Baby Taylor's Nursery Reveal!

Wednesday morning we welcomed another beautiful little one into our ever-growing extended family!  My sister-in-law gave birth to the most gorgeous baby girl, and as I held her in my arms, I couldn't help but marvel at the amazing-ness of God's power to create such intricate and graceful detail in such a teeny tiny, perfect being!  

Then as I stared into her perfect little eyes, I also couldn't help but long to hold my own itty-bitty miracle in my arms.  What a blessing it will be when our second joins us early next year.  (Doesn't Mr. vL look so handsome with a baby in his arms?  I cannot wait to see that 'proud daddy' look on his face when our next little makes his or her entrance in this great big world!)

And now, moving on from my baby-gushing session... my sister-in-law finished in perfect timely fashion, her baby girl's nursery!

Baby Taylor's Nursery Reveal...

 I just love the soft, soothing colours, with pops of turquoise, green and peach throughout!

"Tweet Tweet!"  Stenciled driftwood draws your eye to artwork above the wardrobe.

A little lamb sits atop the thrifted wooden rocker.

Little details like the embroidery hoops, which display the same fabric as used in the baby quilt, a yarn-wrapped "T" (made with thrifted yarn), and a mason jar lamp, demonstrate Nicole's creative sense of style.

The hanging basket holds some of baby Taylor's stuffed animals, while the chandelier gives the room that extra girly feel.  And of course an super-useful and convenient changing station, with matching baskets, finishes off the space.

Congratulations Nicole and family on your newest addition!  

Thank you for letting me share baby Taylor's beautiful room with my 'vonnylein' readers.

I plan to link up to these great blogs:

Tip Junkie, Someday Crafts, Skip to My Lou, The Girl Creative, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Sew Much Ado, Polka Dots on Parade, Thrifty Decorating, House of Hepworths, My Simple Home Life, Homemaker in Heels, WhipperBerry, The Blackberry Vine, Kojo Designs, Debbiedoo's, Simply Klassic Home, Six Sisters Stuff

Coffee Table with a (re)Purpose

Near the end of this past summer, I was inspired by this photo on Pinterest:

With limited space in our family room for toys and books, I thought that this would be a great way to store our ever-growing collection of children's books.  (Just today I had to resist a great sale at the bookstore where Baby J and I like to go for walks.  Only $1 per book!  Maybe we will go for another walk tomorrow...)

But I digress.

Handsome hubby was kind enough to build me a nearly exact replica of the photo above.  Here he is in action:

- Hubby first sanded and painted our wooden spool.

- With the spool upside down, he then drilled holes just wide enough for the dowel to fit through.  He drilled fully through the bottom portion, and 3/4 of an inch into the top (so that the top surface of the spool was still solid).

- With his dowels cut to size (we cut 12 dowels to fit around a 94 inch circumference), he slid them into place and adhered them with a small amount of wood glue.
- He also drilled a small pilot hole and secured the dowels in place with a screw.
- A coat of paint over the dowels finished off the look.

To allow for easy movement on the floor in our family room (i.e. to allow for more play space on the carpet), we screwed four small castors to the bottom of the spool.

Two of our castors are able to lock, should we choose to keep the table in place; however, we have yet to use them since we are always rolling the table around to make room for blocks and trucks and other toys!

I caught Baby J about to drop a toy into the hole the other day; masking tape was a quick solution.

And yes, I appreciate rainbow order and like to sometimes organize our books that way.  :)

We love to read....!!

I plan to link up here:

Tip Junkie, Someday Crafts, Skip to My Lou,

The Girl Creative, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Sew Much Ado,

Polka Dots on Parade, Thrifty Decorating, House of Hepworths,

My Simple Home Life, Homemaker in Heels, WhipperBerry

The Perfect Thrifty Find!

With Baby J's first birthday 'quickly' approaching (okay, I do still have two months to plan), I am excited to start getting some of my favourite ideas in motion.  

At this point, I think I am most excited about taking first birthday photos with him, including a delicious cake smash session!  To do this 'properly,' I of course need some party-appropriate props!

I have been on the lookout for a fantastic wooden high chair for some time now.  Each high chair we have come across has been without a tray.  While I do not doubt for one second that my husband is fully capable of constructing one for me, I know that he would be happier to not have to.

And that is why I am so excited to share that I have finally found the perfect high chair.  And for a whopping $5.00!!  We picked it up Saturday morning from Leo, a lovely fellow with a thick German accent.  :)  What a treat!

(And, it is already painted.  One less thing for me to do.)

Here is my inspiration for the high chair photos:

via

Isn't it adorable??  I couldn't have asked for a better-matched high chair design.  Ours looks nearly the same!  I cannot wait to see Baby J in all of his cake-smashed-finger-dirtied glory.  :)

I plan to link up here:

Quilted Cupcake

Thrifty and Fabulous

Thrifty Decoration