The Nursery is Complete

In the weeks leading up to Levi's birth, I worked hard to finish up some final projects for the nursery.  I made some new wall hangings with some more embroidery hoops,

 I finished the crib quilt (which I had machine quilted by a friend that has a long arm - LOVE the quilting!),

I made a cover for my boppy,

recovered my bouncy seat,

and installed my spy camera as a video baby monitor...

Somethings had to wait until Sarah came to visit.  She surprised me with some amazing wall art that coordinates nicely with the nursery,

and I had her pick up the light fixture I had my eye on from Ikea.

 I installed the light myself, and I love how it looks. 

But what really makes this nursery complete is this little guy:

who has been sleeping in his crib in the nursery since the day Sarah and my mom left, last Wednesday.

I've been taking advantage of the daybed in his room to sleep in between night-time feedings, and I think Sam has been enjoying his uninterrupted sleep.  Another nice discovery is that the changing table is the PERFECT height.  I was slightly worried that I had made it too tall, but I love that I don't have to bend over AT ALL to change his diaper and dress him. 

The Nursery

Remember when I finally finished Olivia's nursery?  She was like 8 months old.  When I was pregnant with her I had grand plans for making all the bedding myself, with a green and pink and brown color scheme.  Well, when it came down to it, we moved when she was 6 weeks old, and a friend gave me some baby girl bedding (she had a little girl, but was expecting a little boy) and so I just used what I had been given. It was really cute, and turned out to be close to the same colors I was looking at doing anyway, and Olivia was not the kind of baby that would let me take time to work on projects, so I'm pretty sure that bedding would never have been made, even if I didn't have other bedding to use. 

This time around, I was determined to actually make the bedding myself.  The only nursery set we own now is the one I used for Olivia, which is definitely too girly for a boy.  I had decided I wanted to do a pleated crib skirt, so I started there. I started by looking at different skirts and tutorials on-line for making a skirt.  And that's when I happened upon this:

I immediately fell in love.  I was planning on making our guest room into the nursery, and the guest room already had the day bed, and a roman shade, in colors that would work well with this fabric.  Only thing is, I wanted to make my own. And I really didn't want to pay what they were charging.  I was pretty sure I was capable of doing all the sewing, but I really wanted that fabric.  After making sure Sam was okay with it (it is a floral pattern, and we are having a boy...), I did a search for the fabric.  It was on sale at Jo-Ann fabric, 50% off!  But when I finally decided on how much I wanted to get (5 yards) and went to order it, and it was out of stock!  So, I found it on fabric.com, and went to order it there - this time, it was also out of stock, but I was able to back-order it.  And with a coupon I found, I was able to get it for about the same price I found at Jo-Ann, only I had to get 6 yards.  I also found a coordinating print, thanks to the nursery designer on babybedding.com.  And then I found that print on Fabric.com too.  I thought that it would be fun to have the high contrast chevron print on the inside of the bumper. 

Here's what my set looked like in the designer:

Now I just had to wait for the fabric.  They sent the chevron right away, but they estimated the pon pom play print would ship out by Feb. 29th!  I was hoping it would come earlier, as I knew my energy level would be a lot lower by then.   Thankfully, it came in about a week and a half!  I got right to work. 

First, I made the skirt.  I used some leftover piping from our bench, and drop cloth fabric for the neutral part. One of the really great things about drop cloth, is it comes with hemmed edges.  Makes things so much faster.  I used a pre-hemmed edge along the top, where it would be Velcro-ed to the base of the crib. I also used this tutorial from Young House Love, which is perfect, since I'll be able to easily shorten the skirt when I move the mattress down. I decided to make 3 pleats along the long side, instead of just one.  The only thing I wish was different was the depth of the pleats - I would have made them 4 inches deep instead of 2 if I had to do it over again. 

Next, I tackled the bumper.  I found lots of different tutorials on making bumpers.  Some said to get the bumper pads from Jo-Anns, others said batting.  And none of the tutorials were exactly what I wanted.  Both were going to be a little spendy.  Then I had an epiphany.  I could use Olivia's old bumper, take it apart, and build the new one with that.  And it would be FREE!  So I pulled out the trusty old seam ripper, and ripped and ripped and ripped that bumper pad apart.  It was really helpful to take it apart, so I could see how it had been put together.   I was also able to strip out the cording from the piping on the old bumper, so I could reuse that for the new piping.  I put mine together in one long tube, that needed to be turned once all the sewing was done.  I detest hand sewing, and this is the only way I could figure out how to minimize the hand sewing.  I did have a panicked moment when it was all done, and ready to be turned.  I suddenly worried that it would be impossible to turn something that thick and that long.  But it worked!  Then I just stitched up the one open end, and and did some quilted seams in each corner. 

Next was the rocking chair.  I had made a cover for it to go with Olivia's room, so I knew this wouldn't be too hard. Also, if I ever wanted to put it back in Olivia's room, I still had the removable covers I could put back on. This time I wanted to add piping, and I had figured out how to do the arm rests better - last time I tried to do it with snaps, and they were constantly falling off.  So this time I decided to try out ties.  It worked much better.  I also improved the padding in the arms, so the chair is a lot more comfortable.  I did the cushions 2 sided -  one side with the pon pom play fabric, and once side with the chevron.  So, I could flip them over for a new look if I wanted.  And the cover is all done to be removable and washable - a must with such a light background! 

Then I had to decide where I wanted to use the rest of the fabric.  I wanted to do a lampshade, and I had an old one on hand to use.  I think if I had to do it over again, I would have just bought a cheap white drum shade.  The square one I had used more fabric than I was expecting, but I still like how it turned out.  I also spray painted a lamp yellow for the base - I bought a couple of different options at a thrift store, but one was too big, and the other too small.  See below.

Too small.

Too big.

Just right.

And so I just ended up going with the one that I already had.  Here again, I maybe would have been better off to buy a shade to match one of the lamps.  I ended up using the large lamp above in our great room - spray painted avocado green, with a drum shade covered in drop cloth with some brown gross grain trim, but I think that's for a whole new post.  For the lamp, I used spray adhesive, and then glue gun to hook it on the inside.  This is another DIY project I'm anxious to do again because it was so easy and so satisfying. 

A changing pad cover was the next project up.  I wanted to make it out of a soft minky fabric, but have it trimmed with pon pom play along the top.  It was pretty hard to find the right color, and the blue is a bit brighter than I was hoping for.   But this was another really easy project.  It was just a matter of doing a seam to put the trim on, and then folding it in quarters, and cutting off a square to create the pocket in each corner. Elastic was added around the bottom, and it was done! I used this tutorial, in case what I just wrote made no sense.  I'll probably need to make a few more of these to have extras when others are dirty.

Next I wanted to do a diaper stacker.  This is something that I really liked having hanging above Olivia's changing table, and it didn't look too hard to do.  Olivia's diaper stacker had ties at the top to hook to something instead of a hanger, which I found much more practical.  So I used her old diaper stacker (which she still uses to hold her pullups in her closet) as a pattern for the one I made for the new baby's nursery.  I put some padding in the top, and two ties so it could be hung almost anywhere. 

Before the changing table was done, I just hung it from the end of the crib. 

Finally, I wanted to mimic the mobile and the embroidery hoops that they have on the babybedding.com site.  I had a mobile I used for Olivia - I think I picked it up at a yard sale for a few dollars.  It was precious moments, with little stuffed animals hanging from it. But it played a nice traditional lullaby, so I knew it was perfect. The mobile they had on the website seemed easy enough, so I decided to try and make it.  I clipped the little animals off, and cut out balloon shapes from my fabric.  I hemmed the open edge, and stuffed them with some fiberfill.  Then I tied them off with some white grossgrain ribbon.  The hardest part was fishing the little strings back through the holes to hang them.  Then I made a tulle pom pom to hang from the center, and modge podged some fabric over the precious moments label.  Finally, I used the last bit of that silk fabric (from my drapes, the bench, and the piping) to create a sleeve for the arm of the mobile.

As for the embroidery hoops, I looked up a few tutorials, and found it to be really simple - just a matter of putting the fabric in the hoop, making it nice and taut, and then use a glue gun to secure it to then inside of the hoop.  I was running out of fabric by this point, and wish I had just a bit more to do a few more hoops.  I just hung them randomly, and how it looks right now is bugging me a bit. I might move them around a bit.

The last thing left is a blanket.  This is being machine quilted right now, so it's not done.  I just used the pon pom play fabric, with a stripped minky for the back.  I'm interested to see how it turns out.  Then I'll just need to bind it, and I'll be done!  I still want to make a few sheets for the bed, and a couple covers for my boppy, along with those extra changing pad covers..  But I still have 6 weeks before the baby is due, and I think I can manage that.  I just love how the room turned out.  I sneak away in there at least once a day to rock in the glider or take a power nap on the day bed.  It's just so relaxing in there. 

Here are some pictures of the room as it is now:

The rocking horse is one we got for free when Olivia was a baby - it was teal and purple, and so I thought I'd try spray painting it.  I love it so much now that it's just one solid (pretty) color!  Olivia's not too pleased, but that's another story.

I added some little hats to the hooks I used to hang the stacker.  I think they're pretty cute up there.

Okay, this is the fun part for me.  The cost break down compared to if I just bought each item on babybedding.com. 

Total fabric costs:
Pon Pom Play - $60
Chevron ZigZag print - $22.50
Blue minky - $4
White minky (quilt) - $7
Batting (for quilt, and diaper stacker) - $10
Tulle - $1
Misc. notions (thread, zippers) - $10
machine quilting: $40

Total: $154.50

Cost on Babybedding.com
Extra long skirt with trim: $129
Bumper: $129
Crib quilt:$119 (and doesn't have professional machine quilting, like mine will)
Changing pad cover: $39
Decorative pillow: $49
Lamp shade: $49
Mobile: $59
Rocking chair pad: $94 (doesn't include ottoman, or arm rests)
Diaper stacker: $44

Total:  $711.  And it would have been even more for me to customize any of this (with the chevron, for example.)  So I feel pretty good about how much time and money I put into it! 

Living "Family" room update

There is always a bit of debate about what room should be called what in our home.  Growing up, our "living" room was the nicer room.  The room where the home teachers would come to visit.  The room with the piano.  The room we rarely went in.  Or the room where we actually did very little "living."  The family room was where we hung out.  It had a couch for lounging, a TV, comfy chairs, the fireplace.  The first 6 years of our marriage, we only had one living space.  This often got referred to as the "front room" for some reason.  Even in Maryland we didn't have 2 rooms that fit the definition of "family  room" and "living room" to me.  We had a basement area, and a "family" room.  But now we have 2 rooms with couches.  And lots of confusion about what they should be called.  To me, our "great room" as it was called when we bought the house, is what I would consider a "family" room.  It's got a big sectional, the fireplace, and it's where we project movies to watch.  It's adjacent to the kitchen, and it's where we do most of our "living." I know that doesn't make any sense. Our other room, the "piano" room as it gets called a lot, is what I would call a "living" room.  It's where we have the home teachers come (when they come), and it's more formal.  But, the way the decorations of this room are going, it's turning out to truly be a "family" room.  This is where I have hung our Genealogy fan chart, and our wall of family history pictures. 

For Christmas this year, I worked on creating a silhouette chart, similar to one that my sister Sarah had created for my mom for mother's day back in 2010.  So now I have a chart for each family, and I framed these and added them to our wall:

Don't look to closely - I hung an earlier version of the Payne family chart.  I updated Olivia's profile and added a future child for John and JaNae, who are expecting!  I just need to get a new one printed up, and put in the frame.

I think it ties in really nicely with the family history wall. 

 
And then I found some fabulous round frames and Micheals (40% off + an additional 25% off the sale price!) and decided it was time to put something above the piano.  I knew I needed something there, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. 

Since almost all the frames in the room are holding black and white photos, I wanted to keep with that, but I didn't really want a huge family picture or something.  So this is what I came up with:

I took our individual silhouettes, and made enlargements at costco - 8X10's for Sam and I, and 5X7's of the kids.  The baby's frame has Olivia's old silhouette minus the pony tail as a place holder for now.  I think I need to readjust the size of some of them - they are slightly out of proportion and I think Sam wants a new one done of him.  But for now I'm loving this.  I may even try and update the kids every year or so, as they change.  I think the silhouettes will be a fun keepsake to have. 

So, maybe we should start calling this room our "family" room.  What do you think?

Christmas Decor

I felt like last year I really didn't do much in the way of Christmas decorations.  We didn't put up any lights, and the indoor decorations were minimal.  We were out of town the week of Christmas, and with my new calling as primary president, my life was too crazy to dec the halls.  So, this year, I really tried to make an effort to get our house feeling Christmas-y.  We spent the rest of the day on Thanksgiving getting out the decorations we had, and setting up and decorating the tree.  The kids did almost all the ornaments themselves.  It was great!

I convinced Sam that putting lights on the outside of the house would be worth it.  We were both a little worried about climbing around on a ladder outside, but I found a pole kit at Target that allowed you to put up the lights without a ladder.  While it was quite frustrating a times, it was decidedly safer.  And I loved how they turned out:

We needed some extra outlets outside, and we ended up buying one with a digital timer. I didn't realize how much I would LOVE my lights automatically turning on at dusk, and turning off several hours later.  So glad I paid the few extra dollars for that feature.  It was so nice to come home from being somewhere in the afternoon, and have the Christmas lights on when we pulled in the driveway.

After thinking about the mantle quite a bit, and not knowing quite what to do, I finally settled on putting up some large frames with photos from past Christmas'.  I really like how it turned out - I didn't take any pictures of this, but the kids managed to get a few in their picture taking sprees they often do through the house:

Note the pile of Christmas books next to the fire.  It has become one of our traditions to unwrap a Christmas book every night of December as a count down to Christmas.  The kids loved reading these books every day, and this year we had more than 25, so there were several nights where we let all 3 kids open one. 

You'll also note that we have 10 stockings hanging on the mantle.  My mom and Sam's mom have both been giving us stockings since we've been married.  We usually hang both sets, but in different spots in the house.  But we decided our mantle was so big, we'd just hang all of them over the fire place.  We'll have to see if we keep that up next year, when we'll have 12 instead of 10.  We did get some funny looks when people came over, "How many kids do you have?"

Since green is the main color of our great room, I found some cheap accent pillows that were red, and threw them on the couch and chairs to make it Christmas-y.  This was also where we had our tree.

And we strung a garland with lights up the stairway. 

There were more spots around the house decorated up too, but I didn't document any of it very well.  But I was happy that we spent all of December surrounded by red, green, twinkling lights, stars, Nativitys, poinsettias, holly and pine, with Christmas music playing almost daily, and lots of gingerbread and peppermint goodies baking in the kitchen.  Made the season feel really nice to me.  And, while I do enjoy getting things put away, part of me can't wait to pull it out again next Thanksgiving!

Our Custom Master Bedroom Bench

As one of the very last projects of the year, Mollie and I tackled the bedroom bench.  Since we moved in last year, we have had a list in the back of our minds of furniture that the home needed that we could build.  This was the last one on my mental list, at least the last one for now.  I'm sure we will do more soon.

The day after Christmas, Mollie looked at me and said, "So do you want to make the bench today?"  We had just barely finished the locker system for the laundry room, so I was not really expecting this.  Having slated most of my vacation for playing helping the kids build legos, I was a little surprised at the request.  She told me that she had been browsing plans for a few days and had a pretty good idea of what she wanted.  We looked over a few different types of benches and quickly settled on an ideal plan; we already had most of the materials.  I think that we only really had to buy one piece of plywood (which we now have a good size scrap from) and the skirt fabric. Which was a deal in itself. The foam had been purchased nearly a year earlier, but was slated for this project. Although, it was decidedly the most expensive part (even though it was purchased at 50% off), since it had been purchased so long ago, it felt like it was free. The fabric for the seat was what was left over from the amazing deal Mollie found and Joann's for silk at less than $5 a yard. The rest we were able to use from scraps out in the garage, which really cut the cost. I think we spent less than $30.  If we add in the cost for the foam (around $50) and the cost of the fabric (about $9), it comes in just under $90.  And as a bonus, we got rid of a lot of the scraps in my work area outside.

In our bedroom, there is a little bump out for a window, and we decided to make the bench fill that space. We debated the size quite a bit.  Should it be only as deep as the window?  We opted for a much deeper bench (Mollie wanted plenty of space for lots of pillows), and took the width of the foam as our guide.  Should it go from wall to wall, or be narrower?  We decided we wanted the curtains to be able to hang on either side of the bench, so we made it narrower than the space, just the same width as the window frame.  First off, I built the basic skeleton of the bench from left over 2x4 and 2x6. It could have easily been built from just 2X4's but we didn't have enough, so we used the 2X6's (left over from our table we built last year) that were too warped for any other project.   Since it was pretty wide, we actually built 2 benches to make sure it would have enough support in the middle. 

 As an aside, I really hate dealing with stud-wood.  It is just so warped and difficult to use.  But we still got it done. This was an ideal project for warped boards, since the skirt of the bench was going to hide everything from view. We used Kreg-Jig pocket-holing wherever we could, both building the frame and also for the eventual attachment of the seat to the frame.  We had to drill this ahead of time, since the bench was going to be upholstered, it needed to be attached from beneath. 

 Mollie glued the foam down onto the plywood and then covered that in some additional batting to smooth the corners and edges.

Then we used the silk (after pre-treating it with scotchgaurd) to cover that.

The next step was the skirt.  Mollie had purchased some home dec fabric to make the skirt, but it wasn't quite right.  Then she remembered reading about people using canvas drop cloths for upholstery and such, and so while I was at Lowes, she called and had me pick up a drop cloth.  Just $10 got us a 9ftX6ft drop cloth. Then she bleached it, and washed it (with lots of fabric softener and dryer sheets), and then ironed it with pleats.

The really great thing about a drop cloth is that it comes pre-hemmed. And a simple slit in the fabric allows you to rip it all the way down completely straight.  No need for meticulous cutting or sewing.  And it was just the look she was going for, and super cheap.  So then, after Mollie pinned in the pleats, I attached it to the base of the bench with staples.The kreg-jig and the air compressor are our 2 most valuable tools. Such time savers. 

For one last touch, Mollie made some piping to go around the base.  We stapled on a double row of that.

The final bit was to attach the seat to the bench skeleton.  We were pretty cautious here, because we didn't want to twist and distort the seat fabric.  Using Kreg-Jig screws, we first secured the middle of the bench, where there was no fabric, and then tested a few screws on the back where it would not be as visible if something went wrong.  As luck would have it, we were able to screw right through the fabric without it twisting.  So we went ahead and put in all our screws and we were done.

The finished bench:

The kids love all the space underneath.

  

I have plans to build some storage compartments to go underneath, and serve as a charging hub for all our various electronics, which used to find themselves in a heap right here.  And there's plenty of space to stash any other clutter that seems to find its way into our room.  Kids included :)