transformation tuesday

wait...what?

i'm back after taking a 2 month-ish hiatus.  whoops!  it wasn't planned, but it felt needed.  obviously, i've posted all over instagram, but there's only so much i can share through pictures alone.

i've been incredibly lucky to have such an easy pregnancy thus far, but unfortunately i've also been pretty boring.  i got tired of forcing a narrative that simply wasn't there.  i've also struggled with how much and what i wanted to share on a public blog.  for the most part, at least since becoming pregnant, this has been a way for friends and family who are interested to follow along with my journey; i can also spare those casual FB acquaintances the incessant reminder of my growing uterus. 

so now that the "big wait" has turned into "hurry up and get stuff done" my personal narrative, at least comparatively, is becoming more interesting.

so transformation tuesday - shall we?

my last update i had just found out little baby gummy bear was going to be a girl!  i was right around 19-20 weeks, and i still hadn't felt Lucy kick.  i was also under the impression my belly was ginormous.  and it looks like my bras were still fitting pretty well.

jump ahead to NOW (picture at 26 weeks)

i feel and look like i strapped a beach ball to my front.  and i'm terrified that the real growth is now about to start.

bill and i went to a baseball game last friday night - the louisville bats are a triple A team for the cincinnati reds, and so i wanted to wear my reds t shirt.  it looked obscenely tight when i put it on.  bill kindly offered for me to wear his t shirt. 

which...turned out to be barely long enough itself.  whoops.

so now, in my last week of my 2nd trimester...!!! i am feeling lots of kicks and punches.  i sometimes just sit at my desk and watch my belly move.  i've tried really hard to capture it on camera to show bill since she seems to be most active around lunch, but i think lucy knows i'm filming and promptly stops.

other than my growing belly

there's been a few other transformations happening around the house

bill and his brother worked on putting the crib together

and it has sat in the living room while we get the nursery (bill's former office) together

gong-gong (lucy's grandpa) made sure she had a mattress and i couldn't resist picking up some sheets to see the crib mostly put together (still plan on adding a skirt)

the other side of the living room houses our matching cradle that lucy's great granny got for her - which will soon be moved into our bedroom.

the nursery itself has been a work in progress.

after thinking for weeks i would go with something light and neutral.  i decided i hated all of these colors.

and i just wanted what i liked - a beautiful dark navy. 

it's been a bit hard to photograph because of the time of day i get home, but i think it looks beautiful and relaxing.  i'm a sucker for blues.  ALSO.  the room has since been mostly cleared of all the clutter seen above - and so far, thanks to my aunt, i've made over $200 in selling our excess.

in a mad state of "let's get shit done!" we ripped up the carpet as well.  we knew at some point we would get new floors so there's nothing like impulsively doing so to get things moving.  i hope to share a semi finished room next week - the plan is to put the floors down saturday, however, we are still awaiting a phone call to to come pick up said floors. 

so while waiting on the floors this past weekend, we took on a whole other beast.

she looks harmless enough, doesn't she?  the dresser came from bill's grandmother's estate - which makes me happy to have a little something from her house - she had just found out we were pregnant a month or so before she passed.  i didn't know her very well, but she kept this dresser in her basement to store fabric and sewing projects - a very talented seamstress - she made her own curtains, placemats, could whip up a blazer, and in her younger years could reupholster a sturdy piece of furniture.  so i'm sure she got a big kick out of watching us tackle this dresser, and i hope would be pleased to see that this basement storage piece is going to be used as storage and a changing table in the nursery!

we spent several hours saturday sanding, deglossing, sanding again

chipping off lots of wood veneer and filling in holes with wood putty (also to note - random furniture in the background - my SIL is also pregnant and we've been DIY divas for months now)

we called it a day, and waited until sunday to paint (thanks to my brother and sister in law for letting us use their garage and outdoor space)

i picked up chalk paint - the paint that requires no sanding or priming - only to discover that the veneer was bleeding through in spots (see the drawer with the bleed through?)

after painting everything with 2 coats and still having bleed through - my brother in law came to the rescue with a can of killz primer which THANKFULLY took care of the red ruining my project.

unfortunately that meant i needed to paint ANOTHER coat of chalk paint over this whole dresser again.

pain in my rear.

not to mention, my original plan was to stain the top of the dresser to achieve a butcher block look.  thanks to that tricky veneer - there was zero wood grain and my dreams were out the window.

kind of.

i had picked up dark wax to go over the paint - hoping it would give me my desired look.

 and i'm pretty pleased with the outcome!

the areas we had trouble sanding/puttying which were such an eyesore - ended up being a blessing

the wax took hold in those nooks and crannies - and because chalk paint has a less than smooth texture when painted on with a brush - we were able to get that wood block look 

a project that i was ready to chuck 3 hours into - i'm now quite pleased with.

still not done though- i'm planning on removing the contact paper from the drawers and re-lining with some fun fabric.  

sorry for ramble blog, but i feel like we're caught up now.  i'm crossing my fingers we get a phone call from the flooring place and i can share an almost finished nursery next week!