{ Nursery Tour }

Welcome to Elaina's room!

When you open the door, first you'll see this Beatrix Potter cross-stitch. A friend of my Mom's made it for Lainie. I love the baby mice lined up in their cradle!

 

Please excuse the tiny baby lying on the floor.

 

I *love* this room: the colors, the furniture, the huge window with an enormous tree right outside--it's my happy place!

The paint color is "Heavy Goose" from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot. I am delighted with it; it's a pretty true grey, not too blue. The Jenny Lind crib is a $30 craigslist find. I made the curtains...iron-on hemming tape to the rescue.

Chelle made the quilt--it is so breathtaking!! I knitted the pink blanket. The pillows are from the living room and coordinate perfectly {don't worry, I take them out on the rare occasions that Lainie naps in her crib}. It's turning out to be quite convenient that I use so many of the same colors to decorate throughout our home. ;-) 

I swooned over that pink ombre material at Pacific Fabrics and decided to make the crib skirt--iron-on hemming tape again! The tiny chair is from a twice-yearly local vintage/antiques/craft fair. The little brown bear is my teddy bear, Retha. I got her the Christmas I was one year old.

The "You Are So Loved" print is from Katie Daisy's etsy shop, and was my springboard for the whole room. Originally I was going to hang a few paper lanterns in various shades of pink above the crib as a mobile. But Joanna made the "Welcome Elaina" banner for one of my baby showers, and I decided to use it instead. How often does a girl have a personalized welcome banner?!

I picked up the dresser at the same antiques/craft fair as the little chair. Love the color!! And it's the perfect size. The bin holding stuffed animals is a drinks bucket from Target's summer line; the teal basket holding diaper changing supplies is, too. I got the basket at Cost Plus World Market and use it for laundry. I wanted something non-cutesy, not babyish, and definitely not plastic and generic.

:: closeup of the dresser knobs--tiny gold pocketwatches! ::

When I got to the point of actually decorating the nursery, I had a little collection of things I wanted to put on the walls, but no idea how they would go together. Remember the cross-stitch Andrea made for me? Found the perfect teal frame at Target. The mirror and the knob-thingy are from the antiques fair. I made the "E" using leftover fabric from the crib skirt; the hook is from Pier One {I bought it a couple years ago}. 

Do you think Lainie has enough headbands? I don't want her to feel deprived.

When we had the get-together with Anna's and Chelle's families back in March, they threw me a little baby shower. Chelle made a couple buntings and sent them home with me. Now, one lives above the closet doors; the other is above the window {you can see a bit of it in the second photo in this post}. They add a sweet touch of whimsy--perfect little finishing touches!

This is the other side of the room. The dresser is full of Mike's stuff. The roll-top desk is full of my stuff.

One day very soon after we got home from the hospital, we realized we were in dire need of big muslin blankets for swaddling...and a bunch of other things from Babies 'R' Us. Mike stopped by on his way home from work--this may or may not have been the trip where I also sent him to Motherhood Maternity to buy nursing bras {poor man!}--and I liked how the blankets were packaged, all rolled up. So I started storing all of Lainie's blankets rolled up in a basket.

 

:: jar of rose petals, jug of pretty marbles, pot of moss, bird figurine--all from "shopping the house" ::

 

:: part of Baby Bug's extensive shoe collection ::

 

I saved this page from a Susan Branch calendar, hoping it would work in a nursery someday. I'm not crazy about the bright red frame; maybe I'll paint it if I'm ever bored.

 

There are a couple other things I haven't put up yet {a lovely "E" print from Andrea and a birthday cross-stitch from my Mom}, but with all the house-hunting hullaballoo they may not go up 'til our new house. So there you have it! Lainie's room. It's a sweet little spot for one sweet little girl. I hope you enjoyed the tour!

{ Snapshots }

: : Moments I don't want to forget, from late August/early September 2011 : :

: : Labor Day BBQ with this sweet friend and her dear little man-child : :

Isn't he the most impish little fellow you've ever seen?

: : Community group girls' night, complete with cheese AND chocolate fondue {fondid? fondone? fondelicious!} : :

Krissy making cheese fondue

Someone borrowed my camera and used it against me...

I don't remember how we got on the topic of using pantyhose as a mask/disguise, but Joanna and Kalie took it one step further by creating a conjoined pantyhose mask. Props to you ladies!

: : Our table, set for a dinner party with friends : :

: : Pottery Barn lookalike lamp: Base from Target, lampshade from Tuesday Morning, recovered with burlap and grosgrain ribbon. I love it. : :

: : Lavendar on the mantle : :

: : My other new lamp, a sale find at Cost Plus World Market : :

Isn't the little owl dear?

I know better than to say things like, "I promise I'll post again soon!"

Seems like every time I say that, weeks and weeks go by before I log into blogger.

There are lots of big changes--some for sure, some just thinking about--at our fingertips. Last Sunday we helped launch a new church. It was the first of many Sundays where we'll begin setup at 6:30am and finish at 2:00pm. Tonight Mr. Husband and I are starting an intense sort of Bible study/recovery group that runs for eight weeks. Pray for our hearts...that we'll be open to Jesus and that He will move us and change us in big ways during this time.

All this to say, don't be surprised if posting is a little less than regular. There's a whole lot of life going on right now, and it's cutting into computer time! Which, I suppose, isn't a bad thing at all.

{ Comparisons and a Sumtumn Wreath }

I know, I know. It's been a really long time. I get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of vacation photos to wade through, then life gets busy, then we go camping, then I have more photos to wade through--ack! I'm slowly learning that there is no such thing as a "busy season." It's a busy life, period. Occasional hiatuses {hiati?} from blogging are an inevitable part of our busy lifestyle. I want accept these unplanned "breaks" from blogging with joy--isn't it awesome that the people and relationships in my life are more important than the internet?--rather than feeling guilty for "neglecting" my blog. Which is not to say that relationships via online channels are less valid because they aren't always face-to-face...I think you know what I mean. Emily at Jones Design Company wrote a post yesterday that totally resonated with me. If you haven't already, please read it here. She expresses so poignantly one of the double-edged swords of the blog world: feeling bad when you compare yourself to other women as expressed on their blogs. I encourage you to read her post in its entirety, but these paragraphs especially stood out to me:

"It is a constant struggle for me to be able to look at other’s successes [on their blogs] and be genuinely happy for them without that little nudge of insecurity to creep in. And on the other side, it is a challenge for me to look at my own successes and not feel like I am somehow better than another.

To be in that place where I am fully confident in who God made me to be and have no need to compare myself is where I am headed, but I am not yet there."

source

Amen! All that to say that the guilt I feel when I think, "I don't blog often enough!" is based purely on comparison with how frequently other bloggers post, not because the Lord told me to blog X number of times per week and I'm not.

A whole slew of posts about Kauai are coming up in the next few days--making time to blog is my treat for myself after spending all evening yesterday doing laundry from our most recent camping trip. I'm finishing up the last load as we speak--honestly, I think it's number ten--even our blankets and pillows were saturated with campfire smoke! But tonight I want to share our front door wreath with you. Almost as soon as we returned from Kauai, I was overcome with an almost physical urge to make a wreath. A sumtumn wreath. It's not quite autumn; goodness knows we've barely even tasted summer weather in the Pacific Northwest. But I wanted--I practically needed--to make an autumn-ish wreath for our front door. An end-of-summer wreath. A sumtumn wreath.

Jones Design Company tutorials to the rescue. {Honestly, this post is not a plug for JDC. Emily has no idea who I am. I just happen to love her tutorials.} I followed her easy directions for the ruffle wreath, added a few satin flowers, and voila! A sumtumn wreath!

Now I'm off to wade through vacation photos and share the glories of Kauai with you all over the next few days!