What is Blik?

In between hosting and Husker games we've been squeezing in time to work on the nursery here and there. We've bought about everything we need for the nursery--the rest will be finding time to build a shelf and a window seat and we should be pretty much ready for baby Hahn's arrival! In theory anyhow....

Ok, I have to brag about the changing table we got. It matches our crib and it was a steal--only $30 off Craigslist!!!

Remember Brendt's old baby dresser dresser from our last blog entry? Here it is being prepped for painting. Brendt had to reinforce it in a few spots, but other than that it was in great shape.

And here it is looking like new! We painted the drawers the same green as the stripe on the nursery walls.

Ta-da! Lookin' good! Notice the blue bird of happiness. =)

Ok, you may have been wondering about the title of this entry. What is Blik is actually a website (whatisblik.com) with crazy wall decals. We ordered a fun decal for the nursery since we were so sad to see our Space Invaders go. I think I like this one better anyhow. Essentially, when you order one, this is what you receive in the mail--sheets of wall clings that you have to sort of assemble yourself to make a picture. Each sheet has a different color and it's your job to layer the colors correctly to make your finished product.

That brings us back to our bendy green stripe. We had to make the stripe turn down so we had a good spot for our wall decal to go.

Here is Brendt applying some leaves after we had already stuck the branch to the wall.

Next, we applied the bird bodies, one at a time.

Then we added feet, beaks, and word balloons--basically we finished off the gray layer.

Then we finished by adding the last layer--dark brown.

And after about 1.5 to 2 hours, you have the finished product! The gray actually shows up better than this photo makes it out.

Zooming out. We aren't sure what we are doing for window treatments. I'm almost thinking just a plain cream colored roman shade might be nice. Any ideas are welcome. The space under the branch and behind the changing table will be where our glider sits. We have one ordered and it should be here in a week or so.

After getting up the stripe and the wall decal, we decided the mirror didn't quite fit with where the theme of the nursery is ending up so we replaced it with our baby quilt. It feels a lot more cohesive with the rest of the room now.

So that's the current state of the nursery. The next set of photos should be the final product minus the finishing touch: the baby! ;)

Progress on the Nursery

We are officially done painting the nursery walls today!! We've had the base color up for quite awhile and we finally got around to painting our stripe this afternoon. Since we are not going to find out the gender of baby Hahn until delivery, we had to decorate the nursery as gender neutral. We didn't want to go with the typical green or yellow, so we decided to try to find a periwinkle color--a color that you can't quite tell if it is blue or purple. Well, the color we picked looks a bit more purple to us, so we decided a nice green stripe on the wall would masculine the room up a bit. Plus stripes are just fun and what better excuse to paint one than decorating a nursery!

The baby's dresser still needs finished. This was a hand-me-down from Brendt's folks. The knobs say 'Baby Hahn.'

Ok, now onto the stripe project. We didn't really measure much--we started the stripe on the right side of the room at 16 inches wide and knocked off roughly three inches every time it turned. We just went across the wall with a level as we taped. It worked pretty well.

In the next blog about the nursery, it will be clear why our green stripe had to wind around the wall a bit instead of just going straight across. There is a method to our madness, we swear.

The finished stripe. The lines turned out really clean. We were really happy with the finished product!

We might have gone a wee bit bright on the green tho. I think it will tone down just a tad after we get the rest of the furniture and decorations up.

Ok, kinda funny story about the crib. A few weekends ago I tell Brendt how silly it is that people spend so much money on crib sets when you can't really use the quilt so you are paying $150 for a crib sheet, bumper, and ruffle. Then I walked into Shopko and saw this set up and personal....I had to call Brendt and tell him how I didn't have the willpower to walk away from something so adorable. He just laughed at me and told me it was ok to splurge on this since basically everything else we have is hand-me-downs and craigslist finds. The crib itself for example...total craigslist buy. =)

Just a closeup to help understand why I had to buy it. So freakin' cute!

And last but not least, I thought I'd include a shot of my progress as well. Here is a shot of my 30-weeks-pregnant belly.

Done with Drywall

Just a quick post to commemorate the hanging of the last piece of drywall in the basement. Yay! We've been living and breathing drywall for so long that we are actually excited to finish mudding and start sanding. I'm sure that won't last long. And that isn't all we've been up to lately--we've also completed a couple of little sewing projects and revamped our upstairs hallway with paint and our wedding photos (just in time for our first anniversary....)

I know this photo makes it look like Brendt is napping on the job, but trust me, he is actually hard at work hanging that last piece of drywall.

And here he steps into the fray...and polishes off last of the drywall!


These next two photos are a couple of pillows I sewed for the living room. For those of you who read our blog about the dining room chair reupholstery, you may recognize the fabric.

For this pillow, I tried to make rounded corners and the entire pillow just turned out looking lumpy. :( I have plenty of fabric left so maybe I'll try again later.

Ok, we feel like we need to preface the hallway with our rationale behind the paint color. We wanted a nice, neutral color that would looke good transitioning from a light green living room to a blue bedroom and an orange and grey office. Also, it had to be a lighter color since our hall is so dark so it would give the illusion that our hall was brighter. That being said, we went with a nice light yellow color called 'Soft Duckling' or some cheesy variation of that name that almost makes you want to cuddle with your paint can.
So it turns out that 'Soft Duckling' should have been named 'Rubber Ducky' but it doesn't looks so bad with this picture that we already had.

And finally, it's our wedding collage! We had a lot of fun picking out frames and pictures and figuring out which picture should go in which frames and etc. etc. Brendt mostly put together this final layout. He did a pretty good job, I think.

So that's what we've been up to. Hopefully by the next time we write, the basement will be painted!

Transforming the House

The most important room to decorate is the bedroom--at least that is what I once heard from some designer on HGTV. Thus the first room Brendt and I tackled at our new abode was our bedroom. Brendt had the idea to have the bedroom take on a bit of Asian flair without being obvious. I, on the otherhand, have wanted a blue room in my house for the past couple of years. The result? Well, see for yourself.

We found these shelves at the thrift store. After three coats of black paint, they look fabulous.

My dresser also got a healthy dose of black paint. That calendar on the wall was actually made by Japanese monks.

Where the wild things sleep.

The bathroom upstairs didn't really need much as far as painting or cosmetic work. Here are a couple photos of it after we hung curtains.

Everything in the bathroom is pretty new and in excellent shape so we don't really need to update anything right now.

OK, now for our living room. First, I took a few 'before' photos so Brendt and I would remember how it looked before we got ahold of it. Pretty bland, eh?

The problem with painting is that our furniture is bright red and yellow...that leaves us having to choose a more neutral paint color for the wall to avoid looking like PeeWee's Playhouse. According to a pamplet I swiped from Lowe's, green is nature's neutral. Who knew?

And now for a couple of coats of Crocodile Tears and some skillful bric-a-brac placement.

And, of course, a bonus picture of Rufus relaxing with his dad.


The house is really starting to shape up. Our next big project? The office. Our inspiration? Old school arcade.