Maternity Wear Wednesday: 26 weeks

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Sneak Peek: Fall In Love With Fluff $500 Cloth Diaper Giveaway!

Do you want to win $500 of Cloth Diapers and Accessories?!

The Fall In Love With Fluff Giveaway Event hosted by Daily Mothering and Eco-Crazy Mom is right around the corner! Over 100 blogs are coming together to present this awesome Valentine's Day giveaway from February 1-7, 2012. We will be giving away a Cloth Diaper Prize Pack valued at $500 to one lucky winner!!

This giveaway event is generously sponsored by
Kissed By The Moon and Sandbox Lane,
two super awesome cloth diaper retailers!

Come back February 1-7 to enter this amazing giveaway!

This giveaway will be open to both US and Canada.
Some items will be substituted if a Canada winner is drawn
due to shipping restrictions on certain brands.

For now, here is a sneak peek at what you could WIN!
(Winner will get to choose colors/prints for most items!)

Baby C's DIY Nursery: Vision Board

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I have to start by saying that this family was exactly who I envisioned doing a nursery for when I started Baby Bump & Beyond. Kate and her husband were preparing to adopt a 2yo girl, when complications arose and the adoption fell through. Shortly after, however, they were matched with a birth mother who was 38 weeks pregnant.

Now, there wasn't the mad dash to get the nursery set up before Baby C came home, she needed to spend some time in the NICU and then spent the first 6 months under close observation. [This isn't relevant to the room design, but I've had the privilege of watching this little one grow and hit many milestones in her recovery, which makes me all the more attached to this family.]

Kate runs the San Diego Deals and Steals blog, and gave me the challenge of coming up with a chic, polished, crafty, grown-up friendly nursery... for under $500.

Vision Board

Kate had already purchased a bird themed bedding set made by Pottery Barn, as well as a crib. She wasn't thrilled about the pink and green color scheme, but was trying to convince herself otherwise, since it matched the already painted pink princess room.

About a week after our initial meeting, Kate fell in love with a room in a magazine that was white with teal accents. I knew by the way she lit up when she described it, that we would be changing our original color scheme- which was easy enough. The best thing about DIY is that you can customize it to any color scheme with little to no extra effort. 

Once we settled on the colors, the family was ready to get started! [And yes, they were all involved!]

To see the finished room, click on over to the SD Deals and Steals post HERE.

If you want to find out more about our inspiration pieces and how to make them yourself, check out these links:

1. This one doesn't have a link, but the birdcage has white Christmas lights inside. Very simple.
2. This one also does not have a link, but you can find bird cages for sale at many retail shops, from Marshalls, to Pottery Barn, depending on your price range. 
3. This custom mobile, sold here on Etsy, was a great inspiration, but at $130, was out of our price range.
4. These Pottery Barn Bird Cages could easily be reproduced with a bargain store find and spray paint.
5. This FREE bird fabric pattern from Lavender's Blue Blog made a great DIY mobile. 
6. The birdhouse project [inspired by the Life in the Thrifty Lane's blog post] was a great way to get the older children involved in the nursery. 
7. This Pottery Barn Bird Bank is no longer available through Pottery Barn, but was from the same collection as the original bedding set.
8. A tutorial for the yarn wrapped letter can be found here, on the Evie S. blog.
9. Tutorial for the paper bird mobile can be found here, on Martha Stewart's website. [I especially liked the "branch"that the birds hung from.]
10. Paint scheme. 

Also, we are running a special on Nursery Design, through the end of February [2012]. Mention this post and receive 50% off all Nursery Design Services, from design consultations to full staging and stocking of your nursery.

Happy Nesting,

Maternity Wear Wednesday: Ballet Flats

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Flats don't have to be scary or boring! Take a look at these cute ballet flats that will serve not only as fashionable footwear, but will provide as a topic for conversation and hide the fact that you can't bend over to paint your toes anymore. 

1. Old Navy
2. Steve Madden
3. Michael Kors
4. Report
5. Rocket Dog
6. Rocket Dog
7. Nina Payne
8. TOMS (These are not available yet, but I've had my eye on the bright blue pair since this picture was leaked on Pinterest.)

This blog post was not sponsored, however if any companies are curious, I wear a size 8.

And as always, if you would like to see your company featured on Maternity Wear Wednesday, contact heather[at]babybumpbeyond[dot]com.

Organizing for the New Year and a New Baby

Call it nesting or a New Year's resolution. Whatever you call it, I've been organizing.

We started with my daughter's toys.
I sorted out the toys she has outgrown, to save for baby brother, then separated the rest into boxes of "like" items (i.e kitchen stuff, dress up clothes, etc.)

Pre-organization: Lots of boxes, little rhyme or reason.

After: Every box has a theme and purpose.
Now we can finally find all the Mr. Potato Head pieces in one bin! 

And, as an added bonus, they are tucked neatly away in this
storage cubby from Target.

This process took a good hour or two. It could have been less if Laila hadn't been "helping" aka playing with all the toys we "found".
Next we ventured into her room and sorted through her books and pulled out the baby books for brother and organized the rest in her book shelf.


I even got a little crafty around the house and came up with some fun storage solutions:

Towel rod for ribbons attached to my desk.

Decoupage buckets for changing table organization.

Hair bow and headband holder made from a frame, ribbon, and hooks.
(This one was actually for a baby shower present,
I still have to make one for my own daughter.)
Inspired by The Paro Post 

Deciding to tackle organization for your whole house, or even one room can be overwhelming, but we all can take 5-20 minutes out of the day to commit to one thing, right?
If you are serious about staying organized this year, download this FREE Organizational Calendar from My Simpler Life. This will help keep you on track with small tasks each day like "go through one bathroom drawer".

If you are looking to get REALLY organized this year, and save your sanity a bit, make a "Household Binder" to organize important numbers, family calendars, bill organization, meal planning, chore charts, baby sitter notes, school assignments and special events, etc.
If you need a little inspiration, check out I Heart Organizing's Household Binder. (Her blog is a great resource for all things organization!)

For more quick organization ideas, take a look at this post by A Little Tipsy , and for FREE weekly planning printables, go to the Design Finch.


Happy Organizing!