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!

The last time you saw the playroom, it was looking like this…

This weekend, we finally got around to taking down the floating shelves.  While we loved them for an office, we didn’t think they were too practical for a playroom.  So down they went; they’ll probably reappear somewhere else in the house.  We also took down the ceiling fan which will end up in the new office upstairs.

The bracket holes were spackled and sanded once and need to be sanded again. We originally painted around the shelves, so we now have a slightly raised edging.  We’ll have to spackle and sand, and then spackle and sand a couple times to get everything flush again.

I apologize in advance for all of these pictures I took at night (like an hour ago).  Our camera settings were all wacky from the last time we used it and I couldn’t get the lighting to look right at night. Oops.

So what did we replace the ceiling fan with?  Well, a long time ago we picked up a light at Ikea. We had always knew we wanted to use it in the playroom, but never got around to installing it…until now!

(via Ikea)

We wanted something fun in the playroom, but nothing that screamed childish.  We found Ikea’s Fillsta, a playful hanging light for $29.99.  It was simple, had some shape and was cheap.  Perfect.

But much like any Ikea product, the install resulted in some head scratching.  And Mike dropping the f-bomb just a handful of times.  For anyone landing on our lil blog scratching their own heads trying to get the Ikea Fillsta installed, here’s the trick: cut the extra slack from the hanging cord to the length you need.

The dome base is actually held in place by tension in the cord.  So the tighter the cord inside the base, the tighter it will fit against the ceiling.  With most other light fixtures, these components typically slide or screw into place.  Nope, not with the Fillsta.  Mike originally rolled up the extra cord and stuffed it into the base.  Then he tried a bunch of zip-ties.  Finally after a couple milkshakes and a solid nap, Mike decided to just cut the cord down to the size we required.  Sure enough, it worked.  Now we just have to touch up the paint around it (though I love the white light against the dark ceiling!)

Here is the Fillsta with the light off.

And here is with the light on. Glowing! I love the little bit of whimsy it adds to the room, which the direction I’m sort of going in here. Clean and modern, yet fun! We’ll have to get a better room shot once we finish some other items in the room. What other items you ask?

These roman shades. We were originally going to dye them when the room was an office. We were even going to dye them when we switched it over to the playroom. But after doing some Googling, we’re not quite sure how to get the color we really want (so, um, anyone have any experience dying blinds? Using fabric spray paint?).  We’re thinking we just might replace them with the white version.  Any suggestions?

Easton loves books. I know, he’s only 8 months old, but he will sit with a book and ever so carefully turn the pages and analyze the pictures.

Over the weekend I was hanging out in the playroom with Easton (where I now live), and I realized that the Expedit we have in there isn’t great for his books.

He has to reach in too deep…

In order to chuck all of his books on the floor…

So I got to thinking that maybe we should have a dedicated book area. I knew I had seen so many children’s books displayed adorably on Pinterest, so why not investigate a little, huh?

Here are some options I came across:

(via Domestic Simplicity)

Inexpensive Ikea spice racks. Could be painted fun colors, plus they’re only $4 each!

(via Apartment Therapy)

Fabric book slings, so many fun possibilities.

(via Sunshine on the Inside)

Rain gutters for bookshelves? So creative.

(via Brooklyn Limestone)

Ikea Ribba picture ledges.

And perhaps my favorite, the DIYed numbered ones.

(via The Sweet Survival)

I was thinking of maybe building our own and adding a little ombre effect? Maybe 3 shelves in varying shades of yellow… or green… or orange! Maybe numbered? Hmmm…

I have so many post ideas floating around in my head, but none of them feel complete or inspired enough to post about. I figure if I empty my head, I can start with a clean slate. Ready?

We’ll start with my new year’s resolution: to streamline. Simplify everything. Simplify post writing, organize our ENTIRE house, finish existing projects before starting new ones. Be more efficient with my routine at night immediately after putting Easton down for bed so that I can get more things done. I started using my planner again to write out what I want to do each month/week/day so that I can plan ahead. It has taken me a long time to get into a routine with the logistics of working, as far as packing what I need for the day, what time to wake up, when to shower (night!) etc. and I think I have finally simplified it enough that it works. Now I would just like to do that with the rest of my life.

(this is my Erin Condren planner from last year, yes half of those goals are still not done, sigh)

That being said, now that Easton is a little older and finally takes long naps (it took him until he was 6 months to take a single nap longer than an hour), I feel like we have a new sense of freedom. He also is much easier to bring places and is happy being out and about. We’re settling back into what feels like normalcy and there is SO MUCH I want to do. Too much and I need to control myself.

I’ve decided not to make a set list of goals for the year. Of course now that Easton naps and is in bed at 7pm I’m all like “I’m going to work out! Do my hair and makeup every morning! Paint a room a month!”, I have to remember to keep it simple. A to-do list turns into a never ending list that becomes overwhelming. I’ll end up staying up too late for a week doing too much, my immune system will be shot, I’ll get sick, I won’t be able to blog, then when I can I’ll forget what I want to say, then my blog will be down (okay, we switched servers so that shouldn’t happen anymore), then I’ll miss posts and get depressed that I never finished x, y or z. My mind is going constantly with house ideas, which is a good thing, but I need to reign them in. At least once a day, I start a sentence with “you know what I was thinking?…” which Mike translates as, “you know what we’re going to be buying/making/doing?” Streamline Rebecca, streamline.

While it’s good to plan ahead, keep goals and of course feel inspired, I’m keeping my goals as realistic as possible.. I’m thinking less is more right now. I’ve already started to cut back on buying things for new projects. We have a ton of things waiting to be hung, painted and installed, so I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. I’m trying to focus on one thing each weekend and actually get it done. Like, take down the shelves in the playroom and not go to Ikea for those frames I really want. I will not go to Ikea this weekend, I will not go to Ikea this weekend…

(Though I haven’t been there in 6 months and a piece of me is dying, this was my last visit with 2 month old Easton…)

So as much as I wanted to write a post about how our big project this year will be x, I don’t know what that will be. I’m taking it one week at a time and trying to make what we have now work more efficiently. Whether that’s organizing our closet, building playroom storage, hanging art we already have to free up a closet, I’m not sure. I can’t pretend to be a perfect blogger with a set blogging schedule and a project line up. I’m getting there, but it has been a slow and unpredictable process.The harder I try, the more I get away from why I started this. So clean slate here, deal?

Now off to take down those damn shelves. Not revolutionary, not Pinterest worthy, but needs to be done to move on…