Ode to Lance and Nursery Reveal

Lance. My husband. He’s a character. He’s a great dad. He’s intense about supporting his losing sport teams (ie: the Twins, the Vikings and ISU). He’s probably the most honest person I know. Lance is kind and patient (especially with strangers - he has a tendency to think his massively pregnant wife and needy three year-old son are a bit needy). He’ll stop by the side of the road and help push a car off to the side, offer to try and diagnose a problem or simply ask if they need a ride somewhere. Sometimes in the evenings he’ll get home late and I’ll ask him if work was busy or if traffic was bad and he’ll tell me that there was a car off to the side of the road with its emergency flashers on and he stopped to see if they needed help. Lance is that Good Samaritan that Jesus talks about in the Bible. 

Above all, Lance is hardworking. He cares about doing a good job. To the point of anal retentiveness. BUT this does ensure that things are done right (rather than the slipshod way I have a tendency to do things). Case in point: both of the baby nurseries. With Lucan’s nursery, Lance begrudgingly put up wainscoting. It turned out fantastic and is a great addition to the room. Except for the one part where Lucan, as an 18 month old, repeatedly tore off the wall during nap time. Lance meticulously cut out all of the pieces and trim work and made a great baby nursery. This time around I requested a wall of stripes. Lance happily complied (I think he was relieved that I didn’t ask for more wainscoting). True to Lance’s nature, he meticulously taped and re-taped and used his level to mark off the stripes. 6 hours, 4 stripes and 1 wall later, he was done. And it was fab. He’s vowed that he will never do stripes again. Ever. Even when I asked really nicely if he thought it would look to cool to do stripes on the opposite wall. Sometimes you have to know when to stop asking for favors :)

 

 

The theme of Gracelyn's nursery is repurposing. Or gray and pink. We repainted the walls gray and did a gray and white stripe accent wall with pink accents.

 

I really tried to repurpose stuff we already had and spend minimal on things that would make the biggest bang. We reused Lucan's crib, the rocking chair and cushion, the end table, the floral shelf, the dried flower window arrangement and the changing table pad.

 I recovered the pillow you see in the rocking chair with a remment I found at Hancock Fabrics. It cost something like $3.50 and took me 15 minutes to sew. The gray knit blanket was a baby shower gift from my small group friends.

 



The dresser/changing table is actually the dresser that goes with Lucan's bedroom set. But because this dresser is bigger and Gracelyn's closet is filled with my clothes (yes, I know) we decided to use this dresser in Gracie's room. The changing table pad is from Target. The pink polka dot curtains are supposed to be blackout curtains. They aren't really. They're from JcPenny. I had fallen in love with some from Pottery Barn Kids (go figure everything from PB kids is fab) but they were more than double than what I spent at JCP. I think I spent a total of like $60 on curtains, which was one of the bigger expenses for Grace's nursery.

 

 

The laundry hamper is from 3 Sprouts, purchased off of Citrus Lane. I guess a partial theme is pink polka dots :) Lance thought it was ridiculous that Grace needed her own laundry basket because Lu already has one and so do we. Am I the only person where everyone had their own dirty clothes hamper? I just imagine everyone's clothes in a heap in the corner without one.

My favorite thing in the nursery, hands down, is her crystal raindrop mobile. It's so pretty and girlie.  For the longest time I was just going to make a simple mobile because I was too cheap to order this one. But my mom really wanted to buy something "fun" for Gracelyn and we both decided this fit the bill. I ordered it from the etsy shop, the Mobile Maven. We ordered it on Black Friday and got a killer discount from being a FB follower. Love, love, love.

Oh this pink elephant. I purchased this elephant probably eight years ago in hopes that someday we would have a daughter. God heard my wish. The shelf was an impulse purchase made at the Container Store pre-budget. This is the first time we've actually used it. The vase is repurposed from IKEA.

I purchased new pink and gray sheets from Target on sale. The crib skirt, which is hard to see, is just a plain white, three tiered skirt also from Target. The sleep sheep is from Lucan's days and was a dollar at a garage sale.

Aren't Lance's stripes pretty and very well done? Yay Lance!
The circle garland I made from pink and gray paint chip samples and a circle punch I borrowed from my boss. I sewed all the circles together with just a long stitch on my sewing machine. Easy- peasy because all I can sew are straight lines.

 

And lastly this is a dried floral arrangement I made back in my 4-H days. Really, all I can take credit for is arranging the flowers as my dad sanded and did the crackle painting of the window. But that's neither here nor there. If you ask most 4-H parents, they would admit to "helping" their kids with their projects.

 

This concludes the grand tour of Gracelyn's nursery. Consider yourself toured :)