It's a girl!

My little sister (and by little I mean 28) and her husband are expecting their first child in March. They have recently found out that it will be a little girl. I'm so excited! It may be my only chance to fawn over a girl! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade having a son for anything in the world, but oh....girly things are just so much prettier!

After spending a few hours shopping online...we live a couple hours away from each other so that's how we do it... looking at fabrics for the nursery, we have decided to go with a few prints from the Botanica collection by Patricia Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics. They are so soft and pretty, yet have just a touch of sophistication that isn't overly "baby-ish". Here's the four we picked out:

Of course I couldn't just buy the yardage we need, I decided to get the whole bolts. I figured whatever we have left over, which will probably be a lot, will find its way into my shop.

So here are some ideas we have, and bear in mind that neither of us sew really well. In fact, I don't think she even knows how to use a sewing machine, but that's beside the point. She wants to do some basic fabric covered panels for the wall, almost like fabric wrapped canvases. She just wants something simple, yet with a big impact.

My idea was to take some old frames that she has and cover the mats with the fabric. Then, black and white or sepia toned pics of the baby/parents would go inside. I'll have to play around and see which color photos would work best.

She wants a cushion cover for a chest that she was given, and I'm considering taking on the task of making a crib bumper. I need to look for a pattern or an idea somewhere because I don't know how to begin!

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to share! Especially if it is a no/low sew project!

Back Again and Decorating Avidly!

It seems that all plans to decorate anything came to a screeching halt last December 30 when my son joined our lives and became part of my decorating team. I say he became part of because he altered my home in such a vast and unimaginable way. Suddenly I felt a camaraderie with all those women who said that they couldn't get a thing done now that they had kids. My naive thoughts were "so just do it when the kid is sleeping"! Well....then God blessed me with a child who never slept. This was just to spite the fact I always had that preconceived notion that all babies sleep all the time. Not mine. He definitely cried, ate, and pooped far more than he ever slept!

But now he's 8 months old and much more independent, so mommy can find herself again. However when I say "find herself" I mean literally. We moved a week ago and my life is crazier than it has ever been. I will never find anything, ever! At least once a day I find myself saying my new favorite mantra, "I knew I put it in a box that with with such and such and had something or other written on the front". Then I spend an hour looking for this wonderful missing piece of our lives that has disappeared somewhere in the very long 5 mile move up the street. Why do we have to pack so well we we are not moving very far, anyway?

But my favorite is when I am asked where something might be. I have 2 or 3 answers of logical places the missing item might actually be. If I am the one who asks "did anyone see" then I get a response very much like I just asked for the 3rd character to make an appearance in the second act of William Shakespeare's The Tempest!

I will be decorating again. I have to make the new house my own. I will be doing this at the whim of my children: 8mo old Conner, 32 year old Jason, who is really my husband but is more like keeping after a child, and 3 fur kids (cats) Mabel, Max, and Matty. I will post pics and advice as I am able. It's going to be fun! And as always feel free to give me any advice/criticisms (as long as you love what I am doing!) and overall discussion. If there is something you want to know more about, please let me know!

And we're off!