Pillows! Owls!

I haven’t mentioned this yet, but we are in fact having another baby. I am 21 weeks, doing great, but terrified for what’s in store. In effort to push those thoughts aside, I am choosing to think about more enjoyable things besides never sleeping and the remote possibility that I will have another colicky baby. On the top of the list of happy things, is decorating new baby’s room. We’re having another boy, which is awesome. (Especially since I don’t have to buy a whole new wardrobe!) I was originally planning on keeping everything in the baby’s room exactly the same as it is now, and moving Thad into the room next door, and focusing on decorating that room. Well, that’s still happening, but in the mean time, I have developed a slight obsession with owls. Not the brown and gold, creepy-eyed owls of the 1970’s (my Grandma used to have a super scary picture of an owl at the end of a dark hallway, which I honestly had nightmares about).

Example:

Seriously, people? Yikes.

No, no, these are super cute, google-eyed colorful owls….which, who knows, may still give my child nightmares, but at least I will like them.

So, while I do plan on leaving things as they are for the most part, I want to incorporate some cute owls into the room as well. The walls in the room are a light gray-green, and a lot of the current decor is black-and-white. I am planning on sticking with the very manly black, gray and green idea, and adding some pops of color here and there. I have a fascination with throw pillows, and have found some really cute owl pillow ideas…

Here are a couple of my inspiration pictures:

The one on the left I have in the works. I’m going to make that one out of wool with the tree and owl appliquéd on the front. I love the look of the wool, I would have thought that wool would be really scratchy, but I bought some pre-washed stuff from the quilt shop that is really soft and nice feeling. Both of these should be really easy and straightfoward. And come on, are those cute or what?

Here is another one that I LOVE. I’ll probably change this one up since it has little birds instead of actual owls, but I love the multi-colored look. I’m thinking that I will do the top two first, then use the scraps to cut out mini-owls for the one below.

I like this picture too, I would maybe do it by painting a canvas a solid blue color and then decopaging some hand-drawn owls onto it….

I have also thought about doing a mobile (to hang in the corner of the room, rather than above the crib), maybe using twigs with little owls hanging. I might also make some bean-filled owl bookends. I don’t know yet exactly, I’m going to start with the pillows and see what I want to do from there. I have the habit of being too matchy-matchy, so I want to make an effort to mix and match colors and styles and themes.

Keep in mind, this is for the new baby’s room, I still have Thad’s room to think about too…

Cheap Entertainment

I have become fed up with toys all over my house all of the time. I understand that toys are necessary, and in fact, life is much easier when the wee one is entertained. However, a lot of the toys we have a just a waste of space. They are big and bulky, not easily packed up and put away. We could get away with having much fewer toys, especially if they are toys that keep his attention for longer than 30 seconds. Along that train of thought, I have recently re-vamped my Christmas list of things to get Thad, and I will go through that at a later date. For now, I wanted to share a couple of ideas for entertainment that is small, fun, inexpensive, and easy to store.

1. Window Decals

I got these at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, a dollar. I got a couple of different sheets with different themes. Can’t beat the price, they keep him entertained for a good 20 minutes or so, and they are super easy to put away. They also require a bit more brain power and motor skill ability than a battery-filled, automated light up toy. He takes them off the sheet, puts them on the window, puts them back on the sheet, takes them to the slider door, tells me what they are, and so on.

2. PlayDoh

There are a bunch of home-made playdoh recipes online, all are basically the same, and are really easy to make. I feel like it is another activity that is a bit more stimulating than a lot of toys out there. Not that he is building the Eifel Tower or anything, we are still working on not eating it, but he is definitely getting the idea. Even though you use food coloring to dye the dough, I have not had any issues with the color being left on his hands when he is done, or on the kitchen counter.

These are just a few ideas, I have some more up my sleeve, which I will share in an upcoming post, along with some other life-simplifying thoughts.