The Little Babe's Nursery

I knew I wanted Odin's room to be playful and simple, and include pieces that might not be considered traditional "nursery." We pieced together the room with a mix of new and old finds to create something that felt vintage and slightly modern.

Pieces referenced at end of post.

Paint: A mistake can from Home Depot - the color just happened to be perfect!
Crib: Amazon
Light fixture: Original to the home - we spray painted it gloss black
Rocking chair: Amazon
Changing table: Antique dresser
Diaper storage: Old grain belt piece that I purchased at a thrift sale
Trunk: Antique
Shelves: At Home store
Rug: IKEA
Frames: Mix of Michaels and thrift store finds that I spray painted
Side table: An awesome piece built by my husband!

The Story: Bethel University Homecoming

I had the honor of speaking at my Alma Mater for Homecoming week. When asked, of course I accepted immediately - what an honor!

And then I realized how many people would be sitting in that auditorium. And then I was like, whoa. I said yes, but that's a lot of people. Sooooooo...

Like, a lot of people.

The good news, I'm not really afraid of public speaking. Mostly I don't really care what people think about me, so that helps a lot. Like when the button on my dress came undone before I went on stage..like when your shirt is a little too tight and that middle button pops open? That was me. But, meh, whatever.

The other good news is that when you're on stage, the lights are just so bright that the entire auditorium is black. Pitch black. Like I was talking to a black wall. Which means I didn't have to see anyone playing Two Dots on their iPhones (GET OFF YOUR PHONES, PEOPLE).

It might be scarier to share this with all of you than it was getting up there on stage...(at least you can't see my sweaty armpit stains).


10.9.15 - Homecoming Chapel from Chapel on Vimeo.

Just gotta try.

It's funny how hard it is to try something new. Well, technically something old, but now it's "new."

It was hard to go from wheelchair to walker.

Hard to take that first step using crutches.

Harder (and scarier) to drop to one crutch. And then a cane.

And taking the first step sans any help whatsoever. Totally hard. And scary.

And it's been scary trying new things ever since. Whether it's kayaking or jet skiing or tubing, I've been fearful to do it, but so glad I did.

**Also, can we just pause for a minute and talk about WHY I thought tubing was a good idea?? I don't know what I was thinking. Well, actually yes I do...I was thinking about my robot leg flying off and sinking to the bottom of Gull Lake. I mean, can you image if that would have happened? Would I have had to scuba dive down there to find it?!?**

I digress. 

I'm jealous of kids and babies. They're unaware of the fear that coincides with trying something new. When the pain of falling is unknown, it makes the will to try so much easier.

But while it's easy (too easy..) to let fear overcome, the reward for conquering fear is too great to pass up. Because there is nothing like the feeling of overcoming fear. Nothing.

You know what I'm talking about. Everyone has those moments. 

When you speak up for what's right.

When you quit your job to pursue your passion.

Catch my drift? So go do something you're afraid of (even if it's just something small). Because if I can do this whole thing...YOU can do anything.

Beauty. And the evolving view of it.

Each of us has a standard for beauty and we usually don't measure up.

We want longer hair. We want less curves. Or maybe more curves. We want to be taller. We want smaller ears. We want long legs.

We want..we want..we want..

It's exhausting (and really, legs aren't going to just magically grow three inches overnight. Ears don't get smaller. So stop fussing about it.).

90% of the time I'm pretty indifferent to what people think about me. But I'm human. And I'm a woman human. So yeah, 10% of the time I'm insecure and care a lot. And I'm sure many of you understand when I say that 10% is annoying and frustrating and stupid and all in my (your) head.

So I've got metal and it's different and it's weird and it's cool all at the same time. I'm learning to embrace it. To embrace all of the things it allows me to do.

I get to teach kids that it's ok to be different from everyone else (which I mean come on..do you guys remember middle school??).

I get to have enriching conversations with strangers (all. of. the. time. people are curious).

I get to be a storyteller almost every day. And that's pretty great.

So what is beauty then? It's every one of your curves. It's your gap-tooth smile. It's your big ears. It's your short stubby legs. It's everything about you.

We're unique and different, and that's so much cooler than being the same. It's so much cooler than being what the media says we should be.

You're beautiful. And I am too (in all my flesh and metal). So let's be beautiful and believe it ok?

#WearYourMetal

Shoes ya later. Round 2.

After a bit more cleaning house, I found a few more pairs of heels that have to go. So it's another shoe sale here on the blog. If you missed version one, here's all the wonderful goodness you didn't get to buy. But hey, there's a few more below that need a good home.

Directions for ya...

1. Email me with "I'll take your shoes!" in the subject line and the name of the ones you want.
2. I'll send you a link via PayPal to purchase.
3. Once I receive email of payment, shoes are comin' at ya.


CARRIE BRADSHAW
$20 + $5 shipping
never worn
size 8
unfortunately I bought a size too small...and kept them around because I love them.

NUDE WEDGES -- SOLD!
$20 + $5 shipping
worn a handful of times
size 8.5

YELLOW WRAP -- SOLD!!
$15 + $5 shipping
worn a handful of times
size 8
sooooooo comfortable

OXFORDS
$15 + $5 shipping
worn minimally
size 8.5

Shoes ya later. Round 1.

The time has come...

The heels and wedges must go. I hate to say farewell, because those of you who know me, know I really, REALLY love shoes. All kinds, but especially heels and wedges.

Unfortunately the bionic leg doesn't really lend itself to wearing these lovely ladies anymore, so I'm training to love sneaks and flats just as much. Which actually isn't that hard, because sneakers are like, the most comfortable shoes ever. And they're so cute now, these sneakers. This would have been SO MUCH MORE unfortunate circa 1990. Just look at Google images.

I gotta re-stock my closet with flats (who knows, maybe [read: likely] someday I'll surprise you all and be wearing heels again), so if you're interested..the below are for sale via PayPal.

1. Email me (jamiekvamme@gmail.com) with "I'll take your shoes!" in the subject line and the name of the ones you want. (first come first serve for emails)
2. I'll send you a link via PayPal to purchase.
3. Once I receive email of payment, shoes are comin' at ya.


THE WORK HORSE HEEL --SOLD! 
$20 + $5 shipping
worn a couple times
size 8.5

THE SCHOOLGIRL --SOLD!
$20 + $5 shipping
worn minimally
size 8.5
soooooooo comfortable

OXFORDS
$15 + $5 shipping
worn minimally
size 8.5
had these in black too...wore until the heel was broken

SUMMER --SOLD!
$15 + $5 shipping
never been worn
size 8.5

TARGET SPECIAL - BLACK -- SOLD!
$10 + $5 shipping
worn a couple times
size 8

TARGET SPECIAL - IVORY/SHIMMER  --SOLD!
$10 + $5 shipping
worn a handful of times
size 8

BCBG GENERATION SO TALL...SO TALL  --SOLD!
$20 + $5 shipping
worn once
size 8.5

YELLOW WRAP AROUNDS
$15 + $5 shipping
worn a handful of times
size 8
sooooooo comfortable

POP OF YELLOW  -- SOLD!
$10 + $5 shipping
slightly worn
size 8
so comfortable

CROWD PLEASER -- SOLD!!
$15 + $5 shipping
size 8
i loved these babies..

LOVE THESE  --SOLD!
$15 + $5 shipping
worn once
size 8
~3 in heel (sorry no side pic!)
super comfortable

The Kitchen Renovation - Part II

We essentially lived without our kitchen all last summer. It wasn't so bad at first - because I don't really like cooking - but after weeks of restaurant food, sometimes you just crave a good chicken from your own stove. And a dishwasher..that too..because washing dishes in the basement or your bathtub gets old. So old, so fast.

Installed a new window so that we'd be able to fit regular size counters under it. Besides that, at this phase we got walls up, insulation added, putting up moulding, painting bricks and patched a bazillion holes. Unfortunately we were working like mad and I didn't get as many pics of this stage. But, to be fair, we all don't really care, we just want to see the FINAL PRODUCT. No need to yell in caps, I know, but it's really hard not to.

Ok, on with the show.

And how about these floors? There was original wood under all of the layers of nasty linolium, but the bottom layer had black, sticky glue which would have been TERRIBLE to scrape off. So, at this point, we decided to cover it. This product is called Marmoleum and is made from recycled materials and is cork-based. It's pretty awesome and feels very 1950's which seems to fit the house.

Our chimney was also covered as the brick is cheap. And not pretty. I heavily debated keeping it open or covering it back up. We did a paint test and I asked a few of my design-saavy friends what they thought. All voted for keeping it open and painting white. So, that's what we did. The final product is pretty cool (you'll see on the reveal post..which is coming soon).