An open letter to my d-bag neighbor.

Dear Owner of the muffler-less, black, souped up coupe that once again, woke my baby up from a rare episode of peaceful slumber:

I'm going to murder you in your sleep.

Kidding.

Sort of.

Look dude, I get it, you live in a townhouse subdivision of the burbs, you're winding your way through community college while playing bass in a way below average Death Cab for Cutie cover band & meeting your townie friends for Presidente Margaritas at the local Chilis. Long story short, life isn't quite as kick ass as you thought it would be when you were 16. I also totally understand the transformative powers of seeing "The Fast & The Furious" about 900 times. But seriously? If you insist on gunning your shitty little engine every time you hop in the car and tearing down the street with your not-quite-street-legal absentee muffler waking the dead, you will leave me with no choice but to slather you in Carne Asada and let this little fella have his way with you:



In case you don't know, that is what I affectionately refer to as a "Shartweilerbull". Translation? That is a Shar Pei/Rottweiler/Pit Bull mix named Jakers. Up until this point I've tried to quell Jake's urge to eat human flesh but you might just make me change my mind.

So unless you are actually Paul Walker, and are using this suburban douchebag persona as a cover for your infiltration of an elaborate drug smuggling/gun running/human trafficking ring I ask you one final time to shut the f*** up. Otherwise, you have a date with destiny, and destiny's name is Jake.

OK OK, so I may not actually let Jake eat your face off, but I probably will let him pee on your car.

Oh, and by the way? That car makes me think you have a tiny penis. Just some constructive criticism.

XOXO,

A day in the life.

6:00 AM: Wake up. Barf/Fart/Burp/Poop or all three. Yell at mom for some boob. Get said boob. Barf/Fart/Burp/Poop again. Have mom change diaper & put me in the first outfit of the day.

6:00-7:00 AM: Yell & flail about happily while daddy makes funny faces. Contemplate pooping again. Look in that reflective thingy and wonder who that cool baby is and why there are 2 mommas. This world is blowin' my mind.

7:00 AM: Kiss mommy & daddy goodbye. Try to barf on them so they remember me all day. Flail about happily in grandma's arms. Look generally adorable.

8:00: AM: Get in swing. Stare at the lambs that keep moving in a circle above me. Wonder where they are trying to go and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

10:00 AM: What the hell happened? Why am I still swinging and WHY ISN'T THERE A NIPPLE IN MY MOUTH.

11:15 AM: Phew. Portable nipple put in my mouth. Crisis averted.

11:30 AM: Barf/Fart/Burp/Poop, preferably all over myself. Enter outfit #2.

12:00 PM: Lay down on floor with grandma and try to roll over. Almost got it...success! Wait, how did I get on my back? I think I'll fart and barf again until it all makes sense. Cue outfit number 3.

12:30 PM: Emergency: Grandma has pinned my arms down and put me in a straight jacket. I'm in a weird cage like contraption and a giant sheep is making whale sounds above my head and I totally don't get it and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

2:00 PM: How do they keep tricking me into sleeping? Time to yell. NEED MORE BOOB. Mom's not here so how does grandma keep giving me her milk? I'll ask the lambs.

4:00 PM: At grandma's house. She keeps bringing me over here and putting me in another cage like thing with a giraffe that makes chirping sounds and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

5:00 PM: NARDS! They tricked me again. I'll show them...blowout+spitup=Sadie's revenge. I was getting sick of that outfit anyway.

6:00 PM: Doorbell. I'll get it. Wait, I can't walk. In walks....MOMMY & DADDY! YAY! I'm so excited I can't decide whether to laugh or cry! How about a little of both? Wait, what the...they're strapping me down again? This time in a chair? Now we are in the giant bouncy seat that moves and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

6:30 PM: They're sneaky, I'll give them that.

7:00 PM: Why I am I naked? I'm naked and being put in this warm, soapy bowl that feels AWESOME. So awesome I think I'll pee in it. There is a whale that spits water at me and we talk a little bit. I tell him about my day and how weird it was. He totally gets me. Good listener.

7:20 PM: Wait...this feels good, why are they taking me out? I think I'll voice my displeasure. No, I don't want to put a diaper on! LET ME BE FREE WOMAN. Hear comes the jammies. I scream a bit for good measure but truthfully, I kind of like jammies. They keep my feet so warm.

7:30 PM: No no, not the baby straight jacket! I'll be good, I swear! I'm so mad, can't you tell by all the YELLING AND SCREAMING??? Why won't you help me dude? You just keep walking and shushing and rocking me and it's getting darker and maybe this isn't so bad and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Tricky bastards. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

XOXO,

Sadie

Who says blue is only for boys?

Here is the long overdue post about Sadie's nursery. I knew right away I wanted to do a blue/red nursery, regardless of the baby's gender. I think my obsession with this color combo stems from my obsession with "The Wizard of Oz", since Dorothy is wearing kick ass ruby slippers with a cornflower blue gingham dress. The room took a decidedly girly turn though, with lots of vintage touches and feminine fabrics. I absolutely adore this room...it's pretty and feminine without the usual pink/purple suspects which is nice. I've caught both Mr. Val and Jake just sitting in this room a few times, which is just about the cutest thing ever. So, without further ado, I give you "Casa de Sadie":





















Although Mr. Val and I never really sat down with a "budget" for the nursery, we actually wound up doing it all for a pretty reasonable amount of money. Mr. Val pretty much lets me do/have whatever I want, so I wanted to try to be somewhat restrained. I must preface that we saved a significant amount of money on the crib set up, since my father & stepmother bought it & the mattress and my husband's mother & stepfather bought our linens. So here are the details:

Paint: Valspar "Simply Seafoam" & supplies - $50
Rug: Overstock.com - $165
Glider: used/gift - FREE
Crib: Graco Lauren (gift) - FREE
Crib/Glider Fabrics: Waverly "Seafarer Stripe" in Crimson & "Mini Muse" in Sorbet (gifts) - FREE
Throw pillows for crib/glider: Etsy $15/$20/$15
Vinyl Wall Decal: Etsy - $50
Curtain Rod: Ikea - $10
Red Ticking Stripe Curtains: Amazon - $40
French Market poster: already had - FREE
Strawberry Photograph: Etsy - $25
Frames for wall art: $8-10 at Hobby Lobby
Skeleton Keys: Pottery Barn - $30 for set
Ribbon: JoAnn's - $1
Dresser: Craigslist - $65
Paint/supplies to refinish dresser: $30 at Home Depot
Hardware for dresser: $20 at Hobby Lobby
Wall shelves: Ikea - $30
Bookshelves: Craigslist - $85 for 3
Lamps: Target - $15-30
Changing pad/tray: Land of Nod (we are still waiting for the tray) $129
Changing pad cover: Caden Lane - $16 (sale)

So, I don't have the patience to add that all up, but I know we did a pretty kick ass job for the money. Using some creativity, elbow grease, re-purposing objects we already owned and accepting hand-me-downs & gifts enabled us to create this beautiful room. Now the only thing missing is our beautiful baby girl!

XOXO,

Remember when I said I wouldn't turn into an annoying pregnant blogger?

Yeah well, I lied. In the words of the immortal Bobby Brown, "It's my prerogative. I can do what I wanna do."

Just wanted to tease that I'll be putting up some nursery pics soon! As of now, it's still a little sparse in there, but we have painted & put the crib in so babyVal won't have to sleep in a dresser drawer. (Which I maintain is charmingly "retro hobo")

My ridiculously sweet in-laws snuck in while we were away and put the glider in with the newly upholstered cushions and let me just say, I have excellent taste in fabric. It looks so beautiful and now all I can think of is getting my hands on the rest of the custom linens so we can bang this nursery out!

XOXO,

Are you there followers? It's me, Valentine.

I'm just going to skip the apologies for being a crappy blogger. We all know it, so let's just move on.

Mr. Val and I are finally settled into our new place, so now we can at long last put together the nursery for our sweet baby girl! I'm not a super traditional girl, so a pink nursery was never going to happen. Instead I'm going with a palette of aquas/reds/whites for a pretty vintage look without anything overtly girly. Below are the fabrics & paint that we are using:



The color in the middle is the paint that will be up on the walls. The other two squares are the fabrics we are using. Since I couldn't find any baby linens that appealed to me, I'm having them custom made with these. The aqua scroll will be used on the crib skirt and glider while the red stripe will be used on the crib bumper and accent piping. I'll likely round out the bedding with some solid white-ish sheets and a baby blanket knitted by my Grandma.

As usual, our amazing families have really come through for us and provided the following:

-Glider (is from my mother in law): it's a lovely white glider that just needed a new cushion and some paint touch ups. It will be a perfect place to rock my daughter to sleep.

-Crib & Mattress: my father & step-mother bought our crib & mattress. We decided to go with the Lauren Graco in white. Since there are going to be so many fabrics in this room, I really liked the clean lines of the Lauren. I actually looked at more expensive cribs from PBK & Land of Nod but always came back to this one.



We decided that we didn't want a changing table, since it's a temporary piece of furniture. We'll be doing a long dresser with a changing top instead. I really like this better because long after we are done changing diapers, we will still have use for the dresser. I'm very excited about the dresser actually. We found a beautiful 6-drawer dresser on Craigslist for a steal. Trouble is, it's yellow. It's actually no problem, as I've been wanting to try my hand at a furniture project for a while. Mr. Val and I are going to strip and sand it and paint it white. I'll do some mild distressing to vintage it up a bit and change out the hardware with some glass knobs I've been eyeing at Anthropologie. I'm pretty excited to do this and will definitely post pics & the outcome!

I'm left now with little details to figure out, curtains, rugs, etc. I have some ideas but will leave those a surprise for the big reveal! I will reveal one last detail, the baby blocks that were made for me by the AMAZING jCam. They tie in all the colors/themes I wanted in the room and they reveal our babies name, so without further ado:



So now you know. BabyValentine has a name, Sadie Joan and will henceforth be referred to as such. Well, that and Sadiebug. And Sadie Bear. And Evander Holyfield since she's doing her best impersonation of him in my womb at the moment.

Tell me your thoughts Internet friends, you like?

Well this is going to be fun.

I have found a new online obsession, http://www.polyvore.com/, where you can create idea boards for anything, clothes, events or your home. They have a huge database of items already loaded or you can use the clip function to add your own. Since my bedroom is in dire need of a makeover, here is my first pass at an idea board:

I'm striving for a mix of old/new as well as modern and traditional. I especially love the yellow & grey color combo. What are your thoughts? Anything you'd add? Or take away?