Homemade Baby Room

Over the last couple of months, I have been busy creating the things that decorate my little baby's new home.  It's almost ready for her to arrive (just a few more things to get) and I can't wait to see the space I've created in use. I thought I would share some photos of what I've been making.

As you enter the nursery to your right is my rocker and reading area.  The walls are a very light yellow (Behr Premium in "Cream Puff"), which my dear father-in-law painted for us a couple of months ago.  I pieced the quilt and recovered the cushions on the glider and ottoman.

Also, on this side of the nursery is this lovely Ikea cabinet (love, love, love it!) for books and storage.  On the walls are a couple of nursery rhyme prints.



In the corner we have our crib.  I made the smaller crib quilt, and the organizer on the end of the crib.  I also made the artwork which features teddy bear and kitty paper dolls that I had as a kid.



By the crib we also have this awesome golden moon hanging, which was in my room at home when I was a teenager.

We also have  a red dresser from Ikea for our changing table, and above it is artwork that I created out of paper dolls that are little mice (they are one of my favorite paper dolls ever--so cute!)

The artwork was simple to make with Ikea frames (they come with mats) and fabric in the back ground and then the table with the lamp was also one that I've had for years, and just dressed up the shade a little by adding ribbon, rickrack, buttons and the pre-pleated eyelet lace.



The little coat rack in the corner was given to me by Jane, and it was hers when she was a little girl.  I also made this stuffed owl for baby girl from a pattern I found at Heavenly Patchwork in Waconia.  Such a great pattern--simple directions and fun to make in a couple of hours.

One of my favorite things in baby's room is a stuffed animal that I picked up at the Handmade Market at the Creative Connection Event last weekend.  I must have went back to the booth 3 times before just buying it.  Turns out, the woman who creates them is from Northfield, Minnesota.  She was so friendly and her animals are so sweet.  Her blog is Little Big Pants and you can see some of her creations there.  I bought this gal.

She is a marsupial bunny named Amelie (she came with the name).  Her baby didn't have a name, so I named him Francois.  He comes out of her little pocket.  Amelie is super cuddly and I like to sit in the glider and hold her while I read stories to the baby.  My husband thinks it's kind of silly that I read stories to the bunny baby.  Last night we read the "Little Miss Austen" book Pride & Prejudice, which might be the most adorable baby book ever.  You can check it out here Little Miss Austen Pride & Prejudice.

I'm so in love with this room.  I can't wait for baby to move in!

Stocking Up for Winter

A new tradition for Jane and I is to can tomatoes in August.  Last year we did a 1/2 bushel, which gave us each about 9 pints to enjoy in soups and pasta throughout the winter.  The only problem was that the 9 pints only made it until about December--that left us with a lot of winter where we didn't have our own little jars of summer left to use.

So, this year, we decided to do double the amount we did last year--a whole bushel.  We ended up with 33 pints this time, which probably still won't get us all the way through winter, but hopefully at least until February.

The tomatoes we had this year were fairly small and round.  They also weren't quite as ripe as we would have liked (it make peeling them more difficult.)  These were from the Minneapolis Farmer's Market.

 



Jane bought our tomatoes at the Minneapolis farmers market.

 
I don't know how many times we filled and refilled the giant bowls with the cut tomatoes.  It seemed like so many when we were doing it! 



A big bowl of peeled and cut tomatoes.

 To peel the tomatoes, you first have to dip them in boiling water, and then immerse them in ice water and in theory the peel slide right off.  It worked most of the time.



One of the things that I admire about women years ago who canned a lot is that tomatoes are ready at the hottest time of year and with all the boiling of water it takes to prep them and can them, the kitchen gets really hot. Those women did all of this hot work in non-air conditioned environments.  It is very long hot work!  I also can't figure out how they decided how much they needed to do.  Jane and I kind of just pick an amount and know that if we run out, we can always just pick some up at the store.



Here I am with some of our bounty. I can't wait to use these in my favorite recipes--especially in the Butternut Squash Crumble.  Oh, baby, does it taste like fall!



Me with my baby belly and a about half of the job done.



Up close with the tomatoes