Elephants Everywhere!

I don't know if you remember this super cute toy hamper my mom bought Santa got us for Christmas.

I cried when I saw it because I'm hormonal I thought it was so cute!

On my birthday, my mom gave me shopping money to take the place of a Christmas gift she bought me. She had bought me the same pregnancy pillow J had. So, instead of having 2 pillows, she said I could buy more maternity clothes. So, on our trip to Marshall's, J and I found these 2 SUPER CUTE gray and white elephant items. Of course, I HAD to have them.

This one will be the hamper.

This one will go in the bottom of the closet and be extra storage in there...because what nursery doesn't need more storage.

When we took them home, my mom said "Do you know how many times I debated getting those for you at Christmas?!" So, it was meant to be. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. See, you got them for me anyways, Mom!

Something else I got for my birthday was for the nursery as well. This time, it was from my in-laws. They were so sweet to send me a present in the mail. This is what I found in the package:

Side 1

Side 2

How cute are those?!?!?! And of course, they are our colors too! And I love the chevron (who doesn't right now). I had seen the door hanger at Hobby Lobby before but not the burlap elephant! Such cute and precious additions to Gumdrop's nursery.

The last elephant addition arrived today in the mail. Our personalized Thank You cards. But I'm not going to show them on here. If you're getting one, I want you to see it then. BUT, I've become obsessed with Tiny Prints since I found these cards. I promise I'll show them on here once I've sent them out....maybe after Gumdrop comes. We'll see.....

Nursery Artwork

There are a few purchases that I have made for Gumdrop already. Well, mostly for the nursery. Some of them make me so happy that I can't help but get giddy about them. The first one is the pair of little orange shoes that we bought to make our announcement photo.

I was sooo excited when I found orange sneakers. It's hard to find gender neutral shoes for a picture, much less ones in orange. If you don't know, J and I graduated from Oklahoma State University. So, we love orange and consider it the most gender neutral color. =) Every time I look at these shoes, I get so happy. We even had them hanging on our fridge with the ultrasound pictures.

Another purchase I made was a set of printables for the wall. I found them on Pinterest. Who doesn't find stuff on Pinterest these days? Anyways, I thought they were perfect because they had white & gray backgrounds, verses, elephants, and orange text. I went to Etsy to buy the prints from igivelove's Etsy shop. These were the original set.

Of course, she was have an end-of-year sale so I could buy one more item and get another free. One of my choices was this print.

I love the verse and what it means to me. J & I have been together almost 9 years, 6.5 of that being married. We wanted to start our family earlier in our marriage but decided it wouldn't be the best idea, especially since I wanted to be a SAHM (stay at home mom). I really wanted to start a family but I desperately wanted to be a SAHM. So, we decided it would be best for us to wait until we were a little older, J finished grad school, and he got a job that could support my dream. And here we are! J will graduate from PTA (physical therapy assistant) school in May and our little Gumdrop plans on arriving in May. God's timing is more perfect than I could have ever thought. The desires of my heart are being answered...5 years later. I look back on it and realize that it would have been really hard to have a baby right out of college and to be a SAHM. I don't think was ready then either; but then again, who is ever really ready to have a baby & be responsible for another person's life?

Ok, back on topic here. The last print that I got from igivelove's Etsy shop was this one.

I love the quote, the polka dots, and that it went with the others. As you can tell, they don't match each other or my colors (except for the set. So, I messaged the shop owner and asked if I could get the 2 single prints to match the "Dream Big, little one" print in the set. She was so kind and changed them for me without any strings attached. Here is what they all look like together & in the frames I chose.

Now, I just need to decide where to hang them on the wall. I'm thinking where my weekly chalkboard is. It's the only wall space that is big enough for all 6. I'm leaving the space above the crib for the monogram letters I'm going to DIY later. 

The most recent artwork I have purchased is from an amazing shop called Scarlet & Gold. It was actually created by a childhood friend of mine. Her team creates amazing prints, canvas prints, and even phone cases, plus so much more. You have to check them out. I was buying prints for my mom & sister-in-law for Christmas on the shop and I got one for the nursery too. It is one that features Psalm 139:14. You can get it here. This is what it looks like in the frame I bought for it.

The last thing in Gumdrop's nursery is something I actually made myself. It was a craft night with the girls' project. We took 5 pieces of pine, stained them, screwed them together with braces - like this -

and then traced typed words onto the front and filled the words in with paint pins. Unfortunately the brackets we used on the back were too tall so I had to angle mine in odd places to make sure I got a screw into every board in both brackets. However, the front turned out great, if I say so myself. 

I love surrounding Gumdrop's room in Scripture. Every piece feels like a prayer surrounding him/her. I cannot wait to put more cute stuff into the space. I've put this on top of the tall cube shelving next to the crib. 

I hope to show you some more progress soon.

Gumdrop's Nursery...the start

We moved back in with my parents right before Christmas due to details of our future being uncertain right now. J will graduate after the baby's born due date (about 2 weeks later), Gumdrop will arrive at some point, J will start a job (no ideas on where yet or the financial situation that will put us in), and I will become a stay-at-home mommy (so we want to live close to J's job). So with all that in the air, my parents graciously offered their home to us again. This time, it's a little different since we are pregnant...oh, and my brother, his wife, and their 2 dogs are there as well. =)

The "bedroom" we will be using for the nursery is small. It is 8 feet by 11 feet with 2 windows on outside walls. The other 2 walls back up to our bedroom and our bathroom. Talk about hard to keep quiet! Someone buy us a sound machine from our registry please!! =)

Here are some pictures of how it looks now, with nothing we have registered for, only things we had or were given already. Hopefully, this will change as I find/get more things. I know that when I find things on Pinterest or blogs, I wish more bloggers said where they got the furniture, decor, or any little cute thing that I really want to steal for my room. So, my goal is to be as helpful in that area as possible. Hopefully, it will be helpful and not annoying. =)

This is the view when you walk into the room from the front door. As you can tell, we are still using this room as a little bit of storage. We need to get rid of the boxes and a few things you see stacked on the cube shelves. The cube shelves are from IKEA. I bought them when I was teaching in a public school to use for my classroom library. They were part of the EXPEDIT series; however, I just found out that the series has been renamed to KALLAX. What you see in this picture are two 2x2 cube shelving units. You can find it here on their website.

This is the crib we were given by a family friend, before we dressed it up with the bedding she gave us. It was given to her by someone else; so, I cannot tell you where it is from or any details about it. I have another crib in mind that I would LOVE to have. Unfortunately, it's just not in the financial cards for us to get everything we want. However, I feel so blessed that we even have someone who is willing to just give us a crib, no strings attached.

This is the view to the right of the entrance. You can see the Dr. Seuss bedding that we were given, stuffed duck animals from my brother's childhood, a sock monkey my in-laws bought Gumdrop for Christmas, and the gray elephant laundry/toy basket that my mom bought Gumdrop for Christmas. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite gift this Christmas. That or the OSU pacifiers my in-laws gave us.

This a view from the small window in the picture above, back towards the entrance. The main point of this picture is the wall space. Right now, my weekly chalkboard is hanging there courtesy of leftover nails from the room's previous use. I may ask for advice on what to hang there later.

This is what the crib and shelving unit look like from the big window you see from the entrance to the room. The shelving unit is similar to the 2x2 ones but it is one unit, 4x2 and stood up on one of the short ends. You can find it here at IKEA. The brown, tan, and blue baskets in both cube units were bought at Michael's when I turned the shelves from classroom bookshelves into my craft room storage. Now, the cube shelves will be used for our sweet Gumdrop. I am currently trying to find a link for you to purchase the baskets if you would like to do that.

We have registered for bedding, baskets, and curtains that match our color theme. We have also registered for a reclining glider. That is the only piece of furniture that will go into the room. It's just too small for anything else. It would go where the elephant basket is right now, in the corner. We will have to see how it will fit and we may have to move one of the 2x2 shelves under the chalkboard to give us the space. We will see!

More on decor for the walls to come soon. Happy Friday!

Gumdrop's Baby Book

(none of this post is endorsed. it is solely my opinion.)

We all know how shopping in Hobby Lobby can be...like shopping in Target. You go in with a list of about 2 items and you come out having bought almost $100 worth of great stuff but mostly things you didn't plan on. So, of course, that happened to me today. Good thing J is out of town & can't get mad at onto me...today. =)

We are not finding out the gender of Gumdrop until he/she decides to make their appearance into this world. So, that makes it even harder to find things that fit into our gender neutral theme. Oh, well, since you asked, our theme is white, gray, orange, and teal with elephants being our animal of choice. =)

I went shopping today for some things I want for the nursery. One of my main goals was to find some kind of baby book. I was side-tracked in the scrapbooking section when I saw the BEST set of scrapbook paper for a baby book. When I say best, that is my personal opinion of course. It was a 12x12 paper pad that is part of the "Hello Baby" by Simple Stories collection. SO CUTE!!!! I couldn't find a 12x12 album but I didn't care since the paper was so precious. I found this 6x8 binder that is part of Simple Stories SN@P! collection. Teal! One of our colors! and chevron! Our main pattern! I even bought 2 sets of inserts in case I wanted them as another option for layouts.

I have never done anything like this kind of scrapbooking. It seems like the Project Life type of scrapbooking where you don't have to glue anything, just insert pictures and pretty cards/paper into page protector slots. I cannot wait to get more inserts, stickers, embellishments, and eventually put pictures of my sweet Gumdrop in here! I hope to keep you posted on the progress of the book. And the nursery. I bought some things to DIY for the nursery. I can't wait to show you!

Amy

2015...New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So, this year is going to bring sooooo many changes, which I think is why I want to start up my blogging again. I have a reason to keep it up. I need to write down what happens so I won't forget. I don't want to forget.

The Rodgers' Neighborhood is expanding!!!! We are going to be having a sweet blessing in May (maybe)! Our due date is May 7th and we are not finding out the gender We have decided to refer to our blessing as Gumdrop. We are so excited and we cannot wait to meet this long awaited baby. I hope to update you on the progress of the nursery and pregnancy. Many things will be DIY so that we can save money. I hope you enjoy seeing the projects progress as much as I am looking forward to doing them.

Oh! This was me on New Years Day =)

Amy