Showing posts with label Nursery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nursery. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Tour de Nursery 2008

Well I've finally completed the nursery and am getting so excited about getting the actual baby to go in the nursery! I thought I would take you on a little tour since it is finally complete AND clean...which I'm sure it won't stay that way for long once the little one arrives. First of all here's a recent picture of the belly. This was taken on Monday at 36 weeks & 2 days. Is it possible to get any bigger? 



First up, here is what you see when you first walk in the door. The crib is to the left and the changing table/dresser on the wall to the right. The picture frames above the chair are filled with cute scrapbook paper for now, but once we have some pictures I will add them and the scrapbook paper will be used as the mat. You can also see the two adorable crosses behind the chair. The one on the bottom I bought soon after I found out I was pregnant. The verse on it reads, "He has called you by name, you are his"  - Isaiah 43:1. And the one on top was a gift from my momma, it reads, "Children are a gift from God" - Psalm 127:3. They go with the room perfectly. 

Here they are up close.
And here is Frank waiting for baby brother to come home. 
Here is the crib wall. It is kind of basic, but I wasn't sure what to hang above the crib without it overpowering everything else in the room. I found this simple barn star at TJ Max for $5.99 and repainted it (it was originally red) using leftover wall paint. You can't see it in this picture, but I painted a few layers alternating between blue & brown and using a paper towel to "wipe" some of the fresh coat off, giving it more of a distressed look. 

And here is an up close shot of the bumper ties I made, since the original ones that came with the bumper wouldn't fit around the rails properly. These things gave me more grief than the crib skirt did!

Here is the changing table/dresser. Don't get excited the "C" sitting up there is for our last name. I have made his other initials but took them down for the picture so there would be no guessing going on! I can't wait to show them off though. I stole Jessica's idea of decoupaging scrapbook paper on wooden letters that you buy at the craft store and they turned out really good. First I painted the edges of the letters a dark brown, then I mod-podged them to the back of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and used an x-acto knife to cut them out. After they were good & dry I took a heavy duty nail file and filed around the edges of the paper to give it a more "vintage" appearance. Lastly, I globbed some more mod-podge over the entire letter to seal the paper on really well. 

For the "C" since it is special and will sit in the middle of the other two initials after I finished with the above steps I used my handy hot glue gun and covered it in really funky/colorful buttons. It turned out really well. Unfortunately you can't see it very well in this picture. I would go take an up close shot, but I really don't feel like it right now...you're just going to have to suffer through until I reveal the other two initials!

You can also see some of our stash of cloth diapers sitting on the 1st shelf...the rest are hidden in the top drawer. Since we're using cloth we didn't need a traditional diaper pail, so I just bought a Simple Human garbage can from Bed Bath & Beyond with a WAHMIES waterproof pail liner. 

This is the adorable Pinocchio print that my grandmother found at a flea market and gave to me since she knew I was originally wanting to do a vintage theme in the room. 

Some of you may remember Lulu from a previous post. Here she is in all her glory sitting to the right of the changer/dresser. She greets you as soon as you walk in the door. 

And above her hangs the guest book from my shower in August. I can't wait to finally have a picture of the boy to put in it!

In other news....I had another appointment with my midwife yesterday. And we had our final ultrasound. I am happy (and relieved) to report that Baby C is head down and it was quite obvious (cough cough) that he really is a boy. Let's just say he is very well endowed. The ultrasound also measured him to be about 6 lbs 12 oz. I've been having lots of contractions lately, but nothing regular or timeable yet. I hope I start making more progress though because I don't want him growing too much larger!

Rob has been having some tooth troubles lately. He went to the dentist last week and one of his old fillings had cracked (a while ago) and some icky stuff started happening to the tooth. The dentist thought he might need a root canal but wasn't sure. He definitely would need a crown though. So the dentist sawed his tooth down to a nub and put a temporary crown on it until he returned in about 2 weeks to get the permanent one. But Tuesday morning he woke up in excruciating pain and called the dentist. They sent him to see the root canal specialist this morning and lucky Rob was blessed to spend 2 hours in the chair having a root canal. Now, I've never had one before, so I'm not quite sure of the process, but apparently he has to back next week so they can finish it and then he still has to back to our regular dentist to have some other smaller cavities fixed. The total cost of this grand adventure...$1300 - after the insurance pays their part. Maybe he'll listen to me next time I tell him to brush his teeth!





Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Sewing Marathon is Complete!

I actually got everything finished last week, but due to my laziness, I'm just now getting around to posting this.

Here is the completed valance and drapery panels.
 



And with the drapes closed...

Showing you the blackout liner that hangs on the 2nd rod....

And an up close shot of the bottom...




Now let me show you some of my shortcuts and "mistakes"
First of all I didn't even bother hanging the valance on a rod...I just used the Nester's trick of using upholstery tacks and tacked it above the window.


I also didn't even bother hemming the blackout liner. The fabric feels similar to a vinyl tablecloth and is in no danger of fraying, therefore I wasn't going to waste my precious time hemming it. Another great reason for doing this is that I can now very easily reuse the liner when we move for another window. If you look really close at the bottom edge you can even see the blue marker that I used when tracing where I would cut...

Now, would you look at this mess! Look at all those threads popping out everywhere and uneven seams! But you know what? I don't care! No one will ever see this because #1 it's on the backside & #2 the blackout liner hangs behind the drapes, so no one will be able to see it from outside the window...besides if someone is inspecting my sewing from OUTSIDE the window, they've got issues. 



I even ran out of thread mid hem and had to switch not only to a different weight thread, but also to a different color! Who cares!

Lastly, the adorable pom pom trim separating the two fabrics that I attached using my handy HOT GLUE GUN....gasp! I bet ya couldn't even tell!
I should also note that the panels and blackout liner are hung using the drapery rings with clips - this made it much easier for me because I didn't have to sew a "pocket" for the drapes to slide on to the poles - just hemmed 'em and clipped 'em on!

Now for the most exciting part of this post....how much $$ I spent (and saved) making these (and the crib skirt myself)


Fabric for the crib skirt  & main drapery panels = 48.14
Velcro                                                                          = 6.99
Fabric for Valance & Bottom of Drapes                = 25.00
Pom Pom Trim                                                          =7.50
Blackout liner                                                            =23.96

TOTAL                                                                        = 111.59

I can't give you an exact figure of how much $$ I saved by making everything myself compared to my original plan of having them made by Javis Davis (see a few posts below - the one with the fabric swatches)  because the window treatments would have been a "custom design" and I have no idea how much they would have charged for labor. However, for the fabric alone the drapes + valance would have cost $133 - and this doesn't include the blackout liner or the funky pom pom trim. The crib skirt in the fabric I wanted (including labor) was going to cost $180!!! (I only spent about $24 making mine). I'd say I saved us a fair amount of $$ - and I had fun doing it!

I'm currently working on some other "projects" for wall art in the nursery including painting a barn star (did this today...pics to come later) and I'm about to head to Hobby Lobby to buy some letters to decoupage....very similar to what Jessica did to her little boy's nursery in this post. Of course I won't be able to show you pics of these till the babe is born (I'm mean and won't even let you know his initials!)


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

More Randomness

Last time I tried sewing something was about 3 years ago. I made an apron, and was so tired and frustrated by the time I was done, I swore off the hobby completely. However, I decided to dust off my old machine one more time in hopes of customizing our baby's nursery and making it unique. Normally my perfectionism would get the best of me and I would have given up before even starting such a daunting project. I discovered the Nester a while ago, who's blog is so inspirational.  She "mistreats" her windows which all turn out beautifully. So I decided to give it a try as well. Not only did I decide to "mistreat" the nursery window, but also the crib skirt. But I must warn you...the window is far from being done. I have the valance done, but I am still working on the drapery panels which will hang in front. The Nester's philosophy is "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" which I kept repeating to myself every time I would make a sewing mistake.

Notice the valance is not on a rod...I used the Nester's trick of just tacking it up above the window with upholstery tacks. I plan on using some safety pins to pin down the "folds" a little better. 

Sitting on the glider over there in the corner is the beginning of one of the drapery panels...........What's that you say? You want to see our new glider? OK, let me go clean it off..................Here she is. I so desperately wanted it in a tan fabric that had little raised polka dots all over it, but Rob wouldn't go for it...bah humbug, so I had to settle for this lovely poop color. But it is definitely very comfortable. 

Here's the crib skirt I half-way "mistreated". I just took my fabric, pressed the top edge 1/2in. under, hand basted it so I could "scrunch" it together, then sewed a piece of velcro to the back of each piece ( I stuck the other piece to the metal mattress frame ). I also only made a "skirt" for 3 of the sides....who will ever notice the back piece is missing anyway? I do have to admit that I didn't totally "mistreat" it...I did take the time to hem the sides and bottom of each piece. Also, it hangs about 2 inches above the ground. I would have preferred to have it touch the ground, however, the mattress is currently on its highest setting. As we lower it to accommodate the growing baby, it will eventually hit the ground. 



And an up close shot. Ignore the stark white mattress and all the stuffed animals...I still need to add the crib sheet and finish organizing!

Also, here's a picture of le bebe's closet. Rob worked very hard installing new shelving and I patched and painted all the old holes from the old & disfunctional shelving. BTW the baby has a TON more clothes than this...I just ran out of hangers!


I still have a lot more to write about, but it will have to wait. I have some "homework" still to do before we meet the doula tomorrow and I need to get my beauty rest! If I haven't posted anything new in the next few days, someone please email me and tell me to get with it! I don't want to be a blogging failure anymore!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

We're back from Cincy & Happy Anniversary to Us!


Rob & I got home late Monday night and we are still recovering from the long trip. We were starting to go a little crazy after riding in the car for 12 hours! When we finally got home my feet had swollen up so much they looked like sausages...I almost started crying when I saw them!

We had a great trip home where we celebrated my birthday and my mother & sister hosted a wonderful baby shower for me. We received tons of great gifts! I am so grateful for such generous friends and family. We have very little left to buy ourselves. Below are some pictures (mainly from the shower) of our trip.


Upon returning home we were very excited to learn that our glider & ottoman for the baby's room had arrived. The nursery is finally coming together! But I still have so much organizing to do!

Today is also very special because it is Rob & I's 4 year wedding anniversary! I can't believe it has been that long already. Rob & I were talking last night about how much we have changed and how "adult-like" we have become over the last 4 years...it's scary! I truly feel so blessed to have Rob for my husband. He can aggravate the hell out of me sometimes, but he always makes me laugh & he is definitely my best friend. I am so lucky to be able to share my life with someone so great. I love you Rob!  My parents sent us a very generous gift card to our favorite restaurant - Felix's Fish Camp - for our anniversary dinner. Rob had to work this evening so we will be celebrating on Saturday night. Thank you mom & dad....you really outdid yourself between all the baby presents, the shower, my birthday gift, & our anniversary! We appreciate everything you do for us!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Nursery Progress & other randomness

So I know that originally I had talked about ordering our nursery furniture from the Land of Nod. But after receiving the crib and being disappointed in the quality we went looking for more options and found this line of furniture (Cocoon) in a local furniture store. We place our order 9 days ago and were told that it would take 5-6 weeks before it arrived. Imagine our delight & shock when they called yesterday to let us know it was here! I could not be happier with our purchase. Even though the crib was nearly double what the one at the Land of Nod was it is definitely worth every penny. 

Our new crib does have a *small* issue - there was a knot in the wood on one of the side rails which caused a small split in the wood (about an inch long). So I called the furniture store and they are ordering a replacement piece for us. Thankfully they can just send the one piece and not an entire new crib (transportation is a hassle). Other than this issue we are so pleased. The crib is VERY sturdy as are the dresser/hutch pieces. And the drawers on the dresser....oh, how they glide so smoothly! Here are a few pictures of the progress we have made in the nursery so far...




This is the corner where we will put the glider/ottoman 
we ordered.

In other news.....I did make the Chicken Farfalle dish that I mentioned previously. And it was DELICIOUS!!! Click (here) for the recipe. I was so proud of myself. Normally Rob despises pasta dishes so I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it or not, but he LOVED it. When I asked him if he wanted me to package the leftovers so he could take them to work for lunch his reply was "Yes! Hell Yes!" It kinda made me feel all warm & fuzzy inside :)

Here's a pic of our leftovers - again we were too excited & too hungry to wait around while I photographed our dinner before we ate it. 


Right now I am preparing for our trip to Cincy. I even took the time to bake some peanut butter cookies to snack on while we are in the car. Now I just need to finish some laundry & get the pets ready. I am LOVING being out of school - now I actually have time to accomplish all these things, whereas before I would be running around like a crazy person right before we left. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I finally graduated from college with a pseudo "real" degree? Monday, was officially my last day! I now have a BA in History - what will I ever use this for? Probably nothing. Actually hopefully nothing - I pray that I remain fortunate enough to never need to work outside the house and can be a career homemaker - because I am loving it so much:)

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Weekend Recap...and Happy Father's Day!

I'm sitting here typing this when I should be in church right now. Rob had to work today so Britni & her hubby, Justin, were going to pick me up this morning so I could go with them. I got myself all prettied up and was sitting on the couch waiting for them when suddenly I got the most awful stomach ache ever. I felt terrible but I had to call them and tell them I wasn't going. Of course 5 minutes later it went away and now I feel fine again. Figures.

I had a really good weekend, although not very productive. On Friday night Britni & I went to the movies expecting to see the new SATC movie. By the time we got through the never ending ticket line though it had been sold out. So we decided to go see What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz & Ashton Kutcher instead. I really didn't have high expectations for the movie, but it turned out much better than anticipated.

On Saturday I planned on going to the gym to exercise my fat pregnant self, but something came over me, and Frank and I fell asleep on the couch after Rob left for work and we slept till 11:30! Shame on me! I haven't slept that late in years. Then Rob called and told me we were going out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Felix's, with Justin & Britni, and another couple - Chad & Melissa (Chad is a good friend of Rob & Justin's from Pharmacy School @ Auburn) who were in town for the weekend. This made my day...did I mention it is my favorite restaurant in Mobile? But now I didn't have any time to go to the gym since I also needed to go to the mall and buy some more clothes that actually fit me. Until recently I was still able to wear some of my "regular" clothes, but I have now graduated and am fully in maternity clothes now :(

Anyway, dinner was excellent and we had a great time with our friends.While at the mall I also picked up this adorable Auburn baby gift set (t-shirt & bloomers) for our little man for Rob's Father's Day gift. Now our little one can be decked out when they watch the Auburn/Alabama game together!


In other news....we painted the nursery (pictures to come) last week. We did a light blue above the chair rail and a brown on the bottom. I'm not used to seeing so much color in that room, but I think it will grow on me. It also looks funny because we've still got the double bed set up in there to be used as a guest room. The crib also arrived from the Land of Nod and let's just say I'm not that impressed :( The first one they sent us had a broken side rail, so I called and they sent a new one. It's now fixed and I like the Jenny Lind style (I was going for a vintage
 theme), however, it doesn't seem as sturdy as I'd like it to. We plan on using the same crib for every child we have (3 or4) and I'm concerned about the quality. We found a great baby store here in town that we found a dresser/hutch piece and upholstered glider that we plan on ordering and they also sell an incredibly sturdy crib that matches the dresser/hutch which we're considering purchasing and sending this other crib back. The problem is that this new crib is $700! That's nearly double what the LON one cost. And it's not the style that I wanted, however, it is still beautiful - and like I said incredibly sturdy. Now, I'm not sure what to do :( I'll update you later when we decide.
Here's a picture of the new one we're considering



Oh and here's an updated picture of my baby belly, taken last week at 21 weeks (please ignore my dirty painting clothes!)

Well, I'm off - I've got a monstrous cleaning to do list for this afternoon that I've been putting off for too long. Our house is a mess!

Friday, May 30, 2008

All I Need is a Baby!

Ahh, I love the UPS man & mail lady! Today I received a package of cloth diapers which got here much sooner than I anticipated. Nicki's Diapers - you rock! Anyway, I only ordered 2 diapers (one Kissaluvs Size 0 and one Bum Genius 3.0) to make sure I approved of them before I spent a small fortune investing in a whole stash. I am now 10 times more excited about cloth diapering than I ever was. I wish I knew someone with a baby close by so I could try them out! Here they are.
Next week should be exciting as well. I know I said in my last post that I was going to wait to order the crib until the wood swatches arrived so I could decide between white or antique white, however, I got nervous over the rising costs of shipping charges and decided to go ahead and order the crib in white. Land of Nod has free shipping on their cribs and mattresses, but I was scared that they might take it away soon, given how everything else is going up in price. If they did this it would cost an additional $100 just to have it shipped! Anyway, thanks to their Lickity Split delivery, it should be here in 5-7 days!
I also ordered this adorable LuLu the Lamb stuffed chair from Baby Style. I've had my eye on this thing for the past 2.5 years, ever since my friend from high school had her baby and I had considered ordering it for her. Baby Style was running a great promotion of 25% off and free shipping for new customers. What would have originally cost me a little over $100 only cost $68! I know, I know...it was still expensive, given that we're probably only going to look at it and I'll probably freak out if the baby (or Frank) gets it dirty, but how could I resist? But please, shhhhhh, don't tell Rob I ordered her. Although I doubt he'd care, since he knows I've liked this beauty for a long time, he'd still think I was wasting money....he has no room to talk, Mr. I NEED to golf every week!
She's so cute!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Christmas in May!



Imagine my delight when I opened my mailbox this afternoon and found not one, but two exciting packages I had been waiting on! First up, Crunchy Clean laundry soap that I mentioned in my previous post. I ordered samples in the Chamomile scent and also Monkey Farts! I immediately tossed a load of extremely dirty laundry (more info in a minute) into the wash with the Monkey Farts. The girls on the Eco-family friendly board on the nest were right about this stuff...my whole house smells sooo yummy. Next up (and currently still in the machine) a load of towels with Chamomile. It smells good too, but I'm definitely digging the Monkey Farts a little more. Now back to the extremely dirty laundry. Rob decided he was going to extend our back patio. So he's been slaving away for the past two days excavating and laying paver stones. It's coming along very well and is almost complete. He just needs to finish a few details and sweep the sand into the cracks (or whatever that's called). Anyway, he's spent the last two days in 90 degree Alabama heat wearing long pants (to protect his knees). Let's just say I've never seen such dirty, sweaty clothes before. I am happy to report that these clothes are now outside drying on my new clothesline, clean as can be, and smelling like some monkey's farted on them! If Crunchy Clean can get those clothes clean, I think I might be hooked :) Check out their website here


Next up...my fabric swatches for the baby bedding that I ordered from Javis Davis have arrived! Here they are in their pretty little packages. 



Originally I was set on wanting to have a "vintage theme" and (mostly) gender neutral nursery so that we could reuse main items for our next few kids. Then I saw some really cute & funky bedding on the Land of Nod website and started to fall in love with the idea of doing more of a funky eclectic theme. However, after seeing these adorable fabric swatches I think I've gone back to my original idea of "vintage". Normally custom made bedding would completely be out of our budget, but since we plan on having at least 2 more kiddos I think we'll get our moneys worth. I'm not 100% certain but I believe the winner will be...

Over the Moon Pastel!

We do plan on ordering our crib, swivel glider, and (possibly) dresser from Land of Nod. I've requested wood & fabric swatches for these items which should arrive early next week. I want to make sure that all the colors work well together before we finalize anything. What I'm thinking however is using the main fabric (in the center) for the outside of the bumper and bumper ties with the green/white polkadot pattern (top left) for the inside of the bumper. Then using the multicolor strip (2nd from top left) for the crib skirt. For window treatments I'm thinking of ordering some extra fabric and making them myself. I'm thinking of doing a valance across the top of the window in the green/white polkadot (top left) and adding some of that funky trim with the soft balls to the bottom. Then using the 3rd fabric down on the left which is a solid green with a diamond pattern stitched into it to make drapes to flank each side of the window. On the bottom of these I thought it would look nice to use the multicolor stripe (2nd from top left) for the last 10-12 inches or so of the drapes. I know that you are utterly confused right now...and so am I. Check out Nesting Place (a blog that I highly admire) for an idea of what I'm talking about...she calls them "mistreatments". 

And because I know you all care so much about our nursery (NOT!) here's the furniture we'll probably order...


Crib




Dresser (will also double as a changing table)


Glider - in Godiva (dark brown/chocolate)

I could go on all day (which I already have) about my "big" plans for this room. Unfortunately I've got to get busy on this...


....studying for my Spanish test tomorrow :( School just started on Tuesday, and we already have a test!?!  The joys of summer semester! At least this is my last college course EVER...I will finally be graduating with a BA in History (a useless degree) after this class is completed!