Nursery Craftiness

With impending induction weighing on my mind, I had a bunch of nervous energy to focus on ... a bit of Nursery Craftiness.

For the most part, BGV 2.0's nursery is just a hand-me-down from her big sister, the first of many, I am certain! If you'd like to know more about the Alphabet Art created by family and friends across the country, click here.

I already love this room so much, which is why I've done minimal touches for the new baby ... but I did make an effort ... and I've been feeling quite crafty ...

First of all, I made BGV her very own set of curtains - just like the ones you see here. Hers are navy blue with four stripes: red, yellow, green, and blue.

I also bought a new piece of storage - for the hundreds of baby toys and books. This was a Craigslist find, and it's perfect!

Then, I took these two 16 x 20 (super cheap) frames, original finger-paint artwork by my talented two year old, and some letter stickers to make this ...

Can you see what it says? Baby Sister ... I am so clever ;)

Oh, and there's a glimpse of the curtains and storage, too.

And finally, my little late night masterpiece ... created between the hours of 11:00 pm Saturday and 1:00 am Sunday ... a wall mobile that will hopefully calm a fussy baby.

Where did this idea come from?!  Well ...

There's this website - http://www.fussybaby.net/ - it boasts "free artwork to soothe the savage beast" ... how's that for a catchy slogan?!  From this site, you can print high-contrast images that are "proven" to capture baby's attention, which enables them to calm down.  I can't remember how I found out about this, but I used the images with NHV, particularly while she was being changed, and well, hate to sound all info-mercially, but ... it worked.

I just printed out the "poster" and had it next to the changing table; she loved looking at the black-and-white images.  For BGV I decided to take it a step further ... I added ribbon because I am obsessed with ribbon right now and a few other random items found around the house.

Since babies like shiny things, I used CDs as the circles, added a layer of bright paper circle, and attached a high-contrast, circular image to the center.

I cut cardboard into squares, painted them black, added some scraps of colorful paper, and attached a high-contrast image to the center.

All attaching was done with Modge Podge ... love that stuff!

I installed the ribbons directly to the wood trim with hot glue and secured the ends to the wall with some putty-stuff.  Viola!

I can just picture me pacing around the nursery.  BGV hoisted up on my shoulder with the Fussy Baby Wall Mobile just at eye-level.  She'll be calmed within minutes, and my sanity will be spared.  Wishful thinking, huh?!