A Gift for Baby

My husband comes from a large family, he was the last of

his parent's eight children.  As you can imagine, the family 

gatherings can be quite large with spouses and children of

all these eight brothers and sisters.  From the beginning, 

when we first started dating,  I was drawn to his sister

Ann and her husband Tim.  I admired her right away, she

was artistic, a great cook, and the kind of person you would

want to get to know.  Her sense of humor always kept us laughing.

Her husband Tim is just as special and I have grown to love

them both over the years.  

Tim and Ann have always had a special place in our

lives, and we have so many memories of happy times

over the years.  When their oldest son and his wife

announced that they were expecting a child, we were

just as excited as they were.  I wanted to do something

special for them to welcome this new little one.

After consulting with Julie about her ideas for the 

nursery and much time spent on Pinterest, she came

up with a soft gray color scheme with a chevron

and a polka dot pattern.  She gave me liberty to use 

them as I wished . . . so the creating began.  

 The crib is a white convertible crib and was

the perfect shade of white to accent the

gray and white fabrics.  I used the

Premier chevron print on the bed skirt,

placing the polka dot inside the pleats.

The bumpers were polka dot on the 

outside and chevron on the inside with

an accent of a white with gray circles on 

the bias trim and ties.  

 The window treatment was open/close panels on

a traverse rod.  The chevron was used with a 3" band

of the dot.  The pleated valance was the dot with accent

chevron covered buttons.  The white bead board is

a wonderful warm touch to this adorable room.  

Dan and Julie are so excited about the arrival of the baby

sometime in early April.  He/she will have a beautiful 

 room to enjoy.    I am so thankful I was able to be a

part of this past weekend and to be able to use my gifts.  

I am blessed to be a part of this wonderful family.  

It's all in the Details

I love attention to detail . . . taking the ordinary and

making it unique.  For Christmas this year my daughter,

Ashley, requested Parson's chairs for her dining room.  She 

attempted to describe what she wanted.  After showing her

all available options that I could find . . . nothing would do.

You see, she is just like me . . . she loves the unexpected and

unique . . . something you can't find in a store.  I knew that

the only way to please her was to make them ourselves.  I

had to first find the frame.  I purchased some used chairs

on "Better than ebay", a local site for buying and selling

things.  Then the creating began.

We made a ruffle skirt to match her window treatments

and used her Thibaut wall covering pattern on the 

inside back.  A round matelasse fabric was then

monogrammed with his/her monograms.  A small

cord and box pleated ruffle was attached to this circle 

and then it was sewn onto the back of the chair prior

to upholstery.  A sash was made for the back of the 

chair  . . . it had to be cute coming and going.  

An accent fabric was used for the seat.  This was

a coral and cream fabric with a raised dot pattern.

 The bow adds a feminine, yet sophisticated touch.

 The monogram circle medallion is a personal southern touch. 

These chairs now adorn her dining room and she has 

exactly what she wanted . . . with much attention to

detail.  Now . . . on to designing something just as

cute for me . . . .