Thank you all so much for reading this blog! It was my first real attempt at blogging and I had so much fun with it!  I learned a whole lot and decided to jump in even deeper and start a new blog with its own website called Sycamore and Slate.  I would absolutely LOVE for you all to check it out and follow me there.

In 2017, my husband and I purchased 90 acres of farmland, and now (Spring of 2018) we've started building our forever home on the property.   I post updates all the time with lots of pictures and information about our new home.  I also have tours of other local homes on there as well for you to explore!

Again, thank you so much for reading this blog and I hope you'll join me over in my new little corner of the web, Sycamore and Slate.

Evelyn: Five Months Old

So Evie has been in her fifth month of life for a few weeks now (she actually just about to the 6 month mark) and I haven't updated the blog about that yet (talk about me being behind)!  She is still as adorable as ever, learning new things all the time.

She's still wearing 3 month clothes... silly little girl. Grow, grow, grow! I command you!  (She is actually growing). Those 3 month outfits (especially the ones I have washed a lot) ARE starting to get a little wee bit snug now! And I think soon after she turns 6 months old, the 6 month clothes shouldn't be too far away!

(By the way, do you love that pillow she's leaning against in that photo up there?  Ahh, me too!! We spotted that at Target and it followed us home.)

This month, Evie has been steadily become a better sitter, she's been as happy as a clam, her hair has gotten crazier everyday, and she's reverted to sticking her tongue out a lot. So she's pretty much the coolest baby ever. Since I'm so late in posting this, I'll just let some pictures of Evie's fifth month do most of the talking!  Enjoy!

Still smiling in her sleep.

Loving her play gym, still.

There's that hair I was talking about!

We had a little Sunday morning photo shoot:

Broke out the carrier so we could go on a little adventure:

Cheesing in her seat:

And we loved cuddles this month.

Bath time has become a very fun thing.

We took our first little family get-away to the beach with my parents and Uncle Brandon & Aunt Tanya:

Making faces:

Above, we're working on reaching the floor with our feet so we can actually bounce.  Below, chewing on "Evie" a gift from Uncle Brandon.

Tummy time:

We experienced our first "blackout" with no power and lots of fun, flickering candles!

And, last but not least, cuddles with dada... Evie loves to fall asleep on daddy :) It's so sweet.

Evie's Woodland Nursery

(UPDATE!!)  I've started a new blog called Sycamore and Slate, and no longer update this one.  To see pictures of our brand new house, as we're building it, please check out our new website. Thank you for reading! - Elana

As soon as we found out we we're pregnant, one of the very first things I thought about was decorating the nursery.  But, of course, I knew that we should wait a bit until we got through the first trimester and (since I wanted the room to be gender-specific) until we were far enough along to find out if the baby was a boy or girl.  But that didn't stop me from starting to plan right away!  Or from buying a few things that would be okay for either a boy or a girl.  

I knew I wanted a forest, nature theme and there were so many adorable things every time we went to Hobby Lobby or Target that I just couldn't leave behind.  Chad will attest to that.

It was good actually that we had to wait a bit, because the room had previously been our "spare bedroom" and it was completely packed full with my old bedroom and office furniture from before we were married, mostly all of my crafting supplies, and tons of other odds and ends.  Pretty much everything that we didn't have a home for got shoved into that room.  So I spent weeks cleaning it out, throwing things away, and packing things up for storage or a yardsale.

We had painted the whole house when Chad bought it just a few years before, a neutral beige color, so I left that alone.  It worked well for the forest theme.  But I did add white vinyl birch tree decals to one of the walls as a focal point.  I made these myself with my Silhouette Studio software and my Silhouette Cameo Electronic Cutting Tool.  I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!



 

It took a while to get all the furniture we needed, and a lot of running all around to every furniture store within 3 hours to find the right things.  And also, lots of the good old online-shopping.  We got all our furniture, actually, from various online companies (amazon, wayfair, cymax, etc...) without being able to see them in person first. I was nervous that none of the white and ivories and tans and greys would match each other, but I ended up loving it all.  Each piece is slightly different from the others and yet they complement each other really well!

There were also a few DIY projects.  I helped Chad make these amazing gutter bookshelves. (And by help, I mean I found the idea on Pinterest and then tagged along with him to the hardware store to make sure he got the gutters I wanted).

I waited until all the furniture was in place, before I hung the pictures and wall decor so I could get the placement just right. Again, Chad did most of the actual hanging while I stood back and told him where to put everything. He will readily tell you how much he hated doing that.  Leveling all of them and getting the spacing just right was a huge pain (especially if your wife is a perfectionist).  But it was so worth it in the end! 

Many of the pictures are from Hobby Lobby including: 'Let Your Heart Sing', 'Hello Beautiful Baby Girl', 'And Baby Makes Three', 'Follow That Dream', and 'Children Only Have One Childhood'

This frame and the mini bird clothespins are from Michael's.  The quotes are Project Life journaling cards.

The 'E' was a DIY project that I made from sticks from my own back yard and a hot glue gun.

This was another DIY project that literally took maybe 3 minutes.

These gorgeous paintings are by TinyToesDesign, and they go so perfect in these frames I found at Bed Bath & Beyond.

I think it's the little details that finish the room off and make it feel cozy...  Like these sheer and shimmery curtains we got from JC Penney, hung from a shiny gold curtain rod from Lowe's.

This super soft lambskin that I have draped over Evie's ottoman.  It's so soft to put my feet up on when I rock and read to Evie.  This was a gift from Chad's parents to us back when we first were married. I love that it ended up here.

And we had to have some adorable baby toys... This soft hedgehog riding toy. I mean, come on.  Too adorable to pass up.

Also, I'm showing my owl love with some accent lamps... a little night light and a gorgeous lamp with a 3 way bulb for soft or bright lighting depending on the need.

And of course the adorable DIY projects that were gifted to Evie from loved ones.  A precious knitted lamb from Aunt Jessie and a lovely sign with one of my favorite verses from Aunt Tanya and Uncle Brandon.

How fitting is this in the closet?? I love the reminder when I'm picking out her clothes for the day.

And speaking of the closet... Chad and I got a system from Lowe's and he installed that, too! Even though Evie's closet has doors, I knew that I'd just be leaving them open most of the time because I'd need to get in there a lot for changes of clothes. I wanted something I could make kind of pretty so that it wouldn't just be a jumbled mess in there.  Plus I wanted something to allow for two hanging rods because baby clothes are tiny and it seems silly to just have one row across the top of the closet.

I love love love how the room turned out and I love spending time in there with little Evie.  The only thing I want to add yet is a mobile above the crib when Evie starts actually sleeping in here... which I think is going to be very soon! :)