Year: 2015

When I found out we were pregnant, I was all over Pinterest finding fun things to do to track our journey.  One thing that we did that was a lot of fun, was taking pictures by a chalkboard to watch my bump grow!  (My husband might disagree, as getting a good angle on a growing pregnant girl can be difficult!) He survived and we got really good at getting the picture done in only a few snaps by the time it was all said and done with!

The first thing I had to do was find a chalkboard to track the week number and size of the baby.  This was actually a lot harder than I had imagined.  Originally, I planned on up-cycling an old large picture frame into a chalkboard, like I did when I distressed this old picture frame.  After several trips to various thrift shops, this just wasn’t going to happen.  I couldn’t find anything that was just the right frame size or style, so I decided to just find a chalkboard.  I went to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Gordmans, and finally settled on one from Jo-Anns. This hunt was almost as bad as trying to find one to make.  They were either too big, too small, or too EXPENSIVE!  I ended up getting one that was going to work for our needs.  I think it was $49.99, but I had a 50% off coupon, so that worked for me!

The expensive part was actually figuring out the chalk for the chalkboard.  After researching how to do good chalkboards, I found everyone said that chalk markers were the way to go.  They were almost $10 for 4 markers and I wish I wouldn’t have bought them.  In fact, below is my first picture with the chalkboard and I wasn’t happy at all with how the chalk markers turned out.  I was even more upset when I went to take it off to do the next week and the markers had stained the chalkboard!  As a very hormonal pregnant woman, I was very upset and in tears due to the fact that these expensive markers ruined my board!  I ended up having to buy chalkboard paint and repainting the chalkboard.  I then decided to get colored chalk and do it the old fashioned way!  I was much more happy with the result, but this is why Week 15 is missing.  I just ended up starting at Week 16 instead.

Ok, so now that I got through my rant about how much I hated those chalk markers, it is time to show you the final pictures!  I must say, looking at these, I am glad I switched to the old school chalk, as it looks much better!  Though some weeks it seemed like such a chore, I actually enjoyed spending time making these boards.  It was fun to pick which colors and lettering I was going to do.

I have been working so hard on Avery’s nursery since the second we found out we were having a girl.  Maybe even right after we found out we were pregnant because you all know how obsessed with Pinterest I am!  I started off with just a color scheme, as I wanted something classic that she could grow into without too much of a “theme.”  Then I started growing obsessed with hot air balloons.  I think over all it turned out not too “themey” and quite beautiful if I must say so myself!

I decided on a mint, coral, gray, and white color scheme that would be the baseline of the nursery.  I remember when I told my husband that I wanted the walls gray with one accent wall of either gray and white stripes or chevron.  He thought I was crazy along with my stepdad, mom, and grandmother.  I kept telling them to relax and go with my vision.  My grandma was afraid I would get too dark of a gray and that it wouldn’t be cheerful enough for a baby.

My Grandma Bloesser came down over my Spring Break and helped me sew things for the nursery.   I wanted to do everything myself, so we had quite the list of things to get done over her week stay.  I am kind of a DIY Queen, so I couldn’t just find a store bought bedding set, especially when I found the perfect hot air balloon material that would make the most adorable sheets!

In addition to the crib sheets, we also created a beautiful three tier ruffle crib skirt that was an absolute nightmare to make!  I hate ruffles!  Grandma had to swoop in and save the day on this one. We tried adapting the pattern to go with the crib because the sides are solid and we didn’t need it to go all the way around.  Needless to say I threw my hands up with that one and didn’t even attempt my own tutorial on it because it was a pain.  It turned out gorgeous, but I never want to sew another ruffle again!

As much as I love crib bumpers, they say not to use them because of suffocation risks, but I had found some pins on DIY teething rails.  Once baby is big enough to stand up in the crib, they are usually teething and tend to chomp on the rail of the crib.  This leaves dents in the crib rail, along with the potential risk off paint chips in baby’s mouth.  I decided that teething rail was a must!

I wanted some shelving in the corner of her room.  Originally, Alex was going to build me some shelves, but I had my heart set on some floating shelves.  After doing some research, we decided it would be easier to find some already made ones.  We spent one afternoon at Ikea and the ones that I liked there were way too long.  We almost got them anyways and I am glad we didn’t because we found the perfect ones at Target!

I wanted some type of bookcase in the room for her books, but Alex was afraid she would try to climb it and it would fall on top of her.  (He’s not going to be a protective daddy or anything!)  I ended up getting an extra tub from Hobby Lobby and just putting her books in one on the floor.   I figure when she is bigger, she can just grab whatever book she wants us to read from the tub and we will be good to go!

The dresser area has a special piece of artwork hanging above it!  One of my childhood friends Alisha Johann created the most beautiful whimsical hot air balloon watercolor painting!  I wanted a special quote on it from Dr. Seuss that says “Oh the places you’ll go!”  I think she totally nailed it!  I was beaming with excitement when I opened it and went straight up to the nursery to hang it up!