B's Nursery Tour

In absolutely no particular order, here are the pictures Bran's room in its (mostly) finished glory. Please excuse the terrible phone-quality pictures, but my camera is being used by my mom and so this will have to do for now. Everything in this room came together from what we already had, with the exception of the rug, which I love in general, but kind of hate for this room specifically. It just feels too busy in person, but in the pictures it really doesn't look so bad. At any rate, the price was right and it is a nice plush wool so the kids can roll around on it.This room is really terrifically awkward: it is the smallest room in the house, has two weird angled walls, a window squished in another corner (WHY do builders do this?!!), and there is basically only one layout I could work with. It is more or less exactly the same room that Cora came home to: same crib, same dresser, both in the same place. 

                                    

I love the hex shelves Gary built. Plans are from A Beautiful Mess, found HERE.

Curtains over the closet. We removed the doors when Cora was a baby and I love that I can put away baby clothes without waking sleeping babes.

I bought one extra belt for this shelf and used a second belt and scrap wood we already had on hand. I don't know how I feel about the lamp, but I need a light source and this is honestly the least awkward place I could put this. Still, I love this little shelf. It feels so rustic and manly.

Thrift store painting that I found years ago for $7. I love it. Like, so so much. Felt triangle garland made by me.

I made Bran this dreamcatcher using a couple of tutorials from Pinterest. It was stupid easy. Anyone want to come make more dreamcatchers with me?

Bye Bye Baby

My girl is a babe no longer. Yesterday she officially turned two years old, and while it makes my heart break just a little, I'm so in love (most of the time) with this age that I don't miss the days of nursing and bottles and swaddling too much.

 

*More photos and a sampling of who this feisty girl is at 2 years old to come, but in the meantime I wanted to share this funny picture. We told her it was her birthday when we she woke up, but since we had already celebrated earlier in the month we didn't have anything planned for yesterday. All day she was sad and weepy because there were no "happy birday cake" and no"happy birday pressens". Poor funny girl.

Days 1 & 2

Day 1: peace

Day 2: skyline

Lately

A bit of what we've been up to  in the last week or so:

Too much crafting. I can't seem to focus on one project for very long.

 

A little project featuring words from OUR SONG, inspired by THIS.

Easter. I tried to straighten C's hair only to discover a million cowlicks on the top of her head. Hence the crazy hair. It reminds me very much of this guy.

 

Time with family. My sister in law is in town (hooray!) and has brought her two kids along. Little J is only a couple of months younger than C and watching them together is like overdosing on cuteness. Cousin B is three years older but she is a champ at tolerating C's need to hug and annoy her. Loving it.

Spring cleaning. My list is too long. Like, literally a couple hundred things to do. I'm chipping away at it slowly, but I keep getting distracted by all of the crafts I'd rather do (see above).

Playdates. Lately whenever I tell C we are going to get in the car she instantly asks me for Jenny and June. I love it.

Thrifting. As long as I'm dropping off stuff at Goodwill from spring cleaning, I might as well take a peek at what they have, right?

Brand new baby Minnetonkas for $2! I. Die.

Growing. Our little garden is thriving. My Early Girl tomato bush already has 8 to 10 little green tomatoes on it, and the beans, corn, zucchini and okra are looking great too!

Trying to entertain a certain fussy toddler who, as it turns out, is cutting four teeth at the same time. I would be fussy too.

 

Lovey for sweet June

C's little friend June (daughter of my dear friend Jenny) turned one last month. I finally finished her quilt (which was meant to be a gift for Jenny's baby shower!) I have to say in spite of the many, MANY issues (corners not meeting up properly, the scrappy nature of the piecing, etc) I really loved this quilt. It was a hard one to give away but I can think of no little girl I'd rather gift it to.  I hand quilted this while I watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey and this will not be the last time I do it! It lends such a charm to a quilt and was much easier than I thought it would be.

These colors just make me so happy! Almost all of the fabrics are Denise Schmidt prints.

Close up of the hand quilting.

I hand stitched the binding on to match.

Close up of the back.

It's a smallish quilt, somewhere between a baby size and a doll size. I'm calling it a carseat quilt...just the right size for snuggling while on a long drive.

Happy Birthday Ba'june!

A little artsy, a little fartsy.

I'm sprucing up the master bedroom. Or re-doing it. Or just doing it for the first time really. Whatevs.

I bought two of these bamboo frames from goodwill for 6 bucks a pop. As um, lovely as the prints are I decided to swap them out. I painted the frame gold with some Martha Stewart craft paint, painted the mat black to cover up the faded green bits, pulled out a bit of map from an old atlas and called it good. Except that since this is going in our room I decided to pick a map with personal meaning for Gary.

 

A sweet little heart over Scotland, where he spent two years teaching and serving for our church.

What about you? Anyone else working on a neglected space in their home? Have you whipped up any art lately?

The best compromise is the one where I win.

Guys, today was epic. Like, better than the day I got married epic (kidding...probably.) Today I found THE rug. The one that has been haunting my dreams. It's perfect, I want to marry it, and maybe I will. I think that you can do that in Alabama or something.

On a run to my favorite home decorator fabric outlet place to pick up curtain ring clips (locals let me know if you want my source...only $2.99 for 7 rings!!) Gary was lecturing me about how he doesn't want to spend much more of our tax refund on rugs. I already bought an ENORMOUS 9'6" x 13' wool rug for our living room, and a smaller version of it for C's room, plus we need some runners for the hall, a rug for our bedroom, then some day the office will get a dhurrie and when we end up having another bambino the nursery will need one...the point is that I'm on a rug buying kick.

C's rug came today! The same thing in a larger size is going in the living room.

I would never go back to carpet though. Let me go on record; I would rather walk on bare laminate flooring for the rest of my life than have wall to wall carpet again. But we were super ready for a few area rugs. I'd given up on finding the perfect wool ikat in a predominantly rusty red print in just the right size and within my budget. At the store Gary was trying to convince me that we need to cut our spending and just compromise with a synthetic rug from the store we were in (great fabrics at this place, but very questionable floor coverings). I almost threw up on him. However, I'm also a reasonable person and a good wife so I told him I would find something synthetic (gross, that word gives me the hives!) IF he would let me run into Home Goods across the street and "just take a look at what they have...just in case."

Then the heavens opened and the choirs of angels started belting out all kinds of hosannas. They were all super excited for me when I saw this looker:

It's exactly what I want. In wool. In a very generous 7'x9' size. In the exact rusty red tones WITH a bonus grey accent worked throughout. I think maybe the rug gods designed it just for me.

But it was a little over our budget (by like, a hundred bucks which is a pretty significant amount when you're already on a budget.) Good thing I have the best husband and that he was gifted with an eye for good design when I point it out to him. And also maybe he was placated because I encouraged him to buy a bunch of new clothes. Distraction is the greatest weapon in my arsenal. Well, that and my knockers.