Cora's Room : Progress

I mentioned earlier I'd share some pictures when we finished up Cora's room, but I think it may be a little while before I get to the projects I have in mind.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share the progress.  Here is the before picture:

I originally wanted to do a mint wall, but we quickly realized we needed to paint the trim. We bounced a couple fun color combinations like yellow and turquoise before I remembered Elsie's sunroom.  I sent Ben a picture of the white walls with the light blue trim and told him to pick something similar to that and included some other color swatches that I like... and he knocked it out of the park.  I'm kind of a control freak so letting him pick the color was scary, but it was the perfect color and exactly what I was imagining.  Ben also painted almost the entire room (I helped with some trim on one of the doors) and he did an awesome job.

We moved the gradient dresser upstairs and added another coat of white paint on the dresser with some help from Cora. We also painted her toy box over Thanksgiving weekend. She told me "I love it when I'm painting!"

I came home from work one day and found Ben painting this shelf to match her trim.  I never would have thought to use that shelf in there (it was left by the old owner), but it's the perfect fit.  We added in the bookcase underneath and hung up the castle painting Jazz made for Cora.  Cora picked the other painted canvas out of our stash and decided next to the bookshelf at her eye level was the perfect spot for it.

We also hung up the poms from Cora's baby shower and some paintings that Cora and I worked on together.

Cora was out of the house for most of Friday and Saturday one weekend, so I did a bunch of the unpacking and set up all her books and toys.  When she got home, she was so excited to see all of her stuff.  She called it beautiful and loves going into her room to hang out and play.  There is still a lot of stuff that we'd like to add, but it's nice to have a room that we can hang out in that feels semi-finished.

DIY Party Bunting/Garland

I made a couple easy DIY decorations for the pre-wedding parties and I thought I'd share them.  For the bachelorette party, I made the pom garland and tissue scrap streamer.  For the shower, I made the photo bunting.  I forgot to take pictures when I was finished, so these are just some quick phone pictures.

POM GARLAND

These are pretty common.  I knew how to do the larger tissue poms, so I just made them smaller poms.

1. stack four sheets of tissue paper

2. cut to rectangles (about 6"x9")

3. start folding the shorter length accordion style

4. cut the ends to points and little grooves in the middle

5. use wire (I used twisty ties for some) or ribbon around the middle groove

6. tie to longer ribbon

7. 'fluff out' the pom

TISSUE PAPER STREAMER

This is super easy and pretty quick.  I don't recall seeing these anywhere before, but I've seen similar things for sewing paper together for table runners.

1. cut tissue paper into squares

2. messily stack 2-3 squares and start sewing

3. feed tissue paper into the machine making sure to mix up the colors

PHOTO BUNTING

I wanted to display old wedding photos of the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom so I thought this would be easy and cost effective.

1. turn photos black and white (I used iPhoto, but would have preferred Photoshop)

2. crop a far and close version of each

3. print of 4"x6" prints

4. cut off the ends of the photo to make a point (I just eyeballed it)

5. sew to ribbon 

I just eyeballed adding the photos to the ribbon.  I also folded the ribbon in half when sewing.  If I was making this again, I would just use a thinner ribbon and not fold over.

Hanging Pictures

I printed out a bunch of black and white pictures to add them to the giant frame I shared here.  I originally wanted to put them in a grid pattern.

I didn't really like the look of the grid with the pattern, so I taped them together in a line and put them in the frame at different intervals.

Unfortunately, I do not like the gold painting with the black and white pictures.  I will be painting over this whenever I get around to it, but it is good enough for now (how I'm feeling about a lot of things in the apt).  I'm undecided about whether I will paint a plain color over the background, or just do the pattern in a different color.

I also printed out some 8x10" pictures of Cora and Clove to hang in the nursery area.  The picture of Clove was taken a couple of days before Cora was born.  We were enjoying our last days of puppy cuddles in the bed.  Cora's picture is one that I took for some birth announcements.  I will share some more of those pictures soon.

After hanging the pictures, I decided to hang up Jazz's castle painting.  Ben and I have decided this is the best little corner of our apartment.  I'm guessing because it is the only part that feels complete.

I have lived in six different apartments/houses in the last six years and I never really got into the habit of hanging stuff up onto the walls until this year.  It is amazing how much more this apartment feels like home by just hanging up a couple of pieces.

Nursery

We finally have the nursery area semi-finished and got some pictures!  When you walk into the bedroom, you see the gradient dresser/changing table across from the door on the baby's side of the room.  On top of the dresser we have a mirror that my grandma covered in fabric (also matches this chair).  We plan on hanging the mirror at some point.  It would also be nice to get a couple small floating shelves above the changing pad... that or hang a couple pictures.

On the other side of the nursery, we have the crib, a shelving unit, and some artsy stuff.  The poms are from one of the baby showers.  There were a lot more hanging up, but our technique for hanging them wasn't very effective (Update: see what they look like now here).  We will hang the rest of them up whenever we get a chance.  The castle painting was a present from Jazz.  The bookshelf is the perfect spot for it because we will have many fairy tales filling the shelves in the future.

My mom and I made these Rustic Owl paintings at Cheers to Art about two weeks before I had Cora.  We coordinated the colors and the direction they look so we could hang them together.  My mom's painting is on the left and mine is on the right.

We moved my bookshelf against the wall and gave away a bunch of my books to make room for baby books and storage.  We have a cube for her books and added this cute lamb stuffed animal that my grandpa brought to Cora in the hospital.  Underneath the baby book cube, we put a storage cube from Target that we use for the baby's dirty laundry.

Everything with the nursery just happened to coordinate and the whole area just fell together perfectly.

The night before we went to the hospital to deliver Cora we took a couple pictures of me in front of the crib.  Here is the only picture that wasn't really creepy (I can't believe I was that big):

Upcycled painting

Remember this painting I got back in April?!  It sat around forever while I came up with tons of ideas for it.  I started out intending to put cork board on the inside... changed my mind to chalkboard paint... thought about modge podging maps all over it and painting a quote... had a couple painting ideas (patterns, animals for the nursery, etc).

Finally, I remembered this wall photo college on Under the Sycamore.  Here is an updated version of the wall.  The first time I saw a picture of the collage, I fell in love and knew I would have something like this in my future home.  Unfortunately, I am still renting and didn't want to put the effort into putting the wall up and taking it down every year.  Enter giant picture frame.

I spray painted the frame with a couple leftover cans of white spray paint.  Some of the crevices are dark and it didn't get completely covered before I ran out of spray paint, but I really love the texture and depth that is added.  I painted a couple coats of white acrylic over the painting, and painted the border black.

Cloverson exhausted from all the painting

Then it sat for a couple weeks.  I decided I wanted a pattern painted on it since it wouldn't be completely filled with pictures for quite a while.  I settled on this gold chevron/arrow pattern I used on a painting for Celia.  It took me a full day to paint the pattern.  Here is what it looks like now:

I plan on printing out a bunch of black and white 5" x 5" pictures of me, Ben, Clove, and Baby (ultrasound) and arrange them in a grid.  We'll add pictures of da baybay when she comes along and as she grows up.  I will post an updated picture when I have this set up in the nursery area.

Nursery Inspiration

I may only have half a room to decorate for the baby, but there are so many cute things that I want to do.  Here is some inspiration for the nursery area:

+Globe with name/birthdate like this.

+Art that includes maps and a quote like this.

+I love everything from this photo... globe, maps, giraffes.

+I am obsessed with this quilt and is on the top of my list to make.

I have a couple projects planned using some old maps I got from my dad.  I also have quite a few sewing projects that I want to make.  I will definitely share those whenever I get around to them.

Pillow Envelope

Saturday, I went to IKEA and got two FJÄDRAR inner cushions for about $7 each.  I understood the concept for pillow envelopes and had a little plan, but I also found this great tutorial that gives better step by step instructions for pillow covers.  I grabbed my African fabric that I used for my fabric key chain and inspiration for this painting.
I made this for two pillow envelopes so I made a template the size of the pillow and cut two of those (left pieces).  Then I cut two pieces a little longer and cut those pieces in half to get the smaller pieces.  Hem a longer edge on the smaller pieces and then line up and sew all of the pieces together.

It probably took about 40 minutes total with all of the cutting, ironing, pinning and sewing.  The final pillows make a big impact for the small amount of time it took for me to make them.  I will be looking for some coordinating fabric to cover some of my other pillows.  This was so easy!

Of course, it passes the Clove inspection.

Succulents

Lately, I've been obsessed with getting plants.  I've been looking up all different types of plants that would fit my needs (i.e. not very high maintenance, some for my very sunny balcony, etc.).  I started out buying some succulents because I didn't want anything that was very high maintenance... I also like all of the different pics of them on Pinterest.  I got these from Home Depot along with the blue pot and yellow water catcher (all together approx $15).

For containers, I used the pot from Home Depot, a small cup from my grandparent's place, and one of the votives I bought for when I made candles.  I put little rocks in the bottom of the containers that didn't have holes.  I'm not a very clean person so I made a huge mess planting them even with the paper I put down.

I put one in the bathroom on the unused toothbrush and cup shelf (pictured above in the myspace-ish bathroom mirror picture).  Now whenever I'm brushing my teeth or getting ready, I'm reminded of my family.  I'm pretty sure the humid air from hot showers should sustain it and I won't have to worry about watering it much.  I guess we'll see.

Next to my DIY milk glass jars

I'm really liking the look of these plants scattered around the house adding a little life to the place.  What do you think?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

My first Christmas in the "real world".  Since leaving my parents home, I've never lived anywhere that we decorated for Christmas.   My roommate has a lot of Christmas decorations and I got my first Christmas stockings (one of them is in the middle on the picture below).  My Aunt received them from my grandmother, but was no longer using them so decided to pass them along.  My Aunt and Uncle also gave me a holiday poinsettia.

I was able to enjoy one of my favorite Cincinnati Christmas events... Festival of Lights!  BC and I went on a half off day so it was EXTREMELY crowded, but it was still really good.  We had a good time enjoying the animals, light displays, roasted almonds (or warm nuts... I swear there was a sign that said that), some salt water taffy, and Christmas music.  My favorite part is the 'swan lake' where the lights change to the music.

Crossroads, the church I've been attending, puts on a big production for the holidays.  The tickets are free and the show is so good!  BC and I went on opening night.  I was a little tired from working all day, but the show really surpassed my expectations.  A couple days later, I took my grandpa to the show.  We spent some time out in the lobby enjoying hot chocolate and kettle corn while taking in the surroundings.  Since I had seen the show two days earlier, I already knew everything that was going to happen, but I was blown away a second time.  I found myself glancing at Boppa to see how he liked it.  Besides catching him falling asleep a couple of times, he seemed to really enjoy it. 

Ghetto Christmas presents > FABULOUS!!! (don't you love the Santa head?!)

Merry Christmas!