Salutations!

So, it has been a while between blogs.  I am now 34 weeks and 5 days along, so not long till our little miracle makes their great debut.  Baby and I are doing very well, though I am noticing myself getting tired more easily.

Maternity Shoot

Adam and I had a lovely maternity shoot experience this Saturday, with the fabulous Jodi Bouma from Jodi Bouma Photography.  We had never done a professional photo shoot before, so it was a fun and interesting experience for us.  Most of the shots were taken at ‘Brighton’ my Aunt and Uncle’s place, which is where we got married.  Some photos were also taken at our place, so it was all very personal.  Jodi was fantastic, incorporating our ideas and giving us creative inspiration!  Of course we had a bit of a retro vibe going on 🙂  There will be a photo blog coming soon, but here is a sneak peak.

The Nursery Update

Work on the nursery has been steady but slow.  This damp and cold winter weather we have been having in Melbourne has not helped proceedings.  Adam and I have had a lot of painting to do and the dampness has slowed down the drying process between coats. The cot needs to be painted in oil based enamel and that is very slow drying in this weather.  I am pretty sure Adam thinks it is the task that will never end 😉  Here He is working hard.

The chest of draws and change table are now completed.  We used leftover sample tins of white interior paint which I tinted myself.  This has saved us a lot of $’s!

Money saving tip:  If you have white water based paint laying about, you can always tint it yourself with water based artist paints.  Just remember to add colour in small amounts until you reach the shade you want.  Much cheaper than buying paint ready mixed from the shops.

Here is the chest of draws before and after.  As you can see we replaced the old wooden draw knobs with brass handles we got from Ikea.  I think this makes for a much more vintage look.

    The change table was stained a dark brown, so it required a good sanding before its paint job.  Here are its before and after shots.  I am really happy with how the green paint came up.  It was a bit of a challenge getting the summery fresh green colour I wanted.  

   Reviving the Nursing Rocker

One of my other projects lately has been the re-covering of the second hand nursing rocker I picked up for $20.

Its foam cushions had lost all their spring, and they had been covered in a rough and very dated fabric.  So down to Clark Rubber I went to get a new seat cushion cut – a bit thicker and more comfy.  I decided to re-cover it in a durable plain cream drill.  But first I had to make a pattern from the old cover.

 

 

I decided not to include the inner stitching as I would have had to do that by hand and that is very time consuming.

Instead I put some decorative wooden buttons on the front, just to break up the cream.  I also made a couple of small cushions from some quilted squares my Nan made.  Here is the before and after picture.

Starting to Add Decorative Features

The cot still needs another coat of paint and will need about 6 weeks to dry hard before we can bring it inside, so we won’t be totally set up before the little ones arrival, but baby does have a lovely vintage bassinet to sleep in initially.

In the meantime, I have been putting together some retro style wall decorations.  I bought some vintage nursery decals off Etsy seller Odd Little Tree, they were going to be put on furniture but that was not going to work, so I decided to make some wall decorations.  I got some wooden plaques from a craft shop, painted, sealed them, and added the vintage decals.  I was quite nervous with the decals, as they are so old, but they came up a treat.

I also bought a couple of vintage images from one of my favourite Etsy sellers Pretty Things For You and put them in wooden frames I painted to match the furniture.  Keren of PTFY is such a talented artist!

Coming up…

The next blog to look forward to will cover both samples from our maternity shoot and a special focus on a woodland themed baby shower.  There will be some lovely recipes and decoration ideas.  Till next time

Warm smiles

xo

Ally

p.s  Oh and as for the rocking horse – Henry now has half a face but is still waiting for a saddle, a new tail and handles.  He may only have half his face painted but he’s pretty cute already 🙂