Nursery progress - two steps forward, one step back

The nursery will be finished before the baby comes - that is my solemn vow.  But it is s.l.o.w going.  Because of my decorating philosophy, things have not gone as quickly or come together as smoothly as I would have hoped.  It's not because I can't find things I love, it's because I find too many things I love.  As soon as I find one thing and bring it home, I find something else that I must have but unfortunately doesn't go with the first thing.  Like the chair.

I fell in love with this chair when I saw it in the store and

 it went beautifully with the rugs we chose.

Two of these guys, remember?

Unfortunately, the chair didn't go with the ottoman that I fell in love with and was a must-have.  So I switched the chairs and was much happier.

Getting there!

Then came the one step back.  We have only had sheets on the bed and we needed a duvet cover.  I didn't want a solid one (but now I'm not sure) but with the pattern in the rug I knew that it would probably have to be solid or a teeny tiny pattern.  But then I fell in love with another duvet.  The pattern was not teeny, but I wanted to see if it would work.

Image courtesy CB2

I got some sheets from West Elm and it all came while I was gone this weekend.  Drew was home and helpfully opened everything and put it all on the bed.  

Image courtesy my house

Wop wop.  The patterns are waay off and they will not go.  The colors in the rug are nice and muted, but the colors in the duvet are pretty vibrant.  And yes, the rug is filthy.  I have a 95-pound dog, the weather here was nasty and I refuse to clean until I'm reasonably sure that she won't track dirt in five seconds later.  Fifteen seconds, fine.  But I draw the line at five.

But back to the patterns - they don't go!

It looks great with the sheets though!  It's playful and fun without being too childish and I'm really happy with the duvet.  *Here's where I smack my forehead and go, MEN!*

Drew sent me pictures of the bed once it was made and said he wasn't sure about the patterns. When I got home I agreed with him and asked if he kept all the shipping receipts so I could return the duvet and try again.  He hesitated and then was like, "Nothing.  Forget it.  Never mind."  After five minutes of pulling teeth, I finally dragged it out of him that he really liked the duvet and never really liked the rugs!  May I remind you *and him* that he was the one who picked out the rugs!  He was the one who showed them to me!  We live together!  This is OUR house!  I'm not going to bring anything into the house unless we BOTH like it because I want the same courtesy from him!  So why, my dear friends, would my wonderful husband pick out rugs, let me buy said rugs, put said rugs in the baby's room, only to say later that he didn't actually like them!?  MEN.

No matter how many times I tell him that I value his input, that his opinions are important to me, that I genuinely want to know what he thinks, something gets lost in translation.  And it happens a lot.  I'm constantly guessing if what he's saying is what he really means or if he's just trying to keep the peace, or he really doesn't care, or if he's going to come back later and then tell me what he thought in the first place.   

So there's that issue.  And then there's the issue with the curtains and crib skirt.  I want to make one since I'm not using a bumper or a theme, so I can't really use crib sets.  Besides, I want something that I will love.  And then I found it!  Carolyn turned me on to Hawthorne Threads and it was love at first sight! Their site is so easy to navigate and I love the feature where you choose a fabric and they offer coordinating fabrics!  I have spent hours and hours on that site just looking at all their delicious fabrics and then I found it!

Happy, vibrant stripes!

I squealed with joy - I found my crib skirt!  I ordered it and it came yesterday and it's better than I could have hoped!

Matches the ottoman - check!

Looks good with the duvet - check!

Love it on the green chair!  Maybe I'll have enough left for a pillow!

Wop wop.  Not so much with the rug.  It's too muted.

So the rug loses.  Poor rug - I loved you so.  Unfortunately, my hubby did not (*now* he tells me) so it's back to the drawing board.  He was talking to me about round accent rugs but I don't know how I feel about that.  And I'd really like something we can both agree on.  We're making a field trip to IKEA this weekend so I'll have a look at what they've got and see if the round rugs speak to my heart.

The other reason he wants smaller rugs is that we got the floors redone and they look really nice.

They'd never been sealed and although they weren't badly damaged,

they were beginning to show wear and tear.  

Did I mention I have a 95-pound dog?

Ooooh, shiny!

Approximately twenty seconds after the dog was allowed on the 

floors, she scratched them.  *sigh*

We have wall art and I'm just waiting to place that until the curtains are up.  Ahh, the curtains.  Now with the pattern on the duvet and the stripes in the crib skirt, I'm thinking we'll just need solid color curtains to keep the room from being too busy.  But what color?

Lime?

Lemon?

Burnt orange?

Some other color?

I'm totally laughing at myself because the baby is not going to care one way or another and I'm fully aware this is 100% for me and maybe like 12% for Drew (his 12% comes from somewhere else - it's not counted in my 100%.  He can get his own.)

We're having our Dallas baby shower on March 19th and it's at our house so most everything is going to have to be done by then because of course everyone is going to want to see where the baby will live when she gets here and I'm not about to flash my boobs.  Even though from what I understand, that's really where she's going to be living.

Besides, this process is actually fun.  The trial and error, the hunting and finding and one of these days (before March 19th) it's going to come together and it's going to be perfect.

Then I can turn my attention to her closet - we need to get it together so I'll have a place to store her mountains of clothing.

This is a tiny fraction of the clothes this little girl received.

Tiny.

I'm going to change her outfit three times a day, whether she needs it or not.