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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Nursery Recap

The time has come all too soon to move C into her big-girl room. I would gladly keep her in the nursery until we are expecting another kid (which we absolutely are NOT at the moment) but her room shares a wall with the living room; this wouldn't be a problem but recently she has taken to kicking the wall as hard as she can when she is in her crib and it's making my frames fall off of the wall. No bueno.So our solution is to move her into a room where her wall-kicking habits won't interfere with precariously hung sheets of glass and beloved art. Before I get to the inspiration for her room (and before I do any work on it) I wanted to re-document her nursery...that sweet little space I so lovingly slaved over.

***Some time ago my first blog was accidentally and irrevocably deleted. Thanks to my SIL some of the posts were saved though the pictures were lost. This is a repost from that original blog***

ORIGINAL POST DATE: 5/8/2010 (I've edited it here and there since)

I promised a few of you that I would post in-progress pics of the nursery. Originally I was going for clean lines and mid-century minimalism. With vintage fabrics. And a few vintage pieces. And then things just kept changing. So now I think it is looking a little more "vintage lived-in but not shabby chic" which is fine since I have an inexplicable love of what has been loved, and we have a lot of that on hand. Ultimately I think it looks pretty clean and sparse, rather than frilly and overdone. I just keep editing whatever makes its way in to the room to keep the clutter down. So, on to the goods.

To date we have:
*painted the walls a light blue
*painted the ceiling/closet/shelf above dresser a slightly deeper light blue
*refinished the dresser
*removed the closet doors
*purchased and assembled a crib. The crib is Ikea's Gulliver, and we bought it off craigslist for $50 (score!)
*the side table was something like $12 and I bought it about a year ago. It was living in our guest room, but I moved it to the nursery and replaced its spot in the guest room with one of Gary's drums for now (I actually like the way the drum looks, but I don't think Gary is wild about it, so we will see who wins this decor-debate. Me. Probably always me.)
*Gary put in the ceiling fan, and while I would have loved a chandelier or other funky light fixture, in Arizona there is just no going without a ceiling fan.
*I hung a shelf above the dresser. I bought the cast-iron brackets at Hobby Lobby, slapped on some white craft paint, and then wiped most of it off to make it look distressed. I think I paid like $8 for both brackets since they were on sale that week, and the piece of wood was five or six bones at Home Depot. Paint was leftover from the ceiling color.
*we picked up all of the red bins in the closet at Target, and the basket-drawer system thing is from Ikea.
*White curtain panels were on clearance at Target for like $8 for the pair and I also found a cute curtain rod with crystal finials at Hobby Lobby. I had to spray paint the rod white since it comes in a bronzey finish but they were MUCH less expensive than other places I looked (*cough*pottery barn kids*cough*).


 The crib with the fabric banner I made. Some of the fabrics are new and more graphic (like the Amy Butler lotus fabric) but most are vintage sheets and pillowcases from my collection. Oh, and a few doilies thrown in for extra vintage charm. The framed bibs were mine as a baby. I added the pom trim to the curtains but if I had to do it again I would order some of that fancy-pants jumbo pom. Go big or go home, right?

 I love this dresser...even though the drawers stick. 



Here is the mid-century nightstand with the chair I never did get around to recovering. Ah well, c'est la vie, right? I would like to sew up a slipcover for it, at least for the next kid but that's not something I have to worry about now.

 The drawer basket thingy (very technical term there) is from Ikea and we use it to keep toys, blankets and extra wipes/diapers handy. 



Close-up of the Hobby Lobby bracket. I love this store. Can you be soulmates with a store? Or with multiple stores (since Target is obviously my first)? On the floor there you can see some of the crap that will eventually go up on the walls: some embroidery I did, a vintage bib passed down from my mom, some prints from the original Alice in Wonderland novels, plus family pictures, some more hand-crocheted doilies I've collected over the years, and two Emily Martin prints that I finally bought. I've also been bugging Gary to whip up some art for the room (since we are trying to incorporate as much handmade "stuff" as possible to pass down to the little girl) but he has yet to get to it. Maybe because I keep him busy hanging fans and building shelves and painting?


We still have a loooong way to go. Which is kinda too bad since C is about to get evicted. We want to get the crown molding installed and all of the trim painted bright white (seriously, all of the trim in the house is pinkish creamy "white" and maybe it looked great with all of the tan and brown they previous owner had going on, but now? It makes me want to barf. Blech.) We got the flooring done but the base still needs to be installed in here.

So:
1. install/paint crown and trim
2. install/paint base
3. figure out chair situation/sew slipcover for vintage rocker

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Daily Dose of C


Even when she is sweaty and cranky, this little girl takes my breath away.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Making My List


I cannot wait for the cooler weather to set in! Every day I press my hands against the windows to feel if it is cool outside...because obviously this is a)the most scientific method and b)the weather app on my phone *might* be wrong. We had a few days of chilly weather (chilly=highs in the low 80's) but the triple digits are back with a vengeance. Le sigh. Until we are get consistent overnight lows in the 60's I'll be dreaming about my Fall To-Do List:
 
Pumpkin Festival
Buy Matching Sweaters For Me & C
Halloween Party
Midterms
Weekend up North
Smores
Corn Maze
Fall Garden
Al Fresco Dining
Fire Pits
C's First Trip to the Zoo
Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
 
What are you excited about this Fall?

Monday, October 3, 2011

Mustache Bash!

A couple months ago I helped throw my friend April a baby shower (her crazy cute little boy has since arrived) but I couldn't resist showing you how adorable her shower turned out. I had nothing to do with the food (I can eat with the best of them, but coming up with menus is not so much my bag if someone else is willing to take that on), but I was in charge of the decor and theme. I'm not going to lie, I L-O-V-E-D it!

 I started with this PERFECT invitation:
The seller is bnute (the invitation is available as a digital download on ETSY) and you guys, I'm not being perked or paid to say this but I was extremely impressed with this shop! The invites are creative and the turnaround was within 24 hours from placing my order. I will absolutely be using this shop again!


Candy Bar party favors! The sign says "Thanks for coming! If you 'mustache' please grab a bag a sweets!" Get it? Mustache? Must-dash?!

April's mom and Grandma put out an ah-mazing spread of food!

Seriously, how adorable is this girl?

See the "floating" mustaches? I'm not going to lie, that was my favorite of all my ideas.

Even the sonogram we framed had a mustache. I don't mess around with themes.


I had this at my shower too and loved reading through all of the great (and often hilarious) advice from friends and family.

More mustaches of course! That is the mom-to-be on the left and the dad-to-be on the right.

Thank you so much for letting me a part of such a special occasion April!