bybmg: March 2013
The nursery is done! I've really enjoyed making this a "new" room for this little one. It really came together and didn't cost very much at all.


Today I sewed the curtains. My mom and I found the fabric last weekend, and the colors really tie everything together. The way the fabric was printed is a little funky - not quite straight - so don't look too close!




This corner is probably where I'll spend a great deal of my time rocking and feeding late in the night, and I think I'll appreciate its beauty during those times.

I may end up painting this shelf sometime or getting a new one, but it will do for now.


My wonderful friend, Kristen, made the blanket for us. I love how it goes along with the zig zag fabric.



The circle frames are from my mother-in-law and were used in Henry's nursery. I just switched the fabric. Framing fabric is a wonderfully cost effective way to jazz up the walls of any room. I know I'll add some more art on the walls later, probably photos. But, for now, I think the room is ready!

I'm 37 weeks today/tomorrow depending on who is counting. It's been fun to document this pregnancy. I took weekly belly shots with Henry's pregnancy, but I never printed them, and now, sadly, I lost most of the pictures! I don't know what happened. I even wore the same outfit with just different colored tank tops and had Russ take the pictures! This time, it's just been a mirror shot each Friday.

I have a pregnancy tracking book from Henry's pregnancy too. I was good about writing in it. This time around, I wanted to try a different one, so I got The Belly Book. It's a little humorous compared to the book I had with Henry. Henry's book also just had more of a description of what was happening each week. The Belly Book is more just my thoughts relating to different questions. I took the time last week to organize and send for prints of all the belly shots this time around - starting at 9 weeks, and got them in the mail today.


I got them all taped in. I only need this week's and the next few!

I did find my 37 week shot from Henry, so here's a comparison

37 weeks with Henry...I don't look so happy!

37 weeks with this babe


I hope to get the curtains done for the nursery this weekend. I might even get started tonight. We'll see! Can't wait to show you the completed room!
Since this baby will be little in the summer vs Henry being a winter baby, I felt I needed something to cover the car seat to keep the sunshine out, not the heavy warmth cover I used when he was little. There are lots of car seat canopies out there and many tutorials. I read a variety of tutorials and made it work for me. If you go to Pinterest and search for "car seat canopy tutorial," you will find many great explanations.
This post isn't a tutorial, just a sharing of what I made.
I bought a new pack of Carters receiving blankets at TJ Maxx that matched Henry's nursery bedroom set. Then I decided to change the nursery, so I didn't need to keep the receiving blankets in the nursery. Their measurements are a little smaller than the dimensions of the fabric in the tutorials I read, but I made it work by piecing a border on the top and bottom of the cover. I used the last scraps I had of the border receiving blanket for the straps of the canopy and made strap covers for the car seat as well.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I've grown a lot as a seamstress since Henry was born, so it's fun for this babe to have some new things. Enjoy some pictures of the project!


I would say nesting is in full force around here! I'm getting very anxious to find out what this baby is and when it will be here. I know many family and friends can't stand that we didn't find out the gender at 20 weeks. I go back and forth between wishing I knew and being glad I don't.

Another task on the to-do list of my spring break was to make going home onesies for each gender. One may appear in my Etsy shop when it goes unused. We'll see.





I also made an online baby pool because it's just fun! Feel free to take a guess.




We found a Craigslist dresser for Henry's nursery. It did well, but I was ready for something new. My mom and dad had this beauty in their basement, and I took them up on the offer to use it for this baby. It is old but is constructed pretty well. The top had many stains, so I thought I would paint it. I'd painted a dresser before, so I knew I could do it. This time I opted for one color instead of the paint chip effect I did with the one in our bedroom. The first task was selecting the color. I went to our local paint store and took the fabric sample I've been using as well as the wall color of the room (light green) with me. I didn't want to put my poor family through repainting the walls again (We painted them for Henry's nursery, and then I just had them paint Henry's big boy room.). I crowd sourced some ideas on Facebook and ended up going with a dark turquoise.



Here are a couple before shots of the dresser:



I don't mind the original hardware and wanted to keep the project low-budget, so I took off the handles and soaked it in some Dawn dish detergent + vinegar + hot water. It took off some of the grime. I just painted over the locks.

I used the same Zinsser primer I used with the other dresser. It had a strange layer of goop on top from sitting for a while, but I skimmed it off, and it seemed to be ok. I painted with a small foam roller and a brush for the tricky areas.





All primed!


 One little trick I tried this time to avoid the stick of newspaper was to use some coaster under the legs. It worked like a charm!

 There's the paint!

This is what it looked like after one coat of paint.


(The final piece finished and put back together at about 9:30 pm)

I ended up doing three coats of paint. With that dark of color, I felt I needed that coverage to get the white of the primer hidden.

This was definitely an all day project. I didn't wait the recommended 4 hours between coats of paint because I'm just too impatient. I probably waiting about 2 hours between coats. I did this with the other dresser, too, and it's held up fine. :)

Next up in the nursery is new window coverings and something new for the walls. I'm not sure what either will be yet, so you'll have to wait and see!


I have a good amount of fabric left from recovering the glider cushions. I decided to make something to pretty up the wipes box. It took minimal fabric (I still have a lot left, so I need to figure out what else to make...possibly some new window coverings...).



First I cut a strip of fabric a little wider than the wipes box and the width of the fabric (56"). I really just guessed and hoped it would work!



Then I measured elastic that was just a smidgen shorter than all the way around the top and bottom of the wipes box.



Then, I folded over the edge of the fabric and sewed a casing for the elastic on both top and bottom. Again, I was guessing, but it was about 1 1/4 inches.



Then I pulled the elastic through. I use the old safety pin trick to guide it. I also pinned the end of the elastic to the start of the fabric so it would stay put.



I tried it on the box and decided how snugly I wanted it to fit. I wasn't sure if I would have too much fabric. Would it be too ruffly? After consulting my husband, he said it looked all right, so I went with it.



Then, I sewed the elastic so I wouldn't have to worry about it coming undone when I sewed the fabric.



Then I sewed the fabric together with right sides together, snipped off the extra elastic, and was done!



Since we don't know the gender of the baby, I refrained from any embelishments. I'm sure you could jazz it up with some cute bows or flowers for a little girl.



The whole project took me about 30 minutes if that. Go try it, and share your work here. I'd love to see what you did! 




Russ's grandpa passed away, so we took an unexpected trip to Arizona.  It happened to coincide with our Spring Break, so we got to spend a little more time down there than we would have otherwise.

I was a bit nervous about keeping the little man occupied on the plane rides. Other than that, I knew family would be around and he'd be able to enjoy the great outdoors!

Here are a couple things that were great help on the plane:



1. Wikki Stix: They didn't entertain him for a LONG time, but they were fun to stick to the tray tables, windows, etc, and make shapes.



2. iPod/iPad + Headphones: I found these cute headphones on Amazon, and they worked great! We talked before hand about how he would have to wear them if he wanted to listen to something.

3. Baggies of snacks: I put 2-3 small snack choices in individual Ziploc bags. 1 pack of fruit snacks + small box of raisins + something else small (granola bar or crackers) made it so he had a couple choices and I didn't have to pull out a huge bag of things at once. I had many of these small baggies to pull out throughout the trip.



4. His animal, Buzzy the giraffe, to curl up and take a nap with. He napped the last 45 minutes of our flight there and last 1 hour of our flight home.



5. His own little backpack to hold his personal treasures like a few trucks, colors, stickers, and action figures. (No, we didn't make him tow the big suitcase! He just wanted to pull it for a little bit.)

Were there still some tears on the plane? Yes. But I think we avoided many more by being prepared. 

Henry has had an obsession with all things Toy Story, especially Buzz Lightyear, for a good 9 months. He watched the movies a lot as we traveled on the road this past summer. He has a Little Buzz, a Medium Buzz, a Shooting Buzz, a Big Buzz, as well as Buzz PJs, a Buzz t-shirt, Buzz wings, a Buzz hat. Yes, I know, I've aided the obsession, but Buzz Lightyear is a superhero who does good things. I'm ok with Henry liking him!

We combined lots of pieces to make this wonderful Halloween costume!
So, when it came to planning Henry's party, the theme was a no-brainer. Although a week before the party he insisted he wanted an Incredibles or animal birthday party. Sorry buddy, no can do! Mommy's already bought things and sent out sweet looking invites!

I searched for cake ideas on Pinterest, but I'm not a fondant girl, so I had to come up with my own idea. I also didn't want to buy a special rocket or Buzz shaped pan. I was afriad to try to cut a cake into a shape...not sure why...so I went with a cupcake cake.

First, I baked the cupcakes (duh). Then I arranged them on the cake board. I glued the bottom of each one to the board with a little dollop of frosting. Next I covered the all of the cupcakes with a good amount of frosting using a decorator bag and a large tip. I smoothed over the frosting with a knife and it resulted in the first picture below. Then I outlined the design with green, added some blue designs and yellow flames put the bottom. Voila! (I use the Wilton buttercream recipe for most all my frosting projects. I like how it tastes, how it holds color, and how it holds up over time.)
I found this wonderful Buzz Lightyear bank at Target to add on.
I have leftover cupcakes, so I decorated them with the blue and green frosting and added yellow stars.
For the menu, we had hotdogs, veggies, chips and dip, and some jello cups that I made. I added sprinkles to the top of the jello for one added color. The cups were a hit with the kids. We also had blue Hawiian Punch and spaceship napkins.

All In all, I was happy with how the party turned out. Nothing too overboard, just some coordinating colors and a little bit of planning. Now I need to start thinking about next year....well maybe not yet :)

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