Argyle Baby

I wanted to share this with you weeks ago, but Mom asked me to wait until she gave them to my sister.  Even though my sister saw the plans and fabric, she hadn't seen the finished product until her shower this past weekend. So, without further adieu...

Look at what Mom made for my nephew!

There's a 'mommy-sized' one and a 'baby-sized' one (with the diamonds scaled accordingly of course).  How cute are they?!?!  It's even more fitting since my brother-in-law LOVES argyle.  It only makes sense that we've adopted that as an unofficial inspiration for the nursery.  It's gonna rock!!

This kid is going to have an awesome Nana, don't you think?

Check out the design for his room as it develops on my pinterest board: Future Nephews Room.

I'm willing the universe to give me a nephew for my birthday.  I was born on my grandma's 60th birthday and I thought it was always such a cool connection.  My sister is due 2 days after my birthday, so I've been telling her stomach that April 30th is a GREAT day to be born- and it runs in the family.  I hope he listens, he would be an awesome 88th birthday gift for Grandma!

Circle Garland Revisited

For my sister's baby shower this weekend, I have a few projects up my sleeve.  The shower is going to be at our parents' house, already making it rather intimate.  The house is not a big one, so the 25 people attending will totally fill it up- meaning that not a lot of decoration is required to make it feel personal.  Good.  After B's bridal shower, I didn't have the energy for another big set of projects. The main projects are garlands to decorate the fire place mantle and above the food table.  Naturally I decided to revisit the circle garland that I blogged about here.  I tried a different approach and managed to make an easy project even easier!!

Thank you, Bernette!

Bernette is my trusty sewing machine.  All I had to do was to feed my punched circles into the machine one after another and in 15 minutes flat, I had all the circle garland that I needed!  It had a slightly different look (with the spacing) than my first go at the garland, but I really like both, and they're amazingly simple.

The next garland challenge was to try and create some ruffle streamers following this tutorial.  Check!

Menu Board (made with roadside found frame): in progress

Picture holders: in progress (we asked all the guest's to bring a baby picture so we can have fun guessing)

I know it looks a bit random right now, but just you wait.  I totally see it in my head, and its fabulous!

I do have fun doing stuff for showers, but boy will I be glad when it's over and I can relax for an evening. Maybe I'll even work out a bit.  Maybe.

Who Brought the Cool Kid?

Before I get to today's post, let me just say- I'm writing this on my new lappy!  Last time I got a new computer was 6 years ago, so this is kinda super duper exciting for me.  And it came a day early!  Hooray!!! Ok, I'm done with that happy dance and I'll move on to another.  My future nephew's nursery furniture is D O N E!!!!  I delivered it to his room over the weekend and the parents-to-be couldn't be more happy (or so they tell me, although I doubt they'd tell me if they didn't like- that would be awkward- but I hope think they really are pleased).

If you're new here, or just have a bad memory- I had purchased 2 midcentury pieces that were in rough shape for $15 each to refinish so that my nephew will be the coolest newborn in the history of ever.

Dresser Before:

...and the dresser NOW:

and check out the side view:

Sexy, no?  Perfect to grow with a little boy!

The dresser wasn't alone, though.  It had a matching cabinet.  that started out looking like this:

Honestly, the closer you got to the original pieces, the worse they looked.  It was bad.  With MUCH MUCH sanding, I whipped them into shape and here's what the cabinet looks like today:

The original knobs didn't all match and that wasn't kosher, so I had to fix it.  4 of the knobs were kinda cool, but I couldn't find their companions.  I ended up finding 11 matching vintage knobs on ebay for $20 and I like them better than the original.  I'm sooo please with the result on these.  Of course they ended up being much more labor intensive than I planned (because everything ends up being more work than planned, because I suck at time planning) but I'd do it again- maybe for my next niece or nephew.  Now that the room has all it's furniture, it's time to get to the details (i.e. the fun part!!).

So to answer the question in the title of this post- Who brought the cool kid?  My sister did, obviously.