Yowza!

I feel so blessed. During a random little check on facebook I saw a link to the Spoonflower blog that made me curious. I just wanted to see what the top ten fabrics of 2011 looked like. And what did I see as soon as I got there? My own profile pic staring right back at me! Totally shocked to read that I am one of Spoonflower's top ten designers of 2011! And in VERY good company, I might add!

The top ten!

I never planned to be a fabric designer (nor do I really consider myself one)--I just printed a few things that I wanted for the boys' nurseries. I'm so pleased to know that others like what I've done and have really enjoyed reading emails and comments from other spoonflower customers over the last couple of years telling me how they are using my fabrics. Such fun! Thanks, everyone!

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nursery redux: revealing room #2

Drumroll, please! Our youngest's nursery is finally finished! We all really love the space. It has a very calm, sorta grown-up feel to it and it really seems to suit our littlest boy, who seems to have a bit of an old soul. That, or maybe he just does the grumpy old man face really well. ;) Andy and I love the crisp, clean lines of the space and the gentlemanly feel of the room. And big brother loves to play on the cozy carpeting. And our little one is a big fan of the crib. He also seems to be attracted to the mobile.

Just to put this in perspective, here's what it looked like back in May, before we started. Brace yourself.

OK, that was before. Dark, dingy, mismatched. A furniture catchall. Not exactly inspired. I'm sorry to put you through that.

And now, without further delay, here's the space now! I hope you like it!

 Even from the doorway, I think you can see that it's a big change. And a big improvement!

This room is the smallest in the house (roughly 9'x9'), but even so, it has to serve as both our littlest's nursery and our only guest room. So, we opted to fill the space with a substantial bureau/changing table (there is no closet in the room), the crib, and a queen-sized sleeper sofa.

Besides having two walls with large windows, the full-sized door to the attic is also located in here. Since we never go in the attic, we opted to camouflage the door by placing a large mirror in front of it. Not only does it help disguise the attic access, it also reflects a lot of light from those four windows and brightens the space quite a bit. We also decided to paint the walls and trim shades of white and opted for a fairly light carpeting to keep the room on the bright side. We also chose white to provide a nice contrast to the dark grey bureau and navy honeycomb curtains.

 Since there's not a lot of real estate in the room, we've used picture ledges to display books face-out. And we put a few other pieces of art and knickknacks up there as well.

Felt bowls help keep the boys' toys tidy. We also had a ceiling fan installed in the room (replacing the awful nipple light fixture from before) to help keep the room cool and circulate air (not a lot of room for a table fan).

Here's a close-up of some of the artwork in the room. On the right is a portrait I took of our sweetie when he was 5 days new. On the left, our new family "crest", which features the four of us racing along. And in the center, a colorful hot air balloon mobile made from paper.

And there you have it! Hope you enjoyed the tour. And just in case you're curious, the source list is below.

Nursery resources:

Paint

• Wall color/ Benjamin Moore Designer White (Eggshell)
• Trim/ Valspar Semi-Gloss White

Furniture and fixtures

• Crib: Ikea Gulliver
• Dresser/changing table: Ikea Edland 6-drawer dresser
• Sofa: West Elm Henry Sofa Sleeper
• Book shelves: Ikea Ribba picture rails (3)
• Table lamp: Repurposed from this room (bought at Target years ago) 
• Clip lamp: Ikea Jansjo in white
• Ceiling fixture: Westinghouse Lighting 7876400 Three-Blade Indoor Ceiling Fan (Amazon)
• Mirror: Ikea Monstad
• Carpet/Lowes
• Woven Tray: repurposed from another room (bought at Target years ago)
• Hamper: Lands End canvas storage tote (medium)
• Peg rail: Lowes
• Curtain rods and rings: Target
• Picture frames: Ikea Ribba and Target RE wide mat frames

Textiles

• Quilt: made by Mom! (Rowan's Grandma)
• Striped throw: Ikea Elver
• Curtains: made with navy honeycomb fabric (printed at spoonflower)
• Pillows: made by yours truly with regatta and navy scales fabric and West Elm napkins  
• Crib skirt: made by me with grey arrows fabric 
• Felt bowls: made by me (tutorial here)
• Crib sheet and changing pad cover/ Babies-R-Us

Art, etc.

• Crashing waves water color: painted by a family friend
• Standout portrait of Rowan printed by WHCC (an ABP project :))
• Birth announcement, prayer, and race cars family "crest" designed by me
• Balloon collage: made by me (used a paper punch to cut out balloons and then adhesive squares to place them on craft paper)
• Balloon mobile: made by me from paper (tutorial here)
• Wooden race cars, house blocks, and little boys: painted by me (plain wood pieces purchased from JoAnn Fabrics)
• Letter "B": decoupaged with Paris maps made by moi

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nursery news

Our newest nursery is still a work in progress, thanks to a sofa on back-order (not to mention a baby who is 3 days late and counting!). But here's a little update on our first born's space: a feature in American Baby! Actually, it's due to my soon-to-be (at least I hope it'll be soon) second born that I have seen this feature in person. Strangely enough, the copy I was sent of the August 2011 issue was missing the nursery feature (there were a few other differences as well). Boy, was I confused! But here's how it looks in the issue I snagged today. Yay!

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let's make a mobile! | diy

Hello friends! I'm back with another project that I recently completed for our nursery-in-progress. This mobile was super simple, super quick, and super cheap! I was inspired by the beautiful flensted hot air balloon mobile, but wanted to customize the colors (and be a bit more economical). Follow along if you wish!

 

To begin, you'll need: 

craft paper for the balloons (about 6 inches square for each side of each balloon--I had 5 four-sided balloons, so 20 squares of paper)

paper for the "baskets" (2 inches square for each)

glue

scissors

pencil

thick gauge wire (I used 16 gauge)

thread or fishing line

We'll begin with the baskets. First, cut a 2-inch square piece of paper. Mark the paper at 0.25", 1.25" and 1.75" along one side and the opposite side. On the two remaining edges, mark the paper at 0.25", 0.75", and 1.75". Then draw lines on the diagonals as shown below.

Now, starting on the corners with only two lines, cut along the lines toward the center. Stop cutting when you hit the second intersecting line. From the corners with four lines, cut along the outermost line just to the first intersecting line. Your "square" should now look like this:

Mark the very center of the piece with a dot. Fold along the remaining lines on the wider sides.

Now, fold each corner in so that it touches the center dot you marked.

Unfold the skinnier sides.

Leave the wider sides folded in and bend the two flaps toward the center:

 
You should now be able to fold the two wider sides together to make this box shape.

While holding the sides together, bring one of the skinnier strips up over the edge of the box and tuck it in. Repeat with the other side. (You may need to use a pencil (eraser end) to press the paper all the way down.

And there you have it! Cute, right?

Now, for the balloons. Cut out a template for your balloons depending on the shape and size you desire. The balloons I made  are about 5 1/2 inches tall and 4 1/2 inches wide at the widest point. The "stem" of the balloon measures 1/2 inch across (so it fits in the basket). Be sure to fold your balloon in half length-wise so it is symmetric--it'll need to be folded anyway!

Once you have your balloon pieces cut out, glue each folded half of the balloon to another folded half. Use four pieces of paper (glued together) for each balloon.

Allow the glue to dry. If you have excess paper hanging over on any of the sides, go ahead and give it a nice trim.

Then squirt some glue into one of the baskets and insert your balloon. Allow the glue to dry.

To create the mobile, I simply made five of these balloons with different colors of craft paper. I then tied fishing line to each one at the very top (after poking a tiny hole using a sewing needle) and tied each balloon to a piece of 16-gauge craft wire that I had already looped at the ends. It did require a few minutes of rearranging the lengths of string and the placement of the string on the wires to balance everything, but that was it!

There you have it! This project took me about 3 hours from start to finish. And because I already had all of the craft paper, fishing line, glue, and supplies, it only cost me $1.99 (for the craft wire).

Decide to try this? Please let me know how it turns out! And good luck!

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