and this year we will be in England with Eliza in-tow!  We are going back to Wolverhampton, the city where Joel lived during his last two years of college.  Wolverhampton, England is a very dear place to us.  Our favorite restaurant, Jivan’s, an Indian Balti house, is in Wolverhampton.

Our first dinner date at Jivan’s

Some of our closest friends are from Wolverhampton.  Wolverhampton is the city where we fell in love!  I just can’t wait to introduce Wolverhampton to Eliza.  Last time we were there, in 2011, I found a charming antique shop that I am dying to check out again.  But what I’m most excited about is the new people we will meet and the friendships that will develop during this trip.

After we get back from England our plan is to finish painting the outside!!!! I decided to paint the window sashes in Weathered Shingle by Sherwin Williams.

Before

After

 We are also planning a master bathroom remodel.  Last summer, I was still suffering from morning sickness and extreme nausea so Joel remodeled our master bedroom while I laid on the couch, eating crackers all day.

 I am sooo excited about this remodel because the state of our bathroom right now is just well, disgustingly embarrassing.  Our plans include extending the ceiling from 9 feet to 11 feet, adding antique ceiling tin, reconfiguring the layout, reworking our closet to utilize the maximum amount of space, changing the door from a hinge hanging door to a pocket door, a new vanity made from an antique dresser with a vessel sink and new hardware, new flooring, new subway tile on the walls and new light fixtures.  Pretty much a gut job!  The only thing staying is our claw foot bath tub that needs to be re-finished.  I’m not sure how it is all going to work with Eliza around, but it should be an adventure!

Here are a few inspiring pictures.

I also had to add a few pictures of my little nugget! She has grown so much this month.

With love,
Lauren

just lying around in our yard.

The past few weekends have been productive ones around The Rescued Home.  We started the remodeling process on the outside of our house in the fall of 2010 and it is still not complete!  We are still chipping away at it.  Joel was able to get some sanding done and the first coat up.

Since I can’t help Joel with the painting I have worked on smaller projects.  This past weekend I decided to paint our front door.  It needed a fresh coat so I thought I would go with a completely different color after looking through my latest Country Living magazine.

What caught my attention was the colors on the seed box.

I loved the blue-gray  letters, with the lighter blue accent against the yellow.  Since our house is yellow and I have a light blue bench on my front porch I decided to paint the door in Homberg Gray, a Sherwin Williams color.

I saw a tutorial on one of my favorite blogs, Jones Design Company.  She painted her house numbers on her door and then gave a tutorial on how to do it, including free downloadable numbers.  Here is the link for that tutorial.

I just love our front door! It has a great story behind it, we bought it at one of our favorite architectural salvage shops, Pieces Of The Past for only $100.  It originally hung in a 1920′s school-house in New Jersey.  When we first brought it home it needed to a little work, well actually a lot of work.  And on top of all the work it needed it didn’t even fit in the door frame because our house was soo wonky.   Joel and my very talented father-in-law had to push, pull, bang on, and shim the frame so the door would fit.

We ended up painting it red and I have loved the red for the past three years.

But I think I like the blue-gray color even better!

We have plans to build window boxes (I will share that tutorial) and paint them the same color as the door.  Oh they are going to be soo charming!

With love,
Lauren

This is how Eliza is enjoying her time away.

She was 9 weeks old this past Sunday!  I love being her mommy! Everyday I fall more and more in love with her and Joel.

For the past two months I have been sitting on our couch watching home improvement shows, dying to get my hands dirty.  We had some free time last weekend so we decided to do a little work in our yard.  We put in front flower beds last spring and plan on working some more on them this year.

Here is what the yard looked like when we bought the house.

Here it is last spring after we put in new beds.

A huge improvement!

 I have been admiring the rock in these flowerbeds for the past seven years.

 I love how natural and organic they look, like they have been there for years.  My favorite kind of outdoor spaces are ones that look like they naturally happened there.

So last weekend we loaded up in the truck and headed to the rock yard to find some rocks.  We came home with 1,500 lbs of rock!

This is how it now looks when we do projects…with a little one in tow!

After a few hours this is what we came up with.

They are going to look great once the plants grow in.

I was so sore the next day but it was the best feeling to get to work with my hands again.

With love,
Lauren

I am so grateful we have these pictures of our baby girl!

With love,
Lauren

All this sitting around, spending hours looking at interior design magazines and Pintrest has got my wheels spinning for new projects around the house.  Ok side note,  I now know why Facebook, Pintrest and Iphones were created, they are for moms who are up at all hours of the night, trying to stay awake while they tend to their babies! Anyway, I know all new house projects will be on hold for a while but I am itching to pick up a hammer and paintbrush!   Our next goal is to finish the outside of the house, a project we started over two years ago.  Our neighbors have been so gracious with us, thanks Danny and Marsha!  Once that is finished we have dreams for a new front porch, a fence and a back deck.

So I don’t have any pictures of new projects but I do have a few of some changes that we have made (or have happened) around The Rescued Home.

Here is what I wear to work everyday, pjs and my baby!  Eliza loves to sleep in her homemade Moby Wrap.  I found a tutorial on how to make it here, Moby Wrap tutorial.  And here is a link on how to tie it, How To Tie A Moby Wrap.

I have traded my well staged decor for an array of baby items.

We moved her pack and play from our room into the living room because she coos and grunts all night.

Our couch no longer houses our beautifully arranged throw pillows but now serves as a purely functional part of our living room, a place to sleep, feed and change baby.

There are clues all over that a baby lives here.

The new changes may not be magazine worthy or “pinnable”  but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

With love,
Lauren

Our plan was to have as natural of a birth as possible. I had done my research and decided I wanted to fully experience what it was like to be a woman in labor. I had dreams of a dimly lit room, worship music playing in the background and birthing my baby and then walking around a few hours later. God had other plans.

My contractions started Saturday, January 5th at 2am. I spent all day Saturday on the couch experiencing contractions. Around 9pm on Saturday I knew it was time to go to the hospital. Also around this time Joel was experiencing the tiring effects of the cold that had set in the night before. We checked into the hospital at 10pm on Saturday. We settled into the labor and delivery room and waited to see the doctor on call. After laboring for about 2 hours, Eliza’s heart rate took a dip. Alarms were going off and other nurses were running into the room to quickly hook me up to an iv and oxygen. At that time the doctor rushed into the room and saw that my eyes were the size of marbles. I was terrified! He explained that her heart rate had dropped and we were going to monitor her closely. My labor then progressed slowly and over 6 hours later she was stuck. My contractions were becoming increasingly painful and pain medication became a very appealing option. Then my contractions became unbearable and with every contraction her heart rate dropped. The doctor said he thought something was wrong and believed her cord was wrapped somewhere around her. He then told me around 10 am Sunday morning that I was going to need a c-section. I lost it. I began crying and asking God why this was happening. I had an amazing pregnancy and had expectations that my labor and delivery would be without complications. I had dreams of what my birth experience would be like and in that moment I felt all that being ripped from me. Me and Joel held hands as we cried out to God for wisdom and comfort. The next thing I knew I was being prepared for surgery. I was soo scared and shaking all over. I have never had surgery or broken anything.

They wheeled me into the surgery room and there were bright lights everywhere. Shortly after that my body went numb and Joel walked in dressed from head to toe in a blue, paper outfit. All I remember was thinking wow, he looks hot! Then after 34 hours, at 12:23pm they lifted our little girl out of me. The doctor said her cord was wrapped tightly around her neck and she was face up. It was the most beautiful sound when I heard her cry for the first time. My baby was alive and safe! She weighed 7.1 lbs and was 21 inches long.

Then the hardest part came over the next hours as I recovered. I was exhausted and full of emotion as I processed what just happened. The next few days were a whirl wind of different nurses and one hour sleep spurts. But even in the middle of all of it God was right there, sustaining me, comforting me. We were released four days later after Eliza’s sodium levels came down and she was able to nurse properly.

As we recovered in the hospital I asked Joel to read scripture to me and Eliza. He opened his bible and turned to this scripture,

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I have been saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me… Psalm 18:1-5, 16&17

Wow God’s word is alive and actively pursuing us!

Ever since we have been home it has been a gradual incline as we settle into our new normal. Joel and I have laughed everyday together and have never been more in love. I’m at complete rest being home with my family. I thank God for his protection and provision. I know Eliza has been given to us. A great gift from a loving father! I look forward to introducing her to all of our friends and family and can’t wait to see the amazing story of Eliza’s life unfold before me.

These are the pictures that captured the story of Eliza’s birth. I will forever cherish them!

With love,
Lauren

A little decorating…

I put a few empty picture frames around the house that we can fill once our little bundle of joy gets here!

My new linen living room curtains…

I made these out of apparel fabric.  If you can’t find what you are looking for in the home decor fabric section don’t rule out apparel fabric.  This fabric was 52″ wide, only two inches shorter than home decor fabric.

Roman shades for the bedroom…

I’m working on adding additional panels for more privacy.  Hopefully I can finish them and snap a few photos in the next few days.

Painted sign for Eliza’s bathroom…

We found this piece of wood in our attic.  It was part of the ceiling on the original back porch.

I printed the letters off of my computer and traced the letters onto the board using graphite paper, then painted them with left over sample paint we had in our paint closet.

I finished this project before Christmas but I love how it turned out and I wanted to share it.

I have been wanting to hang hooks in Eliza’s bathroom ever since we finished it two summers ago.

I found this board under our house with this amazing color and patina already on it.  I cut it down and had Joel attach the hooks.

I love the pop of color you see right when you walk into the bathroom.

I’m grateful I am getting to cross things off my lists but I’m really ready for Eliza to be here!  I will be holding her in my arms any day now!

With love,
Lauren

In the post, Guest Room Inspiration that I wrote nearly a year ago, I found pictures that inspired the wall color choice and the look we wanted to capture in the space.  It is so crazy because as I looked back on the post I saw that it was posted January 9th 2012 and Eliza’s due date is January 10th!  A baby wasn’t even really on our radar at the time we started dreaming of what the space could look like.  It is so cool to see those dreams and visions come to pass almost exactly a year later.  Here is what I wanted to capture.

A room that was warm and glowed like the tent from the movie, The Holiday.

A room that reflected the time period and style from the movie, Out Of Africa.
A room that had the juxtaposition of rough and soft textures.

A room that had the colors of a Gala apple

and an English Rose.

A room that was feminine like a delicate tea-cup

and antique lace.

As I look back I think I did it!  Ok I won’t delay anymore.

I give you… Eliza’s room.

I saw angel wings like this in an interior design store years ago and have wanted to make them ever since.  I stumbled onto a tutorial that showed how to make them out of cardboard and paper mache.  I can’t believe how they turned out!  The only cost was the gold spray paint.

I made her fitted crib sheet and bed skirt out of inexpensive fabric from Hobby Lobby

and a full-size lace bed skirt I cut down.

Her changing table is a $50 estate sale find.

I made pillows for the full size bed we decided to keep so we would have a place to sleep during our late nights.

The bed had a linen cream-colored bed skirt I cut apart and remade into a burlap skirt.

The picture collage wall has a mix of antique prints, baby reveal pictures, an antique baby doll dress and shirt and a blank frame for a picture of Eliza.

I am so thrilled for her to see it! I hope she knows how loved and cherished she is.

With love,
Lauren