DIY Nursery...and it shows

When I found out I was pregnant I was so excited. If it was a boy I was going to decorate in blues and greens with little airplanes and cars. If it was a girl I was going to have pinks and lavender and flowers everywhere with cute "hootie"owls.
Then I realized how much work that was going to be and if I was going to do this, I only wanted to do it once. So I decided to go gender neutral.
After many trips to Babies 'r Us and Buybuy baby, I've come to realize that gender neutral is really drab. It was all neutrals! Everything was beige this and toupee that and every shade of brown there was, but hardly any real color. So I decided I needed a different inspiration. And I settled on Dr. Seuss's book All the Places You'll Go.
Here's how it turned out.

Now because I did put so much time and effort into this I'm going to brag and show each thing I made and how I made it.

The colors for the nursery I got from the cover of Oh, the Places You'll Go. As soon as those were picked out we painted the nursery (mostly Sean, but I did stencil out the stripes)

Next I tackled the crib linens. I made fitted sheets in each color and a puff quilt to match. This puff quilt was constructed purely from my mind, there was no pattern. It's probably because of that lack of a pattern that made it so difficult to do, and I will probably never ever do another one because of it. But it did turn out well and I admit I want to snuggle under it myself. The fabric for the backing is so soft, I get drowsy just thinking of it (or that could be the sleep deprivation).

Next I took a copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go and cut out the pages and modge podged it to a large canvas. At first I was nervous because I wasn't sure what I was doing. But to my surprise, it actually looked pretty good. 

After taking all the pages out of the book, what can you do with the cover but turn it into a sideways clock. The sideways was not on purpose, I could not get the clock mechanism to go straight. I'm still not sure what I did wrong, but it looks Seussy to me. 

As soon as I picked the theme I knew I wanted a hot air balloon mobile. But apparently no one makes them and certainly not in the colors I had for the nursery. Luckily etsy had a pattern for it that was really easy to follow. I was actually making this in the hospital while I was waiting to be induced. 

Every baby blog and book recommended light canceling curtains. But trying to find fabric for that is almost impossible. So I had some old light canceling curtains that we had at the condo, I shortened them only to realize that every where the needle went light shined through. So I took fabric strips left over from the quilt and Ironed those strips onto the curtains covering the seam line I made in the curtains. The tie backs are actually just ribbon that we used at my sisters wedding, it happened to match the nursery perfectly.

As is tradition in our family, every baby gets a crocheted chevron blanket. I couldn't find the colors of the nursery so I had to special order it.

I knew I wanted to put a decal over the crib, but the Dr Seuss ones were so expensive I couldn't afford them. That's when my sister's best friend came to the rescue and made this for me.

With the wall opposite the crib looking terribly naked I took some old picture frames, painted them with the same paints we used on the walls, and used some scrapbook paper to make these hot air balloon pictures.

Last of all I wanted to put a bunting over the crib. So I used the extra scrapbook paper to make this.

And nesting isn't just a mothering instinct. Sean has been making these little "monsters"for the nursery also. They each have a name, my personal favorite is Mobey.