Project Nursery - Part 2

Technically, there aren't any updates about this project yet. I just want to post the design inspiration I picked for our nursery.

I got it from this site.

Pretty huh? I find myself being partial to blue and yellow lately (our bedroom is painted blue and white, and my living room motiff is yellow and blue).

My nursery space is a bit smaller and will only contain the built-in closet, a single bed (I don't think the baby will really sleep there... the room is only for his/her stuff), a table and a small shelf but I plan to get design elements from the photo above. The ceiling painted to look like a cloudy sky, for example (I'm still trying to get my husband to do the painting). And then, I will get this light from IKEA (I hope it's still available at the local distributor.)


And since we are not re-painting the walls, I can do some stenciling!! :) (If it turns out badly, then maybe we will decide to repaint, hehe).

Project Nursery - Part 1

This room will turn into a nursery before the end of September.

It's time to get creative! :D

Knowing when to let go

Ok this has nothing to do with my previous post about marriage *wink*.

Can you name 3 things you had to let go of in the past that was most difficult for you? (Let's stick with material things ok, it's a given that people are always hard to let go).

Here's mine:

1. Old letters - I was introduced to the concept of long term correspondence at an early age. My yaya since I was a baby decided she didn't want to move to the province with us and left us when I was 6 years old. I cried and screamed when I learned about it and cried, screamed and clawed at everyone who tried to restrain me the day she left (nothing really changed over the years huh?). I made her promise to write me and well... she did :) And then my childhood friend and her family migrated to the US when I was about 7 years old and we promised to write to each other. I have been exchanging handwritten letters with both of them until I was in high school.

And then we moved back to the city when I was in college after my parents separated and I had limited space. I needed to let go of some stuff and well... back then, my backpack containing the old letters were my mom's prime candidate for disposal. I didn't want to, but I can see my mom's point about space. I wanted to sort through them, to keep at least some, but there were too many and I was struggling with school. So I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and put the entire lot in the trash.

Did I regret it? Of course I did. I still do whenever I think about it. With the rising popularity of emails, almost no one bothers to write real letters anymore. And it would have been interesting to go back and see what I was thinking back when I was 6 or 7 years old.

2. Gifts from friends - especially those I received since I started going to school. I'm not sure how it is with boys, but between girls and their girlfriends, a lot of small items are exchanged through the years between kindergarten and high school: stuffed animals, ceramic display figures, and a lot of odds and ends in candy pink or purple. Would you believe I kept most (if not all) of them? I can't get rid of something especially if I can remember when it was given to me and by whom. And then I started working and small tokens from co-workers every holiday added to my growing pile. After I got married and moved in with my husband, I decided to sort through everything and let go of most of them. I was able to reduce the pile to around half? But some I just couldn't let go of, not yet.

3. Books - ok this is what triggered this line of thought in the first place. I was sitting on the stairs this morning while putting on shoes and my eyes wandered to our very full bookshelf. And in my mind's eye flashed a picture of our very full bookshelf and the very full closet in our guest room upstairs. At this point in our lives, I think my husband and I will still be buying more books in the future. So it's either get a bigger house (bwahahaha!!) or downsize our collection. I dread the day when I have to tell my husband we have to sort through the books again. We nearly got into a fight the last time we did it. He doesn't want to get rid of anything. I don't either but I know we needed to do it.

I was an 80's kid and I discovered Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley books when I was in the 1st grade. I've been collecting them since until I reached high school. When we moved back to Manila, I parked my books in a bookshelf in the library at my grandparent's house where we lived for a couple of years. When we moved to our new house, I was assigned a space in the small bookshelf in the living room. It was not enough so again, my mom urged me to sort through my books and get rid of those I haven't read in the past 5 years. That's pretty much all my childhood fairy tale books and the Sweet Valley collection. I held out for as long as I could, enduring barrage after barrage of nagging to get rid of them. I don't know why I even cared. It was true that I haven't read them in years, nor was I planning to read them again. I guess what people say is true, that books are like friends and it's hard to let them go. But I did eventually.

-o-

Nowadays, I don't get attached to material things that much anymore. I don't think twice about replacing something that needs replacing and throwing out stuff I don't use. I guess the longer you hold on to something, the harder it is to let go. One tip I can offer when you have to throw something away, is to just close your eyes and do it. Clean break. And don't think about it much. If it's something you really haven't used or seen or thought about in 3 years or more, then it's not really necessary to keep it (unless you have a big house with lots of storage, in which case, hoard, hoard away!).

Dealing with Disappointment

I am about to self-combust with disappointment.

I don't deal well with disappointment. I usually simmer, simmer, and simmer some more and when I can't simmer anymore, I... well, it's not pretty.

I WANT THIS PLAYPEN!

I saw it online last week as I was browsing online and it matches the stroller and carrier we bought. I initially asked my cousin to ask my dad if he could bring it back here for me when he comes back (it's the size of a medium travel bag and about 15kg when packed), but since I still haven't heard from them, I'm taking the answer to be negative for the meantime and decided to considered other options (to be sure!). Unfortunately, those other options aren't working out very well.

I tried ordering it online and have it shipped here. Unfortunately, the first store I ordered from only ships within the US. I found a store that ships internationally but as I was checking out, the shipping cost amounted to almost $350! More than 2x the price of the item. I contacted the seller clarifying the shipping cost and still haven't received a response from them.

My husband and I tried looking for the item here. We found a local brand store and they have the model but not in the color I want. This playpen is about to be the centerpiece of my living room for about a year and no way am I getting something that won't match my current color scheme since I've been working so hard to get it to look the way I want. I asked the sales person if any of their other branches carries the model in the color I want but he told me no. They only carry the ones selected and imported by the merchandiser and for the model I want, they only carry 2 color options. (Well, tell your merchandiser he/she has bad taste! Hmph!) I looked at the sales person and decided I don't believe him so my husband and I are checking out another branch this weekend. I hope we find one (though local price for this item is double the price online) but until I'm sure I can get it, the disappointment lingers.

I feel the world conspiring against me and my playpen. I've been looking at it online all day and the more I see it, the more I want it and the more I feel disappointed when I think that I might not be able to get it (aaarrrrrgggghhh!!!).

There is also a sub-plot to all this. I stupidly told my mom and my sister about asking my dad to bring this here. I know! I know! I should have kept my mouth shut. But at the time, I was on a shopping high, I was happy, I was chatty. Not being very big fans of my dad (understatement!), they both told me to forget about it. I stand alone in keeping the peace between 2 clashing sides and if my mom asks about it again and that playpen does not materialize in my house within the next few months (whichever way, she won't have to know how, I can just tell her what I think is the best answer), it's like giving her live ammo.

None of my options are a sure negative yet. It's just that at this point, I don't have an alternative that I'm sure about. And that bugs me. For all I know, on the extreme positive end, all my options might actually work out. In which case, I'll be all giddy and happy. But if none does...

...I'm flying out there to get it myself!!! X(

Motherhood 101: Our first baby-related purchase!

Finally! Something about this whole thing I can absolutely relate to... shopping! :)

So far, I haven't really been feeling anything about this whole baby thing. Everything about this pregnancy has been about discomfort, pain and hospitals. I guess that's why I never talk about it much. Until now, the baby is still like an abstract entity... I know it's coming, I feel it moving... but you don't really feel it.

The past few months, I've been prey to sales people in the baby section of almost every mall I've visited. I must've seen every product catalogue and demo there is for all major baby products. The fact that I tell them am not planning on buying anything yet doesn't seem to deter them. Last night was no different. They seem to know the moment my eyes wandered towards the cribs and strollers area because suddenly, there they were. But last night, I actually saw something I really, really liked. I never really thought we'd get it because it was not within the price range I set for myself for this particular equipment but I asked to see the demo anyway.

• Stroller comes with carrier/car seat, check
• Neutral color, check
• Classy, check (of course this is important to me! I'd be the one pushing it)
• Reputable brand, check (shallow I know, but first baby so let me be)
  
• Lightweight, check (again, I get the feeling I'd be the one pushing and carrying it)
• Removable front tray, check
• Within my price range... not really... but...
• Carrier also functions as a rocker (like Helaena's), a plus!
• Wheels has suspension for bumpy surfaces, another plus!

Pretty huh? :)

So in spite of people telling us it's still too early to buy baby stuff, we went home with a stroller and a carrier anyway... and with a more concrete sense of reality of our baby that is about to arrive in a few months (since there is now something in the house that actually belongs to him/her). And with me on a shopping high! I guess my husband was feeling more excited too since he was sending me links on playards all morning. We both agreed (I think... I told him I like this one and I don't really remember what he said afterward...) to get this one:
We haven't seen it in any mall around here yet but I hope my dad agrees to lug it back here when he gets back from his trip (I really, really hope he says yes!).