Show Us Where You Live Friday

It's time for nursery tours over at Kelly's Korner--I posted a tour of Anna's nursery before her arrival, so click HERE to see that post. Here's a picture of the cutie patootie who now inhabits the nursery:

I also found a picture of Will's nursery back when we lived in Gainesville (and owned our home so we could paint the walls!):

I think I like the crib a little better in Will's nursery, but maybe it's because the white furniture looked much better against a wall with some color on it.

Kids rooms are so much fun and I can't wait to see everyone's creations (I need some ideas for redoing Will's room once we move). Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Pink Paradise

I'm almost finished with Anna's room--it's still a little cluttered, but I'm posting pictures now anyway. (I had some contractions after a really busy day at work yesterday, which reminded me I'm not guaranteed to have another week to get everything ready.)

We are not going to be in this house for much longer, so I didn't go overboard with decorating. I couldn't resist hanging a few things on the wall, though, and I really wanted to get her name up on the wall. Will has letters spelling his name on his wall, and it's been one of the consistent things in all the times we've moved with him--he knows his name marks his territory!

Here is her crib:

I "borrowed" the idea for the letters from Land of Nod. They sell some made from wallpaper--they are actually very reasonably priced, but the colors of the "A" and "N" didn't match with our decor, so I made my own.


Here is her crib bedding, also from Land of Nod. I love it--one person on the website remarked that it looked a little Holly Hobbie-ish, and I grew up in a Holly Hobbie room for awhile, so maybe that's why I like it so much!



We have lots of new gear because we sold most of Will's baby stuff prior to leaving G-ville. John twisted my arm a little on that decision, and he was definitely right (we had NO room to store all that stuff in NC), but I do miss some of Will's things. Especially his baby swing (Amy and Bob gave us the Ocean Wonders one for Will)--this new one we got is fantastic in that it plugs into the wall (we spent, conservatively, a million dollars on batteries with Will's swing), but the colors are so muted that I don't know if Anna will be entertained by it. (Will LOVED the fish on his, and that swing was a total life-saver during his first 6 months.) Baby Elmo looks pretty content, though.



Here are the rest of the pics:


I'm going to try cloth-diapering with this baby, so here's my starter CD stash:



A bow-holder I made to hold her hairbows and a few headbands:

Framed paper dolls from an Anne of Green Gables paper doll collection--one of my favorite characters ever. I will be so sad if Anna doesn't like to read.

Her closet and drawers--John says he's never seen a baby with so many clothes. She definitely has more clothes than Will. Or John, as a matter of fact.

I got so carried away with the letters idea that I used it again in the guest room. But, really, how can you beat wall decor for two rooms for under $25?

Now we just need a baby girl to use all this stuff!

Christmas Tour of Homes

I found the BooMama Tour of Homes during some blog-hopping on the internet and thought it was such a cute idea that we had to participate. Plus, it gave me some incentive to unpack our Christmas decorations (2 moves to rental houses in 2 years has made me loathe to do any more unpacking than necessary).

Welcome to our house!

(Yes, this wreath is on our wall instead of our door, because I lost our wreath hanger in the move. Sigh.)


Here's our real live Christmas tree (which was a little hard to find--I think we bought from the last tree lot in town, so if he closes, we may have to cave and buy artificial):




My favorite thing this year is the Moravian star we bought during our year in Winston-Salem. I'm going to have to figure some way to rig it into a tree-topper, it's perched a little precariously this year.



Perhaps my most favorite Christmas decorations are our stockings (made by Nana). Will badly wanted to play with his, but I told him he couldn't until Santa came, then he could take it down and hold it. So now he thinks that Santa's sole purpose is to allow him to play with his stocking. Due to a lack of fireplace, we're substituting the TV armoire for a mantel this year.



Will's favorite Christmas decoration is his Little People nativity set (also courtesy of Nana). It is not usually in place like this--more often, Mary and Baby Jesus are enjoying a ride in his Little People bus, while the animals hang out at the garage.




I made this wreath last year to display our Christmas cards, from an idea from Shutterfly. It was full to overflowing last year, but either we lost some friends with all of our moving, or they (like me) are still waiting for Shutterfly to ship their cards. :-)

I made this advent calendar for Will from an idea I found online. It's easy to make (no sewing skills required!) from a minimuffin tin and some scrapbooking supplies. Each paper "door" hides a scripture and a piece of candy.

And finally, before I forget--refreshments! This is a recipe for Santa's Punch, from my grandmother, Mimi. If eating tons of chocolate Christmas morning doesn't give you a sufficient sugar rush, this punch will do the trick! And if you're a member of the McClellan family, nothing says Christmas morning like this punch in a 12-days-of-Christmas glass (accompanied by a little fried turkey, of course!).

Santa's Christmas Punch

2/3 cup Tang mix

1/2 cup sugar

3 cups water

2 cups pineapple juice

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 quart ginger ale

Mix first 5 ingredients and chill, then add the ginger ale just before serving.

Thank you for visiting, and Merry Christmas!!!