Part 2: Eliza's room

All right, folks. Finally, the nursery post. This is the happiest room in our home, and the one with the most precious inhabitant. We spend a lot of time here these days!

I started out designing this nursery knowing I wanted to incorporate a lot of fabric, and otherwise make it very modern in style - Oeuf crib, minimalist, sleek lines, white white white. Somehow though, as soon as we found out little E was a girl, I changed my tune. We had a vintage name picked out, and suddenly I wanted cozy, vintage, sweet, with lots of handmade touches and bits of our past. Just about everything in this nursery was a project of some kind. Every piece of furniture was lovingly assembled, customized or painted; much of the artwork and all of the fabric were custom-made just for her. Of course we could have made this easier on ourselves, but since I pretty much sit around all day dreaming up ways to turn things into complicated, time-consuming projects, this was a dream come true for me. I loved watching it come together bit by bit.

We tried to sprinkle bits of our childhoods around the room, and of course got her started on some toys, books, and keepsakes of her own. Our families also kindly pitched in; Nicholas' parents gave us her beautiful crib, my father and stepmother paid to have the chair slipcovered and converted into a glider, and my mom and stepdad generously paid for all the fabrics and labor. So much love surrounding our girl as she plays and sleeps. Below is the grand tour:

The quilt I made on bedrest now hangs on her crib. Although the fabrics were designed by me, a lovely woman in Oregon named Wendy (found through Alchemy on Etsy) sewed all the bedding, panels, and cushion because I knew my sewing skills weren't up to the challenge. I love how the white ties and box pleats turned out. All the bedding and drapery panels are printed on linen-cotton canvas; the bench cushion and chair are printed on upholstery weight twill.

Eliza's newborn shadowbox: her measurements, bracelets, hat, some little booties I made her (which she quickly outgrew) and the announcement I designed that we handed out to our families at the hospital.

The white dresser is an IKEA hack. I really loved this piece from Pottery Barn which was $900+, but not quite in the budget. I took the handles off this piece we found at IKEA and ordered some pewter English bail pulls to make it a little more traditional. I added the changing topper from Land of Nod. I actually really love this dresser - the drawers are roomy and glide beautifully. Let me tell you, Miller LOVED putting this one together - it was an all afternoon project and the universal illustrations provided as "instructions" weren't exactly clear. He had a big role in this room from an assembling/painting/nailing/doing stuff only tall, un-pregnant people can do standpoint, and was a great sounding board for the fabric designs.

The hutch. A Craigslist find that was originally painted cherry, with brass knobs. It still has a sweet little bouquet painted on top that we couldn't bear to mess with. Most of the stuffed animals and dolls on the hutch were ours. Nicholas' teddy bear, Spacey, is my favorite. I crocheted him a new yellow and white scarf with a leather button to make him a dapper gent for our daughter's new room. The booties in the shadowbox were mine, crocheted by my great-grandmother. Nicholas' baby cup sits on the shelf, as does my little Peter Rabbit music box, and some of our favorite books growing up. The knitted toys are new - they just seemed to fit in well. The silhouette is me, age 2.5 (I had a crazy amount of hair!). That doll with the gorgeous lace dress is actually a Prince William in his Christening gown, brought to me by my grandmother from England when I was little. Annie and John brought Eliza that Paddington Bear from their most recent visit to London; they made it home just in time for her arrival. Highly recommend the retro "This Is..." series! The illustrations are fantastic and it gives its readers a lovely (if somewhat dated) tour of Texas. We also have "This Is London."

Hello from Suzette! This is my favorite corner (and the one I spend the most time in). We converted a club chair that we already had into a glider, and we decided to have a slipcover made so we could wash it. I designed/ ordered the e. fabric months ahead of time, but didn't get the pillow sewn until about 2 days before she was born. The quilt is the one my stepmother made and gave to me at Eliza's baby shower; she is a very talented quilter, and knew I was crazy about fabric so wanted me to help design it. All the fabrics are from Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms line. It is a treasured gift and it such a perfect addition to our nursery!

Above the crib: Eliza's mobile, which I think might be the thing I'm proudest of in this room. I crocheted it over a period of months. I can't take credit for the idea; it was inspired by Emma Lamb's Delilah mobile on Etsy. She's crazy talented! I'd decided I wanted to crochet my own, and googled around until I found one that matched what I had in mind. I decided to drop some hummingbirds down the center, so found a hummingbird pattern, crocheted the different flower motifs, crocheted around the hoop (very. frustrating.) and put it all together. The individual flowers and discs are actually fairly quick to whip together, but it was a pretty challenging project overall. She loves watching it spin, which makes me so happy. I hope once we've outgrown mobile age around here it will hang in a corner of some Miller child's room for years to come.

I designed the Good Day, Sunshine poster with my husband in mind. He loves the Beatles, and I thought it would be one way we could infuse a little more of him into this very girly room. (Sweet MJ took this pic - good shot, friend!).

Book nook: From the get-go, we both knew we wanted a corner that encouraged reading. I wanted her to be able to pull the books out herself to read when she is old enough, so this bench with its little cubbies seemed like just the thing. I had the cubbies styled a bit more interestingly at one point, but we've already been reading lots of books, and well, this is how it looks now.

The best job I ever had was working at the wonderful (and now sadly closed) Toad Hall Children's Bookstore in high school. I loved going there growing up, so it was always dear to my heart, and I learned so much about children's books while working there. I had the idea back then to frame illustrations from my favorites and use them in a nursery someday. The movie "You've Got Mail" used Toad Hall as a reference for their set and storyline, and just like the store in the movie, it eventually folded due to its inability to compete with the heavily discounted books at the big national bookstores. It closed its doors the day I left for W&L, which I've never gotten over, but I always found strangely symbolic and fitting in a way. I always dreamed about opening a similar store someday. But I digress...

Above: Madeline, Charlotte's Web, Winnie the Pooh, Bread and Jam for Frances, Little House in the Big Woods, and Eloise. I scanned them into my design software and then typed up the accompanying passages below. Miller kindly printed them out for me at work, although if they hadn't been such a TOTAL pain to line up straight in the frames I probably would go back and have my printer print them on a heavier cardstock so they don't curl in the frame. My perfectionist self can deal with it. I'm not redoing them.

This giraffe is from Anthropologie - E. loves looking up at him while we change and dress her. We both love the prints on the left of little girl in London, found on Etsy. The painting on the right is from my good friend Dottie, who lives in Amarillo and whose daughter Lisle is 6 days younger than Eliza. We did a nursery artwork exchange that I posted about awhile back. She has been a wonderful and special friend to have through our pregnancies and early days as mamas.

Above the crib: a blessing needlepointed by my great Aunt Billie (Eliza's great great aunt). I have one too that she made for me when I was born. We were looking for something small and safe to hang over the crib and this arrived one week after she was born (!). It is just the perfect thing and goes perfectly with the handmade theme of this room.

3-weeks old Eliza and her dog, who both love playing on the floor in this room. I can't believe how much she has grown from this picture. Now excuse me while I dig into my tub of Blue Bell Light...it's been an unusually long day with the above. She's a delight 90% of the day, until naptime, when she acts like I'm dipping her into a pit of snakes when I put her down. A fun new phase, and lately instead of wine (almost never worth it it seems...sad face) I self-medicate with ice cream.

Thanks for coming along on our nursery tour!

Progress

Out of ways to nest inside the house, we turned to the garden in early April. It needed a lot of work, but we are pleased with how it came out and it's been fun watching our garden spring to life. We decided awhile back that because we are already growing out of the "starter home" phase, it made sense for us to wait to buy a house, since this rent house is the perfect size for us right now and just what we need in terms of space and location. That said, it isn't the prettiest on the block, so it's been a fun challenge to work within our means to pretty it up where possible. Another fun challenge: keeping the deer from eating our new flowers. I have a few choice words for those guys.

This is what happens when I take pictures from directly above these days...our plumbago isn't the only thing growing around here.

We had a visit from our friends the Borgs last week, whose sweet baby Virginia is now 4 months old. She was here at about 6 weeks old and Nicholas was still a bit of a hesitant but willing participant in the whole baby holding arena. This time he was an old pro. He doesn't have too much practice with babies, but I know he'll be a natural.


You'd think on bedrest, I would have made a bit more progress on this blanket...but you'd be wrong. Absent a pattern, it is one of those things I have to mull over as I go. This is a chevron baby blanket done out of soft, silky cotton. I love to crochet, but am always trying to do a fresh, un-grannylike take on my projects. Usually that means a graphic pattern, lots of white, and lots of characteristic, indecisive waffling. I'm happy with how it's coming along now but I'm quite certain it won't be finished before the baby comes. I'm pretty sure she won't know the difference.

And, it turns out I wasn't going crazy; I've truly been laboring at home all this time. We have made some very significant progress from last week and my doctor said she'll be surprised if she doesn't arrive in the next two days or so. We're supposed to go straight to the hospital once the stronger contractions start, as we are already far enough along that she might not take too long once I'm in active labor. Because she is clearly ready to go, my doctor encouraged lots of walking to get things going. So last night I walked a 5K! Not going to lie, it was hard (and took forever) but it felt good to finally get some exercise after all these weeks laying around. Our neighborhood has lots of steep hills so it's not the easiest of walks. It didn't appear to do the trick, so I'm going to try and overcome my soreness and do it again tonight...Miller said he wants to follow me in a pace car like on the Biggest Loser, just in case I keel over midway through. One way or another, baby will make her debut here very soon! XO

Scenes from bedrest

Maybe it's that crazy nesting urge everyone says happens at the end of pregnancy, or maybe just feeling restless, but "the fear" - of the cut, of the blank page, of the blank canvas - applicable to just about everything I do, was tackled on a number of fronts this past week. The doctor said as long as I wasn't on my feet too long, it was fine to be up and about in the house a bit, so I've been spending some quality time playing with my favorite colors while I rest.

Isn't this the prettiest little basket of yarn? Last night I finally ripped out my baby blanket and started over. I wasn't happy with how the pattern was turning out and it seems I have nothing but time these days. Must admit I had to give it about a week before I could bear to pull it apart and get going again.

I think Miller was a little surprised to come home to a large easel set up in the dining room and paints strewn out over the table. I've never painted anything in my life, but I'm such a hobbyholic that I just happened to have all the supplies on hand - including canvases, a few different mediums, and a full-size easel - to start on something for the nursery, which we may or may not wind up using in the end. It was a fun process regardless, and I had my feet propped up the whole time. I bought all these supplies on a whim 5 years ago (in my, "I should take up painting!" phase, which apparently lasted the duration of a trip to Michael's), and I'd never played with them before because I had blank canvas fear (well, and, I don't really know what I'm doing). But I'm so glad I just went for it, it was relaxing and helped clear my head a bit. Thanks, Ans for your guidance on painting with oils! Messy, but so fun!

It was my goal since the very beginning to make a crib quilt showcasing all the fabrics I designed for the nursery. The problem was I couldn't decide on what pattern to use, and I had the fear of the cut - of cutting into them, hating the direction I took (a la the crocheted blanket) and not being able to undo it. I started thinking this quilt would never get done, especially since I now have this lovely little lady draped over the back of the glider. Well, something got into me Saturday and I just sat down on the floor and started cutting. No pattern, no rotary cutter, just me, the fabrics and some scissors. Perfectly constructed it's not – rotary cutters give you straighter edges and thus straighter seams (see those jagged edges??), but it requires being on my feet, leaning over a table and that would be breaking the rules. I actually really love working this way - much more fun to freehand design than to follow a pattern, and I can visualize how it's going to turn out as I go. It is in the process of being quilted (by a much more experienced quilter than I - I know my limitations!) as we speak, and then I might share some real pictures.

It'll be a race to the finish to see which will be done first - the baby or her little blankets?

We're taking bets. Until tomorrow friends! xo