Elephant Nursery Reveal

Hey, remember when I promised to show you the finished nursery? I won't feel bad if you don't remember since that was probably almost two months ago at this point. But, life happened, had a baby, you know...

So needless to say I had more plans for the nursery and it still doesn't feel 100% complete, but I figured I'd reveal it since it's just about as finished as it will get in the next month and that way I can just update you on the last little odds n' ends and little touches as I complete them. 

When we first found out we were having a baby, I was thrilled! And...of course thrilled to plan a nursery. I knew right away I wanted to do something gender neutral and I also wanted to use a lot of neutral colors. I also knew I needed to decorate with a budget in mind. 

First, I chose the color palette. I went with white, grey and burlap for the base of the room and chose mint as an accent color. Finding "mint" and the same minty color throughout was extremely challenging. Especially with paint. We ended up painting the nursery in Spring Mist by Martha Stewart which you can purchase at Home Depot. The color looked like a soft grey with a hint of minty green in it, but once on the walls it looked much more of a blue tint than green. We actually fell in love with the color and decided it worked well as a tinted grey and kept it up on the walls. It's actually a pretty seafoam hue which I absolutely love. Gradually the mint part of the color scheme switched to variations of a seafoam blue. You'll notice some of the pictures it looks like a grey, sometimes it looks minty and sometimes more blue. 

The crib was purchased at Buy Buy Baby and we got it for a super discounted price! It was on sale from $250 for $199 and then we used a 20% off coupon and got the crib for $160. Go us. The rocking chair we are borrowing from my parents. 

These adorable elephant sheets are from Target and were only $10 (they are on sale right now for $8!). They were the inspiration for the DIY elephant mobile above the crib and for the theme of the room. The blanket is Aden and Anais from Buy Buy Baby. I love this brand. I have a bunch of their swaddle blankets and adore how big and stretchy they are. They are also light enough that I can either double them up or use just one so that Evan doesn't get too warm. 

I framed four of my favorite ultrasound photos. Sorry for the glare on the one. I couldn't seem to get enough light without getting too much glare. The frames are from Ikea and I just cut pieces of burlap and placed the ultrasound photos on top of the burlap. 

The "E" was a gift from a friend at my shower. It's a minty green and made of tin. I love it! 

The rocking chair cover was a great find! It's from Carousel Designs Baby Bedding. It was one of the pricier items, but I got it on sale for $60 from the original price of $84. I couldn't pass up the cuteness and had a really hard time finding any other chair cushions that weren't hideous. 

This is the gorgeous basket I found at HomeGoods. I use it to hold loads of diapers so that they are easily accessible, but look adorable. And of course I love the burlap and touch of industrial feel. Brings a little texture and masculinity to the room. 

The "Evan" sign was a gift from a friend. She hand-painted it! The white shelf was actually in my room when I was a baby. It used to be a dark brown, so Frank and I painted it white and loaded it up with Evan's stuffed animals. 

There's the "E" from when I did the yarn wrapped letters for Evan's name. I ended up only using the "E" for now since I couldn't find a good place for his whole name. I may end up moving it in the future and using his full name at some point. We will see. 

The burlap bin is another HomeGoods find. I use it to keep his bath supplies, lotion and diapering cream. I just love the chalkboard label on the front. 

I still have a few decorations to work on and my parents are finishing up another piece of furniture that they should be dropping off here this weekend! I will post an update once we have it. 

For now...it looks like I have a project ahead of me with this closet. So embarrassing, but it's the truth. 

Since we only have two bedrooms, the nursery triples as his nursery, our office and my craft room. So, the closet is packed to the brim. I need to work on trying to figure out a system to organize my scrapbooking supplies, cleaning supplies and his blankets and clothes without having things tumble on my head when I open the closet door! This just might be a spring project...or series of projects.

I have to say I love being back on the blog! I am still taking it a bit easy, but plan to be posting somewhat regularly now that Evan and I seem to have fallen into a bit of a routine. Next week I'll be sharing a bit more about his first month and hopefully a small project. 

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35 Week Update

35. Yup. 35. I really can't believe we are 5 weeks away from the baby's expected birth date! I figured it is about time for an update.

32 Weeks

Symptoms/Progress: 

As I shared a few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes around 30 weeks and it was not an easy transition. I'm not a huge fan of needles (I'm not sure anyone is...) and not being able to eat the foods I've been craving has been challenging at best. However, 5 weeks later, I can say that I am definitely getting used to the routine and tracking my glucose levels. I've got a pretty good system down which helps and it's definitely not as a bad as I expected it to be.

As far as other symptoms, I'm doing pretty good! It's becoming more and more challenging to put on socks and shoes and to move around in general. I've also started to become super clumsy which is honestly comical at times--dropping stuff all over the place. Overall though, I honestly can't complain much. I feel like I can say that I have had a fairly mild pregnancy and I am just working on being relaxed, calm and preparing myself for birth.

Cravings:

Peanut butter. And of course all the carbs I cannot have like pasta, cookies, cupcakes, donuts, and FRUIT. But peanut butter? Yeah, I've gone through 2 massive jars of creamy delicious peanut butter in the past 5 weeks. Not kidding. And there's another jumbo jar of it waiting in my pantry. With the gestational diabetes I'm supposed to balance each carb with a protein. So obviously that means I slather on the peanut butter pretty much every time I can. Having some rice cakes for breakfast? With a pound of peanut butter. Having a fiber one low carb brownie? With a huge glop of peanut butter. Apple slices? dipped in an excessive amount of peanut butter. Hungry? Grab a spoon of peanut butter. Yep. Just straight peanut butter. Yummmmmmy.


Nursery Progress:

Have you seen some of my latest posts? I finally finished the mobile and made super easy window treatments with fabric garlands. We also were able to wash and put away all the bedding and blankets, towels and washcloths and all the baby clothes we know we will use. We've unpacked all the gifts we received from the shower I had a couple of weeks ago and Frank and I started assembling things. We also purchased a cover for the rocking chair my mom is lending us for the nursery. I am so excited to sit in it!

We also installed the car seat this week and starting packing our bags for the hospital. All this prep work is both exciting and also really making it feel like our little boy is going to be here so so soon!

I'll also leave you with a few pictures from the beautiful shower that my Mom, Mother-in-Law and a few wonderful friends planned for me! It was so much fun and was great to celebrate the coming arrival of our little baby boy. Of course the theme was elephants...

My beautiful Mom, the mastermind of all the shower planning and decorating!

I have not taken any more belly photos since the shower, but I promise to have an updated one next time for the 36 week update. Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and hey, if you missed yesterdays post, head on over to check out the Blogger Challenge post about using Pattern. Seven other fabulous bloggers posted about their projects as well so be sure to click on the links to their blogs at the bottom of my post! Happy Wednesday!

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Blogger Pattern Challenge: DIY Fabric Garland Window Treatment

Hello everyone! Today I am participating in a Blogger Challenge to use Pattern in a project! If you are visiting La Vita DiBella for the first time, welcome! Chelsea from Pinterior Designer challenged myself and 7 other bloggers to come up with a project using pattern. Following the post you can check out everyone's great patterned projects by clicking on the links provided!

I have to admit, I'm not the best at using pattern. I usually gravitate towards soft and neutral colors and honestly have a phobia when it comes to mixing patterns. It's something I really need to learn to do better, so this challenge couldn't have come at a better time!

Since my husband Frank and I have been busy preparing for the upcoming birth of our son (in less than 5 weeks!), we have been doing lots of projects in the nursery. The theme is elephants and the nursery colors are grey, tan, white and mint. In order to carry the color theme throughout the room I made these Yarn Wrapped Letters and a DIY Elephant Mobile.

We looked at purchasing window treatments for the nursery and decided we did not want to spend the money on them since we will likely only have them for a few years before our son will want something a bit more grown up. So, instead, I created a very easy Fabric Garland to add some interest to the windows.

The whole project took me a total of 2.5 hours. If you don't have some of the quilting supplies on hand it will probably take a bit longer to cut all the strips of fabric, but luckily my mom is a quilter and helped me with her quilting tools to make the cutting process super quick and easy.

I used some fabric that my mom had left over and purchased a few 1/4 yard cuts of patterned fabric in the colors I wanted. I tried to mix and match patterns that were the same color. The patterns make the fabric interesting and I learned that mixing patterns is not an issue when you combine the correct colors!

First, my mom and I used the rotary and rotary cutting board to cut 1" strips of fabric from each 1/4 yard piece. I used 2 1/4 yard pieces per color.

Once the strips were cut, I lined up the strips by color. For my garlands I grouped together 6 strips of fabric in like colors and alternated colors.

Then, all you have to do is tie knots with the fabric strips along whatever type of yarn or rope you choose. For my garland I used twine since it matched the tan in my color scheme and since it is strong, but you can use any type of strong yarn or rope.

Don't you love how the different patterns all look great together? I think I may have overcome my fear of mixing patterns! ...maybe.


Then, all I did was have my husband Frank hang the garlands from the windows in the nursery and voila! Super fast, super cute and laid back window treatments! You could also use the garland to decorate the crib, drape below a shelf or above a bookcase.

Here's a peek of the rest of the nursery with the mobile hanging above the crib. We still have some more decorating and organizing to do, but we are getting closer to having things finished every day.

Thanks for stopping by La Vita DiBella today! If you're visiting, I'd love for you to stick around to browse the site and hope you'll come back to visit sometime soon!

I'd love to know:  What creative ways have you used pattern?

And, don't forget to check out the creative ways these lovely bloggers have used pattern in their projects:

To check out these awesome projects please click on the images above or the links below:

Grace Lee Cottage, Cute Kid, Ugly House, La Vita DiBella, Retro Ranch Renovation, Country Mouse Tales, Pinterior Designer, Sweet Paper Treats , Lemon Drop Life

Again, thanks so much for stopping by!

DIY Elephant Mobile

I am so excited about today's post! This project has been my favorite thing I have worked on for the baby's nursery so far--it just took me way too long to finally hang it up in his room and get the post on the blog!

To make your own mobile you'll need the following:

1. First I found the design for the elephant I wanted to create. I drew out my elephant on some scrap paper in the size that I wanted them and traced them onto my grey felt pieces. You'll need to make a front and a back so double up on the number of elephants you want to create (or any other animal you choose). I also chose to do a separate piece for the ears so that they would look a bit more 3D.

2. Then, I made my pom-poms. There are many tutorials online on how to make these. Just wrap your yarn around 2-4 fingers (depending on how large you want your poms to be). Then, carefully slip the wrapped yarn off  your fingers being sure to keep its shape. Use a small piece of yarn (of the same color) to tie around the middle and knot a few times. Then, just snip the ends. Voila! A yarn pom-pom. You can trim around the edges to make sure that the ends are even. I made mine in varying colors and sizes.

3. Then, I stitched my elephants together and gave them eyes with the tan yarn. You can choose to put a bit of stuffing in your animals too if you want them to look more plump. Then, glue any other pieces you need onto the elephants. I chose to glue the ears on.

4. Once your animals and pom-poms are complete, it's time to string everything together! You'll need a large sewing needle for this part. First, tie your yarn around one of the pom-poms and knot it tightly at the bottom to start, then string the yarn through the remaining  pom-poms and elephant in whatever order you wish.

5. Once your strands are completed, tie them tightly onto your embroidery hoop. I chose to wrap my hoop in yarn as well to match my yarn pom-poms.

6. To hang, purchase a ceiling hook and tie yarn from the top of the hoop to hang from the hook. Make sure the ends are all even so the hoop hangs horizontally and make sure all parts of the mobile are completely secure so pieces don't fall into the baby's crib.

So that's it! It was super easy and since it was custom made it matches the exact style and feel I was looking for in the nursery and the exact colors I wanted to use. And, I spent less than $25 on this whole project. 

Did you catch the picture of the other addition to the nursery? Come back tomorrow for another complete DIY tutorial on how I used pattern in the nursery...along with links to several other blogger's posts on how they creatively  used pattern in a DIY project of their own.


Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow! And don't forget to subscribe to the blog on the right hand column or follow La Vita DiBella on Bloglovin for updates on new posts!

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