Georgia Lou Cook: Nursery and Maternity Photos

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Miss Georgia Lou Cook in less than a week but I am just now getting around to posting about her nursery and our maternity session with Sami.

Mama and Daddy saved the antique canopy crib they used for us and offered it for us to use for Georgia. Justin and I got it sanded, painted, and put upstairs and Mama made her canopy topper and curtain to match.

Mrs. Desiree made this beautiful colored blanket for Georgia based on the picture of the flowers in the mason jar I found online. She did an amazing job. I wanted to know that all babies don’t just need pastels to be happy. Sami actually bought me the print to hang on the walls in a chunky gorgeous gold frame. Georgia will be here soon and I STILL don’t have stuff hung on the walls!

 

We also got my old Jenny Lind cradle down from the top of Mama and Daddy’s garage. It is going to be perfect to set Georgia in during nap time so I don’t have to take her all the way upstairs.

Justin spent his Valentine’s Day doing the one thing he really despises: he painted Georgia’s nursery this bright cheery turquoise color. He also surprised me with her monogram cut out on wood and painted for the door.

 

I snagged this rocking chair for her nursery for $20 and gave it a good coat of chalk paint. I love how simple it is.

We got all of her hand-me-downs and new clothes organized and put into the wardrobe. This little girl will be well-dressed for sure. I am thankful for several friends that helped us get her ready by passing along their stuff.

Wyatt and I went to a big siblings class at the hospital. He was able to learn about how to hold the baby, how to interact with her, and even how to change a diaper even though he said he was, “never, ever, ever, NEVER changing a dirty diaper!” He even told Mama, “Mimi, YOU wanted the girl; YOU change her!”

  

We traveled up to Musella to get some maternity photos in Dickey Farms’ peach orchards. Suzi did her maternity photos at Lane Southern Orchards when she was pregnant with Pax so this idea isn’t totally original but I find it fitting for a girl named Georgia to have a peach themed maternity session. I look forward to following up with a newborn session of her in piles of fresh Georgia peaches! I am thankful to have many connections in the agriculture industry to call on for locations for our photos and Mrs. Cynde Dickey didn’t disappoint! We had a rare cold snap and were fighting the setting sun that evening so we had to do this session in a hurry. Sami got so many of the best photos that I find it hard to choose my favorites. They are all amazing! Sami also wrote a blog post on her photography blog: http://samimphotography.blogspot.com/2016/04/geogiapeachblossommaternity.html

              

July Randomness

I stole this idea off of Pinterest. It is suggested to keep a freezer inventory to use a dry erase marker and tick marks for each item you have a lot of. When you remove an item from the freezer, just wipe off a mark. I like this system so far!

 

Wyatt got this old wagon from our cousin Gene’s lake house. It was pretty sturdy with big tires but the inside had rusted considerably. I took $10 worth of spray paint and less than an hour to give it a new life.

I bought a can of Rustoleum spray primer to hopefully inhibit the rust and gave it a good solid coat after scrubbing the big paint flakes off with a wire brush. This wasn’t a very meticulous job—I was just doing a little cosmetic sprucing up. I didn’t even bother removing the hardware and wheels on the underside—the bolts had all rusted completely. I just wrapped a Dollar Tree plastic tablecloth around the bottom to protect from overspray. So yes, the underside is still faded red/orange. I then gave it several coats of bright orange paint Wyatt picked out. It turns out it is OSHA-approved safety orange and this particular paint was designed for marking lines. It had a 15 minute dry time so I was able to get this project done very quickly.

   

Wyatt loved that it was his favorite color and I liked the quick, cheap project that gave it a new look.

Our garden has been very nice to us. Unfortunately we planted the tomato plants way too close together so we didn’t efficiently harvest them this year. Next year we will do better.

 

I bought some clip on lenses for my phone from Amazon and I really used the fish eye lens and wide angle lens a lot on my shrimp boat excursion. I was able to try out my macro lens on these baby snails in our flower beds. They are smaller than the tip of my pinky nail and you have to get really, really close for the lens to focus. Even still, it’s a little fuzzy but I like the look it gives. I always like to stop and focus on really small things including bugs and flowers so I think I will use this one a good bit in the future.

 

Justin found a rattlesnake on the road a few miles from our house so he has been learning how to skin it out. He wants to maybe make a wall hanging or a belt for Wyatt. It grosses me out but I think it’s cool he wants to learn how to do new things all the time.

 

We had a great time at our friends’ daughter Kincee’s birthday party at the Peach Palette in Perry (alliteration to the MAX!). Wyatt picked out an alligator and had a really great time painting it. I can’t wait to get it back after it’s been glazed and kiln fired.

  

Finally, Justin had rescued this old two-man saw his Papa had painted in his house. When his Papa’s house burned, Justin asked for the saw and he has kept it for nearly 14 years. We got our friend Rachel, a talented local artist, to repaint it in the original style. It looks amazing in our dry kitchen over our kitchen tool pegboard frame! (Funny note: you should have seen Justin trying to climb in the car over the saw—we didn’t think it all the way through and had to put it in between the car seat and the doors. It was like something out of Final Destination.)

 

Fun-Filled Weekend

I started out last weekend with a day off work. I planted marigolds, coleus, and Mexican petunias around the chicken pen to brighten it up until the daylilies grow. I also planted about 30 amaryllis bulbs I got for FREE off the side of the road. I am so glad folks are generous with their bulbs when they separate plants.

  

After I got the flower gardening out of the way, I blew off the driveway and our brick paths and began to spray round-up on the weeds that have just about taken over in every crack and crevice. After that, Justin and I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, and banana peppers in the garden. He got the corn planted a few days earlier and our potatoes are taking off like crazy! We even discovered that my vintage Tupperware sewing box makes for perfect seed storage!

Justin was helping Uncle Glynn when Daddy called him and said he had something for us. Justin went into town and came back with this beauty! It is simply amazing. It was in an old building that was being torn down the next day and Daddy knew it had my name all over it! Justin is going to leave it in its rusty state and add a butcher block to the top. I think it will go nicely with our brick floor in the kitchen.

Saturday was a long day of riding for us. A friend on Facebook has apparently noticed my infatuation affinity for Tupperware and told me about a vintage kitchenware sale in Douglas, so Justin, Wyatt, and I loaded up and checked it out. It was primarily Pyrex but there were still tons of Tupperware and other vintage kitchen stuff to scoop up. I was totally in my element and could have easily spent hours pouring over each piece.

 

After the sale, we went to several antique stores and visited a man that had some industrial barrels for us to store our animal feed in.

We realized we were only a few miles from the Okefenokee Swamp. None of us had ever been so we decided to stop by. It was late in the day when we reached the visitors center but we did see this huge alligator sleeping on the bank right outside. We will definitely be back to spend the weekend at the nearby state park and take full advantage of the train ride and boat tours that are offered!

 

We rounded out Sunday with lots of family time, including getting the second coat of paint done in the new dry kitchen and getting the primer on our new island. Justin pulled the moulding down in the dining room so we could get clean lines. After telling Wyatt to watch out for nails no less than 20 times... I stepped on a nail. Stupid nail shouldn't have been where I was walking!