We have a design emergency!

We have a serious design emergency that only the awesomeness of Vintage Revivals can solve! If you're here, pretty pretty please vote for the fabulous Mandi from Vintage Revivals to come to my house and redecorate/rehab/beautify our master bedroom. Linky here (I'm #114), or at the bottom.

How we got into this mess

We moved into our house about a year and a half ago. I was 4 months pregnant, insane, and thought buying a 115 year old rehabber would be an awesome idea (in my husband's defense, he was terrified of me at the time).

So, we moved in, put in a brand new kitchen, rehabbed the guest room, decorated a gorgeous nursery, got the living room and dining room prettied up .... and put boring beige on the walls of our bedroom and threw in mismatching furniture.

We need help, desperately.

The good: 9 foot ceilings, original hardware everywhere, big windows, original big white baseboards.

The bad: everything else

Bonuses:

• We can see True Value Hardware from our front porch
• There are two fabulous antique malls a mile away
• Home Depot and Lowes are 2 miles away
• We kind of know what we're doing
• We will buy you margaritas (within walking distance!)
• We're pretty awesome and we're up for anything

Our Bedroom

Our closet. It's not good people.

OH yes, those are original doorknobs! .... with about 16 coats of who knows what kind of paint on them.

Art deco vent covers? Check!

Original baseboards? Oh yeah, we've got em. Unfortunately someone back in the 50s or so decided to nail a telephone line across them.

Furniture + Extras

Want to refinish my furniture? You have carte blanche. For serious; everything from my 100 year old dresser to the cheap ass bed. I've also got loads of random pieces in the house you can use:

I bought these tables off craigslist years ago with the plans to refinish them. Now, they are just evidence of what a huge slacker I am. They're about 70 years old, big, solid wood, and have marble tops. There are two of them. 

This dresser isn't in the bedroom now, but it used to be before we moved into our house. I bought it at an estate sale a couple years ago, it's about 80-100 years old.

This dresser is in our bedroom now, it's newer, but solid wood.

We found this mirror in the attic when we moved in, oh the possibilities!

My grandmother gave me a pair of these mirrors years ago. They are huge, heavy, and in desperate need of a coat of paint.

Two more of these. Seriously, how did we get so many mirrors??

So, PLEASE, vote for us, pick us, love us!

Gisele Budchen Makes Crunchy look like Crazy

Have you read what Gisele Buschen's said in an interview to Harper's Bazaar? You haven't? Well, you need to. Go on ahead. I'll wait.

Finished? OK.

WTF Gisele? W.T.F.

You have an awesome opportunity to spread the crunch as a celebrity, increase awareness about any good ole natural parenting topic you'd like. But, what do we choose to do? We decide to do an interview and claim that breastfeeding should be required by law.

Oh, oh, but that's not all! We also decide to berate mothers everywhere who use formula. Nice.

You could have been an advocate Gisele, instead you're giving crunch a bad name by acting like a radical zealot. Such a waste.

Pete's Birthday Present

I'm a little late on this since Pete's birthday was on the 12th, but we have a baby damnit.

Speaking of which, how long does "we have a baby" serve as an excuse to be a giant slacker for everything else in your life? I need to know how long I can milk that one.

So, the budget was a little tight this year with the whole having a baby thing and shortly before buying a 112 year old money pit rehabber. But, I wasn't going to let that get in the way of my awesome gift giver reputation. So, to etsy I went. I found an artist in California who does this delightfully pop-artesque illustrations from photos. One of Pete's favorite photos of him and X was taken with my iPhone, outside, in bad lighting. There's no hope of fixing it so it can be printed, but my awesome little etsy find could whip something up that's even better.

So, I sent her the picture:

And got back this fricken awesome illustration (printed on 11x14 archival paper, fancy schmancy):

(I actually had her change the stripes on X's outfit since they are brown IRL, but I don't have an electronic copy of that one. I promise we didn't spring him from baby jail before taking this picture.)

Oh, and how much did it cost? $30. Yes, $30. Crazy, right?

You want one? Of course you do, check out Emmie Bean's etsy shop and get yourself some custom art.

Most Inspiring Baby Photos Ever

I recently came across the most amazing blog, Mila's Daydreams. It's run by a new mama who posts photos she's taken of her baby.

The Catch?
She styles the photos with random items from her home to try and capture what her little girl may be dreaming of.

The results are beyond fabulous:

I really, really want to give this a try, but I'm afraid X wouldn't be as cooperative with the whole staying asleep thing.

Weekend Linkage

Photo by Bernat Casero

• 20 Indoor Activities for Kids (besides TV)
• Top 100 Children’s Books of All-Time
• Message with a Bottle
• A Cure for Nothing-To-Do Syndrome
• How I Celebrated my Birthday with 38 Acts of Random Kindness

Weekly Blog Giveaways

Photo by kalandrakas 

Every Friday I’m going to do a weekly roundup of giveaways in the blogosphere. These may be crunchy or soggy (I’ve deemed that the opposite of crunchy), but they will always be great:


What: ERGO Baby Carrier
Who: Newly Wed, Newly Bred
How: Visit Ergo and leave a comment here mentioning your favorite carrier. See post for additional ways to enter.
Deadline: Friday, August 6th

What: ERGO Baby Carrier
Who: My New Life as Mom
How: Follow the blog publicly and visit Ergo and leave a comment here mentioning your favorite carrier. See post for additional ways to enter.
Deadline: Tuesday, August 10th

What: ERGO Baby Carrier
Who: Babes in Disneyland
How: Follow the blog via Google Friend Connect and visit Ergo and leave a comment here mentioning your favorite carrier. See post for additional ways to enter.
Deadline: Tuesday, August 10th

What: iPod Touch
Who: Zing Tree
How: Register to be a member here & like Zing Tree on facebook here (It's ok, they're eco friendly and totally free). Contest details can be viewed here.
Deadline: Tuesday, August 31st


Don't forget about these weekly cloth diaper giveaways:

Bethenny Frankel is Cloth Diapering?!

I'm a reality TV addict. I hope we can still be friends.

So, I'm sitting here watching the latest episode of Bethenny, Getting Married; she's in labor and her assistant is helping get everything ready back at home. She pulls out the diapers to show the baby nurse and describes them as organic, I figured maybe she was using biodegradable disposables. But no! She pulls out a Grovia with the cotton inserts! How freaking cool is that?

(Bethenny, you're going to crush me if this was just product placement. But just a little, CDs can use as much exposure as they can get)

Eco Friendly Esty Finds

I love etsy. And I'm not talking about a sweet respectable love either, I'm talking about a stalkeresque borderline obsessive creepy love. I can spend hours scouring the site for awesome stuff to put on my little personal wish list, so for those of you who don't want to stay up all night surfing etsy, I've put together a collection of my latest favorite eco friendly discoveries:

Reusable Sandwich Wrap by The Umbrella Girl Shop

Made of 100% cotton and PEVA, instead of using a ziploc sandwich bag you can wrap up your sandwich (or really, any snack) in this adorable little pouch.

What's PEVA you ask? It's a PVC-free, non-chlorinated lightweight plastic that does not emit 'off-gasses' like other plastics do. PEVA is biodegradable, easy to clean, water proof, lead free, BPA free, phthalates free, and anti microbial resistant.

Wooden Baby Spoon by Elemental Crafts

 

What's really sweet, is they personalize it for you. Great alternative to the plastic coated metal spoons you find in the big baby stores.

Amber Teething Anklet by Tweet Baby Designs

No, this is not for the baby to chomp down on. It's made out of baltic amber, which releases a natural oil when the amber is warmed by the skin. This oil is said to be a natural anti-inflammatory and analgesic, and relieves the baby from the pain of teething.

Unpaper Towel Dispenser by Made in the Red Barn

The one thing I've struggled with when thinking about ditching our paper towels is how to make the cloth towels easily accessible. Well, problem solved. You just put this guy on your counter and throw your cloth towels in there, no folding or anything. And bonus, it's made from repurposed wood!

gDiaper Cake by Simply Baby Cakes

Perfect for the eco friendly mom to be, instead of the typical diaper cake this one is made from small gDiaper flushable inserts and come with a gDiaper starter pack. Plus, it's freaking adorable.

Plantable Bunny Paper by Recycled Ideas

I'm picturing using these for easter gifts for the little ones, you can plant them and grow a little something. Too cute.

$1 Cotton Babies Sale Loot

So, did you catch my post about the Cotton Babies $1 Sale? No? You should check it out.

Being the cheapskate bargain lover that I am, I decided to wake u p bright and early Saturday morning and head down to Cotton Babies. The doors opened at 9:00am, so I figured I'd be good to go if I got there around 8:00am. Well, when I rolled up at 8:20am this is what I saw:

That's the door. Ouch.

So, I walked around the building, and the line went all the way around (and it's not a small building). I ended up beyond the building, nearly at the end of the parking lot, here:

So much for beating the crowds. And so, the wait began. Now, I'm not a morning person, at all, but waiting in line was actually kind of fun. CDing mamas are just insanely friendly by nature, everyone was making friends in line and chatting. There wasn't one person just standing around playing on their phone. Cotton Babies had staff going up and down the line handing out cups of water and lemonade, and bagels. President and co-founder, Jennifer Labit, was even there, walking up and down the line and chatting with Moms, Dads, and kiddos. She was snapping photos for facebook and just being an all around cool approachable sweet lady. She should give lessons to the big box stores on how to handle Black Friday crowds, this woman knows what she's doing.

At 9:00 people were allowed in the building in small groups. It was extremely organized and fair, around 10:00 I finally got in the store! Yay! Except, there was another line that wrapped all the way around the store, and like I said, not a small store. Hey, that's ok, at least we had air conditioning now.

At about 10:45 I could see the light.
(the tables with all the CDs were just under the sign hanging from the ceiling)

But, people were taking their time, and rightfully so. I heard the first person to get in line arrived at 4:45am. Obviously you want to make sure you're getting the best bang for your buck, so people were pretty diligent about checking out the quality of each CD before committing to it.

At 11:15 I was finally in the sale area! Woo Hoo! I was concerned about what would be left, but remember what I said about organization? Whenever the tables would start to run just a little low, a new bag of CDs was brought out. So, the people at the end of the line weren't left with the rejects from the first people in line. And, there were a TON of CDs (below times about 5):

Most were in well loved condition, but there were some mixed in there that were on their last leg, and some that were in pretty good condition. My main priority was to find CDs with good quality elastic, since I'm not crafty enough to fix that, then try to make sure there was no pilling, and the aplix worked well. I'm happy to say I had excellent luck. There was a limit of 25 CDs per person (to all the husbands that accompanied their wives so she could get 50, you rock. Can you talk to my husband about that next time?) and I got all 25.

It took about 45 minutes to get all the CDs I wanted and sort through them (I lost count so I ended up grabbing 10 extra, and had to sit on the floor and pick out which ones I was going to give up). Then, to the checkout line:

That went surprisingly fast, and I was on the way home at noon.

Was it worth it? I got 25 used BumGenius CDs (sans inserts) and 16 used boosters for $39. Hell yeah it was worth it.

Xavier seems suspicious of them, I don't think he likes being outnumbered so badly.

St. Louis Mamas - Snag BumGenius CDs for $1 Tomorrow

If you live anywhere near St. Louis it's road trip time. If you live in St. Louis it's bragging time. Tomorrow at 9:00am Cotton Babies will open their retail store for their annual $1 Well-loved Bum Genius Sale.

Here are the details:

• The sale is available at the retail store only
• There is a limit of 25 diapers per check out. After checking out, you can get back in line to purchase 25 more
• Diapers may require repair and are in as-is quality
• They are not returnable
• Inserts are not included, but can be purchased seperately
• THEY ARE ONLY ONE FRICKEN DOLLAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that, I got a little excited. If you need me I'll be camped out psycho black friday shopper style in south county tonight. See you there?