Hudson's Room

I decided to take some pictures while our house looks orderly... here are a few of Hudson's room. I'm not finished with his letters. I'm not even positive I really like them that much. I might go more "simple" rather than the "animal print" in funky colors. What do you think?

(ps... photo quality sucks. Grainy. Taken with point and shoot camera)

More room decorating

Did I mention that I covered a lampshade in the Zoo fabric?

Paintings

I finally decided on what to paint for the baby's room. For Porter's nursery, I painted an airplane painting. For P's big boy room I added a helicopter painting (I'll post pics on the regular blog later).

I wasn't sure what to paint for Baby's room (who, by the way, has a name now... I'll announce in a new post). I found a few pictures online that I liked, and I was able to copy/recreate them on my own. So, I won't and can't take full credit for the idea/vision. I'm sure its a tad bit... unethical, but its not like I printed out the pic online and framed it. I guess I consider it no different than another photographer recreating an image/pose that I took. Not exactly "creative" but why reinvent the wheel, right?

Anyhow, I wanted specific sizes and on canvas so I didn't have to frame them. I combined images from a seller on Etsy (Constant Dreamer) and an artist whose paintings I found on Art.com (Erica Vess).

Here they are..

Baby's room is coming along...

Today I tackled some sewing projects for the baby's room. Project #1: a pillow, inspired by these pillows (that are way too expensive for me!!)

And the bedskirt... which I have no clue how it turned out looking so decent. I am sure there's a much easier way to measure fabric so its "square" and to sew the pieces together. I have no clue what I'm doing, honestly.

The mobile for above the baby's bed. I just clipped it to the curtain rod for the time being.

The friends from World Market, taking up residence on the new bookshelf.

for Baby's room

While we were in St. Louis, I did a bit of shopping for the baby's room. I didn't get the "minky" fabric in chocolate brown like I'd hoped, but I found some cute stuffed animals that match the room perfectly!

First, I found this elephant and zebra at World Market. Who would have thought that I'd find stuffed animals that match PERFECTLY at World Market??


And then, at Old Navy, I found this cute, leggy little monkey. I keep calling it a frog. His name may end up being Froggy HAHA!

Its for sure...

It's a boy!

Ryan met me at my mom's work today so he could finally get to see his newest little boy. I had wanted to take my point and shoot camera to record and post a little video on here, but of course I forgot. (Our ultrasound in January we can take in a DVD to record it) He was measuring around 17w5days, so almost a week ahead of what he had measured before, and I believe that is almost 2 weeks ahead of what the doctors have me at. (Their due date is June 1, but the ultrasound keeps saying May 23). I guess when I go in in January they can decide what they want to do. I guess it really doesn't matter because the baby will come whenever he is ready, right?

Anyhow, we got a buttload of pictures. Baby Boy was all snuggled in cozy looking. We got to see a lot of his face, eyes, hands and cute little feet. He was moving his arms all around, stretching them over his head and playing with his face. I can't wait to meet him!


Sooo... this confirmation has given me "permission" to go forth with my nursery plans. I ordered 4 yards of the 2D Zoo fabric today and I plan to make his blanket (which should used 1.5-2 yards) and possibly a changing pad cover and maybe wrap some canvases with it. Who knows. I just figured if I was paying for shipping I might as well make sure I have enough for whatever I may want to make.

I'm going to check the local fabric stores for that super soft chenille "minky" fabric that all the baby blankets seem to be made out of (you know, the ones that are flat or sometimes with the raised dots?). I want to get a chocolate brown for the opposite side of his blanket. The only minky fabric I can find online is $13/yard. EEK!

I've decided to skip the bumper. I'm making the bedskirt though. I like the little extra decorative touch and its nice to hid the two bins of toys we store under the crib. As for additional stuff in the room... not sure yet.

I also bought Porter two quilts today. I'll post about them on my regular blog, though.

To Bumper or Not to Bumper?

That is the big question.

I'm settled on the nursery bedding. I'm going with Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo in pool. I am going to have to buy the fabric and either make or have it made. I love this set (as posted earlier), and I have even found someone to make the bedding for me. I'm going to make the quilt/blanket.... it looks easy enough. But the bumper and dust ruffle, I don't know. I know for sure I want the dust ruffle, but should I have it made? It'd be around $25 to have it made, plus the cost of fabric (which is running $10-12/yard).

I chatted with my mother in law and I am thinking I'm going to skip the bumper and attempt to make the dust ruffle. We made Porter's, although it didn't have the pleat or the trim, so hopefully I'll be able to figure it out.

The bumper.. I love it. I really do. But, I also loved Porter's $80 bumper from Pottery Barn Kids and we ended up taking it off and tossing it in the closet after numerous annoying sheet changes from pukey/leaky diaper baby. As much as I'd like to say "I *WILL* use the bumper this time, I know in reality that after I have to change the sheets twice in the middle of the night being exhausted and sleep deprived, it too will end up in the closet.

I'm going to have my mom scan me again tomorrow, just to get the "for sure" its a boy (Ryan will finally get to see an ultrasound... he's going to take a late lunch and meet me there) and once we have confirmation I think I'm going to get the fabric and start working on things in January.

If we're still in this house (which I'm hoping not, but there's a good chance we will be), we're going to move Porter into the play room and redo that for him in February for his birthday. The baby will move into Porter's room, and I'll keep the green/blue parts of the wall and paint the mocha brown a more chocolate brown to match the bedding. I'm going to paint the square canvases- I found blank ones at JoAnn's. I think I'll do the background a light blue instead of green since the top part of the room is green already.

So, questions for my three readers:

1) Did you buy a bumper for your child's crib? Did you love it or hate it?

2) Do you have any ideas on how to bring more of the zoo fabric into the room?

Bedding

Surprisingly, I've had quite an easy time finding bedding that I absolutely love. The only problem... it is $618 from Posh Tots. Yeah right!

I found the zoo print fabric online, and the other fabrics I'm pretty sure I can get something similar from JoAnn's. I'm going to make this sucker! That, or maybe hire it out to have someone else do it? How would I go about finding someone to make it?



I also want to get this Jellycat Truffles blue elephant for him. In the picture it looks like a stuffed animal, but it actually is like a big, fat, round, squishy pillow when its laid out flat. And its sooooo soft.
(here's an example of how it looks all laid out)