the children's places

When Vivian was born I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I had a little girl. I had seen myself as a mother of boys so this was a bit of a mind-adjustment. After about a day I started to get excited...the clothes!...the hair styles!...the decorating possibilities! With my sweet baby being held hostage in the NICU all I could do to pass the time was google girly things to buy. Then I took a step back and realized this was way more overwhelming than shopping for a boy. And boy am I glad I had a boy first because I thought shopping for a baby was hard enough that time! If I was going to maintain my sanity, and our budget, I would have to hold off on buying into all the frilly retail hype and come up with a more realistic vision when it came to her nursery (which I had decided to do absolutely nothing to until after we came home from the hospital this time). So, my vision became "what can I make/recycle/repurpose to still give my sweetie an appropriately girly yet not-too-frou-frou room." Or rather, "a Pinterest-inspired handmade haven."

I started with the rug. It's made of recycled saris and I bought it years ago at a festival because I loved it, but it never really matched anything in our house. From it I picked a color scheme that was girly but not too pinkalicious. I decided on aqua, magenta, and mustard.

The furniture was all leftover from Liam (and was mostly Craigslist in the first place) except for the purple end table which was from my college years (goodwill and a can of paint) so from there I was at $0 spent! 

Here's where we start getting crafty. With the help of my mom we sewed the tiered ruffle bedskirt and valance (attached right over the old boy-themed fabric - to save from spending money on backing fabric).

My amazing sister-in-law, AnneMarie, made me this quilt scrap wreath for my birthday and it just happened to be the exact right colors! Add some Suess-esque frames from Hobby Lobby (you know I used my 40% off coupons!) and a stack of vintage children's books that belonged to my mom and we had ourselves and lovely bookshelf top display.

 AnneMarie also made this hand-stiched stork embroidered with Viv's name and birthdate...because she is only the mother of twins and has all the time in the world ;)

I replaced the dresser knobs with mis-matched colored glass ones (also 40% off at HL) which changed the whole look. The monogram frame was a gift from our good college friends and the doll is mine from childhood. Her name is Isabelly-button (à la my two-year-old self) and I made her a new dress to match the curtains.

And now for my big Pinterest copy: The embroidery hoop fabric circle wall display. Originally I was just going to include her first name out of metal letters which I spray painted, but then I saw the pre-made "Faith" script and couldn't resist. 

It makes me happy every time I'm in there with her, be it rocking her to sleep or changing a leaky diaper. I stare at this girlishness and think, "Wow! I have a daughter!"

The whole thing has been 90% done for about 3 months but I finally got around to finishing it, photographing it, and blogging it. So, grand reveal here you go (unless you have been to my house already and seen it in person, then it's old news).

And, because we couldn't let Liam be overshadowed. He got his very own "big boy room makeover" too. It has been a work in progress for about 5 months but I finally just finished the pièce de résistance quilt (ok it's far from perfect but I'm new to this quilting business!) In fact, the first photo was shot before I had taken the pins out but I had to set it up just to see how it looked. Don't worry, it's done now. He's not sleeping with pins in his bed. 

I copied the pennant flag idea from Pinterest and used a combination of fabrics from his baby room and new fabrics depicting things he likes (planes, elephants, "London busses").  The room is too small for a dresser and a bookshelf so we found this captains bed on CL and, once again, replaced the knobs with cuter ones. The overall theme is kind of "World Travel", hence the map, airplane wall decal, and zebra chair. It's about as themey as I could get without making it too babyish. Decorating is a lot of work so I don't want them to outgrow their rooms too soon!

So there you have it! "New" rooms for our kids, designed on a budget. And in case you were worried I'd let a whole post go by without including any cute baby photos, now you can rest assured.