Reading Rainbow

The Hubs has the neatest collection books from the series "Redwall" by Brian Jacques.  There are 34 books in the series and we have 14 of them.  We want Baby A to have them to grow up with so we bequeathed them to her and her nursery.  You can see them here:

Being the neurotic mama-to-be/design obsessed woman that I am the book jackets just weren't doing it for me in the context of the nursery.  My first attempt and making them over was to simply take the jackets off.  Alas, all of the book spines are red and I was not feeling 14 spines of red.  Luckily, a solution was found and executed yesterday.

After a quick field trip to Michaels for paper and wrapping I was ready to start the process.  It was all pretty easy.  The largest scrapbook paper that I could find was 12"x12" and didn't quite cover the book so I purchased some white matte wrapping paper to cover the books.  

After cutting out 14 white book covers I trimmed the scrapbook paper to size and secured them to the white book covers with double-sided tape.  A silver paint Sharpie was used to write the title on the cover.  I'm still debating about adding the title to the spine as well but I kind of like the simplicity of the monochrome rainbow right now.

Have any of you been crafty lately?

Baby Bucket List

The little sparrow's (we've taken to referring to her as a bird since she flutters around most of the day in my ever-growing belly) nursery is coming along. We've tackled most of the major components but like most things around the house there is always more to do.

Here is the list of remaining tasks to accomplish in the nursery/house prior to her arrival in *gulp* 10 weeks:

- paint and hang her closet doors
- buy and hang a wide shelf over the changing table
- replace the windows ($$$)
- replace the broken mirrored drawer on the night stand
- mattress for the crib
- bedding for said crib (sweet Aunt J is making our custom bedding!)
- baby-proof

That's about it. Not too bad, there is a laundry list of other misc. projects to accomplish around the house but none of them have to necessarily be accomplished prior to the Bird's landing in our nest. See what I did there? Bird...nest...landing...dorky mom?








Again, sorry for the photo quality (taken with my phone, dar). Lauren needs a new camera...

Let There Be Light and Other Updates

The Dorffette's nursery is slowly making its way to being a complete nursery. Last week the Hubs took down the ceiling fan that had been hanging in nursery and moved it to our bedroom, as our fan decided to break during the week of 112 degree temps. In its place he masterfully hung this glorious Maskros light fixture from Ikea, seen here in the box...in the closet...where it has lived for nearly a month.


Before:

The assembly required looked daunting at first sight but it was really easy. For only $49 it could have been even harder to assemble and would have been worth it.





I love this light installation so much that it makes me wiggle inside. There were doubts about taking away the ceiling fan which is commonly a baby mesmerizer but the cool flower shadows that this light casts on the ceiling and walls at night is sure to please the little one. It pleases this not so little one to no end!

After:


We also got the new Levolor blinds installed on the windows as well. Hooray for productivity and power drills! Thanks to JcPenney "Power Hours" we got over $1,200 worth of custom blinds for only $350. It sounds cheesy but check their circulars in the Sunday paper, it can save you oodles. If you haven't shopped JcP in a while you need to check it out.

Another tedious task that I had been putting off was to line the drawers of our super fun and super refurbished furniture. It took a bit of time but it adds a pop of color that makes me smile when I open the drawers. It's like finding a surprise. Sort of like that last piece of gum in the packet that you thought was empty hidden in the bottom of your purse.

Supplies:

Before:

After:


Those are all of the updates for now. Here is what we lack:

• Bedding - being made by sweet Auntie
• Chair and ottoman - ordered and waiting delivery
• Side table - still shopping for a deal
• Floor lamp - sitting at parents' house in Dallas
• Changing pad - sitting at parents' house in Dallas

Keep checking in for more updates, we are having a blast!

Land of Nod

We are happy to announce that the Dorffette's nursery is continuing to progress. In case you would like to catch up you can see where we started here. Hooray! There are a couple of missing components but it is progressing none-the-less. Take a peek at where we are right now and let me know how you think we are doing thus far.

Ta-Da!



Here is a refresher of what the room looked like before...insert shudder.



You can see we got the crib assembled. LOVE this crib. I lurv it so much that it requires further praise in its own post.



Above the crib we hung our DIY project that I showed you last week. I love that poodle; I call her "Francis."


We finished painting the armoire and washstand (aka changing table). I think that they turned out great. Although, has anyone else ever had a near impossible time finding a real true-black paint? The washstand was supposed to be high-gloss black. Like black, black. However, it didn't matter that I tried really hard to get a super black paint because when the washstand dried it was sure as silk, charcoal grey. C'est la vie. I kind of like it.





Until we discovered the date of the washstand I had thought about replacing the hardware, but they are unique and from 1850 so they stay.


Here is what we have left to do prior to baby girl's grand entrance into the world:

• Swivel/rocker chair and ottoman (already ordered and anxiously awaiting there arrival!)
• Cool side table, something along these lines...
• Paint the closet doors - yes, we do have closet doors we aren't weirdos that like to stare at all of our clothes when bored. Or are we?
• Baby bedding - sweet Auntie J is in the process of sewing all of our custom bedding, thank you!!!
• Changing pad for washstand
• Replace ceiling fan with wicked cool light fixture
• Hang shelf and install new wood blinds
• Pick-up floor lamp from my folks' house
  

All in all, I think that we are doing really well. I'm now 23 weeks along and am getting more tired by the day. This is pretty much the last room in our house that needs finishing (with the exception of the garage) which makes me smile grandly.

How are your projects going? Anyone else out there working on a nursery? Let me hear from you!

Summer Project-ions

Thanks to my hard-working and amazing parents Hubs and I have finally got the baby's nursery under control. This is great news for me as business has picked up and I am now left with little time to spend working on my own house. This is a good problem to have, indeed. Allow me to show you what we have been up to over the past couple of weeks.

This is what the room looked like when we started. After we cleared out all the crap-ola, that is. Yeah, I just said "crap-ola". Bringing it back! The original paint color had too much of a yellow base to keep me smiling.


First, Mom and Dad painted the nursery a lovely color called, Ivory Lace from Behr. Just the right amount of beige and brightness. We have an abundance of pattern in the bedding and curtains that a subdued hue seemed like just the ticket to ride this train.


After they so sweetly painted the room and closet (they painted the ceiling back in February) it was time to install the closet. You might know from previous posts that this is one of my favorite parts. Lucky for us, Dad and Hubs tore out the previous closet elements and patched the walls months ago so all we had to do was install the Elfa. Love me some Elfa. Look Ma, no rods!


Totally did the install in my pj's. Please, don't judge me too harshly. Lucky for me, I have a curtain of hair to hide the shame on my face. Not really. I thoroughly enjoy pajamas, or "loungerie".





The closet only took about an hour to install start to finish. Easy peasy. With so much time to spare we started to work on sanding/priming/painting the furniture for the nursery. The crib was lovely as is but the antique armoire and washstand needed some love. This is where it gets interesting...

Washstand Before:


Armoire Before:



That would be me. After it got a very thorough scrub down it was time for taping. Big, pregnant, taping.


This one was too lovely not to share. So glamorous. Eat your heart out, Fergie.


My sweet Aunt J gave us the antique armoire and I am sorry to say that I can't recall the story behind it (Aunt J please fill us all in!) but will do some sleuthing to find out its history. The washstand on the other hand belonged to my great great great uncle. Mom and Dad have had it since they were young newly weds and had lovingly stripped infinite layers of paint to then give it a white wash finish. We wanted it black so Dad got after it with a sanding block.


Sorry that I didn't get you a hand sander, Dad! He diligently got that thing back to neutral so we could prime it up real nice like. While cleaning it up he made an astonishing discovery...a date. Written upside down on the inside of the washstand was "November 16 1850."


Yeah, 1850! Are you kidding me? Too cool.


Alas, its age alone could not save it from a face-lift. Being sure to leave all writing and stamps visible we primed that sucker and then I got to painting. It has a new life and will happily serve as the Dorffette's changing table. Kind of sad to think that she might poo on this Pre-Civil War era piece of furniture. I'm sure that it will be precious.

On top of all of that Mom spent the better part of the week sewing fabulous curtains for the two windows of the nursery. To save some change and to keep the fabric from overwhelming the room we didn't make the curtains wide enough to close entirely over the larger window, but have sheers that do the job.


She took this staged picture so it would look like I sewed something. I didn't, but it was my sewing machine. That's something, right?



Mom was amazing and her handy work has been appreciated by everyone who has seen it in the nursery. All that I had to do was install the curtain rods. Pretty easy compared to sewing 90" long panels. That is a whole lotta fabric for one tiny baby (she is the size of a papaya this week).






That is all I can share of the nursery right now but I will have all the "after" photos and fun projects over the next week. It is just too fun to share all at once.