On contentment and redecorating

This first picture is what our room looked like before the major redecorating. This picture is actually a huge improvement from what it was before (which was really unorganized since I didn't have the bookshelf-headboard. The books and things were on the floor and there wasn't room for a baby bed or good space for the baby things.) This baby bed has been recalled and it's not only illegal to re-sell it, the company said to disassemble it and trash the thing. *sigh* I actually wanted a different bed anyway since this was hard to use at night. I'd like to get a jump jump for it at least so it's not totally lost... it was like $200, so it's pretty annoying how all that turned out.
Anyway, a little over a week ago I keep thinking about what I needed for the baby's coming and how I couldn't get the stuff (like the bed and other things as well.) I was struggling with being content and kept worrying about the things I couldn't do. I came to a point though where I realized that if I was going to be in the place I needed to be in- with trusting God and being content- that I needed to throw my energy into a better place than worry and/or thinking of what I didn't have. SO I started pulling from my creativity like I did when I was growing up. I couldn't afford to buy anything so I always had to make things from whatever I had. I racked my brain about any fabric or any crafts that I still had (since I got rid of so much before moving) that could some how be tied together to redecorate our room where Grace will be. I've never decorated with any specific theme or color for a new baby before and it just seemed like a fun thing to do this time.
My main goal was to find something that would match the shoe rack that my sister-in-law sent to me to hold the baby clothes. The diaper holder that I had for the girls just didn't work (color-wise.) BUT I had this "Fancy Nancy fabric left over from a blanket that my Gramma is making for Grace!!! I used the old diaper holder as the pattern and made this one pictured bellow. (I love the "Fancy Nancy" books and so do my girls!) You can't tell in the picture, but there are some little jingle bells on some of the ribbon hanging from the bow on the top of the diaper holder. So, each time I get a diaper (it's holding Renna's night-time diapers right now) the little bells tinkle! That's kind of fun. ;] All of the fabrics and embellishments are just things that I found in my scraps or the girls dress up box.

Another thing that I got from my Gramma a while ago was this fairy panel and it seemed like a perfect thing to go with a sort of fairy-tale children's book sort of theme. The decorating was coming together! I happened to have a lot of red fabrics and red was different than the blue and green that I always had going on before, and seemed like a good thing to go with the black and white that I'd started with. Anyway, for this wall hanging I just sewed the panel on top of this red fabric and bordered it with a black velvet- like a frame. The leaves were some fabric that was left over from some banners that I'd made for Grace Bible Church that still had some two sided interfacing on it. Cutting the leaves was no big deal and then ironing them on. The black puff paint was left over from a project about 6 years ago! I helped Youssef make a spider-man costume back then and there was actually enough left to make these little squiggly designs to sort of mimic the paisley look from the shoe rack. The quote on the wall hanging is this "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." by C.S. Lewis. There was another one that I actually liked better, but this was shorter. ;]
Okay, so the comforter that I made reminded me so much of a chess board.. which then reminded me a lot of "Alice through the looking glass" that I thought adding some "Alice" imagery would go with the "theme" too! I already had the framed picture of the white and red rose (I drew that when I was a teenager and was into doing a lot of colored pencils) and that totally reminded me of the "painting the roses red" thing in "Alice in Wonderland"... well.. When I was at my Mom's in Jan. she gave Lily some old paper dolls from when I was a kid. I went through all of them and found a white bunny and tea things and a couple fans and a pocket watch and a little doll that looked like she could be Alice. ANYWAY, gluing them onto some black and using some frames that I had left over from my artworks worked well. The little card people are just some brown pipecleaners and playing cards and google eyes. The heads of the cards are paper beads that my mother-in-law gave to Lily. (Lily had fun helping with these little card people.) And ESPECIALLY painting the white roses! The white roses were the only things that I actually bought (so, the entire re-decorating cost $2.50!) The paint was some red fingernail polish that I had. :}

Here's Renna testing out the comforter. ;] The quilt took the longest of course to make of all this, but it was amazing how well it all came together! I cut the blocks at 10 inches each and slapped it together. I thought I'd need to add a border or something onto the edge of the finished top so that it would fit onto the comforter that I already had (now it's a two sided comforter!) or I thought that it would be too large and the edge blocks would have to be cut in half or something, YET when I laid it all out!!! It was about as perfect as possible! I didn't pre-measure it perfectly to fit. I just threw out the stuff and got it as close as I could, and providentially it turned out just right. It's amazing to me how often that sort of thing happens by how God works in our lives.

I started this re-decorating project last Saturday or so and threw myself into the excited place of creativity. The result was contentment with what I had, and last Thursday all the worries that I'd been struggling with were suddenly taken care of. It was like, every good thing that could happen suddenly did! Right now I'm feeling overly and abundantly blessed. Among other things, my in-laws bought us the baby bed which looks like THIS which will totally match the new decor! I'm pretty excited about the baby bed.. it only took me two children and three pregnancies to figure out what that "perfect" baby bed should be, BUT I think this will work the best!

The last thing that I want to do in the decorating realm is just to paint the headboard/bookshelf black. I'd already wanted to do that since all my furniture is either black or cherry, but I think it will look especially good with the new bedspread and color scheme. Paint is a really inexpensive way to change something too. I have some other small things to paint black besides the headboard, so a little thing of paint will go a long way.

This was a fun project to work on and it really helped me learn to be content right now. Perhaps someone reading this will get inspired to work on what they can control with what they already have!