Preparing for Baby #2 - Nursery

So far, the "sweep-n-sex" have not worked... keep ya posted ;)

Installment #2 of baby prep - The SO MUCH FUN project of decorating your nursery, I mean baby's nursery ;) tee hee hee... let's face it, it's really for us. It's unlikely baby's coming out Nate Berkus!

Nursery Prep

When we set out to do our nursery, I used several websites for inspiration. Although a little expensive, and shipping to Canada is $$$, these two were my favs for themes and designs:

• Pottery Barn Kids
• Restoration Hardware Baby

Picking furniture sounds like fun but can be a challenge! For us, it came down to Sears, Costco or Walmart and here is the issue: Walmart's prices are the best but shipping costs so much that it's actually cheaper to buy from Sears where the furniture is generally $50-$75 more! At Sears, you can pick it up in-store vs. shipping so shipping is free. Check Flyerland (Cdn) or the Sears website for weekly flyers. They often have $-off sales on baby furniture. Costco online has beautiful dark wood baby furniture and shipping is typically inc. in the price... unfortunately for us, we were looking for white furniture. Babies-R-Us was more expensive and mostly has dark furniture again so it didn't work for us.

On Kijiji (like Craigslist), we found a carpenter who custom-built a bookcase and side table for our nursery that are beautiful and were an awesome price ($95 and $50). I'm sure you can find a similar handyman in your area. These sites also have used furniture that is worth a look if you want to save some dough.

I saved a lot of money creating some of the decor myself. I printed off two prayers (Serenity Prayer and the Bedtime prayer) on pink paper, bordered it with coloured cardstock, and framed them. Cost me $20 and they look great! I found a painting I liked at Pottery Barn (click here) that would have cost $200+... instead I bought canvases and paint at the Dollarstore, and did my own version for $15 (see below). Turned out great! Also, I made blocks spelling out baby's name for over her crib. Cost me $7 (Dollarstore) and is more unique then the wall letters you buy for $7 each! These little projects saved us tons of money and were also fun to do!

If you have any questions about anything, ask! I am no Martha Stewart. You can do similar projects yourself, trust me!

Jen :)

PS - #22 on topbabyblogs.com this morning, thanks everyone! Keep voting! I'm moving on up ;)