exit, pursued by bear

rock on.

Still on the hunt for something a little more upholstered and glider-y, which will wind up in either our living room or bedroom so I don't feel separated from the rest of the house - but for now, this guy will soon be making an appearance in the nursery:

{"Vinnie White Cradle Chair" from Overstock.com, $166.99}

The size and scale are perfect for the dimensions of the room - and I have to say, it's going to look great: I was very much swayed by the design/decor factor.

For a while now, I've read mixed reviews on the feasibility of nursing in these Eames-style chairs - some people swear they're ideal, others say they just don't work - but at the very least we needed some seating in the nursery and I think this will work perfectly.

more faux bois ...

{Martha Stewart Living Layered Faux Bois Sequoia 4 Ft. x 6 Ft. Wool Area Rug - Home Depot, $137}

Curious about the actual colors of this rug - part of Martha Stewart's line for Home Depot. May need to go check and see if this is in stores yet. But I'm hoping this will work for the nursery!

Especially with the free shipping from Home Depot, this may actually work out to be cheaper than going the Flor route, which would be great - since that option is coming out to be more expensive than I anticipated. 

hedgehog clock.

Why yes, yes this is just about the cutest thing you ever did see:

{"Modern Baby Clock - Hedgehog" from etsy seller decoylab}

This lasted for all of about two seconds on my registry before I just caved and bought it myself. I was nervous that it would sell out on etsy. I cannot get over the cuteness.

Think it will go perfectly with the mobile we picked out:

{"Tree Friends Mobile" from Petit Collage}

Keep Calm and ...

... Love Frenchies!

{"Keep Calm and Love Frenchies archival print" from etsy seller TheLobsterPot}

Just another variation on the now ubiquitous "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters, but this one is pretty fabulous. And even more special because my darling husband surprised me with it for Valentine's Day - I had never even seen this print before! He showered me with lots of sweet Valentine gifts, but this one might just be my favorite (hope you don't mind, honey!).

We've decided to frame it and put it in the nursery, hopefully serving as a lovely little reminder to Baby Bean :o)

Pom Pom.

How fabulous are these pillow covers? (And organic, too!)

{Pom Pom Organic Pillow Cover from PB Teen, $29 (pillow insert not included)}

PB Teen often has great accessories like this - even snazzy bedding options at reasonable prices. Always worth a look. 

Think this might make a great lumbar pillow for the glider in the nursery. That is, if I had a glider in the nursery or could decide if a glider will fit in the nursery, let alone choose a glider for the nursery ... ::sigh::

abc's

Loving this poster:

{"Alphabet Recycled Collage Poster Nature Theme" from etsy seller artandphilanthropy, $30}

I may run out of wall space before I run out of darling posters, paintings and prints for the nursery!

another nursery purchase.

After we shopped the heck out of IKEA, we picked this up at the Land of Nod outlet while we were in the neighborhood (NB: there's also a HUGE Crate and Barrel outlet next door, but I was just too sick to even contemplate it):

{"I've Got the Whole World in My Room" canvas}

We saved a bunch getting it from the outlet, and it only has the tiniest of blemishes - just a very small dent in the canvas that's only noticeable up close.

I'm excited to be able to use this to tell baby Bean all about living in New York and London and other travels to Paris, Edinburgh and beyond :o)

This.

... changed my life:

{amy coe Preggle Pillow - Babies R' Us}

And no, that is not a picture of me, in case you were wondering if I was in the habit of staging product photos for my own personal amusement.

This is a preggle. Apparently, it's a smaller version of the snoogle, which just seems unnecessarily enormous to me, especially if, like me, you're only 5'3". 

I resisted getting one of these pregnancy-type pillows for a long time - mainly because a) I was afraid it would take up like 80% of the bed, b) I didn't want to spend gobs of money on something that's basically a glorified body pillow, c) they're ugly and d) I didn't want to own something called a "snoogle" - I wanted to be able to preserve some dignity during my pregnancy.

But, I have the unfortunate habit of sleeping on my stomach - which, is obviously not ideal in pregnancy. I've been good about not worrying obsessively about various pregnancy and baby-related things, but I have been known to panic in the middle of the night when I find myself lying on my stomach - and freak out that I'm smushing the baby. I am also able to convince myself, when I'm half-asleep, that I am actually lying on my side, when in reality - I'm clearly laying on my stomach. I've been trying to prop myself up with other pillows, so I can lay properly on my side - but it hasn't been very comfortable.

On Saturday, Jeremy and I did a quick tour of Babies R' Us, to review what we've registered for, and I finally just broke down and bought this stupid thing. I fully admit to buying the amy coe version from BRU because it was slightly less offensive than the other options that were available at Target and other places.

The preggle is perfect. However, I refuse to call it "preggle," because it doesn't quite roll off the tongue like "snoogle," so if you ever hear me waxing philosophic about the joys of my snoogle, know that I'm actually talking about its smaller cousin, the preggle.

The size is great. It's not too long for me and it doesn't take up too much room in the bed - but it is long enough that I can throw my leg up over it, if I so choose. Rolled up, it's great for leaning up against when sitting up in bed. You can use the strap to form it into a candy cane shape (slip your arm through the hole and sort of hug it to your body), or you can unstrap it and conform it to your shape in whatever way you see fit. I'm actually able to sleep only with this and no other pillows, which ends up saving room in the bed.

I made Jeremy save the diagrams from the packaging, because it's sort of like pillow origami, with all the different sleeping options.

I took an awesome nap with it on Sunday and I've had two great full nights of rest. It's kept me sleeping properly (and comfortably) on my side - so no more worrying about smushing the baby in the middle of the night, since I don't roll over onto my stomach.

Two very well-rested thumbs up.

on cribs, part II.

If my last post was about the "dream" crib, this post is about our reality crib. That sounds rather bleak, doesn't it? I don't mean it to sound that way -- I'm actually rather excited about this little crib of ours. After much thought and discussion, we decided to go for Ikea's fabulously priced Gulliver crib:

It might not look like much to you, but I really love the simplicity of it. Not to mention the size: 53 1/2" x 29 1/2" x 32 5/8". Our nursery is 9' x 9' - I think it's the perfect size, but it doesn't leave us a lot of extra space, so we need to conserve where we can - and a crib with a smaller footprint is ideal. Oh, and did I mention the price? $99.99. Plus two tanks of gas to drive up to the Chicago suburbs and a hotel room, but we bought other things to help offset those costs, LOL ;o)

We also picked up the Noga under-the-crib storage box - at $49.99, I think it was a bit of a rip-off, but oh well. Oh, and also the Noga teething rail.

Another nursery purchase this weekend? The lovely 3-drawer Hemnes dresser:

We had an existing Ikea dresser that I was originally going to re-purpose for our combo storage and changing table, but the top was a tad narrow -- only room for the changing pad and not much else. This has more room everywhere - the drawers are bigger, the top is bigger. PLUS right before we left, I got an e-mail that Ikea had lowered the price on this dresser, so we only paid $149. Score.

I'll fancy the dresser up with some fun knobs, just as soon as I pick some out.

Jeremy and I were both FULL of a cold - but I had booked a nonrefundable hotel room for Friday night, so I was DETERMINED that we were going to make it up to Chicago. We dragged ourselves through Ikea Saturday morning - I'm not sure how we made it - I looked terrible, almost to the point of embarrassment.

Let this be a lesson to you: never book a nonrefundable hotel room. Especially if the price difference between the refundable one and the nonrefundable one is like $9. Fail.

on cribs.

But mostly, on cribs that I probably can't afford:

{White Sparrow Crib from Oeuf}

Since this crib will most likely not be making an appearance in Baby Bean's nursery, I thought it might as well make an appearance on my blog!