Update on my Nursery!!!

So I have been having SO MUCH FUN with my baby nursery!! I feel bad I didn't go this crazy on Afton's room. I have a ton more done so I thought I'd post a few pictures. It's not completely done--there are two things I still need:

• Blinds. They are ordered but won't be here until June 13! Urg! The room looks so UNFINISHED without them!
• Lamp Base. I cannot believe how hard it is to find a good lamp base. I made a cute lamp shade, but I just want a medium sized white lamp base to use with it, and I can't find ANYTHING that doesn't already come with a shade and is what I want. So frustrating. Trevor is actually thinking of making one. So in the pictures, the shade is just sitting there without a base.

We spent the weekend making both quilts for my babies. I took Thursday off work and made Ripley's quilt with Trevor's help. It was so fun to work together on this project. I remember when we were dating we made the cloak for Trevor's Aragorn costume together. It was such a fun day, and we even talked about one day making costumes for our future children. (I was SO excited about that conversation...)

This was just like that. We work so well together when we sew together. We just figured out the pattern together. And whereas at first I was showing Trevor how to thread the needle and stuff, by the end he was trying to show me the same stuff! He actually has a knack for sewing, and whenever it calls for something super straight and perfect, I have him do it for sure!

So here we are sewing. Trevor is working on Ripley's quilt that Thursday. We didn't finish it that day--I had to figure out how to actually "quilt" it, since I didn't want to pay $40 to have someone else do it. Luckily my awesome machine came with a walking foot, which is required in order to do the quilting yourself. It made the whole process quite easy, actually!

Though, I really suck at sewing perfectly straight lines.

When Ripley's was all finished, I was ready to start Scarlett's on Saturday. I did most of hers by myself as I watched my sister's kids. Trevor helped out toward the end when I had to match the back on with the batting. And he sewed the edges around the whole quilt because I was scared to! All in all, I'm quite happy with out it turned out, though Scarlett's didn't wash very well. I have learned my lesson to ALWAYS

wash the material before you sew with it!

This is me on Sunday morning frantically trying to finish the quilt before church. I wanted to wash it while we were gone. Yes, I know I look horrible. But I don't care! What a perfect little mother I am on Mother's day, making a quilt for my baby girl! And how happy I was to finally get it DONE! I have tons of leftover material, so I'm still trying to think of ways to use it. I might even try making some baby clothes out of it, but sometimes leftover material doesn't work because there isn't enough to cut it the right direction. So we'll see.

 Ok, here are some pictures of my baby room!

Isn't it adorable?? There's the finished quilt, and the bedding as Nicki and I made it. The picture on the wall is just something I printed off the internet, and I backed the matting with some leftover material. Scarlett's is a rose and Ripley's is a lily.

The letters of their names were really fun, and were a hybrid with digital scrapbooking. Here's how I did it.

• First, I took the letter (wood, bought it from Hobby Lobby) and traced it on a piece of blank paper.

• Then I scanned the paper into my computer and pulled it into Photoshop. I re-sized it to 8 1/2 x 11.
• Then I pulled in the digital paper I wanted to use. I used the kit Ma Bebe from Dianne Rigdon--she created this kit for me when I requested someone to help me on the Two Peas in a Bucket digital scrapbooking forum. You can read all about it on my scrapblog here.
• Then I just "punched" the letter out with the paper I wanted. Just did the magic wand tool on the scanned letter, then clicked on the paper layer and copied and pasted.
• Next I used an action to create the painted look on the edge. See, a real paper scrapper would have done this with actual paint, but I didn't trust myself to get it even, so I did it digitally!
• Then I printed it and cut it out.

• Painted Scarlett's letters red and Ripley's letters green, though really all you will see if the paint is on the sides.
• Then I used mod podge to glue the paper onto the front. After it dried, I used a light sanding block to sand the edges. I really liked how this made the edges look rough and more authentic. Then I mod podges over it again! That's it! A BIG thank you to my sister-in-law Andrea, who told me all about how to do this--I never would have known without her!
• We hung them with nails, and Trevor did a great job tipping them from side to side so they looked really cute on the wall.

So then I had this REALLY old round table that my dad made. I've been using it as a nightstand forever. It used to have a different cloth cover on it, so I thought I'd made another one that matches the room decor. It was so easy! I just cut out the cloth, hemmed the edges, then sewed on the ribbon. But I used one of my fancy stitches that my machine does to make it look more embroidered. I was so glad to use one of those features--it's the kind of thing they show you when they are trying to sell you a machine, but in actuallity you never really use it.

And last is the lamp shade. This was easy--but not as easy as I thought it would be! I bought the shade at Joanne's, and it's made for this. You just peal off the outer layer, then use that as a pattern and cut out your material. Then you just stick it on the shade, which is covered with sticky paper. It was kinda hard to get it to line up just right, but it was nice to not have to sew anything. Then I used a glue gun to glue the ribbon on the top and bottom. So easy! Much easier than finding a stupid base for it!

Here's a shot from the other side of the room. I had to get the awesome closet that my dad put in for us! And it wasn't easy--apparently this closet used to be a doorway into what is now our upstairs bathroom and used to be the closet. Well, I guess that explains why that bathroom is the size of a closet. As you can see I've already started putting up their clothes and blankets. Man, I am SO nesting right now! And I still have eight weeks to go! But I feel more and more ready for the impossible task of raising twins with every little thing I add to this room. Maybe that's why I'm doing more for this room than I did for Afton's--I'm MUCH more terrified than I was then!