Juliana Claire's *Mostly Finished* Nursery

Juliana's nursery isn't done, but since I could go into labor anytime and since I have a certain sister-in-law who insists that she's "dying" a slow agonizing death without nursery photos, I thought I'd go ahead and share what I've done so far.

This is what I started with two weekends ago:

What a mess! I'm usually a "share the step-by-step process" kind of gal, but since I had a definite timeline, I just didn't have time for that much blogging.

Just looking in there made me want to bang my head against the wall. Repeatedly. Until I knocked myself unconscious.

terribly mangled star mobile from Joseph's nursery

Fortunately, once I got it cleaned up and started playing decorating, it started coming together beautifully. In my opinion, anyways.

I set up a couple of rules for the room:

• Reuse as much of Joseph's nursery items as possible. Check.
• Use items from around the house and spend no more than $5 total on necessary crafting supplies (i.e. thread, hanging hardware, etc.). Check.
• Embrace the fact that you are going to have a baby girl and have fun with it. The space should make you happy. Check.

Let's get started before my ticket to aunthood expires from the anticipation. ;) This is what you see when you first walk in the door:

Sorry, the pictures aren't the greatest. It was a super rainy, gloomy, and dark morning so I had to turn on the overhead light.

I made this little welcoming door wreath last night with some ribbon (one of my few purchases), an old Christmas cranberry wreath that had cracked cranberries all over it, scrapbooking stickers that my Mom gave me a long time ago. and some foam letters that my MIL picked up on clearance at Target (the same ones we used for our ABC Easter eggs). Thank you, mothers!

The view when you walk a little bit further into the room:

The view from the tall dresser in the corner:

And the view from the corner behind the glider:

The little bookcase corner right by the door has my old jewelry box and some kissing teddy bears that I had lying around. They are making out sitting in the same exact style chair that I used for my dollies when I was a kid (from Goodwill Outlet a long time ago). The hanging branch is something I just grabbed out of my backyard and the dress hanging on it was my SIL Theresa's baptismal gown. I can't wait to put Juliana in all that frilly white! The artwork is one of three numbered and signed prints by Mark Strauss. He is a Holocaust survivor and was my very first guest speaker as a history teacher. I bought the prints for Joseph's nursery at a teacher discount of $20 each.

The ceiling to floor curtains are made from two different linens I already had in the closet - my sister Kate's old IKEA duvet from her high school days and a light blue fitted bed sheet.

I love how fun this fabric is, but the spunky purple flowers are a bone of contention with me. It's not that I don't think they are fun and cute... It's that there is NO purple anywhere else in the room. I've tried to convince myself to ignore them, but they make my eye twitch. So, I'm in the process of making little blue fabric roses to cover them up. It will only take about a 100...

Yes. I am aware that I'm off my rocker. ;)

The grape vine wreaths in the windows were a part of Joseph's nursery. The little owls sitting on them were knitted by my mother for Joseph's nursery when he was a baby. She made me a whole parliament of them!

The lamp also used to be in my sister Kate's room in high school. It has been spray painted white and ribbon-ified. I used hot glue on each end of the ribbon to make a fun latticework shade inspired by this.

The grass in the baby food jars on the window sill was grown by Joseph for his aunt's baby shower and then used for his second birthday. Now, it's gracing his baby sister's room. *sniff*

I love the big prints by Mark Strauss. They always amaze me because the man had a bomb blow up in his hands and is missing a large chunk of his fingers. I simply can't comprehend how someone who has been through so much can paint such beautiful and whimsical landscapes. On the whole, I find them very moving. I didn't have a theme for the room, but I built the nursery around these three prints.

This one is my favorite:

The framed ABCs that go all around the the top of the room were a hand-me-down from my SIL Sarah. She originally had them on the wall in baby Katherine's nursery, but decided to take the room in a different direction. So she gave them to me! Sweet! Thank you, Sarah! I had my brother stain the dollar store frames to match the rest of the frames and furniture in the room. The conversation went like this:

"Hey, Marshall! Would you stain some frames for me when I come over tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"Thanks!"

The next day:

"So, I may have neglected to mention that there are... um... 26 frames..."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm framing the alphabet. It's going to be adorable!"

"You could have mentioned that yesterday!?!"

"Aw, c'mon! You wouldn't make a pregnant lady breath in fumes while staining twenty-six frames now would you?" (This argument works for everything with him. It's so sweet! Usually, you have to bribe the kid to get him to do anything.)

"You know that isn't going to work for very much longer, right? Once you have the baby, you'll have to start bribing me again."

"But it's working now? Right?"

*grumble grumble* "Fiiine..."

Ha. I love it.

The little antique fan on the top of dresser was acquired at the Yard Crawl a few years ago. The book is the complete works of Beatrix Potter. I love me some Peter Rabbit and it goes with my Peter Rabbit music box. Each of the four music boxes on the dresser belongs to me and my three siblings. My mom got each of them when we were born. I have them in safe-keeping until my siblings decide they want them.

One of my favorite spots in the room is the changing table. The doily bunting with Juliana's name is just made from twine, paper doilies, and the same foam letters from my MIL.

I picked up some embroidery hoops at the Yard Crawl last year and have been waiting for the perfect use for them. I also acquired some antique doilies at a church bazaar sale with Sarah sometime last year. I put the two together and I am totally smitten with the results.

I hung them with clear beading string from a near invisible nylon fishing line that is stretched taught between hooks in the ceiling.

I'm using the same chalkboard that I used on the milk & cookies bar at Sarah's baby shower on the back of the door. I haven't decided if the frame needs to be painted a happy color or not, but for now, I think it looks good.

The lacy bunting on the wall behind the crib is made from an old stained lace bed skirt from my closet. I pretty much let my girly side reign with the crib.

Not because of the beautifully crocheted blankets from Stephen's aunt or the adorable little pink rabbit from my MIL. No. Definitely because of the pink platypus. Every little girl needs a fuzzy pink platypus. It's a rule.

I was also inspired by this to make a little framed word art with a scrap of blue fitted sheet left from the curtain project and the foam letters from my MIL.

It amuses me to have it by the crib and glider. Besides, that wall was practically blank, so I had to throw it together last night. Hi, my name is Caroline, and I don't like bare wall space. At one point over the weekend, Stephen walked in and pointed at this corner and said, "You missed a space. You should get on that." ;)

I was waffling about possibly putting up a princess drape above the crib on Pinterest when Sarah decided Juliana needed a princess drape and gave me the most adorable hand carved shelf from her house. She picked it up for a song at a yard sale a long time ago. Thank you again, pretty lady! I draped a lacy table cloth and some white sheer curtains from the inside of the shelf using tacks and a staple gun. I even found a queen sized bed skirt in my linen closet (four pictures up) with an edge on it that sort of mimics the carving and used it as the crib skirt! Love.

The moravian stars that I made into a star mobile (using the same method as the doily mobile) were actually made by my Aunt Jennifer and given to me as a wedding present. They are something of a tradition in our family and they used to hang above Joseph when he was a baby.

The most adorable "J" on the planet was actually a little cardboard J that was given to me by Sarah's friend Karla. Thank you so much! It's my favorite thing in the whole room!

Belly!

I hand painted it using Katie Daisy's Pocketful of Posies as a guide. I couldn't be happier with the results. It just so stinkin' happy!

So, that's where we stand with the nursery. I still need to cover up the glider. It's a hand-me-down from my MIL and plenty comfortable, but the blonde wood sticks out like a sore thumb and the cushions are straight out of the early 90s. I plan to make a slip cover for it... probably from white bed sheets. We'll see.

I also have the little bookshelf in the corner for toy storage. It doesn't go with the rest of the dark mahogany furniture either, but it's functional and helps to cover up a giant plumbing access panel that I don't consider to be especially safe for small children to be around. So, I will be making a slip cover again, probably out of white bedsheets. It will serve to hide the toys and make it work better with the rest of the room.

So... a few projects left to complete:

• DIY glider slipcover
• DIY bookcase slipcover
• DIY oval rag rug from sheets
• glue broken dresser drawer
• make 100 or so fabric flowers and use to cover purple curtain flowers
• make small, easy faux roman shades to hide the miniblinds and black out shades.

Am I going to get any of these done?

Well, considering my present state, probably not.

But I'll keep working on it right up until contractions start. ;)

Baby Food Jars of Grass. So easy, a toddler can do it!

What I forgot to mention about the baby food jars of grass that we planted for Sarah's baby shower (and then later used for Joseph's birthday party)...

...is that Joseph was 90% responsible for them. I just supervised.

And yes, we did this indoors.

At his picnic table. In the middle of my kitchen. Over my outdoor kitchen rug. Because it was freezing outside at the time.

 It really wasn't that bad and what's the point in owning a vacuum if you can't use it for occasions like this??

It was a super simple activity and the little guy was totally absorbed with his assigned task for his Aunt Sarah.

I gave him a bowl of garden soil, a spoon, and a bunch of empty baby jars. He filled each jar to overflowing and I would move the full jars far away from him so that he would focus on the empty jars.

Then I gave him a jar full of grass seed and showed him how to sprinkle some into each jar.

I voted for sprinkling, he voted for dumping large handfuls.

And in my opinion, the jars with the excessive amounts of grass seed turned out to be the nicest looking. Joseph. Grass grower extraordinaire.

He even put the last spoonful of dirt over the seeds.

And then helped me water them and place them on the kitchen window sill to grow.

And, despite having used grass seed from last spring, it grew!!

I know it's lame, but I was so proud of us for growing grass together and not killing it before the shower!

And now? They are cheering up my kitchen window sills and destined for greatness in Juliana's nursery. :)

I'm taking the grass as a sign that Joseph and I. CAN. GROW. PLANTS. TOGETHER. So I bought us a bunch of packets of seeds and we will hopefully plant them soon. Like tomorrow. Or Thursday. Right? Right???

Ha. Can anyone say "denial"??

*****

P.S. Did anyone catch the message on the fridge?

"How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday?"

Joseph's second birthday party was exactly 8 days after Sarah's big baby shower.

After the successful completion of the shower, I was pretty much pooped and useless for the entire week leading up to Joseph's party. I was not in a house cleaning or party decorating mood. Other than poking around Pinterest a few months previously, I had done ZERO planning.

Fortunately, my friend Mary-Carolyn (Longbrake Living) and Joseph's buddy Colton were coming to visit and they brought lots of fresh toddler birthday enthusiasm with them! I quickly went from, "Meh. We might do something. Whatever." to, "Toddler parties are the greatest thing EVAH! Must have adorable dino-car decorations!"

Stephen is actually the one who picked out Joseph's birthday theme.

Caroline: "Hmm. What kind of party should we have? ABC's? Very Hungry Caterpillar??"

Stephen: "NO WAY! THAT'S LAME! IT SHOULD BE DINOSAURS!"

Caroline: "You realize I'm inviting over Joseph's tiny friends and their mothers might object to a birthday cake with a giant T-rex on it chomping on decapitated green army men with bloody icing spurting everywhere?" 

Stephen: "Did I say anything about blood? I don't think I said anything about blood!"

Caroline: "Pfth. Please. I know how your brain works."

So, I went with dinosaurs per my husbands request... but I kept everything G-rated. ;)

The cake table's "flag" and "table cloth" are actually a bed sheet & pillow case that I picked up at Goodwill for like $2 months ago. Sarah (Five Camels) wouldn't allow me to leave the store without them. She was looking out for the interests of her nephew. ;)

The banner above the table says, "RAWR JOSEPH!"

Joseph's birthday party shirt from his Aunt Amy had a t-rex on it saying, "rawr!*" and below was the following translation: "means 'i love you!' in dinosaur." So, actually, the banner says "I love you, Joseph!"

The letters on the banner are the same foam letters from my mother-in-law that we used for the ABC Easter eggs. The pictures are some portraits that I took of Joseph while visiting Mary-Carolyn in February.

The paper bunting flags with the banner letters were cut from specially customized paper.

Yes, that's right, folks! This superior quality paper was hand painted by budding (half-naked) artists.

They used a variety of mediums - Q-tips, combs, and cars.

The work itself is fresh & edgy! You can't buy paper like this in the average arts and craft store!

I loved that we involved the boys in the party-decorating process. It made for a fun weekend and the finger-painted paper turned out surprisingly jungle-y thanks to the car wheels & comb. Perfect for a dino-jungle-scape.

Mary-Carolyn was sweet enough to cut out the bunting flags for me. She even came up the fabulous shape! She's one rockin' awesome lady! We even used the leftover triangles from the banner flags to make a little Stegosaurus tail bunting on the sewing machine.

Honestly, in true Caroline fashion, I threw most of this table together around midnight the night before the party after MC went to bed like a normal human being. I didn't leave my house once, only used materials I had on hand, and may have gotten carried away... but I had fun with it.

The giant 2 is made from a thin piece of Styrofoam that I cut and then wrapped in yellow yarn from Joseph's craft bin of awesome.

The adorable dino plates were part of a party pack of animal plates that my mother-in-law gave me after finding them on clearance. Same goes for the orange plastic-ware from Halloween. It went on clearance and my MIL snatched it up. That happens a lot in our family. ;)

The pterodactyl plush was one of Joseph's Christmas presents. He's mildly terrifying because he comes alive with glowing yellow eyes, moves his head back and forth, and screeches like a banshee raven from hell pterodactyl might have screeched back in the day. Joseph loves him. ;)

The books along the back of the table are all from a series of children's books that begin with "How Do Dinosaurs..." by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague. I checked out every single one that our library had because Joseph loves them. He actually learned to say, "Please!" and "Thank you!" from "How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?", so they hold a special place in my heart.

I loosely decorated the table based on these books since the dinosaurs in the illustrations are always playing with toy cars. Plus, the two things that Joseph likes to sleep with the most are dinosaurs...

...and cars...

So it all made perfect sense to me.

That's right. I reused the table runners & baby food grass jars from Sarah's baby shower.

Why waste a good thing? They were perfect.

I didn't want to mess with making some super fancy, complicated giant dinosaur shaped cake. I just didn't have the energy for it.

So, I pulled out Joseph's hard plastic animal toys, separated & washed all the dinosaurs, and used them for cake decorations.

Easiest. Cake. Ever.

Joseph almost managed to blow out his candles a few times, but in the end it was a family effort.

Then we let the birthday boy sample the goods.

He was quite pleased with the arrangement...

...and gave everything his stamp of approval...

I didn't realize this until after the party, but the silver tray that I put Joseph's cake on?? It's totally the same exact silver tray that my Mom used for my cake when I turned two:

It's the only giant tray I really own, so it was a total coincidence that I used it... but it gives me warm fuzzies nonetheless. 

Dear baby girl currently residing in my uterus... please have ducky curls like your mommy when you turn two and let me tie ribbons in your hair? Mmmkay??

Also... Mom? Did you save this dress??? It's so, so cute!

In reality, I'm expecting her to have pin straight hair like her daddy who, by the way, looked like this at the age of 2:

DUDE! Robert is totally moving in on his candle blowing territory! Uncool, Rob. Uncool.

Isn't he cute? I think Joseph is a nice mix of the both of us, but you can definitely see Stephen in him.

In addition to the big chocolate dino cake, we also used our car cake pans to make little almond glazed classic cars for dinos to drive around in.

Again, we involved the boys in this as much as possible. They took turns adding the ingredients to the mixer for the cake batter. And they both got to lick their own spatulas pre-eggs.

Then, once we had glazed the cars, we let the boys be in charge of decorating.

Sprinkles. Easiest way to decorate with a toddler.

They were both so serious about undertaking the task too. It was ridiculously cute.

Even if sharing the sprinkle bottle wasn't at the top of either little man's priority list.

Manager Special sprinkles? What? In our house? No way!

Even with (or maybe because of) the excessive amounts of green sprinkles, the dino-car cakes were my favorite.

I mixed them in with Joseph's vintage metal roller cars from his Grandad

If only I had remembered about the denim roads in Joseph's box of awesome. Then all the little car cakes could have gone cruising across the table.

Aw, who cares! Let's just eat some cake!

The "jungle" backdrop for the table was super easy. I just moved all of my houseplants into the corner behind the table.

I picked up most of them earlier in the week on clearance at Lowes. Twenty & Thirty dollar plants on sale for $1-2!!!!!!!!

And all they needed was some trimming and watering. Five giant houseplants for $7!!!!! Now, if I kill any of them, I won't feel (too) bad!

The dino "jungle" was especially popular with the little people.

Colton is becoming one with the jungle. He's practicing for his Curious George birthday party. ;)

I also reused the framed chalkboards from the shower for the food buffet area.

I picked out some quotes from the "How Do Dinosaurs..." books and wrote them on the chalkboards to promote food consumption.

As if that would be a problem...

If we had had more than 2 toddlers & a 5 month old baby present and if I were throwing this party for slightly older children, then I might have considered some of the following party games:

• "Pin the Tail on the Dinosaur" which comes straight from the pages of "How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday?" I would probably do this with 3-5 year olds.

Source: amazon.com via Caroline on Pinterest

• Digging for Dino Bones. I would probably do this with 3-5 year olds.

Source: saraspartyperfect.com via Caroline on Pinterest

• Dino Egg Hunt - you can do this with painted melons for giant eggs. I actually had some hard boiled eggs and Easter egg dye set aside in case we had extra time to kill. I figured we could draw spots on the eggs with a white crayon and let the boys dip them in the egg dye to make "dino eggs". I figured the boys would have fun with it and the whole idea amused me because Joseph was actually born on Easter morning. We didn't have time for it though and that was totally fine because the boys had plenty of fun just running around with each other!

Source: wantsandwishesdesign.blogspot.com via Caroline on Pinterest

We set up an eating & present opening area in the living room using our giant cafeteria table and, yes, more bed sheets. Oh, and lots of trendy arm pumping dances...

Joseph got some really awesome gifts - a truckload of wonderful new books, a giant blue bouncy ball, wooden ABC/123 blocks, a toddler proof remote control fire engine, wooden choo choo whistles, and slice-able wooden fruit to name a few.

Colton picked out the wooden fruit for Joseph. It's Melissa & Doug and it's FABULOUS. Joseph LOVES it! Thank you, Colton (& MC)! It goes perfectly with his wooden pizza set from Aunt Sarah!

And I love how he will say the name of the fruit as he cuts it.

"Joseph, can you say 'avocado'?"

"Ah-O-caca!!"

Makes me crack up every. time.

We ended the day with a very appropriate dino shirt and snuggles from Aunt Theresa.

He was one very tuckered out little dino.

It may have been thrown together last minute, but it was definitely successful. :) Happy birthday, Joseph! We love you!