peach & gold nursery inspiration

I have been thinking a lot about Ellie's nursery lately. I was stuck until I asked Maisie for her opinion- since she seems to already know so much about her little sister (including her name). So I asked what would be Ellie's favorite color she quickly responded "peach!" and instantly I agreed.

Now take this collage with a grain of salt because there's no way we will be able to justify buying even half of these items- especially seeing how they are only decorative pieces and heaven knows we need actual functional baby items (why did we get rid of 90% of maisie's things!?) but when browsing the internet this afternoon the world was my oyster, so I put together a dream nursery of sorts.

Ellie will be camped out in our room for awhile so we thought about converting the nook in our bedroom into a make shift nursery. Our master bedroom is gigantic! Like bigger than our living room, dining room and kitchen combined (and they are not tiny). So it really will feel like she will have her own space, but at the same time never too far from me. She will be sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed for the first few months while we get the hang of all those midnight feedings, but I would like to transition her to her crib (er... Maisie's crib?) when she's around 3 to 6 months. We do have a spare bedroom that we were originally going to set up as the nursery, but figured it was pointless because 1) I wouldn't want her in another room from me for the first few months anyway, 2) we plan on having the girls share a room eventually and 3) we would still like a place where we can have guests stay, especially seeing how we will have quite a few visitors after Ellie is born. Less than 12 weeks left people!!

Peach cloud mobile for nursery "MAY" with gold star by The Butter...

etsy.com

Gold Glitter Peach blush Feathers Tribal Bohemian Wall Art Print...

etsy.com

Crib Fitted Sheet (Gold Dot)

landofnod.com

Blush pink gold dot pillow cover

etsy.com

Cloud Wall Shelf- Small

etsy.com

Peach Bellini Tassel Garland (Peach and Champagne)

etsy.com

Peach and Gold Scalloped Garland

etsy.com

LexMod Molded Plastic Armchair Rocker in White

amazon.com

April and May: Spring in Holland

aprilandmaystudio.blogspot.nl

The name game.

As mentioned in this post and also this post Maisie has been very opinionated about the name of her future sibling. Since mid January she has been calling my belly "Ellie" and when we did finally find out we were having another daughter Maisie hasn't even thought for one second that her sister would have any other name than the one she has picked out for her, but I had other names in mind.

It's a pretty common situation that mom and dad can't agree on a name until last minute, but add a very opinionated and stubborn almost-4-year-old and it's just impossible.  But after fighting a fight that I knew would be impossible to win...I have raised the white flag. I have finally come around to the name Ellie. But for some reason I feel strongly that she should have a more sophisticated first name. Ellie to me sounds too much like a nick name. I guess some could argue that Maisie also sounds like a nickname, but alas, I still feel this little one needs a longer name.

Sooo begins the longest debate ever.

We first decided on Elinor. But after some opinions from family members (I'm looking at you KATIE) that has been nixed (even though we still like it).

My mom called and suggested Ellie Elizabeth, but Maisie has been on a Clifford book kick as of lately so Ellie Elizabeth was much too close to Emily Elizabeth the owner of the big red dog. Plus it's too many Es- Ellie Elizabeth Lee. Austin and I just couldn't commit.

So we started talking about Elizabeth. At first I wasn't too keen for it as a first name because it's soo popular and I hate being one of those people, but that bothered me a bit. I mean it has been in the top 20 names for the last 20+ years. But theres the fact that Elizabeth has a million nick names. Eliza, Elle, Ellie, Liz, Beth, Betty... I'm sure there are more. Which I guess makes me like it a bit better because most likely all the girls that are named Elizabeth will most likely go by one of those nicknames. 

Then when we started coming around to Elizabeth it was almost impossible to think of a middle name because Elizabeth sounds more like a middle name to me. It was hard to get the name to flow right. Everyone under the sun would suggest Elizabeth Mae (Ellie Mae) but I was not going to name my child after a character of the Beverly Hillbillies (even though I was named after Samantha from Bewitched- I never did master the nose twitch though). 

Names that we discussed before Ellie was in the mix almost all included the middle name "Jane" or "Kate" but Austin's brother and his wife just had their daughter who they named Jane, so we feel kind of weird taking a name that was just used by a close family member even though we are only using it as a middle name. But Elizabeth Jane sure does sound cute and Ellie Jane? Even better.

So we still haven't quite figured it out. We still teeter back and forth from Elinor and Elizabeth and still haven't nailed down a middle name for either. So I guess we will see. Wouldn't it be hilarious that after all this debate if we just named her Ellie and didn't bother with a longer first name? I guess it's not passed us at this point. haha

Cape Kiwanda

On one of our last days in Oregon we made a day trip to the coast. We started the day in Pacific City at Cape Kiwanda. It's becoming one of our favorite beaches- it always seems so much warmer, plus the easy to access tide pools AND the killer view of Haystack rock need anything else? Ice cream or maybe delicious fish tacos? But yes it has that too. I've always been a Neskowin girl (just 15 miles south of Pacific City) which is more secluded and even more beautiful, but it requires a little hike to get a great spot and with little ones- that's not always the most ideal. :)

We finished the day off with halibut fish and chips from Mo's and a little shopping at the outlets where baby girl got a few new things. Oh those nesting urges, I wish we had more money to spend on this little one, but a poor college student's budget isn't really leaving much room for baby things. It's not about the things really, but as any mama knows- you get some kind of high from buying baby items. It just helps to make it seem more real because until that baby is placed in your arms, you need little reminders like newborn socks and onesies to help it hit home more. Right? Mama friends back me up on this ok?

Oregon Random / Phone Pictures

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1 & 2- Spring Camellias outside Austin's parents house.

3- Random picture from Bryan Johnston Park.

4-The bonfire that yielded the most delicious s'mores.

phone pictures:

Instagram pictures:

OMSI

We have wanted to take Maisie to OMSI since she was born, but didn't- even when we lived in the Portland area because we figured she wasn't at an age that would fully appreciate it. So this trip to Oregon we made the time to finally do it and I am so glad we did. Upon getting there I realized our SD card was full, so I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I would have, but oh well. 

After OMSI and working up an appetite, we headed to Little Big Burger and after our bellies were full we made our way to the Horst's, our dear friends and ex-neighbors-but-maybe-neighbors-again-some-day-bffs-PTLG. After having the kids run all their energy off, we all went to McMenamins for delicious pan friend brussel sprouts and chocolate cake. Weird combo? Maybe, but I am pregnant remember. It was a great day and it felt so good to catch up and laugh until my sides were sore. We really are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends. We have quite the support team and it never ceases to amaze me.

Oregon Trip

Towards the end of March we took a little trip to Oregon to see family. Austin's grandpa was going to come up from Sacramento and knowing his age and our limited funds, opportunities to see him are rare. A few days before his trip he started to not feel well and decided to not come up after all, but since we had already planned the time away from Austin's work, we decided to still go. And I'm glad we did. It was jam packed with fun family adventures, a baby shower for my sister in law and we even hosted a BBQ to see all of our friends. It was lovely. The weather was beautiful all week long- one of the days was in the 70's and even our day at the coast was warm!

There's a part of me that thinks Oregon will always feel like home and I'm glad Austin agrees. Maybe we will end up at OHSU for Dental school and make our home in the suburbs of Portland. We will see though.

These pictures were taken on our last evening in Salem. It was just after sunset and we were on the way back to Austin's parents house after our day at the coast and we decided to stop by the capital to see all the Cherry Blossoms. Oh, how I love spring!