To Do: Be Happy

Panic is a default emotion for me.

It should be no surprise, then, that when Mister Mister confronted me on Sunday night about the fact that lately, I have seemed distant, stressed out, and annoyed… I panicked.

First I panicked about the fact that he believes I have been all these things. Then I panicked because I couldn’t properly communicate that I wasn’t these things. Then I panicked because the baby is coming in six-and-a-half months and I still haven’t painted our bedroom — or the baby’s bedroom, for that matter.

I don’t know how to turn off the anxiety bubble. I’ve tried, I promise. Meditation, deep breathing, refocusing, prayer, journaling, blah blah blah. And still, I default to “Danger.”

After a 20-minute conversation, I finally felt secure with our home to-do list.

Then I went online the next day and saw a different to-do list, and started freaking out that we haven’t yet chosen a pediatrician or day care provider.

Panic.

Stress.

Anxiety.

I’d like to cope better with these kinda of things — particularly with a panic, stress, anxiety-inducing bundle on the way.

Any ideas?

The opposite of panic.

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Nursery Decor: Baby Girl’s Wonderland

Last night, Mister Mister and I struggled to come up with a theme for a baby girl’s nursery. Among such silly suggestions as “Western” and “’80s Valley Girl,” I kept coming up with Alice in Wonderland. Which, honestly, I’ve been coming up with for a few months now.

I love the vintage-style baby girl nurseries I’ve been stumbling on, and while Alice in Wonderland maybe isn’t the most sweet-dream-inducing story out there, it does offer a ton of vintage decor elements and fun ways to play around with a little bambina’s room.

 

The fun part about a nursery like this is all the additional DIY options you could come up with. For instance, you could scrounge up some Alice in Wonderland paper dolls and use some pretty ribbon and an embroidery hoop for a crib mobile. Or find a nice vintage copy (not too pricey) and frame the color illustration plates for artwork on the cheap. The elements above, like vintage bottles and keys, are easily sourced at flea markets and estate sales (I have quite a few bottles myself laying around from our vintage-modern wedding last year) and the pillows are easily DIY-able with some basic fabric, stuffing, and felt.

I love how whimsical this could be — you could go for more vibrant colors and play up the kookiness of the story, or stick with pastels. You could even do a black-and-red thing for some real pop.

What do you think of an Alice in Wonderland-themed room for a little girl?

Paint color: Benjamin Moore Minty Green (2042-70)

Clockwise from top left:

1. Alice in Wonderland illustrated ABC print, Etsy, $4.01

2. Lewis Carroll quote print, Etsy, $15

3. White Rabbit art print, Etsy, $20

4. Vintage Alice in Wonderland wooden blocks, Etsy, $55

5. Ung Drill mirror, IKEA, $39.99

6. Buckingham glider, Little Castle

7. Gulliver crib, IKEA, $129

8. Handmade Alexa modern damask wool rug, Overstock, $208.99

9. Teapot lamp, Etsy, $85

10. Framed skeleton keys, Bella Home Fashions, $29.90

11. Alice and Rabbit in Wonderland pillow covers set, Etsy, $53

12. White rabbit plush toy, Toys R Us, $21.99

13. French Provincial Dresser, eBay

14. “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” books, image by Khali Nouveau

15. Apothecary bottles, Etsy, $32 (set of 7)

16. Pocket-watch-style wall clock, Amazon, $82.99

Nursery Decor: A Home Run Boy’s Nursery

We could find out as early as 16 weeks — 2 weeks from tomorrow — whether this baby is a boy or a girl (with confirmation in later ultrasounds). I’m really itching to find out because there’s the whole “I really want to start buying clothes for this critter and decorating a nursery” thing going on. Too early for nesting, but not for insanity.

To quell my impatience, I’ve been taking it upon myself to decorate various types of nurseries in my head. First and foremost, however, to my husband is the Yankees-themed nursery that is imminent should the baby turn out to be of the male persuasion.

I’m not a big fan (har, har) of overly babyish decor, since I like it to be able to last well into their toddler-and-tween years, so bears playing baseball is kind of out. I was able to find lots of fun goodies, however, to satisfy my decorating craving and my husband’s Bronx Bomber crib cravings.

Whatever we end up going with, it will have the same basic bones: a white IKEA Gulliver crib, white IKEA Expedit bookcases framing a wall with windows for a built-in illusion, some sort of (ideally, upholstered) glider, a white IKEA picture ledges on our short wall for holding books and various other knick knacks, and a Craigslist dresser for a changing table.

Clockwise from top left:

1. New York Baseball Alphabet print (unframed), Etsy, $45

2. Baseball hitter vinyl wall decal sticker, Etsy, $25

3. Take Me Out to the Ballgame print, Etsy, $12

4. Brett Baseball Shade and Batter Up Base, Pottery Barn Kids, $35 (shade) and $79 (base)

5. Baseball Bat Metal Wall Hook, DCG Stores, $44.90

6. New York Yankees Art-Glass Light Switch Plate Cover, Bowl-Bound, $11.95

7. Sateen Crib Sheet 2 Pack – Baseball/Stripe, Babies R Us, $19.99

8. 2×2 Expedit Shelving Unit, IKEA, $39.99

9. Strapping Cube Bin, Land of Nod, $10.99

10. Timaran Stripe Navy/White Indoor/Outdoor Rug, Dash & Albert, $298 (6×9)

11. Gulliver Crib, IKEA $129

12. Capri Glider, Little Castle

13. Monogrammed Baseball Pillow, The Frog and the Princess, $79

14. Vintage midcentury dresser, Craigslist

15. NoJo Play Ball changing pad cover, Babies R Us, $17.99

16. Mickey Mantle bobble head, Grey Flannel Auctions

17. Roger Clemens bobble head, eBay, $6.99

18. Derek Jeter bobble head, Grandstand Sports & Memorabilia, $29.99

19. Paul O’Neill bobble head, Shore Collectibles, $49.95

A Method to my Laziness

I suck.

Seriously, I have all these amazing intentions and just can’t manage to make them happen. Despite my most fervent platitudes for forgiveness and endless promises for regular blogging, I seem to fall short every single time.

The issue, you see, is pure laziness. Brought on by this.

Yeah, that’s right. I’ve got a human growing inside of me, so I haven’t had much energy to do any of the millions of projects I’d like to get done, much less take photos of them and blog about them. A sorry excuse, I know.

And while I’d love for our house to currently look like this…

West Elm

My Paradissi

My Design Chic

…instead, it looks like this.

via Flickr

OK, maybe not that bad (there are no traffic cones). But I haven’t cleaned the floors in a week so they’re nice and hairy, along with the couch. All of my pre-pregnancy clothes are currently residing in a Martha Stewart-approved cardboard box in our closet, and the awesome shades I bought for our two smaller bedrooms are still sitting in the boxes. Meanwhile, I’ve got a list a mile long that goes like this:

• Paint the 3 bedrooms and bathroom
• Hire somebody to paint the family room
• Hang said shades
• Buy a proper bed so that your boxspring is no longer resting directly on the floor like a college student
• Find some dining room chairs that work with your awesome dining room table
• Find proper nightstands instead of one nightstand and a tall dresser
• Finish hanging art
• Finish cleaning out office
• Start putting together baby’s room
• Buy a new gas grill, backyard furniture, and front porch furniture
• Get dryer vent installed in garage
• Get landscape designer out to help us with our pathetic front yard
• Start tearing up weird stuff in the back yard and planting real stuff
• Get end table and lamp for family room and finish decorating in there

And then on top of that are all the fantastical ideas floating around like, put a French door between the family room and the kitchen and leading out into the back yard from the family room. Or hang a hammock. You know, whatever.

Meanwhile, I can barely manage to keep our house in a “surprise drop-in visitor” state.

A friend told me to do it, do it all, before the baby comes, because we will never have another moment to do anything ever again and will be staring at that cardboard box of clothes and the four paint swatches on our bedroom wall for the next 15 years. But seeing as how the baby will be here in, oh, 5.5 months… I’d say we have a lot of work to do.

So don’t give up on me! Cut me some slack. I’m lazy, and currently cooking up a human being.