Crafty Reveal

I've been waiting to post some pictures until I had everything finished, but of course something went awry and it's not done. Not like I haven't waited years to get things in working order anyway, so what's a few more weeks?

The mobile creation was a success. I can't say that about most of my crafty endeavors, which is why I rarely entertain them. I can admire, but just don't have the care or patience to really finish a project that involves sewing machines or hot glue guns. Just not my thing.

This only involved my printer, scissors, cardstock, and hemp twine. I can handle that. Template for the birds found here.

The wall will have this in dark grey. 

It arrived, we had it taped and ready to go... started peeling... and bam. Wrong color. Silver is not dark grey, my friends. It's not. Back to Amazon it went and we'll try again soon. Here's the mobile hanging in all its glory. We're quite proud of our $7 mobile created by yours truly. Too bad B thinks crib sleeping is for the birds. Hah. Birds. Get it? Sleep deprivation jokes at their finest. Guess who might be teething and is now waking every two hours at night? Not surprising as I'm reminded that my brother and I were the same way at such an early age.

The top of the Ikea bookshelf has a bird I found at a thrift store during my pregnancy with Andrew. I sanded it down, painted it white and added another successful craft project to my miniature repertoire. The letters are to represent my kidlets, and the sign in the middle reads Love You to the Moon and Back. It was given to us by good friends for Andrew's birthday. I wrote to Andrew in one of my letters and said those words. Now B has those words to cherish as well.

The blue chest was not in there when we were decorating for Andrew. We brought it up from the basement where it used to house our wedding stuff and costumes (who doesn't love a good mullet wig?) and decided it will be B's to keep. Every Air Force Academy cadet receives one of these, among other things. It's now being passed down to B from his dad. So sweet.

The A & B pillows on the rocking chair were made by my same amazing blog friend, Katie, who made B's interchangeable bowtie onesies. The blanket was made by my mom, B's grandma. As for the curtains... anyone have any ideas on making them blackout?

We have no wall space left in B's room, otherwise we'd hang our latest acquisition: B's first stock. When I was pregnant with B, Ray decided that if he lived, he would purchase his very first stock for him and have it framed. We searched the stocks available that you can purchase and have sent to you. We decided on something that would be suitable for children (candy) and a local company, Tootsie Roll. When B moves out of the nursery and into his next bedroom, we'll hang it for him. Until then... on the mantle it stays.

Also on the mantle is another craft project I've been working on. I pinned this on Pinterest, found some map templates online, purchased some old maps from a consignment store for $3, re-purposed the frame that used to hang above the crib as a placeholder for something much better (that never happened before Andrew died) and came up with this:

I'm not entirely thrilled with it, but that's what we've got so far since B managed to take a five hour nap one day a couple weeks ago. It hasn't happened since, so therefore it remains as-is for now. It's actually wax paper backing and I'd prefer something like burlap. My mom recommended a dark blue. Since the maps are obviously not to scale, it was challenging to include the places we're from and currently live while trying to maintain some sense of the state. Obviously California is not ocean. But I wanted to use the cutout of the state itself and show where I'm from originally. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm from the middle of the state when I'm actually from the southern portion just 2ish hours from the Mexican border. Should've thought of that. And Ray isn't from the center of Maryland either. The Illinois map is the most accurate as we do live in the north part of the state just west of Lake Michigan. Also, the hearts are pieces of red paper I found on the label of Ray's magazine, The Economist. Since I re-purposed that frame (that cost me around $16 back in 2010), this whole project was less than $20 so far. I need to figure out what to do with that backing.

Here's what I paid $3 for at consignment. Nice, old, vinyl National Geographic maps that may or may not still have the U.S.S.R. labeled.

Also, we bought this. In June. 

Because it was an amazing deal for Memorial Day weekend and I scored $32 cash back on my purchase through ShopatHome. My next check in July will be for $127.08 since we apparently spend way too much online and have that much in cash back to show for it. Haha. I'd like to hope that next winter we'll be spending less time shoveling and more time together watching B walk around the house and become an overall menace to society. Can't wait. 

Another food post coming soon. This one involves the use of my blender. Get excited.

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