Blessed Day

Yesterday was a beautiful day.

Despite a few dreams of Bruce naming Claire differently when he blessed her, yesterday it became official:

Claire Elizabeth Dickson

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day: perfect Spring weather, good company, good food, and an antique Harley Davidson poster and antlers for the backdrop of our pictures.

All joking aside, I was filled with so much love for my baby and was so happy to have (most) of our family from both sides there to celebrate Claire.

Bruce gave her such a beautiful blessing and it was so neat to see all her uncles surrounding her.
I'm so thankful for families, for the Priesthood, the Gospel, for parenthood,

for Claire.

If one can be too sentimental I might be up for the prize.
Claire wore the same dress me and my sister Brittany were blessed in, the booties were from my grandma, bracelet made by her aunt Denise and the bonnet made by her momma.

And she looked so beautiful!

And to spare you of too many sentiments of a content momma, let me just say that I couldn't love my little Claire more. She is the joy of our lives! She is the sweetest little darling and I feel so blessed she's mine. I really love being a mother!


{pictures by Jen Dickson. schedule her to take your pictures! she's awesome!}

House Tour, Part II: The Nursery

notice the ceiling? this was through the hallway, bathroom, and both rooms

After:

I wanted a nursery feminine but not too girly, so we went with gray and dark pink with royal blue as the accent color.

we just painted the paneling gray and it gave the wall a great texture

we painted the top of the desk with chalkboard paint so one day Claire will get to color all over it

the only thing missing is the baby!

ahh...here she is, in full form, sucking her fingers

Making the House our Home: Part I

Welcome to our humble home!

Since everyone who knows anything about us knows that we've been working on 'quite the project' for a while now, I figured it's time to share some pics.

To say it more correctly it has consumed our lives and we've loved it, hated it, obsessed over it, painted more than two ever should, gotten blisters and sore backs, and finally, we now get to enjoy it!

We've been faithful patrons of Home Depot almost weekly, sometimes multiple times per week...and multiple times per day for that matter! We've also become very familiar with the aisles of Lowe's, Ikea, Target, TJMaxx, World Market and multiple fabric stores to furnish and finish! And while the term "finished" is relative, we're close enough to be living upstairs and be proud of our hard work!

We were really lucky to have a basement apartment to live in while the renovations were going full force, I was very much pregnant through the most of it, then brought home a newborn to slow things down even more. But you know what they say, home projects always take longer and cost more than you plan on. Ain't that the truth?!

The cozy basement apartment has been our home since we got married in 2007. So we had two lovely years living in the home, falling in-love with it's charming details and later realizing it could be a place we'd love to call our own. And charming it is! with all the little details a vintage lover appreciates, our goal was to preserve the beauty while updating and adding our own personal touches.

Hope you enjoy!

Before:

living room:

dining area:
(notice the right wall is already under construction. Unfortunately I didn't get a good 'before' picture. The original doorway was shorter and narrower, we widened and raised it)


front door:


kitchen:


hall closet:


bathroom:

Right in the middle of it all:

Bruce texturing the walls and ceilings


wall enlargement finished!


making room for a dishwasher after hand-washing for 2+ years! wahoo!!


linoleum coming up, cabinets primed


pink princess' bathroom falling out

and becoming a nice neopolitan

After:

living room:



dining area:




front door:



kitchen:









hallway:
(minus the crown moulding, going up tomorrow!)



bathroom:

(and because this is so long with so many pictures, and I don't have a deep love for blogging, I have to break it up. So coming later will be the rooms and the decorated finished versions!)