Nursery almost done

I plugged away and completed the rest of my sewing this past weekend/end of week. I made the changing pad cover, and a new valance for the baby's nursery and finished an extra little project for a special 2-year-old's birthday (I'll share pics of that once she gets her gift!)

Joe helped hang the rest of the frames and coat rack that I had him paint and we figured out a way to hang the letters that I painted to go on the wall.

Since the letters are now stuck to the wall most likely permanently, might as well reveal his name...

LUKE VAN ALSTINE

No, we haven't discussed or decided on a middle name yet. We have few options, haven't nailed one down yet. Our name pool was smaller this time around for his first name. Joe liked Ryan a lot, I liked Luke, Austin, Lucas, and some others that I can't think of now. Even though I liked Ryan, for some reason I just thought Dylan and Ryan were so similar. We both liked Lucas but thought we'd end up calling him Luke anyway so just decided to name him that. I didn't remember having Luke on the name list last time around, but when I looked back in Dylan's baby book, it was! I also am into meanings of names and Lucas/Luke mean 'Light'. So I'm good with that! I do find it a little more difficult to pick a middle name with a one syllable first name, it seems that two syllables flow better into a middle name. And the middle name will also need to be a one or two syllable name since Van Alstine is such a long last name, we don't want to give the kid too long of a name!  That might be why we haven't tackled the middle name yet. He will have one though.

Here's the chair recovering before and after:

Note: I didn't lay out my pieces very well and forgot to leave enough for one whole piece to cover the ottoman, so I had to fudge a little bit and it's actually two pieces, which you can kind of see.

I couldn't find a color of the minky (the soft fleece-like material with the little bumps on it) fabric I wanted to make the changing pad cover, so I just went with basic gray cotton fabric.

My window valance project was kind of hit-and-miss. I didn't have a pattern, and was just using extra scraps of fabric. I didn't end up liking the first one, was too light in color and looked too baby-ish to me. I really was going for a modern feel for the nursery. So I made a second one, and I still think it's not perfect, once I sewed seams, it's just slightly too short of the sides. Oh well, it's good for now.

#1

#2

Here's a view of the wall closest to the door, opposite the window wall, above the rocking chair.

And the framed art pieces I made on Photoshop. They are now hanging just to the right of the window. I ordered a skinny book shelf in white that will go to the left of the window.