Happy Mother's Day :)

Although, technically, I'm still just a doggy-mom, I'm enjoying today. We took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot.

First, my best friend came over. She just found out on Friday that she'll be having a little girl in September. We are so excited to have daughters that are the same age, and hope that they become life-long friends. We took this photo because we think it'll be awesome to show the girls when they get older.

I bought the classic baby blocks at Toys R Us, after a little search. We took a few photos with her name, and then this one. I think that it's adorable!

I saw a picture on pinterest with a belly and their dog that was so precious. I was hoping to get one with Simon, but this was the best we could do.

We had Bill's mom and sister over for brunch this morning and now we're going to head out to my grandma's to see the rest of the family. I hope you guys are all having a great day :)

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

This Girl Will Be Reading in No Time

We are very lucky to have so many caring and generous people in our lives. Our baby has received so many books that I had to come up with a creative way to store them. If you're a Pinterest addict, like me, then you've seen the book slings that you hang on the wall. Here is just one of the many tutorials that I've come across on Pinterest.  I decided to whip up a few of these to house some of our baby girl's books.

A lot of her books are on the built-in the Bill made, but I wanted to be able to keep some closer to where we'd be reading to her. There is a window next to the glider, so I chose to sneak them in right below the window. This benefits us for a few reasons: they are low to the ground, so the baby will be able to reach the books once she's mobile and I could hide the hardware behind the curtain panels.

This was actually a really easy project. I used about two-thirds of a yard of fabric, along with a 3/4 inch round dowel, two heavy duty command hooks and some ribbon for each one.

I didn't take any pictures while I was making them, but they are pretty self-explanatory. Just hem each side of the fabric and then sew pockets for the dowels. Mine are about 6 inches deep and 40 inches wide. They each fit 7 or 8 of the board books.

I should have bought stock in command strips and hooks before decorating this nursery because I've used them everywhere. These specific hooks are designed to hold 7 pounds each. They've been hanging for a few weeks and they seem very solid.

As for hanging them up, you can see in the picture above that I just laid the dowel for the back of the sling right on the command hook. Then I tied some ribbon around the front dowel and hung that from the command hook. Staggering the dowels a bit allows the sling to open nicely.

A lot of the other tutorials I've seen for the book slings use the double curtain rod bracket to hang them. I opted to use command hooks instead so that we didn't put any holes in the wall. Really, Bill was the one that didn't want the holes and it ended up making the project even simpler than if I used those brackets.

See how the curtains cover all of the command hook nonsense? Its perfect. 

I would definitely suggest this project for anyone looking for some cute book storage. These would also be useful in a classroom. You don't even need to be able to sew. I think that these could easily be done with hem tape instead of sewing the hem and the dowel pockets. 

How else do you guys store all of these books? We don't really have space for a book case in her nursery, so I'm sure I'll be looking for more creative suggestions!

Thanks for reading,

Kathleen

Just in Time

The nursery is finished! 

This post is basically going to be a ton of pictures. Maybe now that I've uploaded all of the pictures that I've taken, I'll get around to doing smaller posts on some of the DIY projects. For now, this will have to do.  

My due date is officially 2 weeks and 2 days away, so we're definitely getting really close. I'm so glad to have everything in order in her nursery :) Without further ado, let's begin the barrage of pictures. 

This is the view from the doorway. I finally finished the alphabet wall, the baby quilt, and the book slings that are hanging under the window.

My aunt made the mobile that's hanging above the crib. I had pinned something similar on my pinterest board and she ran with it. I love it.

I made two book slings that can each hold five or six books. I hung them using command hooks because my husband didn't want to put a zillion holes in the wall. The package says that each hook holds 7 pounds. They've been hanging for a few weeks now and we haven't had any issues. The hooks are hidden by the curtain panel, so we don't have to see the mess.

We got our glider from Buy Buy Baby. It's the Savvy glider by Little Castle and it comes with the ottoman. I took the advice of a few mom's and made sure we had a comfy ottoman and a little table next to the chair to put a glass of water while I'm feeding the baby. I have plans for the big frame above the glider, but they involve the baby's initials so I'm going to wait on that. Her name is still a secret... best job we've ever done at keeping a secret :)

I just picked up the lamp from Target yesterday. The jury is still out. It was only $10, so I'm considering spray painting it. Thoughts?

We've had the crib for a while now. We ordered it online from Walmart. I used hem tape to make the crib skirt, and with my mom's help, I made the quilt.

The dresser, like the crib, is from Walmart. I'm so happy with the look of it, especially at the price.

Above the dresser/changing table, I hung a small photo frame gallery. I made most of the art, so the cost was pretty low.

This one just might be my favorite. It's probably the math geek in me.

I've filled up the built-ins that Bill made in the little nook. I'm not quite settled on the placement of everything yet. I'm sure this is something that will evolve as the baby grows and we see what we need to put there.

Its a small-ish room, so I think it is about as full as its going to get. I'm sure any parent reading this is laughing since you know how much stuff we're going to accumulate in the next few months.

I can't wait for the baby to arrive. The doctor's told me that I will not deliver after my due date because I have gestational diabetes... I guess that's the perk of pricking myself four times a day for the past four months!

One week of work left and two weeks until baby! I hope you enjoyed the tour :)

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Linking Up at:

Free-Stylin'

The latest addition to the nursery involved some free-hand embroidery. Once again, I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.

I bought a quarter yard of yellow linen fabric, navy blue and gray embroidery floss, and one piece of gray felt. The grand total at the fabric store was $4.93, since I had to purchase the needles as well.

This was my first try at embroidering something and I went into it with the attitude of "how hard could this be?" I also was realistic and thought that if it turned out terrible, then I'm only out a few bucks. It didn't have to turn out as a masterpiece. The main occupant of the room won't be able to read for a few years, so I wasn't too worried about it. Luckily, it turned out really sweet.

I started by securing the yellow linen fabric in an embroidery hoop that I already had, and then put a piece of painters tape across it so I had a nice straight line.

After fighting to thread the needle for a few minutes, I was finally able to start the embroidering. I used small stitches and just free-handed the words "little one." The whole thing took about 45 minutes. There was a little bit of a learning curve, but it went pretty quickly once I got into the swing of things.

I think baby elephants are adorable, so I went to the silhouette with my gray felt and had the machine cut out a baby elephant. Even on the highest setting with my fabric blade, it didn't completely cut through the felt. This was easily resolved with a pair of scissors and resulted in a far cuter elephant than I ever could have drawn!

I put a few quick stitches in for the eye to secure it into place using the navy blue thread, then switched over to the gray thread to stitch around the entire elephant. This took almost an entire episode of Love it or List it, but again, the results were worth the time!

After a little debating, I decided to frame this up. I debated keeping it free so that we could feel the softness of the elephant, but decided that a frame would protect it better. Since I have the ability to replicate the elephant on the silhouette anytime, I can also put one on a pillow or blanket at some point.

The art collection for the nursery is growing. I'm up to 3 big pieces now, including the LOVE fabric scrap one that I made last week. The third is a photo that I found at Target that really incorporates the colors of the nursery. I love stumbling across the perfect things unexpectedly :)

This is the first really "baby-ish" thing that I've made for the nursery. My goal is to keep it modern and sophisticated, but still child-friendly. So far, I think I'm achieving this. I'm just not a big fan of nurseries that are so focused on the baby that they can't evolve as the baby grows.

What did you accomplish this weekend? Anything exciting? We finally had nice weather - 50 degrees and sunny! - so we got out and walked the dog. It was nice to get some fresh air in the house as well!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

I linked up at:




http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/2013/03/make-it-pretty-monday-week-40.html