Emerson's room

So I suppose it goes without saying that all pregnant women are entitled to going a bit off the deep end during their 9 month journey.  I would say that I have used that entitlement quite often; however, where my most frantic, overbearing, and altogether unpleasant moments have reared their ugly heads have been in relation to preparing our baby girl's nursery.  Don't ask me why, but from the moment I found out that we were expecting a baby girl, I immediately started to put nursery details together at a break-neck pace.  My husband could only sit back and watch as I planned out every painstaking detail.  I wanted it to be gorgeous.  It would be very girly while still staying understated.  Most of all, I wanted a calm place for her, a retreat in a world that is overwhelmingly overstimulating.  Well, of course, my mother and I had the best laid plans ever.  We knew how we wanted each piece of furniture to look and knew where each accessory would fit.  

And then the fun part began...we had to find the 'perfect' things we had planned out in our heads.  Now, some of you already know this about my mom and I, others of you do not.  We plan lovely ideas that we are convinced are the simplest, most commonplace ideas anyone could ever have.  No matter how many times we are proven desperately wrong, we always say things like, "Oh, that will be easy to find," or "I've seen things like that a million times."  Let's just say, when we actually go out to find these 'commonplace' items, we nearly always come up with nothing.  Well, our tradition remained true and many, many weekends were spent out aimlessly searching for these 'easy-to-find' treasures. My crazy pregnant brain was have mini panic attacks left and right because, many times in the process, I was absolutely convinced we would never find what we needed at a price we could actually afford (of course, I could easily find everything I needed in an astronomical price range...).

Now, the furniture and accessory shopping aside, the truly arduous part of the nursery was transforming the room itself.  My poor, sweet, unsuspecting husband offered up his man-power to help me paint and prepare the room.  Before the makeover, the room designated as 'the nursery' was a teal blue color that made me want to die a little bit.  It was an awful color.  However, I never knew how truly hateful I would become of this aqua tone as the room makeover progressed.  I chose to paint the walls a lovely pale, champagne-tinged pink.  Well, let's just say that the pink had a very hard time covering the blue.  A very, very hard time.  My husband, being the gem that he is, painted 2 heavy coats on the walls and then subsequently agreed with me that the blasted walls were still blue.  Another gallon of paint later, we finally felt like the pink won the battle.  We then hired someone to install the crown molding that I had to have in her room...trust me, it is a very important detail.  We then realized that the ceiling was actually not white as it had looked for so long...no, it was blue.  More blue.  The previous owner had painted the ceiling that terrible aqua color and then gone over it once with white paint, leaving it a slightly lighter shade of vomit-inducing aqua marine.  Three coats of ceiling paint later...we finally felt like the ceiling was white.  Success.  However, I then looked at the baseboards and closet doors and noticed how yellow the trim paint was.  It wasn't white and crisp and I felt that it really compromised the pink on the walls.  So...my dear husband got to paint all of the trim in the room.  Needless to say, my husband's labor of love for our daughter was definitely played out in all of the hours he spent, paintbrush in hand, in her nursery.  

Well, I have to say, I am very pleased with the results of our work.  With the help of my very talented mother, I think we created a room that I always pictured my little girl to have.  I can't tell you the relief it brings me to know that her room is ready for her arrival.  

These pictures will give you some idea of how everything came together.  Forgive me for the amateur shots...I'm definitely not a photographer.