Lighting Indecision, White Gallery Frame Woes, Blog Housekeeping

Good morning friends. I hope you're having a b-e-a-u-tiful week so far. I'm supposed to have about five different projects done by the end of this week but it's been slooooow going (as always). 

I think I have a bit of apprehension to start two of the bigger projects (wall stencil + bean bag chair) because I'm worried that they won't turn out. It's a silly attitude to have but I kind of get frozen by fear of failure. I've got three days left before back to work, though so it's crunch time!!!

{Insert pep-talk here.}

In other news I had to go and pre-register on the hospital yesterday. All of a sudden this baby thing is starting to get way real. Ahhhhhh! Panic!!!!!! I don't have any diapers or strollers or bottles or anything practical yet. What I do have is a tiny little numbered t-shirt that I picked up on sale last night for Little Ninja. I'm so good at priorities aren't I?

And, some more random stuff. 

Blog Housekeeping

I've been playing around with my Photoshop skillz the last few weeks, trying to get the hang of making those inspiration board things. I was also getting tired of my old blog header so I decided to start playing around with a new one this week. I really have no idea what I'm doing but with a little help from Alex here's what I came up with.

Before:

After:

It's not perfect and definitely not very fancy but I'm pretty happy with my novice skills so far. Which one do you prefer, old header or new header?

Also, I had no idea that with the new followers gadget, Linky Tools, you have to update your own posts?!? I read that somewhere and had no idea. Can anyone shed some light for me on how to do this? Kind of strange if you ask me.

Also, also, are blog Facebook pages really necessary? I created one this week but it looks so ugly! Does it connect more people or is it just a waste of time?

White Gallery Frame Woes

I've mentioned my frustration on this topic before, but I just have to vent again. My plan for Ninja's nursery was to have a gallery wall of framed alphabet cards.

I wanted at least six large frames or eight smaller frames. You can see where I was testing this out yesterday:

However, this town is so frustrating. There are only TWO places that sell white picture frames off-the-shelf: Michaels and Chapters.

The Michaels ones are cheaper quality so I went to Chapters yesterday to get my six large frames. They only have four. They are out of stock and cannot tell me if they will be getting more in. They also cannot tell me if they can order any more. They also do not order stock from other Chapters locations. Seriously!??! What kind of business is that!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?

So, I headed to Michaels instead. They have some newer gallery-type frames and they were on sale to boot. Except the mattes on the Michaels frames don't quite cover the corners of the alphabet cards. So I need double mattes for them. Except they only have TWO mattes on the shelf and won't order any more because the computer says there are ten in the store when there are clearly not. What kind of business is that!?!?!?!??!?!!?!?!

So now I have no frames to frame my alphabet cards and that was one of the easy projects I was supposed to get done this week.

My options now are 1) a 4-hour road trip to Ikea or 2) buy some cheap Wal-Mart frames and spray-paint them white. Booooo and boooooooo.

Woe is me.

Lighting Indecision

With only six weeks left until Little Ninja jumps on the scene, I need to choose a light for his nursery. I've been going a little crazy with the purchasing lately so it's not in the budget to order a fancy-schmancy one online. 

Here were some of my ideas:

A) Oil-Rubbed Bronze Semi-Flushmount by World Imports - From Home Depot

We purchased a similar one for our bedroom from Lowes (which was on the small side) but I think this one is a bit bigger. It's cute. Cost? $52

B) Hampton Bay Morovian Star Pendant - Home Depot

I love the idea of this light in a nursery, however the Home Depot version is a pendant light which means it would hang down a bit in the centre of the room. I think I'd only use one or two chain links but it's still a pendant light. Alex isn't a fan of this one but I think it's pretty cute. Cost? $150

C) Steel Polyhedron Pendant - Homesense

The above picture is a fixture from Restoration Hardware Baby (priced at $400). It's kind of funky. I found an almost exact replica at my local Homesense store and brought it home to try it. Holly from In the Fun Lane used it in a little nook off of her kitchen and it looks really cool (see her post here). However when I brought it home, it just looked weird in the teeny tiny room up against the ceiling. I still have it but haven't returned it yet. Cost? $79

D) Good Earth Semi-Flushmount - Lowes

I came across this post by Chris over at Just a Girl. She just installed this linen-look drum shade in her craft room. I really, really like it! I thought it might tie in with the circles in the stencil that I'm going to use on the accent wall in the room. Plus, it's close to the ceiling and very neutral. I think this is my favourite choice at the moment, although I've heard it's really big. Cost? $84 

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So, I'm really needing your advice today. Please pretty please click on the link at the bottom of this post that says "Leave a Comment". You don't have to have a blog to do it, AND it can even be anonymous. You can even scold me for not buying practical things for Little Ninja if you really want to. I won't be mad.

P.S. It's sunny here today and the snow is melting off of our deck. Yeah!!!!

P.S.S. I really feel like an english muffin with cheesewhizzzzz but we don't have any english muffins left.

P.S.S.S. Thank you so much to everyone who left sweet comments on my last post (Numbered Dresser).

P.S.S.S.S. Bye!