shutters, so we kept them closed most of the time to avoid the random tropical storm.

The sliding wood doors lead to the main part of the bedroom…

Complete with king sized bed (we are now even further convinced that we want one) and Tempurpedic pillows. Do you know how much a Tempurpedic pillow costs? I can tell you. $129. I know this because I was so comfortable in this bed that I struggled when I came home. I figured hey I’m pregnant, maybe I should get myself a new Tempurpedic pillow! What could it cost, $40? The one I was sleeping on is $129. I shall suffer with my old pillow I’ve been sleeping on for about 5 years…

The bed only had light sheets on it because the temperature was perfect. Nice cool ocean breeze. No AC necessary in Jost. Could you imagine a climate where you didn’t need heat OR AC? It was wonderful and the windows opened completely to let the breeze in. It wasn’t so good when it would randomly start pouring, but such is life in the tropics.

Even more wonderful? The views from this room. Seriously the greatest views I’ve ever seen.

These hardcore binoculars were fun to play with too. I kept calling it a telescope…

Here’s the view of the bed area looking back towards the entrance/sitting room…

Besides the views, the first thing that caught my eye when we came into the room was this half wall thingy behind the bed.

The sconces above the bed each had their own light switch and acted as bedside lamps. This is exactly what we planned to do for our master. Equally as great was the wood planking behind the bed…

This wall acted as a room divider to the dressing area.

Oh and the wood planked ceilings! Another thing we wanted to add to our bedroom! The high ceilings in this room made it even better.

There were his and hers closets back there, a vanity area and open shelving full of baskets for storage. At first I didn’t get why they split the room in two, but then once I lived in it I realized that this was a genius idea. It allowed me to change while keeping the windows open (I figured if I have high powered binoculars and can see people lounging on the beach way out in the ocean, those people on boats probably have them too!) The room divide also allowed the bed to be that much closer to the view. If the bed was pushed back, it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable.

I loooved the idea of the mixed and matched baskets.

I’m that person that never unpacks on vacation. Not because I’m lazy, but because a) I have a fear of forgetting something and b) hotel dressers creep me out. But I unpacked here 🙂 I liked being able to throw my clothes in baskets and be able to see everything I had to choose from. Plus I could break everything down easily, like one basket for tanks, one for tees, one for accessories, one for pants, etc. I like being able to see my clothes and only use our dresser at home to store off-season clothing.

The door on the other side of the room led to the bathroom…

The room had a walk-in shower, sink, clawfoot tub and separated toilet.

The shower was tiled with slate and all of the floors were a natural stone that felt like you were walking outside.

The ceilings in here were amazing as well!

If only I could replicate the feel of this room here in NJ. We had a pond view from our bedroom for a few months, but then they built the house across the street…

I’ll be back to share some pictures of the common areas of the house and the views later this week. I don’t have pictures of all of the bedrooms, but I do have a video I can share 🙂