Handmade Home #8: A Temporary Nursery for Eden

Before I started posting baby stuff I wanted to share the sewing corner in our office that Jimmy set up for me almost 2 years ago. It is so efficient, I can get a lot accomplished during naptimes and after the boys go to sleep since I can leave my projects strewn about and my materials are so easy to get to. But because we left for the capital a little frazzled, I didn't get any photos of my space, so I will have to share it once we get back. Jimmy was sweet and let me bring my sewing machine with me here even though we were pressed for room in our vehicle. He knows I am a nesting fool right now! I miss my organized work space though.

Here is a current pic of Eden's room:

Well that won't do for a newborn, so she gets a corner of our room in our rental house for now.

I really ended up enjoying putting together this little space for her even though it wasn't what I originally planned on. (We are shooting for moving into our Forever House around the end of May or June now... yeah right!) I think we all enjoyed putting together a space for her...

{Jonah went and got his hammer to help!}

{Silas thinks swords are machetes. Of course you need a machete for any project in this country!}

The boys very kindly let us use one of their cribs Daddy built for them, for their sister.

I did decide to make her some new sheets though. I wanted plum! I used this tutorial and they fit great.

There is a little dolly in there that is waiting for a name...

I used this tutorial and this inspiration along with some leftover fabrics from other projects. Maybe one day Eden will have a yellow gingham dress to match! We will definitely have to add to this dolly's wardrobe over time.

Jimmy brought me some twigs from the KBI land to use for star bunting. We probably won't have the string lights on all the time, but they do make fore a beautiful ambiance!

{We really have to move soon, there is an outlet right above her crib!}

Remember this pile of wood?

Jimmy bought a piece of firewood for about 4o cents and made Eden a hair bow holder!

He used a wire brush to clean up the bark a little and then stained it.

We wrapped some rope around it and hung it on the wall!

The metal bucket was what my Grandma sent me flowers in my first day of college. It now holds all of Eden's headbands.

Jimmy had 2 stands welded and put a branch on them for Eden's closet. (Inspiration found here.)

I really like it. It's a lot cuter than our closet area in the storage room! The three frames on top were ones we found in antique/thrift stores on our last furlough. I just love oval frames for some reason. The 2 outer ones are waiting for family photos with Eden and the center one holds a handkerchief that my grandma (where Eden will get her middle name) gave me that her mom tatted the edges of... it is just lovely and something I cherish.

So that is what we left in Petén, at least sort of put together and waiting for her. Jimmy still thinks he can get one of the recliners in there from the boys' nursery... that would be nice for middle of the night feedings... we will see. I should've taken a photo of the entire room, it is tight! We have jammed our toes more than a few times trying to get around in there. It's definitely cozy!

My next Been Greens will be clothes for Eden and all the other homemade nursery paraphernalia that wouldn't fit into this space. I was really worried about having a girl, but a couple months of nesting and anticipation has really sold me on it. It is so much fun making stuff for a little girl!

CUTE ITEM OF THE DAY: The boys have a book with baby animals in it that you have to put into their "beds", like a chick in a nest. The last page is a baby that you are supposed to put in its crib. This is where I keep finding that baby:

in Eden's crib since that is where I told them their baby sister will sleep!

Nesting

Eden is due in 93 days... yikes! This is what her room looks like right now:

I think she may be living in a pack-n-play in our rental house for a while.

At this point with the boys we unknowingly had 5 more weeks before they would enter the world. Thankfully Eden is right on track though to be a full term baby. Last week we got a great report from my doctor. We got to see a 4D sonogram. He said that she has a beautiful nose! He also commented that this pregnancy could not be going any better, so we are praising the Lord for that!

{Watching her live was a lot more clearer than the printed photo for some reason.}

I have been really enjoying planning Eden's room. I was very uninspired before I knew the sex, but then right after we found out that she is a she I saw these colors:

{Found at Made}

This is the color inspiration for her room. You have to plan things out here since it is a little trickier gathering supplies. Some things I found in Guatemala City, some in Santa Elena, some in our town even, some on the side of the road, and then the rest my mom bubble mailed me. I love the scavenger hunt part of our life.

Jimmy texted me this photo the other day. He bought something from this pile of firewood for about $1.50 that he is making for her room.

I have been learning to do so many new things. This is one of them:

Can you guess what it is?

And this:

And this:

These are the one thing that Jimmy has been giving me grief about, granny squares! He thinks they are super ugly! None of the above photos were for bedding, don't worry I know we live in the tropics!

Here is her bedding:

Just the plum color fabric. It will be sheets for her crib. The woven mustardy yellow fabric will be a floor pouf.

This is my old dresser that Jimmy and I have used since we have been married:

I sort of hate it just because it looks so gothic. I have always wanted to fix it up, but just couldn't decide on anything. Since Jimmy and I will have shelves in our new closet I don't think we will need it anymore.

So these are the plans for this old dresser:

It is a great height for a changing table.

These are the plans for her chandelier:

I hope everything turns out like I picture it in my head! We will see... I have a couple of other projects brewing, I just can't stop. My nesting is on overdrive and I have been sewing like a crazy addict. Clothes for Eden is a whole other post! There will be lots more Been Green posts in the near future. The first one will have to be the beautiful efficient sewing space that Jimmy set up for me for my 30 birthday. I never have posted that. It makes every nap time and free 5 minutes count!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

"What does a camel do?"

Handmade Home #4: Stuff for Jonah and Silas

Before the boys were born I worried that they wouldn't have very many books in English. Well that worrying was a complete waste of time, because my boys have so many books we can hardly find a place to store them all. Their grandmas bring them books, mail them books, send books down for them with other people... when teams come down they bring them books. We have tons of children's books. I am so thankful because Jonah and Silas love books!

Well this was driving me crazy...

This is an old picture. It was cute at first, but worrying about pages being torn, cleaning it up several hundred times and fighting to keep them away from the books wasn't fun. So we kept a couple board books in a basket on the floor where they can reach them, but we decided all the paper/nicer ones needed a better home.

Several months ago Jimmy bought me some old produce crates from the market for about 25 cents each. They are very crudely put together, but served their purpose of hauling produce to and from the market. These crates are all over our house now in various forms.

Jimmy tore a couple apart to build some hanging book shelves for the boys.

I love them! The wood looks nice and worn. The boys smiled when they saw all their books on the wall, I think they thought it was funny. It is very functional!

With all their birthday presents and then Christmas coming around the corner, I new I needed a plan so that we weren't swimming in toys. They don't have a ridiculous amount of toys, there are just *no closets in this house* to store them in! It is hard to make things not look cluttered when you have to store things out in the open. I had been storing all their toys here...

The new plan was to put these baskets under one of the cribs for larger toys and then make something new for the smaller toys that could be manhandled by 2 little toddlers and not end up in bits and pieces. And not plastic... we have a new rule in our house, we don't bring anything into our home that wouldn't look nice in the living room, that way everything can be moved around the house as our needs change. So I went with fabric... burlap actually. I need to stop with the burlap, but I just can't! I love fabric with texture!

I used a pattern purchased from maya*made. Her large was my small though, so I had to, in the words of my jr high geometry teacher, guesstimate the other 2. It is an excellent pattern, with tons of photos. It made it quick and easy.

These are perfect for Jonah and Silas right now because they are in the sorting stuff phase. They take stuff out of the bag and then put it back in. Right now that is more fun than the actual toy. I love watching them... seeing their little growing minds at work!

The Best Room in the House

First, what's a room redo without a good BEFORE photo, so here it is:

Our lovely laundry room/closet

We had fun creating a place together for our boys. It is really a sanctuary, free from dirt and lizard poop. We keep the window closed, the window unit on, our shoes off, and the dogs out. It is very different from the rest of our house... by about 20 degrees!

We wanted to incorporate pieces of Guatemala. The textures in the world around us are beautiful! We are lucky because we can think up something in our heads and either find the supplies to make it ourselves or have someone else make it for us for cheap. We tried to choose things for their nursery that could be used in either their room when they get older or in other parts of our house later on. So here it is... finally finished!

Jimmy made the boys two beautiful cribs out of Spanish Plum. They are solid!! I absolutely love them! He also found the fisherman's net in the market one day and surprised me.

We made several attempts at a homemade mobile, and then finally ordered this one. It is balanced (unlike ours which just hung stagnant in the air), so the school of fish are in perpetual motion. They really look like they are swimming! There is a worm on a hook in the middle. The boys are fascinated by it... almost as much as their parents. It sort of hypnotizes ya.

We had a carpenter make the rest of the furniture out of mahogany from drawings we gave him. It's the cheap wood here. He even made the mirror which the boys enjoy making faces in! I made the curtains out of white linen woven here. The bucket hats are courtesy of their Grandma Kiki!

Like most houses here, ours doesn't have closets... or does it?

This is a branch that fell off a tree in our yard. Jimmy chopped it down to size in true Guatemalan fashion with a machete!

Here is where we store their toys:

We found this round rug in Guatemala city. We spend a lot of time on that thing, reading books and playing. It has a high pile, so it's a cozy spot amongst the hard tile.

The little wooden horse is from my childhood.

We love maps, plus they are educational... right?!

We used our projector and sketched the outline on the wall and then hot glued rope over it. There are many plusses to concrete walls! The rope that the boys can reach from their cribs or the floor is in short sections so that if they pull it off the wall somehow (it's stuck on good) it is not long enough to strangle them.

I told Jimmy I wanted a kayak for their nursery... honestly I never thought he'd find one. Well, Jimmy got in touch with the guy who makes them for the hotels on Flores. They use them as planters. He carved one out of a tree just for Jonah and Silas! You know their mama is going to put plants in that one day!

I begged Jimmy to take me to the market in zone 1 when we were in Guatemala City last year. It is full of beautiful things made by the locals. It has a reputation for being a violent place, so Jimmy made me shop fast! I found these baskets that we used for the light fixture and then covered the cords with burlap. I want to go back!!! Jonah and Silas enjoy these as much as their mobile. We lift them up and they smack the lights and make them swing.

Jimmy's parents helped us purchase these chairs... as in they went in over half! They are microfiber (which is good since they are puked on regularly), shipped from the States. These rockers are the glue that hold this circus together! A couple weeks ago when both of us got the flu at the same time we each grabbed a boy and pretty much slept in those things the entire weekend. We also sleep there when the power is off and we can't use our monitor. (Honestly some weeks we sleep in those things more than our bed because we just accidentally fall asleep in them!) Needless to say, we are very thankful for these comfy things. With twins I would highly recommend having family within a thousand miles to help, but if that is not possible, these would be the next best thing!

So thanks for visiting our home! Come over anytime... we will probably be in the nursery!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: This is so common here that it is hard to even notice stuff like this anymore and think "I should take a picture".

Where's Our Shipment

Why is our living room couch in our nursery? Because our rocking chairs that were supposed to be here 2 weeks ago must be in the same place our container was hanging out for the month after we moved to Guatemala. Not even the shipping company knows where that is. Our baby swings are in the same boxes. These items would make life with twins much easier... especially once I am on my own during the day. Please pray that our shipment makes it soon. Thanks!

Grandma is going to love this one!

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

We thought the window in the nursery was sealed. Well this is what we caught crawling in yesterday. Jimmy went to get his big bug killing kit which includes a broom, one flip flop, and a can of hairspray (we were afraid to use bug spray inside the nursery). He was successful!