What we have been up to

The nesting is in full swing. Well...maybe not "full", because I haven't yet had the urge to deep clean every inch of my house, but I am suddenly in panic mode where I have to finish all of my projects, even the ones that were only ideas in my head. I knew I would be ready to start on the nursery once we returned from Michigan, partly because I needed a pick-me-up, and also because it's officially 2012 and only 3 months until BABY. What I didn't know was how addicting painting can be, therefore, we went on to paint almost every other room in the house. Okay not really, but a couple, and for the most part I have finally finished decorating around here. It has been a very slow work in progress and since I didn't have Jillian that whole week after Christmas, it was devoted to all of my unfinished projects and rooms. I'm going to wait and post nursery pictures once that's a little more finished. It has been the most fun project of all.

This is the front room when you first walk in. I fell in love with this pillow for the bench Amber and Andy made me, and she had the idea to paint the wall to match. So we (Kyle) did. For those that don't know me, I'm super indecisive and super matchy-matchy. That makes for decorating a house more difficult than it should be. (And I'm pretty sure it drives Kyle nuts!) The wreath thing is made out of old book pages, it took only a couple hours to make. I'm still not sure about the picture frames on the shelf. I want to find a vase or something to add as well. DI has been on my agenda every Monday.

And THIS was my Christmas surprise. When we arrived home from Michigan it was sitting next to our tree. We'd been looking for a Boston temple picture ever since we got married 2 years ago and I eventually gave up. Kyle found a small version of this at Bed Bath and Beyond and had it special ordered. You can't tell in the picture, but it's REALLY big. I was soooo excited. Like everything else these days, it made me cry.

I've been searching for curtains for our sliding doors in our kitchen/dining area/living room, and have been waiting until I found some so I could get couch pillows to coordinate. Since it has been almost 4 months and still no curtains, I finally decided to pick my pillows first, and then get curtains to match. I ordered solid burgundy ones from JcPenney, only to find out weeks later they are on back order. Not cool.

Next was the wall. I didn't know what to do with the living room wall until I had the curtains and pillows down. I kept it pretty simple, but I'm still not sure I like it. Since I picked pillows with teal in them, I had to add teal to the wall. So, I painted the shelf. Are you getting the picture? I might be just a little bit crazy....

I have been talking about doing our bedroom in gray and yellow ever since we moved in, but it is last on my list of things to do. Then Kyle surprised me a couple weeks ago by asking if I wanted him to go ahead and paint it since we had all the stuff and were already on a roll. I drove to the paint store right away before he changed his mind, picked one of the first colors I found, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I didn't know my husband was such a painter, but he has done a really good job. Someday I will add some yellow to the walls, get a new comforter, and cute wall decor. But for now, I'm happy! (I was too lazy to clean my room before I took this picture, hence the corner shot. But you can see how nice it looks against the white doors :))

This last one was a pinterest project that I started when we first moved in, and didn't finish until I received towels for them as a Christmas gift.