Blog Slacking

Yep, that'd be me!

I admit it, I've been slacking on my blog duties...but I have a good excuse!  No seriously, I do.  It's called getting the nursery together, helping organize the baby shower, and exhaustion.  I've been going no-stop for the last couple of weeks, and the result has been slacking on my blog.  There are so many things I need to catch you all up on.  My nursery furniture is all in, I had my baby shower, I'm starting on the organizing and decorating phase of the nursery, etc, etc.  I plan on getting to all of that in due time, however, I have just been worn down from all the go-go-go I've been subjecting myself to.  I have a very difficult time just stopping and chillaxing sometimes.  I plan on doing just that this weekend before I run myself completely our of steam.  I figured once I had a couple of days of complete and utter down time, then I would be back to my lively writing self.  As for right now, though, I'm totally unmotivated to do much else but ponder my slackishness.  I do apologize and promise to get all things bloggy back up and running stat!  For now you will just have to accept my apology and bear with me a few more days.

I will share with you a few pics of the new nursery furniture to tide you over until my motivation is back in gear.

The crib is the Hope crib which I ordered from Rosenberry Rooms.  It is made by Newport Cottages and is painted a unique "hope" pink color.  One great thing about this crib, besides the personalized plaque and inlaid fabric panel on the sides, is that 10% of the proceeds from the sale went to Susan G. Komen.  While I am extremely lucky to have no breast cancer history in my family, I still like that part of the purchase price went to a good cause...I won't tell you how much it cost because you'd probably die of shock!  I will say that it was worth every penny and I will be keeping it as a family heirloom.

Side panel with harlequin fabric inlay

Plaque which reads "I carry your heart in my heart"

Full view with lavender under bed drawer and my cat Loki

Piper's hat, headband, and shoe collection!

The quote on the plaque I took from E.E. Cumming's poem i carry your heart with me.  While the quote is shortened a bit, it had to be as there were only so many letters allowed.  Here is the full poem:

i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go, my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                        i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

Okay, now on to the dresser and chest.  I will eventually dedicate and entire blog to these pieces, but for now I will just post a few pics.  The pieces were antique pieces refurbished and hand pained by a wonderful woman named Tracey.  She has an Etsy shop called TraceysFancy.  I highly recommend her, as she is an absolute genius and her design and artistic talents are impeccable.  Plus, she totally rocks to work with and way exceeded my expectation on everything!

Side of the chest with totally awesome monogram!

Dresser, notice the cool stripes!  Such an awesome touch!

Dresser front.  The added details of damask and checkered legs just blew me away!
Oh, and the awesome Alice quote!

Front of the chest with more surprise, awesome detailing!

I will definitely be providing more detailed pics when I get an entire entry written up dedicated to these two pieces.  There are quite a few surprise details she added that just made them so unique and special.  Tracey outdid herself.  Seriously, if you want custom pieces done, go check out her shop!  I promise you will not regret it!  She also is very reasonably priced, so bonus on that!

I know it wasn't much today, but it was hopefully enough to let you all know that I'm still alive and hadn't just decided to stop blogging all of a sudden.  I'll get myself back in gear and get some better material out to you very soon.  Be on the lookout for the next Nurseryland entry as I've got it almost completely finished, well I still have some pics and stuff to hang and rearranging to do, but everything is in and ready to be placed within the room.  This will be my first "free" weekend, so hopefully a lot of the rearranging will get finished.  I will do my best!

I'll leave you now with an adorable video of some twins who are having the most interesting of conversations.  Who knows what they're saying besides them, but they are definitely saying something!

As always, please come visit Piper and I on a daily basis.  In other words....

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I Can't Unsee That!

I just made a fatal third trimester error in judgement!  I suggest if you have a squeamish and/or are easily offended side, that you turn back now.  DO NOT READ FURTHER!  I'm serious about this one. I cannot go back, for I am the one who made the error, but for all of you there is still time.  Choose wisely!

Seriously, this is the last warning!

Today whilst out shopping at the ye ole Wally World, I bought several bathroom items, one of which was a hand mirror.  I've been needing one for some time, so no biggie there.  This mirror was supposed to be for examining my hair from behind, as I hate a crooked pony tail or any other lopsided hairdo.  Call me crazy, but all those years of ballet training and putting my hair up for performances made me a bit too caring about how my hair looks.  Anyway, I digress....

Well there must have been crack up in the bowl of soup I had for dinner, as nothing else would explain my urge to examine my nether regions with said hand mirror.  I have heard stories about pregnant vaginas, and since I'm down to the two month warning bell and my doc will soon be examining mine regularly, or so I'm told, I guess I was somehow morbidly curious as to what exactly she would be a witness to while between my swollen thighs.

I have already had enough hoohah fears during this pregnancy.  I'm worried about my most likely botched grooming technique being on display in the delivery room.  I haven't been able to see my va-jay-jay, much less properly get to it for tidying up, for months now.  I do my best, but as I have mentioned in a previous entry, I'm thinking it may look like some half-shaved Chewbacaesque patch-work quilt down there.  I've been doing my best to practice grooming while unable to see the task at hand and bent into the most obscure positions just to reach down there, but I imagine that all my efforts are probably just making the situation worse.  I should probably just let it loose and go for the 1970s buckwheat locked in a headlock look, but I'm way too vain for that!

My sentiments exactly!

As a matter of fact, I blame my vanity for tonight's unforeseeable turn of events.  What the hell was I thinking looking at it like that?  What did I expect I would find?  A pretty, pretty princess puss with sparkles and glitter and spitting sunshine?  I knew better, but like a bad train wreck I just couldn't stop myself from taking a peek.  And now I'm blind!  Way to go you unkempt kooter, now you've done gone and blinded the one person who truly cared about you!  I hope you can sleep better at night knowing you have destroyed my retinas!  I'm honestly surprised the damned mirror didn't break, too!

Beaver says boo!

So what was my big horror you ask?  You sure you really want to know?  Well first off, what the fuck is going on down there?  I swear that some vagina snatcher snuck in my room and stole my real vagina and replaced it with something dug up from a dank swamp somewhere in Jersey!  I'm not kidding, that thing down there is not mine!  And I want mine back!

I used to love my hoohah with all my heart.  It was all cute and pretty and perky and lovely.  Now it's just big and droopy and swollen and dark and evil and something more akin to Gollum than to the heavenly creature it once was.

I'm sure you can figure out the reference for yourselves!

Not only is it absolutely hideous, it has also developed a few skin tags!  There, I said it.  I swore I would always be 100% honest about this whole pregnancy thing, and although it pains me to tell the truth right now, I could never allow another woman to discover that this could happen without a fair warning.  After scouring the internet and such, it turns out that skin tags are a perfectly normal occurrence during pregnancy.  They can occur a number of places, such as under the boobs, in the armpits, on the neck, and yes, even on the va-jay-jay.  Problem is, there wasn't one damn mention of this to me by other women or in any of my pregnancy books.

I think we all generally feel like this!

Yet there are a whole slew of forums with scared shitless women reaching out to find comfort in the fact that no other first time pregnant women were aware of this, either.  Is this some kind of sick inside pregnancy joke that all  first time mothers are left to discover on their own?  Had I been prepared I would be okay, BUT I WAS NOT PREPARED!  And you know what goes with being unprepared?  Debilitating shock and humiliation!  Not a good combo as they could possibly send a gal into preterm labor!

Apparently these little buggers go away once the baby is born, and if not can easily be removed, but still!  Not only do I now have to worry about my patchwork grooming and my ugly-ass swollen and disfigured koochie,

Looks about right!

I now have to suffer even more embarrassment that my doppelganger va-jay-jay has dangly lumps which are horrifying and totally out of my control.  It may be completely normal, and the docs and nurses may be totally oblivious to my embarrassment and discomfort, but how the hell am I supposed to relax and concentrate on giving birth knowing that my vagina is an unsightly mound of horrors?  It was bad enough knowing that I may poop on the delivery table during labor, but even that I can handle better than this!  I can also now understand why so many C-sections are being performed these days.  One look at that as a baby and I'd be screaming to take me out the other direction, too!

It's times like these that I'm glad to be single.  If I was married or dating, I would be one tight-legged non-giving-it-up gal right now.  No way would I ever let my significant other anywhere near that terror between my thighs!  How would I ever convince them that it wouldn't be like that forever?  I would be terrified they'd pack their bags and haul ass before I could even pull my granny panties back on.  I've heard that pregnant sex is pretty awesome, but it is obviously meant to test whether true love is up in the house because you'd have to love each other a lot to get past what's going on down there.

Yep, this would be the case if I was attached!

I know I have probably shared way too much with this one, but I just had to give a warning shout out to other women out there.  I'm sure a lot of women have never even seen what their vagina looks like, and they shouldn't start examining it while pregnant or it will completely screw them up for life.  However, for those of us who are completely and proudly aware of exactly how everything should be down there, of which I am one of those women, third trimester examination should be strictly avoided at all costs as it will be worse on us than the women who are clueless.  While they may be frightened by what they find, they lack a base for comparison.  When I think of how I used to look pre-pregnancy versus now, I just want to break down and cry.

I sort of feel like this!

On the upside, it won't remain in this grotesque stage forever.  This is just part of what we women have to go through to create life.  It's a small price to pay in the long run, I suppose.  I guess I could take my horror and turn it into bragging rights or something.  With all the swelling and nastiness, I could probably compete for the Guinness title of world's scariest camel toe, but I'll refrain and keep my horror suppressed to this single blog entry.

After all, things could be worse!

I hope I haven't lost any readers with my candidness on this one, but I could never forgive myself if I didn't throw my own comfort to the wind and share this with others out there who may be sitting in their bedrooms with a hand mirror, pregnant, and crying for their lost vaginal beauty.  Be strong my fellow mothers-to-be.  This is just but a temporary discomfort that we will all get through one way or another. Just keep concentrating on that beautiful baby you're growing inside you, and forget about the Frankensteinish swamp monster that has come to inhabit your nether regions...for this too shall pass.  At least that's how I'm coping right now as massive amounts of tequila are out of the question for the time being!

 That and a little bit of Primus!

Until my next horrific discovery, you know what to do!

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Adventures in Nurseryland Part III, The Bunny Lamp

The bunny lamp edition!

Yes, I am going to dedicated an entire entry to just one lamp. Why?  Cause I'm just a little bit on the bonkers side, I suppose.  Seriously though, it's because I am so damn proud of my own craftiness and this is the perfect platform to do a little bit of self congratulatory back patting.

I really do need this device!

This is not the first time I've mentioned the bunny lamp.  This entry, however, is going to be a bit more thorough and descriptive.  In other words, there are more pictures!  By the way, on a complete aside, I burned the hell-fire out of my left index finger with the hot glue gun during the bunny lamp decorating process.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to type with a band-aid over one of your index fingers?  Well it's not an easy task, whatsoever!  I  was going to push through the pain and the band-aid, but enormous amount of mistypes and subsequent corrections finally conquered me and I took a few days off from typing to heal.  I know, sounds like a big wussy thing to do, but I'm better now and much less frustrated with the keyboard.

Since it has taken me longer than anticipated to get this post out, I will shorten it into a mainly picture format.  So grab your carrots and let's get going!  Get it?  Carrots!  Bahahahahahaha!

First off, I'll begin with the before pics of the bunny lamp.  I randomly purchased this lamp a couple of years ago while flea market shopping.  I don't know why I had to have it, but I just did.  Thank goodness I listened to my instincts on that one.

Cute as a button just as it was!

Although the lamp was absolutely adorable as is, once I decided it was going in the nursery and going to be part of an Alice in Wonderland theme, well it just needed some embellishments...to say the least.

My initial thought was just to spiffy up the lamp shade.  And initially that is exactly what I did.  Just an FYI, all the materials I used for the bunny lamp were purchased at Hobby Lobby.  And all of them were 50% off!  Yep, I like the frugal shopping.

Corner Shot

Front shot

Detail of bottom trim

Basically, what I did was take a plain lamp shade, a glue gun, some ribbon and other such crafty goods, an enormous amount of patience, and a creative spark.  I rolled these all up into one and presto!  The bottom trim was pretty tedious as it is actually five separate layers.

These are the three embellishments I used for the bottom

The top trim was no picnic either, as I first had to glue the pink beads onto the teal ribbon before I could attach the ribbon to the lamp.  Here is a good look at the teal ribbon I used for the top trim and one of the ribbons I used for the side.

Top trim

I also used this ribbon in teal for the sides

After embellishing the lamp shade with ribbon, I then noticed the rabbit himself was looking a little dull.  At first, I decided he needed a black and white harlequin bow-tie to tie into the other B&W harlequin being used throughout the room.

Isn't that fab?

Notice how I added the red heart jewel to the bow-tie.  I thought it tied nicely into the Alice theme with the Queen of Hearts and all that jazz.  Once the bow-tie was added, I then decided his face was just not animated enough.  So I decided he needed some eyes.

Isn't that better?

I was floored by how much the eyes added to his expression.  It completely changed the way he looked.  Now he looked alive rather than just like a plain old bunny lamp.  Brilliant!

Here is one last pic of the first time I finished decorating the lamp.

It's lovely how the light shines through

I was completely satisfied with my new lamp, for a couple of weeks.  It was better than before and fit nicely with the nursery decor.  But then I went to Hobby Lobby, again, and found some more decorative items and all hell broke loose!

Next thing you know, I am once again out in the craft room fiddling with the hot glue gun.  This time I decided the shade needed some froo-froo stuff on the front and sides.  So, I began positioning various butterflies and dragonflies on all sides.  Btw, no two sides are the same, which makes it all that much better!  Once I had these pinned into place, I always pin before I glue just to make sure I'm not losing my mind, I decided to add some flowers to each corner and also one each to the top center and bottom center of the sides.  This was what I ended up with.

Pretty cute, right?

And remember, this is only one side.  Each side has different colored embellishments to add maximum variety.  If you get bored with one color scheme, then just rotate a quarter turn and voila!  Although I loved the additional flare I had just created, I then decided the the corner strips needed something too.  How about some jewels?

Notice the pinned jewels to your left 

After deciding that the jewels totally rocked, I went ahead and permanently attached them to all corner strips.  However, I liked them so much I decided to add a few here and there to the sides in between the dragonflies and butterflies.  Then I said what the hell, and added some to the tips of the dragonfly wings, and in the centers of the each butterfly and flower.  Here is how that turned out!

I love sparkles!

But still that just wasn't enough!  I then went back and added jewels as the heads of the dragonflies and on the top tips of the butterfly wings.

Squee!!!

After the last few jewels were glued in place, I was finally 100% satisfied with the lamp shade.  About time, right?  When the shade was finally finished, it was time to add the last little touch to the actual bunny.  After all, an Alice rabbit has to have a pocket-watch, correct?  I had picked up a fabulous watch, chain, and key that absolutely had to be added.  The key was just a little something extra that made since for the rabbit to carry.  Here is the final result of that addition.

The watch and key

A close-up for detail

After weeks of work and additions, I have finally finished my bunny lamp!  I'm super thrilled at how it turned out.  I hope Piper loves it as much as I do.  She certainly should never be bored whilst looking at it, as it is a feast for the eyes.  I will admit that I am thinking of adding just one more very tiny touch,though.  I think he would look great holding a red rose, don't you?  Stay tuned for one more pic, just in case!

UPDATE:  Had to add the roses!  Now isn't that better?

Now I'm finished, I promise!

I hope you all enjoyed this new arts and crafts entry.  I really would love to open an Etsy business where I could design and decorate themed lamp shades and/or lamps.  I have always had an affinity for lamps, goodness knows why, and I get such immense joy out of doing what I just did above.  Maybe someday I'll get a chance to share my crafting with a paying audience, lol!

As always, feel free to follow Piper and I on Facebook.  Also, don't forget to vote for us on Top Baby Blogs by clicking the banner below!




Toodles!

Adventures in Nurseryland Part II, The Outer Shell

Yep, it's that time again!

It's time once again to catch everyone up on where the nursery stands at this point.  I know you've all been anticipating this day, waiting with baited breath, and today you can finally sigh with relief that you no longer have to walk around all blue-like from lack of proper oxygen!

So let's get right to it shall we?  Oh, if by chance you never saw the first Adventures in Nurseryland post, go ahead and bounce over there and catch up.  If you have already read it, you may want to give it another glance because unlike a bad teenage novel series, I will not be repeating the back story and covering what has been covered already.

Before I get started, I'm going to interject here.  Actually, I've already written the rest of this entry.  I'm simply coming back to give a warning.  I decided at the end of this post to divide the Nurseryland posts into even smaller bits as this entry was way longer than expected.  So this particular entry will cover what I like to refer to as the nursery's outer shell.  Okay, now onto what I've already completed!

I'll start with the paint job on the nursery.  I am overly pleased with the amazing job my mom and I did on the paint job.  I had never painted anything in my life, unless you count crafts here and there and finger painting back in the day, but nothing as daunting as an entire room.  So I was shocked when we totally rocked the job.  We were very lucky that I was installing new carpet in the room, because that allowed us to be a little less cautious when it came to dripping paint on the floor and stuff of that nature, although we were not all that messy.  But regardless of that little side bit of info, which wasn't really a necessary par of this story (I'm not backtracking now), the job was immaculate.

The color scheme I chose for the room very much reflects my nature and the Alice in Wonderland theme.  Although I'm going more with the vintage Alice theme, I am also incorporating  brighter colors that are somewhat reflective of the Disney version.  For the room's walls, trim, and ceiling I went with all Behr Paints with a satin finish.  The walls were done in Misty Violet, the crown moulding and window trim in Citron, and the base color for the ceiling was done in Mineral Water.

Isn't the moulding the bomb?

Here you get a glimpse of the window trim.

Better shot of the fabulous window.

Oooooh, while we're on the picture above I need to tell you about that window treatment!  The whole deal with this amazing window is that it faces East and the the early morning sun beats the dog crap out of the room.  I didn't want to cook poor Piper like an egg fried on a sidewalk during a hot August afternoon in the deep South, so I had to find a way to filter some of that direct light and subsequent heat.  My mom found these wonderful arched blinds and we began getting samples from various companies.  We ended up going with the Levolor Accordia shade in Petal from Blindsgalore.  The installation was a bit of a bitch, I highly suggest getting the instructions direct from Levolor online because the ones from Blindsgalore were miniature and extremely hard to read, but the result was fantastic.  Isn't the shade gorgeous?  And the color was the perfect shade of soft pink.

Okay, back to the paint job.  As you can see from the photos, I brought a pop of color into the room via the Citron accents.  I absolutely love the color and it really stands out from the soft violet walls.  As for the ceiling, yes those are clouds!  My mom and I bravely decide to paint a cloud ceiling.  We had no prior experience, could not find any decent instructions on the internet, so we kind of just winged it.  As I said before, the base coat for the blue sky is Behr Mineral Water.  I was originally going to go with Serene Sky, but it ended up being too bright of a blue.  It would have been a great sky color for a little boy's room.  Had I done the pirate room I had planned for little Beckett before I found out I was carrying little Piper, I would have opted for the brighter shade.  As for the clouds, they are a mixture of two colors.  The base clouds were done with Behr Frosty Morning and the top/highlighting/blending shade was done with Behr Frosted Juniper.

The pinker shade is the Frosty Morning.

Notice the accidental bunny we painted?

As you can see from the pics, the clouds are pretty damn pimp!  So how'd we do it?  Good question!  The secret two ingredients to this art, besides the paint, are the sea sponges and a 2" dry paint brush.  We purchased two different natural sea sponges that were from one of Martha Stewart's lines..  The great thing about the natural sponges is that since their shapes are so whackadoodle, each side offers up a different shape to paint with, which is great for making clouds.

Totally whackadoodle!

To begin, we dipped the dry sponges into the Frosty Morning paint, wiped off the excess, and gently free-handed the base clouds onto the ceiling.  We used various techniques, but the slight twist of the wrist at the end of each tap gave a nice fluffy cloud-like appearance.  A lot of sites suggest you map out your clouds on paper first so they don't get too symmetrical and/or evenly spaced.  We said screw all that and just went for it.  My mom had a bit more skill at making these, so I let her do most of the base clouds while I handled the secondary clouds.  Here is a pic of a portion of the base clouds (upper portion of photo).  As you can see, they're quite the free-handed job.

Base clouds

For the secondary overlay on the clouds with the Frosted Juniper, both the sea sponge and the 2" brush were used.  My techniques was to once again dip the sponge into the paint, making sure to wipe of any excess paint, and then gently tap the sponge using the wrist twisting motion at the end.  From there I came back with the dry brush for extra fluffing.  This was done with light taps and wrist twists until the two colors were well blended.  By the way, this will completely destroy your paint brush, so depending on the size of the ceiling, you may need more than one.  We used two to complete this ceiling.  I didn't cover the entire base cloud with the overlay, but instead focused on the outer areas and once in awhile also making whispys between cloud formations.  Here is another look at the finished result!

Just so you don't have to scroll back up!

In the end, the clouds came out way better than we anticipated.  I really wish I had filmed our technique, just in case I ever needed to do them again.  Plus, there just weren't any good instructional videos out there that I could find.  I found some that were overly complicated and didn't really show techniques, just the final results.  Maybe one of these days I'll do another such ceiling and film part of the process with that one.  It could happen!

Once everything else was completed, we also decided to go ahead and paint the baseboards and door frames.  We ended up once again using the Frosty Morning.  Since the walls were violet, the slight pink tint to the paint perfectly accented  them.  We tested with three different whites, and that shade was by far the best for our color scheme.  

Not a great pic, but will have to do.

I hope you can see the slight pink tint from the pic, it's the best one I have at this exact moment.

Now that I've covered the walls and ceiling work, I'll get back to the window.  Oh yes, there is more window to discuss!  The arched shade was just the first step.  Once that was in place, next came the decision on sheers, outer curtains, and cornice board.

For the sheers, at first I thought I wanted to go with soft pastels.  Then I got to browsing around and realized just how difficult it was for me to actually find sheers that I liked.  Finally, my mom ran across some we both really liked on Ebay.  By the way, if you have't figured it out yet, my mom is my partner in crime when it comes to dittying up the nursery.  We have very similar tastes so it's extremely easy for me to tell her my ideas, let them jostle around a bit in her skull, and then we're both off and running like to crazed decorating loonies!  We really shouldn't be allowed to shop together as it always leads down the more is more path of life.  Anyway, back to the sheers.

Like I said, my mom ran across some great sheers on Ebay, and wouldn't you know they weren't the pastels I originally imagined.  Oh no!  Once I saw these, pastels just would not do.

Bright or bust!

Instead of the pastels, she discovered these bad ass brighter sheers which really pop!  I instantly knew these were the ones I wanted.  I mean seriously, are they not fabulous?  And what was even better was how they stood out against the black and white harlequin fabric I'm using for the outer curtain and cornice board.  If you look at the top right of the curtains, you will notice the harlequin fabric draped over the sheers.  This is the same fabric that is featured in the fabric panels on the sides of the crib.  My mom is currently in the process of sewing the outer curtains which will be swept boldly to the sides and tied back with adorable little fringe tassel numbers we found at Hobby Lobby.

Adorable pink and lime with a crystal accent.

I don't think the picture of the tassel even remotely does it justice.  Plus, the cording cannot be seen too well and it's really quite stunning with the various intertwined pieces.  I would take an actual picture of mine to show the cording, however, I have not yet taken the packaging off as I don't want to turn them into kitty treats before the curtains are actually hung.

Before I move onto the cornice board, I want to give you a little bit better of an idea regarding the sheers, here is another pic of how they look in the early morning sunlight.

And the angels wept in joyous rapture!

Yeah, thought you all would like that!  They really do capture the light magnificently.  I cannot wait to get the outer curtains finished because they are really going to sing then.  Along with the outer curtains, I am currently having an old family friend build me a cornice board that will cover the bottom portion of the arched shade and the top portion of the sheers...much like a valance but way cooler. I am going with a scallop-edged board that is about 14" in height between it's longest points top to bottom.

Basic design plan.

Once again, not a great pic but an idea of the board style I'm going for.  It will also be covered in the black and white harlequin fabric.  I think the black and white overlaying the bright sheers is really going to look super duper.  Now it's just basically a waiting game until the curtains are sewn and the board is cut, so I can then add the fabric to it.  Adding the fabric should be pretty simple.  First is a layer of quilt batting and then a layer of fabric which is wrapped and stapled down on the back side of the board.  Of course, I will document the process of finishing up the cornice board once I get to that point.  Hopefully it will go as smoothly in reality as it has in my head, but then again you never know.

I have some surprise extra touches I will be adding to the curtains and cornice board once they are complete but I will not go into those right now, hence the surprise part.  It's just some added pizzazz my mom and I have been toying with, so you know it's gonna rock!

Okay, I think I've just about covered the outer edges of the nursery.  Oh wait, the new carpet!  I almost completely forgot about that part.  I decided to go ahead and install all new carpet for the nursery as the previous carpet was an almost white and 14 years old to boot.  I didn't think white was the best idea for a young child, so I went ahead and sprung for the cost and had it replaced.  I wanted to get carpet that would later work with the rest of the house, so I had to pick out something that didn't scream kids room.  Instead,I decided on a light jade color that is reminiscent of grass.  My thought was that it would go perfect with the cloud ceiling and sort of give that outdoorish feeling...much like a mad tea party outside!

Don't ask the price!

Once again, the picture here doesn't do the carpet justice.  This was taken fresh after install and all the markings make it look a bit strange.  It's a wonderful shade that I couldn't be happier with and works very well, believe it or not, with all the crazy colors in the room.  I'd say it grounds the room, hahahaha!  Here is another pic that might give a better idea of how it looks with a bit of furniture thrown on it.

It just gives it all an earthy feel.

One of the things I love about the carpet is that it will work with the rest of the house later.  It's the same shade as the sages in the living room crown moulding.  Like I said, I needed it to mesh with the house as I definitely didn't want to re-carpet the room a few years down the road...it was way too pricey to not get a good many years out of it.  And when you take off your shoes and wiggle your toes around...well let's just say it was worth every penny!

Alright, I've got just one more thing to touch on in regards to the outer shell of the room...the light switch and outlet covers.  Initially I had painted all of these the citron color, same as the moulding and such.  However, I then decided to once again throw an Etsy artist some business which, in turn, would throw a little more uniqueness into the room.

If you are ever in the market for unique light switch or outlet covers, definitely go check out marimakings on  Etsy.  Mari is the artist and she is wonderful to work with and her work is superb! She will work with you on style, color, type of plate, etc.  I have so far purchased, received, and installed both light switch covers for the room.  I was so pleased with her work, that I am now ordering five outlet covers.  She has a whole slew of vintage Alice in Wonderland styled covers, and the hardest part is choosing which ones I want as I do not want any of them to match.  For now, here are the two switch covers I have received.

This one was done especially for me!

The Blue damask pattern is also in Piper's crib bedding!

Aren't they the bomb?  Mari was even so sweet that she sent me a return envelope with my order in case I was unsatisfied with the harlequin design she chose.  I was far from disappointed, however. I was ecstatic!  Like I said, go check out her site, these Alice ones are just the tip of the marimakings iceberg.

Now I think I have finally covered the entire outer shell of the nursery.  Let me recap just to make sure...paint (wall, ceiling, and trim),window treatment, carpet, and switch plate covers.  Yep, that covers everything that encases the innards of the room.  Thank goodness!

I was planning on this entry covering everything I have accomplished since the original Nurseryland post, but I didn't realize I would go over everything in such detail.  What can I say?  Once I get going, I never quite know where I'll wind up.  Since this post was longer than expected, I have decided to break up the rest of the Nurseryland posts into smaller, more bite-sized pieces.  Following this little ditty, I will focus the next entry on the bunny lamp I created.  Oh yes, it's quite fabulous!  I have a few more touches to add to it, but those will be completed tomorrow, so definitely stay tuned!

I hope you enjoyed this little trip through Nurseryland.  It's only the second in what looks to be a much longer series and initially anticipated.  Woohoo!!!  I leave you as always with an invite to follow myself and Piper on Facebook.  Also, feel free to click on the banner below and show me some love on Top Baby Blogs!  At last check I had jumped to number 72.  I'm hoping to one day make the top 50, so help a single momma-to-be out! :)