Introducing.....White Kottage Bows

I have been extra busy lately getting ready for Miss Olivia.  One huge change (in addition to having a baby around) is that I will official be a stay-at-home mom this fall instead of a 3rd grade teacher.  I'm really, really excited to stay at home with my baby girl, but also a tad bit worried that I might get...I dare say...bored.  Yes, I know I'll be taking care of a newborn, but I just worry that I'll be itching for something to do.  SO, I decided to try my hand at making some cute bows.  I figure, if nothing else comes out of this, atleast my little girl will have a bow to go with absolutely every outfit she owns.  I've always dreamed of having some kind of business called the Kottage.  I don't know where the name came from, I just know I've always thought it would make a great business name.  With this new bow-making thing I've started, I tweeked the name just a bit to White Kottage (get it? last name white?), and then tweeked it some more to White Kottage Bows.  So I now officially have an Etsy shop devoted to my bow making.  Take a look and tell your friends!!

http://www.whitekottage.etsy.com/

 

Remember, I JUST started this Etsy thing....like literally 30 minutes ago....so there aren't many bows yet, but there are many more to come, I promise!

Trash or Treasure?

We recently had big trash day here in our neighborhood. You always see "those people" who drive around and pick things out of other people's trash piles...well this time that was me. On top of the million and one things I'm doing to get ready for Olivia, I thought, a couple more projects....why not! And I think I got some pretty good stuff! First off, I absolutely cannot throw things away unless they are completely broken and unusable. So, when I see something that has nothing wrong with it (other than being ugly), I have the urge to pick it up and give some life back to it. I picked up two different projects this time

#1 Four black chairs that were in good condition, but had some very, very worn out seat cushions.
#2 Two retro lamp shades that are HUGE. But pretty cool.

Project #1

I happened to have some leftover fabric here at the house that worked great to recover the seat cushions. The ONLY thing I did to these chairs was use my fabric and recover them. Took about 30 minutes. Posted them on Craigslist, and $20 later, I'm satisfied with my big trash day find.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Project #2
There was just something about these lampshades that was calling my name. I think Michael thought I was nuts (maybe he still does). I decided to do the whole burlap thing and cover both of the lampshades. I then made one for our bedroom, and one for a floor lamp in Olivia's nursery. I love them both!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Olivia's nursery

Our room

Can't wait to see what treasures I'll find next time!

Olivia Claire's Nursery

It's finished!! I am so excited about how Olivia's nursery has turned out. When we moved in this room was very green. It has come a long way since then! The ONLY thing missing is a crib skirt, but I couldn't wait to post a few sneak peek pictures :) Now all that we need is our sweet little baby girl!

One of my favorite things about this room is the giant picture window with the white molding:

Couponing

I just wanted to share my latest grocery trip with everyone. No, I am not a crazy coupon lady (yet), but with a baby on the way we are definitely counting our pennies and every bit that I can save helps. So, I did not do a whole lot of planning for this last trip, but I managed to feel good about what I came out with. Here's the loot:

$45 total

-10 in coupons

- 5 promotional deal from Kellogs

$30

Still had to spend some $, but hey, I would have bought the items anyways and this way I still have $15 in my pocket!

Let the Countdown Begin!

Well, we are officially 1 month and 8 days away from Olivia Claire's due date....ahhh!!! I can't believe there will be another member of our family here so soon. I still don't think we know what we're getting ourselves into, but I have a feeling we'll figure it out quick! The plan when we first got pregnant was to keep a Hidden Baby Blog until we revealed the news to everyone, and then blog weekly updates from then on about my pregnancy. Needless to say, that didn't happen. BUT I really did have good intentions and did do a couple of blogs before we revealed the news to everyone. In saying that, the few Hidden Baby Blogs that I actually did have now been revealed! Enjoy :)

Here are some updates on what has happened over the past couple of months:

- On February 11th we found out that we are having a GIRL!!

- We decided to name our little girl Olivia Claire. Olivia is a name that we both have loved for a while. The inspiration for Claire came from my grandmother who passed away right before I was born. Her name was Clara.

-We now have a nursery in our house! It's been so much fun preparing a sweet girls room for Olivia. That will be a different post complete with pictures :)

-I completed my 2nd year of teaching on May 24th. I'm happy and sad to say that I won't be going back next year, but staying home to take care of our sweet baby. Although I'm sad to not be teaching, it was an easy decision :)

-Michael is still working for Futurity First Insurance. (Life Insurance, Annuities 401k rollovers, Medicare, etc.) If you need ANYTHING at all, give him a call! If he can't help you he'll find someone great who can :)

There's lots more, but those are some of the major things that have been going on. Since I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom, I'm going to try my best to be a better blogger. The nursery is SO close to being finished, so a blog complete with pictures will follow soon!