Nursery Sneak Peek: Wall Art and Decals

Just like Baby #2 is getting close (38 weeks!), so is his nursery.  In fact, the nursery is FINISHED!!!  But I can't reveal the whole thing until after he's born, lest I give away his name, so for now you'll have to settle for a look at the nature-themed wall art I've come up with and my creative use of decals. (Note: Our close friends and family know his name, but we're not making a broad announcement until he's made his grand entrance.  You know, for the purpose of suspense.)

Anyhoo, if you like my Facebook page or tuned in to see my fabric pennant banner plus tips for creating your own, you may have already caught a peek of the Treetop Friends Wall Decals I used. 

What I didn't realize when I ordered the set was that it came with two full sets of decals. (!) Mildly flummoxed about what to do with two full sets of trees, leaves and birds, I let it simmer and my brain came up with something cute.

Here's a look:

 

Did you see that?  I hung the birdhouse from my pennant banner and perched a little birdie on top.

 

And then I bought some inexpensive canvases and acrylic paints and painted two backgrounds for arranging branches, leaves and an owl and a bird on.  It was fast and easy "artwork" and it was really fun putting paint on canvas -- I can't remember the last time I painted.

 

Baby's name hangs above his crib, and I decorated some of the letters with decals.  You can see why I want to wait to do the big reveal!

 

Oh, now I remember the last time I painted!  I made that horse painting when I was in ninth grade for a contest at our local library (I didn't win). My dad recently asked me if I wanted to keep it -- the painting had been in my parents' attic for years.  Stunned now that I had the guts to make a painting and enter it in a contest where people would actually see it, I thought it would be a nice addition to the nature-themed nursery.  Plus the colors go so well with the rest of the room.

 

The embroidery is Scandinavian Birds II (on the right) and a Martha Stewart cross-stitch pattern. I explain how I embellished the lamp with the same fabric in my pennant banner here.

 

 

I made these sweet wall hangings in my pottery class in the spring.  It was hard keeping them a secret all this time!  I wish I could have taken a better photo.  I used my own ink stamps on the clay and glazed them painstakingly with many shades of glaze and a special diluted technique my teacher taught me. I absolutely love them.

 

And just in case you didn't get enough decals, there's a little birdie above the closet...

 

And a little owl above the door.  My eyes always lift up to see him when I'm on my way out.  It's a sweet detail that makes me smile each and every time I see it.

I think I have one more sneak peek in me before the big day...and the big reveal.  I'm looking forward to it!

P.S. Stay tuned for a Stash-busting Challenge update and link-up -- I'm planning on posting it on Thursday night/Friday morning.  Can't wait to see what you've been up to!

Decorate Your Child's Bedroom Cost-effectively, with an Eye on the Future

This guest post comes at a great time, as I’m currently decorating the nursery for our second child. (See the latest installment on how it’s going.) Lisa Jolan writes about many different topics, from home interior to sports, and keeps a blog on home interior tips. Here she doles out her best tips for decorating a child’s bedroom in a lasting, cost-effective way that won’t leave you replacing expensive furniture every few years. I used some of these strategies while decorating Nathan’s nursery and updating it recently for toddlerhood. They really work, so enjoy!

When it comes time to decorate a bedroom for a child, there are all sorts of ideas and techniques to build upon. It’s especially helpful to employ decorating strategies that make it easier to make changes to the room as he or she gets older. Here are some great ways to decorate from birth to the teenage years without completely overhauling the bedroom for each age transition.

Buy furniture to last from infancy to adulthood

The easiest stages to decorate for are infancy and the toddler stage. The furniture needed for a comfortable and cozy room doesn't take up much space. The essentials are a crib, dresser and changing station. A chair for comfortable nursing or bottle feeding can be included. Aside from the crib, changing table and nursing chair, furniture is best chosen with thoughts of the future.

Dressers and beds to last

Instead of buying a gimmicky infant dresser with cute, tiny drawers and baby-related decorations, a dresser made out of real wood looks great in a bedroom for any age and has the potential to last a lifetime. The same idea applies to replacing the crib when baby outgrows it. When it comes time to replace the crib with a bed, there is no need to buy a tiny toddler bed or a bed shaped like a cartoon character or vehicles. While a child will enjoy these items for a short time, it’s expensive to replace them frequently.

Source: babyecotrends

However, a twin bed will service a child from the toddler stage and on. A bed with a sturdy wooden or metal frame will stand up to all sorts of abuse a kid can dish out, and twin mattresses are fairly inexpensive to replace as the years go by. (Spending a little more on your toddler’s first mattress will ensure a longer life – you may not need to replace it until he or she goes off to college!) 

The same goes for pillows. Pillows are used for pillow fights, lounging on the floor and propping up in bed while reading. This can break them down fairly quickly, which makes them less useful for sleep. While more expensive than other mattress and pillow types, those made out of latex or memory foam can last for 10 to 20 years without degrading. This means that a child can enjoy proper spinal support and ideal sleeping conditions from the moment they leave the crib until the moment they leave home without parents ever having to buy another mattress.

 

Source: Memory Foam Express

Ideal walls for all ages without a hassle

When it comes to the walls, many enjoy putting up murals or decals for the baby to enjoy and to give the room character. The problem with painting the images directly on the wall or applying wallpaper is that they can be extremely difficult to remove when it's time to decorate for the early childhood and preteen stage.

Self-adhesive decals are possibly the hardest to remove. Murals often need sanding and two primer coats to before the walls are ready for fresh paint. Wallpaper and self-adhesive decals have to be removed with harmful chemical peelers that can leave residue that may have long-lasting effects. These are not the best substances to be using in a kid's room.

Instead, applying wall decorations that affix with non-stick technologies is a better choice after painting with non-toxic indoor paint. Decals can be removed and reapplied a number of times without losing their cling, and they make it easy to transition walls as children get older. The decals can have an even longer life when applied to a painted surface with a semi-gloss or glossy finish. It's best to use a semi-gloss or glossy finish in a child's room, anyway, because they’re easy to wash and colors stay brighter longer time.

As a child gets older, decals can be removed without trouble and replaced with more grown-up changes, such as art or new paint.

Source: decals

Making a child's room comfortable and productive as the years go by

As children get older, their needs change. There comes a time when a child no longer wants or needs a toy box in the bedroom. Instead of buying an obvious toy box when he or she is young, buy a chest that can be used for other storage later on. Again, wood is a nice, long-lasting choice.

At some point, a child's art station will be replaced with a desk. A larger desk will allow for crafting and drawing and for homework and other studies when they’re older.

And if you purchased a well-made twin bed, new, more sophisticated bedding is easy and affordable as a child gets older.

Source: mercantila

About the author:

Lisa Jolan writes about many different topics, from home interior to sports, and keeps a blog on home interior tips. You can follow Lisa on Twitter at @lisajolan.

Just for Me

This week I created a little place in my bedroom that's just for me.  Near the side of my bed I have a simple three-shelf bookcase with some of my favorite books, journals and idea notebooks, and on top I placed some pretty things to look at.  A pitcher of dried flowers, a photo of our little family and a very functional basket of moisturizers, lip balms and pens and pencils, perfect for hiding from Nathan's curious (prying?) fingers.

This little space might not seem like much, but it's a small relief to carve out a little space for myself in a house that increasingly feels like it's no longer mine.  It seems decidedly Nathan's, with all my of breakables and low decorations and artwork stashed away or placed high up where I can't enjoy them as well, and the books I love most hidden in a room with the door always closed.

This space is relaxing to see before I go to bed at night and when I wake up in the morning, and it's a useful place that I think I can actually keep clear (I'm known for stacking piles of laundry folded laundry on my dresser).  It's something I can maintain that's just for me, which feels good, especially after having my house stripped for toddlerdom and spending the last five years continually trying to make our living space work better for me and my family.

A few more views from around the room:

Note that Tennis For Dummies is not among my favorite books -- lol -- I still need to sort through these and personalize this private collection to include my very favorites and let go of the books I no longer need.  Maybe I'll do a follow up post on some of the books I've added to this special collection -- it'll include knitting book recommendations, gardening books and some quick but satisfying fictional reads, as well.  A bedside book for every mood!

Enjoy the weekend!

Full

Thanksgiving was so fun and full.  This was our second year hosting Thanksgiving dinner and it felt great having both sides of the family come together again to share a meal.  I'm always grateful for my extended family, but I couldn't help feeling extra grateful as we all sat around the table together for a tasty homemade meal, interesting conversation and good laughs.  We all left full, and in more ways than one.

We also celebrated Nathan's and T.J.'s birthdays, which are this weekend and just three days apart.  I think their birthdays make the holiday even more special for our family...Even though Nathan was scared by our singing Happy Birthday and cried and burrowed his face in my neck.

My knitted Big Bithday Owl wasn't as big a hit as I'd hoped -- maybe one day it will be -- and I kinda knew this would the case.

But Daddy's gift of a real toy guitar was a big hit.

I hope your holiday was just as fun, thankful and full.

Homesteading on a Farm of Our Own…Someday

A few weeks ago when my car was in the shop, I got a ride in the car dealership’s shuttle to go pick up a loaner car (it was a long eight days without my car!).  It was nice to finally be a passenger for once and to enjoy the rural scenery on our quiet ride.  The driver took me down some country roads I’d never driven before, and I saw some amazing farmhouses that literally took my breath away.  I picked up my jaw from my lap and processed what I’d seen:

Freshly painted late 1800s/early 1990s farmhouses boasted beautiful covered front porches with bright red wooden benches. White picket fences cordoned off the yards from the rest of the farmland around them, and I imagined the beautiful flowers I’d grow in the yard and the rows and rows of crops I’d plant if the home were mine.

And then it hit me.  We’d been so busy living our lives on someone else’s farm, that I almost forgot about our dream of homesteading on a farm of our own—rather, I forgot that my husband is actually into it.  Right now, because of his job as a caretaker, he doesn’t have the time or energy in the summer to help me garden and preserve the food we grow—and we don’t have the room and the storage space to homestead the way we want to here.  I’ve been doing the best I can by myself all along, but it’s just not enough.  We’re not really homesteading the way I want to be.

Before we had Nathan, I tended a 1,000+ square foot vegetable garden and a smaller herb garden on my own and I desperately wanted chickens.  The chickens were out—we’d have to ask permission and it’s just better not to—and I can’t manage a garden that big by myself now with a little one in tow.

I wouldn't mind a view like this from an attic window someday.  This is a photo of a painting hanging my craft room/studio.

I’m so glad for that car ride down an unfamiliar country road.  It reinvigorated me and reawakened my homesteading spirit.  I want it so badly!  And I'm glad to remember that my husband wants it someday, too.  There must be ways for me to homestead more here, on someone else’s amazing old farm, in a home we’re glad to live in but don’t own.  I will find a way.

Decoupage Leaf Vase Tutorial

I really enjoy giving away cut flowers in the summertime.  I always have lots of daisies to share and usually zinnias, too.  They make a great hostess gift, and unlike bringing snacks or desserts, you don’t have to worry about food allergies or bringing fattening food into someone else’s home!

But I run into trouble when trying to decide what to put the flowers in.  My vase supply dwindled after my first summer of big-time gardening, so I resorted to glass jars I saved from food, like pickles.  My husband tried to tell me this was tacky, but I can’t give away all of my vases!  And I can’t just keep buying more of them.  (I do try to keep a lookout for inexpensive vases in thrift shops, but I usually find a lot of bud vases, and I like a vase with a wider mouth.)

So I try to save jars of interesting sizes and shapes and decided to make them look more intentional—and decorative—by decoupaging them with pressed green leaves. 

I’ve found that pressed fresh, green leaves are more flexible and less brittle than pressed fall leaves, which are already brittle at the time they’re picked.

My jars are on the small side, from artichoke hearts, sweet peppers and capers, so I picked smaller leaves in early summer for pressing.  The bigger your jars, the bigger the leaves you can use, so go crazy!  I’ve found that leaves from maple, Indian Cigar and mulberry trees press well when green.  I tried red oak, and they weren’t as flexible and easy to work with for this project.

Tip: Need help getting sticky labels off your jars without using harsh chemicals?  Try Brillo pads, the ones with the soap already in them.  They work like charm!

Here’s how you can make your own decoupage leaf vases:

1. Gather your jars, pressed leaves (fully dried), ModPodge Gloss or other decoupage medium, sponge applicator and a pair of scissors.  You’ll probably want to protect your work surface with newspaper. With the scissors, snip the stems off your leaves—I found the stems are too brittle to bend along the sides of the jar.

2. Work with one jar at a time.  Cover the jar (or half of it, if you prefer to work half a jar at a time) with ModPodge.

3. Press a leaf onto the still-wet ModPodge to make it stick to the jar.  Smooth it out to prevent any air bubbles, gently pressing down on all areas of the leaf, especially the edges.  Place as many leaves as you like around all sides of the jar.

4. Repeat for each jar, allowing the jars to dry completely, for about 15 minutes.

5. Once dry, cover the jars and leaves with an even coat of ModPodge and allow to dry for another 15 minutes.

6. Once that coat is dry, add another coat of ModPodge to better protect the leaves.

7.  Once dry, fill with water and add your favorite cut flowers!

I like mine so much that I’m afraid I’ll have trouble parting with them.

Just a Mom

I’m still in a decompressed state from the weekend (that’s a good thing), and I’m so glad I get to stay this way all week because I’m on vacation from work!  That’s 10 blessed days without worrying or thinking about work.

Now don’t get me wrong—I love my job and I love being a freelance writer.  Other than becoming a mom, it was what I dreamed of, my all-time goal, when I found out such careers existed back when I was an intern.  And I love my client.  Literally.  I actually, really love her.  Outside of work, we’re great friends, and when we’re on the clock, we make “the most awesome team ever”—her words—and I agree.

The best part of being a freelancer is that I get to work from home and can be available in a heartbeat unless I’m on a conference call.  It was especially convenient while Nathan was nursing—our babysitter would just knock on my office door and tell me he’s hungry!

But even though I have the best possible scenario for work, nothing beats the rhythm of my days at home with Nathan.  (I work three five-hour days a week, so I have four days a week where I just get to be a mom.)  Our days together have such a great rhythm and flow, with some parts of our day flexible and changing and other parts regularly scheduled, more or less, like lunchtime and naptime.  It’s a luxury for us (me) to do whatever we (I) want during our downtime.  These days are more relaxed and pleasant, run more smoothly (for me, anyway) and are clearly more fun for me.  : )

I think the days are about the same for Nathan—that’s the biggest benefit of having a babysitter come to our house.  I don’t have to wake him up early in the morning, he gets his meals at the right times and in his own high chair, he gets to nap in his own crib and he gets to stay in the familiarity of his own home.  These are major bonuses, plus I can be on the scene in seconds if anything crazy were to happen and I can sneak kisses from Nathan just by opening my office door.  It really is great.

For me, my rhythm is totally off on the days I work as I try to cram everything in before the babysitter gets here.  I find myself running around, trying to straighten up and clean the kitchen from breakfast…tossing laundry in the washing machine because it’s the only time I can do it…calculating how much time I have left and what else I can get done…and then, of course, I want to spend time with Nathan before I have to close my office door.  By the time I’m done working for the day, he’s already up from his afternoon nap and I’m on Nathan duty—and all I want to do is spend time with him doing something fun (and not catching up on chores).

For these 10 days I’m going to savor every extra minute with my beautiful, smart, sweet little boy.  I’m enjoying not having every minute of my day scheduled around my work and chores, and instead, my day is centered around my son and the fun we can have together.  We’ve already picked strawberries, waded in the baby pool and visited the zoo with some friends—a lot of fun for this strawberry- and animal-loving water baby. 

Leaning forward to see an animal at the zoo.

Our boys in front of the bison pen at the zoo.

This week I can do laundry whenever I please, take Nathan somewhere fun whenever the mood strikes me, spend a lot of time outdoors together, do a little gardening and rest a bit while he naps—something I don’t get to do on the days I work.  I’m so happy that I can be just a mom.  You know, just.

Out with Spring and in with Summer

I know summer doesn’t officially start until June 21, but at my house, summer starts Memorial Day weekend (hence the blog's new color scheme).  My husband’s busy season at work picks up as soon as the grass turns green (or earlier, depending on his projects), but it gets really crazy starting Memorial Day weekend.  Like, seven-days-a-week-crazy.  His days are long, his job is hard and free time and trips away from the farm are nonexistent.

That’s when I’m pretty much on my own.  In summer, all of the household jobs become mine, I plan and cook just about every meal myself instead of the two of us taking turns and I do all of the grocery shopping.  (I made shopping for groceries a boy job earlier this year, since I work, too.)  It’s always been tough, and it’s even harder with Nathan in the picture.  Taking care of Nathan is mostly my domain, but my husband helps out as much as he can, especially during his off-season.  But now it’s all up to me.

I remember our first summer here, the summer before we were married.  I was planning our early September wedding, gardening like it was my full-time job, working full-time, taking care of meals and every aspect of the house—being a good little housewife before I was even a wife—and I nearly broke down at the end of the summer from the stress of it all.  (I’m sure that breakdown had something to do with the wedding, which was just a week away.)  All I know is that after the season is over, I breathe a deep sigh of relief and feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

I imagine lots of moms take on all these same jobs and maybe some of you are saying boo-frickin-hoo, but it is hard doing everything myself and going everywhere alone (with Nathan, of course).  Family gatherings and dinners don’t include my husband during the summer months; it’s a given he won’t be able to attend.  (And often the rest of the year, too, thanks to bad luck, bad timing or both.)  We don’t get to go anywhere as a family and don’t get to spend much time together, period.  I can’t leave Nathan with him while I go shopping for an hour our two by myself, let alone to run down the street to get milk.

There are no hot days spent at the community pool or picnic lunches on weekends.  Forget about summer vacations or trips to the shore.  He gets no days off.  And like I said, I work, too, so now I’m doing it all.  In short, summer is like a four-letter word around here.

So I spent one day this weekend visiting my parents and brother and the rest of the time gardening, cleaning, getting my house back in order after the great washing machine flood of 2011 and playing outside with Nathan.  And of course knitting and crafting and cleaning while he sleeps. 

My summer squash have little buds on them already.

I finally planted my tomatoes, several weeks late thanks to lots of rain.

I started taking down my spring decorations and putting out the summer ones.

The window stars on my kitchen window are from the Harvest Moon by Hand Etsy shop, and I love them!  When the sun shines in around 5-6 p.m., my favorite time of the afternoon, they seem to glow.  They look amazing.

My vases are waiting for the hundreds of cut flowers I expect to get from my cutting garden.

I also spent some time thinking about how I can make this summer different, less stressful and more fun than previous summers.

This year I’m going to try to stay as relaxed as possible and try to just go with the flow.  It’s something I’ve been working on since Nathan was born—I was more Type A than I’d realized—and I think I’m getting better at letting go and letting what will happen happen.  To a point. 

And I’ll also revel in the good things about summer and remember why I’ve always loved it so much.  We get to spend more time outdoors, walking, relaxing and eating (I love eating meals outside!).  I love gardening, harvesting my own fresh veggies and bringing in my own cut flowers.  And swimming!!!  This family looooooves to swim, and we steal what little moments we can to jump in the pool, even if we only have 20 minutes together to spare.

So even though summer is difficult and we have to make efforts to spend time together as a family, it has its rewards… It’s a strange dichotomy.  And now I’m in the thick of it!

All that Rain was Good for Something

All the rain we had last week—and there was a lot of it, about 3 ½ inches according to my rain gauge—was good for something. 

For one, everything’s gotten a lot greener.

  

My vegetable plants are growing quickly, even though it’s been too rainy to get them in the ground.

It has certainly made me appreciate the sun more, which we thankfully had a lot of on Friday and Saturday.  The blue skies and puffy white clouds were almost too much to take!

This weekend we…

…tested out Nathan’s new mom-powered tricycle, which I think is an ingenious invention. I was surprised to find out that I can easily steer the thing with the handle that makes it mom-powered.  Going into it, I really did think we’d be battling over which direction we’re going in or careening into the fence after every few steps.  But it has an internal mechanism (the one that puts it in mom-mode) that disengages the handlebars’ steering ability and gives that power to me, the controller of the all-mighty handle.  It was a lot of fun and waaaay better (and more big-boy-ish) than the jogging stroller.

…enjoyed a visit from my husband's family, had fun chasing (and yelling) bubbles and rediscovered the cuteness of overalls all in one moment.

...had fun outside with Nathan's aunties.

…and gave Nathan his first-ever New York bagel, and, true to his Brooklyn roots (through my husband), he loved it.  A boy after his mom’s heart.

I even got to be in a photo.  I exist!  (With my March socks on and everything.)

On Sunday we relaxed and recuperated from my in-laws' weekend visit, kept mostly indoors by misty rain and cooler temps (and no sun whatsoever—total bummer).  I’m hoping to get some gardening done on Monday, before my work week begins.  Those tomatoes and squash aren’t going to plant themselves!