Thank you all for your encouraging words about my last post. I think that for now, I’m going to stick with the good ol’ post when I want to/have time to. No one will be pinning this as “How to build a successful blog!”, but eh, it’s what’s going to work for me. Flying by the seat of my pants vs. rigid planning. It’s how I roll.

We’re currently knee deep in planning some landscaping out back and a first birthday party. The landscaping could probably take over a 6 part series here, so I’ll have to save that story for another day. For Easton’s party, I spent the last two nights designing invitations all by myself. Yes, my Photoshop skills are growing leaps and bounds at a snail’s pace. Maybe I’ll share what I came up with once they arrive and I know that I didn’t totally mess up.

I also need to realize that sometimes short posts, posts with only words or posts with only pictures are okay. Instagram takes over a lot of those types of posts these days, but it doesn’t mean that if I feel like I only have a short thought, I can’t drop in here and share it. Today is one of those days!

I dropped in on the West Elm website to check if the Tali window panels had gone on sale yet (nope) and I somehow ended up browsing furniture. Here are my 3 random finds…

1. Graham Glider

I felt like I had to shout it from the rooftops for anyone who has asked me about our Lacey glider, which was discontinued. Guys, West Elm sells a glider!! It’s $799 so it’s pricey, but given the amount of time each day that I sit in ours, I think I would buy this in a heartbeat. Since it’s pricier, I would probably forgo the ottoman because I don’t use it all the time, but it’s nice to have if you can swing it.

2. Rustic Dining Chairs

In another post for another day, our kitchen table set is falling apart. You get what you pay for and well, it was cheap from a big box furniture store. I have been drooling over these Rustic Dining Chairs for a few weeks and even scoured Craigslist for used ones. No luck yet.

3. Wood Tiled Nightstand

This is another piece I am madly in love with and our current nightstands leave so much to be desired. Dark bedroom walls, DIY upholstered headboard and these babies? I’m going to dream about it tonight.

One of the contestants in East Coast Creative’s Creating with the Stars competition made one of these. It was amazing, but I’m not sure I’m that much of a dedicated DIYer.

That wraps up my random finds this week. Anyone else think that West Elm is killing it in the furniture department lately?

ps- West Elm didn’t pay me for this, I’m just browsing around 🙂

Yesterday, Mike spilled the beans that we were able to hunt down the glider we were unable to buy on Monday. He also spilled the beans that he was born in Staten Island. That’s another story for another day, but I guess good things come from Staten Island!

How did we get it? Well, after I was slightly depressed after returning from Babies R Us on Monday (and stopping for a hot fudge sundae to lessen the pain), we came home and googled to see if we could find the glider elsewhere. We also searched for alternatives and really could not find anything for less than $1,000. I emailed the manufacturer, Klaussner, asking if the glider was sold elsewhere. We then went to bed.

On Tuesday I woke up feeling less defeated and more determined. If our local Babies R Us claimed they just sold the floor model on Saturday, there had to be more floor models somewhere! One of the perks of living sandwiched between New York City and Philly is that there is no shortage of natural resources retail centers.

These were our options within 100 mile radius, actually there were probably even more but I cropped the image. I did what any desperate person would do and I started calling stores.

I literally called about 10 stores that told me they had sold their floor models. I was feeling defeated again, especially when one store immediately responded with “Oh no! That’s been gone for a LONG time!” Then I called one store that never even had the floor model, but the woman was extremely helpful and checked what stores were showing that they had 1 in stock in the system. First she searched NJ, which I had already called both of the stores that supposedly had it. So I asked her to check Pennsylvania. Not a single store in the whole state had one. Then I asked for NY and got a nice little list that looked something like this….

1. Staten Island
2. Brooklyn
3. Union Square
4. Long Island
5. Upstate somewhere

I figured I’d start with good ol’ Staten Island, since it’s really not that far from NJ. In fact, I grew up right across the bay from Staten Island and I thought that it was some sort of distant land. My childhood dream was to make it to the other side. I guess dreams come true?

I called and nearly died when the guy very casually told me that yeah, they had that. I asked if I could have it reserved for me and his response was, “you want the floor model??” So I told him that the chair is no longer in stock and all that is left is the floor model. He looked it up and verified that I was right, then told me that he had to talk to his manager to see if they could sell it. He called me back about 5 minutes later and told me that the manager said he could sell it. This whole part of the story confirmed what the employee from our initial visit to Babies R Us told us– that they have no idea when things are going out of stock. I guess this happened at a lot of stores and since people weren’t able to order the chair, they just took the floor model. They said they would hold it for me for 24 hours.

So, I took my insanely swollen feet across the Outerbridge on Tuesday.

Yeah those flip flops aren’t usually tight… I actually have quite narrow feet in my usual life.

When we got to Babies R Us, I explained that I was buying the glider they were holding for me and I had the same exact conversation with the manager on duty that I had on the phone. He questioned buying the floor model and I told him that it’s no longer in stock. He looked it up, confirmed that I was right, then said I could take it. But wait! It’s a floor model! Don’t I get a discount? He told me no….

So I gave puppy eyes and said that the ottoman had a spot on it (which it did), so he gave me a 20% off coupon and allowed me to use it for a furniture item. Woohooo! This was all great and better than I thought I’d be able to do, until I realized something. THE PRICES ARE HIGHER IN NY!

That 20% off exactly offset the price hike and the additional tax so that we ended up paying the full NJ price. I was annoyed for a minute, but I didn’t want to be too annoyed because I didn’t want to give up my glider. So I just swallowed my pride and paid full price for a damn floor model. Granted, it’s in perfect condition, but I didn’t even want to pay full price for a brand new glider. But that mentality is what got me in this position in the first place and after thinking I may not even get the glider at all, I’ll take it at full price!!

Thankfully, it fit in our small SUV. After driving all the way to Staten Island, I was afraid it wouldn’t fit.

When we got home, Mike was able to get it up the stairs all by himself. It’s really not a big chair, so it was nice to be able to get it in the room just 24 hours after I thought I wouldn’t even have a glider. However, when we put it in the corner that we planned on, it did not look right.

The crib dwarfs the chair.

The dresser dwarfs the chair.

So we had to rearrange everything tonight. We played with a few configurations…

Dresser on opposite wall, which I liked a lot.

Crib caddy cornered? Nah.

Crib straight with chair back facing door? Just okay.

Chair by window? LIKE!

But then that meant the dresser had to be moved back where it was originally to keep things balanced…

The crib was also re-centered on the accent wall and we were happy!

The chair is slightly in front of the closet, but there’s still plenty of room to get in and out of there.

We can also play with it more once we have the closet system in and some curtains up. This configuration leaves lots of open floor and wall space. Warning: Photo bombing cat ahead.

I want to get some sort of small storage to put next to the glider to use for books and toys, which will work now because we have a nice empty wall to use.

Mowie approves of the new location with nice view…

It’s seriously insane how small this room got with furniture in it! I always imagined that this room would be massive for a baby, but I guess not.

I feel 100x better now that we have the glider. Even if I had to travel to Staten Island and pay full price, it is still much less expensive than similar styles of gliders. And it looks great with the bedding, though I can’t show you those pictures yet…

How’s that for a happy ending? 🙂

On Tuesday morning, Rebecca made about 8 million phone calls to various Babies R Us stores.  She started out calling New Jersey stores and working outwards.  In between calls, she’d vent to me about no one having it.  And I certainly didn’t help when I kept recommending different places to call — “call Maryland!” and “call South Carolina!” and “call China!”

Yeah, I’m the dramatic one in this relationship.

After a ton of calls, Rebecca finally got a hit; we finally found the glider!   She’ll tell you a bit more about the deets at a later time, but there was a floor model available at a store in my favorite part of New York City: Staten Island.  Better known as the place where I was born.

And here she is in all of her glory.  I wish I could have taken a wider shot of the room with the glider, but Rebecca had some stuff on the crib that screamed I AM THE GENDER OF THE BABY, so I had to be selective in my shots.

Despite being the floor model, it was in top shape.  There was a smudge on the ottoman, but as soon as we got home Rebecca was able to quickly clean it up.  God bless micro-suede.

Tonight Mike and I decided to go to Babies R Us to FINALLY order the glider we’ve been putting off buying for months. Not putting off because we were lazy, but putting off because we were waiting for it to go on sale like it was when we first spotted it.

I received my registry completion coupon on Saturday and decided that I would see if I could combine that with the 15% you save when opening a store credit card. If not, I’d just use the 15% off and deal with it, because I wanted this last piece of furniture to feel like I at least had the basics if the baby were to show up tomorrow (I have a feeling my baby is getting antsy in there, just saying…) I knew that this particular chair was a quick delivery item that you could get within several days, so that is why I’ve waited so patiently for the price to drop.

Well, we got to the store and didn’t see it anywhere. We looked around for a few and decided to ask where it was. Then the news hit. DISCONTINUED. Then even more news hit…the floor model just sold on Saturday and IT WAS ON CLEARANCE. Then there was a glimmer of hope when I asked if they could check if any other stores still had floor models and 2 in the area came up as having them.

(original image via Babies R Us)

Then my last remaining hope was crushed as the store employee called both stores and they did not have the floor models anymore. Mike was prepared to travel an hour or so first thing in the morning to pick one up if they did,  since it was already after 8 at this point.

I’m beyond disappointed. I felt like I actually made some organizing progress this weekend and I just really wanted a chair to keep the momentum going. Instead, I’ve taken a million steps back. Not only do I not have a chair, but I have to find one I like, that is affordable. Then, I’ll probably have to wait the standard furniture order time of like, 12 weeks.

I’ve already accepted the bad news that I’ll probably be working up until I have the baby, but to know I won’t have all of our furniture before than either? It’s like an extra blow. I’m just hoping this is one of those moments that turns out better than it would have if the chair was actually in the store…. like say if I find an even better chair for like a fraction of the price? That would be nice, eh?

I might try calling some other Babies R Us stores tomorrow. I mean if it’s on clearance and we can have it that day? I’d be willing to travel. Cross your fingers for a happy ending to this saga 🙂

I hope you guys aren’t going to get sick of nursery posts anytime soon because with a little more than 12 weeks to go, we’re about to kick it into high gear!

From very early on in my pregnancy, I was pretty certain we weren’t going to buy a glider. I had never seen one that worked for me aesthetically and I get motion sickness in even hammocks. Combined with the hefty price tag, I didn’t think it was worth buying something we wouldn’t enjoy.

One day a few months ago, we walked into Ikea and spotted the Ekenas chair.

(via Ikea)

We were both drawn to it and were all like “oooh pretty”! where can we put it! We immediately thought that with it’s gray/brown color, it would be perfect for the nursery (we’re planning on mixing some grays and browns, but that’s for another post). At $299 it is cheaper than most gliders, so we made a mental note and moved along.

Fast forward 5ish months and we’re in Babies R Us. From across the room, I spot a chair that catches my eye. It’s not anything like the other rockers/gliders around it and I bee line to it. Mike agrees that it was a sexy looking chair. Yes, I just used sexy in a post about nursery furniture. Okay and Mike didn’t say it was sexy, those are my words. She was the Lacey Glider by Klaussner Furniture in a dark gray color.

 (via Babies R Us)

I liked the color, but I was uncertain about it in our room. I’m still uncertain about it in our room, but it goes back to the mixing browns and grays post I’ve been meaning to write for a year. It’s a very dark gray (some may call it charcoal, slate, whatever) and does come in 7 other colors, which were no where near as fresh and modern looking as this one. I also wasn’t really sold on the contrast piping that was a little off white. I think if it were a lighter gray and without the piping, I would have been sold from the beginning.

What did sell me was the gliding. This chair is slimmer than the Ikea one so it would take up less space. Plus the ottoman moves with the chair (as it does with most gliders) and this was super appealing to me. In a perfectly designed room, I would just get the chair and pair it with a round, patterned ottoman to offset the square, matchy-matchy ottoman that comes with the set. But most of the appeal of this chair was that MY BODY AND FEET MOVED AT THE SAME TIME!  I tried to think of what would be best for the baby and what we would get most use out of so we can use it for future babies. Oh and the price tag was huge as expected, $399 for the glider and $199 for the ottoman. Once again, the ottoman was a selling point so cutting out that cost wouldn’t really be worth it for me. I left the BRU scratching my head (I learned in a graduate school class that mommies refer to Babies R Us as BRU…and I learned this while I was pregnant and had no clue…I’ll promise I’ll never call it that again…)

Of course when I got home, I did a little googling. Little did I know, that glider has been used in nurseries I have seen and liked… it just never stood out to me like it did in the store.

First, I realized that it was the glider pictured in this photo on Little Baby Garvin, a blog I found from Pinterest because I like to compare my giant belly size to other people…

(via Little Baby Garvin)

She hasn’t yet revealed the full room, but I like the chair paired with pink. No, that’s not hinting anything about the baby’s gender, I said earlier that I want a chair that can be used for all of our babies and is neutral 🙂

Google also led me to this picture from Turning the Tables….

(via Turning the Tables)

How fabulous (and very nicely gender neutral) is this bedding she chose?

(via Turning the Tables)

And then there are a couple of nurseries featured on Project Nursery that have the Lacey glider and prove that it goes well in boys’ rooms as well…

(via Project Nursery)

(via Project Nursery)

I’m still thinking about it, but I think we’re leaning towards getting it. I would cover the lumbar pillow (and possibly the ottoman) with some fabric to make it less of a matchy set. I’m thinking of putting it in one of the corners against our new paneled wall, which will be painted white, so the darkness of the chair won’t be so bad. We’ve been saving our pennies and we’ve been fortunate enough that most of our big nursery expenses have been generously paid for by family members, so splurging on this one big purchase wouldn’t be too bad. And I just read on one of the other blogs that the chair does go on sale and someone got it for $279… not bad at all.

I’ve found so many amazing blogs through designing this nursery and I could seriously get lost in Google for hours. When I’m unsure of something, I Google it and almost always find a small blog with amazing style. This is why I love blogs (and Google for sending me to them)! I am also very thankful to have my own little space here to share my random ramblings and ideas… and for all of you for listening 🙂