A Baby Girl's Room!

The excitement and hustle of the holidays has passed, our guests have all gone home, and my work load has (somewhat) slackened.  So what does that leave me time to do?  Work on my baby girl's nursery!!  This time around, being our third, we've had to be more budget conscious, which means I've had to be more creative and hands-on.  Of course I want her to the have the cutest room ever, so I've enlisted the help of the boys and Nathan, and together I think we are making good progress, and keeping out costs low.

We had decorated Pierce's nursery in an outdoorsy "Colorado" theme, which was so adorable, and included white painted winter aspen trees on the walls (courtesy of Nathan).  Even though the room had a distinctly boy vibe, and we knew we wanted to girlify it, I also knew that the trees HAD to stay because I LOVE them, and I wanted some continuity in the nursey from when Piercey J slept there.  So naturally the idea of birds came to me, and the theme of a spring-time forest kind of grew from there.

I started out with some little forest creature vinyl clings that I ordered off of Etsy in the color scheme we had chosen - lavenders, purples, whites and browns; little birds, an owl, a fawn, some squirrels, and a rabbit.  I haven't found a home for all of them yet, but the ones that are up are pretty cute, and instantly turn the room more girly.  Next, I decided to enlist Hayden's help to paint a few bird houses.  I had high hopes to stencil a damask pattern on the roofs, to match the rug and changing pad cover I had ordered, but alas I discovered I am a HORRIBLE stenciler and do not possess the level of patience or skill required to make an intricate stencil look good.  Instead we chose some pretty paint colors and went to work with some freehand designs.  Then we did use a pretty stencil of a bird perching on a branch to add some details, but if you look closely they are pretty messy!  Still turned out cute though, and it was fun to work on a project like that with Hayden.  It was thrilling for him to pick out his colors and I literally let him go to town, even with the stencil, completely on his own.  I wondered if he'd let me put the bird house in her room instead of his own, but he was very proud to put it up on her shelf, and to know that he made it for her.

   

Next, Pierce got involved in the art work, "helping" me while I painted some letters for her name to hang on the wall.  I think more paint got on his face than anywhere else, but he sure was an enthusiastic contributer!  And once again my genius stenciling idea flew completely out the window and I ended up just using sponges and free handing some butterflies.  I'm not going to win any awards, but I do like the way they turned out for the most part.  Team effort!

   

I'm not one to buy fancy bedding sets for the nursery because I never use crib bumpers or quilts with a newborn - they aren't really safe.  So instead I pretty much grabbed random on-sale items that I liked to put together the linens in the room (damask rug and changing pad cover, polka dot sheets, and a simple bed skirt), but I needed some super soft blankets to use in her crib and carseat, etc.  Anything in those soft materials can cost an arm and a leg to buy.  Cue my awesome parents, who gave me a new sewing machine as an early birthday present, so I could make some stuff!  I ordered some beautiful, soft fabrics, and managed to sew one large blanket (almost a total fiasco but it's intact even if it doesn't look good AT ALL up close, and it's soft), and a more successful little lovey blanket for her.  Obviously sewing is a skill I'm still working on developing   I also played around in photoshop a bit to make some framed photos, made a little wreath with birds and dried flowers (again with the help of Hayden), and voila - we have a room that is nearly completed!

   

   

   

And here is my FAVORITE new photo, of my two boys "testing out" Ruthie's new crib   LOVE them.

I still have some finishing touches to put on the room, including a window valence which will put my sewing skills to the test, and possibly a lampshade.  Then we should be ready for our little girl, who is due in about 5 weeks.

Everything continues to go really well with my pregnancy in general, and I switch over to weekly visits with my midwife THIS week (which always feels like the point at which you are close!).  This week Nate is going to come to my appointment with me, and we'll go over all the details of delivery day, and what we need to bring, when/who to call, etc.  Wow, becoming real.  She is quite the little mover and shaker in there, just like her brothers.  It's kind of surreal that this might be the last month that I ever spend pregnant, and I'm trying to savor it instead of rush it.  But wow, I feel ready to have her here and cuddle her out of my stomach.  And to sleep on my stomach again lol   Here is a photo of her and I at 35 weeks pregnant.