Labor Day Weekend

Here's a late post: Hope everyone enjoyed the extra day off last weekend. I know hubby and I did! We didn't get much rest or relaxation, but we did get a lot accomplished. After a bunch of trips to Lowes, hubby and I were set for our individual projects. Hubby buried some concrete blocks under our gate so Duke couldn't dig himself out. I swear we should have named him George. Curious George. Which is one of his many nicknames. I like Nosey-boy, Sir Sniffs-A-Lot, Pretty Boy and Daddy Duke (thanks to protective instincts over baby girl) best.

 

My big project for the weekend was my office. I managed to get it painted, not so easy with a 3 month old, but it's still a mess. I have it somewhat put back together so I can work this week, then I'll get it finished up this weekend. I have a little paint to touch up, the aforementioned stencil to use, and lots of cleaning/organizing. Stay tuned for photos of the transformation!

I also worked a little more in Tennessee's room:

I decided to make Tennessee's nursery a combination of a baby and a toddler room. I didn't want anything to be too babyish, and I really don't want to have to completely redo her room in a couple of years to make it age appropriate. So I decided to do a couple more crafty things that she will grow into.

Bulletin board

I bought a cheap cork board at Hobby Lobby and Mod Podged pretty fabric to it. The I stapled the edges of the fabric to the back of the cork board frame. This was a cheap and easy project that I really love. Don't you just love this giraffe fabric? I ordered it off Amazon, and have found a few more uses for it in the nursery - more on that later! For now, here's the finished bulletin board. I'll post pics of it in place when I do the big reveal!

Chalk boards

Chalkboards and chalkboard paint are all the rage right now. And yes, I love them, too. I decided I wanted to have something that was a chalkboard in Tennessee's room, but I couldn't decide what type of surface I wanted it to be. Then one day I was in a Walmart in the next town over and found a 3 pack of canvas. Not stretched canvas that's already framed, but flat canvas. My local Walmart has very little craft supplies, but this Walmart still has a fabric section along with a large selection of other DIY supplies. I found the 3 pack of flat canvas for a fraction of the price craft stores sell them for, and knew right away these would be my chalkboard surfaces.

Here's the canvas pre-paint. Sorry it's white on white.

Next time I'll do better. Promise.

 

 

This stuff is A-MA-ZING!

(Excuse the reloading supplies in the background.)

I brought the canvas home and used a can of spray chalkboard paint (also from Walmart) to apply two coats to the canvas, letting it dry for a full 24 hours about 4 hours in between coats. Then I brought the canvases inside and prepped the surfaces by covering the whole thing in chalk and then wiping the canvas clean. I used those trusty 3m strips to hang the canvases (I used two) behind Tennessee's closet door and next to her window. My only complaint is that the canvases weren't exactly the same size, even though they were supposed to be, so the one on the left is slightly longer. Which does NOT make my OCD happy! Grr...

Bottom line: I love taking the time to make things for Tennessee's room. My parents and grandparents did that for me when I was little, and I still have a lot of handmade items from my childhood room. I'm not sure that anything I'm doing for Tennessee will be that permanent, but at least it was made by her Momma.

Also, David and I found the perfect comfy chair for her nursery on Craigslist, for $50! After getting it cleaned up we put it by the window with a rug and lovely pillow from Target (gasp!) that was ON SALE and probably cheaper than any pillow I could have made. I think it looks PERFECT! Pictures to come!

We also bought a dresser off of Craigslist (from a very sad little man) and had to drive all the way to Pensacola for it. About an hour from our house. We made a day of it and had sushi at Shark Fin while we were in town. Food was delicious, baby girl was amazingly sweet and calm (as usual), and the dresser is in decent shape - just needs a bit of refinishing. That's my next big project. Although I may put hubby to work sanding it since he usually gets a choice - work, or watch Tennessee. Not sure what it is that makes men afraid to be alone with babies (even their own, even when they're really good with said baby)?? Maybe it's the amount of up and down work associated with constantly feeding (seriously. CONSTANTLY.) and changing and playing with baby.