i was really excited about a contest that one of my favorite blogs, ohdeedoh.com, put on in november.  i spent a good 3 hours preparing my entry of arden’s nursery for the “small kids, big color” contest.  i admit, i was mostly motivated by the $750 grand prize money, a shopping spree at dwellstudio.com.  (i love any and all things ‘dwell!’)  but this contest also motivated me to photograph the nursery now, while it still looks all pretty and organized (in other words, while arden can’t crawl and child-proofing hasn’t become urgent quite yet) and before it moves into a perpetual state of toddler-induced chaos.      

monthly 'growth photos' displayed at entry

well, then ohdeedoh went and screwed me by posting my entry at 4pm on a friday (2 hours after we left town, headed for a purposely internet-free weekend in rural arkansas) and then allowing only 48 hours for voting on arden’s room.  had i known it was posted, i would have encouraged (ok, begged) about 100 of our closest friends and family to give us a ‘thumbs up’ but i had to settle for a measly 41 thumbs supporting our entry.  ARGH!!!!  alright, i am bitter, but i will get over it.  i don’t necessarily need anything ‘dwell’ at the moment….i think my competitive nature just got the best of me.  i should save that for the family game nights over the holidays.  (“….visions of sugarplums taboo, cranium, apples to apples, pictionary, puzzles, rock band and guitar hero danced in her head….”)  unless you want to boycott ohdeedoh.com like i am doing at the moment, you can check out the contest and more pictures of arden’s nursery at    

http://contests.apartmenttherapy.com/2009/ohdeedoh-color/    

the 'before' shot

pre-pregnancy bod in sexy paint rags

the purpose of this post was actually not for me to whine, but to document the process of decorating the nursery, because we had so much fun doing it! this room spent about 3 years being an undecorated office-slash-dogs’ room-slash-dumping ground for everything that didn’t have a place to be stored or displayed in our teeny tiny house. then, it unexpectedly turned into my at-home office in the summer of 2008, although i had just painted it over july 4th weekend in preparation for baby weeks should ‘heshe’ decide to arrive soon.  finally, when i became pregnant last november, my shiny work desk and computer moved to the guest room and this room officially became the nursery!  our friend joe will attest to the number of weekends i sat on the floor in my pajamas, with a cold cup of coffee sitting next to me, cleaning out the dozen or so banker’s boxes that held the junk from my cubicle at LRK.  jason will agree that i spent way, way too many hours searching the internet for the perfect, affordable, natural wool rug. (and i found it!)  and our friend scott, who showed more interest than anyone in my artistic creations, will attest to the amount of hours i spent painting and perfecting (in my usual control-freak style) the animal faces to hang over the crib.  when i look back on preparing for ‘baby weeks’ to join us, some of my favorite times were the hours i spent alone in the nursery, or planning and preparing the decor, and trying to wrap my brain around the fact that i was becoming a mom…. 

FINALLY, I’M A MOM!!!!!!!!! 

  

i wasn’t the only one who worked on the nursery….jason did all the dirty work, like putting together the crib and the dresser, securing the bookshelf to the window trim and even popping in a new fence in ‘arden’s garden’ just weeks before arden’s due date!  KK helped me organize the dresser contents just days before arden’s arrival, after i had a slight panic attack with all of our shower gifts exploded all over the house.  and darla and gracie made great guinea pigs pugs for testing out the durability of the crib!  

  

THANKS to nonna for the heirloom glider, to aunt mena for bringing me baskets from ikea, and TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO HELPED MAKE THIS ROOM WHAT IT IS: arden’s little slice of heaven, where we spend countless hours snuggling and dancing and reading and playing on the floor….it’s everything we ever hoped it would be.