It's almost done!

Caleb and I probably spend way too much time out on the back porch, but we just love it back there! I've *almost* got it decorated exactly how I want it (excluding painting that nasty yellowed toned tan on the wooden areas of the porch...but it will probably be awhile before that gets done).

                         

I've been busy lately sewing throw pillows for the sofa.

My Mom gave me this vintage 4 tiered plant stand recently and it was really dirty and the paint was chippy.

I spray painted it a sort of muted tan color and then dug through my pile of terra cotta pots to find ones that would fit. I'm really happy with how it came out.

Betty loves to sleep on the porch sofa, but sometimes she likes to sleep where the sunshine comes in at the edge of the porch. I sewed her a cute little dog bed last week using some scrap fabric. I think she approved :)

 A couple of years ago I bought this large vintage green frame for $1 at a flea market, because I loved the green and gold colors and the slightly distressed finish on the wood frame. It didn't have any glass so I went to Lowe's yesterday and  had some cut to fit. I really wanted to do some sort of print that involved a Scripture. I went to Michael's and bought an antiqued khaki colored thick poster board for $5 and cut it to size. Then I used an antique image of a tree from Graphic's Fairy and I typed up the verse from Ecclesiastes 3. I reversed both images on my computer and then I put a piece of freezer paper to the size of normal computer paper. I ran it through the printer and then quickly pressed it onto my poster board. It gave it a really nice faded distressed look. I'm very happy with how it came out and it feels good to have one more project done!

Total cost for the art was $11 (frame, board, & glass. I already had freezer paper).
It think it looks like it was just made for that spot above the rocker.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven" 

Ecclesiastes 3

My porch is almost done. I still can't find a lamp that is the right height to sit on the chest of drawers. I really want to try out the mercury glass spray paint that they sell at Lowe's and I'm thinking this would be a perfect way to use it. The lamp I have out there looks good (as far as the color and style), but it is WAY too tall and awkward looking. I also am on the lookout for an inexpensive wall mount swing arm lamp to go over the sofa. There is an open electrical socket thingie where I guess originally there was some sort of porch light. 

I would like to have something similar to this:

                                                                               Source: ivillage.com via Donna on Pinterest

                                                      

3rd

Annnnd somehow the 3rd trimester has arrived :)
Everything is going splendidly and Caleb and I can't wait to meet this little man.

Baby Stuff

This picture is from a few weeks ago on the day of our first ultrasound. I was 20 weeks in this picture and I'm afraid I just haven't been very diligent in taking many bump pictures!
We found out that we're having a baby boy and we're naming him .... oh you'll just have to wait and find out.

We're very much praising the Lord over a good looking ultrasound, feeling the baby kicking (doing karate?!), and for me feeling good too. It feels so good to be over half way through these 9 months.

I do want to talk about something that isn't easy for me to talk about, but at the same time I feel like the Lord has laid it on my heart to share what He has so mercifully shared with me. 

Caleb and I have been married for 2 years now and in that amount of time we've suffered through 4 miscarriages. One at 12 1/2 weeks and the others at only about 5 weeks. So you can see where me being 22 weeks this week is very exciting and such a blessing to me.  I don't really want to talk about the pain and heartache of loosing all those babies, but I'm sure you can imagine it was very heartbreaking. I do however want to talk about how I've carried this baby so very far compared to the others. 

After I miscarried the baby before the one currently in my tummy (the one kicking up a storm right now yall!), last October I felt at such a loss to understand why this was happening to me - not wondering why the Lord chose to take the babies, since I believe in His sovereignty and that in His wisdom He took them home, but I mean I was wondering why my body was rejecting this little ones so very early in the pregnancy.

Caleb had always offered for me to go to a specialist and see if they could help me, but for some reason I just didn't want to. I promised Caleb that if this did happen one more time that I would go to a doctor, but until then I wanted to see if there was something that I could do to prevent loosing another one.

I sort of just started to Google reasons for multiple miscarriage and most stuff just said that Caleb and I probably had incompatible chromosomes or something scientific sounding like that. Then the Lord directed me to a website where dozens (hundreds maybe) of women were going through the same situation I was. Many of them were suggesting that perhaps the reason for not carrying was a low progesterone level in the mom's body. I wasn't at all familiar with this thought and so I started to google that specifically and I found MANY success stories of ladies who had lost many babies and then went on to have healthy babies. 

And all I had to do was apply an all natural progesterone cream each day? That sounded way too easy and way too inexpensive to fix my problem, right? That's what I was thinking anyways. BUT I went ahead and ordered a bottle of a natural progesterone cream that same day and started using it that very week that I'd miscarried back in October.  

Well...then I found out in late November / early December that I was expecting again. I wasn't very hopeful and the only earthly hope I had was in the cream I'd been using daily since the last miscarriage. Every day seemed like a miracle to Caleb and me and we went through each day very prayerfully. I just kept on using the cream each day and so far everything has been progressing perfectly!

I didn't even bother setting up any appointments with my midwife until I was 12 weeks along. At our 12 week appointment we got to hear his heartbeat for the first time AND it was a first time out of all the babies. That was very comforting and exciting. Then at 20 weeks we had our first ultrasound with this baby and enjoyed seeing what he looks like and watching him move around.

So...while I wasn't ever tested to see if I had low progesterone levels to begin with, I do believe with all my heart that having low levels is why I was miscarrying. And while I don't know every woman in the world's reason for having a miscarriage (I'm sure there are many reasons), I do know that I would at least strongly recommend that she get her progesterone levels tested.

Anyways, I'm just so grateful to God for leading me to that website that day and for giving me such a simple solution to a very heartbreaking problem. I know I'm only 22 weeks this week, but every day that goes by gives me greater and greater hope that I really am going to meet this baby :)

Lookin' out my back door

Bet I got CCR stuck in your head, right? :D

Last week I thoroughly cleaned out our screened in back porch and I decided to do a little decorating here and there.  The weather this week is promising to be SO warm and beautiful and I'm sure I'll continue to spend a lot of time on the porch.

Kitchen Window Before & After

So the kitchen window was my big project last week.

First I gave the window trim a nice fresh coat of white paint. I also painted the wall area surrounding the window with a verrrrrrrrry pale gray-toned neutral-ish color. I'm so happy with how it all came out.

As you can see from the before picture above...I had a horrible view of the neighbors house. Needless to say, we always kept the blinds closed. I followed an easy tutorial from the Making It Feel Like Home blog to create a patterned frosted privacy glass look on the lower half of the window. The only thing I did different was to scale down the stencil image to 75% (under the print setting). This part of the project only cost me about $2.50 (for half a roll of contact paper).

I made the roman shade using vintage curtain material that I bought at a yard sale about 10 years ago. I used the mini blinds that were already being used in the kitchen. My only investment was the fabric glue, and I only used half a bottle, so this project only cost me about $2. I followed a tutorial from Little Green Notebook (if you haven't checked out that site you should!).

I honestly thought that I had a before shot of sink / window area, but apparently I only had pictures of both sides :(
Anyways, you can see that before there was a typical 1950's era decorative cutout over the window. While I think it was cute looking I just really wanted something more sophisticated and timeless. We did save the cutout piece to try and reuse on another project someday. 

The other thing we did was to take down the rounded shelves on either side of the window. Again, they were cute, but sort of more "retro" than I wanted. Taking down the shelves also visually opened up the area so much. It really makes it look twice as big now.

Hopefully, our next big project will be putting in a white subway tile back splash.

    

my big project this week

This is the magnificent view I have out my kitchen window.

Jealous? I thought you might be.

So...my problem is that I do not want to stare at that while I cook or do dishes. I always have the blinds closed in the kitchen, but that blocks out all that natural light from coming in. 

I decided that I would do something similar to what I did to our bathroom window. 

First I plan on painting two coats of white paint on the window and trim, and then I want to follow this tutorial and create some privacy (and add a pretty pattern) on the lower half of the window. On the upper half of the window I plan on repurposing the mini blinds by following this tutorial.  It's the same instructions I followed when making the polka dot one for our bathroom. I don't plan on making the roman shades until I know what wall color I'm going with; otherwise, I won't know which fabric to go with.

I figure that by having the privacy film on the bottom that will let lots of natural light in will enable me to permanently keep the fabric roman shades open and just add a nice decorative touch and not be used functionally (even though they will work).

Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Caleb has been plugging away at the kitchen this past weekend. We finished painting the new cabinets doors Caleb built and then attached them. The kitchen is really coming together so nicely!

Before & After (well...so far anyways!)

I drew up what I wanted the wine rack over the fridge to look like and Caleb built it for me. I just love it! Of course, out of all those bottles only 3 are wine and the rest is Caleb's beer (that wouldn't fit in our fridge).

The space to the right of the fridge will have double doors.

I love how this corner door swings open. I still need to touch up paint on the inside of the door edge.

Soon we're hoping to put up dry wall on all the areas we took down paneling and then to put up the white subway tile back splash :)