Mobile is complete!

The nursery actually looks like it is baby ready! I had my baby shower yesterday and got a lot of goodies! I am going to have a super fashionista baby. Alyssa and Jessica threw me a super awesome shower, sadly I don't really have any pictures from it.
Afterwards Alyssa helped me put away and organize all the things I got, which took quite a while. Today I went to Target and got a few more things plus some baskets for the changing table. My mom also helped me make my mobile which was slightly more tricky than expected. However it turned out perfect.

It was most definitely a 2 man job since someone needed to be holding the branch while the fishing line tying and bird gluing was going on. I hot glued the birds to the branches. For anyone attempting to make this themselves make sure that if your branch is at all curved you want it making a U otherwise no matter what it will be flipping upside down and you will have some acrobat birds on your hands. I used some eye hooks which we screwed directly into the branches and just tied the fishing line on securing it with a tiny bit of glue in other spots. Here are some pictures of the super fab mobile. I am in love with it!

Here you can see the fishing line a bit better:

This is the only wall I haven't hung the artwork on yet. I am putting these little animal artworks I did for the office a while back up here, plus a little shelf that I am going to paint the pink color of the closet.

I love Shea's painting on the wall.

My Grandma cross stitched the blanket draped over the crib. I love it!

The nursery looks like...well a nursery!

We have made a tremendous amount of progress in the past week on our baby girl's room! I got the rug, then the crib and crib mattress within a 3 day period. Plus Zach and Janet painted the room, so finally it was ready to start adding everything in. The crib was super easy to put together. Zach and I accomplished it in like an hour. I recovered the glider's cushions on Sunday with the help of my mom. Sadly I did not get a before picture. Just know they were hideous. We wrapped the cushions with some 1/2" foam as well to make them more comfortable. We finally hung the curtain and I spent today stenciling the closet wall. I am super happy with how everything is turning out! The room is super small only 8' x 8' 6" so it is really hard to get photos. The only furniture we are missing is the changing table which Janet is repainting this weekend. The hardest thing is going to be arranging everything to fit.


First up here is a peak at the quilt my mom has been working on for the baby.

This is the backing fabric and the trim. She has all the squares sewn together now.

My wall stenciling wasn't too hard, just time consuming. It went faster as I went. This is my nice little plan measuring how far apart I needed to do the stencils to keep them even. 

There was 2 1/2 " between each stencil horizontally and 3" between the small and large stencils vertically. I used a little level to make sure each one was taped on the wall straight. I also used a little canvas board I had tested a stencil on to mark my 2 1/2" and 3" marks to make it a little easier than using a ruler. A little ghetto but it worked fabulous for me! 

 I didn't have any painters tape so i just used some white artist tape I had. I also marked the center of the stencil on each of the tape pieces so that it was easier to line the stencil's up when I was moving them.

Any one who knows me knows that I love glitter. When I found this at Lowe's I knew I had to use it.

I was using the lids to the paint as my paint tray. I just added some of the glitter each time I needed more paint.

I just continued these steps one at a time until I got to the bottom of the wall. I didn't do the top where the shelves go. Also that eyesore of an electrical box will be covered with this piece of wood painted the wall color. We just haven't rigged it up yet.

Here is a close up of the stencil. It was really hard to try and get a picture of the glitter. Also my stencils are not perfect. The textured wall does not make the process easy.

Here is the finished wall:

Here is the rest of the room!

For the ties we used some left over quilt fabric.

This close up is more accurate with the curtain's actual color.

Here is the dresser Janet found on craigslist and refinished.

Before:

After:

The chandelier:

The rug is perfect!

Still have to get the changing table in here, finish the mobile, and put all the artwork I have collected up on the walls.  Most of the hard stuff is done! I finally feel like I am getting closer to being ready for this little nugget to arrive.

Nursery Rug

The hunt for a rug for the nursery was 10 times more difficult than I thought it would be. Of course I found plenty of rugs that I loved but they were way out of my budget. I looked at every store I could think of that sells rugs in the area and had no luck. There were a few that were okay but ultimately I wasn't really that happy with their quality and/or their price.

I don't think I am exaggerating when I say I went to almost any rug store in the area I thought may have a rug I could afford. I went to TJ Maxx/ Homegoods... (more than once), Ross, Marshalls, Home Emporium, Sears, Kohl's, Target, Ollie's, Burlington Coat Factory, Mark Gonsenhouser's where they had some nice rugs but , an Oriental rug store off of Birdneck Road by the Ocean Front, Pier 1, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Exotic Home ( I just went in there because I have been dying to look in there, they have unbelievably cool stuff but it is a bit pricey. If I had a dream budget I would throw out most everything in my house and go on a shopping spree there). I also looked online at Target, Ikea, West Elm, Walmart and countless other sites. With still no luck! I was really losing hope. Either the rug's colors just weren't right, or it was too expensive. I really didn't want spend more than $150 and even that was more than I wanted to spend. I guess I didn't realize how expensive 5 x 7 and 5 x 8 rugs tend to be. If I wanted to spend $400 or $500 bucks it would have been easy but even Target, Walmart and TJ Maxx the rugs were like $150-$200 and none were really standing out as what I was looking for.

With all my bad luck rug hunting I was starting to think I would never find a rug before my baby girl gets here. I was wondering if I was being too picky and had unrealistic expectations. Thanks to Pinterest I have several of the rugs I looked at, considered, or simply swooned over but could never afford.

Amy Butler has awesome rugs though her 5 x 8 rugs tend to be in the $800 range. The colors aren't really right but I loved this rug.

Here are some other pricey but cute rugs

This one was $400

This one is almost $1000....seriously!?

I love this rug. From a site called Serena & Lily which has super cute nursery ideas.

Too bad it is just under $900.

At $230 this next rug is pretty cute but still more than I was willing to spend.

This Ikea rug was $150 and i just wasn't sure about the color or the quality. Plus I really wanted something with some sort of pattern.

The style of this Ikea rug was more of what I wanted but quality was just not there. Not plush or soft at all. However it is only $20. This would be better in a high traffic area in your house somewhere I think.

This target one was $117 but still the colors weren't really what I wanted. It was really the only one on their website I even considered.

This one was from Walmart  but still priced at $168 and I just don't think it looks that nice.

This one is also Walmart and priced at $168 I have the same issue with it. Plus if the color was even a bit off it would be a problem.

Then my mom suggested I look at Overstock. Which has a pretty huge selection.

This one is $164 but just a little too dark for a nursery,

This one is super cute but at $211 it was more than I was willing to spend.

After hours and hours of hunting I found a rug that was what I had been looking for. The price tag $136 discounted 15% from $160.99.

 The reviews are all really good its supposedly soft and plush. It is a hand tufted wool rug, so it should be really nice. The only thing in the reviews that I won't know for myself until it arrives is the color. The rug says it is grey however some of the reviews say it is true to the color shown, others say it is a blue grey, and others more of a sea foam or blue-green. Either way it will work in the room since there will be accents of grey, blue and sea foam. I looked for online coupon codes and managed to get an additional 10% off. It was definitely meant to be! Overstock also has shipping for only $2.95 no matter what you are getting which is awesome. My grand total including shipping was $126.11. I feel pretty good about that considering the original $160.99 price tag. I can't wait to get it! 

Zach thinks I am making the room too sophisticated. I think he doesn't have the vision I do. This nursery is going to be cute, fabulous, romantic, girly, vintage, and just plain awesome. The main things will be more toned down and neutral but the artwork will be bright and colorful! Plus my little colorful bird mobile. I can't wait until it is finished! Janet ordered my crib today and her and Zach also painted the room today. The one sunlit coral wall on the back side of the closet still needs to be painted but the rest of the room is done. We can finally hang the curtain and tie back! Hopefully I can get Zach to do that tomorrow. Finally I feel like some things are getting checked off the endless to do list and we are progressing towards having something done. I will post updated pictures of the room soon, although there isn't really any furniture in there...