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Adaline’s Nursery


I thought I’d share some pictures of Adaline’s nursery. These pictures were taken a few weeks before she was born. In the past year we’ve made some changes, the biggest of all being that you can’t keep a room quite that tidy with a 12 month old walking around in it. For the nursery I wanted something pretty and girly without it being too babyish. I wanted her to be able to grow into it and be able to change it easily if we needed to. I didn’t want to get a bunch of “nursery” items that would no longer be appropriate for a “big girl” in a few years. We ended up with what I think is a sort of shabby chic look in pink and green. I just hope she likes pink when she gets older 😉

(Click photos to enlarge.)


The crib area





The crib was given to us by some wonderful, generous friends. The crib bedding was a gift from my mom and mother-in-law. It’s the Isabella crib bedding set by Glenna Jean. Hanging on the wall above the bed is the quilt that came with the set. I knew we couldn’t put it in the crib with her and I didn’t want it to go to waste, so we hung it above the crib. We moved the bumper once Adaline was born and put it underneath the crib decoratively. The mobile was a gift from my sister-in-law and is also a Glenna Jean, however, it is part of the Story Time collection because I thought the teddy bears on the Isabella mobile were kinda scary. To the right of the crib is a “There’s no place like home” sign from The Hobby Lobby.

The Changing Area

We got the changing table at Target. I purposely wanted something without drawers so that the diapering stuff would be easily accessible. I also wanted something with built in straps so that I would have a way to secure the baby. I know that a lot of people don’t use a changing table, but it ended up being a big help for me. I had a cesarean and it was too hard for me to get up and down from the floor and I couldn’t twist properly to change her on a sofa or bed. I also have a dresser/changer that was part of my baby furniture that my mom had saved. I put it in our family room downstairs and it was great for changing her and for storing baby junk without it cluttering up the living space. The changing pad is from Babies R Us. I got the baskets at Michael’s.



The black and white bunny on the left and the black and white “Faith” blocks were from the Hobby Lobby. The bunnies on the right were from a local hobby/antique shop. The rose topiary is one of the centerpieces from our wedding. The Wish Sister was a birthday gift for me from my dear friend, Sara. The “I love you to the moon and back” sign was from Kirkland’s. The little lamb is a Boyd’s that I’ve had for years. The framed outdoor scene is a chalk drawing my sister made for me when she was about 10 years old. It hung in my bedroom until I got married and now it’s in Adaline’s nursery. The “Diamonds may be precious but daughter’s are priceless” photo frame is from The Hobby Lobby. It contains one of Adaline’s 3D Ultrasound images from 33 weeks.
The three hanging letters with scripture “Pray, Daughter, Blessings” were from a Bible bookstore.

The closet area

The dresser is from my set of furniture when I was a baby. Yes, it’s held up 30 years. Over to the right is a set of handprint kits that was a gift from my mom. Each tin includes the materials to make a handprint impression from ages 1 to 5! We still need to do Adaline’s first year handprint…something we haven’t had the chance to get around to yet. The princess piggy bank was a gift from my sister-in-law. I think that the metal “Dream” box was from Michael’s. The bear plays a recording of Adaline’s heartbeat when she was 33 weeks in utero. When we play the recording for Adaline now, she thinks it’s a song and she starts dancing to it. So cute!

The Philippians 4:8 sign is from The Hobby Lobby. The pink baby sign and baby quote beneath it are from Kirkland’s. The wreath on the door was another centerpiece from our wedding (used as a candle ring for hurricane lamps). The “For this child we prayed…” plaque is from Family Christian Stores. The white photo frame from Babies R Us contains an ultrasound from each trimester. I saw the growth chart at The Hobby Lobby and bought it before I was even pregnant. The basket is from Michael’s.

The rocking area

The glider/recliner from USA Baby was a gift from my mom, sister, and brother-in-law. Getting the fabric was a whole ordeal and a blog for another time. Just know that I wanted it to be green and fabric that I ordered was discontinued…twice. The adorable bear on the glider, Honey Jo, has been my pal for over 20 years.

We found the toile fabric for the valances online. It’s the same pattern that’s on the Isabella bedding. The valances were made by my awesomely talented friend, Sara, who also made the rockin’ Happy Birthday sign for the front of the house on Adaline’s birthday. Because I thought the walls and valances were a little too much pink we got paint and sponges at a craft store and added the stars above all of the windows. There’s also a star pattern in the Isabella bedding. I loved the way they turned out.

The wall décor pictured here was from The Hobby Lobby, Kirkland’s, and a Bible bookstore. The rocking and changing areas were one of the things that got moved around. We ended up needing more floor space for a swing and jumperoo so we had to move some things.

The book and door area

The “Child of God” sign is from The Hobby Lobby. The swag above it is actually another of the flower ring centerpieces from our wedding unbent.
Although you can’t tell in the photo the switch plate has the same toile pattern as the valances and Isabella bedding in green.
The shelves used to hang in my sister’s bedroom. The book shelves had been sitting around my mom’s attic for years.

You may remember these black ceramic letters that spell Adaline from the mantel display at her first birthday party. On the other shelf they spell out her middle name, Rose. I found these letters at the Hobby Lobby. The “Faith” box and wall décor were from Michael’s, The Hobby Lobby, and Kirkland’s respectively. The bunny and lambs had been mine for years. I got the cute little round bunny box at a local hobby/antique store. The round box was from Michael’s, the “Love” blocks from The Hobby Lobby, another of my own bunnies, and another topiary centerpiece from our wedding. The nursery rhyme prints I found at Wal-Mart for $1.00 years ago when we first got married. We used scrapbook paper to matte them and I believe those frames were from something else that we no longer had on display.



The giraffe was a gift from my mother. The brown bear was my very first teddy bear. The Cinderella book (and Mother Goose book on the shelf beneath it) was from a local hobby/antique shop. The box was from Michael’s and the bear is Adaline’s first bear. Cool Daddy got it for her at Babies R Us. Most of the books and Bibles on the shelves we already had. The baby doll was part of my doll collection as a child.

The cute wire table is from The Hobby Lobby. The stuffed bunnies were mine (Cool Daddy has gotten me one for Easter every year since we first started dating). The box they are sitting in is the box that her teddy bear came in. The pink poodle, FiFi, has been mine for about 20 years.

Everything from The Hobby Lobby, Kirkland’s, and Michael’s was 50% off or on some kind of sale or clearance. Many of the items were reused or repurposed items that we already had. Many things were gifts. Very few items were purchased brand new at full price. Some things that aren’t “babyish” and that aren’t particularly pink or girly can be used as she grows older or used elsewhere in the house if her color scheme changes. I’m sure hoping that she’d like to keep it like this for awhile. I hope you enjoyed it!

**A VERY special thank you to my mom. While I hand-picked everything that went into the nursery my mom was the one that put it all together. I was pregnant and huge and she did all of the decorating for me. THANKS MOM!**

*Open House: Adaline’s Nursery
*Open House: Dominic’s Nursery

This post is linked to 4 Moms Open House
http://www.smockityfrocks.com/category/4-moms
+Smockity Frocks
+Life in a Shoe
+The Common Room
+Raising Olives

I’m not a “mom of many” (unless you consider one “many”), but I love reading about these ladies and their families.

Adaline’s 1st Birthday Party – Pink and Green Polka Dots and Cupcakes


Polka Dots and Cupcakes 1st Birthday Party

Here are some photos of Adaline’s first birthday party that we had on Saturday August 7, 2010. The theme was polka dots and cupcakes to match her dress. The colors were pink, green, and white. Unfortunately I don’t have a great camera so the pictures aren’t as nice as I’d like. Hopefully the details show through despite my poor photography equipment!

The Birthday Girl!

I made the number one sign out of an artist’s canvas covered in a pillow case with tissue paper hot glued to it. I saw the link on Polka Dot Market’s Facebook Page. This DIY Tissue Number Sign was featured on www.prudentbaby.com!
(DIY Tissue Number Sign Mini-Tutorial)

I found the Bonnie Jean dress at Burlington Coat Factory when Adaline was only 3 months old. I thought it would be perfect as her first birthday dress, so I bought it right then!

This sign was made by a close friend of the family who also came to the party to help take photos and videos. The sign fit at the front of our house perfectly…and she didn’t even do it on purpose! Thanks Sara!


The front of our house on party day (Boo, car!)


The super cute Happy Birthday banner is from Polka Dot Market Coupled with the dress this banner gave me the inspiration for the whole party theme and color scheme.

Happy Birthday Banner from Polka Dot Market


There wasn’t enough room inside our house for all of the guests so we rented a tent for the backyard. Inside the tent we hung tulle and hung balloons upside down. We added white linens on the tables and chairs and tied tulle around the chairs.

All of the paper products were purchased at The Hobby Lobby. I got the green tumblers and “margarita” glasses at Wal-Mart back in April. Everything that I used for the Ribbon Topiaries was purchased at The Hobby Lobby. (Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial)

I glued Adaline’s photos to paper plates and taped them around the doorway in hopes that it would look like polka dots (does it?) I hoped to do this around all of the doorways including the outside but I ran out of time.

I found the foam glitter letters at Michael’s. The white shelves holding Adaline’s photo display is usually in our upstairs bathroom. I used it to show pictures of her smashing cake, her 9 month photo, 6 month photo, 3 week photo, and one of the first photos of her right after she was born. The green tablecloth was from Wal-Mart. It’s actually a rectangle cloth on a square table that had to be strategically folded to fit properly. I certainly would never use a tablecloth right out of the package without steaming it first…nope, not me 😉

That’s the same number one sign from the first picture. I found the cupcake pedestals at The Hobby Lobby. The tiered cupcake/cake stand is from Save-on-crafts.com, we added some ribbon from The Hobby Lobby.

My mom made and decorated the main cake and all of the cupcakes. Although she’s been decorating with butter cream for 30 years, this was her first time using fondant. I think she did a great job! We got the idea for the cake from Wilton.com.

I decorated Adaline’s smash cake. This was my first time ever decorating a cake, you can see the gaps…whoops! My mom is great at cake decorating and always made fancy birthday cakes for us when we were kids. I’d like to do the same for my kids but since I have no idea what I’m doing I asked her to make the main cake and I made the smash cake. That is butter cream icing but the polka dots are fondant. I found the polka dot number one candle at a local party shop where I also got the cupcake wrappers. The wrappers were originally pink with white polka dots, but the chocolate cupcakes made they polka dots appear brown!

Adaline’s photo timeline August 2009 to August 2010

This photo timeline of Adaline was set up in our living room. Aside from the photo displays I didn’t decorate the living room because I couldn’t bring myself to put pink and lime green in our yellow and blue room. I thought it clashed too much…call me weird. I was going to make a blue and yellow happy birthday banner amongst other things but I never had the time to get around to it. There are 13 photos of Adaline displayed, one photo a month from August 2009 to August 2010. I got the photo frames at Target. They were in the dollar spot, but they were $2.50 for a pack of 3. The black “Adaline” letters are usually on a shelf in her bedroom, they’re from The Hobby Lobby.


Oh, yes ma’am, those are pink and green number one shaped ice cubes…how nice of you to notice! We had pink lemonade too, of course, but it was all gone before I had a chance to take this picture 😦
Below is Adaline digging into her smash cake. It was a banana flavored cake tinted pink (even though it looks red in the pictures).





Happy Family

Our happy family (with a very tired baby) at the “photo booth” after a long and exhausting, but totally awesome party!

Adaline and Mommy

The DIY Tissue Number Sign that I made for Adaline’s 1st Birthday was featured on www.prudentbaby.com!

Tip Junkie handmade projects Design Dazzle

Related Posts
BIRTHDAY TUTORIALS
*DIY No Sew Party Hat Tutorial

*Ribbon Topiary Video Tutorial (Centerpiece)

*Tissue Number Birthday Sign (Mini-Tutorial)

BIRTHDAY PARTIES
*Birthday Girl…2 years old: Photos of Adaline at her birthday party
*Ladybug Picnic: 2nd Birthday

*Ham and Man Party: 30th Birthday

*Celebrating 30 years in 30 days! All of my birthdays from 1980-2009

BIRTHDAY TRADITIONS

*Birthday Traditions: Personalized Birthday CD
*Birthday Traditions: Knife and Cake Server
*Birthday Traditions: Professional Photos
*Birthday Traditions: Photo Puzzle
*Happy 2nd Birthday, Adaline!

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