Our Little Closet Nursery:

So! As many of you know, Tom and I live in an iddy biddy basement suite that we love to iddy biddy pieces. Which means when we found out we were expecting we started getting super creative with how we were going to maximize the space we had. To see where this project started, I'd recommend checking out my first home blog, here: 

Small Spaces // All You Need Is Love

This has been such a fun project for me! It has been so fun to watch the nursery evolve, because honestly at the beginning I had no concept in my mind of what I wanted it to look like. The only theme guiding me was "white with bright pops of color." 

Stage 1:

 We had received this bassinet from Tom's brother and sister in law- we were on a mission, keep things little to fit in our space, so this was perfect! I had been shopping kijiji like a mad woman and found this dresser (which was also the perfect dimensions for our closet space!) Tom and I had a heck of a time moving that dresser out of the woman's house... she was in a basement suite and failed to mention that before we went to pick it up. Haha. Thomas and I did not go prepared. But. We were successful. With much effort we moved that thing up many stairs, across a backyard, through the driveway to to his car! Go us.

 Tom's brother and sister in law also gave us this baby swing to use! We had put it in the nursery to start with, but have since moved it to our living room. Everyone tells me a baby swing is a life saver! We are so excited to use it. Oh, and if you didn't know or check out my first home blog post... our closet nursery is in our bathroom, hence the towels.  ;) 

Stage 2:

We were told that the bassinet wouldn't last us too long, and so I started doing research for a crib to get prolonged use! After much research we went with the Alma Bloom Mini (lasts anywhere from kids 12-24 months depending on how big your babe gets, has two mattress heights!) Again, this crib fit perfectly into our space. It's almost like this closet was made for that crib and that dresser specifically.  ;) 

Stage 3: 

A new area rug! The one we had previously just couldn't stay haha. I found this adorable chevron rug 50% off on Wayfair.ca. It was also the perfect size because I love how it "sections off" the nursery space from he rest of the bathroom. 

   I was also looking for a rocking chair that was small enough to fit in our space, and so- back to Kijiji I went! There was this darling lady from Calgary who had redone this chair, and I fell in love with the color- and it is just dainty enough to fit great! A huge thanks to my in-laws who were constantly helping me pick up all my Kijiji finds. I seriously owe them a delivery fee. ;)  

We only have a shower in our suite so we also got a baby bathtub. I found this cute one on Kijiji for $5. Because who doesn't love a baby bathtub? 

Stage 4:

Nursery Decor! So in about the middle of this project, I met a new friend by the name of Ashley! Ashley and her family had moved up here because her husband was starting school here in September. Ashley owns her own business (A Bundle O' Bows) and is super crafty. Like anything she touches instantly becomes a beautiful work of art. She introduced me to the wonderful world of small local shops. One of those shops was Clever Arrow, they sell the cutest felt garland! Ashley took us to a local market here in YEG and as soon as Tom and I saw the colors of the felt garland we went, yep! This one! Also, my mom had that blue mason jar left over from my wedding and gave it to me to put in the nursery. Without realizing it, pastel blue/mint became the main color of the nursery. I was totally okay with that! It's bright and fresh, and I feel it's pretty gender neutral so we can reuse everything in the future! 

Ashley and I had a craft date (I was helping her get ready for a market) and we made teething necklaces. Go figure I picked pink! 

Stage 5:

Storage bins to go in the top part of the closet. Don't get me started on these bins. Hehe. Let's just say Thomas and I had a heck of a time agreeing on some storage bins to put up there. We may or may not have gone through two rounds of different storage bins (some from Marshalls, and the other set from Amazon) that I ended up returning. However, I am super glad we did return them because that brought us to THESE bins, and I love them. I think they are perfect and add that punch of color I so desperately wanted. We found these aqua colored bins at Bed Bath and Beyond. It was SO funny because the whole reason I got Thomas to even go in the store is because I said "hun! They emailed me a 20% off coupon, so we need to go use it and get these bins NOW!!" So, he obliged. However, when we get to the till with these 5 storage bins (and a bunch of other stuff) the cashier goes... "It's 20% off one item, not your whole purchase. You have saved a total of $4". I burst out laughing. Sorry Thomas! 

Stage 6 - Putting it all together!
Nursery Reveal:

Putting it all together. <3 I have awesome friends, and Ashley got me the "enjoy the little things" wall decor as part of Baby P's baby shower gift, and my other friend Mary made the "be brave little one" wall decor for Baby P and also included it in her baby shower gift. It's crazy because the two didn't know what the other was getting, yet their wall decor went together perfectly. My other incredibly talented friend, Alanna, also did an elephant watercolour painting for me and included it as part of her gift for Baby P (Check out more of her talented work over on Instagram- Lannilu Arts!) We found the frame for the elephant painting 40% off at Micheals and liked how it had a wood frame to match the wall hangings. So after the baby shower I  was eager to set up all these goodies in the nursery!  We also found a spot for the felt garland to hang and went to another local Market and picked up the "hello adventure" wall decor from Word Girl ReinCHARMations. 

Nursery Details:

One of the first things I did once I was done working was finish the nursery. Of course once it was done I pulled out my Nikon and started snapping photos. 

💕 "Love grows strong in little houses, with fewer walls to separate. Where you eat and sleep so close together, you can't help but communicate. If we had more room between us, think of all we might miss. Love grows best in houses just like this." 💕

Bumpdate - Weeks 26-36!

Well! Here we are in the third trimester. 

I can't believe how fast time has gone. It feels like it's dragged on but flown by at the same time, ya know?!?! It's almost to the point where it feels surreal- like, you just stay pregnant forever, right? This baby doesn't actually come out of my belly, right? It has been so fun to watch my body change over the past 8 months- here's a little glimpse into the past 10 weeks! (P.S- I totally thought I would be better at taking WEEKLY photos. Didn't happen. This was the best that I could do, haha!)

Week 26! (Being 37 weeks pregnant right now, looking back 

at my 26 week belly makes me giggle... it was so... little!

Week 27!

Week 28! Okay- don't judge this super awkward

selfie pic. Thomas and I were trying to pick out an

outfit to wear for our maternity photos. So we were

trying on a bunch of outfits and sending them to our

photographer. And Tom was sporting this really nasty

moustache that I despised. It finally came off. In

October. For my birthday. What a gentleman.

Week 30! This was the ultimate winner for our maternity photos.

I tried going with the whole "fall theme" of yellows, tans, burgundies,

etc. But I just couldn't pull myself away from the bright colors and

bling. They will forever be my weakness.

Week 30! This is my favorite photo from our maternity photoshoot. A

special shout out goes to Emma E. Photography for taking our photos! 

We did this photoshoot on my birthday- and I spoiled myself by going to

Sen Studios to have my hair/make up professionally done. It was a good

way to spend a birthday. But. It ended up being a stressful day, because

of course, this was the first day that we got SNOW (happy freaking bday

to me)- and we had wanted to have our photos done in Kananaskis cause

the scenery is just SO beautiful. I had even taken the time off work. All

that jazz. Well! We were up for the road trip. But, when we got to Red

Deer there were mad flurries and accidents galore. So much snow. So

many cars in the ditch. I think we saw at least 10 cars in the ditch on 

our way there. And then Highway 2 was CLOSED so Tom and I took

a back high way to get there. This ended up delaying us like 1.5 hours 

and the whole time we were driving it was DARK and FOGGY. As a

photographer myself, I kept saying to Thomas, "YOU NEED LIGHT

TO TAKE PHOTOS!" But then a miracle happened. Literally as soon 

as we got to our location (Elbow Falls), the sun came out (it was 

still freezing, but we legit had sunshine and no fog), and there was

NO SNOW!!! It was such a blessing. P.S. my maternity dress

is from Pink Blush! I've gotten so many maternity clothes from

their website and I've loved everything I've gotten so far!

Week 34! My work family hosted a baby shower for me
and they totally spoiled me. Not only did we get to end our
work day an hour early to party, but they supplied me with
cash to put towards my DREAM diaper bag. I had done
so much research about the diaper bag I wanted and my
heart was set on a fawn design bag. So grateful to
those who also got Baby P cute outfits, books, sleepers,
and home made blankets! Baby P is one spoiled
little guy!!! 

The Fawn Design Bag - how could you not want one?!

Made of leather, so it's easy to clean up messes. It has a side 

strap or back pack straps so you can be hands free. And it's

beautiful. I can't wait to use it! Thank you work family! <3

We were also super spoiled this weekend because the lovely Serena also

hosted Baby P a baby shower with family and friends! Serena did such an

awesome job- the shower theme was... na na na na na na BATMAN!!!

Check out this sweet set up:

Okay seriously- how fun is that?!?!? Baby P was so so so so so spoiled. We had about 30 friends/

family come out and the support was overwhelming. I was reminded of the phrase "it takes a

village to raise a child." I truly felt my community wrap their arms around my family. Tom and

I feel so blessed. Serena had the idea to do a "diaper raffle" so anyone who brought diapers got

their name put into a draw for a prize. It was such a cute idea and we seriously got stocked up

with diapers which will be so nice for when baby gets here!!! But it was super embarrassing. 

Most people know this but. We started with opening gifts- and the whole time I was super

hot. Like sweating my face off. But I was like "it's cause i'm pregnant. Pregnant ladies get

sweaty and hot." But then as we were about halfway through I was starting to not feel

very good at all. I started feeling dizzy, but I was sitting down so I just brushed it aside.

Well! Once we were done opening gifts it was time to play games, so I stood up out of

my chair and I thought "I'm gonna pass out." I've never had the "fainting" sensation

before- like, ever, so I thought I was gonna die (okay, not really- but it freaked me 

out). So I excused myself to the bathroom, and shouted for Tom so I wouldn't be 

alone. As soon as Tom got to the bathroom with me I started vomiting everywhere.

it was awful. And then the world above me was spinning. And then I moved to 

Serena's room to lay down, and my guests played games without me. Haha.

Oh my gosh! How humiliating. THE JOYS OF PREGNANCY. Then people

slowly started coming to say goodbye to me. And then I threw up some more.

And then I was out of commission for the rest of the weekend. 

*Face palm, face palm, face palm*

Week 36! We went to our prenatal class this week! We opted for the full, 8 hour

day instead of multiple sessions just as it worked better for our schedule. But 

it was pretty funny seeing Thomas get ancy- he was like, "what if the baby

comes early! If we don't make it to this prenatal class we won't have any 

idea what to do, where to go...!" But, you stayed put and we had a lovely

prenatal class (well, also terrifying), but it was so nice to actually go to 

the hospital and kind of, somewhat, orientate ourselves to the 

building/parking. It's nice to be able to visualize where we will 

be welcoming you into the world. 

Bumpdate : Weeks 16-25

Baby bump at week 16! 

Baby bump at week 17! I felt babe's first movements this week- it felt like little flips and tickles in my tummy! I felt it 3x in one day this week.  

Baby bump at week 18! 

Baby bump at week 21! Starting to feel baby movements more strongly/frequently! 

Celebrating week 22 in Maui, Hawaii! I saw you move from OUTSIDE my tummy today! Grandma Parkins saw it too!! You are getting strong little one! :) 

Week 24- I feel like I really "popped" this week!

Week 25. You are the size of a cauliflower and we only have 15 more weeks to go!!! We are almost done the 2nd trimester. Time is flying! 

Introducing Baby Pasterfield!!!

This is Tom. 

Jenny asked me to take a swing at this whole blog thing. 

Here it goes! 

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As far as pregnancy goes, we've found that there are a lot of surprises. We know that there are many more to come, so we're just starting to get a taste of life's little surprises in child rearing.

Jenny hates surprises. There have been Christmases where we've gone out shopping for presents for others, and Jenny has decided that she wants something, bought it, and then given it to me to wrap. She's bought presents for me before and told me what the present was with only the littlest bit of prodding. I am more on the traditional side of receiving surprises where I want to know what the surprise is, but I don't actually want you to tell me. When it came to knowing about our baby's gender, there was no question that she wanted to know as soon as humanly possible, and I've always wanted to know that, too, since I like to plan ahead. We decided that we would for sure found out when possible.

When we started sharing the news that Jenny was pregnant, many people guessed the gender of our baby. Almost every single person guessed that it would be a girl. A few notable exceptions are my grandma Carol, my dad (especially once he saw the ultrasound picture), one of the former CFL players that came out to Edmonton to be a part of my work's Celebrity Golf Tournament that I was helping to organize, one of Jenny's colleagues at work (Queen Jean), and our family friend Becky! The other majority of the guesses were that it would be a girl.

Jenny's two cents:

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GENDER REVEAL!!! Eeeekkk I am so excited to share with you all who baby Pasterfield will be! Are you hating that we are putting you through actually reading something? Like Tom said before, I hate surprises. If I were someone reading this blog, I'd likely just scroll to the bottom to the pictures. For those of you who have patience, bless you. So! At the beginning of my pregnancy, I wanted to guess what I was having. At first, I was sure a baby girl was on the way (but that feeling eventually switched). I was so sick and I was convinced that severe morning sickness = girl, and the heartbeat was always so high at our ultrasounds - my doctor guessed girl, my Executive Director (who was an ER doc for many years) guessed girl. My whole family thought it was a girl. But right around week 14/15 when my morning sickness subsided, I wasn't so sure anymore! I started to feel like there might be a little boy in there! I had no idea what to expect, and the wait from 15-20 weeks was miserable (not really. I am being highly dramatic. I just wanted to know who was growing in me!) I wanted to go for our gender ultrascan at 18 weeks, but the booking lady wouldn't book me in until 20 weeks. I'm not one for arguing, so I just said "Okay, ma'am" and we booked exactly at 20 weeks. The whole ultrasound was so nerve wracking! The last time we had seen our little nugget on the screen, he or she was just a little shrimp baby with a flickering heartbeat. For the first 40 minutes, the ultrasound tech didn't say anything, and I couldn't see the screen. So I was just laying there like "uhhh, is everything ok over there?!?!" Then she told me that baby had a healthy heartbeat of 154 bpm and that baby was super active! She went to get Tom from the waiting room, and Tom came in and we got to see baby together for the first time. Our little shrimp baby nugget turned into a BABY! 

I know I'm biased, but I think that is the cutest cutest little nose! And my favorite was when the ultrasound tech showed us their cute little feet and 10 little toes. Eeeeek. Watching baby squirm around was so surreal. I was like, are you sure that's in MY belly??? I can't wait to meet this little human!!!!

OKAY! Now for the reveal. Hawai'i holds such a special place in my heart, and we really wanted to do a Hawai'i themed gender reveal while on our baby moon here in Maui. Shave ice here is ridiculously delicious. (and if your only experience with shaved ice is the snow cone you get at hockey games, then you are totally missing out). So we thought why not get a yummy treat and do a fun gender reveal at the same time?!?! Big thanks to Ululanis Shave Ice for helping us out with this! P.s - if you come to Maui, you seriously have to get the cotton candy shave ice with condensed milk on top. It was so amazingly delicious.

What will it be? Almost time to see... 

bouncing little he or a pretty little she?!!?!

We're having a BABY BOY, and we're SO excited!!! 

We can't wait to meet you, little man. <3

Stay tuned for more updates! We *think* we have a name picked out, but that will have to wait!

Small Spaces // All You Need Is Love

I have been looking forward to making this post for a while! I'm sure I'll be posting more about our little home as things come together, but I'm excited to share the beginning phases of our house face-lift! 

After we announced that we were pregnant, one of the first things that people said to us was "so you're moving, right?" Tom and I live in a very quirky, lovely, 1 bedroom basement suite. We have been in the same place since moving to Edmonton in 2013. We absolutely love it here. We love the location (so central and close to everything we need - it's 12 minutes to Tom's work and 12 minutes to my work); we love the tree lined neighbourhood, our back yard, our garden, our fire pit, our awesome landlords and neighbours, and financially, this place has allowed us to move forward with paying off debts and to be in a good place. We couldn't feel more blessed, and we truly have fallen in love with our little basement suite that we are so thrilled to call home. There was no way we wanted to leave, but we knew that we would need to be creative if we were to fit a baby down here!

The changes we decided to make:

#1. Where were we going to put baby? Our closet is located in our ridiculously huge bathroom, so I thought why not make our own closet in our bedroom, empty the bathroom closet, and make a closet nursery for baby? That's exactly what we did!!! 

The beginning stages of our closet nursery!!! This is the closet that we were originally using for our clothes. We took off the closet doors, created our own closet in our bedroom, and thought our bathroom is big enough, so we'll be creative with the space we have and USE IT! The closet nursery literally fits together PERFECTLY. We couldn't be more excited. I'm currently on the hunt for a new area rug (I'm going for the white theme with bright pops of color for a fresh look in our house. If you have any tips of where to get a cute area rug that would match the theme for a good price, let me know!)

We purchased this closet organizer off of Amazon. We love it because we are renting, and these are free standing units so you don't have to install anything into the wall (though we might install stabilizers hooks once baby is crawling and standing). You just set them up. Tom and I gained SO much extra closet space this way. I really think they worked out perfectly. We love it! The quality of the stand is really great, in my opinion, and very sturdy. If you are interested in purchasing some for your own home, you can find them here:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B001339YQO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It is my hope to jazz these up by getting cute baskets for the top to store all
our junk in. One thing at a time. We'll get there eventually! 

Nursery tidbits: Since our space is so small, we opted to go for a mini crib. I researched quite a lot of different brands, and for me it came down to the Alma Bloom Mini Crib & the Stokke Sleepi Crib.

The Alma Bloom Mini Crib:

We loved this option because of its modern and sleek design. It's compact, and when you're not using it, it folds up so small so it's super easy to store. It also has two adjustable mattress heights, so as baby gets bigger, you can lower the mattress so they can't get out of the crib. ;) I've read that this lowered crib is good for babies 12-24 months. It all depends on how long your baby gets. We also love that it comes on wheels so it's super portable and you can wheel baby with you around the house!! 

The Stokke Sleepi Crib:

Okay, so this crib FASCINATED ME. I thought it was so economical that you could have a bassinet  that turns into a crib that turns into a toddler bed. I loved that this crib literally grows with your child. I was obviously really interested in getting the white one (to fit my theme). As we looked into the Stokke crib, we were disheartened by the price. The crib itself is close to $1000, then the mattress is a couple extra hundred dollars, then the fitted sheet is almost a $100, then the extension pieces are a couple hundred dollars. After you add up all the expenses of this crib, it equals close to $2000. I just couldn't justify that in our budget. Then, if we have a second baby, we would have to go buy a new crib because our first baby would be occupying the original one. Then if I bought 2 Stokke sleep systems, the crib costs for 2 kids would be around $4000. That just seemed crazy to me. We know we could search for used cribs, but used cribs were selling anywhere from $700-$1000. As much as I LOVE the design, I couldn't fork out the cash for this crib. 

The Winner: Alma Bloom Mini. 

We went with the Alma Bloom mini because it was much less expensive, we can re-use it if future children come our way, it's easy to store, and because the rectangle shape of this crib just fit our space perfectly in our closet nursery. If you purchase the Alma Bloom Mini Crib, Mattress, and Sheets brand new, you're looking at a cost of about $750 for everything (the crib, the mattress, fitted sheets). We purchased the crib used from a lovely couple whose baby had recently outgrown the crib, and we saved $300 on the whole set. 

And I mean seriously. It fits PERFECTLY into our closet!!! 

We got our darling rocking chair off of Kijiji and I just adore it! 

#2: Creating space in our bedroom. For the first few months, we want to keep baby in our bedroom, so we wanted to create space in our bedroom to fit the crib beside our bed. 

Before:

After:

I thought to myself: We have a lot of VERTICAL space. How can we use it? We had 2 dressers in our bedroom previously, and a storage unit. To clear up wall space, we decided to sell both dressers, and replace those dressers with a storage bed! We had this bed custom made for us by a friend named Levi Marks. He did a great job, and we would highly recommend him for custom made furniture. He gave us a great price and finished our bed way faster then we expected! I had also done a lot of research about storage beds and lots of the storage beds you can buy from the store (Ikea, Pottery Barn, etc) have really shallow drawers. I researched my own blueprints, and we found one by Ana White that had deep drawers. Tom and I are not handy people in the slightest (Don't tell Tom ;) ), but if you are good with tools and are interested in one of these beds for yourself, you can find the plan here:

http://www.ana-white.com/2009/11/queen-sized-storage-bed 

or you can hire Levi to make one for you!

This bed has given us lots of storage and freed up space in our room so we can easily have baby sleep beside us for the first little while! 

My next goal for the bedroom: find colourful and beautiful new pillows to add that punch of color into our bedroom! Also, to find new wall decor. I'm thinking maybe a Hawaii beach theme... blue waters, pink flowers... I can't seem to get away from shades of blue and pink. Some of my inspiration for home decor:

Tom has been so patient with all of my plans. He's actually interested in talking about it and suggesting things on his own. The only thing where he put his foot down was when Levi had agreed to build our new bed, so I wanted to put our old, black bed frame on Kijiji right away. He was like "no way I'm sleeping on the floor any longer than I have to!". In his defence, I wanted to sell the bed frame about a month before the new bed would even be ready ;)   [Tom totally typed this paragraph into to blog, hehe].

And lastly! Our new coffee table. We love it! Purchased this from Kijiji as well! 

Our Coffee Table Before:

Our Coffee Table After: