Nursery & Nesting

 Just as the birds are starting to build their nests in which to lay their eggs.... I too have started nesting.  A few weeks ago I went crazy and started cleaning everything.  I gutted all of the closets and donated a lot of clothes, books and toys, then organized the rest.  I just had the overwhelming urge to get everything clean and ready for the arrival of our new baby.

However cleaning wasn't enough... I had to prepare the nursery too.   Luckily I have talented family members, who made this part easy on me.

One of the things I remember most about my grandma Swenson was her love of quilting. Everytime we went over to their house she had a new quilt she was working on.  She made every single one of her grandchildren a full size quilt to use when they were married.  She also made baby quilts for everyone. Since she didn't know how long she'd be around she made several baby quilts and let us younger grandkids pick one to save for our babies.  I was probably about 8 or 9 when I picked out this quilt.

I fell in love with it the instant I saw it.  I LOVED the color blue, and I loved the flowers and girls in bonnets on this quilt.  I always knew I would use it for my little girl.  It has sat in my cedar chest (made by my grandpa Swenson) for years and years.

Once I found out I was indeed having a girl this time around, I pulled out the quilt.  It brought back a wave of memories of my grandparents, and I found that I still love it.

Next I called my sister and asked her if she thought making a crib skirt would be hard, or if she thought she could figure it out.  Since she is amazing she said she could do it.  We took the baby quilt with us and went fabric hunting.  It was unbelievable just how difficult it was to find the right shade of blue and a complimentary fabric.  I knew ahead of time I'd like to incorporate pink if we could... there were several pink fabrics that looked really cute with the blanket, but finding something to tie the two together was much harder.  In the end this is the fabric we settled on.

It only took her a day to put this skirt together

She even used left over scraps and made some stuffed animals.

I love how the crib skirt turned out, and how it looks with the quilt.  I really don't think pictures do it justice, but here is an idea of what it looks like.

I had some vinyl in my cupboard so I pulled out my cricuit and cut out her name to go above her bed.  Brown was the only color I had, but I may change it down the road.

The downside to renting is I am stuck with these ugly colored walls... otherwise I would have loved to paint it differently.  I thought the wall was still missing something so I made a couple of prints to hang up.

I think it looks pretty cute... however Ashley thinks I should stagger the pictures on another wall.  Any one else have any opinions?