Nesting Instinct

I've read a little bit about this pregnancy symptom, so to speak, called the 'nesting instinct'. Basically its the need to prepare your home for your baby in every way possible. I don't know if this is what I have, or if my need to home-make is more based upon my realization that we will probably live here longer than I originally planned. Either way, I have been going crazy trying to re-organize, decorate, clean, and beautify our little home. Sean and I were extremely blessed when we got hooked up with our little townhouse. His Uncle's sister, who used to live here, passed away a little over a year ago. She was in her late 50's and single so her brothers and sisters were kind of responsible for her belongings, etc. Probably the day after her funeral, Sean's aunt called to ask him if we had found a place to live. We hadn't and were a little desperate for guidance. We came to see it, told them how much we had been looking to pay for rent, and they accepted. We have seriously been so fortunate. We have two bedrooms, a garage, and a little backyard. They also didn't have a place for her furniture so they left us a couch, la-z-boy, a beautiful kitchen table, and two king size beds with dressers and nightstands. Our bed has a solid wood log-style frame and matching furniture. It's beautiful--and way out of our budget! All this furniture was a life-saver considering we only had Sean's desk to claim as our own. Now we have Sean's desk and a TV/entertainment center! Making progress. Anyways, when we first moved in I didn't really do much to decorate probably just because we had no money and I also didn't really feel like we would be here long. But now, we're planning to be here til Sean graduates from UVU. We still don't have a lot of money to spend on decorations, but that 'nesting instinct' has kicked in and I've been getting really creative as to how to add some simple things to turn our townhouse into our HOME.

This is what the outside looks like from the front. And then below is a picture of our backyard. Sean's uncle's other brother is a landscape architect, so he did all of this for his sister before she passed away. It's beautiful!

I made pillows for the couch downstairs as well as bought these frames to put wedding pics in. This couch isn't exactly my ideal piece of furniture . . . but it is about $1000 cheaper than a new couch. Also, it has two recliners as well as the middle coushion folds down and becomes cup holders and a little table. Sean only discovered that about 3 weeks ago--it was a big deal! So all in all, we like this couch, and I like it a lot more with the blanket, pillows and photos above it. It's a keeper!

I also improvised with all of these black frames I already had, but never put up. I got the Family Proclamation for free at the bookstore, and then I cut up chunks of these photos of flowers I had from last year's calendar. The temple photo is actually a card someone gave to us when we got married. Haha. And then I spent a total of $1.50 on the 8x10 photo. Not too shabby.

Other things I've used to decorate have been stuff I've snagged from my old room in my parents house or from old decorations my mom had kept. Nobody has noticed . . . hehe. And my next project for a wall in the kitchen involves another 'borrowing' from there as well! :)

I'm super excited to keep going especially when we get a little further on setting up the baby's room. We have a crib, a dresser, a rocking chair, and a full bed that will all be in there. So far I've made his blanket for the crib and a cover for the rocking chair. Pillows are on my to-do list still. And we'll see how creative I'll be able to get when it comes to hanging things on the walls . . . But this is a pic of his blanket and the monkey I had that someone gave to me when I was a teenager. His room will be jungle themed and mainly yellow, blue, and green. I've been sooo lucky to get furniture from our parents. This pic is my fav! I love the jungle fabric! So fun!