Mom Blogs Are Like Dinosaurs

Has anyone noticed recently that Mom-Blogs (a.k.a. cisforcullen) are going a little... extinct?  I read a lot of crap on the internet on the daily and it wasn't long ago that I was reading crap on a lot of Mom-Blogs, but now, I'm kind of not.  Why is that?  I think it's because the DIY Blog has replaced the Mom-blog; evolution y'all.

Since purchasing our second home, I've become obsessed with decorating blogs and websites, scouring the internet for Ikea Hacks (or makeovers to the layman) and tons and tons (and tons) of DIYs.  Move over parenting tips and birth stories, I've got mason jars to chalk board paint and Pottery Barn rooms to replicate up in here.  But as I'm sure the T-Rex did, when I see my fellow Mom-bloggers falling farther from the top of the food chain, it makes me wonder how long anyone will want to keep reading blogs about kids... and more precisely, this blog about my kids.

It is true that I've done a few DIY posts myself.  I love a good DIY or make over, but not reading about motherhood would be hard for me.  One of the biggest reasons I started writing this blog was to have a sense of community, meaning that I don't have a lot of friends who are mothers, so I had to seek them out on the internet.  Once I started reading other women's stories, I didn't feel so alone.  Mom-bloggers were funny and real and sometimes they shared their heart-break; I don't know how to describe the connection I had other than saying that it felt like I was reading an email from a friend, a friend with a kid (or two or three) who was going through what I was going through in real-time.

It's not that I don't appreciate the internet for what it is: a place to figure out how to do everything from being a parent to sanding and refinishing your hardwood floor, but I've just never been part of anything that I see being "yesterday's news."  I think my crew of Mom-bloggers is probably safe for now,  cause women are still havin' babies and other women want to read about it, but it does make me wonder how long we Mom-bloggers will still be relevant.

For now, relevant or not, I'ma do this blog my way so that me and my children have the opportunity to look back on these memories and see lots of pictures of them rather than a whole bunch of painted furniture, because after all, these children are my greatest DIYs.

(Excuse the throw-back pictures of the boys, I was cleaning up my phone and wanted to share some of the photos that I had never gotten around to doing previously.)

Pictures Have Never Been Easier

When I was pregnant with Arden, Jim and I decided that we needed to get a "good" camera.  Sorry, rinky-dink point and shoot, but we wanted "profesh" grade pictures of our kids.  We did minimal research and found a camera that we love(d).  Naturally, we ran to Target that very day and plunked down our benjamins and walked out with a camera that was more expensive than my wedding dress.  That camera is amazing.  The photo quality is impeccable and I absolutely LOVE the moments that have been captured, like these:

But as time goes on, I'm reaching for our big,  good camera less and less; these days, it's all about my iPhone 4s and as it turns out, I don't think I'm alone.  I've been reading on a few other mom-blogs about the camera phone replacing a professional grade quality camera and like these women, I'm not feeling bad about it.  I'm sure each of them have their reasons, mine is two-fold: first, I'm trying harder to capture more organic moments and lugging around a two pound camera with a big, dangly strap isn't conducive to that and second, I'm lazy; obviously, laziness is more of a factor than I care to admit.

Lately, I've been feeling a little guilty.  After capturing hundreds of moments with the good camera during Jameslyn's first week, the dslr camera has been sitting on the counter since then, staring at me.  However, my phone, which is in my hand more than it should be (tisk, tisk), has been snapping away.  One day, I'm very sure that I will be glad that I've heard the apple-camera-snap more than the authentic dslr click and I've all but resigned myself to the fact that these pictures are going to make up the majority of my children's photo documentation.

Despite my acceptance of my phone replacing my dslr, I wish that phone pictures were better quality.  But wait, there's hope for people like me and it goes a little something like this: photo editing apps and basic photographic skill, both of which Kelle Hampton has helped me explore.  Recently, I read her how-to tips and I'm glad that I did, these are all useful, practical ideas that can be used with both a dslr and a camera phone.  After a few days of being conscious of her tips while taking pictures, I think my point of view behind the lens has changed... for the better.

Don't get me wrong though, photo editing apps like Afterlight are still my jam and for good reason, the quality of the iPhone will never hold a candle to the dslr (check out the before and after below).  These days, with a little luck and the right exposure, I'm pleased with the photos that I'm taking; although, I think it helps that the subjects of my photos are beyond cute, because there ain't no app for that!

A Pink and Green Nursery

Since we found out that we were having a girl, it was all sorts of pink and bows and girl stuff.  I'm not "overly" girlie; however, I can hold my own when it comes to shopping for little girls.  When we moved, we immediately knew that we wanted Jameslyn's room to be the closest one to us, walking the extra steps in the middle of the night is not fun!  The room has two windows so it gets lots of natural light and was as plain as could be- white walls, white carpet, white closet doors.

I decided that I wanted to get a nice crib; read: expensive.  I searched for weeks until I found one that I liked and that was on sale.  Then I decided what bedding I wanted and the bonus was that it was on sale.  The rest of the furniture items and decor touches (not many) were all purchased either on sale or on a budget.  I haven't added up the total amount we spent on the nursery, but I will keep a total as I go along.  I will also give links to websites and specific products as much as I can. 

From day one, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, something beautiful, chic and vibrant.  I Google image searched the heck out of "girl nursery," "baby girl nursery," "Pottery Barn nursery," "Pottery Barn baby girl nursery,"and found one image that I really liked:

The Pink and Green Pottery Barn Nursery

This nursery is beautiful, chic and vibrant; check, check and check.  The Pottery Barn Kids website explains all the reasons that this nursery works, but one of the most meaningful reasons that I was drawn to this nursery was that my wedding colors were pink and green and so it seemed like this was the perfect room to welcome our first little girl home to.


Here's the deal, I want the Pottery Barn nursery on an Ikea budget, so I used that as the inspiration and we went from there.  Here's our little girl's room (please excuse the lighting):

Branch mobile- $0, I made this myself, sure did!

Pink shelving unit- $89.99, Ikea: EXPEDIT Shelving unit.  Please note, this line of shelving is being discontinued April 1st!  I know, anyone that is an Ikea fan is probably crying right now, these shelving units are a staple in our home (we have four) and the homes of millions, maybe even blillions, of people all around the world.

Baskets- $14.99/each, Ikea: BRANAS Basket.

Wooden rocking horse- $30, Michaels.  I tried to find this on their website, but had no luck, whomp, whomp...  We found this in the unfinished wood section and I plan on painting it some day, but I like the natural look, so I'm in no rush to do that.  I'm estimating that we paid thirty bucks, but honestly it's been a while since we bought it, so I can't really remember.

Monogram Decal- $37, Vinyl Thingz (Etsy).  No joke, we've gotten so many compliments on this decal, so it's definitely worth the money.

The crib- $399, This is all Pottery Barn, baby!  The Kendall Crib  I love, love, love this crib and the price, which I feel is competitive.

The chair- $199, This is the EKTORP JENNYLUND chair from Ikea and it's pretty amazing.  It's featured in a lot of nursery pictures throughout the internet and I know why, it's reasonably priced, it's sturdy and the slip cover is... wait for it: WASHABLE!  We have two little boys who really like chocolate and we've already washed and removed stains from the white chair cover.  We love this chair; however, the seat is pretty narrow, so be skinny if you're going to buy this or it may not be very comfortable.  I know that I feel like a giant when I'm sitting in it.

The dresser- $229 & some change, I found this dresser on sale on amazon.com during the holidays and I snapped it right up.  It's a great dresser and notice that the lines match the crib almost perfectly.  The matching dresser for the Pottery Barn crib is $569, so that's a significant savings and I love me some savings.

The pillow and pouf- $19.99 (pillow) and about $30 (pouf), I searched the Target website and I can only find the info for the pillow, which is real annoying, because the pouf is comfortable and great solution for an inexpensive ottoman.  Another good feature of the poof is that it can be thrown all around the room by older brothers and isn't going to be destroyed or cause very much destruction.

The branch mobile is a total DIY and I really should've documented the steps to making it.  Here is what you will need:

A branch

Paint samples (we legit did need the paint samples to figure out what color we wanted to paint her room, so we didn't just five-finger-discount them)

String

Glue

A circle punch like this one, which I didn't use so please either read up before you buy it or go to your local craft store

Ceiling fasteners

Here's how: I cut out circles and numbered them according to colors so that I could easily make double sided hanging pendants.  I put a large dollop of glue on the back of four circles and then placed the string in the middle.  I put the corresponding circles on top of the circle-glue-string "thing" and placed about 10lbs worth of books on top for a few minutes to make sure that the glue adhered to both sides.  I repeated this until I was bored and then assembled everything.  I know that it's not perfect and that it can never be hung over a crib or actually any surface where a baby might be, but I really like how it turned out and I'm hoping that one day Jameslyn will be happy to say that her Mama made it especially for her.

Family Pictures

Over the weekend, we I decided to get family pictures taken.  We went to a chain picture snapping store and we scheduled the first appointment of the day.  After twenty minutes of different poses and promising candy and then taking it away, we finally managed to get a few adorable pictures of everyone, myself included!  We bought the "rights" to the pictures so we got a cd with the originals on them and I know from the picture numbers that we took about 70 frames in order to come up with about 15-20 good shots; there's a lesson in all of this, be patient... and if you ever work in a chain picture store, don't ever show up to work hung over, that would be a nightmare.

Here's some of the winners:

And here's one picture that me laugh, allow me to explain.  Before we went, I told the boys that they could do a silly picture. However, they didn't get that you only do one silly picture so here were their faces every time the photographer told us to say cheese; for about three seconds they'd be completely fine and smiling and then she'd step away to take the picture and they be like this:

I love this picture so much, because it's an accurate representation of who they really are.  The photographer wanted me to get birth announcements for Jameslyn using this picture and I declined... but if I did, here's what they would say: