Grayson's Baby Suite, Part Two

My son, who will arrive in three "short" days, finally has a "bedroom". I use the quotations in the way a person would use air quotes to note sarcasm. Three days isn't short for the person carrying the baby who had pain in their back, wrists, arthritic hand and the lower lady regions. Bedroom is in air quotes because we don't have room to give the smallest person in our family their whole room. He could share with his big brother however at this age that isn't necessary. They'll share when Grayson is big enough to sleep alone in a big boy bed. (Maybe sooner if he drives me crazy in my room)

First let me tell you that I am no swanky designer and won't pretend to be. I also don't have a fancy camera so even though these will go on my pinterest boards, they aren't pinterest photo quality. I am just a working, school attending, mother of almost three who really misses the HGTV show Design on a Dime. There is no better interior designer than Lee Snider. I hope I spelled his name right.

I definitely put Grayson's suite, a.k.a. nook in our bedroom, together on a dime. I was able to pull it off for less than $500. I didn't actually spend that much because the crib and mattress were a gift from my in-laws. The dresser, and the shelf were a gift from my parents. But I bought the curtains, frames, material for the quilt, crib sheet (Organic and only $19 at PotteryBarnKids.com), and the glider chair. I was lucky to get the chair used for cheap from a friend. I couldn't fit the glider inside his small space but it sits right next to it. We spray painted it black and covered the cushions with soft gray material. We used the excess gray material for the back of the quilt. We meaning, my friend Mimi who sewed it for me. You may have seen the previews of that from Part 1 of this project.

It's not a large space, but it's made with love and belongs to our new son Grayson Charles. Mom and dad love penguins and I am glad that we were able to create a penguin theme for his space because there just isn't a penguin nursery set out there that fits for us.

The whole baby suite, face on.

Photos/quotes from "March of the Penguins" altered in Photoshop.

Right side of the suite.

Crib with quilt and sheet. No bumper.

Refurbished glider with pillows I already owned.

Perspective from our bed looking at his suite.

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes & Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

Last Saturday was our early Thanksgiving. We had to celebrate weeks in advance because my son will be born so close to the real holiday. I wanted to make something from scratch using my new kitchen aid mixer. I LOVE that thing. I realize now that I hated baking because I didn't have the wonderful mixer. My sweet older brother gave it to me and top off its perfection, it's red. Matching my kitchen!

So I finally made something from my food board on Pinterest. I pin a lot of things on there that I will never make so this says a lot about how much I wanted to try my mixer. First up was the Oreo Cheesecakes. Here is a direct link to the recipe.

I crumbled extra oreos into the cheesecake mix because let's face it, oreos are delicious. We didn't add the peppermint sprinkles or extract like the blog mentions. It's not in the recipe and it's just an added flavor we didn't want. They were a huge hit with my husband who almost ate all 24 that were baked. The recipe wasn't very high maintenance at all which is right up my alley. Next round I plan to use a double stuff oreo on the bottom.

After cleaning up the bowls, mixer attachments, and measuring cups, my daughter and I moved on to Pumpkin Cheesecake. I had been dying to make this ever since I had a slice at Olive Garden. Theirs is better but ours still came out delicious. You can see proof from what the bowl looked like when we were done.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The website is awesome and the phone app is pretty amazing too. We followed this recipe exactly and it was delicious. I still love a regular pumpkin pie, but this cheesecake version is just so light and creamy.

Watch out! Now that I have a mixer I plan to bake more. I’m going to ditch the box mixes!