April Shower

If anyone is still hanging around my little blog after my recent absence, a few notes: 1) I’m still here.  I am alive, though currently not so well.  Sinus crud and nearing the end of my pregnancy are taking its toll.  2) Thank you to those who have stuck around. 3) I am struggling to find my energy and inspiration, so hang in there with me a bit longer, please!

I promised to post about the recent baby shower our wonderful church family hosted for us on the 22nd of April.  The photos are finally edited, the gifts sorted if not put away, and I’m working on the long list of thank yous.  Aaron and I were truly humbled by the outpouring of love, support, and generosity of our church family last Sunday at the shower.  The decorations were lovely and had just the right amount of personal touches from ideas I had suggested, the food was scrumptious, and the company superb.  I can’t say thank you enough to the many ladies who put forth so much time, effort, and energy into making the shower such a wonderful success and memory.

There were many photos taken, and I tried to take a few at home of just some of the fabulous gifts we received.  I’m going to put most of the photos in gallery format to save some time.  I hope you enjoy the pictures and the sneak peeks you’ll see of the nursery in progress!

The guests arriving and waiting for the shower to begin.

Since the nursery didn’t have a theme, I said an elephant would be cute and keep with the gray and yellow color scheme.

Guests could leave words of wisdom, wishes, prayers, or advice for Kasen on the Wisdom and Wishes Tree

The delectable dessert array: Cake, cookies for guests to take home, and two kinds of cupcakes, Lemon and Chocolate Mint

The adorable diaper cake based on the book we read Kasen, “Oh Baby, the Places You’ll Go.”

Micah was so excited when he saw the stork plane lit up and played music.

The sweet cake for Kasen. It was yummy

The delectable arrangement of food

I loved how colorful the food table was. I could have eaten the whole bowl of strawberries myself!

A friend found and made the Sausage Pinwheels (far right) from my food board on Pinterest. They were delicious and the only downside was I only got one!

Aaron and I

One of the gifts Micah received at the shower was his new Buzz Lightyear Fedora! He LOVES it!

Overwhelmed by the generosity!

33 wks along and adoring the fabulous gift of a personalized cross for Kasen. You can get your own through Dragonfly4 Design’s page on Facebook.

Another lovingly made and beautiful quilt for Kasen, and my wonderful shower assistant, Miss Ella.

My mother-in-law (Mama Tiger) and Micah with his new Buzz Lightyear Fedora

A little view of the adorable and so soft quilt my mother-in-law made for Kasen

The amazing cross with Kasen’s life verse, Phil. 4:8

Kasen’s lovingly-used crib. His big-brother was more than happy to pass it along!

Hand-sewn crib skirt and Diaper stacker courtesy of my wonderful mother-in-law. Sticking with the gray and yellow, but an eclectic mix of patterns.

A close-up of the crib sheet from Carousel Bedding

This was hand-knit for Kasen. So soft, and I love the angel design.

Hand-made block rattles and mighty cute monster shoes

Another sampling of some of the precious gifts we received for Kasen

Just a sampling of the adorable items up close

This is one of the adorable hand-knit hats we received.

Love Pampers Swaddlers! Very excited to use my new Moby wrap.

Shower Sneak Peek

I was treated to a fabulous baby shower yesterday at church!  Kasen is already one very blessed baby boy.  The upside of such a tremendous time was getting to share the time with the wonderful people in our church.  The downside is one very exhausted mom come Monday.

After helping teach Sunday School, being up on my feet a little too long, and an almost 3 hr-shower, I went home and rested.  Actually, no, I didn’t.  My mom and I sorted through all the goodies and then stayed up way too late watching the latest Hallmark movie, Firelight.  Only one commercial made me tear up; the one with the basketball team and coach.

Well, I did not get my shower photos edited yet or all the rest I need, so I have been taking it easier today, and just enjoying time with Micah as he entertains me with his antics.

Here is a peek at one of the amazing gifts we received at the shower.  I look forward to sharing the rest of the pictures of my sweet shower soon.

This will be such a delightful addition to Kasen's nursery! Thank you to the Rhodes family!

This was snapped last night as a quick pic, so please excuse the less than stellar quality.  I’ll take another that will do this art justice!

Gracefully~~Heather

Nursery Fabric Fun

 

Last Saturday my wonderful mother-in-law came to visit us.  She is a very gifted seamstress as one of her many hobbies and I feel very blessed to often be the recipient of her talents with a needle and thread.  I was thrilled when she agreed to make some items for Tiger cub’s nursery.

She made the trek from Owasso, OK to Mudrow ready to tackle the big city of Ft. Smith, AR which is the closest place to purchase fabric.  We knew we’d have to hit Hobby Lobby and were hoping there would be a JoAnn’s and/or Hancock’s to peruse as well.  After convincing Aaron and Micah to join us for the day (enticed by lunch at Red Lobster), we set out on the adventure and a quick map search on the iPhone told me that Hancock’s was the only other fabric option besides the miracle store that is Hobby Lobby.

We hit Hancock’s first and they were having a moving sale!  They were moving to a new store (across the street), so score on the savings!  I found a few fabrics I liked as contenders for the crib skirt and clicked some pics to compare at Hobby Lobby.  Thankfully my fabric samples from Carousel Designs had come in earlier in the week so I could see how they worked with ones I found in store.  You can see the an example of some of the bedding I am getting by clicking here.

After Hancock’s we made our way to Hobby Lobby and I had to remind myself that I was having a boy.  But darn it, there are just far more fun,, pretty, and fabulous fabric choices out there for the girls!  Thankfully, I found the perfect fabric for the crib skirt and fell in love with the design.  We were able to choose fabric for the skirt, a crib sheet, and even for Micah’s new toddler bed at Hobby Lobby.  Yay for Toy Story fabric! We headed back to Hancock’s to pick up some fabric we had seen there as well for a diaper stacker, a scarf for me, and Handy Manny fabric for a blanket and pillow for Micah’s bed.  He LOVES his new Handy Manny pillow!  (Yes, the scarf is fabulous!)

So here are the fabrics we picked out to compliment the ones we are getting from Carousel Designs.  A big thank you to my MIL, Priscilla for helping choose them and of course for all her hard and wonderful work on the bedding for both boys. (Thank you for sending the pictures of the fabric as well!)

I’ll post more pics when it’s all finished.

Let me know what you think!

 

Baby Bedding by Design

After looking for more unique baby bedding I finally came across a website that had tons of fabric options and a design it tool that lets you customize the look down to the color of the trim in the room.  It was super fun and easy to play with and I ended up with a design that I am pretty excited about.  Carousel Designs is a fabulous site and their prices are pretty comparable to other custom sellers like you’ll find on Etsy.com.

Here it is!

Bedding Designed at Carousel Designs

Click on the HERE above and it will take you to my registry on the site.  Not expecting anything off of it, but an easy way to let others take a closer look.  And if my sweet mother decides to purchase her new grandson the whimsical quilt, then that’s a special bonus!

Details on the design are as follows:

The bumper fabric is Solid Butter

The crib sheet is Gray Script Cotton

The crib skirt is Black Baby Toile

The quilt front is Yellow Nursery Rhyme Toile, inside is Gray Script Cotton, and trim is Solid Black Minky

We will not be using a traditional bumper this time around which is one reason I did not want to go with a store bought, bed-in-a-bag option.  There is nothing wrong with that, and is what we used last time.  Since we know we don’t need the bumper, there is no point in paying for the set!  We ended up using a breathable bumper with Micah once he started moving around more in the crib, and I have my eye on the yellow version this time.  It will give the same look as above with the extra safety benefit for only $24 at Amazon vs. $130 on Carousel Designs. 

My very gifted mother-in-law has offered to sew a crib sheet and/or crib skirt for us, so I am hoping that a trip to Hobby Lobby or Hancock Fabrics will produce a similar Black Baby Toile fabric that can save us a % of the $109 the skirt would cost.  I love toiles in general, but I really like the design of this one with babies playing in a not too flowery park setting.  I think it will tie into the Tree of Life well.  I’m not so hopeful of finding a close match for the Gray Script fabric.  Recent searches have not shown promising in that area, plus I really love the simple but elegant pattern Carousel Designs fabric has.  The words on the fabric are ones we will whisper to our little boy to help lull him to sleep, like sweet dreams, wish upon a star, rock a bye, sleep tight, and love bebe; it is perfect, and within price range at $36. 

The quilt we plan on hanging on the wall near the changing table as we did with Micah’s; using it as visual impact and stimulation for TC (Tiger Cub).  I love the whimsical nursery rhyme fabric for adding fun eye candy and the colors are perfect.  I liked having the Gray Script on the back of the quilt and envision the quilt becoming a treasured keepsake we can pass along to our baby boy when he has children of his own one day.  I can think of nothing sweeter than our grandchild or children playing on the very words that we lovingly spoke  to our own child.  (See mom, don’t you want to buy it now!)  😉

As for the design tool, I loved that you could select the wall, trim, flooring, and crib color to really give you an idea of what the bedding will look like with all the elements pulled together.  You better believe I pinned this website on Pinterest!

Well, I had fun and feel happy with the result so far.

What do you think?  Is it alright for a little boy?

Grace for the journey~

Heather

DIY: Tree of Life- Planting the Seeds

I have been scouring the internet from Pinterest to personal blogs looking for nursery inspiration for our second Tiger Cub.  I really want to do something unique and special for my soon to be arrived newest boy.  He has been such a sweet surprise, yet one that has taken some getting used to this time around.  Day by day the reality that we will soon add a second darling boy to our family takes hold of my heart in a way I didn’t think possible.  After having and giving so much love to my charming firstborn, Micah, I couldn’t imagine feeling the same about another child.  Yet, I know it will happen.  I will love them differently, but each with an abundance and overflowing of my very being.

In the meantime, I crave to create something that will show my son just how special a gift he is.  I got to spend so much energy and uninterrupted time preparing a fun and unique space for Micah; spent hours reading what to expect and planning for his arrival, but I am finding this pregnancy speeding by without that same devoted time of preparation.

After many ideas have come and gone I have decided not to go with a fully themed nursery this time around.  This pregnancy has been so different than my first and I’m finding that the boys even “act” different.  Micah was incredibly active at all times during the day and night from the moment I felt the first flutter.  However, Tiger Cub #2 has so far been much more chill.  I’ve felt his tiny flips and flutters for about a month now, but he tends to be much more fluid and far less frequent in his movements.  I don’t know what it is, but as much as Micah is forceful and flamboyant, I get the feeling that TC2 is calm and cool; both wonderful and unique in their own way.

So the first DIY project I am going to attempt is to create a Tree of Life in TC2’s nursery as a focal wall.  I am not an artist.  I can create shapes and recreate crafts I see, but when it comes to drawing free-form; less is more in my case.  Still, after thinking about what symbols, images, and style I wanted for our little one, I kept coming back to trees.  I thought of decals and stencils, but everything that I have come across so far costs a pretty penny.  Since I am once again a stay-at-home mom, this leaves our decor budget a bit small.  Thus, I am thinking this leaves a trace and paint, with a bit of free-form to hopefully create the image in my head.

While looking at decals I came across this interesting tree at dalidecals.com

I am envisioning a tree similar to this, with inscribed words of life within the circles to inspire and encourage my little guy as he grows.  I am going to play with some color combinations before beginning because Aaron and I have talked about cool grey walls with gold and scarlet accents.  I will try and sketch some concept art to include in an update.  For now I just wanted to get the idea out there in the attempt to motivate myself.  Any extra encouragement, tips, or help is always welcome!

Since we are still trying to figure out the room situation for the boys, I’m not sure how quickly this project can get under way, but I will update asap.  Keep an eye out and wish me luck!