nursery and jane's bedroom decorating complete!

In case you aren't sick of me and my projects yet... I have more!

Here's the thing - we're getting such a great response to our BEST GIVEAWAY EVER - seriously? Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about which means you are basically a crazy person. OK, so because we're getting such a great response from everybody to the Surface Inspired Wall Decal Giveaway, I'm thinking that I'm obviously not the only one out there who's (1) decorating a nursery or (2) looking for ways to pretty up a room for CHEAP-O.

So, this week, I had two "empty corner" projects I wanted to finish up... Dear Lord, there's nothing worse than an empty corner!! :p

(1) The empty wall corner in the nursery behind the rocking chair
(2) Jane's empty corner behind her swinging chair

Priority went to Jane's room, well, because... um. She's here. So for some reason because Jane is actually out in the world vs. the baby in my belly who has another 15 (likely 17 should I be so lucky...) weeks until he/she joins us, she should therefore get first dibs on filling her empty corner. I know this is something she cries about every night. It may, in fact, be the reason for her few nights of crappy sleep this week. If she's anything like her Mommy that empty corner was too much to bear. :p BTW, nevermind. I'm not saying a thing. What I will say is that I'm not tired right now... hint, hint. I'm not even trusting "knock on wood" with what I was about to say so you get my drift, right? (If, again, you have no idea what I'm talking about, refer to: I'm a Sucker post from Monday).

So, Jane loves horses. I love horses. I will say that I have ridden horses for the last 20 years. I phrase it that way because it is my love. I miss it everyday more than anyone could ever imagine. Fact is, riding is tres expensive and, along with skydiving and roller coasters, apparently doesn't mesh with pregnancy. And it's been four years since I've truly been immersed in horses. My fantastical husband, surprised me this year on our anniversary with an hour long private ride at a local stable that was probably the best gift he's ever given me. Enter: My amazing, beautiful daughter. Who, currently (who knows if it will last) is head over heels for horses and it makes my heart happy. I know that's corny but you know what I mean - when you see a personality trait or mannerism or feature or anything of yourself in your children, it makes you glow. So, Jane and I are at the local horse farm at least 2-3 times a week... just visiting. :) She's fallen in love with a white draft horse, Amos, who she says is "my horsey" and "I'm going to ride him all day in the summer when the leaves come on the trees". When she sees him she gets the shakes - pure excitement - and talks about him randomly, in conversation, all the time... like three year old's do. You know, like she wakes up in the morning four days after seeing Amos and the first thing she says to me is "Amos smiled at me mommy, he's so CRAZY".

So, that was a long story to basically say that - I wanted to fill her corner with Amos. And this is something everyone can do. Find something your babe loves - your dog, your cat, you (ha), playgrounds, dolls, anything. Take pictures of a bunch of them and put them on a wall. Voila. It's cheap - if you visit Michaels in the right week when frames are 40% off (which is pretty near always) - and it's thoughtful and, if your child is anything like mine, seeing her face LIGHT UP when she walked into her room was worth the 15 minutes of photo-taking in the freezing cold and hour it took for me to buy the frames and put the photos in there.

Here's my finished product:

Total cost: $75 - for frames and photo processing. Response: Priceless. She talked about Amos the whole way home and how she wanted to go see Amos in her room before dinner - she didn't even take her jacket off. Straight from the garage to Amos. Worth. Every. Dollar. And. Minute. Plus, here's the bonus. If, next year (please Lord no), she loves bicycles (?) then it's a $15 switch of photos and I'm back in the BEST-MOMMY-IN-THE-WORLD book for another 15 seconds. :p

Ok, so onto project numero deuce... Filling the blank corner (shown left and eating away at my soul) in the nursery.

I had an idea with Jane's nursery about using pages from one of my favourite children's books as artwork. Unfortunately, it didn't work out in Jane's first room as the book I wanted to use, Robert Munch's "I Love You Forever" didn't have the right colour scheme and y'all know I'm a Monica when it comes to coordination.

However, with my beautiful, neutral, blue nursery, I had lots of potential! I dropped by the local Chapters store to check out some of the books they had in stock that would make for good artwork - some of the pictures in children's books are fantastic! Anyways, I had no idea what book I was going to use but, obviously, I'd like something with sentimental value. Unfortunately, "I Love You Forever" lost again because the writing and the photos were on separate pages and I really wanted to have some nice quotes along with a nice picture, cause I'm anal crazy like that. Enter: "Guess How Much I Love You". I bought the hardcover book as the pages were sized about 9" by 11" and I wanted to do larger frames. What I did NOT do was buy the book at the store... Never buy a book at the store, unless you enjoy paying significantly more (Chapters online price $14.44, store price $19.99). That's five bucks baby - that's like two king sized chocolate bars! :p

I picked up three large, matted, frames from Michaels - again, 40% off, so they were only $10.19 each - SCORE - significantly cheaper than Walmart FYI which is surprising. And Voila. A wall filled beautifully, creatively and meaningfully for under $50. I finished the other wall off with a frame I already had, in dark wood to complement the dark wood of the rocker, that will house the new baby's newborn photos once he/she arrives and we get said photos taken. :p

Here's THAT finished product:

Oh. I also picked up a side table from Homesense for $40. AND, apparently bird houses are really popular right now (no idea what you're truly supposed to do with them) but I thought the sweet yellow one pictured above would make a great book holder while filling the DREADED open space under my side table and it was only $12.99!

So, there. My grand tally on the nursery was $450 - including paint, window treatments, a rocking chair, bedding, storage, a side table and fantastic artwork/decals on all four walls. Which may seem like a lot, but when you consider that a bedding set alone from Sears can cost $200 or more, it's pretty fan-freakin'-tastic. Obviously, I already owned the most expensive pieces - the crib and the changetable. But, you can easily find a nice crib and changetable on kijiji for a great price if you're a first-timer. And don't let colour ever hold you back. Spray paint is the best thing ever created. Addictive good.

All done. I have no more decorating to do. Whatever shall I do with my time and money! :p