The Cry Room: Nursery Reveal (times two)

Transforming Mark's old room into baby boy #2's nursery space has been quite the work-of-love and for one reason or another it's taken me what's seemed like forever to finally get it finished. But now that it's done I can't help but sit in there with my hands on my belly daydreaming about our baby boy. 

While we are just as excited and anxious for this boys arrival as we were for big brother, it's almost like the edge was taken off since this is round two which made the transformation a bit slower. We kept all the furniture in the room the same (one point for us for picking awesome, neutral, reusable pieces!) minus getting this boy his own new crib since Mark kept his. The layout and basic "design" of the room also stayed the same since it really just "worked" and we really loved how the space functioned. All of these reasons made it just about switching things out, finding new pieces and changing the color scheme for our second baby boy. 

Finding out we were adding to the boy-team a second time got my mind spinning on how to do a nursery that was specifically his. For this boy we picked lots of different shades of greens with bits of navy and gray. Boy colors without copying big brother's blue room. Lots of textures and touches of softness. And just as many special and personal items for this boy and our growing family. I am in love with how the room turned out and can't believe we'll get to bring him home to his own space so soon! 

Little brother has his own duck for his crib, one because it holds a special place in my heart for my dad and two because Mark cherishes his when he sleeps so we just had to get one. There's another blank white canvas on the wall that is ready for his green painted letter representing his first name. Going with the green color-scheme, baby brother has a custom made map that J built and I painted for his feature wall art above his crib and we continued the "map" theme with a large metal compass on the other side of the room. He has a canvas of his family and a print inspired by one of my favorite Disney movies, Dumbo. His book wall holds some of the books we've been reading to Mark the last year and a half along with a few we've picked up just for him. 

Your room is ready for you little one, whenever you want to make your appearance and join our family! 

The Cry Room: Little Man's Quilt (times two)

It was only fitting that baby brother get a quilt made with love just like big brother Mark did. I have such fond memories putting the blue quilt together, a little boy growing in my belly while I was working, that I had to do it again. Mark's quilt was used in my maternity pictures, his newborn pictures, his monthly updates and finally in his one year photo shoot and I love seeing it's bold pattern as a measure of how he's grown. I briefly contemplated making a quilt entirely different for baby boy #2 but when I thought about it, I much preferred to use the same pattern and simply change the color scheme. 

Since these boys are opposite season, I originally started working on this quilt over Christmas break. I had finished the top, quilted it to the batting and backing and it sat, until just last week, without the binding finished. What can I say, I've been busy! (And truthfully, dread binding most of all.) Just like the first quilt, the fabrics are all 100% quilting cotton with traditional weight batting in between. The front has 2 neutrals and 4 greens and is quilted along the borders of the darkest green triangles. The patterned fabric is the same on the front in green and the back in gray and since I was "short" a neutral color on the front I decided on a gray binding fabric instead of an additional green hue. 

These quilts have become one of my favorite baby items for each of my boys and now I can't wait to use this one in the coming months/years for our newest addition. 

 

 

You would think I'd have this pattern down now but I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes in my second quilt. Regardless there's just as much love for this sweet little boy and anticipation for his arrival. I'll be doing a full nursery post soon (enjoy the peak at his feature wall art until then!) but am thrilled to have this item checked off the list for his arrival.

And if you follow me on Instagram, be sure to check out #hollandboysquilts to see real life pictures of both quilts!

The Cry Room: Nursery Reveal

While I'm sure there will be changes we want to make after his arrival in under two months (holy cow!!), I can finally say that our little boy's nursery is complete! It might have taken me all summer and involved lots of help from J and my mom but this room has easily become my favorite place in the whole house and I am absolutely in love with it!

Here's a glimpse of what we started with, first when we visited the house before it was even ours and during the process of getting rid of the incredibly blue paint. When I found out I was pregnant I knew immediately that this would be the future nursery (largest spare room, closest to the master) and that the paint color needed to go! Regardless of gender I knew I wanted something more calming, something our little one could grow up in for years to come without having to worry about trends or changing the paint color again any time soon. This was also my reasoning behind keeping the "theme" of the room to a minimum. I wanted furniture pieces that could be used for either a boy or a girl, for future kiddos down the line and even in different rooms of the house.

Once we found out the little one in my belly was a boy I thought about what I wanted the finished product to be. Lots of different shades of blue mixed with pops of yellow and orange. Bright but not overwhelming. Fun and interactive without screaming baby. Pattern mixing and comfortable and filled with items that mean something to us and our family. And this is exactly what his nursery has become! I absolutely love sitting in here with my feet up dreaming about how our life is going to change so much.

I plan on doing a separate post entirely that has information about where we got everything in his room as well as tutorials for anything that was DIYed but for now I'll let the pictures do the talking and explain some of my favorite pieces in the room. 

The duck in his crib is a special memento to my dad and this fluffy one was gifted to our little boy at the baby shower by a long time family friend who knew about the tradition. The blank canvas in the wall collage will eventually have a large wooden letter glued to it, painted blue, that's the first letter in our little boy's name (no spoilers here!). J made the giant abacus above the crib completely from scratch and I absolutely love that he took the time to make something so labor intensive for our son. The pictures in the room include canvases of our little family so far (J & I in Mexico and Ollie in the yard), a little picture of the grandpa I hope has met our sweet boy already and baby pictures of the two of us. The book wall is by far my favorite and contains tons of the actual books I read when I was little. 

I am thrilled with the results and cannot wait until the room's littlest occupant makes his appearance! For now, Ollie's using it as his favorite new napping place.

The Cry Room: Little Man's Quilt

I'm sure I'll explain more when I do a complete nursery reveal later but it was quickly decided that little man's nursery was going to stray away from the "I'm an infant" themes and towards something more modern, focused on colors and patterns rather than jungle animals/trains/etc etc etc. Overall this has been a great decision and I am loving the progress we're making on his room but one of the hardest parts about skipping the baby theme has been bedding. I wandered through Babies R Us one day looking at all their bedding sets and there wasn't a single one, not one, I could have pictured myself buying. I had to come up with something else besides the bed-in-a-bag purchase. 

Then I came across this quilt tutorial and was officially hooked, boy colored however. Now that school is out for the summer I have plenty of time on my hands and have been itching to make my first quilt for some time now. And what better quilt to make given its smaller size and it's special recipient. The fabrics are all 100% quilting cotton and I used traditional weight batting in between the layers. The front is made from 3 neutrals and 3 blues and I quilted along the borders of all the navy triangles. The gray/white dot fabric from the front corresponds with the fitted crib sheet (that I also made) and also with the navy/white dot fabric that covers the entire back. The binding fabric is a different blue shade from the rest and all the supplies we're purchased from either Hobby Lobby or JoAnn Fabrics. 

In a matter of about three days of work our little boy now has a quilt for his bed that his momma made just for him and I couldn't be more thrilled with the results.

Are there mistakes in my first quilt? Heck yes! There are wrinkled seams and not a single triangle lines up between rows. Is it perfect? No way! The binding is a bit wonky and I didn't even iron it before taking pictures. But did I make it 100% myself, dreaming of wrapping our little boy in it as he kicked and squirmed to the sound of the sewing machine? Of course.

And I think that's what really matters now isn't it.

Homeowners: Brand New Flooring

It seems as if this project has been going on since we moved in (which is somehow already 7+ weeks ago) but now that our "adventures in flooring" are finally complete I can share with you the final product. 

We are absolutely in looove with our new hardwood and the fact that we did it ourselves is a huge confidence boost in the DIY-department. When I say "ourselves" I really mean J and his dad since my "helping" consisted of picking out boards that I thought were pretty and handing them off to the men. 

Previously the entire downstairs minus the kitchen and front entrance was carpet, and crappy carpet at that. J and my personal preference is to have hardwood in high-traffic & eating areas while still having carpet in living spaces to make it more cozy.

After ripping out the old carpet & prepping the subfloor, the new hardwood was finished over the course of a weekend. In total we laid about 250 square feet and then had the new carpet professionally installed a few weeks later. 

The wood we picked is Brazillian Koa in 5" width and the carpet is Martha Stewart from Home Depot in the color "Ganache". One interesting thing about this hardwood is that over the course of the next 6ish months, it will darken into it's final color from exposure to the air and sun which means we have to keep moving our kitchen table around so that it darkens evenly. (hello puppy nose!)

The wood has such amazing character and I love all the grain variations between boards. This little dark board was one of my favorites so I made sure it was placed in a visible place. We ran the new wood in the same direction as the existing Hickory in the kitchen and I love the contrast between the blonde and red woods. 

This was definitely the biggest and most expensive/time-consuming/nerve-racking home improvement project we've ever tackled and we are thrilled with the results. We love how our entire downstairs is coming along and are so happy we put in the effort with the flooring. Even Ollie's a fan!

Another checkmark in the homeownership department for us!

DIY Camera Strap Tutorial

[What You'll Need] 

-- Fabric pieces cut to 24" x 5.5"

one solid for inside, one pattern for outside

-- Coordinating thread

-- Sewing machine and supplies

scissors, pins, tape measure, iron, etc

-- Fusible fleece, felt pieces, extra fabric

optional

1. Cut and iron fabric pieces.
2. Place right sides together, pin and sew along 24" edge leaving the short end open.
3. Turn fabric tube so right sides are now facing out.
4. Iron both side seams.
5. Turn raw edges in on short ends (approximately 0.25") pin and sew. Repeat for both ends. Iron.
6. Fold entire strap in half long ways, pin and sew along one 24" side.

Optional: I mentioned above that you can add felt/fusible fleece into your strap if you should desire a little padding. Option #1: sew a piece of felt (cut to 23" x 2") onto one half of the solid piece of fabric. This would be done after step 1. Proceed with the rest of the steps as usual. Option #2: complete step 2 then iron on fusible fleece (cut to 23" x 5") onto the solid piece before moving on to step 3.

Slide your new strap onto your camera's existing standard strap and ta-da! This project was so easy that I ended up making 2 of them for myself in a matter of a few days. Now I have options! My navy polka-dot strap has no padding since I don't really wear my camera for extended periods of time and just wanted something pretty. I added some felt Option #1 from above to the green floral strap to add a little comfort for longer wear should I need it.

Happy Friday all and happy crafting over the weekend!

Also, don't forget to follow on Bloglovin'! There's a link over here --------->

Tying the Knot: Our Formal Invites

Here is a the final product of our wedding invitations! They are 100% made by me (with J's help of course) and I couldn't be happier with them. Simplicity, streamline and to the point was exactly what I wanted for our invites and that is exactly what they are. 

Now onto some details about how they were made and what I used. The layout was created using PicMonkey and the fonts are Veranda and Coneria Script. Once the design was set I used Microsoft Word to print on A6 size paper. Both sets of card stock (white and navy) were purchased from Paper Source. The white is A6 (4x6) and the navy is A7 (5x7). I used my HP Photosmart Printer at our house to print all the invites and details cards.

J helped me mount the wording card on the navy card stock using rubber cement and I tied navy ribbon around each. Our details card was printed on white card stock as well and cut to 3x4 inch size. These were slipped underneath the ribbon on the back of the invite. I designed our monogram, seen below, using PicMonkey as well and it was placed on the top of the details card as well as our ceremony program for some consistency. 

They were mailed in white A7 envelopes also from Paper Source. I used Powerpoint to print out all guests' addresses (approximately 1x3 inches in size) and used my Xyron machine to create stickers out of each address. These were centered on the outside of the envelopes and finally they were stamped with our return address on the back flap.

If you would like more details about how I actually made them (like a step by step tutorial) I would be happy to do that, just leave a comment or send me an email! Once I figured out what I was doing and what my vision was for our invites the process was really very simple.

Tying the Knot: DIY Garters

STOP! If your name starts with a J and you are my fiance, do not read any further! 

J wants to know nothing about what I will be wearing/look like/have on me the day of our wedding and that includes my garters. But I wanted to share the project anyways! 

When it comes to garters I have mixed feelings. I like the goofy, party side of them. The new husband retrieving it from under layers of dress. The superstition that who ever catches it is next in line down the aisle. But on the other hand it's not something that I feel the need to spend a bunch of money on or quite frankly, keep as a memento after the wedding is over. So basically I knew I wanted one, knew I wanted it to somehow reflect either our wedding or our style but knew that I wasn't going to spend a significant amount of money just to put in a box somewhere later. All these things meant it was the DIY route for this girl again.

I picked up some pretty lace, one thinner than the other to serve as our toss garter. I got 2 yards of each because it was on sale and I didn't have a plan for it quite yet as I wandered around the store. I also picked up some elastic and some pretty embellishments that I figured I would incorporate somehow.

Once I got home I decided on a plan. I cut the lace 4 inches shorter than how much I needed to go around my whole leg. This would allow for the elastic to be added and make it tight enough. Since I was going to embellish it I decided to make each garter double layered with lace to make it more sturdy.

Using scrap pieces of fabric I already had at home I hot glued some rosettes and added in my bits of sparkle and pearls. Then I got sewing. Again for stability purposes I took a small square of plain white cotton, folded it in half, and then in half again and slid it between the two layers of lace. Even though I was zig-zag stitching I wanted to make sure there was enough to "grab onto" for the stitches to hold.

Each end of both types of lace got a similar treatment and then I attached the elastic. I stitched it back and forth quite a few times on one end first. Then I took the "very meticulous" route and slid it up my leg to determine how much elastic I'd need for it to fit right. I apologize there's not a better explanation for this step but I was sort of making it up as I went along. Once I figured out how much elastic I needed I repeated the sewing on the other side.

Now I had a circle of lace that needed some pretties. Using the same plain cotton I cut a strip just slightly narrower (is that a word?) and placed it between the two pieces of lace. Since I was hot gluing my rosettes to the lace I wanted to make sure they stuck completely and avoid hot glue burns from it seeping between the lace. Then I placed the rosettes where I wanted them, added extra sparkle and ta-da!

Custom bridal garters. And yes, our wedding colors are ivory, white and navy so I threw in the touch of orange for J's love of the Denver Broncos. I'm sure he'll appreciate finding some navy and orange under there!

Another item checked off the list with under 60 days to go! 

Tying the Knot: Wedding Dress Hanger

I'm sure you've all seen the hangers floating around Pinterest and the webs in general that are custom made to hold your wedding dress or to give as gifts to your bridal party. Whether it be curved wire or painted wood the options seemed to be endless and quite frankly, something I didn't feel like spending a bunch of money on. So I decided to DIY my own version.

 

After a quick trip to IKEA for a set of white wood hangers that cost me less than $1 each the process was super simple and super easy. Not to mention the perfect afternoon activity to go along with trashy TV that the fiance wouldn't watch with me :-) 

[1] Gather all supplies: hanger, printer paper, pencil, permanent marker, bobby-pin/credit card/something with an edge. I printed my lettering in the font and size that would fit the hanger the right way and cut it down to size.
[2] On the wrong/back side of the paper, trace your letters in pencil making sure to completely cover all areas and use enough lead.
[3] Tape the paper right side up so the pencil markings are touching the wood.
[4] Gently but throughly rub over the letters to transfer the pencil marks onto the wood. This is where I used a bobby-pin (only because I had one sitting on the table where I was working) but anything will work for this step. Carefully lift one edge to make sure all letters have transfered.

[5] This is how it should look. Tough to see I know but you can tell that the pencil marks have stayed on the wood.
[6] Carefully trace over the pencil with your permanent marker making sure to avoid smudges.

And it's as easy as that! The other side of my hanger says "Mrs. New-last-name" and then obviously this is our wedding date. I love how it turned out and the fact that it was cheap. Sure the professional ones might have the edge of well... professionalism but hey, I much prefer to do these types of things myself.

 

Another item crossed off the check-list! What have you accomplished this week?