Adventures in Nurseryland Part IV

The final edition!

I have gotten so much accomplished with the nursery, that I'm going to do a little something different with this entry.  I'm going to try and compress all the new information into simple picture with description format.  As I get closer to my due date, I'm spending more time on getting prepared than I am writing about getting prepared.  Easiest way to solve this issue?  Pictures!  I know my last entry was titled "Pictures Say A Thousand Words My Ass,"  but I'm not writing an instruction manual for building a nursery, just simply sharing the magnificence of the one I've created!

To begin with, I'm going to offer up a recap on the dresser and chest that were refinished and hand painted by Tracey over at TraceysFancy on Etsy.  I know I've been over these items before, but I think proper before and after pics are necessary.  So here goes!

First, let's start with the chest:
Before...

After...

Notice the checkered legs and damask pattern on doors, adorable!

The painted drawers really make the inside POP!

Love the monogram!

Next, the dresser!
Before...

After...

The checkered feet and harlequin top...phenomenal!

Amazing detail and custom quote

The striped sides just add to the overall awesomeness!

Thank you for bearing with me for the repeat pics of the dresser and chest.  I'm just so absolutely thrilled with them that I had to share once more.  Now on to new things.

I've previously covered the window treatment for the room, but now I officially have the curtains and cornice board completed.  Both were in the black and white harlequin pattern, and both turned out beautifully.

View of cornice board in early morning light.

Close-up of the jewel and bead work.
Yes I did all that by hand!

A bunch of fairies came out to play! 

A view of the full window area (taken at night).

I love how the curtains and cornice board came together.  Notice that is the same fabric used for the crib panels?  Now I'm thinking about bejewling the crib panels in the same fashion as the cornice board.  It's a lot of work, but totally worth it.

The next series of pics will be random shots of the nursery from various angles.  Enjoy!

Chair/breast feeding area to right of window.

Large flower from Tipton Hurst

Dresser area with newly added wall decor.
(Ignore woman in bathrobe!)

Close-up of area above dresser.

Bookcase area to right of dresser.

Teacup bookcase, still being filled!

Chest area to right of nursery door, love the name and butterflies!

Larger view of chest area.

Close-up of letters.
Thanks to Lindsay @ LewisCourt on Etsy!

Crib area with newly added butterflies.

Alice picture on wall right of crib and left of window.

Began decorating the ceiling fan, it is still in progress!

Okay, that about finishes up the 360 degree tour of the nursery.  Here are a few panoramic shots to give an even better idea of the layout.

Before all the wall decor was added.

A little dark, but you get the idea!

A little confusing with both front and closet doors.

While everything looks pretty much complete, and it pretty much is, I do have a few other projects in the works as far as decor goes.  I am still waiting on a handmade, quilled mobile that will go above the seating/breast feeding area, I am repainting a wooden bird mobile that will go above the crib area or to the right of the chest (still contemplating the placement), my mom is working on a shelf which will hold the Alice characters seen in the box on the second shelf of teacup bookcase (probably go where the Dr. Seuss book bag is hanging), and I have some work to still do on the ceiling fan.  Oh, I also have this awesome pinwheel that I bought for Piper's garden, which will be on the outside of her window, but I have decided to hang it in the corner to the right of the chest. I am redecorating it's wooden post with the harlequin ribbon used in the bunny lamp's bow-tie and around the base of the ceiling fan.

All of these additions I will share as soon as I get them complete.  For now though, here is a look at the work of the woman who is handcrafting the mobile to go above the seating area.  She does quilled mobiles that are absolutely exquisite.  The pics are just a sample of her work, my specialized mobile will have flowers, butterflies, hearts, and rabbits, I do believe.  My mom purchased it for me, and I'm thinking those are the quilled pieces that will be a part of it once complete.  It will arrive from Greece around mid-April, so it will be the last piece added to the nursery.

You can find these @
http://www.etsy.com/shop/tsipouritsa

I hope you all have enjoyed this trip through the nursery.  It feels amazing to be practically finished with all of it and completely ready for Piper's arrival.  I love that it is one-of-a-kind, just like my little girl will be, and I hope she appreciates it as she grows up.  One thing is guaranteed, her eyes will never get bored!  It has been a long process with more expenses than initially anticipated, but I feel it was all totally worth every second and penny put into it.  Now the next step is to get her here so I can fully enjoy the space!  Less than four more weeks to go, woohoo!!!!

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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!

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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!

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Toodles!