Casa de Baby Belcher

So remember when I used to blog? Yeah that was fun. I've had some posts in the works for a while so I need to suck it up and start posting them. I've been a little busy...

I like making [some] things myself. I like to look at something crafty and artsy in a magazine and think, "I could TOTALLY do that myself and for less money." Sometimes this works out, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes I end up buying it from the store anyway because it's easier to be lazy.

I was hit with the DIY bug again recently but this time, my DIY-ness exploded in the baby nursery. Some of you have already seen my nursery in person but I thought I'd give a little explanation about what we've been doing for the past few months to get it ready for baby day. I figured now is the time to go all out since I won't have nearly as much time to put this much effort into the decor for additional babies.

First, I decided to make my crib bedding. Not the sheets. Just the crib bumper and crib skirt. I mainly wanted to make these myself because I didn't really like anything for nursery decor at Target or Babies R Us. I found some that I kind of liked at other places but they were too expensive and I wasn't registered there and people keep yelling at me for buying myself baby stuff before I had a shower. I couldn't have done the crib bumper without the seamstress skills and assistance from my sister and mother. There is great satisfaction in completing a project all by yourself. Especially in an area that I don't consider myself proficient at all whatsoever. Case in point: Jericho- "Don't you think this is a bit ambitious since you don't really sew a lot?" Me- "Probably".

Just picture a pretty white or yellow sheet on my bare crib mattress. That crib bumper was definitely the trickiest thing I've ever sewn. I used the instructions from this blog. They were excellent.

Oh and I made this curtain panel. With fabric I got from my friend Angie's cute fabric site. And bought those pictures from A Vintage Poster. Please forgive the messy state of the room. It's currently still baby nursery/army supply room.

Next, I decided on these. I Googled instructions to maybe do them myself and, of course, found some from Ms. Martha. If you want to find out how to make them yourself, I suggest you consult Martha here. I, however, did not even try. The amount of savings do make them myself versus buying them online was very marginal. If you do decide to make these poms yourself, I would suggest using more tissue paper. In the instructions from Martha, it says to use eight sheets of tissue paper. The ones I got from Etsy had 14. I think it makes a big difference.

In my last two apartments, I made a vinyl wall decal. They can be found here. I decided that as part of my nursery decor, I wanted a vinyl decal of a tree or something else big and colorful. But I've learned my lesson on making homemade vinyl decals. I proved to myself that I can do it myself and for cheaper but not without a LOT of work. While not having to do any of the work myself is tempting, is it really worth $100? I know I didn't want to try to duplicate such a large decal myself but still loved the idea. Instead, I decided to paint it in mural form. Wha?!? Yeah. Crazy idea. I'm aware. I did it anyway. And with the awesome help from some of the awesome ladies at my baby shower. As you can see, it's still in progress. Just so you know, I didn't free-hand the design nor did I come up with it. I traced it onto a transparency from an imagine from the web and then projected it on the wall with an overhead projector. See, even the non-artsy can do art.

So, that's my baby's nursery. Some little things may get added here and there but I've tackled all the big stuff I had planned for the nest of our little-one-to-be. I purposely planned a gender-neutral nursery color scheme so I wouldn't feel the need to go through all this again for the subsequent children that will use this room. Let's hope I still like it. I really don't want to paint over that tree.