Hola, Peeps! If you missed it Thursday, you need to go HERE and enter the Mulder Baby Pool with your guess for Little Mulder. Your name guesses have been awesome. We are so completely lost on names this go-round. Keep ’em comin’.
There are new photos HERE if you missed seeing the kiddos’ faces. Let me just say, they are stinkin’ cute kids. We’ll talk about them in-depth soon.
While home improvement posts rarely get the credit they deserve, I need to document the changes and upgrades for TexasNorth posterity. And since I am neither paid to write nor edited for content, I shall proceed. Here’s a joke for those of you signing off before the details:
A Stanford Medical research group advertised for participants in a study of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They were looking for therapy clients who had been diagnosed with this disorder.
The response was gratifying; they got 300 responses the day after the ad came out.
All from the same person.
So.
I’ve been a little nest-y this pregnancy. More so than with any of the others. Did you do this? This manic “I must touch and move every single thing in every single drawer and every single room in the house” thing? I’m tired. But I’ve been more productive in the last three months than maybe- and I jest not- than maybe my entire life.
First project: our bedroom. We needed something by our beds that Mulder Children could not destroy. After 5 years of kids trying to steal lamps, break lamps, wear lamps… I began my search for sconces. Hated everything I found. Didn’t want to add to Curt’s project list by picking lights that had to be hardwired into the walls. At long last, I found these beautiful, simple sconces made from Lamp Goods. So incredibly happy.
The frame and linen you have seen before (HERE)… still not sure if Curt knows I stole the screen from his stash in the barn. I’m ok with that.
The bed was designed and handmade by my father in law… whose low-end designs are sold in places like Pottery Barn. I know. Every child gets to pick a piece of furniture as a wedding gift, and we chose our bed. Bob tends toward clean, straight, Scandinavian design by preference… but can obviously work with a client. I mean, y’all. Is there a more beautiful bed anywhere in the world? No.
And then there was this beauty, which has graced Curt’s side of the bed since he was in college. A huge, hulking mass of gorgeous-but-out-of-style pecan wood nightstand. It weighs about four-thousand and seventy pounds. The drawer holds junk. Shoelaces, coins, red pens, bullets. The cabinet underneath holds magazines. And checks. And papers that are important but never looked at.
I am intimately familiar with the contents of this nightstand because every. single. day. of motherhood I have pulled a child (or two) out of the cabinet and replaced all the magazines, all the pens, all the bullets back to the drawer. Every day.
It has required some simplification on both our parts, but that’s not a bad thing. I love, love, love the changes. I love that the space both above and around our bed is now finished. And matching. And purposeful.
Now, someone please come help me move the pecan beast of a nightstand into the basement. It will take about 4 of us.
November 14th, 2011 at 9:40 am
I LOVE this space! So serene and conducive to rest. So brilliant to have locking storage! What a sanity saver.
I was not all that nest-y when I was pregnant. But with my first child, we were packing up to move, so all that energy went into packing–kind of de-nesting. With my second, well, I can’t even remember what I was doing then. With my third, I was starting my own business. And with my fourth, I was living at my in-laws’ house, with very few of my own possessions to move around. I wish I could have a burst of nestiness right about now, so I could finish unpacking the rest of these boxes!
I love your house. And I love the fact that you are back in Blogland! You’ve been missed!
November 14th, 2011 at 10:47 am
Don’t be lifting that mess, Kate. Do not. You are pregnant. Love where that typewriter table ended up! And are you serious? He makes stuff that’s sold at Pottery Barn? Doesn’t have have to mass-produce it to make that work?
November 14th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
His *designs* have been sold there… as in, he free-lanced his work there and then traveled overseas to make sure the stain and finishing were up to Mulder code.
November 14th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
I love those sconces! Amazing. I also approve of your father-in-law’s work. If I had need of furniture, I’d totally be hitting you up for his contact info.
November 14th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
I am totally with you in nesty-ness this pregnancy! Though the baby’s new room is still in complete disarray, we did manage to have a huge yard sale and completely reconfigure the breakfast area/playroom.
I LOVE your night stand ideas, and the sconces, AND the bed! Gorgeous! Nice nesting, friend.
November 15th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Yay! I love seeing shiny clean organized put together . . . you get my point? 😀 It’s wonderful, enjoy it!!
November 15th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
you have such an eye for beauty in the simple and often left-behind. I love the way you make your home yours. It is lovely. and homey. and warm.
November 27th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I’m not going to hazard a guess about the coming babe because I’m ALWAYS wrong. And I could picture you going both ways on this one: boy, girl. Sister, brother. (I can see Amy B. going both ways, too, and have no real feel for which it will be.) But: Your style. Awesome. Decorating is one of those marriage compromises for the hub and me. We’re settled now, the house isn’t changing, but if I could’ve picked Mason Jar sconces I would have. Creative, perfect, and magazine picture-ish. But the bed, yes. You selected well. And I can’t say enough about those perfectly sized typing tables. Your next job should be in interior design. Your house makes me want to visit (and take sewing lessons).
November 29th, 2011 at 5:29 am
Love your style! A name? I totally wouldn’t mind if you used Taron ( our new little one, or Taryn if its a girl, but same pronuncation) I LOVE it! There needs to be more of them in the world 🙂 and what a cool story that would be to someday tell them about there blogging mamas, so far away from eachptehr but prego at the same time… anyway… thats my name contribution. Happy Labor… I hope you can sit back and enjoy the last 2 weeks, finish all that nesting… I have had it CRAZY this time, I had about a million lists in a million different places, and eventually i got to organize, THATS RIGHT, my lists 🙂 but now, can’t start anything without having a few interuptions… beautiful interuptions… can’t wait to hear about your new one coming soon!