nursery works: part two

so back to the nursery.... which has a new occupant!

i already waxed on about the east + southeast walls of the nursery so i'm moving on ahead to the south wall next.

as you recall, i wanted to do a something with les lettres de l'alphabet....but i had a big beef with doing something spelled out or perfect looking. random was the order of the day....and yes this snagged me at least one comment as to how my child would be scarred for life in the reading department. [c'mon, this english major mama would never allow that, would she?!]

so as time ticked by i kept my proverbial eye peel on and gradually built up a pretty peachy assortment of letters to post on the wall for baby h to enjoy from his or her new nest.


first up was actually a giant e that my girlfriend eye-spied for me at a local antiques shop....which to this point hasn't been hung in the room. [i'm thinking now of hanging it in the kitchen instead as an ode to e, aka me, as well as a subtle nod to the word 'eat'. stay tuned!] after that followed the big b and e, which i picked up on clearance at urban outfitters in lansing. conveniently done in unfinished wood, so i knew painting them to fit my scheme would be a breeze. next in line line were the m, a, x + k found at another urban outfitters in downtown chicago. also on clearance, also thrill-inducing for me [i believe i paid $5 each for the big letters, and $2 for the smaller letters. scorrrrrrrre lady with the drool all over her face!] i had actually seen these 4 letters before online, for 4x the price, in their psychadelic graphics and decidedly girly colors. nothing some primer + paint couldn't de-prettify! and don't you just die for the font style on that e?


after that the alphabet ensemble grew with the finding of the chunky metal h at another antiques shop, this time in downtown holland. they had a few letters here and there amidst the pile of pieces new + old and when i saw the h i had to have it....he was a broken l'il guy but that made for a perfect bargaining scenario for moi. next thing i knew he was half-price + coming home with me! around the same time i nabbed the mini u from the counter of a restoration hardware outlet store that was clearing out holiday items. yup, she's a christmas ornament gone walled. with a quick removal of the string looped through for tree-hanging, no one's the wiser. oh and price? a whopping $0.49.

last in line are my favorites of the whole flock. with the wiry architectural t + f, it was uo striking again. [why does that sound like some sort of who's on first riddle?] in retrospect, since i wanted an eclectic mixture of materials, letters and styles i would have gone for the capital Q they have or one of the more rounded letters to add a little curvaciousness to the mix. but at the time i had a guy feeling....er, GUT feeling [that was a true typo folks!] we were bearing a boy and i wanted the significance of the f for his middle name, and the t for my maiden name.

enter mr. t. i had no idea i'd be getting this gem of a diamond. its an antique heavy metal piece my dad came across in a little shop on the coastline of nova scotia, his home province. so as you can imagine, this one comes chock full of meaning for me....my dad has had it for years. i love the rough rusty exterior and the tips on the t.

so here they are! the motley crew.



as you may have noticed in the first photo of this wall, the koi fish bedding was a go for launch! yeeeee!


i'm so pleased with the end result. i'm even more pleased with the fact that my child is actually sleeping on said bedding now, after a month of bunking it with me. these guys are pumped too, can't you tell? lefty lucy is a sweet birdie i'd registered for at land of nod, and right mctighty is a speckly orange cow i couldn't turn away when he called out to me from a shelf at target.

and as for the crib....yes we did complete our desired duo by ordering the olivia babymod model from wally world, a generous gift from our parents for which we're so grateful.

mmm. pebbles + peg legs.

oh! and lest i forget the quilt me madre sewed for me about 5 minutes after finding out our news back in august.

even though i wanted a pretty clean color palette of mainly white, orange and some grey, the patterned print on this fabric was too tempting especially at a discounted price [since there was a miniscule stain on one section of one yard]. thank you mom! i also appreciate how it echoes the moroccan tile print of our foyer rug just one floor below. there is a slight floral look in this fabric but i thought it walked a fine enough line with the over-arching pattern being bold, and nary an actual blossom to be found.

next up: to the windowwww....to the wall! 'til the .... er ....

i'll leave it at that.

nursery post three coming SOON!