Baby Girl's Nursery Reveal

Finally, I can show off all our hard work. You can go back and look at the before pictures and all of our start up issues in this post.

I bought this light off of craigslist two years ago because I always loved it at Ikea and knew that I would find somewhere for it. It is perfect in here.

Here are two before/after comparison shots.

Nursery Project: Wall Decor

Some of the finishing touches in the nursery were to hang up things on the wall. Before I reveal the whole completed nursery, I wanted to feature those snippets.

With all the headbands and hairbows that I made (and bought, and mom bought), I needed somewhere to store them. I saw people using old frames with hooks and ribbon and it seemed like the perfect idea. The only problem is that some of her thicker headbands do not fit on the hooks so I have them in a tray on her dresser.

I made a wreath for Miller's nursery when I was pregnant with him so I needed one for her room.

I ended up going back and redoing Miller's wreath so that they match. I love seeing  both of them on their doors when I am upstairs.

When I was early in my pregnancy and always worried that something would go wrong, I swear that I would immediately see a rainbow. I have gone years without seeing one and all of a sudden I was seeing them all the time. I told my mom and that afternoon she texted me a picture of one outside her window. Since, mom and I are huge "Wizard of Oz" fans I wanted to put up a quote from the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I could not narrow it down so I just used the whole song.

 

I wanted to have some consistency between both kids rooms so I needed to make a quilted name banner just like the one over Miller's bed. I guess this also serves as a reveal of Baby Girl's name.

Miller has a large "M" on his wall and while I looked for the same one on etsy (the shop has since closed) I went with something much more girly, an "S" covered with pearls. I keep picturing if the kids end up sharing a room at some point and Miller has his wirey black "M" over his bed and she has this pretty pearly "S" over hers. Or they might make their way onto a family gallery wall someday.

I planned on using the dresser as a changing table and wanted something hanging over it. I saw these tassel garlands on pinterest and I had to make one, especially if it  had some metallic in there. I am no longer using the dresser for that anymore but this is still pretty. It was pretty much my substitute for a mobile over her bed, which she does not really have a place for.

 

Miller has a print with a "Rocky Top" quote within the state of Tennessee so I needed something to represent our home state in her room. There are hearts over our hometowns. The bottom picture is a painting that we made with Miller.

I had this on my initial to-do list so that it would be something Miller could be involved in. I had pretty much scrapped it when one day a couple of weeks ago I decided to attempt painting with Miller. He loved it so I figured we could give this a shot.

I taped up my design and put our colors on a plate. He had so much fun. Mommy and Daddy had to help him so that the whole thing got covered but that just makes it a whole family project that we made for our newest little member.

Nursery Update: Box Valance

I saw people on Pinterest making box valances out of foam, batting and fabric and I was so giddy with how easy it seemed. They add such a polish to a room and right up my ally for a rentervating project with how cheap of an investment they really are.

I used leftover foam from the headboards. We had to make these from two pieces because the window is so wide. I let Ben engineer this but it was really simple. He put a bunch of straight pins in one side and then hot glued it when he shoved  the two together. Then we glued on a separate panel on the back to hold it together. We made it a bit smaller then the height of the rest of the structure so that we could still staple the batting and fabric to the main pieces.

The corners were the same concept with straight pins and glue.

 

 

Here is the finished structure. 

How you install it is really up to you and where you are putting it. For us, we already had a simple wrap around rod on that window so we decided to use that. We took 3 binder clips and stretched them out so that they could rest on the rod. We glued one on each side and one in the middle (on that support panel in the middle).  This thing weighs nothing so we were not too concerned with that being an issue.

After we made sure that it worked, we upholstered it with the batting and fabric, the same way we did the headboards. 

This really was so easy and makes the room look so much nicer. It makes me want to make a box valance for every window but I think I will make that decision when we buy a house.

(I already wrote about my feeling about the two patterns put together in my post about the curtains.)

Disney Shirts and Autograph Books

We are going to Disney World in the next couple of months, and before  you say it, yes I know that I am crazy. An overwhelming, over stimulating theme park for 6 days with a 2 year old and me being 7 months pregnant. Let me present my argument (because I know you are dying to hear my reasons).

-Ben and I both have holiday birthdays. Celebrating our anniversary was a big deal to us but then 2 years ago we spent it in the hospital having Miller and last year we were prepping for his birthday party. This year is our 5th anniversary and since Miller is a little older, we wanted to make sure we celebrate.

-Why take Miller? Simple, I was not ready to leave him. Plus, I want to go on a trip for our anniversary and want to spend his birthday with him, which is the day after. There is only way way to get it both ways.

- Miller is so young that he will not remember anything. Why bother? At 2 years old, he is still free, so it is not like we are wasting admission on him if it is a bust. Regardless of him remembering anything, we are still making family memories.

- Why put myself through the stress of Disney World? All the other places we wanted to go would be so far away that we would have to fly and that is not something I wanted to do with Miller and all the stuff he needs. Disney World is a 6 hour drive  so we can pack up our car with whatever we need. Plus, Ben has never been to Disney World and I really want to take him.

- Why go when I am so far along? When we started planning, we were trying to get pregnant and assumed that we would be. I booked the trip right around the time we found out we were pregnant so I knew that I would still be allowed to travel. However, I did not plan on how much harder this pregnancy would be on my body than the last one. We are going with a toddler so we will already have to take  things slow and allow for a daily nap break. I will admit that I am really worried about this but we will just play it by ear.

Some people go insane planning their Disney World trips. I am a person who normally plans every little detail but I am trying to go in with a loose plan that has plenty of wiggle room. I wanted to do a few projects for our trip but not go too crazy.

First up, T-shirts. I was only going to make one for Miller but since I was pregnant I thought it would be fun to make one for the baby and I will just wear it. While I was at it, I decided to make my cousin Ally one (she will be there as well for a couple of days).

I went really simple and did a Mickey head silhouette as an embroidered applique. I found a basic silhouette on-line and adjusted it on my computer to the sizes I wanted. I actually did 4 different sizes that varied by an inch each so I could lay them on the shirt first and see what fit the best.

I laid them out on my fabric to see how big a piece of it that I needed. I cut that and then cut a piece of Ultra Lite Heat-n-Bond (the purple package and not the Ultra Hold) that was just slightly smaller. You do not want the Heat-n-Bond being exposed to your ironing board so that is why you cut it a smidge smaller.

Iron that on. At that point you can trace your design onto the back of the Heat-n-Bond and cut it out.

Peel off the paper layer and lay it where you want the applique on your shirt. Iron that on. To place it on Miller and Ally's shirts, I folded the shirt vertically down the middle and pressed my iron there just so I could get the center. Mine was a pain in the rear to place. I had to put on the shirt, put the applique where I wanted it and traced it with chalk.

After that, I ran it through my sewing machine with a zig zag stitch. One good tip that I found on-line was to leave the tails of your thread long so that you can use a needle, pull them back through to the inside of your shirt and knot it there.

For mine and Ally's, I sewed on a bow as well. 

 

I am not even sure if we will do the whole meet the characters thing but if we do, I want to be prepared. I wanted a simple book where the characters could sign on one page and I could hopefully put a picture with him and the character on the other. 

I bought a simple 44 page sketch book from a craft store. I wanted something that had a wire binding so we could flip the pages to make it easier for the character to sign. I also got a piece of red and black foam sheets that has sticky on the back.

This is ridiculously easy so I am not even going to write out instructions. I cut out and stuck the red foam to the front and back covers. Then I just used one of the same templates I had from the t-shirts, cut out Mickey's head and stuck it on the front. Some people do more stickers and personalize it with the kids name but I just wanted simple.

Both projects were majorly simple but that is the way I wanted them. 

Baby Project: Carrier Carseat Arm Pad

So many of these baby projects can probably seem unnecessary to people out there but for me, this is nesting. While I can get overwhelmed with projects and feel a bit bogged down between them and normal daily life, I truly enjoy them. Crafting projects make me feel productive and keep me happy. Being a SAHM has been a major challenge for me because there is no day to day goals other than survive. Crafting gives me that.

One project I wanted to do but did not have to, was to make an arm pad for our carrier carseat. Yes, we managed to survive Miller's infancy without one but I thought it could be a fun project. Plus, that darn carrier can be a pain to lug around so why not make something to try to make it more comfortable.

I saw them in the store and knew that I could easily make one. It was not as super easy as I thought it would be, but I like small sewing challenges. It can only help me get better!

I looked at some other blogs on-line and while they were helpful to see the basic method they followed, ultimately I could not use their measurements because that is dependent on the thickness of foam you have and your personal preferences. I knew that I had  to make my arm pad fit between the two handles of my carrier cover that I made for Miller. I also already had some 1/2" thick foam that I planned to work with.

I sketched it out and planned on starting with two panels that were 6.5" x 8.5" with the finished product being about 4.5" x 6.5". I used the underside fabric from our carrier cover. I wanted a strip of minky running along the outside so I sewed up one panel like this.

I sewed on my velcro to each panel. One gets the hooks and one gets the loops. I made sure to do this about 3/4" in to allow for 1/2" seam. 

Lay the fabrics together so they are inside out (the fronts will be touching each other) and that the velcro strips are on opposite ends. Pin and sew around three sides. I also went back and did a zig zag stitch just to make sure they were super strong.

Turn it right side out. On the one end that you already did sew, sew seams, about 1/4' to each side of the velcro so that it lays flat and that you now have a little pocket started for the foam.

 

I waited to cut my foam until I got to this point, just in case I made any huge mistakes and needed to adjust the size. I ended up with a piece that was 4.25" x 4.25". Since I only had 1/2" thick foam, I doubled up and attached with some spray mount in between the layers. 

Once you insert the foam, make sure you have enough room to have a 1/4" seam allowance away from the velcro like you did on the other side. You can always snip off more foam if you need to. Sew that foam in.

Fold in the open end and pin the heck out of it. Sew that closed along the top.

 

The one thing I am disappointed in is that you can see the green foam through the white minky. Once you get it on the handle you can not really tell though. Besides that, I am quite pleased with it. 

It is not a big round tuft like I saw in the stores but I did not want it that way. We grab the handle with our hands so much and this one being thinner allows for us to grip it that way. It is much more comfortable for our hands which is what I wanted, but we will see how it holds up when he have a baby in there. 

I really like how it looks with our carrier cover that I made last pregnancy. Little things like how they coordinate make me happy.

Rentervation Update: Nesting Mode- Kitchen

Not that this was a big project but it made a big impact for me. Back at the end of 2011 I found these images online of vintage juice labels. I automatically started thinking about how I could use these in my kitchen. I decided to enlarge them, and make them prints to hang on a very bare wall. It took a bit of tweaking and playing in photoshop but I finally got them ready right before Christmas.

Of course my plate was a bit full so we waited until January to go to Ikea and get the picture frames. This is when we went in for 9 $2 picture frames and came out with a while bedroom (which I will finally reveal next week). I got pregnant right after this and the project went on the back burner. A few months ago, I finally came back around to finishing it in order to get the house completely ready.

See my tiny kitchen!!! It is a wonder I manage to bake in there.

Another small project was another picture to frame. If you have not heard of pinterest, then you are not living. It is a website where people pin ideas they find on the internet. The awesome thing is that you can see all these pins and flip through them for projects. One I kept coming back to was this print with important dates. With all these changes with the baby coming up, I want to remember that we are still a couple so I made it for us, with our important dates- Ben's bday, my bday, the day we met, the day we got engaged, and our anniversary. I have seen some where they put the anniversary in the middle in the color but I always think that our life together started the day we met.


There have been so many other small projects and organizational things that have happened around this house while we have been getting ready for this little guy, but none that are super interesting to post about. I was finally able to get Ben to get rid of a lot of junk. We have a dining room that was cleared out (only to be filled with baby stuff but that is what I expected). All our closets have been gone through, stuff thrown out or taken to goodwill and reorganized. One of my proudest moments is that I went through the stockpile of magazines that I had collected over the years, probably about 100 or more. I ripped out all the articles, categorized them and put them in a folder.

Sorry this was not more interesting. Next week I will post our bedroom reveal (FINALLY!!).