The Big Nursery Reveal

Boyd's room is FINALLY finished! I guess that is what happens when you decide to DIY everything! Sewing his bedding and curtains was far easier than I had thought and I must say it was very fulfilling. Not to mention it kept me occupied on those freakishly hot days when going outside was not really an option!

Yes, I know, it kind of looks like a 30 year old woman should be living in his room but I'm not a "baby" person so we went with a more grown up style. And yes, I am aware that we are about to have baby but that doesn't mean that it has to look like Babies-R-Us threw up all over our house.

 We may not like "baby" stuff but we do like lambs! See, we are making progress!

 We used the same dresser that was already in the room and found this great map for FREE online!

Because every baby needs a stash of his very own personalized burp cloths! It's like the pocket square for babies!

The paddles came from my grandfather and we figured they made the room look a bit more manly!

In case you didn't know, his full name is Boyd Sutherland Caldwell. Both Boyd and Sutherland are family names of ours and good strong Scottish names each with their own tartan. The pillow on the chair is actually made from the official Sutherland tartan. What kid doesn't need his own fabric after all?! Here are some other variations of the Sutherland tartan and here is a picture of the Boyd tartan.

His stash of cloth diapers... that is an entire post of it's own!!

His giraffe was given to hin by my mom's youngest sister and her family. I.LOVE.IT!

Morbid Mexican postcards from our trip to Austin. Very appropriate for babies, right?! Can you see Tyler in the reflection!?

Strongbow patiently waiting for his brother to get here. He likes to tell me that he is breaking in the chair for us. What a giver!

One of my very imperfect preggo projects. Tyler is so thrilled that Boyd is now well stocked with dresses!

So there you have it, our low budget nursery fit for a 30 year old woman or a baby boy with impeccable taste!

Speaking of baby boys, I'm a few days shy of 39 weeks and dilated 2 cm in case you were curious. According to the good doc that translates to " any day now." Wish us luck!

** if you are interested in sewing your own baby bedding, PLEASE feel free to pick my mind. I am no expert but I can tell you about my experience. It was super easy and where there is a will there is a way!

Guestroom Update

Well we have finally found a hot minute or two to do some updates on the house. Nothing extreme, just a few little things that I have been meaning to get to lately.

One such thing is the bed skirt from my childhood bed that is about 4 inches too short for our guest room bed. Nice....

You can't fully appreciate the horror in this picture but it was all I had. Nothing like a too short, ruffled, white on white bed skirt to perk up a room!

Anyway, my kind and patient friend Blair devoted 3 hours of her Saturday morning to help me tackle the project of making a box pleated bed skirt to replace the old one. She has made a few in her day so she made it look so easy. In truth, it was not too hard and MUCH cheaper than buying a custom made one for my taller than normal bed.

Ta daa....the finished product!

Not perfect but for my first try and only $35 total I would say I did alright! Thanks for all the help Blair!!

Little by Little

It's not much, but we have made a few updates to the bedroom and slowly but surely things are looking a little better. I still have some progress to make but baby steps make me feel a little less lazy so I'll go with it.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

On another note, I have made some progress on my embroidery and appliqueing. I haven't completely botched much lately so that is a huge step in the right direction!

I made this for the baby of some friends of ours. The husband happens to be a guitar player and I think it came out pretty good for only being the third thing I have ever attempted to applique.

Over and out...

Pillowpalooza 2K11

I love making pillows. I think it mostly stems from the fact that I'm cheap and it's not super hard to sew 2 squares of fabric together, so there ya go.

Over the holidays I was a sewing machine, no pun intended, and knocked out my t-shirt quilt project that I have been working on for months. While sitting on my sofa trying my hardest to hand tie an entire quilt, I realized how darn generic my family room looks.

Exhibit 1: a big ole brown couch (snooze alert)
Exhibit 2: beige and brown/beige pillows that came with the sofa, gross
Exhibit 3: ugly fabric on our club chairs that I picked out from a book of ugly fabrics at an ugly furniture store ( I won the chairs in a sweepstakes so I shouldn't complain)

Soooo.. I took it upon myself to order some fabric that will hopefully blend in with the sea of beige yet add a little life to the place.

I know this one is still beige but the yellow blends well with the ugly fabric on the chairs

This pattern is actually huge. I think I'm going to center the red circle on the pillow and do a solid on the back.

Cost Breakdown:

4- 18x18 inch feather pillow inserts: $40.76

2 yards fabric: $21.75

That comes to about $15.50 per pillow which is a heck of a lot cheaper then buying the super cute, yet pricey pillows from Etsy that don't even come with the insert.



Thoughts? Am I still too beige? You can tell me the truth, the fabric was a good deal and I'll end up using it for something else if this doesn't work out!

Oh, and I bought a yard of this just for the heck of it! I'm thinking I might use it to cover my new sewing stool.

Opinions?

What do you think about the round table between the chairs? Tyler brought it home last night along with some other stuff from his late grandmother's house and I'm at a loss as to what to do with it. Tyler's grandfather made it and we want to keep it in the house somewhere but it's too big for our small kitchen. Is it too big as a side table as well? Will the right accessories help?

All opinions are welcomed as long as they are not hateful!

Oh, and Strongbow says hi and that he can't wait to show you his costume.