Welcome to Amelia's Nursery!

Well the nursery is not finished quite yet, we are still waiting for a BABY!!!  But I am ready to do a sneak preview of what we have done.  Hope you like it!

Come on in friends!

Now that you are inside our room, this is your view of the crib from the door...

Brian and I put a lot of blood sweat and tears (literally) into making these butterflies work to our satisfaction.  I still see a few spots that could use one more but if you knew how many layers of paint are already on that wall you would not believe me.  I think it's good.   Have a closer look.

Brian and I had a hard time agreeing on whether the butterflies should be light pink or dark.  I wanted light, he wanted dark.  We started with light.  They looked cute in the daytime but at night, when they only had artificial light and no natural light, they disappeared.  So we painted over them with dark pink, the same color as the bottom border of the walls.  Then as an after thought we decided to do letters in the middle of all the butterflies so I had to paint over the group of butterflies in the middle with  3-4 more layers of yellow.  Then we couldn't agree on dark or light pink for the letters.  Since he was right about the butterflies needing to be dark, I agreed the letters could be darker also, but not as dark as the butterflies.  And I was at least going to get to paint the sides of the letters light.  If you are sitting in the glider chair you can see my amazing mastery of adding depth to the name.  And you can see the depth we accidentally added to the butterflies when we didn't line up the stencil perfectly when painting the dark over the light.  I like the effect. 

Here is a shot of most of the supplies it took to accomplish this butterfly wall. 

Trust me, you don't want a tutorial for this wall.  It was the most hit or miss project I've ever attempted.  (Unless you want to talk about my "card box" I tried to make for my wedding, but we won't go there, it wasn't one of my prouder moments...)

OK, so...here's our beautiful Graco crib that Grandma on dad's side found for us on Craigs List and immediately went and got and drove over from Orlando.  And our beautiful bumper and quilt that Grandma on mom's side got for us from Land of Nod (once baby transitions from her bassinet to her crib the bumper will come out, don't worry I know about the recall and will not put the innocent girl in danger).  Also in this picture is the mobile from Great Grandma Fefe.  We are in love with this mobile and hope Amelia loves it too.  It is so fun to watch the little critters dance around to the music and the night light feature is a definite plus. 

Here is the changing table we picked up at Ikea, open box.  It is the Hemnes convertible changing table and we changed the knobs from the black ones it came with to pink ones.  It was a great find in the open box area because Brian was so sore from painting and installing the Pergo floors all by himself that he was not looking forward to putting together yet another piece of furniture that day.  Plus it brought the price from $157 to $107.  And we love that it is convertible so the top part comes off and it is then a night stand.  Score! 

Only problem is that a standard changing pad is about 1- 1 1/2" too large to fit comfortable in the top area where it belongs.  We may just cut an inch off the end of the pad and put the cover back on it, or we may end up going to Ikea to get one of their changing pads that will fit it.  Stinks that I spent $25 on this one and assumed it would fit and took it out of the wrapper and threw away the packaging and receipt.  It feels snug enough to me, it doesn't move and I would never leave her unattended anyway, but Brian is not having it not fitting perfectly, which is understandable.  See how it's just slightly too large?  Sigh. 

Here's her closet, closed (above). And open (below). 

I would like to teach her how to be neat and organized, but one look at this picture of her closet and I know I don't have a leg to stand on here.  The best part of this closet in my opinion is that it is PINK.  Brian and I went back and forth.  Pink or white.  I searched for Google images of pink nursery closets and came up with nothing.  So I took it upon myself to create one.  I am in love with the color.  All the wall colors are bright, cheery and stimulating.  Don't worry, we invested in good heavy blinds that take out the light, and those curtains are black out curtains, so even when the sun is shining directly into the room, we can take out all of the light for nap time!  But in the meantime, when you open up the door to the nursery, it is cheerful and happy, yet sweet and soothing at the same time, and everytime I peek in it makes me instantly happy.

My mom sent Brian and I a set of ottomans for the living room for Christmas.  The bigger one opens up and the top flips upside down to become a tray table.  The inside can be used to store whatever you want.  Your knitting supplies, an extra blanket, some magazines, or brushes and other grooming supplies for surprise attacks on unsuspecting fluffy Pekingese.  The larger ottoman came with a smaller ottoman inside, which I put in Amelia's room the other day to sit on, and it just seemed to fit in there, so it stayed as an extra seat.  On top of said ottoman is the small Carter diaper bag that we got free with the purchase of her stroller (more on the most amazing stroller in the world later).  The bag is packed and ready for the hospital trip with a few onsies for her to wear, her take home outfit, some mitts, nail clippers and file so she doesn't scratch her little face, and some socks and booties. 

Oh and Stifler wanted to say hello. 

Here is a better shot of her dresser.  It is the Ikea Malm chest, and as you saw in my last post, Brian installed pink knobs on it which give it just that little bit of pink and personality it needed.

Just a small amount of the many many goodies that friends and family got for us at her baby shower... There are lots and lots more that I need a shelf to put on.  Next project!

And here is the shadow box that Mom (That's ME!!) put together of some of the souvenirs from the most amazing thoughtful and well put together shower I could have ever imagined thanks to my dear friend Lisa and my amazing sister Diane, and all the awesome friends and family who were able to take time out of their busy schedules to attend, even right smack dab in the middle of the holiday season.  I will post pics of the shower in my next post.  For now, the shadow box.  It contains onsies that served as our guest book, some candy from our candy table (the theme was Candy Land!!!!), a bottle that served as a take home favor for guests to fill with candy for later, clothespins and cotton balls from a couple of the games (I decided to leave the "dirty" diapers at Lisa's) , and the string that came the closest to being the size of my belly circumference (which has grown significantly in the 18 days that have passed since then)

Here's just a few more details of the room...

This is the acrylic painting that Great Grandma Fefe passed on to us.  Not exactly where it came from originally, but it can at least be traced to 1973 in Tennessee.   It is just the right touch for behind the glider.  It adds a little softness and gentle charm to a bright modern room. 

The cute butterfly light switch plate from Grandma on dads side

The beautiful quilt that my friend April's mom quilted for our baby is on the back of the glider.  The glider chair is from Grandpa on dads side and Grandma Mo, and the Amelia's first real teddy bear from Grandma on dads side.  (We need better names to get all these grandparents straight, but are thinking they will happen naturally when they happen)... Also in these pics is the pink knitted blanket that a kind woman who works for Brian brought him, folded up on the ottoman. 

(Next to the ottoman you can see a little part of the pink cat bed that Aunt Diane (that's my sister!) gave me to give to Stifler.  See he thinks he's my baby so when I sit in the rocker his ideal place to be is on my lap.  So we gave him the bed to lay in when I have the baby on my lap and he just won't fit on there with us.  I hope the color and the fact that it's a cat bed don't insult him too much, but it has to go with the decor :)

And this is the stunningly beautiful heirloom blanket that we are honored to have passed down to us from Uncle Ken's (that's my brother in law!) parents.  Uncle Ken and his brother Buck both used it when they were babies.  Now it is passed on to Amelia.  It is such a beautiful blanket (and smells so good) that we are afraid to use it and get it dirty or pulled.  So it will likely stay in a special drawer until her cousin Wyatt has his first child and then it will go to him.  I know he's only 16 and it won't be tomorrow that he has a baby, but it seems like just yesterday he was born and already he is car shopping on the Internet!!!  Is my baby going to grow up just as fast??  Here's the blanket...

I could show a million different pictures of all her awesome toys and special gifts she's received from different friends along the way, but for now I will end the longest photo heavy blog post ever.  OK OK one more cute pic of a gift, even though it's not technically a nursery photo.  

This is the faucet cover from my friends Chad and Yurise so when she is big enough for baths she won't bump her head.  LOVe.  And in the tub is her own little baby girl tub for her to take her baths in, which I got with my WalMart gift card from Loca Marissa.  I don't typically like to shop at/deal with WalMart, but with the gift card I made a trip there and got quite a few things I needed for really good prices.  I guess it's not that bad to take a semi annual trip to the land of Always Low Prices to stock up on a few things.  I also met a really nice lady in the checkout who also happened to have a breech baby girl who turned out just fine and was in fact graduating from college that very afternoon.  Without further ado, the faucet!

Baths in this tub (the actual tub, not the pink tubby) have eased many back pains, round ligament pains and groin pains this third trimester, and looking at the frog while soaking has been good for my soul.  

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OK I'm almost done, I just want to leave with some pictures of Dad (that's Brian!!!!) and all his hard work making the nursery perfect for the arrival of little Amelia!

Here is the most extreme before picture I have.  Terrible blue walls and ripped out floors.   Dad has his work cut out for him!!

Who needs all of these useless power outlets anyway?  Not us!

After patching the old nail holes and retexturing is done, and starting the 5 coats of yellow it took to cover the blue.

He is so patient with my request for a pink border.

and then my afterthought / request for a pink closet.

Finally getting going on installing the flooring. 

And this is the stage where we were going to alternate light pink with darker pink butterflies.

Well that is going to do it!  Thanks for visiting Amelia's nursery, and come by any time!