Maddie's nursery - finally complete!

With Maddie's 8 day early arrival and the fact that I was cramming everything possible into the last few weeks before she was supposed to come- there was lots I still needed to complete in her nursery.  Luckily, it was all mostly minor crafty things to complete so of course the week after her arrival was it.

I did have somewhat of a "deadline" since the newborn pictures were 8 days after her arrival...so crafting was in full swing and luckily jimmy was at home most of the week to help too!!

So here you go- Maddie's nursery debut!

The view from the doorway.  I love the high ceilings!

Her dresser/changing pad.  Eventually the orange canvases will have some hair clips on it- or so I envision when she gets a bit more hair!

I used some of the leftover cut outs of our pups from when my friend Jennifer helped make some bigger ones for Charlie's nursery 2 years ago.

The sweater and booties were made for Maddie by her Grana (Jimmy's mom).

I downloaded a fancy font and printed them on some of our cream shiny paper that I still had from our wedding (yes- over 4 years ago!).  Then I had Jimmy cut some 45 degree angles out of 1x2s and nailed them together and spray painted them shiny silver!  Took some guidance from Ana white's plans here.

And then the other side of the room was where I had the bulk of work to do.  Had to finish the simple bookcases (also from Ana White) that I made for Charlie's room too.

This is the "reading nook".  Which Jimmy laughed at me for because I envisioned Charlie coming in here and sitting on the pillow mat (made with inspiration from here) - but I thought it was funny when I was taking pictures he plopped right down and started reading and looking so cute!!!

The initial letters are from Walmart, the vase thing is from Joann's and I made the little burlap flowers to add a little color!

The window has an arch over it that I covered up to keep the room somewhat dark for those future day time nap times.

And the unused wall space by the door? Well that's where the mamaroo lives and thankfully- little girl loves it just as much as her brother did!! Yeah :-)

So what do you think of the results? I am pretty excited about it and think this room will serve her well for a long time!!  Not too "baby" and a lot of love.  The whole thing was pretty inexpensive considering we were super lucky to get the crib and dresser from family and the chair as well!

Here is a list of details...however, I didn't purchase much!

Crib and dresser: hand me down from cousin Will

Glider: hand me down from Aunt Lyndsay

Ottoman: made from a stand that my dad built for my sister's fundraiser and then I made the cover (that I can easily take off and wash...)

Curtains: made by my aunt with extra fabric that I had- all the fabric is from sheets purchased at Target (the cream and colored) and coral sheets are threshold brand

Frames/prints: made by the hubs and printed by me

Lamp: hobby lobby

Rug: urban outfitters sale

Crib sheet and crib skirt: made by me out of the sheets

Fabric banner: made by me; knobs from Home Depot

Letters: Walmart 

Bookshelves: made by me from Ana White

I think that's it- as you can see, most of it was DIY. Which is funny because I said I wasn't going to do ANY DIY stuff in her room. Ha.  However, it was worth the time and effort for my baby girl!!!!

Baby Girl Carter: nursery update

 

Well, baby girl Carter’s (BGC) nursery (nope – still not even close to having a name) is coming right along.  I’m happy to say that most all the “big” things are done, now it’s (hopefully) the more fun part of deciding and finding things for the walls.   Here is a round up of the projects/items:

• Crib – My brother-in-law and sister-in-law were SO sweet to let us have my nephew’s crib and dresser.  Our nephew was getting his big boy bed at the perfect time, so we are so excited to use their beautiful crib and dresser for BGC. 

 

• Crib bedding – this is DONE.  Well, I still have 2 crib sheets that I’m going to make out of the left over orange fabric, but making the coral one took less than an hour and that was my first time doing it, so I’m confident, those will be fast and easy.  But the big deal is that the crib skirt is done.  Yes, the 4 tiered, ruffled crib skirt that I made myself – it’s done.  It was quite the relief when I finally tied all the layers up and it looked great.  I love the final look and the ruffles, but man, that was time consuming…mainly because my thread kept coming out of my needle for some reason – but hopefully a new needle that I got this weekend will fix that.  Check it out! (I also ordered a cream bumper that we’ll use later that is super soft from Amazon – instead of having my mom make it like we did with Charlie)

 

• Curtains – I have had the cornice done for a while that goes over the arched window in the room.  I was so sad to cover up that beautiful window, but if BGC is anything like her brother, she will appreciate that the light is blocked during those day time naps.  But Jimmy and I finally hung it up on Saturday night – which was not lacking any martial arguments while we hung them up – and then got to put up the awesome panels that my aunt whipped up for us.  It’s amazing that these are just sheets from Target that she attached black out panels to, pleated and ta-da.  She’s an awesome curtain maker and I was so pleased with them!

 

(the dresser and changing pad is on the opposite wall from the crib)

• Chair/rocker – so the chair/rocker has been in the room for a while and was another item that was gifted to us from family.  My sister didn’t have room in her house and this rocker was perfect.  She had a black slipcover over it and I took it off to find this color underneath and attempted to make this color work with the fabric and the gray walls, and I think it looks just fine. 
• Side Table – So I was going to make a side table from my favorite website, Ana White, but then realized we had this cute little circle table just sitting downstairs and it was the same one we used in Charlie’s room and worked just fine – so I cut out the fabric from the coral sheets, hemmed it up and ta da.  A nice little coral table cloth.   I really like the lamp too, which was a 50% off find at Hobby Lobby.  The burlap orange is perfect!
• Ottoman – this isn’t done, but I finally just bit the bullet and went to buy some of the fabric I found that matched the piping on the chair.  So we’ll see how that looks.  I’m making a slip cover (my last sewing project!!!!) for it that I can take off and wash and will likely be adding ruffles to it, so we’ll see how it turns out.  That is still a to do.
• Shelves - those will go in between the chair and the crib and I'm building those.  But "building" is a loose term because really you just cut three boards, screw them together and paint and then you're done.  Super easy and super cute and super accessible for her when she gets older

 

And then there was the rug.  And the moment I knew I lost it.

 

So I’ve been pinteresting the heck out of this nursery.  Trying to piece everything together in my head as the days progress and her arrival gets closer and closer.  When it came to a rug, I wasn’t sure what to do because I wanted a fun rug in there and a 5X7 would fit perfectly in between the crib and the dresser…however, I wasn’t about ready to shell over $300 for a rug, which was what I was finding most of the ones that I liked that matched for.  I would say so far, we have spent maybe $150 on the nursery and look how far we’ve gotten – I wasn’t about ready to spend double the entire spend so far on a rug – that will likely be spit up on several times.  My solution?  I would just use all the extra fabric and make my own.  You know, get a rug mat, cut all the fabric into 1X5 strips and in my free time just sit and watch TV and string the fabric through the holes and tie…over and over again.  I knew it was going to take a while, especially since I knew I wanted the 5X7 size.  But I was ok with that – I have all the time in the world, right?  (HA)  I told Jimmy about my plan and he literally laughed in my face.  Asking me when exactly I was going to have time to just sit down and leisurely do that.  I work full time, am 8 months pregnant (aka tired so I go to bed early), have a household to keep up with, a family to cook for, friends to hang out with and a charming, yet wild almost 2 year old boy to chase after.  Again, he just laughed.  I told him “whatever” and that I was just doing us a favor by not spending all that money on a rug. 

 

And then I randomly googled “cheap 5X7 area rugs” and just like that, the Urban Outfitters website popped up with an orange 5X7 rug with some square design on it for $49.  They were offering $50 free shipping and free returns if I wasn’t happy.  And I sat there staring at it – thinking for $50 I could save myself HOURS of my life.  And so I did it.  I ordered it and it will soon be on its way to the Carter house.  After ordering it, I sent it to my mom and sister via email to show them the latest nursery purchase.  My sister emailed back right away the following:

 

“I’m confused.  Weren’t you going to weave your own rug?”

 

And then it hit me.  I had lost it.  Yes, I was going to do that.  A 5X7 rug.  I thought I was going to have time to "weave" it myself.  With less than 2 months to go before BGC’s due date and all the other things on my plate, I literally had convinced myself and told others I was going to weave a rug.  Even with all the warnings at how time consuming it was, etc.  I had just spent HOURS of my life sewing a ruffled crib skirt for heaven’s sake – who do I think I am, Martha Stewart?  A craft blogger where this is my job?  Or just some mom trying to live up to all those crazy expectations of making the perfect handcrafted nursery for their sweet baby?  OMG.  My husband was right – he was so right to laugh in my face.  And the worst part is that this is baby #2 so I really should be more sensible right?  I mean I look at how much time effort and energy I spent on Charlie's nursery at our old house and then yep, we just picked right up and moved and left the paint and curtains and closet there.  And guess what - he was JUST FINE.  Yep, I should be well aware that a kid will survive just find without a picture perfect nursery - and this girl will live without the "perfect" rug. 

 

Then I saw this article posted on facebook by a fellow mom friend.  I read it (and you should too).

 

This is the pic posted in the article and I died laughing because these are so things Jimmy and I would say.

 

And then I realized that buying that rug was the best thing I could have done for myself and BGC’s nursery.  Now let’s just hope that it matches (but if it's not the perfect orange - I might just keep it purely because I'm sick of looking….to be continued…