rock a bye baby

The projects in the nursery are going full force! I still have around 11 weeks until this bean arrives but being the planner that I am, I want it to be all ready with time to spare. Yet knowing me, I'll still think up a few more projects in the mean time.

This bassinet came from Adam's Mom and we just love it. I spent quite a bit of time with Qtips and Old English to bring back some color and shine to the wicker, I could probably still do some more which might be an inch by inch project. I am also going to rig up a new mattress and pad for it as well out of some things I have around the house.

I can finally sew! I recruited my Mom to come and help me get my Grandma's sewing machine up and running. It took us almost longer to read the book and get it threaded and ready to go, than it did to actually sew the skirt but that's okay. Thank you very very much Mom! I am hoping to take the sewing machine to our local shop to get it oiled and cleaned up for more projects to come. I have been talking about getting this sewing machine up and running for more than three years and I am so very very happy we finally did. It saddens me that my Grandma is no longer with us to join in on the fun, but I know that she made many beautiful things using this very machine and that warms my heart dearly.

I apologize for the quality of the images, it was late, dark and exhausting ;)

After many thoughts of how to secure it, we decided to go with just ribbon in a simple casing. Velcro seemed to be too invasive and we didn't want sticky anything on the beautiful wicker. And elastic seemed to be just too much. This way, if I ever want to change out the ribbon or use this skirt for something other than this bassinet the size will be easily customizable.

The photo on the right is the ribbon that holds this entire skirt together! It turned out perfect and I'm already excited to wheel this beautiful bassinet from bedroom, to baby's room, to living room. Right now it's holding bean's toys because Josie seems to think the new toys showing up are hers to carry around. Lessons to be learned for that little lady.

nursery moodboard

Here I am, back from a long hiatus! I would love to say it was a joyous one, full of sunshine, lemonade and daffodils...but it was just me too exhausted in my first trimester to do much of anything. Yes, we are expecting! Now on month 5 and ready to gear up for a brand new nursery for our first little bean. We have a few projects already in progress and two somewhat larger ones already finished. So I will update you with those very soon.

Here is our moodboard all full of color, love and cheer. We won't be finding out what our little bean is until the big day so we may pull in a more dominant color or features down the road.

We are doing this on our usual, DIY use what we have budget. We have been very blessed with the crib my Mom used when she was a baby (with a few tweaks for safety), and then she used for myself and my two brothers, as well as a bassinet that my mother-in-law used (future post to come!). Also, my mom still has the furniture set that I used growing up so we plan on giving that a fresh new look (project is finished and another post to come) and we love it. I am already excited to start filling it up with newly wash warm soft baby things. There is also a hutch in the picture, that we are hoping to change into a diaper changing station so...we'll see how this all goes.

Here is some more info on what we have going on with this moodboard above:

1. Love this handmade mobile found here. I found this adorable red bike wheel at a flea market last weekend that I am hoping to turn in to a homemade mobile of our own. I also LOVE the tree branch mobiles you see all over the web world lately so we'll see what happens.

2. The super fun giraffe silhouette that I magically sewed onto the baby's wall already. I just love it. It was kind of a tricky process but more to come on that.

3. An example of the white furniture we have and are fixing up.

4. My Mom gave us her rocker she used for me and my siblings. I am hopefully going to learn how to make new cushions so it's a tad comfier.

5. These cute bird knobs from Unbeatablesales.com and the adorable yellow knobs from World Market for our dresser revamps (the yellow ones actually sold out already, bummer)!

6. This is the fun antique wheel I picked up at the flea market.

7. I was somewhat anal retentive when we moved into our house in October of 2009 and wanted to paint this room baby neutral before we had it turned into our office. I am very glad we did because this part of the project is done. Can't go wrong with green, most say I'm just obsessed with green.

8. And now for my favorite pieces of this whole project and where the inspiration began. I found this line from Carolyn Gavin on Fabricworm called Spring Street. Now that I go back and check out what's in stock I see the cute yellow rain drops must be sold out. My mission was something our bean could grow into, nothing too pastel or babyish, yet vibrant and happy. So far I think I am on the right track.

Enough typing already, time to get to work. I just found this great tutorial from Young House Love on how to make a crib skirt that I am hoping to get to next week, along with sharing the projects we've finished already.

I also keep adding and adding to my pinterest nursery project here. Have you searched just the term nursery on pinterest lately? Wow, the ideas are numerous.

Have a beautiful weekend, take in all the sunshine your heart can handle.