Nursery Source List

Our nursery has been featured at Baby Lifestyles! Go here to see the full article, and be sure to check out their site if you are looking for nursery design inspiration.

In the interview, they had asked for sources on where we got our nursery decor items, so I thought I would list them here in case you are curious too.

You can find more pictures of our nursery here, here, and here.

Wall color: Silver Strand by Sherwin Williams

Trim color: Roman Column by Sherwin Williams

Crib: Jenny Lind from here

Dresser: Home Again (Salt Lake City)

Frames above dresser: Ikea

Artwork: Original watercolors

Bookshelf: Campo (sadly, no longer in business)

Mirror: Pier One

Rocker/Glider: Pottery Barn

Bedding/Pillows: Made by me with fabric from here.

Bird art above crib: I made the birds with leftover bedding fabric with this pattern. Branch from our backyard.

Lamp: Home Goods. It was originally dark gray, and we spray painted it a glossy white.

Night stand: Antique handed down from my Grandma (H's namesake) and painted by me.

Chandelier: Ballard Designs

Top 10 Baby Items

I get asked a lot about gifts I would recommend for a new mom, seeing as how I am one. Now that I'm almost a year (!!!!) into this whole baby-having business, I definitely have some favorite items and some that I could do without. After buying a ton of stuff I thought I would need, and borrowing (from friends and family) what we weren't sure about, I finally widdled down my own "must have" list. In case you're in need of a gift idea, or you are just starting out and are overwhelmed with baby-gear-mania (totally me a year ago!) I thought I would share with you my list of favorite things that made my life a little better with a baby - in no particular order.

Mustela bath products.

Once you smell this you'll know why it's my absolute fav. Also, it doesn't irritate my very sensitive skinned baby.

Bath Sponge

Before our little one could sit up on her own, this kept her from rolling around in the big ol' tub. It's also cushy and sucks up the warm water to keep her warm. When H was tiny we used to put our sponge in the kitchen sink. We loved it because it didn't take up a ton of space - once bath time was over, we would wring the sponge out, let it dry and then shove it under the sink.

Baby Bjorn

We are on the go a lot. I tried a few other baby carriers - slings, wraps - and this was the only one that allowed my little one to be held close to mommy or daddy while also being upright (a must for her) and to face outward (also a must for her from a really early age).

Bouncer

H suffered with reflux when she was tiny, so laying flat on her back was torture for her. She slept in this bouncer for the first three months of her life (yes, we cleared it with her pediatrician). She liked it because it actually bounces on it's own instead of just vibrating like other "bouncers."

Rocker/Glider

This has become the most used piece of furniture in our house. I am (still) nursing H, and this is most comfy place to snuggle my little one while she nurses. Even if I hadn't found this chair for half the price of what Pottery Barn sells it for, I think it would still be worth the admittedly high price tag. When we travel away from home (which is quite often), this is the one item I miss.

Bamboo Swaddle Blankets

We swaddled H every time she became fussy and it immediately calmed her. We also swaddled her for naps and bedtime and she loved it. These swaddle blankets are the perfect size, are incredibly soft and are organic which is great for something so close to my peanut's sensitive skin.

Thermometer

No more guessing what temperature that stupid red line is at. No more trying to finagle it into the tiny recesses of my little one's body. Just press one button and swipe across the forehead. Easy. Fast. Love it!

Sound Machine

Our house is small. My husband is loud. You do the math. A sound machine keeps my baby asleep through even the most memorable Utah Jazz moments. We play the 'ocean' sound, though it sounds more like white noise than waves crashing on shore. I didn't link to this particular model because I think that any of them would work just as well. We got this one at Target (I think it was around $25?) and we also downloaded a few free sound machine apps for our iphones for when we are traveling.

Stroller

We live in a neighborhood where just about everything I need is within walking distance (market, pharmacy, library, 6 restaurants, bookstore, salon, chocolatier - that's right, I threw that in there - it's a necessity) so we opted for the Mercedes Benz of the stroller world. This ride turns on a dime, handles our urban un-even sidewalks like a charm (or off-roading to see some petroglyphs near St. George like the picture above), and can even grow to fit another little person or two. When H was tiny (after she had outgrown the reflux), we would attach the bassinet and wheel it into the bedroom for her to sleep. I love it so much, I would sleep in it.

Dimmer switch

So useful during a middle-of-the-night diaper change, or helping to set the tone for bedtime. Dim lights = sleepy baby (that's what I keep telling myself anyway. Hey, it puts me to sleep!) These can be found at any big box store and installed in about 10 minutes.

What are your favorite baby items?


*Again, though I have many opinions I don't get paid for any of them. I'm just a girl, rattling on about her genuinely favorite baby stuff. That is all.

A Swing, a Miss, & a Homerun

Like every other parent since the dawn of time, when we had our daughter seven months ago, we made several naive declarations - I will never hold my daughter's back side up to my nose to check for a dirty diaper, I will never ride in the backseat with my child - and almost immediately ate our words. Almost everything we said we would NEVER do has been done...on many an occasion. I say almost, because we are still holding on to a modicum of self-respect. 1. We will NEVER drive a mini van. 2. We will NOT fill our house with cheap plastic kid stuff.

Number 1 has been easy to hold strong on. There are lots and lots of cars out there, and most of them will transport a child, no problem. However, the no cheap plastic kid stuff has proven to be slightly more difficult. Plastic and kids seem to have become synonymous these days. So when it came time to find a high chair we had to get a little creative. I quickly became obsessed with the idea of a turquoise high chair and I began a lengthy search for a vintage wood high chair that I could paint. A trip to my favorite consignment shops, boutiques, and second hand stores still left me empty handed. I almost gave up, thinking that wood high chairs must no longer exist.

Then I happened upon this picture on pinterest via Drew B. Photography. Oh. My. Lands. It was exactly what I wanted. My quest for that elusive turquoise high chair  continued.

Finally, in desperation I turned to the KSL classifieds ( a local, better, version of Craig's list) and found a sturdy, vintage wood high chair for 25 smackers. The couple we bought it from used it for their only son twenty five years ago, put it in storage and hadn't thought about it since, and it is in perfect condition! (Their son must not have been as adventurous an eater as our little H!)

Here it is before, in the kitchen (which is still in progress so ignore the crazy splotchy walls and the cereal on the floor - I can't be expected to clean when under construction). The finish on the chair was still in pristine condition so I sanded it to rough it up so the primer would have something to stick to.

After one coat of Rustoleum grey spray primer. 

A hit and a miss. (I don't know why I am busting out the baseball analogies today. I am not really a sports fan. Just a word nerd.) This is after one coat of Valspar's Exotic Sea spray paint. The second the first drops of paint hit the high chair, I knew I had made a huge mistake. The color was all wrong. Too bright. Too blue. A cool color, but not at all what I wanted.

After two coats of Krylon's Blue Ocean Breeze. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is the one. The home-run (sorry, I had to follow through on the sports lingo)!

A humble little note from the Editor (yep, that's me) about spray paint (and no, I am not being paid for this or any other of my many opinions, which is sad really, as I have a lot of them): 

While the color of Valspar's Exotic Sea wasn't right for this project, their spray paint, in my opinion, is far superior to Krylon. It went on like a dream and coated really well. The Krylon on the other hand is thin and runny and has a tendency to run if you are not really careful.  

A word to those buying spray paint at Michael's Craft: They are now locking up their multitude of spray paint, you know, in case any crafty hoodlums try to spray the display case. I am guessing that their paint doesn't turn over very often, because the two cans of Krylon I bought there (and then promptly returned) were extremely old and defective. I figure that most people won't go to the trouble of having the case unlocked (lazy crafters) and instead head to Smith's Marketplace (like I did) where your access to the trouble causing spray paint is not regulated (they also have a really wide selection.)

I also learned that not every store sells the same colors of the same brand. So while the Home Depot on 21st may carry the color Satin Jade, the Home Depot on 72nd may not. So you may want to call and ask about a specific color first before you drive all over town in search of Blue Ocean Breeze (or the perfect color of your choosing). 

Go forth and spray paint (legally of course). 

I Got It Covered

When I was little, my mother tried to give me sewing lessons. I scoffed at her, oh yes, I did scoff at her. I was more interested in hiding in my little room in the attic, cutting out pictures from Architectural Digest to create my dream house from bits and pieces of the glossy magazine. Sewing was for boring people.

Fast forward twenty + years and look at me now! I sew. Or I try to sew. In fact, almost every time I start a project I end up calling my mom to ask three hundred questions. "How do you thread this thing?" "Why is my bottom thread going all wonky?" "Was I a mistake?" (Oh wait, that's for another post.) My mother is too nice to do it to my face, but I'm sure she's the one laughing now. Boring people indeed.

It only took me six months (or is it eight? who's counting?), but I finally finished my very first quilt. Alright, if you must know, I got my mom to help me with the actual quilting part (thanks Mom), but the rest of it I did myself. Honest.

When I bought all the material to make H's bedding and pillows for her room I never intended to make a quilt. But then the fabric store got the better of me and I came home with way more material than I would ever need (big surprise). So a quilt was born. Not actually born (thank goodness, I still haven't recovered from H's traumatic delivery) but stitched together with love. Um, no, that's blood. Sometimes the needle and I don't see eye to eye. I didn't mean that as a pun. We really don't get along.

A closeup of the birdies in the top left hand corner. 

I love rick rack. Especially when it is really BIG rick rack.

 Everything good in life should be extra large.

The back side is almost as cute as the front.

I love how the new quilt coordinates with the birdies who live above the crib...

and the bedding that I made.

Now H will have something to remind her of me in the terrible event that I die before she is grown-that's irrational fear #34. I won't tell you how long the list is.

Chasing Butterflies

I spend a lot of time in the nursery. Between nursing, changing, and rocking this is the most used room in the house these days. In fact, there are usually extraneous assorted chairs in here as well, because when we have visitors they end up here too. They come in to chat while I nurse and then we linger for a while because it's just a lovely space to be in. But truth be told, I have redecorated the room more than once in my fickle head. So the other day as Mr. was working on the kitchen cabinets I decided to spiff up the wall behind the door. It just looked sad...

Sad and empty. 

The other day, when we were outside, H spotted a butterfly flitting by us and it made her laugh out loud. The best sound in the whole world. So I rummaged through my insane mountain of scrapbook paper (side note: I buy scrapbook paper like it's my mission in life, but I don't scrapbook. Nope, not even a little. It's just a little obsessive behavior that I can't seem to kick! Seriously. Anyone else have this problem?) and cut out some cute little butterflies. 

I am hoping these paper butterflies inspire many more laughs from my happy almost six month old. I love how they look like they come in through the door and then exit toward the ceiling!

They really bring together the color palette in the room!

Product Review: Easy Canvas Prints

I am sort of into my kid. I guess that is bound to happen when you wait ten years to have one; they turn your world upside down so that they can settle right in the center of it. So when Easy Canvas Prints contacted me about an offer to plaster H's mug on a 8x10 canvas in exchange for a review of their company, my answer was: how fast can you get this to me?

Creating my canvas was easy. Their website is simple, straightforward, and user friendly. The hard part was combing through the thousands (yes, plural) of pictures we have of little H. I vacillated back and forth between several pics before deciding that her cheeser grin in this one deserved to be immortalized on canvas. 

The finished canvas arrived pretty quickly and was packaged really well. The construction of the canvas is top notch, the corners are super tight and the canvas is nicely stretched. I chose the standard thickness (.75) because I think I will eventually frame it, but they also offer a 1.5 inch thickness that would look really cool on its own. They also offer some optional color finishes (black & white, sepia tone) and image retouching.

 What I learned: canvas has a tendency to make your picture look slightly darker, so choose your pic accordingly.

{This is Ellie. She was begging to be a part of this post. Aren't her blue eyes cute? I suppose I should post the pattern for her (it's vintage), and I should make her a brother...}

Want a canvas of your own? You can place your order here. 'Like' them on facebook to receive 50% off  AND free shipping. 

Motivation

Renovating an entire house has it's ups and downs, periods of frenzied activity where you feel like the projects are practically ticking themselves off the to-do list and periods of sheer laziness where it would take an asteroid colliding with your precious new roof to actually get your rear in gear and repair that gaping hole (or paint that room, or put in that new french door that has been sitting in the garage for a year, or finish that crown molding and base board that you purchased last fall, and on and on.) I think you know what period we are experiencing around here (ahem). And the reason?

Everything about this tiny little person makes us weak in the knees, from her hilarious laugh which sounds more like a cough, to her crazy little kicks and wiggles when she sleeps. We just can't get enough of her and find ourselves mesmerized by her every sound, which is why she eats into our 'project' time! Not to mention that by the time we FINALLY get her to take a nap (really? you only need a ten minute nap at 10 weeks?) the last thing we want to do is pull out the air compressor and shoot nails into the wall. So, very little has been done around here....until now. We just got the motivation we needed. We found out a few weeks ago that our I-don't-really-think-it-is-necessary-to-sleep-EVER daughter has some pretty severe food allergies. Because I am choosing to continue breastfeeding (I'm stubborn like that) we are now faced with some big changes to our lifestyle. Cutting out dairy, eggs, soy, and meat from your diet means that the eating-out options are slim to none. No more last minute runs to Cafe Rio or Yanni's, no stopping by Cafe Trang for a take-out noodle bowl. Now we spend our time at the grocery store reading every...single...label. Don't get me wrong. I have always loved to cook, but cooking with an infant is no easy task. So we often opted for take-out. Well those days are over. I am now cooking everything from scratch (prepackaged foods often contain dairy, soy or a combination) and am spending more time in the kitchen again. 

So, we have turned our attention back to the kitchen (again!) Here is the progress so far: 

The view from the dining room before the walls came tumbling down.

Same view without the walls

Sheet rock is finished and bead board goes up on the ceiling (my absolute favorite feature of the new kitchen, but more on that later)

This is what the kitchen looks like today. We still have a long way to go before we can proclaim it "done" but we are already loving the way it is turning out! Mr. is going to be working on trim this week and then we will paint the cabinets and walls! It's overcast and yucky today, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to post more pics. These are definitely "in progress" shots, no beautiful "after" photos just yet!

Until then, have a happy wednesday (or whatever day it is where you're from!)

Behind the Scenes: Nursery Renovation

I always love a good after, the final reveal, the finished product. But I also love to see the work that went into making a space beautiful. I think it helps for future projects as well, because once you've seen the steps that it takes and then see it all come together, you can then look at a "before" space and instantly know how to transform it. So if you're weird like me and are interested in the behind-the-scenes footage, then this is for you. 

If you have been reading for a while, you will be well acquainted with how our cottage appeared when we first purchased it three and a half years ago. Teal and pink pretty much sums it up, and not in a good way. You also know that we had some serious space problems. Both bedrooms came with one tiny closet each, which meant that my clothes were stuffed into the closet in the master bedroom and Mr.'s clothes were stuffed into the closet in the guest bedroom (very inconvenient). So we started Project Pepto to create space where we really needed it most. After all there is no such thing as too many closets. 

This sketch shows the layout of part of our cottage before renovations began. 

This next sketch shows the changes that we have made to the floorplan. To see the dining room renovation go here and for the master bedroom closet renovation go here.  For this last phase of the project we closed off the old closet from the master bedroom side and opened up the space on the other side of the guest bedroom (which is now the nursery) to create a larger closet which is way more usable.

This shows what the room looked like when we bought the house. Yep, teal. From top to bottom. 

This picture shows the tiny size of the closet before. It was three feet wide.

 Here is the guest bedroom after we knocked down the wall between the two closets and created a larger opening for the new closet.

This is what the floors looked like after we took the walls down. We ended up replacing the entire floor so we didn't have to worry about patching the old hardwoods.

The closet after the opening had been patched and primed by Mr. New floors are finished.

Closet shelving going in.

The closet shelving is finished and Mr. works on trim and molding.

Molding is finished and paint goes on.

New lighting is installed.

New doors finally go in. I initially thought that I would put curtains behind the glass doors, and that is my back-up plan for when H turns out to be messy and not keep her closet OCD clean like her mother!

This shows our master bedroom closet doors that we installed when we finished that phase of the project. We decided to match the doors in the nursery to lend some continuity to this crazy cottage. It may seem like an odd choice to put glass doors on a closet, but I love it. It makes the rooms seem larger, more open. 

These knobs were original to our 1940s cottage. The backplates on the master closet doors were also original to the cottage and were spray painted to match the hinges. When it came time to finish the nursery, we wanted them to be similar but we didn't have any more backplates that had been salvaged. What to do? Our favorite architectural salvage yard saved the day (I'll have to do a post on that place someday, it's amazing). They had the exact same ones that had been original to our cottage, so those got a coat of spray paint as well and installed on the nursery closet doors along with two more knobs salvaged from the cottage. 

So there you have it - a condensed version of the whole renovation process on the nursery. In case you missed the reveal you can find it here.