December 2nd, 2011

Hi! I am hard at work being "Mommy", and working on a large mural job at my sons' pediatrician's offices this month. Also, I'm trying to carve out time for the custom paintings giveaway! I have heard from 2 out of three winners, and I will choose an alternate winner if I do not hear from the third recipient soon. I am loving my nursery with Walter! It has paid off so much with design and function! My family and friends love it, too because it is so cozy. Walter never gets tired of his fish mural with each and every diaper change. I continue to pat myself on the back with that one!  By the way, this is the "lived in" look for Walt's nursery, LOL :o)

ElevenElevenEleven

Giveaway Winners!

My 3 winners of the paintings giveaway are:

Erin Margarella

Kristin Ferreira
Amanda_MRyan

I am having trouble sending personal e-mails to my followers, so if you are one of my winners, and you happen to see this post within the next 6 weeks or so I need you to shoot me an e-mail with your contact information so we can get your paintings started.  Remember, you can have anything custom you want for your 16 x 20 painting!  I hope you all follow the blog regularly so you can be aware of your win!

Happy Halloween 2011!

Baby Walter's First Halloween!

Hi Everyone & Happy Halloween 2011!  For those who have been following my project, I so appreciate all the wonderful comments and suggestions!  I actually made it into the October project of the month finalists on my fave design website, Project Nursery!  There's about 32 hours left to place your votes, and Walt's room is in second place.  I know, right?  I need your help now, so if you love my design please go vote now!  It is super easy and only requires a couple clicks.  No registration or sign on necessary.  Just scroll down the page and go to the poll.  You'll see "Walt's Tropical Oasis" on the list, just click on it and then click the "vote" button.  It's that simple. 

Here's the link:
http://projectnursery.com/2011/10/vote-october-room-finalists/

Thanks so much!

3 More Days to Vote!



October Finalist!


Click here to  VOTE   NOW for Walt's nursery.

My DIY Photo Shoot!




VOTE

 

Remember to vote for "Walt's Tropical Oasis"

 

I kept trying to do this when he was a lot "newer", but these were taken at 5 weeks 5 days old.  I prepared the crib with his blue blanket from his MawMaw, and dressed him in a comfy white sleeper before I nursed him to a deep deep sleep!  I placed him in his crib after he fell asleep, and crossed his feet and placed his hand under his head.  That's about all I could do without waking him, so I just started shooting.  I have an old 2003 Olympus 5 megapixel with wide angle.  Nothing special.  The key for all you DIYers is lots of natural light and a steady hand.  I have lost my tripod, but I just steadied my shot with the crib rail.  I set my camera to "no flash", and this was the best results for the time of day and the abundance of natural light my nursery gets.  I love him and I love these pictures.  I think I will do a weekly photo session :o)  The hat is from etsy: BostonAveBabies

October Project of the Month Finalist!

 
Please Vote Now!  Thanks to all my blog followers for your support.  I will be announcing the winners of the three custom wall hangings in November, so stay tuned to find out if you are a winner!  I will send an e-mail message to the 3 winners.
 
 

It's Time to Vote!

http://projectnursery.com/2011/10/vote-october-room-finalists/
I made it to the finalists!!!!  Walt's Tropical Oasis is in the running for October Project Nursery of the Month, and I need your votes!  Please follow this link:  Walt's Tropical Oasis
Scroll to the bottom of the page and please vote for me!  I couldn't have made it into the finalists without my friends and blog followers, and now it's time to vote :o)  Thank you all very much!

Rate My Nursery

Hello Everybody!  It's time to go rate my nursery on Project Nursery!  Here is the link to my project:

Walt's Tropical Oasis Nursery

My little punkin at 3 weeks!  I love him so much!

Please vote 5 STARS :o)

Nursery Reveal on Project Nursery!

I have finally gotten around to submitting my nursery design to Project Nursery. 

Please go vote for me, 5 STARS!

Thank you for following my blog, and remember I will be giving away the 3 custom paintings in late October.  Please come back to see if you are a winner!

Walter Moves In

We brought Walter home from the hospital on September 6th, 2 days after his birth.  Amazingly, he took a look all around at his nursery, and I could tell he saw the bold patterns in the black and white bannerfish!  What a great feeling!  He was 4 days overdue, and actually holding his head up pretty well shortly after he was born.  When the hospital photographer put him on his belly for a snapshot, he lifted up onto his knees for several seconds.  I also think he can see colors and shapes well past a 15 inch distance.  In these pictures, he is one week and 3 days old, and loving his mural!  I ask him, "Where's your fishies?" and he looks right at the nearest bannerfish.  I'm patting myself on the back for a good call on the bold mural featuring black and white.  I will definitely suggest this to my clients in the future.

3 Days Overdue!

It's been a long time since my last blog post, and I have been patiently awaiting the arrival of my little man.  The nursery still has a few details: my two small shelves that Bradley painted need to be hung, and I was still working on some artwork.  As you can see, I am also still waiting on the alterations man to finish my cushion cover.  I opted to have this made because it had piping and a zipper which seemed too complicated for my ever changing attention span, not to mention the fact that I was down to my last 2 yards of fabric and can't afford any mistakes.

I received the ottoman from Tazi Designs, and it stunk so bad!  We had to put it upstairs in an unused area of the house for a couple of weeks.  We brought it back down today, and no more smell.  It smelled like it had been sitting in a big pile of manure when we received it.  It is all handmade in a village somewhere in Morocco.  Who knows?  It is made of leather and I used some of my Coach leather conditioner to clean it off.  Then I sprayed the surface with a thin layer of lysol.  I can only hope it is "clean" now.

As for this blog post's title, yes I am 3 days overdue.  It's my fault for wishing this pregnancy would last as long as possible as soon as I found out I was pregnant.  I had a span of dates from my 3 separate doctors.  Sept 1-2 from my fertility doctor, August 31st from my OB, and August 30th from the perinatologist.  I was hoping for September 2nd, and it's now the 3rd.  I haven't had any more contractions either.  An induction is scheduled for Wednesday if he doesn't decide to come out before then!

Felt Mobile is Up

The mobile is hung and it adds so much to my not-so-blank wall.  It hangs over my Dutailer glider, and I hope Walter enjoys it.   I just lovit!

Making a Mobile out of Felt

I cut and stitched all of these little sea creatures from felt and embroidery floss. I added round pieces of felt in varying shades of  blue as "bubbles" to each string to balance the weight.  I painted the dowel rods aqua, and then finished each creature off with some sparkle glaze.  I had a lot of fun making this mobile, and it was on a day when I really needed to stay off my feet.

The ceiling is too high over the crib, so I will be hanging it over the glider to jazz up my blank wall.  This will give baby Walt something to gaze at while he's having a bottle from Daddy   :o)

I bought way too much felt, but eh, it's only .34 per sheet.  The embroidery floss in a variety of bright colors was about $2.  I could have used free chopsticks from T. Jin's, but I splurged on a .59 dowel rod.  Everything else I already had:  glue, thread, needle, paint, scissors, sparkle glaze, and jewelry elastic.  I spent about $7 total, and these sell for $78 each on etsy all day! 

My Nursing Nook

The nursing nook is almost complete!  Dale has painted my round vintage side table.  The lamp is ready to go, and now the chair is almost done as well.  I can't believe I thought I couldn't do this.  The chair is coming along very well, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it, too!  I thought the arms would be so difficult, but the fabric seemed to just fall into place. The biggest challenge is sitting on my work stool while 37 weeks pregnant, but no worries because I am taking lots of breaks.  I'll be cheating just a wee bit and taking the cushion cover to the seamstress to sew for me.  I'm a little too intimidated by the zipper and piping.  Overall, I am pleased with how it's looking, so this may be a new hobby for me :o)

Expenses for the nursing nook:

CL Upholstered Rocking Chair = $156

Designer Upholstery Fabric = $40

CL Round Vintage Side Table = $25

Green Paint & Satin Varnish = $20

Aqua Lamp from lampsplus.com = $69

Total = $310

Not bad, considering a new upholstered rocker by itself would cost a minimum of $700 or so.  It has been fun and rewarding creating my own custom look for the nursing nook!

Slipcover Bad, Reupholster Good

Hated the slipcover from Overstock, and it is going back!  It is way too big for my chair and it's not white.  See how it clashes with the rug?  I was stuck at a dead end with not much time, and I really wanted this awesome chair to be a focal point in the nursery.  I had decided on a cute green for the side table with a turquoise glass base lamp, so this muted peony pattern is just not cutting it at all!

While at my little sister's gorgeous baby shower last Saturday, I told our cousin and professional designer, Laura, about my predicament.  She said, "Why aren't you reupholstering it yourself?"  The truth is I thought that was a project completely out of my range of skill!  Of course, at 36 weeks pregnant I ran right out to Joann's last Sunday and promptly found an awesome fabric at 60% off!  Ding ding ding ding!!!!  I felt like I had won the lottery.  It is by Baringer and it is called "Peacock".  I love it! 



We've already carefully removed all the old fabric, and I have cut each section of fabric using the old pieces as a pattern.  I've also begun to staple the bottom kick piece, and it looks very professional if I do say so myself.  Joann's only had 4 & 7/8ths yards of this left and none in the warehouse.  I had just enough fabric,  the perfect amount with not much at all left over, so I guess it was meant to be. 

Here is a good look at my CL chair before & after:

 

Before

 

After



Please VOTE now for Walt's nursery on Project Nursery!







The Blank Wall

OK, so I have a wall I call the blank wall because so far I have not decided on what to do over there.  It is the wall with the double French doors, so there's about 20" between the doors and the built-ins on the right side, and there's about 40" to the left side.  I don't want to extend the mural around the room, so I'm trying to decide between growth chart, painted wooden shelving, and maybe a piece of vertical canvas artwork.  If I do all three it might begin to look too crowded.  I already have the small wooden shelves, but they do need paint.  I can whip up a coordinating growth chart in a few days.  I saw this idea for an impressive vertical canvas piece and fell in love!

Marimekko Kaiku Wall Art

We came across this beautiful nursery put together by AlwaysMod customer Lisa and her family. Check out the great wall hanging made from Marimekko Kaiku fabric!
via: ohdeedoh

Marimekko long repeat fabric made into the large vertical wall art above the rocking polar bear mimics a colorful contemporary Finnish landscape.  The client took the fabric and wrapped it around a canvas frame.  It is stunning, and I would love to paint something similar to be hung on the right side of the French doors.  This could be a project for later since I am now just weeks from delivering.

Here is all I have on the blank wall so far:

Bradley and I painted these last week.  It was really fun to do this project with my 11 year old for his little brother.  He painted the W T R and I did the A L E.  We had a good time choosing the colors and arrangement.  When we were done, he said proudly, "I like it!"  What can I say?  It was a warm and fuzzy moment.

I get by with a little help from my DOG

This is Caya Coyote Bowman.  Lately, Caya has been joining me in Walter's nursery to keep me company and show her support!  I almost stepped on her once due to my 35 week pregnant belly and her amazing camouflage.  She's right there with me as I am putting on the final touches daily.  She was looking at my belly with complete wonder last night!  I'm not sure if she has any idea of what is coming our way or not.

My First Nursery Circa 1999

Nursery 1999

Chest of drawers:  IKEA

Tiny lamp:  IKEA, I painted a little giraffe on it.

Stuffed Toys:  Big Beanie Babies

Mural:  Wendy's Walls Custom Murals

Bedding:  Babies-R-Us

Blocks & Cart:  IKEA

Plush Blocks:  Warner Brothers Store

Glider:  Dutailer

Ahh!  My Dutailer glides again, and I love this chair!  :o) 

It was a gift from my mom when I had Bradley 12 years ago.

Painting the Nursery Mural

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Here I go again!  I'm moving sooo slowly at 35 weeks. Today, I changed the hue of the sea kelp just a bit.  I thought it was too green, so I added a light blue glaze to each and every leaf.  I like it much better now.  Dale has been out sanding the little round side table, and I think I have decided on a light bright green.  We need to get the paint and primer for that project.  It has been a wonderful weekend with my husband just kicking back and working on some of our projects together.  Now that all the big stuff is done, I know Dale is enjoying nesting with me a lot more.  He's so excited to see his son!

Mural by Mommy!!!

I know I've been doing this for years, but it is still a little nerve wracking to paint my own baby's nursery.  I only have like 30 days left until little Walt joins us, and I want everything to be perfect for his arrival.  So far, I'm making good progress time wise, and I am very pleased with the way it's looking in the room.  I have been trying my best to keep it simple, and it is very minimal compared with my typical mural projects.  I am adding a sea turtle and a pair of seahorses in addition to the school of banner fish.  Keep checking back because this mural will be done very soon!

Etsy Treasury for Gender Neutral Nursery

Etsy Treasury for Gender Neutral Nursery:

A few of the inspirations I have found by my fellow etsy shop owners,

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTg0OTk4M3w1MDcwODk2Nzc/my-project-nursery-loves-wishes?index=37

I would love both of these accent pillows for my big upholstered rocking chair from CL.  I ordered the natural/white 100% cotton chair slipcover from overstock today, so it will definitely need a pop of color.  The quilted round one is handmade, and the bright one below is vintage from the 1960's.  I added them to my treasury which I am broadcasting via twitter, FB and this blog, so I better buy them before someone else does!  I just wanted to share with my blog followers before I make the purchase.  Thanks for looking, and go check out my complete treasury!

Mural Progress and Other Brainstorms

I am now 35 weeks pregnant according to my smartphone!  I was about 4 days early with Bradley 12 years ago, so that gives me roughly 31 days max to paint the mural, sand & paint the new vintage side table, find an awesome white slipcover for my CL upholstered rocking chair, and create my own mommy made mobile.  I have an idea for either jellyfish or octopus for the mobile. 

Dale and I went to Puerto Rico during the summers of 2008 and 2009, and we discovered a restaurant called Aguaviva.  In the restaurant are these unbelievable hand blown glass lighting artwork. 

I can't call them fixtures, because they are masterpieces.  I would love to have one in the room for ambient lighting,  BUT they are $2500 a pop.  So, I want to make something similar out of felt and beads and such.  It would be cool if I could find a way to actually light them up, but I guess I will use sparkle glaze and blingy materials to do the trick when it reflects off the natural light or halogen spotlights.  You get the idea.  I want to hang one of my crafty sculptures from the high ceiling on each side of my fan.  These will serve the purpose of the traditional baby mobile in the room.  I will hang them from invisible beading elastic so they have some bounce and movement when the fan is on.  They will be lower than the fan, like about 9 feet from the floor.  This is my plan, although I'm not sure if there will be time.