French Toast Sticks

Do you want some this? NO
Do you want to have a sandwich? NO
Do you want to try some banana? NO
....This was almost every meal time once Inga was around 18+ months. 
Once your child starts to eat real meals and doesn't live off of random shit thrown in front of them it can be a bit jarring. I know, for me, it was a bit of a transition between that time when I just let her "play" with her food and gave her lots of choices, to switching to giving her real food that really she needed to start eating. 
I don't think that Inga is all that picky in comparison to other kids, but I do think she has her quirks. She still is not a big meat eater, other than some chicken tenders and the classic summer sausage. She has recently started to venture in the realm of fish. Whoa now...settle down there miss foodie. 
Since we still make her meals for daycare, I needed to try and come with meal ideas for her so that the daycare still thought I was a good mom that didn't just give my child the same thing every time she went. I am sure they already find me to be an inconvenience since she is the only child in the toddler room that doesn't eat what the daycare serves. 
I saw a recipe for French Toasts sticks in Pinterest a while back and I thought I would try it. The hard part with Pinterest is that there are no reviews for these recipes and I wasn't really in the mood for a "nailed it" moment. I looked up recipes for french toast with good reviews and used that recipe instead. 
It isn't all that complicated and if you make french toast regularly then you pretty much got it covered. This post is moreso just to give an idea of a food item that you can make that you know what the hell is in it that you can feed your little nugget. 

I use about 7 slices of white bread - sue me - You could use the wheat bread, but the wheat bread we buy has seeds all over it and she was not having those. 
Milk 2/3 cup
Vanilla 1 teaspoon
2 Eggs
Cinnamon to taste
Powdered Sugar to taste

When I make the mixture, I just use the vanilla, eggs, and milk. Cinnamon does not mix with just liquids and what you will find is that the first slice you make would be like the Youtube Cinnamon challenge if you tried to mix the cinnamon. 
I dip the slices in the mixture and put them in the pan and then I sprinkle the powdered sugar and cinnamon on the slice. Works pretty slick that way. I use the powdered sugar as just a little bit more sweetness to entice the monster to feed. 


My monster isn't too keen on the crust and so after I make them and they are cooled, I get to enjoy a bit of the fruits of my labor by cutting and eating the crusts. Then I cut them into 3-4 strips and put them in a ziplock bag and freeze. Done and done. 

Welcome Your Toddler into the Kitchen!

This isn't a huge DIY project but for anybody else that is currently dealing with the pick me up pick me up stage this could be helpful in being able to retain your sanity in the kitchen. 
I guess you could call it a toddler proof step stool. 

Materials:
IKEA step stool
2 - 1" x 3" board cut to 9 1/4"
1 - 1" x 3" board cut to 16"
4 - square 2" x 2" dowels cut to 17" (this can be changed based on how high your counter is. Doing it again I would actually do 18 inches so her little digits don't get caught between the counter and the stool). 
8 - 1 1/2" wood screws
4 - 1 3/4" wood screws
Whatever color paint you want - the glossier the easier to clean

I bought select pine boards from Home Depot as I thought that would retain shape from dings better than the common board pine they have. 

I apologize that I do not have the full process of putting it together but it is pretty self explanatory. We had to work a little bit backwards as we already had the stepstool from IKEA for a while but the joy of IKEA furniture is that you can take it apart!
I found one of the gazillion allen wrenches in my drawer (I have put a lot of IKEA furniture together...I mean a lot) and took the top step off the body. I then screwed the square dowels up through the bottom of the step so the screws will be hidden when  you reconnect the top. If you want the step to go back on the stool flat you will need to counter sink the screw hole so that the screw does not stick out. 

From there we screwed the side 9 1/4" inch boards into the dowels. You might need to two for this to spread the dowels so the boards are flush with the dowel edges. Once you do that you can push or pull in the sides to connect the front board. Easy as that!

Inga loved it from the get go and immediately learned how to sit down and crawl out of it. I have seen others where they put a dowel in the back as a brace....meh seems like a lot of extra work and she hasn't freaked out and frantically fallen backwards...

Since our step stool was already black, painting it was not really something I was all that excited about. When I went to buy the boards I checked the oops paint and what the hell, there is a black...ish semi-gloss paint for $2. Psch sold *throws money* TAKE MY MONEY!
Because the select pine boards are much better quality they have much sharper edges and corners so I just took a medium grit piece of sandpaper to it. Took about 5 minutes. 

All in all this cost:
$15 for IKEA step stool
$15 for Select pine boards (I bought one square dowel and one 1" x 3" board)
$2 Oops paint

Way cheaper than those crazy $100+ Montessori ones. 

Child proofing doesn't have to be ugly

I am sure one of things that many parents dread is the absolute hideousness (yup making it a word) of  child proofing. Putting those weird covers on the door handles, giant air mattresses around your pointy furniture, and gates at every corner that just seek out stubbing your toes and laughing maniacally as you hobble away...or fall down the stairs. 
Every single one of your lovely decorative items has been hoarded away into a cupboard that of course you are unable to get into without a key fob, key pad number and retina scan to open. 
It doesn't have to be like that. Child proofing does not have to be ugly or make your home look like you are crazy. 
We were a bit slack on the whole child proofing thing. We just put some covers on a couple outlets, which now we can't seem to remove (thanks IKEA) without a screwdriver. I wonder what the swedish words for Adult proof are...maybe that is the name of these covers.  Otherwise our child proofing consists of moving the dog's water bowl and putting a couple blockers in the bottom drawers. I am sure when she starts walking around on her own that we will need to put the locks on some other cupboards but until then we will just keep an eye on her. 
One of the pieces of furniture that I was worried about from the get-go was our coffee table.
It is a sharp pointy death trap of corners. We tried putting some of those little corner covers on it, but I think I knocked it off almost every time I stood up so that was not going to work. It also has drawers on the side. That and it looked like our table had weird deformities on it. I thought there had to be a better way right? Off to Pinterest!

Searching....child proofing....really? Why not just get rid of the coffee table if this is the result. 

Hmmm what about buying an ottoman instead....$250?! Shut the front door...no!
For that price I can make my own ottoman....wait..what? I could totally make my own ottoman! I made my own tufted headboard. I could totally do that, right?
Searching....DIY coffee table ottoman....hmmm seems like lots of cutting and gluing and nailing...ain't nobody got time for that.
What if.....I just made a cover for the coffee table and then removed it when she wasn't a hazard to herself anymore? 
Searching....removable coffee table cover....really didn't find anything other than a slip cover, which really wasn't what I was looking for. I needed to add some cushion to the corners. Looks like I get to be a Pinterest Pioneer and be the first. 
I decided that I was going to make a box to lay over the top part of the coffee table and then cover it. 
Here are the steps I took:

First thing is that I measure the coffee table each side and the top so I knew how big I had to get the boards. I planned on getting peg board if I decided to be a masochist and do tufting. I knew that peg board was flimsy that I had to get wood to put in the corners to hold it a bit more stable so that was going to require that I add a few inches to each piece of the wood to compensate and have it still lay over the top of the coffee table. 
Went to Home Depot and found a big sheet of peg board and had the guy cut all the pieces for me there! It was 7 cuts and he didn't even charge me the $.25 per extra cut. So much easier that trying to it myself. Can't even imagine how much time that saved me. I am not a big power tool gal ironically.

My Project Manager in the back was making sure I got all the items on the list.....

Peg Board $13

Wood dowel $3 - cut that at home easily with a hand saw. 

Once I got home I found some screws and a screw driver and started putting it together. 

This really did not need to be perfect at all as the entire thing was going to be covered in foam anyways. And the peg board already had some nice holes for me to work with. I hadn't screwed the top piece on yet so it looks really wonky but once it was all screwed together it was pretty straight. 

I found some zip ties in the garage just to put along the edges to put them together since, like I said before, peg board is pretty flimsy and just needed some stability. 

The second part I did need a bit of help just to get it as smooth as possible. 4 hands were better than 2 for this part. 

I bought 2  Mattress toppers from Wal-mart for about $11 a piece. We stapled each other individually over the frame and took care to make sure the corners were extra squishy. 

Then I bought some quilt batting from Wal-mart as well for about $9 and wrapped that around to make it smooth. We stapled this as well and had to fold it a little bit in the corners. 

Then in typical Heisick fashion we only finished half the project and left it without a cover for about 3 weeks....Inga really loved pulling on the quilt batting. 

My mom is a sewing phenom, so she offered to help make the cover for it rather than just stapling the cover over it to make it more permanent. I don't like permanent....especially with an almost one year old and bulldog. 

She said we would make a slipcover with some elastic with a hem. 

Basically the day ended up being my mom making the whole slip cover and I just watching the babes cruise around. 

We followed the steps for this cover here

After we (mom) did that, I had to put the elastic all the way through the hem. We fitted it over the top and pulled as hard as we could and tied it tight. 

Here is the finished product!

The cover is super lightweight and can easily be pulled up and removed the take off the cover and it is super soft.  Inga won't stop cruising around it. 

The fabric we got was Sunbrella outdoor water repellent fabric so it will hold up nicely. 

All in all, the entire project cost me around $65 and maybe a total of 3 hours to do the entire thing (not including our 3 week procrastination).

Once she is able to walk around and not look like a little drunk human we can remove it if we want....although we both really like it and might not. 

Let me know what you think!

Feeding our kid in public - The Battle rages on

Inga just turned 9 months this past Sunday, so she has been eating solid foods for about 3 months now.
Who knew that feeding your kid had the potential for such disagreement with other parents.

It started out great, just like my previous post had shown, with a great video of her first time eating some banana and just loving it. That continued for a couple weeks. We only had her eat once a day as to not overwhelm her stomach. As you can see from the video it was very telling of what was to come in the next few months. She was pretty meh about the mushed up banana and just wanted the banana itself. She did seem to enjoy holding onto the spoon but that soon turned into wanting the bowl that the puree was in.
Fast forward to now - she ate purees for about 2 weeks, then we just switched and gave her whole food and that seems to be the way that she wants to roll. And that is great! We gave her the tools and the choices and chose correctly. What can I say? She is gifted I guess ha! /sarcasm.
Before we started solid foods, I had wanted to do Baby Led Weaning. I had bought the book and was all prepared, but I was extremely nervous on the possibility of her choking of a whole piece of banana so we decided to be a bit half-ass about it. She pretty much decided for us that that was the way she preferred. I feel like babies need to learn how to chew/mush something before they can swallow it and starting with purees seems a bit back assward.
We have yet to just give her everything that we eat but she does try almost everything at least once whether it is just sucking on it or playing with it in her hands. This seems to be the issue when feeding her out in public. Sometimes when we give her something, we get the hover parents looking at us like,
"OMG she is going to choke. Why would ever give a baby that?"
"Does she ever eat baby food?"
"Is she even eating any of it?"
No she is not going to choke. She might gag, but she isn't dying and will spit it out. No we don't feed her baby food. Have you tried that shit? Hmmm jarred chicken dinner or a chicken drumstick?
Who cares if she is actually eating any of it?
Food is supposed to just be fun and a learning experience until they are one anyways so don't put so much pressure on them to eat.
Some people just have to have an opinion on everything and everyone and because of our parenting style, we probably just need to get over the fact that helicopter parents are going to give us the business.
She does still gag on certain foods, and that can be scary but she is not choking and she has to learn. Like my dad said that you can just go to the court house and get an eating permit lol
Some of Inga's favorite things to eat are:
Orange segments - she can eat about half an orange and her poo smells like oranges haha
Blueberries - she eats lots of blueberries at Grandma's house
Mcvities Digestive crackers - she shares these with the dog every time
Watermelon - these are a new favorite
Tomatoes - She sucks and pulls all the meat and juice out of them like a champ
Cheese - This is one of the dog's favorites haha
What are your little nugget's favorite things to eat? Any suggestions on getting whole grains - since she doesn't really care for oatmeal? Leave comments!

Lies you are Told About Having a Baby

You get lots of advice. You read lots of books. You scour Pinterest and the internet for information. Yes, I will admit that some information is helpful and some information you read ends up being true but most of the time it is so generalized that truth has fallen to the wayside. Having a baby is an individualized experience and every baby is different. I will be creating new posts as she gets older with the new lies we are told as she grows up. These are more about a newborn or preparing for a baby. 
I am just going to jump into them without spending too much time flooding you with too much sarcasm. 

1. PINTEREST....
How dare I? Yes yes, for the most part the beautiful nurseries and extreme organization ideas are lies. These are lies spread either by photographers who set up the most perfect scenario or by Stay-at-Home-Moms who really have nothing better to do with their time than make Pinterest posts to make us feel bad about our pitiful lives. I have an entire post on just being a Pinterest parent. 
Some of the organizational posts for nurseries can be helpful if you take them with a grain of salt. When I was designing Inga's nursery, I had so many Pinterest inspirational pictures that I ended up using that ended up being completely pointless and actually cumbersome. There really is no need to completely overhaul a closet and make it the children's closet to beat all children's closets. Most clothes are thrown in drawers or in our situation, we pretty much live out of her laundry basket of clean clothes. We really only hang sweaters or jackets and all you really need is this Closet Doubler from Bed Bath and Beyond. Don't waste your time with adorable velvet hangers either...they are the most obnoxious things to use for smaller clothes. They just stretch the clothes and I knew my husband, Matt, would HATE them. Buy the 10 for $1 at Target ones. 
One thing on Pinterest that was a HUGE TRUTH and I am so happy with the decision was instead of getting a changing table, buy a dresser instead. What are you going to use a changing table for after they are out of
diapers...a liquor cart? Hmm...I am sure you could find a pin for that. Otherwise, why not get a dresser and actually have it serve a purpose past potty training. The IKEA Hemnes dresser seems like the go-to dresser and that is what we got and love it. The top fits a changing pad and wipe warmer perfectly. 

2. Diaper Bags
Diaper bags have become quite a fashion statement. Quite an expensive fashion statement. Marc Jacobs has one for $300. Vera Bradley has one for $150. Even Coach has a diaper bag for $180. Why? Why? WHY!? It is a bag! I did a ridiculous amount of research into the "best" diaper bags and I went through the phases of wanting the best and most expensive bag possible down to the most practical.  A lot of the expensive bags are pretty but they are not the most functional or practical. For a budget family a new backpack would actually work awesome but if you don't want to walk around with a backpack I would suggest a shoulder bag or a bag with a messenger strap. The bag I ended up getting and am very happy with

is the JJ Cole Satchel bag in black canvas. It is ginormous inside and it has a messenger strap and an obscene amount of pockets for all your jazz. And it is not obnoxiously girly that my husband will happily carry it around as a messenger bag if he has to go anywhere. You need to think about that. Are you buying a diaper bag for you or are you buying a diaper bag for your family? You are not the only one going places with your baby. 


3. Clothing
Buy footies....buy zippered footies....trying to put onesie bodysuits on your newborn feels like cruel and unusual punishment for both of you. If it is colder outside and you need to put a onesie on under footies, then get the side snaps. This is a lie perpetuated by all the stores selling you those adorable must have onesies for newborns.

4. Needing to have a ton of newborn to 3 month clothes. 
You can really get away with like 5 onesies and 3 pairs of footies. You will be doing lots of laundry and like I said before, we pretty much just live out of a laundry basket. Spend more money on these bibs from Target then the clothes won't get dirty as fast or as stained with breastmilk. This lie is coming from all those newborn checklists telling you that you need 50 of every item. 

5. You have to breastfeed to feel connected with your baby.
 Don't misunderstand me...you should always try to breastfeed your baby first. The idea that you have to breastfeed to be a loving mother is completely untrue and kind of damaging to mother's self esteem if that does not happen with her. I tried breastfeeding for a couple weeks and it was possibly the most painful ordeal emotionally and physically for me personally other than actually giving birth that I had gone through. BUT, I wouldn't give up and decided to pump my milk instead and I can guarantee that I feel just as connected with Inga as if I was actually breastfeeding. That feeling of accomplishment that you get when you know that you are giving your baby the best nutrition they can get no matter what is awesome and deepens the connection just as much with your little peanut. If you and your baby have a hard time breastfeeding, please try to stick with it or else get a pump and start pumping. Your insurance company usually covers a free pump. 



6. You need to have a glider/rocking chair in the nursery.
HA! My mom and I were at IKEA today and I said to my mom that I was glad I didn't pay full price for my POANG rocking chair for feeding because it has barely been used. You know where you are going to be sitting or nursing your baby? The couch or in the living room. So I wouldn't even spend the money on a glider/rocker unless you plan to just have it in the living room. 

Some of the other lies we were told or read about have been covered in other posts I have done.
What are some of the things that you were told or read about that were lies. Comment below! I want to hear them!

Alternatives to Baby Girl Clothing

Tulle and pink and sparkle oh my!
Anybody that knows me knows that you are not likely to see me in anything sparkly, pink, or generally very girly. I tend to gravitate towards a more neutral boring style of clothing.

If sweatshirts and jeans constitute a "style." This isn't a bashing of all those adorable girls that are dressed very girly, but rather just giving my experience with dressing my daughter and some tips if you are the same way. 
I had made the decision early on in my pregnancy that I wanted to dress Inga as my little hipster baby and try to stay away from the Disney characters and overtly girly items. Being as tall as I am, I can't always dress in the styles that I would prefer to wear, simply because they don't fit. I wanted her to look like a little adult or have clothes that could span different outfits and styles. This came as a surprise to many and was answered with scoffs and eye rolls. "But she is a girl! She has to wear pink!" Who says.....?
Some would just choose to ignore me and would instead buy me something super girly and pink just because they thought it was cute. 
"Muhaha now she has to wear pink and sparkles!" 
*sigh* Don't get me wrong. If somebody is going to GIVE me clothing for free from their baby, I will more than likely have her wear it, but why would you buy something for me that is what I already said I don't really want her to wear? Would you buy a clothing item for a friend that you knew they didn't like, but YOU liked to see them in it? Not if you expect them to ever wear it....
I just find black ballet flats with cuffed jeans to be more adorable on a baby/toddler than pink ruffle butt leggings, a tulle skirt, and pink sparkle boots. To each their own. 

I don't see why a baby can't be stylish and cute but not look like a sparkle monster threw up on them. 
Here are some tips if you have the same idea as me regarding dressing your baby.


1. Don't ignore the boys section. For some super girly moms, this may be hard. There are some great neutral finds in the boys section that could look great on your daughter. I have gotten quite a few different  items that are technically boy clothes. Who says that blue, grey, and black are only for boys. I personally love seeing Inga in grey. That is kind of my go-to color for her. It looks great and you are able to give her a pop of another color with fun socks or head band. Here are some great boy finds I recently got. You could get a button shirt that is way too big for her and have her wear it as a shirt dress with some leggings. Just tie a ribbon or head band around the waist for a belt. ADORABLE!


2. Clearance! I have recently discovered the awesomeness of buying clearance for next year. I bought her an adorable pea-coat for $13 for next winter as well as some other sweaters that I just was not willing to pay more than $7 for. I am super cheap in general and will never buy clothing at full price. The nice thing about wanting to dress Inga differently is that most don't share my opinion so a lot of it ends up on clearance. Buying in clearance also ties into my next idea of buying for multiple outfits or repurposing. 

3. Buy for multiple outfits/Repurposing. The button shirt from the boys section is a great example of repurposing. Toddler sized shirts can be adorable dresses for younger babies. The key is to get pieces that can be used in multiple outfits. Most times, baby clothes come in a full outfit with pants and top. And usually they just go with each other. I don't think Disney character ruffle pants go with a plain yellow cardigan. It just leaves you limited. Try to buy simple items and you will see how you are able to use them in many different outfits. I bought solid color leggings and jeggings that she can wear with practically any top no matter the color or design. I bought lots of sweatshirts for her to wear instead of constantly living in footie pajamas because sweatshirts can be dressed up with a pair of jeggings and little fur boots. Footies can't. This is also a great way to save money and keep the wardrobe smaller since you are able to have pieces span multiple outfits. 

4. Pink can be cute and stylish. I know, I know, I said I don't like pink. Let me be a bit more specific. I don't like pink that is accompanied with flowers, hearts, glitter, butterflies galore. Using pink as the focal color can be really adorable, but when it is pink with glitter purple flowers, with a phrase about princesses and lace bottom leggings, it just takes away from how gorgeous your baby is. Everybody should be staring at your daughter's beautiful face, not her spastic outfit. Try a cute pink cardigan with a white onesie and black leggings or jeggings. Maybe a grey sweatshirt and jeans with pink socks. 

5. Headbands can make the outfit. Some of the outfits I have put together for Inga could make it difficult for some to know that she is a girl. Head bands can solve that issue but for crying out loud, she doesn't have to have a head band that makes it look like she has a weird growth on the side of her head. It goes back to what I said before. Everybody should be looking at your gorgeous daughter's face and not the sparkly flower the size of a basketball on her dome. Head wraps are absolutely adorable and beyond stylish. You can pick a cute pattern and have that be the accent in her outfit. She could wear a cute light pink polka dot head wrap with a simple solid colored sweater or cardigan and pants. Here are a couple Etsy sites that have head wraps and bows that I absolutely LOVE! 

Go to Little Winter Shop on Etsy to get head wraps just like the one on this little adorable nugget here! Oh gosh I can't stand it!

Go to AndySachs4 on Etsy for more head wraps. I bought some from here and they are really nice quality!




6. Holidays don't have to mean dresses. If you live in a cold weather state like me in Minnesota, you wonder why people would ever subject their baby to having to wear a dress in the cold. We tried doing a dress on Inga and that damn tutu was all up in her business constantly. I changed her into a cute grey sweater with white stars on it. Perfection. Why spend $20+ on a dress that she will only be able to wear once, and instead get her cute pieces that she can wear all winter? Saves you money and also gives her wardrobe some legs.

What are some of your tips and opinions on dressing little girls? Leave some comments. 

So you want to be a Pinterest Parent?...Nailed it!

You know what I am talking about. Those Pinterest posts regarding babies and nurseries that are just so effin' cute, you can hardly help but wish you could be their child. 
Pinterest can be an amazing place for those pregnant days when you can't stop thinking about babies and you have made the decision that you are going to be the "quirky crafty mom". It can also set a standard that nearly no mother can feasibly meet. I can't even tell you how many hours were used up scrolling through to get the most perfect inspiration picture of how I wanted Inga's bedroom to look. 

Like I said, Pinterest can be a blessing and a curse. It is entirely up to you how dedicated you want to be to become that Pinterest parent you so desperately desired to be in the early months. I took the leap to become that Pinterest Parent initially by purchasing my first chevron fabric. I think that is when you can safely say you are addicted to Pinterest. Do you have chevron in every room? 
But now that she is actually here I shake my head at some of the ideas Pinterest puts in the head of first time mothers. 

Sometimes you get your "Nailed it" moments where you just can't understand why your Christmas picture just won't look like the one you pinned. But then you get moments of sheer gloriousness when you swear that the photos you framed above her crib could be in Better Homes and Gardens. It's that damn awesome. You need to be willing to take the good with the bad and remember that it is ultimately going to be a bedroom for a CHILD. So don't be spending a buttload of money on something that is purely visual or something that will break if you look at it funny. 

For example, one of my projects was to make a mobile for above her bed. I hated the ones from the store because I just couldn't find one that worked for my "vision". I kept seeing these adorable bird mobiles on Etsy and Pinterest and I thought that $350 was a bit steep for some branches and fabric birds. I figured I could make one of those myself with some FREE sticks from outside. Who knew branches were free. I bought some birds from Crafts Direct for $10 and stole some really high test fishing line from my tackle box. It was cake to put together but then I felt like an idiot for about an hour shifting the fishing line a millimeter at a time until it was level. Looking back now 3 months, it is an adorable mobile for her room and it looks great on Pinterest but I still went to Target and got a $10 musical mobile that she actually looks at instead. That and the dog barks every time that "epic" mobile even moves. 

I didn't really have many other projects for her so much as I had designing left to do. The area that I really wanted to get right was the changing table. I knew I wanted the IKEA Hemnes dresser because I am over 6 feet tall and it is the perfect height. It is also the dresser that pretty much every Pinterest changing table picture uses. I also knew I wanted to repurpose a wood crate from our wedding for her room and I thought that using it as a shelf would work great. I found some pins of others using the same crate in bathrooms for towels so I thought it would look pretty cool. And it did! It is great to have out so we don't have to open a drawer to get out a diaper. That crate was definitely a successful Pinterest Nailed it moment!

When the entire room was finished, I was rather pleased with myself. It definitely felt Pinterest worthy at that point. When you have a "vision" of how you want something to look, there is always going to be a time where it doesn't turn out that way. That happens to me a lot. I guess I have delusions of grandeur a bit. Inga's room actually turned out exactly how I wanted it to look. Since the pictures I am posting, I have made a few additions. I have added a cube bookshelf next to her chair for all the baby books I had when I was in school for teaching. 

The door is like a hundred years old and came from the first house from my family when they moved to Minnesota so it has some sentimental value. I also thought it added to the "Shabby Chic" Pinterest requirement. I have noticed that almost every Nursery Pinterest pin has some item that really contributes nothing to the room other than making it look extravagant. But I suppose that is design, right? When she gets older I will probably put some hooks on it for coats. But more than likely it will just become in the way and will have to leave. 
You can also see how pretty, yet pointless that mobile is. 

I bought the ottoman at Wal-mart for $15 and painted it purple with fabric paint. This was a half-ass Pinterest fail as the fabric is now sticky and shiny. But it would require us to sit in that chair in order for me to be annoyed enough with it. 

So ultimately Pinterest can be used as a tool for good and evil. It is good for inspiration and something to help make the pregnancy go by a bit faster. It is also evil for all those times when you know you should be working and you keep saying to yourself, "When I get to the bottom of the page, I will get back to work."......but the bottom never comes. 

Comment on what are some of the Pinterest pins you tried and failed gloriously at and what are some that worked great for you.