A Handmade Nursery

With my first child, my husband and I decided that we wanted to know the sex of our baby because as first time parents we knew we had a lot of other "unknowns" that would come our way in the years to come. But the second time around, we decided to not find out and be surprised, this time figuring we survived the "unknowns" with the first child so not knowing would be fun.

And it was fun...up until I realized I wasn't going to be able to decorate the nursery until the little one arrived. I am a planner, so not being to plan the nursery in advance was really, really hard for me. So hard, in fact, that I may or may not have called my father, who lives 8 hours away, on multiple occasions and asked him to drive to Dallas over a weekend to come paint the nursery a neutral color before changing my mind and waving him off over and over because I realized I should leave it painted blue, you know, just in case it was a boy. And, it was.

And even though I personally haven't sewn in quite a while, it hasn't quenched my love for handmade goods. So when it came time to decorate my son's nursery, I scoured Etsy and Pinterest for handmade ideas.

While I was initally drawn to greys, reds and blues (you can check out my pinterest board here) I ultimately decided that I wanted the room to be more colorful after I found this birth announcement print by Kari Machel Designs on Etsy. I love the block style of the numbers of his birth date.

Also on Etsy, I then found this second You are My Sunshine print, by Nella Designs, that I alos loved. "You are my Sunshine" quickly became my song for me and my sweet E.



Once I had decided on the colors for the nursery from the birth announcement print, I emailed it to my Dad and asked him to build the "E" art I've hung inbetween the two prints. He purchased the "E" from a craft store and simply glued it to a circular piece of particle board. My son Z then helped him paint it, which was a fun way for him to be able to help with his brother's room.

The entire nursery came together, though, when my Stepmother surprised me with a beautiful "Woodland Creature" baby quilt! I knew the moment I saw it that I wanted to hang it on the wall and we just used a simple curtain rod to do so.

Isn't it awesome? The colors are absolutely perfect, and the really neat part is that she purchased the fabric to make the quilt before I had even picked my colors for the birth announcement print. She saw the fabric and pattern while she was on a quilt shop bus tour and bought it on a whim because she thought I would like it.

But I don't just like it, I love it. I couldn't have picked anything better myself. And now my sweet E has a warm and cozy handmade nursery.