Our Modern Reading Nook - Mini Living Room Tour

One of the things I was most excited about moving into this condo was being able to decorate it and make the space our own. I've been obsessed with home decor since slightly before Josh and I got married and I was trying to find solutions to help make the hideous yellow basement we were going to be living in for the foreseeable future a little less hideous and more warm and functional. Of course, the basement situation didn't work out well at all, and once we started thinking about bringing a baby into the space, we had to think about getting our own place sooner than we'd intended. Anyway. We found our little condo and fell in love. And since we've moved in, I've been obsessed with making it into the perfect space for the least amount of money, which means lots of thrift shopping, IKEA shopping, and DIYs.




This little corner of our living room is a current favorite space. Since we moved in, I'd struggled with what to do with the blank wall of negative space between our TV and the couch (decorating around baseboards can be tough!). I hung some pictures, but I hung them too high and in an awkward grouping that I was less than fond of. The space needed something to fill it, but I wanted it to be non-bulky and minimal. I decided we needed a chair, and I wanted a black and white theme for the pictures. I priced out some chairs that I liked on IKEA's site (as a side note, my best recommendation before going to IKEA is to figure out a list using their site, otherwise you'll likely end up overspending and you probably won't come home with exactly what you wanted. And their site has a list-making tool that also checks availability and calculates price.), but then before we went to IKEA, we wound up going to Goodwill, where we found a vintage barrel chair for $10, and we snapped it up.

I sewed a little pillow to modernize the chair and tie in the black and white, then pulled over a lamp that I'd never been able to find the perfect place for.



I then began work on my little gallery wall. I was sent this beautiful New Orleans map print from Modern Map Art to review, and I knew I wanted that to be the focus of the mini gallery. I had the typographical quote print already (from here), I cut the arrow print out of a book of typography that I found, and the architectural print is a photo I took at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. I framed them all in plain, black frames to kind of tie them together (mostly from IKEA). And this time, to make sure they were all hung at a good height, I had my husband hold them up for me.



I am so happy with how this little space came together. I think it really ties the whole living room together, and also creates a nice little reading/working nook. I'm also in love with this New Orleans map. It's modern and graphic and cool, but it's also really meaningful to Josh and me, since we honeymooned in New Orleans and absolutely fell in love with the city. Every time I look at the map, it makes me think of our honeymoon, and how badly I want to back and cram my face full of beignets. I think these prints are a fun conversation piece as well...and Josh and I will honestly take any excuse to talk about how much we love New Orleans. Definitely check out Modern Map Art if you're looking for something like this!

Adelaide's Eight-Month Update

I can't believe that we already have an eight-month-old on our hands. I mean, only four more months and she'll be a whole year old! I feel like up until the last couple months, time really seemed to be dragging on, but then all of a sudden it sped up. Everyone I've spoken to has told me that when you have a baby, time just flies by, so you really have to try to slow down and enjoy it. But all I wanted was for time to just move faster. I struggled so much in those first few months. I had PPD, Adelaide was colicky, then just fussy, and she didn't nap. I used to count the minutes until Josh came home from work. But for some reason, from about the time she hit six months, time's sped up, and I think it's partially because there have been so many big changes during that time! Our sweet girl has grown so much!




Adelaide is totally on board with solids, which I'm so happy about! We started to introduce them at four months, but only began to be regular with them at six months. So far she's happily eaten everything that we've put in front of her, with the exception of Gerber's chicken, which honestly I don't blame her for. We recently picked up this snazzy thing called the "squeasy snacker," and it's essentially a reusable squeeze pouch that makes solids much easier, because she can basically feed herself, which she loves. We still feed her from a spoon just to make sure she gets used to it, but seriously, I'm in love with the squeasy snacker.




There have been a few big developments over the past month! For one thing, Adelaide has finally found the motivation to sit up on her own! Yay! She's found it's very nice for playing with her toys. She is also, as of last week, a beginning crawler. I say beginning because while she is moving forward, instead of her previous backwards, she's still not quite there yet.  I'm less excited about this one, because it means we have to be a bit more diligent about baby-proofing, but she is quite pleased about being able to access every little thing that catches her eye. Everything. Every. Thing. Ugh. She also just started giving high fives.




She became much more vocal in month seven, and a couple weeks ago started saying "dada," and "hey." Josh and I were cracking up the other night when I picked her up and she said, "Hey, Dada." So cute, even if I am slightly offended... She also communicates by saying "ha," and the occasional shriek.

As for her struggles, she is still not doing well at church and in big social situations. I think she just gets overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds and people. The stranger anxiety is pretty strong, though she does great when we're at home and in small group settings. So far, we get through church by taking her someplace quiet during the sermon, and we try to ease her into bigger social events.

She also has two top teeth coming in, which has been a significant source of drama the past few weeks.

But for the most part, she's our sweet, happy, independent girl. She loves playing quietly with her toys and is particularly in love with the wooden spoon I gave her, and she likes watching Sarah and Duck with mama (who also enjoys watching it...it's really cute, and it's quiet and not overstimulating!). Her daddy and I can't wait to see how she develops in the next few months.

5 Things I Love About My Husband

Happy hump day, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Like I wrote in my last post, Josh and I have never really done anything to celebrate, but I wanted to use the holiday as an excuse to pamper ourselves, which I feel like we don't do often enough since we've become parents! I wrote Josh a long, sappy card, made us a candlelit dinner, we had some admittedly terrible wine, then we cuddled and watched About Time, and ate too much dessert. It was really nice to just spend that time together, and I'm thinking we need more evenings like that in our lives.

Anyway, because it was Valentine's Day, and because I love any excuse to be cheesy, I thought I would share a post on five things I love about Josh.

01. His Understanding

This is really one of the things I love most about Josh. He always takes the time to listen to me, is never dismissive,  and doesn't jump to conclusions, but always tries to get to the root of the problem and see how he can help, even if it's just by providing snuggles. He managed to put up with my mood swings during pregnancy (I was a prickly thing in the first trimester, and often cried over nothing), and he was such a help when I was fighting the worst of my postpartum depression.

02. His Immaturity

Oh my goodness. So immature. He makes me laugh until I have tears streaming down my cheeks because he's just made the dumbest, most unfunny joke. But really, it makes going through life so much more fun when we can be immature together, especially during hard times. Like he always says, "If we can laugh and joke about it, then there's no problem."

03. How Much he Loves and Cares for Family

This was one of the things that I found really attractive about Josh when we first started dating. When I spent time with him and his family, I saw that he really cared about them, and really wanted to help out with any problems they were having (his whole family is that way, and I love that about them). And now that we have our own little family, seeing how hard he works for us, and how much he loves me and Adelaide, it just warms my heart.

04. His Love for Mean Girls

Seriously, it's just about his favorite movie, and I think it's so cute. But really, a guy who will willingly watch chick flicks with you? That's a keeper. I remember one time when he was feeling down, he made me watch Tangled with him. So. Cute.

05. His Face

It might just be me, but I think my guy is pretty dang handsome, and I love his face. The nose, the eyebrows, the little bit of green in his eyes, the beard, everything.

Ok, now it's your turn! Tell me something you love about that special someone in your life! How did you spend your Valentine's Day?