Great Beginnings...

is an awesome baby store in MD. We went today to look at the furniture, gliders and strollers. What an amazing selection! I'd been dreading the drive there but they're the only store in the area with the stoller that I am still considering (discussed in an earlier post), so we decided to make the trek just for the fun of it. And for the glider! We went this early because we'd heard delivery could take as long as 12 weeks for the furniture and gliders, and as it turns out it could be 10-14 weeks. So we ordered everything today. I'd like the nursery to be done by 30 weeks so I'm not trying to do any of the major stuff once I'm nice and big. :)

I know I wrote a whole post several weeks ago now about Young America and the 4 Seasons crib we had liked on our first furniture outing, but we opted away from it after reading some reviews. Despite being one of the largest furniture retailers of children's furniture in the US, it gets some questionable reviews and ratings as you do research. Quality is apparently hit or miss and like so many brands out there, they use particle board in a good part of their construction. After much research, we decided on a brand called Romina out of Romania that does beautiful, high quality work. All forest friendly, 100% Beech solid wood construction, no chemical odors or formaldehides and totally baby safe with every precautionary mechanism you can imagine. Just awesome. We decided fairly quickly on the Karisma line, and we ended up just ordering the convertible crib and the 6 drawer dresser (which will be used as the changing table). Initially we purchased it in Bruno Antico, which was a medium brown/honey color but after some thought I called and changed our order the Espresso (color shown). I'm so excited! Mike typically doesn't like dark woods, but this is just gorgeous and you can see the grain of the wood in it.
This is the crib.
This isn't exactly our 6 drawer dresser, but it's the same heighth and width. Just has two columns of three drawers insead of the center drawers and two cabinets.

We also bought our glider today. After testing out the three brands considered the best on the market (Dutailier, Little Castle and Best Chairs), we very quickly narrowed it down to one of two...a Little Castle and a Best Chair. All of these chairs were upholstered, cushioned gliders/recliners. The two we were choosing between also swiveled. In the end we opted for the Little Castle because it was more comfortable and also has a slightly better quality (accding to the sales lady) than the Best Chair. I have to admit I'd gone in there initially thinking we'd end up with a Dutailier (considered the best of the best), but it just wasn't for us...I guess that proves the point that you really do need to "test drive" everything for yourself before buying it rather than just reading reviews, etc. online. We also bought an ottoman (for when the chair is in the normal gliding position). The ottoman glides too. This is the chair:

Now the fun part...picking out the fabrics. I knew I wanted a contrasting color piping for the chair. Initially I was thinking a dark blue chair with white piping, but somehow we ended up with something just a bit different. Navy microsuede with a sky blue piping. The colors are just beautiful and, upon further inspection when we got home, coordinate with and complement our bedding perfectly. I can't wait for everything to arrive. :)
Navy
Sky

Have I even discussed the bedding in this blog yet? Hmm...I need to check that out. If not, that'll be my next post. All about the bedding, untraditional safari theme and the more than adorable elephant and hippo that I've already purchased (the hippo today) for the baby's room. So soft!

It's late, I'm tired and we have church tomorrow. We spent the afternoon at our friend Scott's BBQ. He just landscaped his backyard, and it's gorgeous! And so relaxing! But, thankfully, we got home just in time because the thunderstorms started as soon as we walked in the house. Yikes!

xoxo
V