Caleb's Calming Nursery

I am SO excited to finally share Caleb's nursery photos.  I was waiting until we had one last project complete. We have put a lot of hard work into it and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Please note that the "we" includes my husband, mom and step dad. Thank you to all of them for helping me with all the different projects.

I used Pinterest quite a bit in the planning of this nursery! You can see my inspiration post here.  I didn't really have a true feeling of what I wanted until I found the fabric.  I love all the different shades of green with some mint, aqua and even some yellow. The biggest challenge in this room was the large size of the room itself. I really hate to complain about a large room, but it's quite big for a nursery. Previously we had used the room as a guest room with a queen-sized bed filling up the space.

First up, the view as you enter:

The alphabet cards were my first purchase (you can read the post about them here) and we painted several pieces of furniture that we already owned (read about it here).

I ended up changing what I planned on doing with the alphabet and put them on two painted canvases instead of a bunch of different ones.

 

I was so excited to find this mobile at Ross for $8.99!! It matches the room perfectly!

I love the bed skirt my mom made! It's great too because it attaches to the spring frame under the mattress so it doesn't get messed up when you change the sheet! A bumper would have been awesome in these fabrics, but I decided against it. I had one made for Caiden and only put it in his crib once (to take pictures).

 

Now, here's the window wall:

 

 

 

My mom made the pennant banner, floor pillow and super cute caterpillar. The table lamp was a great find at TJ Maxx. I'm leaving the wall space above the dresser plain for now. I'm hoping to find some cute things in Canton some day!

  

 

 

Then turning to the other wall:

I LOVE my cozy corner! My mom made the pillow and changer cover and the blanket was a gift from my sweet friend Sarah.

I finally found a floor lamp at Ikea! I have a feeling the boys will destroy it though, being paper and all- good thing it was inexpensive!

I ordered his name vinyl from  Just Wright Vinyl Decor on Etsy and she was awesome to work with on this custom order! The frame around it was the last project we were working on. I really want a double frame around it, but we were having difficulties with it. Maybe we'll get it up eventually!


Here's looking back towards the door:

The letters above the closet door are from the banner from my shower!

A few other accents:

I'm quite proud of this DIY project. I got the idea from one of my favorite bloggers at Positively Splendid. You can see her tutorial here. The only thing I did differently was use paint instead of vinyl strips for the white stripes.

I painted this frame to display his birth announcement and decoupaged some fabric on the "C" (both from Hobby Lobby)

 

 

I love how this little area turned out too! The basket is a painted hanging planter and I covered some cardboard with fabric to fill in the bottom because the toys were falling through :)  The prints were made by my wonderful friend Ashlee and I mounted them on painted canvases.

So there you have it. I love his room and hope he does too!

Here's most of my resources:

• Crib: DaVanci Kalani
• Changer/Dresser Combo: Da Vinci Kalani
• Bookshelf, nightstand and 4-drawer dresser: upcycled DIY
• Rug: Garden Ridge
• Table lamp: TJ Maxx
• Floor lamp: Ikea
• Paper Lanterns: Luna Bazaar, World Market
• Diaper basket: World Market
• Fabric: Heather Bailey Garden District
• Spanish Alphabet Cards: Children Inspire Design
• Wall planter basket: Garden Ridge
• Name & scripture vinyl: Just Wright Vinyl Decor

Since my mom made several projects, I'm not sure which tutorials she actually used, but these are the ones I referred her to.

• Pennant tutorial
• Floor pillow tutorial
• Bed skirt tutorial
• Changing pad tutorial

Nursery Inspiration

Since we are more than halfway through this pregnancy, we decided we needed to get our act together and start working on the nursery. I've been scouring the web and Pinterest and gathering up ideas for months now. Here is some of my inspiration:

• The first two pictures are the crib and dresser that we picked out. It's the DaVinci Kalani convertible crib and the dresser/changer combo both in espresso. We decided to buy nursery furniture because we didn't want to rush Caiden into a big boy bed, just to be able to use the furniture. Plus they are both convertible into toddler and full size beds, so they will be able to use them for awhile. I'm a little nervous through because we ordered them online rather than in a store this time, so I hope everything turns out alright.
• The alphabet picture is a similar idea to what I'm going to do with the Spanish alphabet cards (see First Nursery Purchase) above the crib (A is for Alphabet)
• I want to hang some of these planter baskets for storage, maybe under the window to they are easily accessible. (Planter baskets)
• The last two pictures I'm still debating on. I like the idea of a shelf above the changing table, but I also like the hanging buckets....hmmm. (Shelf over changing table & Hanging buckets)

Side note- I'm not posting anything abou the bedding fabric just yet because I'm still struggling with it. Once I pick out the fabric for sure and have the color scheme nailed down, here are some crafts I'd like to do.

• I really want to have a pennant in the room that matches the bedding (Pennant)
• I love this Scrabble art that incorporates the name of the baby. Might have to do a smaller version of it though (Scrabble Art)
• This DIY stacked frame is so cute and looks fairly easy! (diy-stacked-wall-frames)
• I want to do a collection of paper lanterns in coordinating colors! (Paper lanterns)

So, whatcha think so far?  Now we just gotta get to work!

Garden 2012

We finally got a chance last weekend to do some much needed work out in the yard. Caiden was a BIG help :)

Mowing the lawn

 Watering the new plants

Carrying the ladder to trim the tree

Great job, Dad!

We figured with the baby coming and all, we'll be pretty busy this spring, so we scaled down a little from last year. Clockwise from top left: A tomato and jalapeño; the herb tower with basil, oregano, mint and thyme; my new strawberry pot; and a pretty flowerbed.

Now, we'll cross our green thumbs and hope everything grows!

First Nursery Purchase

I'm so excited to have made my first purchase for Baby 2's nursery. I know it's still plenty early, but I've been itching to buy this since November 2010! Way back before I was even thinking about a second child, I visited my friend in Houston and she had the cutest art on the wall of her nursery. Best of all it was in SPANISH!  They were number wall cards that she had mounted and framed. I wish I had a picture of it for you. So I fell in love with them and found the vendor on Etsy and they have alphabet cards too!
Ta Da!

 

I just love the natural colors and the art of the pictures. The company is Children Inspire Design and you can find the Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChildrenInspire?ref=seller_info. There is a bunch of beautiful artwork and they have prints in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Swedish!

 Once I found out I was expecting I started thinking about them again and decided to use them as my "inspiration piece" for the nursery. I'm not quite sure yet how I'm going to display them. They are 5x7 so I might frame them or might do something similar to another friend.  She has some different alphabet cards mounted on painted canvases in her playroom.

Hers are 8x10 and she has a much larger wall to display them on than we will have in the nursery.  But I think I could use the idea on a smaller scale.

Anyway, I can't wait for them to arrive and start picking out some fabrics that coordinate!

Did we survive?

About a month ago, I posted about how hot of a summer we were having. I didn't know at the time it was not going to get any better for a long time! Tomorrow is going to be our 70th day this summer of temperatures over 100. This will set a new all time record! Hopefully, once this heat wave passes, we will be done with it. I am trying to resuscitate what is left of my poor garden.

Here is my hanging tomato, which almost died all together, but with a little relief last week, there is some new growth and blooms. Maybe we'll have some fresh tomatoes in October.



My flowers survived and the zinnias actually are a little out of control!



My poor herb garden. I think the basil and sage are the only things left.




My plumeria is doing great! I brought this back from Hawaii as a 12" cutting in 2007!


It's even blooming!



Did you notice the rest of the planting bed that the plumeria pot was sitting on. Yep, all gone. The squash, tomato, jalapeño,and yellow pepper... all gone. So sad!

This is our sky pencil holly. I hope it makes it, it's one of my favorite things in our yard! Poor thing got burnt up by all the heat and sun!



This guy definitely survived... and is growing and growing. He's ready for cool weather too though!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How does you garden grow?

Even though we got a late start planting this year, the garden is growing and we are really looking forward to enjoying the fruits of our labor soon. It's been so hot that we've had to water twice a day to keep everything from looking all wilted up.  
Here's our hanging tomato . The top is cherry tomatos and the bottom is regular. It's crazy that the upside-down part curled so that it wouldn't be upside-down anymore.

A few tomatos growing on the top plant!  Can't wait to eat them!!

We've got some yellow squash getting started!

And our staple supply of jalapeño peppers!

This our first time to grow yellow bell peppers. Hope it does well!

The strawberry plant is not doing too well. You can see the fruit, but they don't grow much bigger.

And my flowers are growing growing growing...



The funny thing is that there was a beautiful Gerber Daisy in the planter on the left and it hasn't bloomed again. In fact, every time I've gotten a Gerber Daisy plant it's had blooms on it and I've never had them bloom again- what's the deal with that?

Here's a comparison pic of when we planted to a couple of weeks ago.

April 22

June 13

Goings Ons

I'm doing this quick post while Caiden is napping. Well, I'm not sure if he's asleep yet, but at least he's laying in his crib not screaming!  It's been getting better at nap time around here. He's taking 2 naps a day in his crib. I can usually even transfer him from his car seat if he falls asleep in the car.  Most time it starts with a little bit of time screaming before he goes to sleep, but it's getting better! And I can't really complain because he sleeps 12 hours at night!

So I just thought I'd share a couple of non-Caiden things. Eric and I finally got the garden going in the back year. Mom and Geno helped while they were in town for Caiden's b-day party by getting me some potted plants for my birthday! (Caiden is not sleeping... playing with his glow seahorse)



(Caiden started screaming while the pictures were loading) And then Eric expanded our planting bed so that we could plant vegetables in the ground.  We haven't had much luck growing them in pots. We planted a tomato, jalapeno pepper, sweet yellow pepper and straightneck summer squash. I also planted my herb tower several weeks ago.

In addition to the gardening, I've been able to go to two Mom's Night Out events that have been so much fun. The first one was at a place called Painting With A Twist and a teacher will teach you how to paint that night's piece of art. I've never really painted before and I'm not a very good artist so I was pleasantly surprised by the result.  The painting we did doesn't really match the decor of my house so I'd like to go back and do another one that I would actually display. (If anyone would like a lovely painting for your house, let me know)



The other one was the craft club for the GCS Moms League and we made washer necklaces.  It was pretty difficult to stamp the letters into the washers so I have an even greater respect for the people that are selling them on Etsy!

And I finish just as Caiden falls asleep!  Ahhh, sweet silence! 

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful mom, sister and mom friends out there!  Enjoy the day!



Week 35

Last weekend Eric and I did some more work on the nursery.  We patched and painted the holes from the wall achors of the bookshelves that were previously in the room.  However, the paint didn't quite dry as expected- it's a little dark- so now we have dark spots all over the room.  We will have the paint lightened and try again next weekend.  Here are a few pics- we still have letters to hang and maybe a quote over the window- but it's getting there.

We will have a book rack on this wall under the picture.

The other exciting event for this week is the doctor's appointment.  She wanted to do a sonogram to see his position and growth.  He is growing big- showing az 5lb 10oz already (but those estimates are frequently large). His head is measuring at 37 weeks so lots of brain development going on!  The best news is that he is head down.  For the last month or so, I could have sworn that he was sideways- so I was worried about him turning.  She wants to start seeing me weekly now so I will be a frequent visitor to the office.