Over the last month, my mom and I have spent a number of weekends working on some of our final projects for Avery's nursery. To the right is what it looks like now that all our small projects are complete. Below is the boring "Before" pic we took when we just started working on the nursery. Now let me fill you in on some of our projects.
The first thing I worked on was putting together a nightstand for next to the recliner/rocker. I had a feeling that I will be spending a lot of time there once Avery's born and I know I would need a place to put somethings! So I found this nightstand from Target, and while my mom was painting the cherry blossom tree on the wall, I put together the nightstand. This was a big deal for me because usually Brandon takes on those sort of things,
but after I put together the shelf seen in this post, my "construction" confidence increased, and my nesting instincts took over! Here I am with all the pieces laid out, reading all of the instructions of course!
Next up, assembling the drawer and shelf portion of the nightstand.
Here are a few of the functional details I've added to this area since I put it together. I found this simple, modern lamp here at Target. The iPod dock was from Wal-Mart...I know Avery will love rocking out to music on it one day (the qu
estion will be if she'll like Mommy's music or Daddy's?). Currently on the shelf are some monogrammed burp cloths I got from my baby shower. On a side note, you might have seen a white foot stool in the top pic of the room and here is some info about it. It's a Nursing Stool I got on Amazon.com. Aside from helping with nursing, since it can assist in proper posture, I also wanted this stool so that I could put my feet up a bit. I'm kind of short (about 5'4) and when I sit all the way back in the rocker, my feet don't touch the ground. So with this stool, my feet actually have somewhere to go! This not only helps with rocking in the chair, but also my overall comfort in the chair. I have a feeling it will be helpful with breastfeeding when Avery is born.Curtains: Okay so window treatments aren't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but after seeing some ideas online I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted and instead of trying to shop and find what I was looking for, I decided to work together with my mom and grandma (two creative and talented women!) to make them for Avery's room. First we bought the 3 fabrics...a stripe print for the front panel, and then a white linen and white roo
m darkening fabric for the two panels that would open and close. Next, the work began! We had to measure, cut, and then sew lots and lots of fabric!
m darkening fabric for the two panels that would open and close. Next, the work began! We had to measure, cut, and then sew lots and lots of fabric! Here's my grandma and I measuring, cutting, and pinning the fabric...something we did a lot on these curtains!
Here's my grandma and mom sewing the front panel with the stripe fabric. This is the same fabric that will be on the skirt of Avery's bed...I will post about this project in the upcoming weeks.
Here I am sewing. I made sure to choose a nice, easy, straight edge to sew...nothing tricky!
Here's the sewing team! I'm about 25 weeks pregnant in this pic.
Now although we thought we had the curtain all done when we took this group pic, I put it up and it turned out that the two white panels that would open and close were not quite as wide as we had hoped, meaning that I had to work a little bit to get them to touch in the middle and block out the light of a street light that shines nice and bri
ght into Avery's room at night. So, we decided to get some more fabric and make each panel wider. Then after two more Saturdays, the curtains were complete! They took a lot of work and time, but they have a lot of special meaning to me because my mom and grandma both helped with them. Aside from that they are exactly what I was picturing for that room, and they easily open and close now (see the pic to the left and right), a feature that I'm sure I will appreciate when I'm trying to hold Avery and close a curtain at the same time! A big thanks to my mom and Grandma Sue for their time and hardwork on this project, Avery and I appreciate it! ( :
ght into Avery's room at night. So, we decided to get some more fabric and make each panel wider. Then after two more Saturdays, the curtains were complete! They took a lot of work and time, but they have a lot of special meaning to me because my mom and grandma both helped with them. Aside from that they are exactly what I was picturing for that room, and they easily open and close now (see the pic to the left and right), a feature that I'm sure I will appreciate when I'm trying to hold Avery and close a curtain at the same time! A big thanks to my mom and Grandma Sue for their time and hardwork on this project, Avery and I appreciate it! ( :
Etsy Find of the Week: Pink Framed Chalkboard. As I mentioned in last week's post, I love finding cute baby things on Etsy! After putting some of the above mentioned projects in place in Avery's room I began wondering what I could put on the wall in this nook by the recliner, and then I found this cool pink chalkboard on Etsy. I thought it would be fun to have, not only because of how cute it was, but because of how we could write little messages or quotes on it for Avery (it is also magnetic). As you can imagine, it wasn't long 
before I purchased it and now it hangs so nicely on the wall. Although the exact chalkboard is no longer listed, here is a similar one. The shop owner, Tina, is incredibly nice and I strongly recommend checking out her Etsy shop if you like decorative chalkboards as she has some other fun colors and styles available!
before I purchased it and now it hangs so nicely on the wall. Although the exact chalkboard is no longer listed, here is a similar one. The shop owner, Tina, is incredibly nice and I strongly recommend checking out her Etsy shop if you like decorative chalkboards as she has some other fun colors and styles available!Flower Hooks: As you can see from that last chalkboard pic, another small project we did was to create some kind of fun hooks to hang a variety of things from once Avery is born...specifically some cute head
bands or bear-ear hats (my fav!). So while we were at our local craft store one day, we found these flower hooks and we thought they had some potential (after a good paint job that is!). So we primed them, painted them similar colors to the cherry blossom tree, and then my mom painted little green leaves onto the wall behind them. I love how they turned out and I know we will get some use out of them in the future.
bands or bear-ear hats (my fav!). So while we were at our local craft store one day, we found these flower hooks and we thought they had some potential (after a good paint job that is!). So we primed them, painted them similar colors to the cherry blossom tree, and then my mom painted little green leaves onto the wall behind them. I love how they turned out and I know we will get some use out of them in the future. As for now, we like to use them to display what we call the, "Outfit of the Week". This is something kind of funny that Brandon and I do when we'v
e bought or someone's gotten us a super-cute outfit that we just can't bear to put in the closet, and we just want to display it instead. So we hang it on the "Outfit of the Week" flower hook! Kind of funny I know, but we love it! Here is one of my favorite outfits that I found at Target awhile back. I call it "Organic Girl" because it just looks like one cute little nature-loving outfit that I can see Avery wearing when I introduce her to our local farmer's market this summer.
e bought or someone's gotten us a super-cute outfit that we just can't bear to put in the closet, and we just want to display it instead. So we hang it on the "Outfit of the Week" flower hook! Kind of funny I know, but we love it! Here is one of my favorite outfits that I found at Target awhile back. I call it "Organic Girl" because it just looks like one cute little nature-loving outfit that I can see Avery wearing when I introduce her to our local farmer's market this summer. Photo Collage Frame: This last project came 
from an idea my mom and I had, and since I'm a huge fan of vision boards and collaging, I knew I wanted something in Avery's room where I could combine these two. Our idea started out by picturing that we would use something like one of those big frames you see at weddings where you can sign your name and write a message...except instead of writing things, we wanted to put pictures and specifically pictures of family me
mbers so Avery could get to know who they are. We pictured standing there with her saying, "Oh here is Grandma Karen, or here is Daddy skateboarding." ( : With all those ideas, we set out to our local craft supply store and there we found a nice, big, white frame as well as some special paper (like dry-erase poster board...which would be easy to put pictures on and take off as I wanted to. It was only $1!), and some ribbon. Here's the steps we took to create the frame:
from an idea my mom and I had, and since I'm a huge fan of vision boards and collaging, I knew I wanted something in Avery's room where I could combine these two. Our idea started out by picturing that we would use something like one of those big frames you see at weddings where you can sign your name and write a message...except instead of writing things, we wanted to put pictures and specifically pictures of family me
mbers so Avery could get to know who they are. We pictured standing there with her saying, "Oh here is Grandma Karen, or here is Daddy skateboarding." ( : With all those ideas, we set out to our local craft supply store and there we found a nice, big, white frame as well as some special paper (like dry-erase poster board...which would be easy to put pictures on and take off as I wanted to. It was only $1!), and some ribbon. Here's the steps we took to create the frame:1. Hot-glued the pink ribbon onto the top of the frame (seen to the left)
2. Cut the the dry-erase paper to fit the frame, you can see how it looks out of the frame to the right..
3. Created an insert with one of Avery's bedding fabrics for the center piece of the frame. We did this by cutting out a piece of cardboard, covering it with fabric, wrapping the same ribbon from the bow on the frame, and then gluing the words that we typed ("You are loved.") on to it. I chose those words because all of the
people pictured in the frame are her family, from brothers, to grandparents, to aunts, and of course her mom and dad and I want her to know that we all love her! 4. Unfortunately, now is when our project took a turn for the worst! It seemed like such an easy project, but we hit several walls which just about sent us over the edge. My job was to find pics on my computer and print them in black and white. Well, my printer decided to stop working right when I was read
y to print! It would just shoot the paper right through, instead of printing anything on it! Here I am in "technology meltdown mode". My mom was having trouble of her own as she tried to get the paper to lay flat. For some reason it was warping a bit every time she tried putting the back on the frame on. Here she is in "craft meltdown mode"!
5. In the end, we got the pictures printed, the paper to lay flat,
and we ev
en got it up and hanging on the wall...whew! Even though it turned into one headache of a project, it is one of my favorite features o
en got it up and hanging on the wall...whew! Even though it turned into one headache of a project, it is one of my favorite features o f the room and I can't wait to show it to Avery. Also, since we made sure to pick out the special dry-erase paper, it will be an ever-changing frame. So as she gets older, I will change out
the pictures and update them with new pics of her, and family and friends.
Okay so I think that's it for the decorating update for this week, sorry to bore you with all the details of these many projects. I just love knowing how other people create their nurseries and if these projects can help give other future mamas out there some ideas, then that would be great! If not, this sure will be fun to look back on once Avery's born and know all the hard work we put into creating her nursery. Have a good week everyone! ( :