The day has finally come. Tonight, Mike and I ordered real shades to replace the paper shades in our bedroom.

I know, it’s been a year and a half since we moved in. It’s been a year since we added those french doors and accompanying wall and they’re still not even primed. Well last week, we decided to change that before the end of the year. We figured we’d at least get some paint on the walls and get real blinds before the baby comes. Because let’s face it, once 2012 hits we’ll be working on a nursery and we won’t care about our embarassing paper blinds. Which can grow to be even more embarassing when we’re up at all hours in the middle of the night and our bedroom is illuminating the whole neighborhood….

We’re not planning on doing an entire bedroom makeover, we’re just getting the basics that we should have had from day one and we’re basically making the room more cozy and easier to sleep in. We haven’t decided on a paint color yet, but it will probably be something neutral since we have 2 different colored duvets to rotate between and not much else planned. So we decided to go with some basic white roman shades from JCPenney.

JCPenney Cotton Roman Shade

They don’t have an image of the white ones, so brown it is! I really wanted blackout roman shades for the bedroom, but the one I ordered for the kitchen was no longer available. Which is funny because I really didn’t want blackout for the kitchen, I just wanted a dark brown and blackout was all I could find in the right shade. I decided to go with these basic cotton thermal shades because they are on clearance for $29.99 each, plus we had a 20% off coupon and they were offering free shipping. Since there are 6 windows in our bedroom, I did not want to spend any more than that. Is there an Extreme Couponers: Online Clothing & Home Items Edition? I refuse to ever pay full price or for shipping! Though they may not fully darken our room, I’m sure there will be a big difference when compared to the crinkly awful paper blinds we currently have. Even if it’s just aesthetic 🙂

I just finished mass amounts of homework so I’m keeping it short tonight. More to come when um, the shades come (in 4 – 7 business days) 🙂

Mike and I haven’t decided which room to give the baby. We don’t know too much about what we want to do with the room yet (though I feel like I’m getting closer, maybe I’ll share some inspiration next week). But today, I spotted something and I had to have it. Okay I spotted two things and I had to have them.

While reading one of my usual daily reads, Centsational Girl, I stumbled upon this inspiration image.

(Honey & Fitz via Centsational Girl)

This image was included in the post at Centsational Girl because of the painted dresser. I most definitely want a bold painted dresser to use as a changing table, but that’s not what caught my eye. The abacus (from CB2) is also insanely awesome, but that’s not what I had to have right now. Okay have you figured it out yet? Yes, the giraffe sconces!

(via Honey & Fitz)

I love how clean and sophisticated these sconces are, but that they still hold the whimsy of being a favorite childhood animal. Plus I love the added light around the changing area and that they were put on a dimmer in this image. Even smarter for late night changing 🙂

Dina, the genius behind Honey & Fitz that discovered these sconces, was kind enough to include a complete source list at the bottom of her post for all of the materials used in her nursery. From there I learned that these were Jonathan Adler sconces and were about $150 each. I then went to my buddy Google, and searched for “Jonathan Adler giraffe sconces”, hoping to find them on eBay or something for cheap. I even briefly considered somehow making my own, then I realized that anything involving electrical is probably over my head. THEN! I saw that Macy’s sold these online…

(via Macy’s)

You’re probably wondering why I cared about this. Well, Mike and I are gift card hoarders. I mentioned the other day that we’re hoping to carpet our office with a Home Depot gift card we have hanging around. We just so happen to have a bunch of money remaining on some Macy’s gift cards from… our wedding. Mike also has received rewards at his job that he gets in the form of credit to a gift card mall, so he redeemed some for Macy’s gift cards. We’ve been waiting to use to our Macy’s cards on a major purchase that we really wanted rather than just use them for odds and ends.

They were a little bit more on the Macy’s site, $167, but still less than the $195 listed on the Jonathan Adler site. I was able to use the Veteran’s Day code advertised to save another $30 and received free shipping. Then I used my gift cards and paid a total of… ::drumroll::: $50.96.

Yes, $50.96 out of my pocket for 2 sconces that would have cost me over $400 with taxes and shipping had I ordered them from Jonathan Adler. Granted, it wasn’t technically “free” money as people did pay for those gift cards, but I’m still proud to have gotten 2 sconces that we really wanted and would not have otherwise spent the money on. I now value those gift cards even more because they truly were the gifts that kept on giving… from wedding to baby 🙂

The shipping time is about a month, so I won’t have these to show off anytime soon. But that’s okay because I won’t have the baby or a room ready anytime soon either 🙂

Oh yes, we’re officially in version control for Office 2.0; considering we mention the new office quite often these days such as here, here and here.  I’m a total geek.

Lately, I’ve been telling Rebecca that I want to frame some album art for my side of the office (and maybe hers, not sure if she wants to participate in AWESOME SIDE OF OFFICE or not).  I spoke here about painting some dramatic lyrics on the wall (dramatic meaning BIG and BOLD, not lovey and all sappy) and I certainly still want to do so, but I figured we can throw in some nice white frames in the mix to offer some contrast with some of my favorite albums inside them.

So while working today and sorting through Spotify, I began thinking about which album art I would showcase.  Of course, I thought about some of the best such as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, The Beatles’ With The Beatles, Nirvana’s Nevermind and The Beatles’ Abbey Road.  But, quite like my lyrics on the wall idea, I knew I wanted albums that actually meant something to me.

Here are a few that are in the running.

Ben Folds Five – Whatever and Ever Amen – SongMeanings was actually founded on a discussion around a track on this album.  Pretty essential to be in office 2.0.

Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill – Some of my first music-related memories are because of this album.

Michael Jackson – Bad – Much like the Beasties, this album was always in my Walkman.  Plus if the family wanted me to come out of my shell growing up, there was a good chance I would if Michael Jackson was playing.

Funny, I don’t think that has really changed — though maybe it’s more Justin Timberlake these days.

Beck – Odelay – One of the albums that made me want to be a DJ.  I tried doing it in high school for a couple of years, but damn, it was a crazy expensive hobby.

I can’t wait for my future son or daughter is all like, “Daddy, I want DJ equipment!” and I’m all like, “LETS GO MAX OUT THE CREDIT CARD!”.

Weezer – Weezer (or the Blue Album) – I wore the hell out of this album in my discman back in 94-95. I found the album art and insert a few years ago and I remember noticing how beat up it was. It’s one of those albums that I can listen to over and over again (and heck, I did so today).

Justin Timberlake – FutureSex/LoveSounds – This is just one of those albums that continually gets me in a good mood (and wanting to dance (oh yes, I enjoy dancing)).  And because I have a guy crush on good ol’ JT (yeah, I admit it) — though I wish he would ditch the acting gig and put out another album.

Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams – When Rebecca was away at college, we were an hour away and I would often visit on the weekends.  Looking back, my memories of those drives were listening to this album.  This album always seems to bring me back to those days.

Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak – I’ve always been a huge Kanye fan, but this album always stands out to me.  It was a drastic musical departure for Kanye after going through so many different events.  And I loved how he was able to really tell a story in every track on this album.  Much like Weezer’s Blue Album, I can listen to this thing over and over again.

I’m not sure if I’ll go with all of these albums above.  I know there are a quite a few I’m missing (Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy just came to mind), but I guess you’ll just have to wait for the reveal down the road!

So how about you?  Any favorite albums or album art you’d think about framing and rocking out on a wall? 

Thank you all for your comments on the post revealing our big announcement! It has been rough juggling a full-time job, 2 graduate courses, writing posts and doing projects for posts… while being ridiculously tired and usually nauseous around 9pm. Today has been one of my worst days…strangely, considering I’m out of the first trimester. Maybe that flu shot I got yesterday me the sleepies? But I always manage to find a little extra time and energy to blog because well, I love doing this 🙂

One of the hardest part of keeping up with the blog while being pregnant hasn’t been the exhaustion or sickness… it’s been the fact that I could not share all of the plans we’ve been working on! We have 3 rooms that will be directly affected by this baby… THREE. And I could not really talk about everything we’ve been working on which was even more challenging.

But I finally can, so here are the preliminary changes that will be going on around here in the next 6 months 🙂

1. Remove carpet in 3 upstairs bedrooms and have hardwood installed

Last year we removed this carpeting from our bedroom and upstairs hallway. We waited on the other three bedrooms to save us some money since we weren’t using them. Now with the baby taking one room and the office being moved to another, we figured it’s time to remove this beast. This is necessary not only because hardwood looks pretty, but well, we have a cat who is fighting a form of kidney cancer and carpeting is our worst enemy these days (besides cancer). Plus Macky loves to shred this particular type of carpet (it’s the less expensive carpet that some moron decided would make a great scratching post material), so we figured we’d start ahead of the game this time and nip any issues in the bud before they come up. Oh and I have a horrible fear of our child being allergic to cats (both Mike and I were as children), so any dander collectors are out! Right now we’re scheduled for flooring install November 21-22 so our hardwoods will be nice and seamless upstairs 🙂

2. Move current office furniture upstairs to make room for playroom

We discussed moving the office and some preliminary plans a few times because that was the only room we could really talk about! The truth is, ever since we bought this house we knew that the downstairs office would one day be a playroom. That is why we never attempted built-ins in this room and instead went for removable Ikea furniture. It is entirely true that this office was no longer working for us, which is why we were moving it upstairs. Several people asked us what would become of the room with the pretty stripes and the answer is now obvious, it will be a playroom and the stripes will of course stay 🙂 The future of the room was indeed considered when we painted the stripes and we knew that it would one day make for a fun playroom.

3. Replace current office/future playroom carpet

This is the carpeting we currently have in the office. We added a bright green area rug, which will be likely moving upstairs with the office furniture to protect our soon to be new hardwoods from our rolling chairs. While we chose this carpet before our house was even built, we had no idea what it would look like in the room and had no idea that we would be painting gray stripes. But that’s not the reason why we have to replace it. The reason is that little orange guy in that picture. It’s one of those things a lot of people don’t talk about but hey! I’m saying it twice in one post! My poor kitty was sick and couldn’t make it to the bathroom at his worst and this carpet took the brunt of it. Anyone who has struggled with animal accidents (especially under heartbreaking circumstances) knows that they are not easy to resolve. I don’t think we can get this carpet back to it’s former glory so we plan to replace it with something more gray, fluffier and hopefully eco-friendly. We have a $200 giftcard to Home Depot that we’re hoping helps us a lot with the cost since this room is relatively small (11×11). No Darwin, we’re not mad at you, we’re happy that you’re still here with us and that you get to be a big brother 🙂 Now it’s time to get a job…

4. Choose a room for the nursery.

No picture here, we have no clue what room to choose of the remaining two. I’ll keep you posted 🙂

5. Decorate!!

Once all of the logistics are done, we can get around to all of the projects we have in mind for the 3 new rooms. We’ve talked a little bit about the new office (which is still very much up in the air), but we also have some built-in solutions for the new playroom including a storage bench and bookcases. The nursery is still a giant question mark but I have begun the epic search for an environmentally friendly crib and will of course keep you all posted on my progress!

I think this is the first time we’ve done anything in this house with a deadline. Though of course, the baby won’t mind if the playroom isn’t completely decorated in time for his/her May arrival (let’s face it, the baby won’t be doing much playing at that point…) But we’re hoping to have all of the new flooring down by the end of the year, then we can clear out the current office and the priority will probably be the baby’s room. I would like to get the built-ins done in the playroom to store the mass amounts of stuff that comes with a baby. The rest of the playroom will probably be evolving as we get used to this new gig we’re taking on 🙂

So that’s the overall, shortened version of what will be going on around here. Now I’m off to Pinterest to find some inspiration. Wait I’m lying… I’m off to go back to bed… 🙂

I’ve been keeping a secret from all of you. Though I have indeed been overwhelmed with work and grad school, I’ve been working on another project lately.

First! Some inspiration pictures…

This one has great rolls around the elbows and we personally like the partial boo-boo lip for added effect.

We like this one because of the humorous smile and chubby little cheeks. The soaking wet ‘do makes it even more adorable.

But! You’ll have to wait until May to see our final reveal. For now our project is coming along wonderfully and is incredibly cute (complete with mini chicken leg and foot!!)

Now I can finally talk about all of the big plans we have for the house in the next 6 months! Stay tuned, it’s going to be a fun ride 🙂