Stinkerpants

Charlie’s Pink and Orange Modern Nursery

July 30, 2010 in Parenthood & Life • Projects & Tips for Babies & Kids • Personal Projects • Our Home

Despite the fact that there are probably more pressing matters to discuss, I am really excited about this, so I’m just going to talk about it now!!

I finished Charlie’s nursery, at least for the most part.  I am SUPER thrilled with how it turned out, so I want to share it with you guys.  It’s the first room in our condo to actually be done, too, so that makes it even more exciting.  I’ll share the other rooms (with before and after photos) as we finish them.  To be honest, I'll probably share them with you as they're works in progress (rather than done) because I've gotten really picky about artwork recently and it's taking me awhile to visualize what I want for each room.  But I digress.

So here are a few photos.  The full set is on Flickr with more detailed photos, but here’s the gist!

First things first: the before photos.  When we bought this place, it was DISGUSTING.  Like, don’t-touch-anything-without-washing-your-hands-and-for-the-love-of-god-don’t-sit-on-the-toilet-seat DISGUSTING.  The guys who lived here were foul, foul people.  Notice in these pictures that the walls are dirty.

But it was the carpets that held the most evidence of their foulness.  We’re talking layers upon layers of stains.  For health reasons, we decided to have the carpets cleaned using a green carpet cleaning service rather than replacing them (did you know that new carpets out-gas for at least five years?  Scary stuff).  You should have seen what they took out of the flooring in Charlie’s room.  Gross.  Here’s the before (try not to barf):

And now, for the afters!

This is the view from the hallway (more on that wallpaper later!) and the entrance to her room.  Last year, I saw a nursery on Ohdeedoh with a FABULOUS art installation.  I stored it in the back of my brain, and it was the first thing I made for Charlie’s room (and I made it in December!).  You might recognize the lanterns from our wedding ceremony.  I love the idea of re-using items, and I think they’re much better executed here, haha.  The alphabet print is from my store, and the dresser & storage containers are all from Ikea.

On the left, a close-up of the changing area.  On the right, the glider area.  The night stand is from Ikea and matches the dresser (they're both "Hemnes").  The glider was $40 from Craigslist and came with a nasty blue cushion.  My fabulous mother made a new cushion (using fabric from Ikea), plus the pouf (using a pattern from Amy Butler) and pillow.  The Felix the Cat stuffed animal was a gift from my grandfather, Charles.  Charlie is named after him.

I am in love with the crib.  I really wanted something sleek and modern (and non-toxic), and the Argington Sahara crib really fit the bill.  The crib comes in several finishes, some of them retailing for over $1k.  We ain’t made of money, though, so we chose the Red Maple finish from allmodernbaby.com, which was half the price and on sale when we bought it.  The bumper and crib skirt were made by my mom, along with the beautiful circle quilt, which she made using a pattern from Bijou Lovely.

No nursery (well, room even) is complete without a little art!  You can see detail shots of these on Flickr, but in summary, there’s an awesome frame with three images from an old Chinese children’s book I found in my in-law’s basement, a custom drawing I did of Charlie with her animal friends, the Wish Tree from my shop, and two free downloads from tinydecorblog.com.  

Charlie’s bookshelf doubles as storage.  We reused the Ikea Expedit from our apartment bedroom (it was used as a room divider there) and filled it with books and knick-knacks.  Can you tell we're fans of Ikea?  I love it.  We now live 10 minutes from one, and it has allowed us to decorate on the cheap - and I think their stuff looks great!

So yeah, that's it!  I am really not into baby-ish nurseries.  I didn't want a bunch of frilly bows everywhere, and dolls & teddy bears kind of scare me.  Luckily I'm not the only one out there with the same feelings about nursery design, and there's a lot of inspiration on websites like Project Nursery and Ohdeedoh.  I hope you guys like it as much as I do!

What’s New With Me!

July 28, 2010 in Parenthood & Life • Miscellaneous Ramblings

Thanks so much for all the wonderful feedback yesterday via Facebook, Twitter and the blog!  There are still some kinks being worked out (specifically with Feedburner, which magically went from saying I had hundreds of subscribers to 36 in a matter of minutes. This is very scary & hopefully not true), so if you see anything amiss please let me know!

Business stuff aside, how about a little personal update?  A LOT of stuff has being going on the past few months.  I have been getting bigger and bigger.  We found out we’re having a little girl, and we’re going to name her Charlie.  We’re super, super excited.  I had completely convinced myself that she was going to be a boy, and I was really shocked and thrilled to find out that I get to buy clothes for a girl.  The only person who is possibly more excited about this prospect than I am is my mom, who has gone absolutely insane making stuff for this kid (I am so lucky!).  I can’t wait to show you guys.

My mom, constructing the bumper for Charlie's crib. Her room is SO. CUTE.

Another thing I can’t wait to show you guys?  Our. new. house.  Well, technically it’s a condo.  We have been wanting to move out of the ‘burbs and into a more urban area for a VERY long time, but we didn’t think it was financially feasible, given that we live in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The median home price here is something like $400k.  That’s the median home price, which also factors in the cost of tiny homes in really bad areas.  And we saw some of those really bad areas, oh yes we did.  $300k for a house with a bullet hole in the bedroom window, right next to the freeway? In an ugly suburb we didn’t want to live in anyway?  Yep, we saw it.  Although I think that one was a little overpriced. ;)

We decided to start our search after we realized that a) we might actually be able to afford something because of all the foreclosures right now; b) trying to split our bedroom into a bedroom/nursery when our living room was already a living room/office kind of made me want to die.  We talked to an amazing mortgage broker who explained that we could, indeed, make it work, and I immediately started pulling up MLS listings.

We had a lot of trials and tribulations along the way (and I’m more than happy to answer any questions anybody has about this process, just ask!), but our awesome real estate agent helped us to find a foreclosed condo in our ideal area.  We thought we didn’t have a chance in hell at it, but our realtor said, “it’s worth a shot!”  So we bid on it.  We were one of at least six offers, and after three weeks of waiting, we figured we’d lost out.  Then, out of the middle of nowhere, we found out WE GOT IT!  We were SO excited.  

But seriously, getting an approved offer in this market is only the first step of a very long journey.  The buying-a-foreclosure process is a major pain in the ass.  We had to extend our loan contingency twice because the bank that owned the place was taking so long.  A couple of times, we thought we might lose the place, and I became one of the most superstitious people on the planet (as if my Clarisonic losing a charge has any bearing on anything!). It was about three months straight of non-stop stress, but in the end...we got it.  And we’ve been living here for about two weeks and love it.  

The night we got the keys, we sat on the living room floor & ate take-out from our favorite Italian place, now just five minutes away.

A lot of work needed to be done before we could move in (the people who lived here before were DISGUSTING - no joke), so I can show you a lot of fun before and after photos once we’re all set up.  I’m really thrilled to be in a neighborhood with a walk score of 89 (seriously a dream come true for me) in a three bedroom, two bathroom place.  We can’t believe our luck.  We must have done something really great in a past life.

The night we moved in, I very nearly went into labor.  Well, I guess I kind of did go into labor?  I don’t know, haha.  We ended up in Labor & Delivery in the middle of the night, where I was having some pretty serious contractions.  Those things HURT, you guys.  But after getting IV fluids, I was sent home and they eventually subsided.  I was told to "take it easy," which is an awful thing to say to a Type A personality who loves to decorate and is surrounded by boxes (and also happens to also be nesting).  It has been an exercise in asking for help, which I've never been very good at.  I usually move kitchen tables by myself.  I’ve been getting Braxton-Hicks contractions pretty much ever since, but I’m getting used to them now, and because I'm now considered "full term" I don't have to sit on my butt as much anymore, which is great.  We’re thinking she’s coming early, but who knows?  She’ll probably be late, like most first babies.  ;)

Anyway, that’s a bit of a summary of the past few months for you guys.  I hope you’re all doing well, and I can’t wait to catch up!

New, New, NEW!!!

July 26, 2010 in Running A Business • Running Stinkerpants

YAY!!!!!!!!!  If you’re not reading this in a reader, you can already see what I am so excited about.  If you are reading this in a reader, click over to the website or blog and check it out!

Remember back in January when I said I was working on some very exciting new stuff for 2010, and then I announced my pregnancy a couple of weeks later?

Well, that wasn’t the only big change I had planned.  For Stinkerpants, I was working with Flourish Web Design to create a completely new website, which was sorely needed!  It took longer than I expected, but it’s finally here and I’m totally thrilled with how it turned out.  I’m also really relieved that I can get back to blogging now that it has been launched!  I've had a lot of personal changes in the past few months (and my little baby is officially considered full term, believe it or not!) which I can't wait to share with you.

I won’t go over every single new feature of the website with you (I don't want to bore the crap out of you, no matter how excited I am!!) but I will show you guys my favorite parts.

First off, there is (of course) the new look of the front page:

Not only is this super fun and cute, but it makes finding the different types of work I do much easier – before, I think it looked like I only did custom drawings for weddings.  Now, I think it’s clear that Stinkerpants is weddings and a lot more.

Next is the shop, where everything is really streamlined according to what you’re looking for.  If you are interested in custom stationery for your wedding, you’ll find it right alongside fun greeting cards for your bridal party.  If you’re looking for custom drawn baby announcements, you’ll find them next to art prints for your new nursery (and all of the individual alphabet prints are back! Yay!).  I also have a section for “everyday” items like wall art, calling cards & other stationery, and announcements or holiday cards.  More products will be coming in the future...and, as always, if there are any products you’d like to see me make, leave me a comment somewhere on the blog or shoot me an email!

The “How It Works” Section is a new area for custom clients, which should be really helpful.  In addition to links to my latest projects, there are pages for envelope options, layout options, a FAQ and an intro into my pricing (which has changed! More on that in a few days!).

And, one of the more exciting things that I’ve been wanting for a LONG TIME is a brand new logo.  I did a lot of research to find something I knew I would like for a long time, and settled on the beautiful calligraphy ofGina Sekelsky of lettergirl.  

Isn’t it wonderful?  I was looking for something fun, classy, completely non-generic.  I think Gina nailed it.

So there you have it: a general overview of some of the biggest changes.  There will be more details about some of the other changes (such as the changes to my pricing structure and new products) in the coming weeks, but I think this is good for now.  I hope you’ve all been well!