house tour: nursery

finally, the nursery. and it's only fourteen months later than i'd hoped. :) it's still not completely done--there are frames to be hung and little birds to spray paint and a bit of adjusting of furniture--but it's probably as close as we will get in this house.

in our next house we'll put up the art and move the chair out to give her more room to play. but for now, it's perfect for her, and she is very pleased with having her room all to herself to explore.

and i love it. it's such a sweet blend of modern and romantic, minimal with just enough whimsy, for our spunky little girl.

love.

diy: yarn-wrapped letter.

let me share my first of two projects i finished this weekend. it's been on my list for months, so i'm pretty excited about it.

not the best picture, but i hope you get the idea. haha.

this was harder than i thought it was going to be. i looked up a few different directions online & it looked so simple that i thought it would breeze through it. most directions were just to the effect of wrap, wrap, wrap and glue.

not so much. although if you're an expert with the hot glue gun, you might not want to listen to me--i'm not an experienced crafter by any means. but, if you need a little extra explanation, this is for you.

you only need half of these (wreath instructions will be coming next). though, i consider coffee & LOtR are necessities. 

yarn-wrapped letter
---
what you need
hot glue gun & glue sticks
any letter style of your choice (michaels has tons of options, though i like that this letter has a cutout to hang it in the back. it makes life that much easier.)
a small skein of yarn (that's what it's called, right?)

what i did
1. plug in your glue gun & let it warm up. simple, yes, but i don't remember these things.

2. glue the first edge of yarn down on an end.

3. start wrapping, keeping it as taught as possible. try to cover as much of the end as you can--keep in mind, you're going to have to go different ways to cover the different sides & ends.

4. on the edges, you'll need to dab some glue to keep the yarn in place. do this as much as you need to, because you'll be wrapping over some of it later on.

5. continue wrapping around the rest of the letter, dabbing glue on odd spots as necessary.

6. repeat what you did on the first corner on the other corner(s). the main goal at this point is to cover all the letter with yarn as neatly as possible.

7. once that is done, now for the aesthetics. at the opposite end of the letter, tightly wrap over the edges in the same direction (see the photo above to see how i did it). this does take some trial and error, but don't give up. just find the best way to cover all around neatly, and glue some of it to keep it in place.

8. sparingly wrap your way back around the letter to the other end(s). since it's all wrapped tightly, it will blend it with the yarn.

9. repeat the patterns you came up with for the first end until everything is neat & pretty. snip the yarn, and glue that sucker down.

10. if there are some loose pieces, just glue underneath them and place them where you want them.

11. if you want to add embellishments, now's the time to do it.

12. hang your masterpiece & pat yourself on the back. you did it.

love.

Birds on a string.

i don't see myself as a crafty person. creative? sometimes. artsy? sure. but the other night changed that perception (even if only momentarily). observe the finished product:

i made a mobile for the nursery! i've been wanting to do it for a while now, as the only mobile i could find that we loved was $60 and made of cardstock (no, thanks). and, aided by the lovely--and very crafty--hannah, this one came out even better!

a shout out must go to martha stewart. i never thought id actually be one for applauding her ideas, but she really nailed it. if i'd thought more about it, i would have done this during the day and documented it in pictures, but there are instructions that are just as good here.

i did decide to tweak it a bit, though. as the baby enjoying this is no girl, I opted out of the flowers and we just cut small light green leaves to cover the fishing wire. and since the base color scheme of the nursery is black and white (and the like), i went with gray and white for the birds. if you can't tell from the picture, three birds are solid gray and two are white with gray wings and tails.

he likes it.

in fact, i think it's safe to say he loves it. i'm pretty sure he fell asleep chatting with his new friends, and he woke up this morning to finish the conversation (this conversation included quite a few raspberries, as that is his newest form of communication).

this makes for one very, very happy mommy.
love.