Time is passing quickly, and before we know it, our new baby will be here.  In the meantime, I have the world’s longest list of projects to complete, birthday and Christmas gifts to buy, and a nursery to put together.  Needless to say, I’m finding myself quite busy!

For Ryder, we did what most new parents do… go to Babies R Us and pick out the perfect overpriced bedding set that comes with more pieces than we’ll ever find a use for just the right stuff.  We LOVED what we chose.  It was gender neutral (because at the time, we didn’t know he was a he), it was educational, and it was something we could live with staring at every day for at least a couple of years (although we intended to be able to use it for all subsequent children… HA!).  Here’s a look back at how his nursery turned out:

You may remember that the laundry hamper in the bottom right corner was up-cycled quite some time ago… Reminisce by clicking here.  And we actually had to cut the crib bumper apart, leaving only the piece at the head of the crib, and the long piece against the wall.  The first night Ryder slept in his crib (which was our third night home because it took that long for me to be able to walk up the stairs!), Nikki freaked out because she couldn’t see him and tried to jump in.  Nothin’ like an 80lb. ball of fur and teeth lunging into your baby’s bed in the hope of protecting him from the monsters in the closet!  Once we removed the unnecessary pieces, she was content to stay firmly planted on the floor, just as watchful as ever.

Now, fast forward nearly two years…  Ryder has quickly and successfully transitioned to a twin bed, and no longer needs his crib bumpers.  The new baby is coming in December, and will need crib bumpers.  And since Nikki is still around, and still uber-protective, we figured we’ll be faced with the same predicament in the very near future.  Why go out and buy brand new stuff if we’ll just have to cut it apart?  (And let us not forget about the ever-useful diaper stacker, hamper, and quilt!)  So… (almost) super-mom to the rescue!  🙂

I agonized over finding the perfect fabric upon which to base all future nursery decorations, and ended up with a fun array of stripes and polka-dots in various shades of teal and brown.  I re-covered Ryder’s old crib bumpers, and in a day, they went from this:

To this:

And the dust ruffle went from this:

To this:

I still plan on making a valance, and I’m sure there will be other fun things to create along the way.  But for now, I’m pretty happy with the results, and I’m super-excited to begin to put it all together.

And for those of you who  may be thinking, “But what about Ryder?  Doesn’t he get anything new?”  Of course!  I’m currently awaiting a shipment of some awesome transportation-themed fabric for his new big-boy room.  I’ll be whipping up a fun comforter and valance… and just wait till you see the shelf I scored from NapervilleYardsales.com to go on the wall in place of the quilt pictured above.  Speaking of that quilt, I have a really cool project in mind for that as well… so stay tuned!