DIY: Hanging a Quilt the Easy & Cost Effective Way

I spent quite a while brainstorming how to hang the beautiful quilt that my mom made for Charlie. There are many suggested ways of doing so on the internet (including buying nice curtain rods and sewing on a sleeve to the back of the quilt to slide the rod through), but I wanted something a little less expensive and much more temporary. The following steps outline my ingenious (well, I thought so!) idea.

I went to Lowes and spent less than $2 on these little silver screw eye hooks...
...and a 1/2" thick wooden dowel that was just a few inches longer than the quilt (48" in my case). I'm thinking now that I could have even purchased a shorter one and it could have hid totally behind the quilt. But either way it looks good and it works!
Step 1: Screw one eye hook into each of the two ends of the wooden dowel (it was soft wood and I could do this by hand!):
Step 2: Create a temporary "sleeve" of sorts for the dowel to slide through. I created mine using safety pins...
...and scrap ribbon left over from hanging the wooden letters. I just laid the dowel over the back top of the quilt, about an inch or so from the top, and safety pinned the ribbon around it as tight as I could get it. Try to just grab the back layer of the quilt with the pins so you don't see them peeking out on the front of the quilt! I pinned on the ribbon on both ends, and then about 5 more times across the top of the quilt to give it nice support in each spot.
Step 3: Using these same clear sticky hooks that I used to hang the wooden letters (you could easily use nails if you want)...

...just measure the distance between the loops in the screw eye hooks and place the hooks (or nails) in the wall at the height that you wish. You'll just slip the screws right over the hooks and voila! You're done! You can barely see the dowel in the picture below:
I actually also purchased dark brown spray paint and I almost painted the dowel/eye-hook unit to match the dark furniture of the room instead of leaving it the light wooden color. But, I chickened out (or just got lazy) and so I'm going to just return the spray paint because I think it looks fine without it :)

Also, on a side note, in order to make room on my wall for the hanging of the beautiful quilt, I had to replace my tall bookshelf, seen here, with two shorter ones from Ikea. And I LOVE them! One, of course, is just below the quilt in the nursery. The other is showcased in our living room, and I decided to purchase a couple of woven square baskets to put inside for storage. It's so nice to be able to hide the baby toys/diapers/wipes/burp cloths/lotions/etc that I used to just have lying around the room. And it just adds such a nice touch to my living room.
And can I just say this... WHY did I never think of decorating with books before?
They are so artsy! :)

If you like my suggestions for hanging a quilt, let me know. OR! If you think of something else that I could have done that's even easier/better-looking... send ideas my way! <3

DIY: Fabric Covered Wooden Letters

At the beginning of my nursery-creating journey, I was brainstorming how I wanted little man's nursery to look. There were two things I knew: I wanted owls, and I wanted those cute letters on the wall that spelled out his name. Once my mom started to create the beautiful owl quilt of my dreams, the idea came to me: Use leftover fabric scraps to cover wooden letters so the letters match the quilt! But I had my doubts: Will it work? How do you attach fabric to wooden letters? How will I hang them in my apartment where the use of nails in the walls are not allowed? Will it look okay?

Well, with the help of my mom, I decided to just jump in with both feet and go for it! What's the worst that could happen? It turns out awful and I wasted $20 on wooden letters and Elmer's glue? The good news is that it turned out wonderfully, and I'd like to share it with you!
So, anyway, here's the step-by-step on how it all came together. Forgive me for not having pictures of the earlier steps of the process. I forgot to take photos!

PART 1: Apply Fabric to Letters

1. Purchase 9" wooden white wall letters from Michael's. (The hardest part was finding all the letters I needed! Had to go to two different locations). You'll also need a washable fabric marker, fabric scissors, a 1" foam paintbrush, and some Elmer's glue (for homemade Mod Podge!). If you plan to hang the letters with ribbon, you'll need some of that too :)

2. Pick out which fabrics you want to use for each letter. I'm a very visual person, so it took a while for me to be happy with which colors and patters would look good on which letter.

3. Place the fabric face down on the table, then the letter face down on top. Trace around the wooden letter with a washable fabric marker. I then had to wipe the marker off the sides of the white letters with a wet paper towel.

4. Carefully cut out each letter with fabric scissors.

5. Create your homemade Mod Podge by combining one part Elmer's glue with one part water (i.e. 1 cup of glue with 1 cup of water). We ended up making nearly two cups and didn't need too much, so we stored the extra in a glass mason jar.

6. Using the foam paintbrush, brush a layer of your Mod Podge onto the surface of the front of the wooden letters. Carefully place your cut out fabric piece on top and smooth it out. Remember that it's probably not going to fit 100% perfectly because fabric likes to stretch, but do your best! It will look great when you're finished.

7. After about 10 minutes, you'll then want to brush/dab a heavy layer of Mod Podge on top of the fabric to totally seal the fabric to the letters. This was the longest part of the process. It takes patience, but it's doable. The letters will be very wet and will look milky, but it will dry clear.

8. Let the letters dry for a while (we just set them out of the way for a day) to make sure they are finished. You can see one finished letter in the picture below. Notice how the edges of the fabric sort of hang over the edge. At first I was concerned that it wouldn't look good, but it ended up being fine. You can't really tell when the letters are hung.

**Tips: My letters aren't perfect. I learned the hard way that it's probably a good idea to avoid cutting the pieces of the fabric out of any part of the fabric that has been folded up. Find a good, smooth portion to cut from without folds. Also, some of my letters ended up having air bubbles that hardened (so if you get really close you can tell, but it looks fine from far away). I'm not sure if there's a good way to avoid the air bubbles. Perhaps while the letters are initially drying, you can make sure to push them out. Or perhaps sanding down the surface of the letters will help the fabric stick a little more smoothly. You'll have to let me know if you ever try this and figure it out :)

PART 2: Hang Letters on Wall

1. Lay the letters out on the floor in the approximate layout that you want them to be on the wall. Measure the distance between the center of the letters (and, in my case, the distance between the varying heights).

2. Cut the ribbon to the length you want to use to hang the letters. Keep in mind that some letters, like the letter "L" shown above, will require a little extra ribbon. It's not an exact science, though, so don't fret the millimeters ;). The wooden letters at Michael's DO come with holes in the back for hanging directly on the wall with nails, so you're always welcome to do that. Since I can't use nails in my apartment, I decided to hang the letters with ribbon.

3. Hot glue each end of the ribbon to the back of the wooden letters (you can see the nail hole in the below picture). Again, it's not an exact science, but you do need to try to make sure to glue the ribbon on at two points that will help distribute the weight of the letter evenly (so you don't end up with crooked letters).

4. Using a measuring tape, measure out where to put each nail (or, in my case, sticky hook - I used the small clear ones pictured below) in the wall. I started with the last letter and worked my way backwards, doing one letter at a time and seeing how I liked it visually before proceeding. You can do it however you feel works best for you. Each of my hooks was about 9 inches from the next hook, and the lower hooks were 4 inches below the upper ones.

Once you're finished, feel free to stand back and enjoy your hard work, and straighten out a couple letters, if needed.

Happy Crafting! :)

The Nursery Version 2

So last week, I FINALLY finished Charlie's nursery, complete with wall letters, photos, and the amazing quilt made by my mom. It was a long, slow, process, but I LOVE it now that it's done! It's so much cuter compared to Version 1 and I hope you like it!


Tutorials on how I did the letters and how I hung the quilt are coming soon :)

Three Months Old

My sweet Charlie man turned 3 months old on January 25th, 2012. Here is the most recent comparison picture:

Some stats about Charlie at three months old:

• Favorite toys are the owl and giraffe toys that hang down from his play gym and have lots of things to grab onto.
• Is very good at grabbing, holding, and bringing toys to his mouth
• Basically sleeps through the night. For a week he slept from 11:30pm until 9am without a feeding. Over the last few days, he's been going to bed earlier (about 10pm) and waking up to eat around 6am, then sleeping more until about 9:30am.
• Eats about 5 ounces at a time, and a total of 24-26 oz per day
• Still wears size 2 diapers, but frequently poops out of them :)
• Rolls onto his side purposefully and more often - he is getting so close to turning over onto his tummy from his back!
• Can move around on his playmat or crib - he knows how to rotate now, so I'll often find him in a different place and laying a different direction from where I left him.
• Coos even more. Has recently discovered more sounds and different pitches in his voice.
• Still LOVES to smile!
• Enjoys sitting in his Bumbo while watching Mom make dinner or do other chores.
• Can stay awake during the day for up to 2 or 2.5 hours at a time without getting cranky for a nap.
• Wears mostly size "3 month" clothes, but fits in some 3-6 month items.

We sure do love our little man. Every day T and I tell each other how blessed we feel to have such a cute, sweet little boy. He really is the light in our lives :)

Christmas 2011

For Christmas this year, we were able to spend a lot of time with both sides of our family! It was awesome!

To start off the festivities, we had a Christmas dinner with friends (at Heidi & Dave's house) on the 23rd. It was so nice to be able to have everyone together in one place!

Our first family photo since Charlie's newborn photoshoot:

Everyone and their kids... I can't believe we have 7 kids among just 5 couples already! And I'm sure it will continue to multiply!! ;)

Then, on Christmas Eve, we went to T's parents' house to spend time and exchange gifts with all of his siblings and their families (minus Mical who lives in Las Vegas). I didn't get any pictures of the occasion other than this one of Meghan's family:
Then, early on Christmas day (like... 6:30am) we flew out of Salt Lake and landed in Raleigh, NC around 4:30pm. It was definitely an experience flying with a 2 month old (Charlie turned 2 months on Christmas day!), but it actually turned out to be a lot better and easier than I thought it would be. We have a really sweet baby, and for that I am soo grateful! The only hiccup was a major diaper blowout on the second leg of the flight back to Utah... who knew that those tiny airplane bathrooms had changing tables!??!).

After landing in NC and eating a delicious dinner with my parents and brother, we got to open lots of presents! One of the best gifts we received was the start of a ceramic nativity set--the same exact set that my mom and all of her siblings have. Theirs were hand painted by my Grandmother (Mom's mom), but she has since passed away, so my wonderful mother spent the time to paint all of the pieces by hand (with all of the amazing intricate details) as close to how Grandmother did it originally. I was so excited! In the picture below, you can see T holding Joseph, and I have the cow. We also got Mary, baby Jesus, the manger, and a donkey... I believe that's all for now, but eventually I will also have shepherds with sheep and the wise men with camels too! Such a BEAUTIFUL nativity... I can't wait to display it next year :)
Then, all of the extended family from my Mom's side began to arrive (her three siblings and their kids). Here are the two youngest of my cousins, Lauren and Meredith, getting to play with Charlie:

And now... the moment you've all been waiting for... let the Charlie pictures begin!! Haha! My Mom (Kimma) and Dad (Bebop) are probably two of the proudest new grandparents you'll ever meet. And they took tons and tons of pictures of our cute little man. There's way too many to put on this blog, so I picked just a few of the best to display!

Bath time

Cute reindeer bum!

Charlie & Kimma

Charlie & Bebop

So many faces...

Santa Charlie... such a cutie!

One of his favorite places to nap... I can't get enough of those cute little sock feet hanging down!!

A few days later, after everyone from my Mom's side had gone, we traveled a couple hours west to Albemarle (where both of my parents grew up) to see my Dad's side of the family - his parents and his two brothers and their families. We ate delicious food and enjoyed the company.

All the cousins on my Dad's side (plus Charlie & T)

Everybody together!!

Everyone during the trip was SO generous with the sweet gifts they gave to Charlie. He is seriously SPOILED ROTTEN... being the first grandchild/great-grandchild/nephew/great-nephew... etc etc on BOTH sides of my family.

We arrived back in Raleigh on New Year's Eve with just enough time to hit up a couple of New Year's parties. We partied so hard that Charlie was a little wound up and had a rough night that night... I guess he just didn't know how to make the party stop.

The rest of the trip was nice and relaxing. I got a massage, and we just hung out as a family and enjoyed each other's company. When it was time to go home, I was ready, but not ready... all at the same time. I definitely was not excited to get back to "real life". And I knew everyone would miss us (well, mostly just Charlie, haha) when we were gone.

I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas (and I'm so sorry it took me over a month to blog about it!!).

A Macro Kind of Day...

So, as usual, I've been slacking a little with the blogging. BUT! I have taken pictures and have a list of things to blog about. So, the following pictures will serve as a teaser of things to come...

My list of things to blog about:

1. Charlie turns 3 months old

2. The finished nursery!

3. Tutorial on wall letters and how to hang a quilt

4. My Instagram photos, all in one place

Our Growing Charlie

Time for some updates on my sweet little Charlie! (It's been quite a while!)

Today he had his 2 month doctor appointment (even though, officially, he's 2 months and 12 days old today). Poor thing had to get 3 injected immunizations as well as 1 oral. He's been really sleepy and sad today... and I don't blame him!

His stats as of today are:

• Weight: 11lbs 15oz - 40th percentile
• Length: 23.4 inches - 52nd percentile
• Head Circumference: 15 inches - 7th percentile

Here is a picture of his one month and two month comparisons with his Brown Bear that his uncle Mike bought for him:
Charlie turned 2 months exactly on Christmas day, and that's why there's a little Christmas present in the picture there with him.

Facts about Charlie:

• He loves books - his favorite is definitely the "Gallop" book because he likes all of the colors and black and white shapes.
• Favorite toy is Mr. Buzz Bee - a fuzzy bee rattle
• He gives us HUGE smiles every day. He is such a happy baby! He especially loves his daddy and will just light up every time he sees him :) The picture below illustrates how happy he is when Dad comes to play with him.
• Gets very cranky when he is hungry or tired, OR if he doesn't get a chance to play. He really hates to miss play time.
• Eats about 4 oz every three or so hours
• Sleeps well at night! Goes to bed around 11pm or so, wakes up around 4am to eat, and then sleeps to about 8am! It makes for one very happy Mom :) He also gives some of his biggest smiles when he first wakes up in the morning! So cute with his sleepy puffy eyes :)
• Wears size 2 diapers since just before turning 2 months old. Also enjoys getting changed into fresh diapers :)
• Loves bath time and getting his hair scrubbed in his whale tub.
• Has recently started liking to be held upright over the shoulder - he didn't used to like it, but now that his neck is getting stronger he enjoys it much more and doesn't squirm as much.
• Can kind of roll onto his side (usually when he's trying to go #2).
• Loves to nap in his swing.
• Loves when mom helps him dance to music :)
• Generally he's a wiggle worm and rarely ever fully relaxes, even when eating.
• Has recently discovered his fists and will stare at them for long periods of time. Working on opening and closing his fist and reaching for his mouth or toys hanging overhead.
• Coos a lot - and it's SO CUTE!

Charlie in his party shirt on New Year's Eve:

Charlie's hand and foot print at Christmastime:

We can't wait to see how he continues to change and grow over the coming months. We seriously couldn't possibly love him more than we do now, and yet we love him more every day :)