Nursery Reveal

I am so excited to share these photos of our little guy's new nursery!!! The term "nursery" almost seems silly to me because I really planned and designed this room to grow with Jensen. Maybe not until he's 18, but hopefully through his childhood years. I used these rooms as inspiration {Pinterest 1, Pinterest 2} and then made it my own creation based on what we already had, our budget, and my own artistic skills. My first priority was color scheme {red, navy, bright yellow} and then I mixed in various little boy themes {airplanes, vintage, sports, cars, etc.}.

This is the view when you open the door to Jensen's room. The crib and changing table were both used with Eva. I sewed the drapes myself! I was pretty proud of how the turned out for it being my first attempt. I orginally really wanted navy striped drapes but I'm actually glad I went with yellow to contrast the rug. Also we will have black out curtains behind them, but I took them down to let the natural light in the room for theses photos.

PS Part of the fun of this post was using the new Cannon EF 50mm 1:1.8 lens that I got for my birthday. I feel like I am no where close to being a good enough photographer to be worthy of this awesome lens, but you have to start somewhere. So if you see a photo that looks especially cool, I probably switched to this lens.

The bunting banner above his crib was one of the few things I actually ordered from Etsy instead of sewing myself. I wanted a mixture of patterns and by the time I figured in the cost to buy strips of different materials plus the time it would take to make this, and questioning my ability to cut a perfect triangle and then sew it evenly, I decided it was way cheaper and easier to order it. Even the husband agreed on this one.

For crib sheets we went with geometric patterns from Amazon. We also have a fun navy print but this is what is waiting for Jensen first. 

I love this rug. I debated about getting a rug for a while....I wanted it to be the right size and some rugs are sooooo pricey. Then I found this one on Amazon and decided to put it on my registry. I am so glad I did! It really pulls the room together and makes the room actually seem bigger. 

This is our changing area. Nothing too fancy. The shelves above were left in our home when we purchased it so I chalk painted them red. The picture board on the right was from my room growing up. We actually have a bigger one in our guest bathroom that matches that we use to hold all of Eva's bows. 

I found this great changing pad cover at Kohls. The ones we had for Eva were pink and green so Jensen needed one that was more manly. 

I found this laundry basket at Target. I like how it mixes the navy stripe with the khaki and I thought it looked good to contrast the yellow vertical stripes on the curtains. 

How cute is this train? My mom picked this up in Kansas City and I think it is perfect. 

Okay, so I honestly do not love bracket shelves. This also came with our house and I had originally planned to take this down. Then I thought about how I would be leaving holes in the wall that would need to be fixed. And I do like that it has additional shelves that we can put up if we need more spaces for things like toys or books. So I kept it.

These model airplanes were put together by my late grandfather. I really like the idea of mixing in a few heirloom pieces to give the room a bit of vintage feel.

I already shared this silhouette photo of myself on Instagram and Facebook but I wanted to show it  one more time. Guess what? My husband took this photo of me using my iPhone 5s. I found a blog that gave tips for how to do this on your own, versus with a paid photographer, and it worked really well! I downloaded 2 camera apps to get the look I wanted and it was so easy. I took it exactly one month before Jensen's due date so that I could remember how pregnant I was right at that moment. I'm sure one day we will relocate this to somewhere else in our home but for now it is perfect for the nursery.

My old baseball glove. I know, I am not athletic, so I'm not sure why I had this little glove, but my grandparents saved it for almost 30 years before giving it to me. It even has "Katie" and "1987" written on it so I guess I got it when I was about 4 years old.

This book makes me laugh. Ryan's brother Greg gave Jensen The Dangerous Book for Boys for Christmas so I figured it needed to be displayed somewhere until he is old enough to enjoy it. 

The final corner includes my dad's old dresser that I chalk painted and our gallery wall.

For the top of the dresser I found an inexpensive lamp from Target and a vintage looking clock from Amazon. I may have spent way too much time a little bit of time searching for just the right clock. I know it's just a small alarm clock but I wanted the look to be just right and I wanted an auxiliary connection for my phone or iPod. Then I finished off the dresser with a bomber plane model that my was part of my grandfather's collection. It even has a tiny man glued to the back left that looks like he is about to jump out! How cool is that? I might still find a way to suspend this from the ceiling near the window but I haven't decided so for now it has landed on the dresses.

For the gallery wall I mixed some old frames that I chalk painted in red with a few new brown frames. I used a wooden classic sports picture and printed off a few free prints from Pinterest. Then I painted a big yellow sign! Okay, I saw this a while back on Etsy but for the size of the products I could find I felt they were way too expensive. Then I remembered that I had some extra wood and yellow paint in our garage. I wish I could have artistically painted on the lettters but I cheated and used a sharpie. Regardless, I like it. It's not perfect but it's for a little boy's room and little boy's aren't perfect, so it works right? 

My wonderful husband managed to fix the broken springs inside our glider so I am happy to use the same one I used with Eva. Instead of a nightstand I got a faux leather storage cube that my mom had and wasn't using anymore. I actually like this idea because it is easy to store extra blankets or bibs inside so that everything is right there when I'm nursing.

My final piece of art! I made this all by myself. I took an old canvas that a friend was throwing away and painted over it to make it my own. When I first showed Ryan my idea sketched on paper he lovingly said, "It looks like something a kid would draw." Then I reminded him that Jensen would be a kid so I was completely okay with it looking like a simple drawing. I think he caught on to my vision :) So yes, it is simplistic, but I really like it. And I painted it myself so that means it was made with love, which is absolutely the best kind of artwork.

There you go. My months of dreaming and planning and collecting all summed up. I'm only 5% sad when I walk into Hobby Lobby and see all the pink and gold things I would have used for a little girl's nursery. Just kidding....maybe 3%. I am happy with the way things came together to create a special room for our little guy.

Refinished Dresser and Nursery Plans

First up in this post - my latest project, refinishing an old dresser. We got this dresser from my parents and I immediately had big plans to refinish it. I bought some amazing Annie Sloan chalk paint. Chalk paint can be a bit pricey, but it definitely gave the dresser the look I was going for. I had never done a chalk paint project before so thankfully a mother of one of our beloved youth girls offered to help me because she is is quite the chalk paint expert. This project was so much fun and really so easy! I may have found a new hobby :) 

Here is the finished project. I had thought about replacing the handles with something more noticeable, but then I realized that Eva's dresser, which we purchased refinished, had similar handles that were just painted to match. I decided to stick with the free, easy route. Here are my other nursery plans...

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My inspiration. I pinned this photo of a barn red dresser back before we were even sure if we would have a boy or girl. Our crib and changing table are both white so I loved the idea of a brightly painted dresser. I also like the black and white prints on the wall and plan to mix in some black and white maternity/newborn photos. 

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More inspiration. I like the bold red and blue along with the mixture of of different prints. I feel like this gives you a ton of options that will look boyish without looking too babyish. My thoughts are that a little baby doesn't care much about the look of their room, but as they grow up they do enjoy having a room that is put together. When we moved and unpacked all of Eva's decoration and room belongings she was very happy when we got the chance to hang everything and knows that her room was specially decorated and planned for her. Plus as a mom I want a nursery that is enjoyable to sit in. My next project is going to be sewing some vertical striped blue and white curtains.

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I found these crib sheets on Amazon. I like that they have the interchangeable geometric prints. Like most normal women, I love Target, but the Target selection of crib sheets was not so great for the look I want. I've started a baby wish list on Amazon because they just have some different choices that are in the same price point as Target. Also I'm only going to go with cute crib sheets and not a skirt since Jensen is a boy and really once you lower the crib you can't use the skirt anyway. We got a white mesh breathable bumper for Eva that we can reuse.

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I don't know if I would actually do anything with a pillow like this, but I LOVE how they mixed up the prints and colors. I wish I could sew a bobby cover like this because I would use that way more than a throw pillow. 

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Jensen's nursery already has a horizontal bar of crown molding about 2/3 of the way up the wall where his crib will go. I am thinking that a patterned banner like this would look awesome. I think I will hang it with twine and I really don't want to try to sew this because I think I would mess up the triangles so hopefully I can cut some fabric pieces and glue them to felt to make them sturdier before attaching them to twine.

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I plan to look for something like this at Hobby Lobby. The blog I got it from said she found one their for only a few dollars and I figure that even if it isn't red I can paint it. I would love to find a cool way to suspend this in the corner above Jensen's crib, sort of as an alternative to a baby mobile and looking like it could have flown in from the window in the same corner. How fun would that be for a little boy?

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I have a long canvas that I got from somebody and I am hoping to paint over the canvas' current artwork with navy blue. Then I am dreaming that either I can paint this or somebody slightly more artistic could paint it for me. I don't like the water hose and hat part, I just want a vintage looking firetruck that says "Jensen" on it.

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Finally, since he will be Ryan Bradley's son, I figured I should mix in something sport related. I didn't want to go sports overboard in the room because what if Jensen is like me and doesn't care much about sports? But just to humor his daddy I plan to hang up something with a football or baseball on it.

Okay, so I am ready to shop, sew, and decorate RIGHT NOW. Who's with me? 15 weeks left to go.

Easter Decor

The sun is peeking out...spring is right around the corner....and a couple of weeks ago I started decorating our home for Easter. My first step was to change up the chalkboards from Valentine's Day to Easter. The one above is hanging at the top of the stairs.  I found an idea on Pinterst that had a chalk board with a rainbow of colored eggs hanging from it. Well mine aren't exactly eggs - I picked up some free paint samples at Home Depot and used my 2" circle punch to create an egg-type look. Either way it is bright and celebrates the greatest TRUTH about Easter. Eva loves to look at all the colors and I taught her that when I say, "He is risen. JESUS is ALIVE!" to say, "Hooray!" and put her hands in the air. Super sweet.

 This chalkboard is in the playroom. I do like a good pun.

I kept my burlap table runner out and added some Easter color. I like the chocolate bunny figures that my mom got me. Chocolate is a pretty important part of Easter....I originally had fake yellow daisies in the vase but a friend came over for dinner last week and brought me reall yellow daisies! I guess she knows my taste pretty well.

My bookshelf decorations are pretty condensed. The silver bunny piggy bank was mine growing up and when my mom brought it to me from her house it still had $2.71 inside (all in pennies.....). The striped frame was also one that my mom found in a box of my old stuff so I just added a photo of Eva from last year. The rolled paper egg art is my own creation that I made this year! I'm pretty proud of how egg-cellent this project turned out. First, I took an old diaper box and cut the perfect size piece of cardboard. Then, I covered it in fun scrapbook paper. Finally, I cut strips of coordinating scrapbook paper, rolled them up on a pencil, and glued them into place.

Alright, here comes the fireplace wall. That tricky wall that we actually don't use as a fireplace, can't nail anything in to, is super reflective and hard to photograph. My iPhone actually took better photos of this wall than my DSLR camera. Go figure. I hung a sparkly Easter sign up top. Below I cut out eggs from the same coordinating scrapbook paper as the egg craft and strung them up with some pink yarn. I kind of wish this all looked fancier but it's all above Eva's bookshelf and stuffed animals so I figure fun and simple works too.

Another proud piece of art - Eva actually made this! I put down tape for the cross and let her smear paint across the paper. I think it is beautiful. 

Then there is this Picasso inspired egg art. I like it because it was all Eva's creation and her first time to get to dip stuff in a bunch of glue and put it on paper. (I did reinforce a few pieces with hot glue during her nap time but left everything exactly where she put it). The point was to make something that had different shapes, colors and textures. I hung it down low in the playroom so she can touch it and we can talk about it. 

And finally Eva made this! Hahaha, just kidding. Some of our fabulous youth students painted this for us and I think it is awesome. They just gave it to us the other day so I haven't hung it yet. It seemed spring/Easterish to me so I'm including it just to brag on their awesome artistic skills. I'm thinking of putting it either in the playroom or our bedroom. I really, really like it.

Over the next few weeks I have a few more fun Easter ideas. We definitely need to have a practice egg hunt. I want to put Eva's lunch into colored eggs and let her hunt for them and then eat it outside.  I can't decide if I think the Easter bunny is creepy? I don't think I will make a big deal out of it. I like Santa for Christmas, but a giant bunny that hides eggs? Did I ever believe in the Easter bunny? I can't even remember so it must not have been too big of a deal. I have a couple of small things I am putting together for her Easter basket but I'm just going to tell her that they are from us because we are so happy to celebrate Jesus!!! 

One little wall.

One little wall. I love this little wall in Eva's bathroom. I love the bow holder that I upgraded from a picture board. I love that it's covered in bright colored bows - bows that look so sweet on my baby girl! I love the gingerbread man wall plug-in that I should have put away with the Christmas stuff but didn't because I think it's cute. I love the bath towel that's hanging up on the wall - it used to be unused and have a fancy ribbon on it back when it was just a "guest towel" but now it's used to wrap up my munchkin after her tub time,  In those moments Eva looks so precious with her little face peeking through that I don't miss having the fancy ribbon at all. Yeah, this wall is awesome. Enjoy the simple things.

Love is in the air

Flashback to the early days of January when I had just put the Christmas decorations away. I was looking at our home, observing how the lack of sparkle and fluffy decor made our house feel emptier when it hit. The urge the decorate for Valentine's Day. I've never really decorated for Valentines day much because when I was single I didn't need to - my home had enough pink in it everywhere, everyday! As a teacher I'm sure I put out a couple of heart knick-knacks or something and I really liked to decorate my classroom tables for the annual Valentine's Party. Other than that I didn't do much. I'm honestly not even a huge mushy Valentine's Day person. I want my husband to spend some time with me on some sort of a date but it doesn't have to be expensive or fancy and it doesn't have to be on Valentine's Day. I like it when my dad sends me a Valentine's Day card in the mail that is written in Spanish because it makes me laugh (he started this tradition years ago, neither of us really speak Spanish). And I think it's cute for kids to hand out cards and candy to their friends.

One of my first Valentine's projects this year was to update my canvas chalkboards. I made these from 2 super cheap canvases that I painted in chalk paint. I love that I can update them for the seasons or really whenever. I looked for some cute sayings online and chalked away! One of them is in the playroom (pictured below) and the other at the top of our staircase.

Other than the canvas this wall has nothing to do with Valentine's decor, but I love it! I recieved Hobby Lobby gift cards from all 3 of my best friends and my mother in-law so I've been able to add some new decor to the playroom.  I figure that if I'm going to spend hours a day in here I might as well love how it looks!

I also got this fun cork board from Hobby Lobby. I plan to use it to hang up Eva's crafts or artwork but for now I tacked up some of my favorite photos. I also created the Life's Most Important List using PicMonkey and my favorite Subway Art technique. I will probably frame it eventually but for now it's on the bulletin board. 

And since I had 4 Hobby Lobby gift cards that were begging to be used - I also picked up a couple of yards of burlap. I was inspired by the burlap wreath my sister in-law gifted me (photo below) to make a new table runner. I've heard that you can spend close to $50 on these at some stores and I was able to make mine for about $4. (Always use a coupon at Hobby Lobby!).  If you are wanting to create anything with burlap I'd recommend this link for reading up on how to prepare it. It is a bit messy at first but my runner has mostly stopped shedding.

To pair up with my new runner I used a dessert stand that my aunt passed along to me, 2 cup and saucer stands made from plates and candlesticks that I got years ago as a hostess gift, and the Anthropologie salt and pepper shakers we got for our wedding. I also added in some yellow and red flowers for a fun pop of color. These were our wedding colors and I really like how the look against the burlap and coffee beans. I also like how the glass and metal accents contrast the burlap texture.

Close up of the fringe - did you know that you can make your burlap as fringy as you want it to be? You just pull out threads until everything is the desired look. So easy! I started with less but as the days went by I decided to make it a bit fringier.

I saw a photo of a similar strand of paper hearts on Pinterest so I decided that my next project should be to make this for our fireplace. Unfortunately the photo I used didn't link to instructions so it took some trial and error. I ended up using a tiny stapler to hold everything in place. And be aware that if you want to use fun patterned paper you need to make it double sided otherwise part of the heart just looks white.

So I really like how the twine strand of hearts turned out, but I wish that you could see all of the patterned paper from further away. I guess the only way to get that to happen would be to use bigger paper to create bigger hearts. You can also see the burlap wreath that was pretty much the catalyst to my whole updated decor craze. Thanks, Melody! Also, it is really difficult to get a good photo of this wall. The fireplace tiles are shiny and super reflective so I took about twenty photos that totally show me and everything else in the room being reflected back in the photo. I guess I'm still working at my photography skills. 

Then I decided to make a second heart garland for the bar top overlook into the kitchen. This one was much easier. Just strips of paper and my hot glue gun. 

Eva really wants to touch it but I know that she would rip it so easily. I think next year I will make her one that we can use to countdown the days until Valentine's.

And finally a piece that I did not make. I wish I could have but I found this at Hobby Lobby (where else?) and knew that I was better off getting it premade. I like how it combines the paper, wood, and metal textures.

All this and it's not even February yet! I figured that February is a short month so it was best to decorate ahead of time! Never to early to spread the love.

Tackling the clutter

Do you ever have one of those moments when you realize that it's become You versus The Household Clutter, and you must win? I had such an experience on Sunday.

It's no surprise that babies come with a lot of extra stuff - diapers, feeding supplies, toys, gear, furniture, clothing. These little people, just like us big people, tend to accumulate things quickly! I can say from experience too, that the more space you have to live in, the more you accumulate. When we lived in our apartment all of Eva's toys fit in to a couple of small wicker baskets. Not anymore! Also, the busier our lives get, the easier it is for little bits of clutter to creep their way out of their nice, neat places into our every day living areas. A bobby pin  here, a shoe there, a pack of gum that needs to be put in the diaper bag. In some ways this is okay...life is much more about enjoying the time you get with people you love than having a spotless home. I can embrace this. But then there are those moments when you start to glance around your home and notice clutter emerging here and there and over in that corner and across the room - it starts to make me a bit nutty!

So on Sunday afternoon when Eva was sleeping and Ryan was still working at church I decided that I had to tackle this problem! First I moved as much of the munchkin toys into the playroom as possible. This is the point of having an entire room of your home devoted to toys, right? During the day when fun memories are being made and learning is happening I am totally okay with toys being all over the house, but by the end of the day these toys need to make their way back to their rightful places. The only toys I want to have a permanent place in the living room are the stuffed animals and books on the bookshelf that blocks off our fireplace (not that it's bad to have toys in your living room - we definitely did before - but since we host student ministry and other events in our living room it is nice space wise to have the toys out of there). In order to make this happen I also spent some time reorganizing the playroom closet so that some toys can be put away out of sight and brought out for special times or rotated through for variety. Art supplies and puzzles are two examples of toys that I love for Eva to play with but that are better suited to be pulled out when I can sit right beside her to play with. Otherwise she just wants to dump out all the pieces from all the puzzles and then move on with her life. Our playroom closet also houses my crafting stuff and lots of serving ware (things like cake stands/pitchers/vases/etc.) I have been trying to figure out how to maximize this storage space so that the most amount of things can be stored without the closet feeling overwhelmingly stuffed when you look into it.

As I was working on all this I was absolutely laughing at myself. Do people with 4 kids organize their kid's stuff this much? Probably not. Will Eva one day thank me for helping her learn to play in an organized way? I hope so! But it's not likely...most kids like the mess.

Finally I tackled all the clutter that was not related to Eva. It's really not that hard to just pick up after ourselves each day, yet sometimes I just don't feel like doing that and it adds up!

When I was all done I looked back and admired my cleaning masterpiece. Until my child woke up and the mess began all over again.....

A photo from the church nursery on Sunday - I guess all that kid clutter is worth it when I see that precious grin!