A little bit of Zebra

Micah's room has a new addition- an awesome Zebra stained glass piece that my Dad made (and I am pretty sure is his original design) before I was born they've been lugging it around for years all packed up so I had them pull it out of the attic and Uber built it a frame and then Dad stained it for me. 

 It's really hard to get a picture of it- but I LOVE it!

It's so fun to have something this awesome just packed away waiting for you to use!

Nursery Reveal

I am so happy to finally show you Micah's completed nursery!

My goal was to create a fun space that he wasn't going to out grow quickly. I really wanted to stay away from any specific theme's but have a lot of nature inspired items. It was amusing to realize later that the first item I had for the nursery was a calendar print of James Christensen's Flight of the Fable Maker that I'd had my Mum frame a few years ago. I had it hanging else where in the house and had totally forgotten about it until half way through finishing the nursery. It fits in perfectly and ties the whole room together. So somewhere I managed to keep that in the back of my mind as I made all of my design choices!

I can't say by any stretch of the imagination that this nursery really ended up being budget friendly, well at least by our standards. But I did pick items that could be used for all future children and then could transition into our house in other areas easily. And everything that I could possible do myself I did.



Matt and I have always thought it would be fun to have a giant map in the house so I decided to incorporate one into the nursery. I just love the array of muted colors it brings into the room and I made a bunch of flags out of Japanese masking tape and straight pens to mark all of the place we've been separate, together, and soon as a family.

It's hard to pick a favorite item in the room but the Tree Stump Ottoman is definitely near the top. And to make it even sweeter it's full of a schleich animal collection my dad has steadily been adding to.

The Mobile and Quilt are my other favorites for the room. And are hopefully items that will be with him for many years to come.

Most of the toys in the room are hand-me-downs from various family members. With a few additions like his own Steiff elephant, SIGG bottle and various Melissa & Doug items.
Well there it all is finally! I hope you guys enjoy the pictures as much as we are enjoying the room! Oh and sorry there is not Micah shoot for you this post has taken a few days to get together and I simply forgot to load one in at the bottom when I started... I'll try to get some up in the next few days! : P

Resource list:

Crib - Walmart.com

Dresser- 'vintage' piece my parents picked up second hand for me in Germany

Chair - Babiesrus

Side table - Pottery Barn Kids

Rug - Pottery Barn

Wall sconce - Restoration Hardware outlet

Curtains - Pottery Barn pinstriped sheers discontinued

Floating shelves - Ikea

Closet shelves/hanging system- Lowes

Baskets - Michaels Craft Store

Wooden clothing hangers- amazon.com

Book baskets & wall hooks - from Ballard Designs but have since been discontinued

Map - McMaps.com

Toy Chest- has been in the family since my mum was a child

The elephant puppet is from this etsy shop

Puky Bike - a gift from my parents

The stuff I made: Tree Stump Storage Ottoman, Bunting, clothing organizer, Mobile, Quilt, bumpers, Deer head, Spoon Shadow box, growth chart

Stuff others made: elephant stuffed animals, hamper, diaper bag, back pack, elephant garland,

Closet Organization

Finally a completed craft project... of course the smaller easier one is mine!

I wanted a hamper and a way to separate different sized clothing in Micah's closet ... this is only one bar there is another bar above plus a drawer with larger sizes... I kept forgetting where the different sizes begun and ended which is really irritating when you are trying to get a sometimes fussy baby dressed... so after a few days of brain storming I came up with this solution

Wraps for the bars. I wanted to be able to read the sizes looking into the closet so the plastic sideways discs weren't going to cut it for me...plus I wanted to make mine... I am totally jazzed with the way that they turned out. I just did quick hand embroidered numbers and stole moms sewing machine (while she held Micah... see she helps with every project) to sew them up and used iron on Velcro. If anyone is interested I can do up a quick tutorial ... it may take me a few days... lol...
Next the hamper. I had made a quick drawing of my idea and had cut all the pieces out roughly to the size I wanted them and then threw the project at mum to complete ... which she was really nice about doing (not sure how long that is going to last! : P )... she of course made the whole thing even better. For some reason she is not super happy with it and told me I could blog it... Personally I think its fantastic and I wanted you all to see what an awesome job she did with someone else's half baked idea.

So I have ONE more thing to complete and then the nursery is done (for now). Ubers parents are here tomorrow so I am am hoping to steal some crafting time this next week while they spend quality time with Micah. I really can't wait to show you the completed project!

Now for some gratuitous baby shots-
Micah visiting his Dad at work!
Micah with his amazing grandparents -can't wait to show you some pictures of him with his other set of equally amazing grandparents ; )
And AGH! Uber clean wrapped in a towel Micah! How stinking cute is this towel?

Alright I am off to chew on my baby!

Stump Feature

My stump was featured over at Unique Baby Gear. Check it out!

Because, who doesn't need a stump?

To read about this project go here.

Bunting!

Here's one of several sneak peeks of the nursery...or nursery related items I'll be showing you over the next few days. We (read Uber) put the shelving up on the side of the closet... not that this is their final placement because we are still waiting on the dresser/changing table.... but it's pretty close.

I had planned on adding a thicker molding across the front of the shelving to hide the brackets... but I am SO OVER PAINTING so instead I decided to make some fun fabric bunting.

I'm totally loving it! Yes you can still see the uprights but the brackets have disappeared now and that's really what bugged me. And the bunting matches some other items in the nursery... which you will see later!

I also must mention that you have my awesome Mum to thank for ALL of the photography on my site the last few weeks... I have been making her take all of the pictures... I am SOOOO lazy!

P.S. Look at all of those adorable shoes!

Did you think I would give up on the deer head?

Back on the inspiration board I posted for the nursery I had a deer head that zgalleries carries, unfortunately when I saw it in person the fantastic price showed in the quality of the item.... total let down (I love zgalleries though so no hard feelings)
I went through a bunch of ideas on how to make one and couldn't find a solution that I was sure I would be happy with -then I saw this nursery post and knew that was it. She actually got hers from here (there are none currently for sale). I of course decided to just make mine...
I finally sat down and got started today. I was amazed it didn't take me long I started working on it this morning and finished up this evening. That included a bunch of breaks and a trip out to Michael's to get the things I didn't have on hand.... I wish all projects went this quickly...and smoothly! So the pictures aren't the best but I just had to share tonight so you'll have to deal until later. It isn't even hanging in the nursery so the walls are totally the wrong color- I think she will look a lot better on a light blue wall!
It is in fact a doe... Uber says he doesn't mind so I am not going to worry about it! I probably could have added antlers but I really liked it without them!

She's a little bit snotty in expression but that just makes me laugh...

Her body is linen (big surprise) and the inside of her ears are a duponi silk. Almost everything on her is stuff I already had on hand I only spent $15 to make her. The most expensive thing was her nose... I went ahead and used a leather scrap... I probably should have just used felt but oh well!

Her eyelashes crack me up...

The plaque is Gun Metal Gray.

I LOVE ribbon... I hope it doesn't make it look too girly I just could not pass up the beautiful peacock blue ribbon when I saw it. All of the ribbon reminds me of a military uniform

I am really excited about the way it turned out. I hadn't made a stuffed animal before and was a little nervous about totally making up the pattern but I have to say it was super simple.

Hopefully I will be able to show you more of the nursery in the next month... no promises though... it's kind of boring at this point I have a lot of things done but not enough to be interesting. I will continue to show you the projects I do complete which will start giving you sneak peaks at different parts of the room...

Baby MAC's Quilt

I finished this up Friday afternoon and I am SOOOO happy to have it completed!
Linen and shirting fabric make up the patchwork on the front
The back is baby wale corduroy in brown with blue polka-dots, so soft and yummy!
The 3 Sea Turtles are appliqued and then hand embroidered.
The quilting is just two alternating blue heavy duty embroidery floss running stitches spaced about an inch apart. I love the look this gives the quilt.

I had SO much fun making up the design (not the quilt pattern or anything I know that's been done...haha) and putting the quilt together. Though I definitely wont be doing another one for a while!
The Nursery isn't going to be turtle themed though. Hopefully I will be showing you more of that project soon! Meanwhile you get bits and pieces!

Version 2

Are we bored yet?! Well this is mainly for family who is asking what the room will look like... I redid my inspiration board for my mum this morning because I have made some changes so I thought I would share it here.... because I have nothing else to show for myself! I actually have MANY things going on right now just nothing done that I am done with! Of course if I stopped redoing inspiration boards some of those other things might get done!

But obviously that is not how I roll so I am going with something is better than nothing.

It's a....

Boy!!!

We're VERY excited! And I am glad the baby cooperated with everyone and decided to be a boy because it was almost a unanimous vote with all our family and friends for boy.

The ultrasound pictures are rather boring so instead I thought I would share some inspiration pictures for what I am thinking about doing with the nursery... of course all of this is subject to change because I have 4-5 more months to finalize things... and there are so many neat possibilities!

I'm wanting to stay away from any themes... though of course when I am done I am sure there will be some sort of underlying theme... I'm just going for a more nature inspired/real animal look. Nothing baby-ish or cartoonish.

Well I am off to work on the quilt... which we will definitely be needing now!