In the past few weeks, I’ve been tweaking Jude’s room a little, helping it to grow from bitty baby nursery to a more grown-up space. It makes my heart twinge just a little bit, taking away his baby bumpers (yes, he was still sleeping with them) and seeing a toddler bed occupy the room now. I loved having a baby baby. Now I’m loving having a big boy, a bonafide toddler.
When I came back from having my first surgery, I wasn’t able to lift Jude in and out of his bed, so my sister and her hubs sweetly donated Luke’s firetruck toddler bed to Jude so he could hop in and out of it without my assistance. And Jude really took to it for the time that I needed him to. After awhile, we put him back in his crib, but the firetruck bed has stayed because sooner or later, he’ll graduate to it completely. We like sitting in it, reading books together, and he thinks it’s just the coolest thing ever.
I found these awesome vintage cinema marquee letters on Etsy, and the seller, SalvageNation, gladly put together a special listing just for me w/ Jude’s name. It was extremely inexpensive, and I love them. I’m tempted to paint them, but I like their authentic, original black color. They’re lightweight plastic, and SalvageNation has a ton of them.
Did I ever show you the final setup of Jude’s play kitchen? I picked up a couple of short shelves from IKEA, and now they display (empty) Sprinkles cupcake containers, as well as all of his play dishes that my mom bought for him. All in all, an inexpensive, and completely fun little setup.
The firetruck bed! I rearranged the furniture the other day and I’m still not totally thrilled with it. Eventually it’ll look less cluttered when I get the crib out (sob!).
Oh! I’m also loving vintage felt pennants, and I found these (below) from another Etsy seller. Too cute.
Big kid — getting into everything!
I’ve also been on the hunt for cute toddler bed-sized duvets, much to no avail. Jude likes sleeping with a pillow and these small, lightweight down blankets that I’ve had since college, from Target. I thought I might find something else cute, but I hated everything I did find, although for the most part, the genre is nonexistent. So I decided to make my own using one of those Target blankets. Turns out that they’re nearly the same size as a toddler-bed-size comforter, so already, this was looking like a cheap project. I ordered some fabric (Paula Prass chevron stripe) that was very inexpensive, and I backed the duvet with an old white sheet we already owned. So all in all, a very inexpensive and easy project. AND I have enough fabric left over to make a little roman shade for the window in his room.
Here’s what the blanket looked like before. It has seen better days, but is so warm and comfy.
And here it is after — it was a fairly simple 2-hour project.
Now I need to research how to make a roman shade for that window… hmmmm.
Or I could just go read books like Jude. 🙂
Big kid. Where’d my baby go?
Brown paper packages tied up with string! These are a few of my favorite things!
I took a “during” picture but now I can’t find it. I made my “pattern” out of a roll of kraft wrapping paper – you can see a bit of it in the picture above, in the corner. That made it really easy to visualize how it was going to turn out as well as tweak the pleating.
And voila – the final product! I’m happy with the results – i feel like it’s so pretty, and I like having the chair in front of it, like it’s a chic little writing desk. No one would ever know its humble beginnings as a folding table! Plus I can hide all kinds of junk underneath that skirt! ha!
In my wildest dreams, I would put a Louis Ghost chair there in lieu of my painted French chair. I would just looooove a little bit of Lucite in the room! Maybe someday…
So there you have it. A fun little project for minimal $. I used 6 yards of fabric, with a little bit left over. (FYI: The table is 2’x4′ and 30 inches tall.) I’m thinking I might use the leftover fabric to cover the seat on one of my bamboo chairs.
Or maybe this one:
Or, bien sur, this:
More Flickr faves:
I can’t remember how much I paid for it, but it was definitely a steal. I saw a red painted version of it at Bill’s this last time I went, but it was $95, waaaaay too much for what is usually for sale @ Bill’s.
pencil shavings 