Project 18.4 of many. . .

∞ Crib Bedding ∞

Every part of putting this nursery together has taken me longer than expected, the bed skirt and bumper for the crib were no exception. The problem encountered with this project was not something I anticipated - though, in retrospect, I got my fabric at JoAnn's, so I really should have expected it. Long story short, this lovely woven fabric that I chose was not woven correctly, making the distance between patterns different. If you look at the bottom of the bed skirt you can see that one side hangs down longer than the other. Had I decided to make them the same length I would have had to cut off part of the pattern - which I think would have looked worse. I also ran out of fabric - which wouldn't have been a problem had the pattern been even on the fabric. I went back to JoAnn's, had the lady unroll the entire bolt of fabric and then I proceeded to measure the distance between each set of flowers - nothing measured what I needed it to, so the back of the bumper is made out of plain muslin. . . which no one will likely ever see, so I guess it does not matter.

This project has been done for about a month, but I couldn't post pictures until I got a mattress and sheet - which I finally picked up today. Lovely thing about the mattress - it was suppose to be $89, but I had a 20% off coupon. The lady at the counter was nice and gave me another 20% off coupon which I think was suppose to apply to the sheet I bought, but instead applied to the mattress, so I really got the mattress for 36% off, AND got to use a $5 off coupon on my $10 sheet. It was fantasitc! That would have never worked at Macy's. . .





. . . and I can already tell that that light switch right by the crib is going to be a problem in about 2 years.

Project 20 of many. . .

I reupholstered the chairs in the kitchen today. I have been needing to do this for about 2 years. I have been putting this project off because I honestly believed that I was going to build the infamous "breakfast nook." (and it will happen. . . ) Anyway as they say in Ever After, "We cannot have a royal bottom sitting on a dirty chaise, now, can we?" They were beyond embarrassing.

Technically I started working on these yesterday. I started sanding one chair and then had a panic attack because the idea popped into my head that they might be painted with lead based paint. Fearing this I ran to get a lead test at Home Depot (I really don't like that place, but Lowes no longer carries them), unfortunately the test had somehow dried up (again, don't like that place), so the project got put on halt. Today I got another lead test and it came back negative and so with a sigh of relief I carried on.

This is actually the third life for these chairs. My parents inherited them from my aunt and uncle - at that point they were a lovely gray vinyl color. When I went to college Lisa and I decided to recover them for our duplex. I really have no clue how they got so dirty, it's like they were covered in mud and then left out in the rain (well, that, and also used as ladders to paint with. . . ). I think I will spray these with scotch guard to preserve them a bit better. Total cost to redo each chair was about $7 - a whole lot cheaper than buying new chairs :)

Project 18.3 of many. . .

∞ Closet Shelf ∞
My aunt Doreen and cousin Lindsay gave us a Lowes Gift card at the baby shower that my mom and Grandmumz hosted while we were in Missouri. I knew exactly what to do with it.

When we painted the baby's room I took the doors off of the closet, took the old shelving out (metal wire) and painted the inside. My idea was to create a space to put a small chest of drawers in, that could also serve as a changing table. I also wanted to put a new shelf in. Needless to say this project took longer than I expected. Turns out the walls of the closet measure differently at the base of the floor than where I put the shelves up at, so the shelf turned out a little small, luckily this is hidden by the support that I used for the shelf. Then my boards were warped - I figured this would happen when I was looking at lumber, but then everything seemed straight enough so I put the idea out of my mind and pushed on, figuring I could easily nail the shelf to the support and everything would turn out fine - which would have worked, except the shelf barely covers the support on the sides, so I couldn't really nail it down. Half a container of putty later and another coat of paint I called it done.

I think it turned out quite nicely. I think that if we have a girl I'll put a bar up under the shelf to hang her dresses on . . . otherwise, we'll go without. Might also put some more little shelves up along the sides of the closet.

hmmm, it seems that the only thing I am certain about right now is that the future is uncertain.

Blocks

These cute blocks are now up for sale on my etsy site! (Note: To the grandparents trying to figure out if one of the names spelled out is potentially a grandchild's name. . . think again, I don't break that easily)
∞ See them here ∞