Nursery Gallery Wall Take Two

Hey, Friends! I'm so excited to share our updated nursery gallery wall with you! 

You may remember, this is what Little Girlie's gallery wall looked like while we were waiting for her grand arrival. After she was born, we added a picture of the kids to the polka dot frame and her footprints from the hospital to the green plaque. I loved it and it stayed like that for the last two years. 

Recently, though, we have had to switch a few things out. The footprints were fading from the window light, so I took those down. Then, after my Grandma passed away, I brought home a painting I had done for her a couple years ago and decided to add that to Little Girlie's gallery wall. Here's how it's looking now!

See where my popsicle stick mosaic mirror landed? I just love it! Who knew I could love popsicle sticks so much?! See the full tutorial here. 

I'm still head over heels for this print from Katie Daisy and the letter C that I ordered from a friend for Little Girlie's room, so those two things stayed put. 

I fell hard for Bre from Average but Inspired's peg doll family, so just had to make one for our family! You have to check out Bre's and her tutorial over on her blog! My little peg family fit perfectly on the green plaque and brings a giant smile to my face whenever I see it! 

Here's where the painting I did for my Grandma's 93rd birthday landed. I painted this for her a few months after she broke her hip and moved into a nursing home. I wanted something bright and cheery for her room. I was inspired by a gorgeous painting at World Market. It's such a happy/sad feeling to see it in here. It can be a painful reminder that Grandma is gone, but it also makes me smile that Little Girlie has this link to Grandma in her room. 

I'm loving the changes! Amazing how just a couple changes brought a whole new life to the wall!

Wall Color: Panache Pink by Sherwin Williams

See Board and Batten Makeover here!

Catch up on all of the nursery posts here!

Linking up with Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Decor Chick, and many other awesome blogs!

Popsicle Stick Mosaic Mirror

*Affiliate links provided for your convenience. For more info, see my full disclosure here.

It's finally starting to look like Spring around here! Flowers are blooming, trees are getting leaves, and pollen is descending upon us in clouds. Ha! With all of the color outside, I was itching to bring in some vibrant colors inside! 

I've been needing something round to complete Little Girlie's gallery wall, so I decided to make her a super colorful mirror! I wanted the mirror to incorporate the colors in her room and have a bit of texture. After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with a design that used the most unlikely of materials... popsicle sticks! 

Here's what you need to get started! 

-Popsicle Sticks* (I used the wide, thinner ones so they would be easier to cut)

-Acrylic craft paints

-Beveled edge wreath form similar to this one*

-Hot glue

-Paint brush (This one* is my favorite for knocking out a job like this quickly!)

I started out by prepping my popsicle sticks for painting. I only needed the rounded tips, so cut the sticks in half so I could paint both tips at the same time. I knew I needed to get the tops and the sides/tips painted and would have a million to paint, so came up with a quick way to paint them... tape them hanging off the edge of the counter! That way, I could paint them all at once and could easily get to the sides without them sticking the a surface. 

Quick tip: I taped them on in groups of 10 for easy counting. 

Of course, I underestimated just how much counterspace I'd need to tape 240 popsicle sticks onto! 

After I finished taping, I stepped back and surveyed the kitchen. It looked like a crazy town. It was then that I realized I had crossed over to the crafting dark side and needed to be admitted into a support group. People probably fear coming to my house for fear that I'll paint doodles on them or hot glue embellishments to their clothing. 

Anyway, back to the crazy town kitchen with 240 popsicles hanging on for dear life... I gave them all two coats of paint and am happy to report that my wacky taping method worked wonderfully. I was done super fast! 

Side note, if you wanted a more neutral color scheme, you could stain the sticks different shades instead of painting them! Ohhh, so sophisticated! :) If you do that, tag me in a picture. I want to see! 

To assemble, I cut the popsicle sticks down and glued them on to the wreath form in overlapping rows. I worked in vertical rows until I had gone around the entire wreath. It's helpful to cut the sticks as you go because the inner ones need to be a bit shorter (about 3/4") and the outer ones need to be a bit longer (about 1- 1/2"). I could only get in 5 full rows across of sticks, so ended up cutting my popsicle sticks lengthwise to create a sixth row and cover the remaining exposed outer edge. 

Quick Tip: When you start, only glue the first row near the straight end, leaving the curved tip unglued. This will allow you to slide your last row under your first row and avoid a start/stop seam.

When I was done, I simply glued a mirror and picture hanger onto the back!

It was a bit of a process, but really so easy! I just love how it turned out! 

It's the perfect finishing touch to Little Girlie's gallery wall! I'll show you the rest of the updated gallery on soon, so be sure to check back! (Update: check out the updated gallery wall here to see where this cute mirror landed!)

I love the bright, vibrant colors!

What's the craziest thing you're ever done in the name of crafting? I want to hear your stories!! :)

Linking up with Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Decor Chick, and many other awesome blogs!

Put a Ring on It

My mom made curtains for Little Girl's room and I love them so much, I put a ring on them. 20 rings, to be exact. Ha! ;) Backing up for a minute, though...

Little Girl's room has a wall of windows. Remember this picture from right after we finished the board and batten? The room is nice and sunny with all the windows, but we knew we'd need a solution to make it darker for nap time.

The existing roller shades were old, warped, and broken, so we tossed those. We were thinking of doing blackout Roman shades, but they were crazy expensive. We liked these curtains, but would need three panels. But, what do you do with 3 panels? When pulled back, there would be two panels on one side and only one panel on the other. My OCD can't handle that. ;) Four panels would have been way too much fabric. And we haven't even discussed the outrageous cost yet. What to do, what to do? 

Image Credit: Pottery Barn

You know my money saving self had to come up with a cheaper solution! I really wanted curtains, but the panels would need to be over 65" wide each to be able to get away with only two panels. I looked at fabric to make curtains with, but even the upholstery fabric was not wide enough to make panels in the width we needed. Sigh. 

Then, I found this duvet at Pottery Barn Teen and it was the exact shade of pink in Little Girl's quilt. It was printed on both sides and the twin was 68" wide and 90'' long. I called up my mom and begged asked her if she'd be up to sewing curtains out of the duvet fabric. Side note: It always helps to start the conversation with, "Mom, have I ever mentioned how much I love you?!" Hahahaha! She is an amazing seamstress and was up for the challenge. 

Image Credit: Pottery Barn

I purchased the duvet and had it shipped to her and she got to work taking the seams out of the duvet, leaving two giant pieces of fabric that were wide enough for the curtain panels. 

One more problem, though... 90" wasn't long enough to get the curtains to the floor. Whomp whomp. After a brainstorming session, we came up with the idea to sew white ruffles at the bottom to lengthen the curtains. She picked up two flat, white sheets at Walmart for $8 a piece to use for the ruffle material. She also purchased some inexpensive blackout material at the fabric store. It didn't come in extra wide, so she had to piece it together. But, since the blackout material is on the back, no one is the wiser...except you now. Oops. ;)

After approximately 11 billion hours and 57 sewing machine needles, she finished the curtains and mailed them to me. I was SO excited to hang them up and am absolutely ecstatic about how they turned out! Thank you, Mom, for all your hard work on the curtains! You're awesome!

She originally sewed the curtains to have a top pocket for the curtain rods. There was a curtain rod already up in Little Girl's room that the previous owner had left, but it had been painted and the paint was flaking off. We repainted them, but the paint still did not want to stick to the rod. In addition to the paint problem, the curtain panels are very heavy and kept sticking to the curtain rod, making them impossible to open without standing on a step stool. Boo.

We finally broke down and replaced the curtain rod with a brushed silver rod and attached curtain clips to make opening and closing the curtains much easier. Works like a charm! We also installed matching tie backs to keep the curtains back and the sunlight pouring in when the windows are open. Love!

Want to know the cost breakdown? It cost me a little over $100 total for the duvet, sheets, and blackout material that Mom used to make the curtains. It would have cost $210 for three of the Pottery Barn curtains in this fabric or over $500 for Pottery Barn blackout Roman shades!

Whew that was long! Thanks for sticking around for our window covering saga! 

Overdue Ramblings

Well, I'm STILL pregnant. My due date has come and gone and Little Girl is still enjoying her warm, little home. You'd think she'd be running out of womb room, but she's figured out how to stretch out her legs and stick her feet up into my ribs to gain more space. Glad I could accommodate your needs, Little Girl...cough cough. ;)

Little Man was a week early, so I absolutely did not anticipate her being late. The last couple weeks, I've been getting rounds of contractions that come 1-2 minutes apart and last for a couple hours, then subside. Such a cruel tease. I have, however, gotten so many sweet texts, calls, and messages from friends and family who are anxiously awaiting her arrival and praying for us and letting us know they're thinking of us. So encouraging! Thanks you guys! :)

So, what have we been up to while we wait? Nesting, resting, and snuggling. One day I'm a cleaning maniac, the next day I can't muster up the energy to move. But, every day, I've been soaking up lots of snuggles with Little Man. He's been super cuddly lately and I'm eating up every minute of it!

Jeremy has been helping me organize the house and check things off of our to-do list. He's amazing, I tell ya! Here's a glimpse at the more "exciting" things we've done. I did a lot of boring things like cleaning out the bathroom drawers and pantry cabinets, but I'll spare you details of those projects. Haha!

-It's totally not pretty, but I did this on the cheap... Our coat closet is roughly the size of a shoe box, so it's always bursting at the seams and a mess. I cleaned it all out and put the gloves and scarves on the door which gained us a lot more hanging space for our coats. I hung all of my scarves on a hanger and used a large Command Hook I found when cleaning out the closet (score! haha!) to hang it up. I found some colored Command Hooks on clearance at Target to hang our gloves on. I totally could have done this in a much prettier way, but this way only cost me $4 and is 100% more functional, so I'm digging it. :)

(Image credit Wayfair.com)

-We have not had any permanent furniture in the entry way since we moved in. We've tried a plant there and an old beat up end table (I would have redone it if it had been a good height), but nothing looked right. My sweet Aunt and Uncle and Grandma gave me some Christmas cash (Thank you!!!) and I decided to put it together and get a real entry table. I saw this one online and found the best price at Wayfair. It came in a couple days ago and I love it! It's the perfect size for our entry and the color matches my sunburst mirror on the wall exactly! I'll blog pictures of it in our entry later, but for now, enjoy the stock photo... :)

-My mom finished Little Girl's curtains! Jeremy hung them up and we absolutely love them! I will do an entire post on them after things settle down, but here's a sneak peek!

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Nursery Gallery Wall

Well, friends, I'm officially full term in this pregnancy--just over two more weeks until my due date. Of course, this made me panic and start nesting like a crazed woman because Little Girl could come any time, right?! Haha! Thankfully, the added pressure helped us finally finish hanging her gallery wall. It's small and nothing fancy, but we like it!

(Yes, the door frame was actually built into the house crooked. Don't even get me started on that!)

Obviously, we need some newborn pictures of Little Girl to add to the frames, but you get the idea.

Frame Sources: Both small frames are from Target. The large frame is from Michael's. The shaped frame is actually a cheap wooden plaque from Michael's that I picked up for less than $2. I used Modge Podge to attach a piece of cardstock to the front to give it some color. I'm either going to use those little photo corners or double sided tape to attach a photo to the middle. Easy and so cheap!

Artwork Sources: The letter C is from my friend Heather's shop, What is Perfect. I LOVE it! The watercolor is a print from Katie Daisy's Etsy shop that I've been swooning over. The Bible verse is just something I typed up in Google Docs and added an inexpensive bird clip art to the bottom from Petittatti's Etsy shop.

All that is left to do in Little Girl's room is hang the ceiling fan, change out the gold hardware and off white outlets and switches, and hang the curtains. My mom made Little Girl's curtains and is bringing them with her when she comes to see Little Girl. Can't wait to show them to you!

That's all for now! Have a great afternoon!

Sweet Little Bird Mobile

I finished Little Girl's mobile! Woot woot! I really love how it turned out and am loving how all the little details in her nursery are coming together!

I've seen a lot of paper mobiles around Pinterest that are just beautiful. I combined a few of the mobiles I had seen to create my own version. Of course, mine is more simple and less fussy than most of the mobiles I have seen, but that's just the way I roll. I love simple.

I started out with four sheets of cardstock paper in the colors of Little Girl's nursery. I drew a bird on a piece of scrap paper and cut it out to use as a stencil. Then, I just traced and cut out several birds in each color. I did a dozen of each color, but ended up only using about half of them. For the wings, I made a heart shaped stencil with scrap paper, then traced and cut out 2 dozen wings per color. Again, I only used about half of them, though. If you have a heart shaped paper cutter, it would save a ton of time! I folded my cardstock in half lengthwise and cut half of the heart along the crease so the wings came out pre-folded and I only had to cut half as much. Overall, it was 2-3 hours total of scissor work. Thankfully, it was pretty mindless and something I could do while watching tv.

To hang the birds, I laid out a long piece of transparent thread and placed it down the middle of each bird. I put a bead of hot glue on top of the thread and placed a wing on top. The wing allowed me to hide the glue nicely. I alternated the direction and color of the birds going down the thread. After the thread was glued on, I flipped my birds over and glued a wing on the back of each bird (with no thread going through). I did one thread with five birds, three threads with 4 birds, and three threads with 3 birds.

I purchased a thin, wooden dowel and a wooden quilting hoop from A.C. Moore to hang the birds on. I pulled out the solid hoop (I tossed the hoop with the screw), then painted the solid hoop and dowel light green. I cut the dowel to make two rods for the center of the hoop. I made them into an X and hot glued them to the inside of the quilting hoop.

After the paint was dry, I tied my strings of birds onto the hoop. Originally, I had planned to put strings of birds around hoop, on each dowel rod, and in the center. However, as I started hanging my birds, I realized that would be too many birds for the medium sized hoop I purchased. I ended up using the string of five birds down the middle, then alternated the strings with 3 and 4 birds around the hoop. Tying the transparent thread onto the hoop was surprisingly difficult because I was trying to hold the mobile upright so the strings didn't get tangled and tie knots at the same time. My hubby rescued me and held the mobile up while I tied. I ended up putting a bead of hot glue on the inside of the hoop and sticking my thread to it to hold it in place, then tying the thread on. That kept the thread from sliding all around and generally causing chaos. ;)

To hang the finished product, I tied four strings around the hoop and then gathered them at the top and tied them together. Mine is actually temporarily held up by the transparent thread and a thumb tack. Classy, I know. But, later this week, I am going to replace the threads I used for hanging the mobile with some stronger fishing wire and attach the fishing wire to a hook hanging from the ceiling. Just making sure it doesn't come falling down! :)

This entire project only cost me about $7! Definitely an economical project with a big impact! You could easily change the colors and animals/shapes to make a mobile to match any nursery!

A non-nursery related post is coming up next. Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving?!

Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick, Work it Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, and The Humble Brag link parties!

Etsy Love

I'm finally getting the hang of Etsy! I know, I'm a slow learner. There's just SO much on Etsy that it seems overwhelming. Here are some of my recent Etsy purchases for Little Girl's room:

I mentioned my friend Heather's Etsy shop called What is Perfect a long time ago and have been drooling over her yarn wrapped letters ever since. I asked Heather if she could do a flat letter that I could hang on the wall and here's what she came up with. She did a fabulous job! I love, love, love how it turned out! It's one of my favorite things in Little Girl's room! The bird kills me with cuteness!

The print I ordered from Katie Daisy's shop called The Wheatfield came and I couldn't be happier with it! Such happy colors and great quality! Now to stop myself from ordering everything in her shop... Both the yarn wrapped letter and this print will go on Little Girl's gallery wall.

We were looking for a cute basket for the end table that would corral all the middle of the night feeding essentials. We were immediately sold when we saw this basket from Hip Baby Boutique in the adorable urban zoologie bird print! Even Jeremy thought it was perfect and it got a "cute" out of him, which is a lot for a man when speaking of girly decorations! Haha! :)