Hannah's Nursery

If you remember, I had a pretty rough time trying to decide how to decorate the nursery. I'd have a good idea, and then I'd decide I didn't like it or it was too girly or too masculine, or I'd start looking at bedding ideas and get disgusted. The nursery didn't get done until the 11th hour, but overall I am really pleased with how it turned out! It's still not technically "done" but since Hannah won't be sleeping up there for a while, we have a small window in which to complete it.

First, some "before" photos.

I can't believe how gross that room was. The dusty 1970s blue needed to go, but between the "before" and "after" photos, I really can't believe how ugly that color was.

Now, some "during" photos!

After painting the walls and ceiling, Graham worked hard at getting the crib put together.

Jane decided to help us put the furniture together.

Ta da!

"Hey, guys! This is an awesome place to hide."

Decals on the ceiling, finnials, and valance are set up courtesy of my fabulous friend Ali.

Ali was a lifesaver, man.

And now, some close up details.

This is one of Jane's favorite hiding spots.

I had high hopes for this corner. I'm really excited about the way it turned out. Would you like to see it?

Voila! I found the butterflies from Target, and the chair is a Christmas gift from her Nona (my mom).

I really love how these add some texture to the wall. They were super easy to install, too. They pop onto little pegs and the pegs were tacked into the wall. They'll be easy to reattach when Hannah starts crawling around and inspecting her bedroom.

This picture hung on my bedroom wall when I was a kid. My mom found it and gave it to Hannah for her room. My Nina (nona) gave this to me when I was around 5 years old. 

And that's that! We still need a rug and some curtains or a shade for her bedroom, but like I said--she's not sleeping in there or playing up there for a while, so it's nice that we can go up to her room, read some books and rock in the glider, then go downstairs and sleep.

Making Progress

In more ways than one!

Last night, I woke up and had one hell of a pain in my hips. I could barely sleep and thanks to that (and some other factors) it was a rough night. Thankfully, Jane slept right next to me all night. She rarely cuddles, so it was a nice tree to have my first baby next to me and keeping me warm.

Today I walked into work and everyone said, "Oh, you've dropped!" It's a little easier for me to breathe, but I've still got some heartburn. I'm not sure if I've actually dropped or not, but if I have that definitely explains the hip pain! Naturally, just in time for another family wedding this weekend. Suuuuuuuuuuuuper! If I didn't love to dance so much I wouldn't worry about it, but dammit! I love to get my groove thing on.

Last night, I finally had enough. I'm annoyed as hell that the nursery isn't done yet--damn room wasn't even started! I decided that enough was enough, especially after my doctor said that I could basically go into labor at any time (though it would be a fast as hell labor considering I'm not dilated at all) and I just started tackling that room. I taped it up and sanded down what I could. I was majorly pissed to realize that there were more cracks and breaks that needed to be spackled than I originally thought, but I was not about to be stopped! I even busted out the toolbox to start putting the crib together. Mama Bear was on a mission!

It wasn't ideal, but it did help light a fire under Graham, and by the end of the night the room was spackled, the walls were cleaned, and the spots on the ceiling that I couldn't sand down were sanded. This is PROGRESS, people! Wahoo! If the priming isn't started tonight, it will be started soon. It's entirely possible that I'll have a purple nursery by Tuesday at the very earliest. Then, we start assembling the glider. That should be fun....

Nursery help

 Now that we've gotten some other very necessary home improvement projects out of the way, we can finally focus our attention on the nursery. I've been getting a little anxious that it wouldn't get done in time, and until it's actually d-o-n-e and the last finishing touch is put in place I probably won't rest too easy. I'm still having a little trouble putting together the "vision" for the nursery in my head, so I'm turning to all 5 of you for help!

We decided to paint the room a light purple and stick with a more neutral bedding so we could decorate with a little more fluidity. As far as a "theme" for the room, we're sticking with the outdoors and nature, but when I look at things I really like I realize I'm gravitating towards butterflies and dragonflies a little more than to anything else. Maybe it's because the room isn't yet painted, but based on what we've got it still feels a little "unfinished" in my head. Here's what we've got so far:

Bedding:

Art/stuff for walls:

I got some 3D butterflies similar to these from Target. I'm thinking they'll go over the crib.

Now, here's my inspiration. We're going with an outdoors/nature feel for the room. I love the idea of an applique tree in the room, but the ceilings slope inwards and I don't think it would look right if half of a tree was straight and the other half was leaning inwards. There are two or three possibilities for a tree like one of these, though, on the outside wall and opposite the closet....not sure if there's enough space for one of these babies, though.


Inspiration:

Pretty much all of the above comes from Etsy. Go figure. I really love the first two trees and the blowing/wind effect they've got going on. But, like I said, there's not really enough space for either given the ceiling and flat wall space we've got to work with. I like the yellow flowers growing in the green grass, and I could put those up tomrrow because the colors would work well with the paint we're going to get on the walls sometime soon. But, it's my least favorite of the bunch and there's already a lot of grass going on in the bedding.

I loooove the cherry blossom applique, I really do. I think it'd look really pretty over the crib or dresser. Only problem is that I know nothing about decorating and I'd have to pick colors. A brown branch would be fine, but what color would you pick for the flowers? Pink & light purple don't really work well together, right? I suppose I could go with white flowers just to be safe, but that seems kind of lame.

The tree with the fawn is probably the one tree decal or applique we could get away with, given our space constraints. I like this one a lot--I feel like it goes along with the "theme" we've got for the room. (I use the word theme loosely...we're not really big on themes as it is. Giving a room a theme is just weird to me.) I really like that it's cute and whimsical without being all, "BABY" and in your face. This is something we could keep up in her room for a few years, or move to a playroom in the basement. We could keep this in a room and change paint colors and it'd still feel like a child's room. Or, maybe I'm just saying that because I really like it.

The last picture is a sheet of decals I found, so if all else fails...we've got that.

I'd like to incorporate one of the above ideas into the room, no more than that. I think it would look too busy otherwise, and the room's not exactly enormous. No need to cram more in there.

So. What do you think? Lots of questions here, so lemme break it down:

1. Tree on a slanted wall: will it look as stupid as I imagine it will?

2. Does anyone know someone who can do a cheap (as in 'not expensive') paint job for us in the nursery? Anyone?

3. With light purple walls, what colors would you choose for some of this stuff?

4. Anything else to add?

I have zero talent for art, so please don't suggest I do it myself. We'd be more successful if we gave the baby a marker and 10 minutes alone.