Emskyrooney

Ok, so I probably shouldn't call these "final" shots, since we've just decided that we can't stand how dated the fireplace hearth looks against our shiny new tiles and will be tiling the hearth this weekend (most likely with simple slate or travertine tiles).  But here are a few photos of our "completed" fireplace project. Remember, here's the BEFORE: As decorated by the previous owners when we bought the house in 2007.  The fireplace and shelves have looked just like that ever since: In 2008 we put in new carpeting, but the fireplace and shelves were still GROSS.  Oh and we left the t.v. cables exposed for years: And now: These photos aren't the best as it was a funny time of day to be taking them with bright light coming in the windows and darkness on the other side of the room (another issue in our house- no overhead lights except in the kitchen, hallways and bathrooms).  But the makeover brightens up the space considerably, and freshens it up...

Since I don't want baby #2 to end up with an inferiority complex because every second of my pregnancy with LP/his birth/his life so far was documented on my blog and in photos, I thought I should really start doing some pregnancy updates.  (And Baby #2- if you ever read this, LP's baby book is no where near complete and he's 3 now.  So don't feel too badly if you don't even have a baby book!  I'm sure there are thousands of photos of you....) So I'm at 16 weeks.  Also known as 4 months.  In June of 2008 I was 16 weeks along with LP and was feeling pretty good- not as exhausted as I was in the first trimester. I posted the following Babycenter update which is right where we are today: "Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length . Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more...

Thought it was time for a little update on the projects we're working on at Casa LeBaron.   In living room news, our fireplace is almost finished!  The new tile has been grouted (no pictures yet) and all we have left to do is seal the grout and install the new fireplace doors.  Then I have to figure out how I want to style the mantel- I usually just throw a bunch of frames and things up there but am not sure if that's the way I want to go right now...  Here's how it's looking (or, here's how it was looking before we grouted the tile): Below is a close up of how we fixed our cabinet doors.  Originally they were oak with horrible brass hardware.  The panels on each door front was cracked and they were U-G-L-Y.  So we popped out the panels, painted the frames, and used my handy dandy glue gun to inset new panels.  The new panels were made from one sheet of radiator screening that we cut to size and sprayed with oil-rubbed bronze spray pain...

So in three weeks we'll hopefully know if baby # 2 is going to be another boy or a girl.  My bets are on boy, mainly because I've felt the exact same way throughout this pregnancy so far as I did with LP (i.e. no morning sickness but completely exhausted all the time).   However, although I've predicted tons of other babies correctly (seriously, I haven't made a mistake yet in all of the times my friends/family have had babies), I thought LP would be a girl and was obviously wrong.  So we'll see.   And you know me, I love to plan projects and make up inspiration boards for decorating.  If we have another boy I'm sure I'll make some changes to the nursery, but not as many as I'll make if we have a girl!  Today I thought I'd share all of the girl nursery ideas that have been keeping me up at night! Our plan either way is to use our original nursery since we moved LP into his big boy room.  Once again we'll use the crib, glider, and changing table t...

This month at I ♥ Faces   the theme is "Beautiful Black and White."  Thought I'd share this one I took of LP playing on his bed next to the window... I love this profile shot!   Be sure to go to I ♥ Faces to check out the other entries!

Over the weekend we made a fair amount of progress on our latest DIY project.  Here are some photos! Remember, this is the direction we're heading: LP and Paul painting the mantel: All painted!: Hooray!  After more than 4 years you can't see the cables and cords below the t.v. for the first time! You can see a bit in this photo how our equipment shelf used to look- when we moved in Paul rigged up a temporary (4 year) solution by extending the bookshelf so that it was a bit deeper.  Unfortunately he didn't extend it enough so the equipment hung off the edge of it, which was both ugly and precarious! And here's how it looks now: By raising the shelf a bit we were able to hide more of the cords.  We also made the shelf deeper so our equipment actually fits better.  The CD player was banished to the basement (we can use our BluRay player to play CDs).  Raising the shelf gave us room for video storage underneath.  It's still not ideal (I'd love to not have ...

Anyone who has visited my blog in the past few days might have noticed a new button over on the right column.  It's a link to a blogroll I just joined called PAIL , which stands for Parenting/Pregnant after Infertility and Loss.  Started by Elphaba over at " Alice in Diaperland ," it's a community of bloggers who find themselves parenting or pregnant after struggles with infertility and loss.  It's a way to bring together women who were once classified as "infertility bloggers," but who now don't feel quite comfortable in the world of "mommy bloggers" even though they are parenting and or pregnant.  We're women who are lurking around a bit on both the infertility and the pregnancy message boards, but who don't feel quite right commenting or asking questions in either type of forum. Those of you who are long-term readers might recall that I initally started my blog because I found out I was pregnant with LP and wanted to write about ...