Another Spread in Noah's Book

Here's a spread in Noah's book about how, although he looks like his brother at times, he is still uniquely "Noah". I'm happy with how it came out. The colors look prettier in real life, but my camera just does not seem to be able to capture them, even though I've tried taking photos in three different lighting situations...

As I said, I do like this spread, but it brought up some design questions for me. I used mass-produced chipboard "flourishes" from the scrapbook department on this piece, and although I love the way they look, I worry that they take away from my own style, since scrapbookers everywhere are using them. I kind of hate using items that are so readily available for fear that my work won't be unique. Is my work starting to look too common? I don't know- it's hard to be objective when you've looked at your own work for so long. I just so much want my work to be my own and not to look like everyone else's.

Anyway, those are just my insecurites for the day. I'm sure that Noah doesn't care if my work looks like anyone else's, as long as it's expressing my feelings for him...

Noah's Nursery

Oh, how I love the colors I chose for Noah's room! I think they're coming out a bit darker here than in real life though. The "orange" is a yummy, yummy sherbert color- reminds me of a creamsicle every time I go in. And the blue-green is a nice, soft pale seafoam color. If you've ever looked at my website and seen photos of Riley's nursery in our old house, you'll recognize all the furniture, but in a new setting obviously! Anyway, here is the view from the doorway, and I'll walk you around counter-clockwise...:

Just a little closer view of the same:

And a detail shot of the dresser and shelf. You can see the little lamp from a few posts ago, and I love this vintage flashcard that says "wee". Also a display of the pixie sticks I made last year and other miscellaneous eye candy!

Here's the changing table wall with some more shelves. I would still like to repaint the changing table, as the pinkish/salmon color doesn't really quite work and perhaps make a new slipcover for the glider, but I haven't gotten to those things yet:

And a detail shot of the shelves. The teddy bears are actually my own collection, but for the time being, they'll reside in here. And in both boys' rooms, I keep a display easel to display their baby journals while I'm not working in them:

Here's just a close-up shot of the wall above the changing table with these lambs you may recognize:

The door wall really just has the door and a closet, but this is on the bit of wall between the two, a little shelf with hooks to hang the swaddling wrap he spends so much time in:

It will be so sad when the boys are old enough to want to "decorate" their rooms themselves! No more cute displays of Momma's things, but utilitarian storage for cars and trucks, etc. Oh well, at least I can have my fun for a couple more years!

There are still some last details I'm working on for Riley's room. When they're done, I'll show you that as well...

Happy Belated Easter!

Nothing beats baby feet with cute little bunny booties, does it?

Anyway, just a quick post to show you what I made the boys for Easter. I bought the Wee Wonderful's Big-Footed Bunny pattern and made them each a bunny. It is such a cute pattern, although a little tricky, I must admit. I am not terribly happy with the faces- I just couldn't come up with a cute face for some reason- but the adorable bodies and clothes make up for that I think. So here they each are with their new friends. Riley seems a bit more pleased than Noah does, doesn't he?

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Next post I'll show you Noah's room fully decorated- it looks so cute!

And Another...

Riley was kind enough to take a three-hour nap today, so I was able to do another piece in Noah's book. I love the color combination! And funny enough, it's the same combination in which we've decorated his bedroom- not quite as bright, but shades of blue and orange. The spread is about his recent first smiles and coos- he's slowly developing a personality! And while I was working on the piece, I caught him smiling on camera as well- so cute!

Some Art I've Been Working On

Way back (about a year ago!), I got involved in a collaborative with Pam and a couple others with the theme of Motherhood/Birds. Well, life got hectic, as you all know, and I never had a chance to work in Pam's book. So I have finally taken the time to do it, and here are the results. The top piece I really love, but I'm not so crazy about the second piece. Here they are:
Here's a detail of the piece I like:

And here's the one I don't like so much:

Then I also made a frame for her, sort of as a thank-you for waiting so long, but also as a thank-you because she sent me a wonderful vintage baby album a couple months ago when she heard I was pregnant. What a sweetie! Anyway, this stuff got sent out a couple days ago, so will probably arrive at her house while she's away at Artfest. I'm sure it will be quite a surprise to come home to, as she's probably forgotten all about this collaboration at this point! I hope she likes it all! Here's the frame:

I also did a spread in Riley's book about him learning to talk. He says about four things at this point, the cutest being "thank you" every time you hand him something. I struggled a lot with this spread, but in the end, I'm really pleased with the results. Here it is:

Finally, I did a spread in Noah's book as well. It's about him being fussy and spending a lot of time in this swaddling wrap that I bought. He's a tremendously sweet baby, but I think I got a little spoiled with Riley, who literally never cried as a baby. So a normal fussy baby is new to me! Thank goodness for this wrap, because he loves it in there! Here's the artwork:

I've also been doing a bit of decorating in the boys' rooms, especially Noah's, but I'll wait for another post to show that. I haven't taken photos yet, plus I'd like to be closer to finished before I show how things look... So I'll leave you with a glimpse of what a lot of my day looks like:

I'm Pretty Darn Impressed With Myself!

My mother-in-law is visiting for the week, so as a result, I've had a little extra time to work on various projects. So I decided to tackle a bedspread/quilt for Riley's toddler bed. Now keep in mind that I've never really done any quilting, and that I'm a mediocre seamstress at best. So here is the result- it really came out well! I didn't run into any major problems while sewing it, which is amazing, since I seem to have problems with just about every sewing project I ever take on.

It certainly isn't the work of a master quilter by far, but I somewhat enjoy the handmade quality of it. And I might be fooling myself, but I envision Riley looking back and remembering this bedspread- the pom-poms. the pictures and characters on the fabrics, etc. I know that I remember my childhood bedspreads with fondness-the red calico, the "Holly Hobby"-style pastel patchwork print, and the pink ruffled one when I decided to decorate my whole room in pink...

Anyway, here are some photos. I took a photo of the whole room, in addition to just the bedspread, to give some perspective on why I chose the colors that I did. And although he isn't actually sleeping in it yet, Riley seems to approve!

Not Much Writing, But Lots of Photos

Here are some things I've been up to. I don't have a lot of time to write, but thought you'd appreciate some photos!

A photoshoot on the couch with Noah:

And how about this? I did a similar photoshoot with Riley when he was about this age, and as I looked through the two sets, I found these two photos. The top one's Noah,and the bottom one's Riley. Although they have very different coloring (hard to see with the sepia), they are definitely brothers!

I found these two cuties at a children's consignment shop. I think the circus-themed one will go in Noah's room, and the bird one will go in my still-coming-together studio:

Some more decorating. Jason painted the kitchen dark brown (to contrast with the yucky "peach"/whitewash-y cabinets), and I hung some doll figures above them. The cabinets are almost tolerable now! And I painted/hung some shelves in Riley's soon-to-be room. See the photos a couple posts ago to see the curtains in that room. I still want to make a bedspread for his little toddler bed:

And finally, a spread in Riley's book. As I'm sure all new second-time moms feel (and add to it everything else that's been happening in my life the last few months), I constantly feel like I'm neglecting Riley and not giving him enough attention. So this spread is about that (you can see a closer view on my website if you're interested):

Not too bad, but there's still so much more I want to do! It just kills me being limited to one naptime a day to really get things done! Never enough time...

Progress...

I've gotten a couple more things done in the past few days, amidst the naps, the feedings, the trips to the store, and the games of "I'm gonna get you!". Firstly, I made a slipcover for the crib bumper to match the new curtains in Noah's room. Here's a photo of him on top of it.

It isn't in the crib yet because I still need to add the ties that attach it into the crib. But I think it came out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! And the most amazing thing is that the only fabric I purchased for it was the offwhite chenille for about $9! Everything else was from my fabric stash- it really didn't take a lot of any one kind of fabric, but it did take lots and lots of small "squares" of different fabrics. But I think it's the cutest! Next step in there is to paint the walls (that's Jason's territory, so it will have to take a place in his endless queue of "honey-do's"...).

I also finished the first spread in Noah's book. It's a spread about the details of his birth. I did a similar one in Riley's book when he was born. I am just so afraid that I'll forget the details of how things took place, so I wanted to get them down on paper. This birth was so different from Riley's. With Riley, I had an epidural for probably a good 10 hours, so I was so much more aware of everything that was happening since I wasn't in pain. But without an epidural during Noah's birth, I wasn't able to focus on anything but my pain, so I sort of feel like I missed a lot. But oh well, it was different, but it was still as wonderful!

So anyway, I also used some significant items in this piece. The "It's a Boy" plastic piece was in a bouquet of flowers sent by Noah's grandfather when he was born. And the blue crepe paper was hanging from a "Welcome Home, Noah!" sign that his aunt made when we returned from the hospital. I always like to use mementoes like this when possible. In fact, there's a whole section in my book about it!

I'm not sure what my next project will be. Maybe I'll start doing some work in Riley's room... I'll keep you all posted!