Sunday, March 30, 2014

Prepping...Talk birdy to me

I've been planning on making a mobile out of fabric birds and a stick for a long time (since November of 2010 perhaps?), maybe I copied the idea from somewhere on the internet, but I don't remember at this point. 

I found this lovely bird pattern on the internet since I wanted a slightly different bird style than the ones I created as Christmas ornaments back in 2010.  I made this test bird from the pattern (sized down from what the actual pattern suggests), and liked what I saw except for the wings.  I picked over my stash of fabric for anything blue/gray/yellow and cut out 10 birdies.  After rearranging to the best combinations, I spent a couple hours sewing these together and stuffing them.  I actually ran out of polyfill, so I stuffed them with some random cheap brown yarn instead.  This was the most time-consuming part of the whole adventure.

A month or so ago, I went on a backyarding adventure for a sizable, not-too-branchy-yet-somewhat-branchy stick.  I let the stick dry out for a short while in the nursery.  Then, I hung it up in the best position from my dining room light fixture from 3 points using clear thread.

See? Stickish but not too branchy. 


As a quick side note, I do not like this light fixture at all.  Don't you think it looks like a blobfish?

Light fixture
Blobfish.
Back to the birdmobile (said like "batmobile").  I simply hot-glued each bird to the stick in a hopefully-pleasing manner. 

Then this birdmobile sat in our nursery for a few weeks because we struggled putting 3 tiny eye hooks in our ceiling.  We finally started by nailing a small nail into the ceiling and then removing it and screwing in the eye hook.  This captain morgan pose happened a lot.

Did not have a little captain in him
Marionetting

During the time when the birdmobile sat in the nursery, the clear thread that had held it up during it's construction became tangled up and frustrating to work with.  We played around with it like a eyeball-threatening marionette until we liked how it sat and tied it up.   Right around this point it was late in the evening and we had been attempting to hang this little thing for about an hour and a half, we were pretty slap-happy and the "talk birdy to me" song started happening.  This is going to be over the changing table/dresser, so we had to make sure it was fairly high so that Dillon could work comfortably underneath.  Since he's going to be changing lots of diapers!










Pardon the terrible photo and the pile of stuff on the dresser.

The view from the changing table.

The nursery is really coming together now! 

TO BUY:
-Rug for nursery (still waiting for a 75% off sale at Rugsusa) (It was ordered, but is now backordered until March 20th.  I finally committed during a 70% off sale)
-anything that's not a gift off our registry
-diaper sprayer (I realized we won't really need this until baby starts solid foods, unless our washer can't handle the poops.  Breastfeeding poop is water soluble, so it's actually easier to just throw it all in the washer without pre-rinsing)
TO DO:
-read birthing books
-tour the hospital (by the way, I was the only mama there writing things down and asking questions!!! Do these ladies not understand this stuff is IMPORTANT??? or am I just a little too type-A for this?)
-preregister at the hospital
-make sure our insurance will still all work out since Dillon's place of work changed providers (grrrr)
-Take our birthing classes (we still are practicing our hypnobirthing every day!)
-Take our "breastfeeding and newborn" class
-Finish up our registries (since Target's in-store selection was limited and we haven't even started the 2nd one)
-Look into placenta encapsulation  (It is something I'm interested in, but we can't afford to have it done at the moment and we're too squeamish to do it ourselves, so we'll live without!)
-Attend shower (thanks everybody!)
TO MAKE:
-sheets
-cushion for rocking chair
-footstool (Bean bag beans are ordered and it's been started!  Now, to finish...)
-mobi wrap (don't have to! Thanks, Meghan, for offering to send us one of yours!!!)
-mobile (DONE!)
-portable high chair thinger
-Nursery decor (some sort of sign with a favorite hymn written on it)
HOUSE TO DO:
-Paint nursery
-Finish Railing (Only those handful of small touch-ups, but most Dillon will have to do since stain/poly/everything causes cancer)
-complete flooring (transition strips and heating vent) (FINALLY DONE!)
-Finish our pantry cabinet (add shelves, paint, and fill with all the crap that's covering my counters and stressing me out)
WANT TO DO:
-mini-babymoon by showing up at a friend's house for the weekend (thanks Ryan and Josie!)
-Ikea Trip
-Knit a onesie
-Make and freeze a bunch of meals  
RECENTLY ADDED:
-pack hospital bags
-install carseat and have it checked
-shop for new-mama supplies
-finish thank-yous from shower (they're coming, ladies!)
-write out address labels for baby announcements now, so that I won't have to later

1 comment:

  1. That branch hanging is beautiful and that blobfish is so funny! Good job getting through that to-do list!

    ReplyDelete