First, A Rewind...

I never posted during my pregnancy, so here are a few photos (mostly for my sisters who never got to see me pregnant).

 7 months along, my last swim in the ocean (you can tell it was a tight squeeze into that wetsuit) with my brother Ben.

 At 9 months, a visit to Big Sur with my sister Esther, and her awesome husband who is a landscape photographer, but agreed to snap some photos for me. Thanks again Brian!

My thoughts on my pregnancy = absolutely humbling and miraculous.  It was such a magical time, to wake up each morning in great anticipation of this amazing thing happening inside of you; to live with such great hope of the life that is to come.  It was an extremely wonderful experience that I hope to always remember, cherish, and for which I want to feel the same depth of gratitude forever.  Regardless of what the future holds, I know I have witnessed a miracle in the most intimately first-hand way, and it  has changed me.

 Our Biggest Joy

 On August 11, 2013 at midnight we welcomed Dylan Clausen Tolley into the world.  

Being parents has been even better than we imagined it would be.  

The last month has been pretty magical.  

Dylan Clausen Tolley

Born August 11, 2013 at 12:07am

5 lbs 2.5 oz

More details (birth story and what we've been up to) to come soon.  

Nursery Reveal (with tutorial links)

So this is a little over-the-top.  I know it.  I also know that the nursery and all of this decor has much less to do with the infant and more to do with me loving the space and enjoying being in it.  And I do.

Oh, and I must apologize in advance to you poor souls who follow me on facebook (or at least you used to, but now you hid me from your feed) and have seen all of the annoying nursery links I have been pinning from pinterest - You see, I had no idea I was sharing all of my pins until I finally logged into facebook after about 4 months... yikes. 

So here it is.  

We were pretty thrilled about this chair - we got it 50% off at Costco and it glides and reclines!  Already sleep-tested, and approved.

Crib: $40 on craigslist, and here's the tutorial for the cribskirt (easiest pattern ever - cheat method)

We bought this antique dresser at a warehouse sale for $30.  This is the tutorial for the simple mobile. Thanks to my friend Melanie who made the little circles for my shower, and I repurposed them which made this way easier.  

We got this shelf for free along with a different craigslist purchase we made for our living room, and filled it with the wonderful kid's books our friends have spoiled us with. Thanks again everyone!

We love this wool rug we found on Overstock.com. (And so does Marley)

A tissue paper pom-pom mobile using Melanie's circles again above the crib.  Thanks pinterest!

We got these awesome blackout curtains at Ikea, and thanks to my friend Shannon who made the triangle banner for my shower, which really cute-ifies the curtains!

Used this tutorial for the embroidery hoop circles.  Super simple!  Got the fabric (for this and the cribskirt) online from one of my new favorite fabric websites! 

Anyway, enough about that.  Decorating the nursery has been a great way to emotionally prepare for this babe to come.  But I still feel super anxious about it.  The closer it gets, the more I realize how intense the responsibility of being mother is.  I am so lucky to have many amazing role models among my family and friends upon whom I will rely.  

DIY Nursery Projects

So this nesting business is serious stuff.  Or at least I've made it that way.  Being on summer break and not teaching summer school (first time ever!) has been wonderful - and given me lots of time to do productive things like browse pinterest for way too long and come up with ways to save money by spending money... but seriously I have been getting a little over-involved in decorating and preparing a nursery for this little bundle who is supposed to make his arrival in the next 3 weeks.

So here are a couple of the projects I've worked on recently:

Found these 2 beauties at Goodwill for $8 each:

I know, I know... their potential is just reeking from them, right?  I had to promise Brett this wasn't going to be a mistake.  I saw this on Martha Stewart.com, which gave me the idea for the stool one:

And this is how they turned out:

Not too bad, right?  They came together when I put them in the Nursery, which will be revealed shortly. (Shout-out to my sis Esther and her hubby Brian without whom I would have messed up both of these.  I'm sure they they were thrilled to travel all the way from NY just to help me with my silly projects.) 

It's a...

We are living on cloud 9 these days.  I have so much to say about my feelings in the past several months, but no time to say it now.  That will have to come in a future post.    Thank you to everyone for your love and support.  Just about 6 weeks to go!