A New Nursery

Teeny tiny in his crib

Charlie is loving his room; just loving it! Ha ha. He has a thing for gingham, so his favorite spot is his great big giant crib (normal sized actually). I decorated the nursery while the family was still in the hospital, door firmly closed and no one permitted on the premises (well, except Aunty Cara who was nice enough to help me with little E).

 This was the only little bit of the room that Daena knew about. It's perfect because it comes with an entire alphabet of several letters each and those sweet banners, birds, and stars. Charlie was, for about a week, "Mathias" (hope I spelled that correctly),  so it's a good thing that I had the option to switch names at the last minute.
{Wee Gallery}

Elliot giving the space a test drive. Daena has used the chocolate brown polka dot bedding for all 3 children (so cool) and so I used the set as inspiration when coming up with a plan. But of course, the first item I saw that I just loved was a red gingham sheet at Pottery Barn Kids, and I just had to make it work. So the room's next design idea came from that little checked pattern and was constantly evolving. The space had cream walls and would now have red and chocolate accents. Then I incorporated the blue too (it's actually a light blue), and found the most perfect curtains at World Market which had a paisley-ish print in chocolate, red, and blue! I bought 3 panels for each window, keeping the design in the middle. I had no idea if any of this would work beforehand, so I tried to photograph the prints together to see if they "gelled".

Hobby Lobby had the identical red gingham fabric (holla!) and so it was mine. I made those stretched fabric circles I blogged about here (was the plan all along but I couldn't very well say anything, could I?)  with the gingham, plus the 2 fabrics from those curtain panels, and one other print that matched perfectly. It sort of brought it all together while keeping that polka dotty shape going around the room just a bit. The rug is from World Market and though I adore it, the ultimate would be a large white flokati (really shaggy and soft) rug to cozy things up. They were out of my budget (edit - Shoobie found a very close version for the room at T J Maxx!).

The "C" was purchased at Hobby Lobby and covered with the gingham and a lot of modge podge.  There is also an "M" (see above) which Daena is keeping just for laughs. Seriously, I thought their minds were made up. But thankfully not ... cause I just loooove "Charlie" (Charles).

The glider and matching polka dot duvet from the original set. And an old, old side table with a layer of gingham and a dotty light fixture from World Market.

Original art work by Parker James and his mom (he is SO chuffed) with mattes from Hobby Lobby (Left to right - Bot, Swirly Bot and Loony Bot). Original lamp and toy, with a cardi knit by great grandma and a froggie from my mom. The dresser knobs were replaced with dotted ones from guess where, HL (I pretty much go to 2 places when I need inspiration).

You may remember this door? It's now in C's room and embellished with a very old song that has a special little place in our hearts.  Daena and I sang it to Cara at her baby dedication (when we were 5 and 8 years - too cute) and it was also a part of Adorlee's dedication 2 and a half years ago. It's called "Welcome to the Family".  We think it might be a Psalty song. Did you ever listen to Psalty the singing songbook? Hee hee ... so, so long ago.

One of my favorites, the sock monkey. He fits in so perfectly and looks so etsy-esque and yet, was machine crafted by my friends at Target. Nicely done, you fabulous bunch!

Ta Da!

The End!

Elliot meeting his cuz

Charles is Parker's new favorite person

Parker calls him Charles. Not Charlie. Charles. There.