Silhouette

I'm giving myself some props on this one...I did a cut out silhouette of Baby with a little pair of kids scissors! Granted, they aren't the safety ones, they're like the next step up. But my thumb doesn't fit very well in them. It's hanging in his room now, in a frame from Target that was bright green in it's past life and was repainted white while I had all the spray paint out. Then I framed it on a piece of navy blue paper. I think I'm going to need to do one every year!

A Place for Prairie Dog

I read a lot of blogs. And I see a lot of these cheap finds from thrift stores or yard sales...and it makes me jealous. I don't find stuff like that. Maybe because I don't look. Maybe because nobody is getting rid of cool stuff. I probably just don't look, with a baby around it can be easy to be okay with paying for convience. But! That all changed on a recent Goodwill trip with my husband where I scored this gorgeous prairie dog painting! Joking...it wasn't the painting I was after...but the frame! Old driftwood. And the perfect size for a little chalkboard for Baby's room. Bonus? The prairie dog is painted on a piece of wood. So I could paint right on top of it and not have to worry about getting a piece of wood cut!
Extra bonus? The price tag. $1.95 made this my proudest moment! (Second to the birth of my son, of course!)
I sanded the little puppy down so I'd have a nice smooth painting surface.
And after a few coats of chalkboard spray paint I have the perfect little chalkboard hanging on the wall! I managed to remember to pick up hardware to hang it while at Target...but I forgot chalk! You better believe I'll be grabbing some tomorrow!
And a little sneak peek at some nursery progress. I've been busy hanging!
I'm trying to save all the nursery pictures until the end, a sort of "final unveiling" if you will. Hopefully it'll be worth waiting for!

Still left on the list:

• Hang the curtain rod back up.
• Sew the curtains! Then hang them.
• Still need an air vent cover to replace the old one we removed.
• A few more frames to hang and fill with pictures.
• A few floating shelves to be hung (have them marked...but didn't have the right screws).
• Find a comforter for the twin bed.
• Hopefully follow through with an idea I have for the closet door curtains!
• Make the computer desk sitting in the corner a little more presentable

Organizing Baby's Toys

Our new bookcase for Baby's room was delivered this week. I had seen one from Land of Nod I really liked, but for around $350 it was definately not going to happen. Then I found a very similar one at Target, except it's only online. I tried to wait until Target offered free shipping, but it's been over two months and it went on sale for $99 so I just went for it. He needs a place for all his toys and books, before this he had one basket for toys and one shelf for his books in the living room. But toys and books have since multiplied and I'd like to keep them semi-contained in his room. You can see the new paint color too! I grabbed a few canvas bins at Walmart for $6 each. Fairly inexpensive and I like that they have little handles and a place for a label. I'm all about labels! I'm hoping to do something sort of creative, maybe using "picture" labels of what's inside. Not sure yet though, for now he just empties baskets anyways!
Baby and I also went to Beverlyl's Fabric today and got fabric for his curtains! Hopefully I can find some time to at least get them started this weekend. On second thought...I still haven't finished the hem on our bedroom curtains. Probably smart if I finished that project before I start a new one!

DIY Baby Mobile

I've seen a lot of mobiles like these on the internet and they look easy enough to make. I've been wanting to hang a mobile above his crib in our bedroom, but also wanted it to somewhat go with the colors we've been using as we decorate.

Five pieces of paper later...I punched a LOT of circles.
I had a little sticker maker that I ran all the circles through and I think it saved a lot of time and mess that a glue stick would have involved. But I sandwiched two together on top of fishing line and then attached all the string to two different sized hoops.

Now I just have to get a hook to hang it up with!

Fresh Paint

A peek at Baby's new wall color, which I just finished painting only 15 minutes ago! Glad to be done and can't wait for it to dry so I can start hanging pictures.

Baby's Room, from the beginning

I realized I've been posting about progress in the nursey without ever posting the before pictures!

Baby's room...the door on the left is the hallway (you can see the bathroom right outside), the next door is a private bathroom entrance, and then the closet doors. This room was oddly enough, rather refreshing. There was no wallpaper, no funky paint colors and it was clean. Not much to do...but that private bathroom entrance has to go.View from the other side...the window, and his bedroom door again.

The bathroom is a standard size bathroom, and it's literally ONE STEP outside his room. So why the second door? It took valuable wallspace from both rooms, so we decided to close it up.

All patched up like it was never there!

Painted and carpet padding down.

Right before Baby was born, we got his crib (the one my dad made and I used when I was a baby!) and dresser set up. What you can't see in this picture is everything in the closet and behind me...it was a major storage room with a ton of boxes we still hadn't been able to unpack. Luckily, he wouldn't need much space for quite sometime and he will be sleeping in our room.

Paint Chip Gone Bad

I really am just not good at picking out colors. I don't know what it is, I have a vision in my head but always mess up when I pick the paint! I guess it's too hard to know what it will look like when it's on four huge walls. So I started painting Baby's room yesterday and needless to say, it looked like dirty milk. Which was not what I was going for. Back to Lowe's thanks to the blessing from my awesome husband to buy more paint. This time, it's perfect! I went about a hundred shades bolder than the dirty milk and I've got two walls done so far, sitting here impatiently waiting for them to dry so I can move furniture to start on the other two...and take advantage of our sleeping baby! But oh, if you only knew how sick I am of cutting in corners! I've done it two many times in the last few days!

Here's the color, still wet. Looked like it would come out decent, but it got more washed out as it dried.

The unsettling truth...

This is what has become of Baby's room. Embarassing to say the least. The room functions as his playroom, a semi-guest room (we have a twin bed in there), the home to the computer and all of my sewing and craft supplies (stored in all of the dark wood little modular cuboards in the closet)and (most unfortunately) a catch all to some of our supplies for projects around the house. Even though his crib is upstairs, we do spend a lot of time in here and I have been anxious to actually decorate his room. So I cleared out all the clutter, admittedly some things are currently stacked in the closet.
I colormatched Martha Stewart's "Gull" to Olympic zero VOC and as soon as the little man went to bed I whipped out my brush. I have plans to make curtains and decorate the walls, and am hoping it will all come together how I am envisioning it! I'm slightly hesitant that I went with too light a color, but in my mind it works out, so we shall see!
Image courtesy of www.HomeDepot.com