Nursery Update

We are finally finished with setting up the nursery! Good thing too because with one month left I was starting to think it might never get done.

So the first thing that you may notice is there is no crib in this "finished" nursery. Our little girl definitely has a crib, it's just set up in our room. We have our kids stay in our room about 6months and I didn't feel like setting it up and taking it apart a million times, so it's currently in our room. But you can see where it will go based on the mobile hanging from the ceiling :)

View of the nursery from the door

It looks a tad bare without the crib, but here is the nursery none the less! I am in love with the room. We left the walls a cream color because I wanted a neutral background for all the colorful handmade accents that I knew we would be putting in the room. 

This room truly is a testament to how much I love handmade:

*funny note about the curtains... I ordered this fabric with the idea of making chevron curtains, but when it arrived I realized that the chevrons were going the wrong way. Zig Zag curtains it is!

Handmade Elephant Mobile 

Handmade Dresser Runner

Pattern from All Sewn Up - Chloe Owens

Close up of above runner. Do you not love the tiny bird details!?

Handmade Embroidery Hoop Art

1. Flowers on Patchwork Fabric -- We came up with it on our own!

2. Tutorial for the Wool Felt House

3. Inspiration for the Group of Houses

She has a total of 5 handmade crochet blankets to wrap up in when she arrives. There are more watercolor paintings near the entrance to her room, and once she arrives there will be a large bunting banner made that has her name on it (we do not name our children until we meet them, hence why it is not done yet). The ruffled crib skirt on her crib was hand sewn, and there are two handmade pillows which currently sit in the rocking chair in her room.

I meant it when I said this room really is a testament to handmade!

Now all we need is her to come on out and enjoy the room :)

Nursery Update - The Crib

 I have finally finished getting everything ready for little lady's crib!


Her crib is actually her big brother's crib handed down. He ended up getting a brand new crib because it converts into a toddler bed (which came with the rail, woo!) which he is going to need at some point in the future before little lady. Plus I always thought this crib was a bit on the girly side and think it looks much better set up for her.

The crib sheet is Lullaby Breeze by Jill McDonald. I found it at Babies R Us and knew it would be a perfect fit! I also found a second sheet at Land of Nod on clearance. It's called Wooden Shoes crib bedding and I picked up the Wooden Shoes fitted sheet (which is actually tulips and not shoes). 

Then I enlisted Pine Hill Forest in the crafting of an owl pillow. For now it sits in little lady's crib, but eventually it will go in her rocking chair. We used a pattern from the book All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens. This book has a million great patterns by the way! I'll be doing some tea towels on my next trip home :)

We picked fabric which has already been used in other projects in little lady's room and I think it is a perfect fit.

Last but not least was making a custom crib skirt for little lady's crib. I knew I wanted a ruffly girly crib skirt but was not finding the colors and patterns that I was envisioning. So I hauled out our sons old crib skirt and once again asked Miss Pine Hill Forest if she would be willing to take on the task of sewing a custom ruffled crib skirt. We used this Ruffled Crib Skirt Tutorial from Positively Splendid to give us an idea of how one might go about constructing a ruffle crib skirt, and then set out on our own. We picked up about a yard and a half of each of the three fabrics and then attached each ruffle layer to my son's skirting. To save a bit of money we only ruffled the sides and front as you never see the back of the crib anyway. For less than $30.00 I think it came out fantastic!

For now little lady's crib sits in our room, but when the day comes to move her down to her own room she is going to be in the sweetest little nursery fit for a princess!

On My Wish List...

I am forever finding things on Etsy that I would just love to have for myself! The list expands almost daily! Here are few of those finds which I would like for our baby girl on the way:

1. Ruffle Butt Diaper Cover -  I'm not sure that there are too many things cuter than a little baby girl with a ruffly butt. Especially in these beautiful colors!


2. Yellow Ruffly Onesie - And of course she would need the matching onesie to go with her ruffly butt diaper cover. Yellow and Green are my two favorite colors so this is  right up my alley.


3. Ceramic Pig Planter - There are plants in almost every room of our house. This fun planter would be absolutely perfect in little lady's nursery. All that is left is picking out a perfect plan to put in it!


4.  You Are My Sunshine Print -  My little boy has a toy that plays this song over and over and it has been one of his favorite toys since he was a little babe. Every time I hear this song it makes me smile, and this print is a beautiful way to include it in our little lady's room!

Finished!

I have finally finished my colorful Granny Stripes crochet blanket for baby girl's nursery!

I used this Granny Stripes pattern from Lucy over at Attic 24.

And then I edged the blanket with Lucy's bobble shell edging.

Here is a picture of most of the blanket. Blanket is being modeled on my son's crib. We don't have baby girl's nursery ready at all. It is actually still a guest bedroom. That will be changing soon however!

I used almost all Lion Brand yarns for this blanket. When making baby blankets I find it essential to use acrylic  yarn so that you can easily wash the blanket. Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and Vanna's Choice Baby are my personal favorites. Here is the full list:

Lion Brand Vanna's Choice:

Terracotta

Magenta

Cranberry

Colonial Blue

Scarlet

Fern

Mustard

Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Baby:

Aqua

Little Boy Blue

Pink Poodle

Lion Brand Jamie: 

(this yarn is a slightly lighter weight than the Vanna's Choice, but I thought it worked in just fine)

Lullaby Pink

Little Boy Blue

Powder Pink

Peachy

Loops&Threads Impeccable:

Aqua

Soft Fern (this is the edging color)

I only bought one skein of each color, and did not even use any of them up completely! Because of this I am now working on a scrappy zig zag blanket in the left over skeins of yarn. :)

Here is the blanket next to another project that has been completed for baby girl's rocking chair. Pine Hill Forest Embroidery Expert (who I refer to as mom) created this one of a kind pillow by free form embroidering the bird and flowers on the front. Then we added patch work squares around the embroider panel, and stripes of the same fabric for the back. I LOVE the way it came out. 

The fabric matches the one other project we've worked on so far:

Can you tell what this is? 
Baby Girl's handmade mobile! We went with an elephant and flower theme and I just love it. Her humidifier is in the shape of an elephant (daddy's choice) so we thought it would be fun to continue the elephant theme in her mobile.






More pictures once we have the nursery all set up!
There is a handmade crib skirt in the works, hand made curtains, one of a kind water color paintings which need framed and hung, and a couple embroidered hoops to hang along with the paintings.

On My Wish List . . .

I am forever finding things on Etsy that I would just love to have for myself! The list expands almost daily! Here are few of those finds on my wish list:






1. Embroidered Hoop Art "Flowers & Butterflies"  - I love fabric and embroidered hoops right now. I have been scouring the internet looking for some for our little girl's nursery. This one would be a perfect fit. :)


2. Gold Feather Earrings - Earrings are probably the one piece of jewelry I am always wearing. I used to only wear silver jewelry and I am loving gold now. I think these would be a great addition to my earring collection!


3. Two Letters Custom Initial Necklace - This is something I will own this fall. I have a few special pieces of jewelry that I got after my son was born, and I plan on getting a few pieces that remind me specifically of my daughter. I also want something to wear that reminds me of both of my children, and this necklace is the perfect fit! I know one letter will be an 'R' for my son, but since we won't be naming baby girl until we meet her, I won't know the second initial until after she arrives. (For the record we do know it will be a D or a B)  :)


4. Ceramic Lidded Vessel with Dogwood Flower - I have wanted to own this lidded vessel for quite some time now. I love it in this vintage green color as well as yellow. Every birthday and Christmas I include this in the list of things my husband can purchase for me, but so far I've yet to receive one. My birthday is coming up in August and I have no so subtly hinted that this better be something I receive! I think it would be perfect for holding jewelry and coordinates with the colors in our room to a T!

Sewn Lovlies

While it's not my shop, Pine Hill Forest is a shop that I help out with. I photograph many of the pieces, and set up the listings. I wish I could say I've done some of the sewing, but my talents do not extend to hand embroidery, stitching, cutting patterns in a straight line or sewing machines. These talents all belong to the shop owner Colleen, who happens to be my mom.

Here are a few of my favorite items in the shop right now. I'll start with the hand sewn animal friends she makes:

Morton - A hand sewn squirrel whose acorn doubles as a tooth fairy pillow or gift card holder!

Claire - A one of a kind dragon. My little girl will own one of these for sure as she is being born in the "year of the dragon" :)

Pickle - The perfect baby friendly pig.

Now for the zipper pouches. I own about a billion of these and love them all. They hold my knitting and crochet supplies, pretty packaging tapes I use on all out going sales, diaper bag supplies, etc. I also like to use them as alternatives to wrapping paper when giving small gifts. You just can't go wrong with a pretty little zipper pouch!

Rose Bouquet Zipper Pouch

Griffith Park Zipper Pouch

Woodland Zipper Pouch

Okay, last but certainly not least are her hand embroidered, completely one of a kid, pins and key fobs. Initially she would just embroider a fun felt zipper pull for each of her zipper pouches. I kept remarking on how much I loved them. So much that I asked her to make one in pin form for me to stick on one of my purses. And that is when she started specifically making pins and key fobs. I also love to use the pins on some of my hand knit shawls which I use as scarves in the winter. It's a cute little touch that makes me smile on those super cold days.

Pink Square Felt Pin

Little Blue Bird Felt Pin

Scotty Dog Key Fob

I think I could've picked out at least 30 more items to feature, but these are my top favorites in each section of her shop! Do you have a favorite?