Do It Yourself

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Finally, a look at Charlotte’s nursery

So it’s been almost a year since we started working on Charlotte’s nursery, haha. I guess it’s about time I posted some photos. Sorry for the quality, I used my iPhone {I’ve even read several tutorials on how to take better iPhone photos and I still can’t get it right!}

At 28 weeks the walls were painted gray and I hand painted polkadots on one accent wall.

Surprisingly, looking at this photo makes me miss being pregnant

– All other pregnancy photos make me instantly queezy though, ha!

photo-9

I can’t seem to find the photos of Chris putting the crib together :/ hopefully they are just misfiled.

The view from the doorway. Just last week we had her crib to the left of the window and the rocker to the right of the window, but now that she is sitting up, which will snowball into crawling, which will snowball into pulling up… I decided it was time to move the crib away from the curtains.from door 2

Bow organizer {made from an old thrift store frame, spray painted, then fitted with some chicken wire provided by my dad}

bows1

bows2

A look at her closets. Yes, she has WAY too many things already! I wanted to have as many things showing as possible, though, so that I can easily take inventory. We got a lot of hand-me-downs and were gifted with so many adorable outfits that I didn’t want to accidentally  pass over any and find them when she’s already outgrown them {that was something I read is very common with baby clothing}.

To prevent this, I have a system that seems to be working well – all clothing sorted by size/season and placed in a designated spot:

  • Current sizes {size 6 months right now, still some size 3 months} are in the dresser.
  • Sizes coming up next {currently size 9 months for us} are in the hanging sweater rack.
  • Any subsequent sizes are boxed and labeled but kept in plain sight so a) they can easily be added into the rotation, and b) I can plainly see that she has PLENTY for the next month so I am not tempted to buy her a completely new wardrobe.

Once a size is outgrown, I sort those items into 3 piles:

1. Hand-me-downs from a friend {boxed away in the attic, ready to be given back or broken out again, depending on who has the next girl}

2. Keepsake clothing or clothing items gifted to Charlotte that I can’t bear to part with just yet {like her baby Vans}

576864_658890730968_1124657836_n3. Donation pile {items that, if I’m totally honest with myself, I either didn’t LOVE on Charlotte or I probably wouldn’t choose to put it on a baby again because of wear/style,etc}.

The left side of her closet:

Closet - L side

The right side of her closet:

Closet R side

Her dresser:

  • The dresser is one from craigslist that I painted white – it holds: jammies, socks and tights, onesies/rompers, pants, and shirts.
  • Diaper pail with liner for cloth diapers
  • Breast pump fits perfectly into this little nightstand and is a great place to stash all the necessities for pumping {even middle of the night water and snacks… I find that I am not able to go back to sleep until I drink a glass of water and eat something}
  • The mobile above the chair was made by a sweet friend and Charlotte loves to look at it when we snuggle.

Dresser 1

Galatians5

mirror above changing table

Audio and video monitors {reviewed here}, some hair accessories in the little yellow drawers, and anything else I may need at my fingertips while changing her diaper/getting her dressed for the day. My two ‘must-haves’ for this spot are her comb {I have to comb the hair on the back of her head several times a day or else she would have dreadlocks} and a jar of coconut oil {for diaper rash, as lotion, to put on cuts… anything and everything}!

drawers

I LOVE this mushroom nightlight. It’s not too bright, but gives plenty of light for an early morning diaper change or nursing.
night light

The pump is tucked away nicely in this nightstand.
breast pump

The yellow and white glider/ottoman is by far my favorite thing in her room and I am SO glad we splurged on it {with the help of my parents, Charlotte’s Papa and Honey!!}.

A comfortably nursing mama is a happy mama.

Chair and ottoman

Several quilts are tucked away in a gray and white reed basket, within reach for tummy time or snuggle time.
chair and basket

The bookshelf is full of books, teethers, rattles, and puzzles
bookshelf
shelf

The iPod dock for white noise is something we use for all naps and bedtime. As far as stuffed animals go, she seems to favor her hippo rattle and her pink bunny lovey at the moment.

iPod dock

The mobile I DIY’d here.

And if you look closely you can see the outlets that have no covers on them {I know, BAD mommy!} – I took them off during painting and didn’t want to put them back on because they were cream and I wanted to get white ones. Well, obviously that isn’t going to happen because it’s been almost a year, but when I went to go grab the cream ones to put back on so they would at least be safe I couldn’t find them, ha!
From door

The view from the bookshelf corner towards the door.

I’d say the only thing I don’t like about her crib being on this wall is that it is SO close to the door {making it VERY difficult to sneak in and out of her room}
crib1

And the BEST part of the nursery…. Charlotte

TADA… Charlie Grace!

Again, I apologize for the photo quality; while writing this post I kept rubbing my eyes and trying to blink my contacts back into place because the pics are so fuzzy!!!

 

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DIY Thank-you notes for babies

Coming soon to a mailbox near you!

papa and honey

I saw this idea on Pinterest {of course} and knew it was something I wanted to try for Charlotte’s first thank you notes. It was fairly easy and took me only about an hour from start to finish {not including getting the pictures printed}; plus it was way more fun than writing!

The basket is one that I snagged at a thrift store and painted {using Pinterest inspiration as well}, then adorned with an old black belt from my closet {just my luck, I’m sure large black belts will be all the rage next year, just after I’ve glued my only one to a basket… the things we do in the name of adorable-ness}!

Once I had decided on the photo I wanted to use I modified the text for each gift then saved the document as the ‘gifters’ name to help me keep everything organized. It was so easy to then take them on an SD card to be printed. There are always print deals going on this time of year so the cost for this will not be more than a pack of thank you notes. I will just include each photo in along with my thank-you note so no additional postage will be needed!

I can’t wait to try this again for Charlotte’s birthday!

 

**UPDATE**

Something was bugging me about these thank-you notes but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I finally decided it was the ‘brightness’ of the text in the frame; just too abrasive. I use an online program called PicMonkey to edit my photos {It’s free and has a lot of really cool features to help fix the many booboos in my photos}. I chose a font called ‘chalkdust’ {for obvious reasons} and just discovered a handy little sliding bar titled “fade”. By increasing the ‘fade’ of the text I was able to reduce the ‘brightness’ {very technical terminology up in here}. Yay! Much better. Happy thank you note-ing!

BEFORE

AFTER

 

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DIY Crib Mobile {Grey and Yellow}

Yes, It’s been over 3 months since Charlotte was born and way more than that from the time we first started on her nursery. No, her nursery is not finished yet {still waiting on a few shelves to be hung by someone other than me}.

There are quite a few DIY projects in her nursery and I will share them all soon, but today I’ll just share how I made her mobile.

I started with one of the hanging paper lanterns we used in our wedding {you can see them in the background here}

Technically, the lantern I used for Charlotte’s nursery was in the ‘wedding bunch’ but not actually hung that day because it was yellow and it was the only one {I didn’t want one lone yellow lantern}. Anyway, I followed this tutorial {which I found on Pinterest, where else?!} to make the mini bunting using some fabric scraps that match her nursery. It turned out alright, but certainly wasn’t as cute as the tutorial girl’s turned out. And I was also thinking that the purpose of a mobile is to be eye catching for a bambino laying on his/her back in the crib. Well, the bottom of the lantern is just a hole that lets you see all the way through to the ceiling. Not very ‘eye catching’ if you ask me! So I decided to add some pizzaz. I covered a cardboard circle with some scrap yellow fabric.

Then I sorted through some sequins to find the ones that would fit with my white/grey/yellow color combo {I don’t believe in being perfectly matchy-matchy so I used orange, yellow, white, opaque, gold, and silver}. I also added a sparkly yellow butterfly to dangle from the bottom of the lantern.

Once it was dry I affixed the bedazzled cardboard circle to the bottom of the lantern and hung the whole shebang from the ceiling with a little white eye hook. It’s not quite as gaudy as the picture below makes it out to be, but it is fun and sparkly!

I really like how it turned out and, after testing it out during her afternoon nap, Charlotte gave a squeal of approval. I also like that it probably doesn’t even weigh a 1/2 pound so if by and chance it falls on her it definitely won’t leave a mark.

Stay tuned for a complete look at her nursery {with or without those shelves, because that could take another year}.

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Buzz Buzz

Happy Halloween!

(A little late, I know, but it has been a crazy week so far. Hmmmm, I feel like I say that every week!)

I had grand plans of making a ‘spring chicken’ costume for Charlotte (a la this Martha Stewart example) but as is typical around this time of year I ran out of time (and patience). I found this bumblebee costume at the thrift store and was ecstatic… until I saw the size: 12-18 months. womp. womp. Charlotte is almost 3 months but is just now fitting in to her 0-3 month clothing so some alterations were definitely required, but I couldn’t pass up the costume for only $4.99 (plus as an employee of the children’s hospital that runs the thrift store I get an additional discount). I am so proud of myself – this is, to date, the most difficult sewing project I have ever engaged in, but it was SO worth it! In the end I took each side seam in by about 1 inch, the hem up by about 3 inches (and was able to salvage and re-use the elastic to form a stretchy ‘bubble hem type thing’ – official terminology up in here), and I actually detached the hood and RE-ATTACHED it to make it smaller. I know right?! I may put her back in it so I can snap a pic of the back side because there is the cutest little stinger you’ve ever seen. for serious. Here is Charlotte visiting Papa at his work (everyone was excited to meet his new granddaughter).

Chris borrowed my dad’s bee veil (we are SO legit) and was Charlotte’s bee keeper. melt. I had big plans to wear a ‘queen bee’ costume but ran out of time in the end (I painted yellow stripes on a black shirt, ironed the word “queen” on it, and made a tiara to adorn my head). My yellow scarf and bumblebee rain boots stepped up for the win! Maybe next year I’ll get to sport the whole get-up.

Trunk-or-Treat at our church was so much fun. I love that our church meets in the middle of a neighborhood right now – so many trick-or-treaters… so many new people to meet… so many opportunities to step out of my comfort zone (after all, God did not call us to be comfortable). It was a busy day and we barely made it. So ‘buzzy’ (see what I did there?), in fact, that I barely snapped any photos of our bee! So glad one of my dad’s coworkers snapped the one above!

Never can have too many photos. never. I’m just sayin’.