The basketeers

Any Friends fans out there that get the title? Anyone?

Anyway, storage is always an issue for everyone. Especially little babies who come with proportionately WAY more stuff that their size should allow. So, once hubs installed the closet system, it was up to me to figure out how we were going to organize all Hailey's (at the time his/her) many things.

Good old HomeSense is always a great spot for baskets and I found some really nice ones that came in a bunch of sizes and were pretty darn nice as is frankly.

But, since we didn't know the gender of our babe, I thought this liner was a little too feminine in case it was a little boy who came along. So in all my foolishly eager newbie seamstress-ness, I decided to sew all new basket liners for the 6 baskets I bought. Who do I think I am?!?!

After some figuring and some almost-running-out-of-fabric, I finally got them all done.

I chose the polka dot fabric I'd used on the lamp shades and the rocker pillow so there'd be some consistency/pseudo-theme running through the room.

In the end, I really like them and I'm glad I was able to complete them, but man-will I ever NOT do that again.

DIY Nursery art

Admittedly, most of the art in the nursery is DIY. And why not? It's personal, cheap and custom.

This is one idea that my sister and I both stole from Wanderluster at Rambling Renovators, but it's a great one.

It's a shadow box with a collage of all the shower cards I'd received. Great idea, no? Especially since the cards are so sweet and cute, and what the heck else are you going to do with a stack of them otherwise?

The idea had always been in my head, I just procrastinate like it's my calling so never got around to doing anything about it. Enter big sis-included in her friends shower gift was a shadow box for that very purpose.

And here it is. I'm happy to report that at least a piece of every single shower card I received is represented in here somewhere.

And here it is in action when you first walk in the nursery. I love it!

Thanks sis! And, of course, all the lovely ladies that gave me the medium.

Ever crib needs a mattress

I really love our crib. Really, I do. But Holy poop it's given me its share of headaches.

After the refinishing and air hole situations were resolved, we then had to sort out getting a mattress for this thing.

Since it hasn't been used in more than a couple decades (the last person to use it, my youngest sis is now 23), the mattresses it had were a little...um...rough. In fact, here's the one in best condition that my mom had made more than 30 years ago:

So needless to say, I wanted to get something in slightly better shape, and a bit thicker. You see, the crib is pretty deep and while I'll still use the above mattress at the bottom of the crib for a little extra boost, I still need a 5 or 6" mattress on top of it so I'm not doing deep bends every time the baby needs to be picked up or put down. Plus, the higher they are (obviously within reason), the more air circulation...that issue never really goes away.

So I sourced out a couple options from upholsterers, seamstresses, mattress stores, etc. Not too much came up, and when it did, the cost was crazy. Like $250 was the lowest one, and he was doing me a favour.

Yes, I know crib mattresses are available at most department stores and baby stores. And certainly for less than $100, BUT...the mattress needed for this precious crib is 47" x 21", and a standard mattress (all new cribs have essentially the same dimensions) is 42" x 24" or something like that. Shorter and fatter than ours anyways. So...I was on my own.

Even I, in all my ignorance knew that somehow I could do this myself for a lot less than $250. It may not be perfect, but it would be perfectly safe and much more affordable.

So I visited a bunch of fabric stores trying to get as much info as I could. From some of the bigger ones in town, even just the high density foam would run me $150+. Shize.

Then...someone recommended checking out Rockland Textiles . Thank goodness they did!

I got the mattress cut perfectly to size in 2 days for a fraction of the price of anywhere else and I managed to buy baby vinyl for cheap from my angel ( Fabricland on Hazeldean) that recommended them.

I realize I'm making this out to be a much bigger deal that it should be to anyone, but it took SOOO long to finally find this solution.

Then, after repairing a broken sewing machine, a LOT of hand sewing on the ends (to the point of a lasting claw hand), and the serious consideration of duct taping it together, I finally got the mattress covered.

And I gotta say, for someone who couldn't even thread a sewing machine a year ago, it looks pretty damn good.

Of course, though, with a wonky sized mattress, I needed to craft some wonky sized crib sheets. Damnit!

But through the wonder of google, a bit of free time and the stubborn insistence that I could do it, I managed to figure it out somehow and have made a couple fitted (yep-like with elastic corners!!!) sheets that perfectly fit (if I may say so myself) the mattress.

I'm SO glad it's over and ready for a little donkey in there.

Presto, Change-o

A super simple and easy project to update any house? Updating the switch plates and plugs.

OK, I'll admit that the main reason this is especially simple, easy (and cheap) for us is because I'm married to an electrician, but still. It's a great way to update an old house.

Especially when the switches and plugs are a mix-match tone, painted all over and just ugly:

And in less than 5 minutes per box, are changed to this:

And, actually, all the plugs are tamper resistant, which means in several months when babe is cruising around and curious, they're a lot safer around the outlets and we don't have to stick those little plastic cover thingy's on all our outlets. Perfect!

I truly can't believe the difference it makes.

Le crib

If you recall from an update a while ago, progress on our heirloom crib came to a screeching halt about a month ago.

Fortunately, however, since then it's all been remedied and it's now all set up awaiting a babe in the nursery.

A reminder of what the crib looked like in it's original state:

And in an effort to give examples of how it could be altered to allow for some more air circulation, I did up these drawings in my fave program (next to Excel), paint:

Then hubs and I marked them out to see which one(s) we preferred:

And finally, had the slots cut out, and then I primed, painted and verathaned parts of it all over again until we have the finished project:

Which I'm confident allows enough air circulation for our little squirt, especially combined with the wide open top, and how high the mattress initially sits while the baby is really a baby.

Phewf! One less thing to worry about.

Let the trim begin...

Remember our vibrant main floor living space?

And no, I don't mean that in a complimentary way.

Well, since most of the other immediate big projects are completed, we thought it would be a good time to get started on trim & paint in these blue blue BLUE rooms.

There was an AWFUL lot of patching work in these rooms thanks to 30 years and some not-so-handy previous owners. It's a good thing I'm home from work now to do all this dirty work in the day light.

The first step was trim. Here's the trim that's throughout the entire house:

It's not terrible, but it's pretty small, standard and nothing special. So we got some new trim and here's what it looks like after:

Pretty big difference, non? But it's actually a bit of a cheat. See-the bottom part is trim and that little strip at the top is trim, but that flat space in between? It's just wall painted white. Clever eh? It's a trick many home builders are using to up the value of fairly standard trim. Sure, you can buy 8" trim, but this is a lot cheaper.

So when it's on a whole wall, it looks like this:

Still a hideous wall by any standards, but en route to being much nicer.

And once the trim's done and the wall's painted....well, there you go.

THEN it starts to remind us of a new house...

Especially after the switch plates are all changed!

Love it!

DIY Nursery Art

I've mentioned once before about alphabet & animal posters that I really liked for the nursery. Unfortunately the ones I've found on Etsy weren't available in poster format, which I wanted.

What's a girl to do but make 'em herself then!

A few stock photography and a very basic knowledge of Photoshop, and here we are:
Cute, non? So now I've started barely accumulating stuff for the nursery and actually starting painting yesterday so I guess I've started 'nesting'.

Flooring Done-ito!

Ladies and gentlemen (haha-as if there are plural people reading this), our flooring is finally done!

Hubs spend his 2 week vacation working harder than he does regularly (which is incredibly hard and labour-intensive to begin with), but he's done and we're finally ready to MOVE IN!!!

A reminder (once again) of what was there December 11th, when we physically moved in:

So basically, in a word-blue. In 2 words-blue and ugly. (ok, ok, blue and outdated, I'll be nice)

Here's some progress and carnage pics for good measure:

And...the end result (with some insane mess and feline tour guides:

Up next: banisters and painting! I guess hubs' 'vacation' sn't over for a while yet ;P

The crib project

So I can officially say that the nursery progress has progressed. Incredibly slowly and nothing big, mind you, but you gotta start somewhere.

One of the big projects for the room is the crib. We are actually going to be using the very crib that my Oma (dutch grandmother) brought over by boat from Holland 50+ years ago, used for her 7 children and was then used for myself and my 3 siblings. Neat, huh?

It's a sturdy piece of furniture, that's for sure. So before anyone starts wondering if it's safe and in accordance with all the new standards, here's a photo:

It's solid oak and very sturdy, so I'm confident my little peanut will be in good hands.

However, hubs and I aren't real 'oak-y' people. Love the wood-not necessarily the colour. So...we've discussed with my father, who'd discussed it with my Oma before she passed away in November, and both were completely ok with us sanding it down and refinishing it in a darker stain.

So I got to work sanding it. Wore the motor out of 1 palm sander actually before buying a new, better one and making much quicker progress with it. Once it was all sanded, I tried a section with the stain..and it just wasn't working. Like, at all. It's some very old wood and I was using a water-based stain (better for the babe), and the two are just not a match made in heaven, unfortunately for me.

My dad then suggested just painting it. Obviously I'd thought of that, but didn't want to make the call to paint over a family heirloom piece from a family (and paternal grandfather) who LOVE their wood. But he said he'd ask his sisters and a painter-friend to see if they had a problem with it/ had an alternate solution for it. There wasn't and they didn't, so we bought the paint yesterday.

The CIL website is under construction, so I couldn't find an actual swatch of the colour, but it's Stonebridge Brown and (on my monitor, at least) closely resembles this:
So it'll hopefully be a much updated crib and it starts tonight with priming, so I'm very excited.