Nursery Sign

Thanks for all of the complements last week on Dutch's nursery.  I got a few emails about the sign above his bed so I thought I would do a quick post on how we made it.

First of all do y'all watch the show Parenthood?  It is one of my favs, I just wish that their seasons were longer and I wish that I didn't cry EVERY episode.  Anyway the theme song to the show is Forever Young by Bob Dylan.  Any show is better with a theme song - the Mindy Project anyone?  Anyway several years ago I decided if we had a kid I was going to put part of that song in their room somewhere.

A few years later I'm having a baby and we made a sign with the first verses of that song.  It is my favorite verse of the song and one that I pray holds true for our boy. 

There are a lot of letters in those verses so I knew my sign was going to be pretty big.  I printed out the lyrics and then counted the letters and spaces in each verse then decided on what size the letters to be to get an idea on the size board I would need.  I did have a scrap 2'x2' piece of board but it ended up being too small.  Instead I bought a 2'x4' piece of birch leuon type board from Home Depot for $9.

While I was at HD I also bought the trim for the frame.  Since this would be hanging above the crib and we have plaster walls, I didn't want the sign to be heavy so I went with a light board and light trim.  This is the trim I chose.

 I stained the board with some random stain in the shed and called it good enough.  I didn't have enough for the trim and I wasn't going to buy more so we decided just to paint the trim to match the letters. 

I bought a 1" stencil at Hobby Lobby for the letters.  Since the stencil was opaque I made a grid on the stencil to help with alignment.  It didn't work so I cut the letters out with 1/4" on each side.  That didn't help either.  So I was able to find some vinyl letters poster letters at Walmart in the office supply section that I ended up using.  The letters came with both 1" and 2", we decided the 2" looked better.  To get the grid on the wood board we used chalk.  I wasn't working too well so Eric decided to use his chalk line which was a disaster (for future reference I told him it was a terrible idea).  Pencil worked the best.  Next I stuck on the letters and traced around them.  I think I chose the hardest route to get the letters on the board.  Of course after I was finished I came up with a couple of easier ideas.

After that I outlined the letters with a really fine paint pen and Eric went back over them with another paint pen.  Team work! 

After that Eric attached the trim and attached it to the wall. 

If you hang things over your kid's crib or bed please make sure it's properly secured to the wall.  Asthetics don't outweigh the consequence of something falling and injuring your baby.

Dutch's Nursery

Well since we are just hanging out waiting on a baby I thought I should snap some pictures of Dutch's nursery before he gets here and turns functional.  Several months ago I made this board for the design and the nursery turned out pretty much just like the board. 

Eric wasn't too sure about a nursery that wasn't very babyish but he loves the room and so do I.  We both spend a lot of time in here just sitting and looking around.  Claire even loves the room and we find her sleeping on the rug beside his bed.  I hope that is a good sign or sisterly love!

It was hard to get good pictures in here because the room is so tiny, I think it is 9x9.  My belly sticks out about 13" so that only leaves about 8' to work with resulting in some blurry pictures. 

First up is this little corner where we like to hang out. We ended up going with the Beckner swivel glider by Best Chairs for our chair.  I'm not sure of the style of fabric but do know the color is mouse and is a little darker than the photo looks.  I'm glad we went with the swivel glider because the space is so small if we need to move the chair over we just swivel it around. The shutter is something we had in the shed and the antlers were Eric's first deer.  Don't worry they are attached very securly to the shutter which is very secure to the wall.  We may be a little over kill on making sure things don't fall off the wall.

 Our neighbor (who also make the adorable oil cloth basket and the quilt inside the basket) gave Dutch an unfinished Louisville Slugger bat.  Eric took it upon himself to make it a Dutch Slugger and burned the logo into the bat.  So adorable!  Still trying to decide where to put it on the wall so Dutch doesn't slug it through the window.

Across from the chair is the sweet bookcase my dad built.  It is a knockoff of the Pottery Barn Madison Bookrack.  I love it so much and it holds a lot of the books that I've bought over the years and some of my favorite books that I use to read.  The red barn was made by Eric's grandfather when Eric was a kid and Eric and Dutch's grandfather spruced it up a few months ago.  That little box of toys drives Claire crazy, she will just sit and cry for them because she knows they aren't hers. ha.

Next up is the crib.  My sister bought this crib a few years ago for us so it has just been waiting to do its thing.  I made the crib sheet from the pack of Target sheets, tired of hearing about those yet? I also did the crib skirt.  We chose not to have bumpers.  Sign made by me and Eric.

Here is another look at that side of the room.  Again tiny!  Oh and I also made the shades.  Post about that here. 

I really wanted something on the walls that at least had to do with kids.  I used the alphabet out of  The Golden Bunny.  Frames are from Target.  I wanted to have the mattes cut down because there is a header to the alphabet that the mattes cover.  I took them to a frame shop and the employee kept going on about how they were very nice expensive mattes and if he sold me new cut down ones of the same quiality they would be around $100.  I didn't tell him I just bought them at Target for $14 including the frames. In the end the mattes were too thick to be cut down so they cover the header. 



We found the dresser at a consignment store.  I love it and it is the perfect size.  The diaper caddy is from World Market and is hidden from view when the bedroom door is open.  All you see is the dresser 

This wall will probably change but I'm at the point now where I really don't care.  The frames have random people in them because they are from the thrift store.  Like so random a man is working a machine in a factory and the other is a girl with Ronald McDonald.  Waiting on photos of my boy to replace. 

Beside the dresser is the tiny closet but just enough room.  I think this baby is set up with clothes this year.  Sad thing is I think this only goes to 9 months.  I can't imagine having a girl, it is hard enough to say no to boy clothes.  See all of his long gowns and tiny bubbles, so sweet.  And can you tell I have a thing for stripes.

One more thing to show, his light.  I bought it years ago for $5 and held onto it.  Glad it worked perfectly for this space.

There you have it Dutch's nursery.  Now just watiing for a baby  to fill it up!

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Smokestack Grey

Crib Skirt Fabric: Bransuri Slate

Crib Sheet Fabric: Target Threshold Gray Stripe 

Curtain Fabric: Braemore Spice Market Ikat

Rug: Target Threshold

Alphabet: The Golden Bunny

Bookrack Plans: Ana White

Thanks for reading!

Summer Salad Dressing

One of my favorite things about summer is fresh vegetables.  Not having to eat fake winter tomatoes, hate those!  Tuesday night for supper and then at lunch yesterday and probably today for lunch I've had the best summer salad.  I'm sure you already have everything to make the dressing so it is pretty easy to throw together.  I can't wait until our little garden has ripe vegetables so I can pick from there any time I want.

Dressing

1/2 cup EVOO

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 tbs red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

3-4 minced garlic cloves

10 fresh basil leaves chopped

Whisk together and pour over veggies.  I just used tomatoes and cucumbers last night but added brocolli and some pasta today for lunch.  Enjoy the summer veggies!

Dutch's Quilt

Look what I finished a few weeks ago!

Dutch's very own quilt!

I am so happy to have this finished before he is born and so lucky to be able to make a quilt for MY baby! 

As I mentioned in the last quilt post I used the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew for this design.  I pretty much cut a million squares, drew a diagonal line down the center and sewed on either side of the line.  After that I squared them up on the 4 1/2" center square of my quilt square. 

After that Eric cut the big squares into 2 smaller squares.

After that I ironed all of them open and we laid them out.  This was pretty hard so I was glad to have Eric's help. 

All sewn together!

I didn't feel like quilting this quilt.  The points didn't turn out perfect so it would have been a lot of trouble for me to quilt.  I wanted more of a random meandering stitch anyway.  I can do this on my machine but I've never tried so I decided to have someone else quilt for me.  I felt really bad about this but I really don't think Dutch will mind ;)  I searched online for a few places that offer this service and found the lowest price at AuntBoo's Quilting.  For my quilting, batting, and shipping back to me it was only $47, well worth it.  They did a great job and I would use them again.

Next up was the binding.  I really hate to make binding so I found some on etsy I was going to buy but then I talked myself out of it.  I ended up just using the extra backing material for the binding.  The quilt backing and binding were from the sheet set that I made Dutch's crib sheet out of.  That $30 sheet set my mom bought has stretched pretty far - Dutch's quilt, crib sheet, Claire's blanket and our quilt.

Usually by the time I get to the binding, I am over the quilt and just want to finish.  As a result I machine bind and it usually looks terrible.  This time I decided to hand bind.  It took about 4 nights but was worth the trouble and looks great.

Next my favorite part, washing the quilt.  I washed it one night and put it in the dryer before bed so that the next  morning when I woke up the quilt would be a ball of wrinkledy awesomeness.  Before it was washed:



After washing it was all crinkly and soft.

This was taken last week -Claire negotinating for the quilt and for remaining the only baby in the house.

Sorry that all of my posts lately, which only average 1x a week, are about sewing or the baby.  Really that is about all that is going on around here.  The nursery is finished so maybe I'll get some pictures of it this week and I still need to post about our bathroom update from almost 2 years ago.  Anyway thanks for stopping by and your always encouraging words!

It Only Took 8 Years

but I finally made an E and V quilt!  After making 8 quilts for niece/nephews/friends/my baby I am so happy to have finished this project for us and especially before the baby comes because babies care about these kind of things.

I really wanted to do a triangle quilt.  I cut it with my 90* triangle from college so it ended up being squares.  duh.  But the good news is I keep getting better at craftsmanship and all of my points match up perfectly on this quilt. 

I used two Heather Bailey fabrics Nicey Jane Picnic Bouquet Lagoon and Church Flowers Blue.  The green with tiny white dot is something I picked up at Walmart about 5 years ago and the grey ticking is from the Target sheet set that I used for Dutch's quilt and crib sheet.  I even used the pillowcase from that sheet set to make Claire her own blanket so now we all have something with the same fabric. ha!  The stripe at the top and bottom of the quilt are from a vintage sheet from Eric's Nana.  She was  known for her love of Estee Lauder's Youth Dew and even though she had not lived in her house for about 7 years the Youth Dew smell on this sheet was suffocating.  So I washed the sheet about 5 times and put it out in the sun, even used bleach and you can still get a whiff of the Youth Dew. 
I wanted to use the vintage sheet for the quilt backing since it was super soft but it wasn't big enough so I used another Target sheet.

I know Justin Beiber says Never Say Never but I will probably never again quilt a quilt 9 months pregnant during the month of May in Alabama.  Oh my gosh I was so hot.  I wanted to do a vertical and horizonal line for quilting but it was so hot so I only did the horizontal quilting.  I may try to go back and do the vertical quilt one day but this is good enough for now. 

Claire approved

On an unrelated note does anyone out there have one of these little 2 serving ice cream makers?  I really want an ice cream maker but since I'm the only one in the house to eat ice cream I'm thinking about getting one of these.  Does it work and make homemade ice cream like the big ice cream makers?

Actually I'm not the only one in our house who loves ice cream, Dutch does too.  We recently took a detour to the Blue Bell factory the other day to make him happy.  He was very happy! Hello 50 cent scoops, I'll take 4.

Another unrelated note.  Last week I printed off our photos from June 2012-May 2013.  Over 500 of them! Phew.  Anyway I was sad about a lot of them because I've become so reliant on using my iphone to take pictures, not my good camera and it made me sad because they looked like phone pictures.  I've recommited to using my real camera again when possible even thought  it is annoying to lug around.  Just thought you needed that PSA today, don't waste all of your photos on a crappy phone camera. 

One more, does anyone have video camera (are they still called that) recommendations?  I've got a pretty big event coming up in about 3 weeks and I'm wanting to make sure I've got a camcorder charged and ready to go.

State Dish Towel

Between my 2 baby showers I had to give 26 hostess gifts.  I would love to be able to get something super nice for each hostess, I know how much time, energy and money goes into throwing a shower.  But the reality is I don't have enough monies to make that happen.  For me handmade items mean so much.  If someone takes the time to make something for me that means more than any gift that can be purchased at the store.    So I cranked out 26 gifts from my sewing machine.

I needed something that would pretty much appeal to 26 different women.  I may not know what style scarf or necklace they would prefer but I do know that we all live in Alabama and everyone needs at least 1 kitchen towel in their house.  Right?

These were super simple to make.  I just found an image of Alabama on google images and printed it out.  Traced around it BACKWARDS 26 times on heat and bond then ironed that onto my fabric.   A little zig zag stitch around the great state and you are finished.  These would also be cute with some rick rack or ruffles but simple was my goal. :)

I didn't want to just give a towel so I added some hand soap.  Bath and Body Works was having a 6 for $20 sale so I racked up there. 

Wrap it up tie a bow and boom you are finished. 

If you have the time to wait on shipping Groopdealz and Very Jane have some great gift options for little $.  They have new items everyday, just make sure you read the fine print on how long it will take for them to ship.

With all of those hostess gifts I have to write a lot of thank you notes.  142 so far.  I've been waiting on my special stamps to come in to mail the cards.

Anyone know why I chose Ronald Reagan stamps?  First one to get it right (that I havent' already told) gets a little prize!  Make sure your email is attached to your comment so I can contact you.

Vacation 2013

Eric and I went on a little vacation last weekend.  This vacation was a lot different from the ones we've taken the past few years.  It involved no airplane and no walking.  Even though we've been to the beach a million times, this time just the two of us went.  A first for us.

Of course on the last day the sun was shining like crazy.  We went out at 7am to catch a few rays before check out.  I am just now starting to learn about childbirth so listening to the waves and trying to compare them to a contraction was important to me.  Kind of weird, but the analogy helps me.  I haven't mentioned my desire to have a med-free birth to many people because they start to act like you are dogging them for having an epidural or just crazy but I'm going to TRY med free.  If anyone out there has been successful and has some tips please pass them along!  And yes this book was sort of weird and scary.

Saturday morning we mostly stayed inside waiting for the rain to stop and I wrote thank you notes.  We decided to catch the matinee of The Great Gatsby since the weather was pretty yuck.  Oh people I've been waiting for this movie since 2010 and it was my #1 thing to do before I had the baby.  I read the book every year and it was amazing how closely the movie followed the book.  After the movie we ate lunch and I may have had the best sweet tea of my life.  We hurried home to catch a little sun while it was out and the clouds came back.  It was cold but we sat on the beach wrapped in towels dang it. 

When you go on vacation alone there are a lot of self portraits.

On this trip I wanted so badly to eat at Another Broken Egg and Dusty's, get a tan, and swim in the ocean with my baby.  Well only the first 2 were accomplished.  I came back pale and the ocean was so extremely cold.  But Dusty's fried shrimp was so delicious and I smiled the whole time eating my southwest scramble from ABE.  Oh and they gave me a chocolate covered strawberry for Mother's Day!
I also wanted a pregnant silhouette picture.  The second we stepped on the beach the sun went behind solid clouds.  Oh well we are just blessed to be able to go to the beach!



Dutch's Baby Shower v2.0

This past Sunday was my baby shower in my hometown.  I was hoping it would be a simple shower because big events like this make me nervous.

Before we left my sister warned me that there were a lot of gifts and to just prepare myself because I would probably be overwhelmed.  She was right.

With all of those gifts to open I needed some helpers.  Dutch's big cousins were more than happy to help.  Baron asks about every 5 minutes what Dutch is doing and every time I opened an outfit that Chloe Beth's brother had she said "we HAVE to get their pictures together in their matching outfits". ha!

Here are some of the sweet clothes that were given to us.  In the south dressing your children is a big deal.  Even boys wear sweet little bubbles and lace.  Dutch mostly got bigger sizes at this shower so he will be good to go for a couple of years!

Lots of sweet gowns and sleepers.  Babies in gowns are my favorite and between our 2 showers, hand me downs and my purchases I think I have enough for Dutch to wear a different gown every day for the first few months of his life.  We didn't have any sleepers so I was really thankful to get several of them in bigger sizes to grow into. 

Stocked on blankets, little toys, towels and other fun goodies.

This handmade and hand embroidered bib is one of the prettiest things I've ever seen.  A keepsake for sure, drool will never touch this one.

Along with the fun things we also got lots of essentials.  There is only 1 thing on my registry that I don't have!  We are blessed for sure!

My mom and her sisters with my sisters.

Eric's mom and sister came from Texas, but his mom was sick so I didn't even get a photo with her.  These are Eric's brother's wife and Eric's sister.

 Thank you from coming from Memphis Elizabeth and Evie!  I was so happy you were there!

Now everything has found a place in our tiny house and tinynursery.  Just waiting on a tiny person to make his appearance! 6ish more weeks to go.