Baby Boy’s Nursery is Ready!

With exactly 2 weeks until baby boy’s due date, I can say that his room is finally ready for his big debut. I’m actually a little surprised with myself when it comes to his nursery, seeing as I usually change my mind 50 million times before deciding on the layout for a room, how things should be arranged, what should be on the walls, etc. But his room was different. From the beginning I knew where I wanted all the big pieces (crib, dresser, chair), and everything else just kind of fell into place. It was like some kind of miracle.

I had always said I wanted a neutral nursery that could be re-used for a girl down the road, but as soon as we found out this was a boy, all that went out the window.

Here it is:

1. The world map is actually just a sheet of wrapping paper from | Paper Source | that I put in an
| Ikea | frame.

2. Another Ikea frame, this one has a | mat | in it from Pottery Barn Kids and a cute card we received from my aunt.

3. Just a hand-me-down wooden toy that I love.

4. | Gray elephant pull toy | is from Pottery Barn Baby.

5. White rocking bird is from | West Elm |

6. Habakkuk | print | is from my Etsy shop.

7. Books are thrifted from St. Vinnie’s.

8. Crib bumper and matching quilt are part of the | Madras | collection from Pottery Barn Baby.

9. The wall decals all came from | Sissy Little | Don’t even get me started on what a pain they were to install, but well worth the effort in the end.

10. The driftwood mobile was a super-easy DIY. Truly. Just drill a hole in the driftwood, then string it on to fishing wire and attach to a hook in the ceiling.

11. The curtains are a copycat version of Pottery Barn’s | Harper Shade | Because these are faux they well for us. We already have wooden blinds in the room that we can open and close, but the Roman shades are decorative and stay put.

12. Cloth diapers are a combination | Charlie Banana | and | FuzziBunz | (after hours of reading reviews online).

13. | Rocking chair | is from Babies ‘R Us.

14. Blue plaid fabric is from Ikea. They don’t have the blue online, but a similar one can be found | here |

15. ’XOXO’ pillow was another | DIY | from awhile back.

A simple reading corner with new and used books.

16. A small collection of baby toys (how many do they really need?) that I’m sure will get hours of use.

17. Another | Sissy Little | wall decal.

And a few more details…

The wall | color | is Sherwin-Williams, ‘Sea Serpent’. We only painted 2 of the walls (I guess 4 if you count the weird little angled walls where the closet are and where you walk into the room), because I was worried it would be too dark. I didn’t want baby boy to feel like he was sleeping in a cave! However, I think if we’d painted the other 2 walls, it would’ve been fine. Maybe down the road we will, but for now, one wall remaining neutral is OK.
The dresser was a Craigslist find that Ian repainted using | Milk Paint | (he mixed slate and driftwood for ours), then added new hardware.
All of the shelves in the room are from Ikea.
The lamp I was in the great room but I brought it into his room because it looks more like a nursery than a living room if you ask me.

Did I cover everything?

I guess we have everything we need…just add baby!

4 Weeks and Counting…

That’s right, in less than 4 weeks (hopefully!) we will be welcoming our sweet boy into the world.

And it’s just now becoming real.
Not that it hasn’t felt real before- I’ve felt the kicks, or shall we saw acrobatics, taking place inside of me. I had the morning sickness. We set up a crib and the majority of his room. The cloth diapers have been purchased and pre-washed. His car seat is ready to go. Our stroller is assembled. But just this week, it hit me.

We are having a baby.

Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely thrilled and SO excited to hold our little boy for the first time, but I don’t think there are any words to describe how nervous/slightly panicked/overwhelmed/unprepared I feel knowing that we are having a baby in a matter of weeks!

Holy. Smokes.

Thankfully, last weekend, my sister and I went to a Beth Moore study along with 7,300 other women and it was amazing. Worship like you wouldn’t believe, and a study that was so perfect for this exact season of my life. I’d been looking forward to this weekend every since I found out Beth was coming to our town, and prayed that baby boy wouldn’t arrive a month early and keep me from attending.

Beth spoke on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8…

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.”

Friday night, we left the seminar and Beth asked that we pray God would reveal which of these seasons we’re currently in.
Saturday morning came, and I still had no idea, but in her message on Saturday, Beth mentioned that often, there are things that you just know you need to get rid of. Things you need to kill. Whether it be a habit, a lifestyle, anything you’re holding onto that you know is not of the Lord.

Monday morning as I had my quiet time and continued to read over this passage, I realized it’s time to kill and pluck up some of what’s been planted.

In about a month, we’ll have a baby. We’ll be tired, (exhausted most likely), but overjoyed with our new bundle of joy. We’ll know a love that we’ve never known before.

We’ll be parents.

But in the meantime, there are some things that just need to be killed and uprooted.

More specifically Pinterest, and Facebook.

I waste hours on both those sites. I waste hours perusing photos of homes that I’ll most likely never be able to afford, finding craft projects that I don’t have time for, and pinning recipes I think look good, but Ian will never eat. I find myself clicking away onto a blog, then comparing myself to the woman behind the blog with the spotless home and perfect children. I find myself lusting after these lifestyles, when God has blessed me beyond belief with things I often overlook.

As for Facebook, I don’t even want to know the number of hours I’ve spent on Facebook during my lifespan. But again, it’s a way for me to waste time and compare myself to the lives of those around me (most of whom I haven’t talked to in ages).

And so, I’m learning what a season of killing and uprooting looks like:

Less time in front of a screen
=
More time in the Word.
More time with my husband.
More time to complete projects I started months ago.
More time to prepare for baby boy.

A sort of calm-before-the-storm if you will.
A storm that brings happiness, joy, late-nights, tears, frustration, laughter, and humility all at once.

Peace out Facebook and Pinterest. It’s been real, but we’ll keep our distance for awhile.

He Really Does Have a Nursery

Slowly but surely, we’re making baby boy’s room look more like a nursery and less like the spare bedroom we’ve thrown our extra things in for the last year and a half.

2 of the walls got bold a new paint color – Sherwin Williams | Sea Serpent |

And we just ordered a variation of | this | adorable vinyl wall decal in white to go on the 2 painted walls:

Using | this | smokin’ Living Social deal!

And I’m currently in the process of making my own version of the Harper Roman Shade from | Pottery Barn Kids |

I love the way his room is coming together…pure boy!

A Sip & See for Sydney

Say that 3 times fast.

Last Saturday we had a Sip & See for my sister and the newest member of their family. It was a relaxing afternoon at my sister’s home where friends stopped by, we snacked on brushetta, fresh fruit, and desserts, and guests brought frozen meals in lieu of gifts while baby Sydney got passed from one set of hands to the next.

Kind of  a perfect afternoon.

1. I made a simple garland by cutting different size circles from various paper and sewing them together. (I’d post a tutorial, but really, it’s so simple it doesn’t need a tutorial.)

2. Whenever I make tissue poms, they turn out like crap, but I love the way they look. I finally broke down and bought the Martha Stewart kit from Michaels and they were pretty impossible to screw up.

3. A simple banner that was attached to 2 pink paper straws and strung on top of the mini cakes.

4. Chocolate cake made in tin cans! Have you tried this method? It was super easy! I just used a cake mix, but you could use a recipe from scratch, clean out 4 tin cans, grease, fill cans about halfway, and bake on a cookie sheet for 30-35 minutes. Once they’re cool, flip the cans over and the cake should fall right out. Slice into 1″ pieces, slather on some frosting, and continue to layer on more slices until you have your cakes the desired height!

5. I’d seen “Wishes for Baby” on Pinterest where you have guests fill out a sheet with a bunch of different answers, but I decided to change it up a bit. I stamped different “Prayers for Sydney” on mini cards and created a prayer/shower book that I’m finishing up now. The book includes everyone’s prayers for Sydney as well as pictures from the shower…a fun little memory book from the afternoon (without the pressure of having to fill out an entire sheet!)

6. Quite possibly, the best dessert ever, and they are SO simple. My mom made these for the party and they were a hit! Take store-bought thin chocolate wafers (not all stores carry them), and place whip cream between each cookie (again, you can make these as tall as you want). Cover with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge for a few hours, the whip cream will soften the cookies and make them cake-like, and they can be served straight from the fridge. Top with a sprinkle of cocoa or shaved chocolate and you have the perfect, bite-sized treat!

Such a fun, pink-filled afternoon to welcome this beautiful baby girl into the world!

DIY Baby Blocks

Lately I’ve been searching for some new homemade baby gift ideas since I’m getting a little sick of burp cloths. Don’t get me wrong, they’re fun to give, but I feel like a little bit of a burp-cloth-making-machine and I wanted to challenge myself to take on a new project. So here’s my new project of choice:

Soft baby blocks perfect for little hands!

Although they look a little intimidating, they are surprisingly super easy, thanks to a technique I saw on Pinterest the other day and modified for this project. The best part is that no pins are required! What’s better than a sewing project that doesn’t require any pinning?!

All you need for this project:

: : fabric of your choice (you can choose a couple coordinating fabrics, or make 1 solid block)
: : fusible interfacing
: : sewing machine
: : thread
: : double-sided fusible interfacing
: : scissors
: : iron

1. Begin by cutting out your fabric. You’ll need 6 squares all together, and I recommend using a quilting template to make sure your squares are perfect (trust me, it makes it a lot easier down the road).

2. Lay your squares out on the fusible interfacing with the wrong side of the fabric facing the right side of the interfacing.

3. Make sure the corners of your squares are lined up perfectly, then iron the fabric to the interfacing. It’s best to just set the iron on one section and not move it around, but steam the area to adhere to fabric and interfacing, then pick up the iron and go to the next area. Be sure to get all of the seams completely adhered.

4. Once you’ve ironed everything together, trim away the excess interfacing as close to the fabric as possible.

5. Now, you’re going to sew along anywhere that there’s a fold. It sounds confusing, but basically anywhere there are two fabric blocks touching, you’re going to fold them over:

6. Sew a straight line along the back, with a 1/4″ seam allowance, like in the photo below:

7. Once you’ve sewn the seam, open it up and use your iron to press the fold open. Now, you’re left with a perfectly straight seam that required no pins!

7. Continue this process for all sides where 2 blocks meet. When you’re done, you should have something that looks like this:

8. And a closer view for you:

9. Next, it’s time to start forming your block. Your block should look like the one in the photo below, so start be sewing side B and C, right sides together, leaving the same seam allowance. Next sew D to E, H to A, G to F, etc.

10. Don’t forget to leave your seam allowance. It will make sewing your corners much smoother as you get to certain pieces.

11. You can start to see your block forming!

12. Finally, sew all edges together, leaving just one side open. I sew along the edges of mine, leaving about a 1.5″ opening, backstitching multiple times so that when you flip it inside out, it still stays intact.

13. Next, comes my favorite part because I hate hand-stitching seams closed, and this saves me from having to do that! Measure your small opening (it can be a rough estimate) and cut a small strip of double-sided fusible interfacing to fit there.

14. Peel and stick your double-sided interfacing, then iron. Peel the other side off, stick the opposite fabric on interfacing, then iron your block shut.

15. You’re left with a seam that’s invisible and looks like every other seam on the block!

16. Done!

Here’s a set I made for another friend, using 5″ and 4″ squares:

Whip up a few matching burp cloths and you have an easy, inexpensive homemade gift, made with love.

Or make a trio of blocks using 4″, 5″, and 6″ squares:

*I added appliques to these for my niece, if you’d like to do the same, I recommend adding them to the squares before you adhere them to the interfacing. You can also add ribbons to the seams so they stick up and give baby something to grab on to.

Have fun with them!