Nursery art.

I planned my entire nursery concept around two things: colors & art. I knew, no matter what gender the little one would be, I wanted an bright orange and deep blue color palate for the nursery. I’ve changed the general concept quite a bit {since I was thinking boy when I planned it}, but I love the added pops of color.

In addition to color, I also really wanted to incorporate art by Katie Daisy. This was my only “girl” clause for the nursery, and I’m pretty pumped that I get to apply it! Seriously, how can you look at this art and not feel happy inside?!

 

I scored a sweet deal for white frames with white mats from Michael’s for 50% off…

And this wall was my prime suspect…

I used some magazine/ad paper to draw templates and figure out just where to place the pretties…

Added an anchor to make ‘em stay…

Two down up, two to go…

And here’s the full picture {I’m on a roll with puns here, huh.}

This will be the little one’s point of view…

And the close ups…

This is my FAVORITE. It has been my laptop screen saver at work for years. I love it. {You can buy Katie Daisy’s art in her etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thewheatfield}

 

And one last photo {taken before I added the button/ribbon trim on the crib skirt}…

It’s coming together! It’s really quite amazing how much better the room looks in person with just four frames hung. It’s like my “vision” finally feels right. I just need to add a few more pieces, and it will be complete.

I really love the space. She’ll probably never remember what this room looked like {I couldn’t tell you what my nursery décor was!}, but I still hope she enjoys the colors. At least her mommy will be happy in the space…even in the wee hours of the night. ;)

Once I finished hanging the art, I just sat on the wood floor and rested against the wall – taking it all in. I am so excited/hopeful/anxious for my little girl to arrive. So looking forward to that day. I feel like my heart literally aches thinking about getting to hold her someday. I love her {so much.}

Getting me through the Monday blues.

The thought of getting to see this gorgeous little lady soon is getting me through my Monday blues…

I just keep reminding myself that I get to see my niece, sister & brother-in-lay on Friday. I am aching to hug my sister. Seems like decades since I’ve I’ve seen her {I think it’s been since October?}  They’re coming to town to visit with family & to throw my first baby shower. I can’t wait for the shower, but even more so, I can’t wait to see my sister.

T minus 3.5 days until I have a full day off work & get some quality “mamma-sissy” time with my niece! I’m sure she’ll want to see “big dog” {aka Espn} too, because she frequently asks to Skype to see him. :)

It’s going to be a great weekend…I know it’s only Monday, but I can already tell!

Bathroom progress.

Eugene texted me this photo earlier this week with the caption, “Just a little preview”…

Ahh, so much better. :)

He removed the toilet & sink to lay down some basic peel & stick tile in our little one’s bathroom. We went with peel & stick even though a lot of people turn up their noses at it because it’s a tiny space, the floors already pretty uneven, and we’re really the only two people who will ever go in there. We spent just under $20 for the box of tile at Lowes, and we have plenty left. We didn’t want to waste a lot of money or time right now on such a small, infrequently used room, and we’re pretty pleased with the way it turned out!

You can still see some barcode stickers, but I’ll take care of those this weekend. We both agreed it looks way better than we anticipated – yea, cheap tile from Lowes, way to impress!

The challenge is to drag your eye away from the hideous, unfinished walls. Eugene’s tackling that soon too. Here’s a close up of the floor to give you eyes a rest. {The barcodes crack me up. Must remove those asap!}

Not too shabby for under $20.

Happy Good Friday, all. I love  living Easter weekend. I don’t necessarily look forward to any of the food, parties, fancy dresses so much, but I love church on Good Friday & Easter Sunday. It’s what our hope is all about! I’m so humbled today, on Good Friday, by my amazing Savior.

Thirty weeks.

I’m 75% of the way through this pregnancy, and it seems like it’s flown. There’s definitely days where I feel like I’ve been waiting forever to meet my little one, but for the most part this pregnancy has progressed quickly.

Here’s a quick run-down of where I am now:

• I’m beginning to feel less energetic again {reminiscent of the first 18 weeks}, and I find that I’m nauseous more often throughout the day again.
• I’m still carrying super low. I had a few women remark about how low she is; one even was surprised I’m not due until June. I’m not sure where she’s going to “drop” to when that time comes!
• She’s started to move a bit less the last 3 days. {Although she’s moving a ton as I  type this…just to prove her point!} I talked to my doctor about it, and he explained that she’s beginning to be cramped for space, so her movements are less obvious and less often. Her heartbeat was right on track, so there’s no reason for concern. The little one still moves without fail whenever I play music. {She’s a dancing queen!} :)
• I’m starting to sleep better – or it might just be that I’m just getting used to sleeping on my side, waking up a ton, and being achy!
• The doctor said I’m right on track with my weight gain {25 lbs}. Eugene’s super encouraging about reminding me to embrace the weight that brings a healthy  baby, but {to keep it real with you} there are definitely days where I feel like I’m packing the pounds on way to fast and not in such a healthy way. I know that’s probably normal to have moment where all that weight gain is a challenge mentally, but on the whole I’m smiling as my belly grows!
• My hips are hurting a little less now, but I’m still struggling with my feet cramping up – especially in the middle of the night.
• No, we still haven’t decided on a name. It’s kinda stressing me out.
• I’m getting SO anxious to meet our daughter! I almost feel like part of our family is missing, and I cannot wait until I have her in my arms. I love her {so much} already.

How about a look back over my 12 – 30 week belly photos.

Oh, how we’ve grown!

DIY crib skirt.

Since I had some luck DIY’ing my orange crib sheet, I figured I should try my hand at making a crib sheet too. I saw this photo on a fun blog I read, and I liked the idea that it would be able to adjust as we raised & lowered the mattress. I originally bought some really fun orange patterned fabric to make the skirt – 3 yards of it – but when I held it up there, I didn’t like it at all. Too much going on for more orange & patterns. On the same trip to the fabric store, I grabbed a small roll of remnant navy fabric with the intention of backing some pillows with it. Well, it just so happened that I had the exact amount {I’m talking just 2 inches of left over fabric!} to make a navy skirt, which I liked much better.

I didn’t take a ton of process photos, but basically I cut 3 rectangles of fabric to size by holding it up to the crib & eyeballing it. I only had enough fabric to do about 1/2” seam on all edges of the pieces of fabric. I sewed all the edges on the three pieces {I didn’t see the need to have the skirt cover the back since it’s up against the wall}.

My next step was to cut some ribbons I had on hand. Again, I didn’t measure them, but you can see the size roughly by judging them with the scissors. I did 3 ties on the shorter crib sides and 4 on the long front. Since you use 2 ribbons per tie, I cut 20 pieces of ribbon…

Easy peasy, just sew two of the ribbons onto the rectangle pieces like so…

And then I tested it out before accessorizing it a bit…

Here’s what it looks like tied to the metal frame under the mattress. You can see one benefit of having a crib skirt – added storage under the crib is hidden!

I wanted to jazz it up a bit, so I took a wide white ribbon and a bag full of left over buttons from my button light transformation to Eugene’s double header & sewed the whole four or five hours, and here’s the end result…

Those buttons are on there for good! I made sure that they were sewn on really well so that there’s no risk of the little one pulling one off if she happens to be down near the crib skirt. I sewed the ribbon to front skirt about 2 inches from the floor just to add a bit of color…

The whole thing probably cost me around $4 with the remnant, ribbon and left over buttons. Ahhhhh, I really like how it turned out! :)

DIY fitted crib sheet.

I couldn’t find any decently priced orange crib sheets anywhere, so I figured I’d try my hand at DIY’ing one.

I bought a flat twin sheet at Walmart for just $5 – cheaper than I could buy fabric, plus I had some leftover for other projects. I also picked up some elastic at JoAnn’s, and that’s basically all ya need for this project…

I referenced a bunch of different online tutorials and combined different parts of them to give it a shot. First, I folded my fabric in half and measured one side to be around 35” {you want a rectangle of fabric 70” x 45”}…

Then the other side I measured to be about 45”…

Then, with my fabric folded into quarters, I cut a 9”x 9” square out of the corner.

Once opened, this left me with all four corners cut out…

The next step is to gather the corners together and pin them. This is hard to explain, but easy to figure out. See where the scissors are above? On each of the 4 corners of your unfolded fabric, you take the point that’s above the handles and match it to the point that’s directly south of the tip of the scissors….

Sew where you pinned on all four corners…

I sewed them 3 or 4 times to make sure they were sturdy because I’m betting most of the pulling and wear will happen at the corner seams…

From there, you want to fold over your raw edges twice and create a casing {about 1/2”} for your elastic band…

Sew your casing, but remember to leave a couple inches open so you can insert your elastic…

The length of elastic will depend on your crib size and preference of how tight you want your sheet, so just test it out.Add a safety pin to the end of your elastic, and begin the monotonous process of threading it through your casing…

Once you have your desired tightness/length of your elastic & it completely threaded through your sheet, you want to overlap your elastic & sew it so you have a complete loop of elastic…

And this is what you’ll have…

And here it is on the little one’s mattress…

Close up of the corners…

And the wider view…

To be honest, it was a lot easier to make than I expected. The worst part was threading the elastic, and that was just boring, not difficult! I think I’ll gladly use the customized $7 crib sheet {with leftover elastic & fabric}. Not too shabby! :)