Friend, I have a confession:

This beautiful photo by my good friend, Stacey Reid, though one of my favorites, is not an accurate representation of how I do pregnancy.

I thought that by my second pregnancy, I would be a little better at the whole making a human thing. I’d be graceful. Glowing. Not at all the kind of woman who is miserable unless double-fisting Steak n’ Shake milkshakes.

Two times in and I’ll just tell you, I’m lousy at being pregnant. I need to be spray painting and standing on ladders and moving all of the furniture in the middle of the night when inspiration (or madness?) moves me. I need to do all of the things.

The week before Eli was born, I left a toddler’s birthday party sobbing because a woman wouldn’t let me carry paper plates. Paper. Plates.

I spent almost my entire pregnancy with Eli staring at the stairs, the very first thing you see when you walk into our house, and lamenting that they looked like they had been carpeted in skinned Muppets. Dirty skinned Muppets. But what could I do?!

Honey…milkshake?!

Until one day, when Eli was about a month old and I had manged to leave both kids with my mom to run to the bank. It was supposed to be a there-and-back trip but before picking them up, I popped into our house to drop off the mail. BAM. I was greeted by the Muppet stairs.

I dropped the mail on the table. Crept up the stairs. Ran my finger along the top of the seam and POP.

I had to know what was under that carpet. Just a peek.

POP. POP. POP. The staples released from the wood. It was so wrong…yet..

POP. POP. POP. POP. So very right.

I had to stop, I told myself. But…

POP. POP. POP.

I. Couldn’t. Stop.

This was better than…well, you know.

Then I was standing there, staring at bare wood and 10 bajillion staples.

And worse, Travis was calling. It was like he knew my DIY transgression. Felt it in his bones.

I hid! But then I realized that was silly, so I answered the phone and tried to sound very, very, very pretty. And sorry. He’s a good man. He’d forgive me! Besides, I didn’t know where he kept the crowbar so I had to answer.

Luckily, he was in a meeting with someone important so he couldn’t yell at me. But he did make me pull out every single staple.

And then fill all of the holes…

And then sand…

And paint…

And nurse the baby in between all of that…

And sand again…

It took almost as long as making a baby (seriously, 8 months) but it all paid off. See?

Now that is a staircase worthy of prom pictures. Seriously, I walk down these steps every morning like Rachel Leigh Cook in She’s All That.

Okay, so the details:

Railings- Painted in Annie Sloan French Linen
Stair Treads- Painted in Sherwin Williams’ Halcyon Green
Stair Risers and Trim- Painted in Sherwin Williams’ Pure White
Runner- Canvas Straw with Wide Granola Binding by Sisal Rugs Direct

What DIY have you tackled that was most liberating?