Nursery Updates #2

So here are a few quick updates on the nursery for ya!

Remember our blinds/curtains?

Well can you see the massive amount of light coming into this space? I love it, and it might not be an issue if Cole wasn't crazy sensitive to light...sound...pretty much everything! So, we need blackout curtains. We got some excellent ones recently, however they are pretty bulky and take up a lot of space in the room. We came across this post on Honey & Fitz and are going to try their technique to fix up the blinds this week! We'll be posting the results soon.

Cole has become a ninja when we change him, so that cute little "prints" picture that we mounted about his change table is going to have to come down. He literally almost rips it off the wall when we are changing him. So, I'm on the hunt for something else to fill that space.

Lastly, when we first found out we were expecting, the first thing I bought were the Blabla Dream rings for the nursery. I loved the natural/hand-made feel of them, and was super excited to put them in the space. We were then given another beautiful handmade mobile that also looked gorgeous in the space. In the end, this mobile won out (especially since it was a handmade gift to us):

Lately though, Cole has been loving the handmade toys. He loves his handmade Blabla dolls:

so we thought the Blabla dream rings would be a hit above his crib:

When we tested them out, he preferred the original mobile. I think he likes to watch all of the moving pieces, and so we're now on the hunt for a good place for the dream rings. I found a pin on Pinterest where a clever idea was to put them in front of the window or even a mirror, so that might be the next idea!

source

We also want to thank all of you who have pinned or asked us questions about our Nursery! This room was incredibly special for us, and it means so much that you enjoy it as much as we do. We truly put our heart and soul into that room to make it our own...the perfect space for our little guy. So thank you for pinning- it means a lot to us!

So those are the small updates we've got going on around here right now...along with a few other, more involved projects. Take a peak at our Facebook page to see what else we have going on. We posted a picture a few days ago to give you a clue as to what else we're working on!

Melissa and Ian

Now What? My thoughts on Blogging...

Recently there have been a lot of bloggers who have been writing about the lack of posts in blogland. Now, before I comment on this, I want to say this post is completely my own words and thoughts. I'm not writing this to "copy" anyone else's thoughts or ideas, but rather to give my 2 cents on the topic. Plus, its been something that has been weighing on my mind for quite some time.

I recently read Janice's post and loved it. It made me feel slightly relieved about the whole "blogging thing". To be honest, I thought it was just us who had stopped posting so often. Once we had our baby (our very colicky baby, I might like to add!), our priorities in life changed. We barely had time to eat during the day, much less work on a project, take photos of it and write a blog post. I tried to be ok with it...I had to, but it was still weighing on my mind. Then I started to see these posts popping up in blogland- about how bloggers weren't posting as much, about how other media sources may contributing to the lack of blogs, etc. I began to realise it wasn't just us.

I had been feeling pressured to keep up with blogging. To try and balance my life so that I could fit blogging in again. But then I took some time and really thought about it. What about the blog did I love? What was it bringing to my life?

For us, blogging began as sort of a diary/document of the work we were doing to our home. We wanted to keep it at just that. We aimed to post a few times a week and if people were reading our blog (and liked it!), that was just a bonus. We decided not to advertise on the blog or partner with sponsors and really just to keep the blog casual. We also didn't want to blog much about our personal lives: what we were making for dinner or wearing that day, weekend outings with our family, etc. That was just the way we chose to blog- to keep the blog focused on one topic- designing our home. Now, I know some fantastic bloggers who manage to talk about a variety of topics, Christine and Janice are two amazing examples, and I absolutely love reading their blogs, however, regardless of our blog topics, we all have one thing in common. We love to share ideas, information and express our creativity.

Blogging also brought me close to some amazing people. Shannon, Lauren and Katy are 3 people I've met through blogging that I can honestly say, I admire and would consider some of my best "blogging buddies". I know if we lived closer, we would  hang out (at least I'd be up for it!). Not only do we have blogging in common but other interests as well. (P.S. I miss you girls!)

So blogging wasn't just a creative outlet for us. It became a way to document ideas, express our creativity and also a social connection- it brought us closer to people who shared similar interests to us. It truly has brought a lot to our lives and its been an amazing creative outlet for us both. Plus its helped us to discover a true passion in our lives.

So if blogging can bring us so much, then why are we all posting less?

I think we've all begun to really look at how much time blogging takes away from personal connections in our lives. For us, when we get home from work and spend multiple evenings and weekends working on a project and then need to spend more time to edit and post about it, it takes away from the only time we can spend together as a family. An easier way to document these projects is to use Instagram or Pinterest and to simply just post some action photos of our lives and projects in progress.

So if you've noticed that your favourite bloggers might be slowing down a bit, maybe this is just the beginning of a shift in the use of social media? I'm not sure, but I honestly love when someone "pins" one of the rooms we've worked on. I used to love seeing comments on the blog, but I understand that readers may not have time for that anymore. Simply "liking" or "pinning" a photo of our work might be what we bloggers should be expecting from our readers from now on. And that's totally fine with me (although comments are ALWAYS welcomed!).

All I would say, is that if you like the work that a blogger has done, to please let them know! We put our heart and soul into what we do, and it means a lot to us when someone pins our work. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so please give kudos when they are deserved. Plus, it will keep your favourite blogger blogging!

So to conclude this post, we'll be still blogging like we did before- when we have something new to share and that we think you'll find useful or inspirational. Speaking of which, we've got a few great projects to share fairly soon ;)

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Updates

Wow, those past few months just flew by! Its been a while since we've had the chance to blog... for as you may know, we've been busy with a new little person who entered our lives in August :) We are so in love with our little guy and are definitely getting into the swing of things, but blogging took a bit of a back-seat while we adjusted to one of the biggest changes in our lives!

We're slowly starting to talk about home projects again and are looking forward to getting some things started. In the meantime, I actually made a few adjustments to the nursery after Baby B (Cole) was born.

We added some new photos and an adorable new print (thanks to Christine from Just Bella and Justine from Justine Ma Design):

and added a beautiful canvas print of our little guy. If anyone has any suggestions on affordable and good quality canvas printing companies, please let us know!

We also took some foot and hand prints when we first brought Cole home, and framed those as well:

I think I can officially say that this room is finished! Its so comfortable and cozy and I think Cole feels pretty at home here :)

Also, a HUGE thank you to all of you who voted for our nursery on Project Nursery as well! We truly appreciate all of your support. For those of you who missed it, you can check out our nursery as one of the top September nurseries on Project Nursery here.

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Reveal

The nursery is finished! I think...
It's hard for me to say that we're officially done with the nursery since I constantly think of new things I want to add, but I'm doing my best to try and leave it alone for now :)

For me, the nursery was something that I spent a great deal of time planning in my mind. I had saved ideas for years and once we found out we were pregnant, it was one of the things I was most excited to start. We knew we had definite ideas for a boy or girl nursery and since we are having a little boy, the nursery has been decorated in a way which we felt said "boy".

In my previous post, I mentioned that it was hard for us to describe the nursery under a specific theme. We really felt that the nursery was a collection of things we loved, things that represented us, and things that we hoped the baby would enjoy now...or eventually :) We stuck to a neutral/calming colour palette and included rustic elements.

There are a lot of elements to the nursery that we created or made ourselves, which may be why it took us so long to put together. We love how the nursery has turned out. It may not be the typical nursery, but for us its perfect and we love it.

We chose to focus on texture as well. Metals, woods, soft fabrics were all used to add interest to the space.

 

Our crib is the "Olivia" crib from Baby Mod. You can read about our crib search here. In the end, we ended up not liking the 'amber' colour that the crib base came in (it didn't match with our hardwood floors), so we opted to have it stripped and stained darker. We love how it turned out and it matches exactly with our floors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't want to hang anything large or heavy above the crib, so when I came across these vintage letters on Etsy, spelling out the baby's initials, I knew they would be perfect. They are super light and we stuck them to the wall with some heavy duty double sided tape that we found at Home Depot. A sales associate recommended it to us, as this tape is used to hang house numbers on brick and it worked out great. We've had the letters hanging there for about 3 months so we figure they're pretty much stuck there!

 

The baby's name has been decided for quite some time (we talked names on our honeymoon 4 years ago!), but we're waiting until the baby is born before we share it with the world. There are a few pictures in this post where I've edited the baby's name out of the pictures (and replaced it with a mustache!)

We also hung a handmade mobile above the crib that has a rustic (and also slightly Canadian!) theme to it and feel it goes perfectly with the style of the nursery.

Our nursery chair works well in the space and most importantly, it's SO comfortable! You can read about our search for the nursery chair and what we eventually decided on here. I feel it will be a chair that we can work into multiple spaces and the neutral colour also helps with that.

 

Rather than opt for the matching foot stool, I chose this dark leather poof that I found on Etsy and it is gorgeous! It's handmade and I love how it adds a new element to the space. I've seen similar ones for hundreds of dollars on some designer sites, however this one from Etsy was much cheaper and the quality is superb.

 

 

The print on the wall above the chair was made for us by a good friend. I also added a handmade pillow cover to a pillow I had, along with a cozy throw from Indigo and a bunny from a special friend to the chair.

 

 

You might have also noticed the lamp behind the chair. I noticed this lamp used in another nursery and loved how unconventional it was. I had seen lamps like this at Restoration Hardware and other designer stores for hundreds of dollars and since that wasn't in the budget I didn't expect to find one. However, one day I popped into HomeSense and there it was sitting there. For $69.99 it was too good to pass up. The brass colour matches the ceiling light exactly and it definitely fills up that corner of the room too.

 

 

 

The only thing missing on this side of the room is a little end table for beside the chair. I never ended up finding that little brass one from Target I put a call for help out for on our Facebook page a while back, but I know I'll come across something sooner or later that works in the space.

 

 

 

We chose the Ikea Hemnes 8-drawer dresser for a change table/dresser and its perfect- tons of storage, perfect size for a change table and nice clean lines to work in the room.

We also opted for different knobs on the dresser. I had some old black glass knobs hanging around that my dad had given me and chose to paint them a nice light grey.

 

 

 

Ian made the change table topper for me. I searched online and the cheapest one I could find was over $150.00, so we decided to make our own. It ended up costing us less than $20.00 and it's designed exactly to size for the dresser. I would highly recommend making one if you can...later I'll be doing up a blog post about exactly how we made ours to hopefully give you some direction!

 

Ian also found some pieces of wood in the cold room in our basement (left there from the previous homeowners), that he felt would work perfectly for shelving. We loved the rustic feel to the wood and the pieces were the exact right size. We cleaned them off and lightly sanded them as well. One piece we kept whole to act as the longer shelf above the dresser and the other we cut in half to act as 2 shelves on an opposite wall.

 

 

 

 

 

Beside the dresser we chose to put up a family photo collage. We added in pictures of many of the male relatives of Baby B including Ian, both grandparents and some of the great-grand parents, etc. The frames we purchased all over- Target, Walmart, Ikea, second hand, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

We also wanted to create a little reading area for the baby to have (once he starts looking at books of course!) so we cut the other piece of wood in half to create 2 small shelves. Ian purchased some rustic looking nails at Lee Valley Tools and hammered them into the wood so that the books would eventually sit on the shelves (and not slide off the front).

 

 

For now, we chose to frame some adorable prints from Etsy for the shelves.

We couldn't forget to include our little handmade rocking horse (that we scored from a thrift store a while back for only $12!) as well.

We also adore the little vintage roadster style car, I was given by some special friends at my baby shower a few months back. Ian and I registered for it at Indigo last winter and knew it would be an awesome addition to the room! Since receiving this car, I've seen it pop in in so many nursery spaces, and honestly it is such a cute little car it doesn't really surprise me!

 

Lastly, the closet system that Ian installed a few months ago has come in VERY handy. Its allowed me to organize so much of the supplies for the baby, clothes, books, etc. I was fortunate enough to have some wonderful work colleagues who threw me a book shower for the baby and I ended up with a full library! For now, the closet is housing Baby B's extensive collection.

Seriously, I love that he has so many books already!

 

and check out his pretty awesome shoe collection:

 

 

In the end, we're really happy with how the space has turned out. I still have a few other items I'm adding (something for the door, a handmade wooden box for the dresser etc), but we'll see if I get to finishing them before the baby arrives.

For now, I think the nursery has all we need and hopefully Baby B will be comfortable in here :)

We've added a source list below, but feel free to leave us a comment if we've forgotten something! We hope you've enjoyed our nursery :)

Melissa and Ian


Source List:

Crib- Baby Mod (Olivia Crib): Walmart
Dresser/Change Table- Hemnes 8-Drawer Dresser: Ikea
Knobs on Dresser- Vintage/Handmade
Glider- Newco International Grand Bella Velvet Glider: Walmart.com
Vintage Style Roadster- Indigo (gift)
Rocking Horse- Vintage (Second Hand)
CLB Letters above crib- TheOldTimeJunkShop: Etsy
Moroccan Poof- Marauthentics: Etsy
Pillow on Gilder- Studio Pillow: Etsy
Mobile- (gift) Pi'lo
Area rug- Costco- similar
Sheepskin Rugs- Ikea
Orchid (plastic) flower on Dresser- HomeSense
Frames- Target, Walmart, HomeSense, Ikea, Second Hand
Floor Lamp- HomeSense
Ceiling Light- HomeSense
Curtains- Lenda: Ikea
Bamboo Blinds- Walmart
Curtain rod and rings- Walmart
Crib Skirt- Indigo (no longer available)
Crib Sheet- Dwell Studio: Snugglebugz
Shelving- Handmade
Dinosaur on shelf- Zuny: Indigo
Stuffed bear on shelf- Second Hand
Print on Shelf- "I love you to the Moon and Back" (MyFabulessLife): Etsy
Print on Shelf- "Our little Man" (T3DesignsCo): Etsy
Change Pad table topper: Handmade
Change Pad: Babies R Us
Change Pad sheet: Handmade by my mom :)
ZigZag Bin beside crib and in closets: Pehr Designs- Indigo
Woodland Bunny on glider: (gift) Indigo
Lamp on Dresser: Walmart
Musical lamb hanging from shelf above dresser: Indigo
Garbage Bin- Target
Pillow in crib (for pictures only!)- Handmade by me
Stuffed animals in crib- (gifts)

Wall Colour: Pelican - ICI/Dulux Paints
Trim Colour: Simply White - Benjamin Moore