The Hanukkah Bush Post

I should probably post a few pictures of our Christmas tree / Hanukkah bush, before, you know, the holiday is over.

I opted for a simple tree this year. Lots of golds and silvers and whites and reds. And that’s pretty much it. I wanted it to have a vintage feel to it, and I think omitting some of the more modern ornaments really helped with that.

Oh, and you can never have too many icicles. They are the cinnamon on my toast.

I looked everywhere for a faux-fur white tree skirt. Do you guys have any idea how expensive those things are? West Elm sells one for around $70. YES. I JUST SAID SEVENTY DOLLARS. For a tree skirt.

I went to JoAnn fabric and got this white furry piece of fabric for $7, and then cut it in a big circle. Take that West Elm.

It’s not quite as fuzzy and thick as the West Elm skirt, but I think it does the trick. And it saved me about $63. Now I can spend that money on much more practical things, like adorable baby items that I don’t seem to have the power to stop buying. (I can’t stop buying pacifiers  They’re so cute! Why are they so cute? I have no idea. I even bought one with a little stuffed animal giraffe attached to it. It kills me.)

So, I know my religion seems a little confusing for people who don’t know me that well. Let me break it down for you: I was raised by my parents, which consisted of one Jewish father and one questionable mother who converted to Judaism so my dad’s mom didn’t have a heart attack. My mom was raised Christian (in a very religiously-lax household), so growing up we sort of just celebrated everything. The Jewish holidays were very important to my dad, and the Christian holidays were just all about twinkly lights, sparkly wrapping paper, Santa, delicious food, family and friends, and a house full of love.

Oh, and glitter. If you know my mom you probably know one thing about her: she glitters the shit out of everything. It looks like a stripper spends the night in their family room during the holidays.

I learned about all kinds of different religions at a very young age. I learned that your religion was determined by where you were born, and who’s family you were born into. I’m grateful that my parents let me explore religion–I will always have so much love and respect for them for just that simple freedom.

So, mom and dad, thank you for the Hanukkah bush and Christmas tree. You guys kind of rock. You AND your glitter. Merry Christmukkah.

Whatever you believe and whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope you get to spend it with a heart full of love. From the Harpster Home to your home, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I’ll see you suckers next year. xoxo

A Friday Tute

As in tutorial.

I wouldn’t put it past me to make a fart joke on an early Friday morning, but not today, my friends.

Today I’m going to show you guys how I made the fabric-wrapped “R” for our nursery!

The first step of this process technically involves you wanting to make a yarn-wrapped letter. So, buy a bunch of yarn, spend an entire evening trying to wrap your letter, and then say shit shit shit over and over when you can’t figure out how to make one, all the while burning yourself with your hot glue gun. And then in a fit of rage cut off all the yarn and throw it all in the trash. And then grumpily say HURMPH. And then blame all of the above on your raging hormones.

That was my first step.

Step TWO is to take your letter and decide that you want to wrap it with fabric instead!

This is really so simple. All you need is a letter of your choice, (I got mine at Hobby Lobby — but you can find them at any craft store) a simple staple gun, a pair of scissors, your favorite fabric, and some thin batting for dimension.

Cut out your batting, making sure you have enough to wrap around the edges of your letter.

Once your letter is flipped over, start tugging and stapling. There is really nothing scientific about this. I just made my way around the letter, cutting the batting where it needed to fit in the letter’s grooves.

It ain’t pretty on the backside. But when is it ever, amiright?

But the front side looks way awesome. Smooth as a baby’s bottom.

After your batting is on, you basically just repeat that exact same process with the fabric. I’m telling you guys, screw the yarn-wrapped letters. This is WAY easier.

And you’re done! This project, after all of the supplies are gathered, only takes about 30 minutes. Easy. As. Pie.

Fit for a queen. Or a baby.

And they all lived happily ever after because I never, ever, ever tried ever again to make a yarn-wrapped letter.

The end.

The Baby Girl’s Nursery (with Source List)

Welp. It’s that time! The time where I show you all of our hard work from weeks and weeks of painting, sanding, spackling, curating, hanging, and creating. Our little girl’s abode is finally complete.

Kinda.

We still have to refinish the dresser, so politely ignore the unfinishedness of it. Also, my baby shower isn’t for another month so the room doesn’t yet house all of the baby accessories. I’ll probably do another “final” shoot of the room when it’s officially finished.

Until then, I thought why not just snap a few pics for the good folks in the internet.

For starters, let’s see where this room was when we moved in:

And here is where we are now–all ready for our baby girl:

Don’t get too excited about that letter on the wall, you little detective, you. We’re 97.999% sure what The Alien’s first name will be, but we’re 100% sure what her middle name will be: Rebecca. It was mine before I got married, so we were excited to pass it down to our daughter, and keep it in the family. Once we have her first name solidified we’ll add that initial on that wall, along with an “H” for Harpster.

I’ll be posting a tutorial on how I made that “R” very soon!

Yes, that is a baby picture of yours truly; Steve’s baby picture will soon be making an appearance in the room–his mom is finding the perfect one. The yellow chevron fabric was leftover from an old project, and the vintage botanical print was downloaded for free from here.

The changing pad will fit snug as a bug on top of the dresser, and our little nugget can gaze lovingly at the wooden bird mobile while she makes “HA HA I’M FARTING” faces.

I love the purple-ish pink ottoman, and the femininity it adds to the room. It’s just scrumptious. Also? Those rich, golden tones in the rug make me want to rub my face all over it.

I love that we can swap out framed art and pictures on the book ledges. This room will definitely grow with our little girl.

I’m sure these baskets will try their very hardest to corral toys. I’m also sure that most of the time they’ll probably be laying face down, their contents spewed across the room. Messy room = happy kid. I am trying deep breaths and therapy to get used to the idea.

The bunting height can be adjusted once she sprouts those long ape arms that we’re certain she’ll have. I love the flexibility of the decor in this room.

It’s hard for me to believe that we’re so close to being done with this room. I have spent so many days and nights trying to imagine what it was going to look like, and here it is. Neither of us can wait to have her here; we can’t wait to read books to her, sprawl out on the floor with toys and blankets, and get a whiff of her baby-scented skin every time we go in for a smooch on her cheeks.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! For any mothers-to-be planning a nursery of your own I’ve included a source list at the bottom of this post. Let me know if any of the links are broken–as I want to give credit where credit is due.

Thanks for all of the kind and supporting words–I do read every single one of them. You guys are seriously the best.

Source List:
Dresser – Hand-me-down from Steve’s Grandma
Mirror – Local antique shop
Bird mobile – petitcollage on Etsy
Collage frames – Target
Diaper basket – Hobby Lobby
“R” – DIYed
Rug -  HomeGoods
Planter – Old Time Pottery
Curtains – Target
Apple poster - Fine Little Day
Bunting banners – DIYed
Crib – SimplyBabyFurniture.com
Crib skirt – DIYed
Lamp – Mix ‘n matched from Target
Accent table – Target
Blue rocking chair – Hand-me-down from Steve’s Grandma
Ottoman – Overstock
Owl stuffed animal – Pier1
Hippo artwork – Twoems on Etsy
Book ledges – DIYed
“You Are Loved” artwork – thewheatfield on Etsy
Small metal shelf – Craigslist
Baskets on shelf - Ikea
Frog lamp – Goodwill
Books – Antique shops + mine, from childhood
Stuffed Animals – Mine, from childhood
Wall color – No-VOC Sherwin Williams color-matched to BEHRs “Rhino”

The Book Ledge Post

I felt this post deserved a slightly more dramatic title since I’ve been talking about these damn things so much. And I will gratify you instantly with a few pictures:

They’re so simple, yet they make such an enormous impact in the room. Can’t figure out what artwork to buy, make, or hang? Just put up a few book ledges!

This just turned into a 2am infomercial. Now I’m craving cookie dough. Because apparently that’s what you eat at 2am whilst contemplating new exercise equipment.

We don’t have an extensive step-by-step tutorial of this project because all you really need is the next picture:

It’s all right there. I even showed you where to put the screws and nails.

Steve drew a few 3D renderings before we started, just to wrap our heads around the project. They do a good job of simply illustrating the final product.

Here’s the placement of the three shelves on our wall:

If my pretty, little illustrations didn’t explain everything crystal clear, well then… first of all, are you surprised? And second of all, don’t worry I got yo back. I had Steve type up a little diddy about the things he learned along the way.

Tips & Tricks from the Lumberjack Himself:

• Make your shelves the same length as standard boards (they come in 6′, 8′, 10′, 12′). Not having to cut the pieces saves a lot of time and waste.
• When attaching the 1x2s to the 1×3: use clamps to hold the boards together while you screw/nail. Move the clamps with you as you move down the board. It will take out any warp in the boards.
• Countersink the nails and fill the holes with spackle or wood filler. This will give your front a smooth finish.
• Sand with heavy grit (we used 60) first and then 220. You can also use the 220 after priming.
• Because the back piece is short I had to drill at an angle to attach the shelf to the wall (the front edge got in the way of the drill/screwdriver). If you don’t want to do this, simply use a taller, 1×3 board for the back, instead of a 1×2.
•  If using the angle method to attach to the wall: At an angle, drill through the board and the wall with a long enough bit for the length of screws you’re using. Countersink at the same angle and insert the screw.
• When hanging: If you space the screws at 16″ to match the wall studs then you won’t need anchors.
• Dab some paint over the screw heads to help hide them. (The books will cover them, too, so they won’t be too noticeable.)

Yeah, yeah. Enough chit-chat. What is this? The View? I know what you really want is more pictures.

The shelves are pretty full already, but I’d love to continue adding to our book collection and continuously swap them out as our collection grows. There are still so many stories that I’d like to see sitting upon these shelves. And by switching out the books you’ll keep the kiddo interested. Right? I mean, it’s just like switching out dog toys for your dog. Kids and dogs? Same thing. Probably. Maybe.

Here’s the sexy side view:

My mom and I have been snatching up books left and right; garage sales and antique shops are great resources. In fact, every single one of these books is second-hand, which I just realized, but it’s pretty cool because we’re just keeping the cycle going.

(The photo above and below most accurately represent the wall color. Sorry about the wacky lighting in some of these. It was getting dark out and we had to use artificial light.)

And here’s the very proud and goofy Lumberjack, showing off his latest accomplishment.

He’s the best. He is the goofiest, but also the best.

Wheew. I wasn’t sure I would be able to hold my end of the “we’ll show you the book ledges by Friday” promise. But, we did it! They’re not hard to make, they’re just time-consuming. As with everything. After buying all of the lumber and hardware these bad boys cost us about $13 per shelf. Not too shabby.

We’re getting closer to showing you the nursery in its entirety. I’m still making switches and additions, and we still have one big project left: stripping and re-staining the old dresser that will become the changing table. Ho boy – but after that we’re virtually done! All that will be left is adding the baby girl, and from what I hear they arrive on their own schedule.

Steve is F I N A L L Y able to spend a weekend at home, instead of working, and we have a lot of Fun planned: a Saturday with some of our favorite people, and then a Sunday at the pumpkin orchard. Maybe I’ll even bring my camera (which we say Ca-mah-rah now, because 30 Rock has ruined us).

Happy Weekend, everyone! xo

 

A Crib Skirt (Or Something Like it)

I hesitate calling this a crib skirt, because in reality it’s just two pieces of hemmed fabric tied onto the crib springs. But if you’re into calling that a skirt than be my guest. It’s like a really slutty skirt that’s missing a few sides.

I didn’t take pictures of the whole process because once I measured, cut, and hemmed, I was literally left with two rectangles of fabric (only two sides of our crib are visible, therefore I only needed two “skirts”). I very crudely sewed on some ties, and called it a day.

You can see in the photo above how it’s tied onto the crib spring-board. I have four ties on the long piece, and three on the short piece.

RUG SNEAK PEAK! I adore the rug. My parents found it at Homegoods and brought it with them last weekend. It’s 8×10 and fits the room like a glove. The best part, aside from its scrumptiously warm and delicious gold tones, is it has eliminated any echo from the room.

Rug Rant over. Back to the skirt.

That’s a view of the long side. The two corner ties are hidden in the corners — imagine that.

A close-up of the tie:

I used the leftover bias tape from the bunting project which worked perfectly. It’s unfinished and scraggly but no one will see it as the mattress smooshes this whole spring-board.

It looks wrinkly because of the bar shadows, but I promise it lays flat. There are way too many slut jokes in here for this being a tutorial on how to make a crib skirt… or maybe not, actually. Use protection, ladies, or else you’ll be making crib skirts!

Here it is with the still-covered-in-plastic mattress in place:

You may be wondering if I’m tightly cropping the photos on purpose. Well, you’d be correct and therefore you win a gold star for the day! Huzzah!

See? Once the mattress is down you can’t see any of the unfinished ties. It just looks crisp and clean.

Are you curious as to what’s in the crib? I thought so.

Let me introduce you to Bob:

He’s a puppet and Steve has already abused his rights as a dog-owner and teased Olive with it. She loved it, so it worked out.

Mr. Giraffe is hanging out in the other corner.

I think there’s something happening between those two.

I’m so lucky that my mom saved all of my beloved stuffed animals. I have a heap of them tossed in the nursery, waiting to be placed in the room. They’re all wonderfully unique animals and they instantly make the room feel like a kid should be living in it.

It’s really coming together and I’m getting more and more excited to see the whole thing finished! Our goal was to have the entire nursery completed before my third trimester, which is 3 short weeks away. It will be a tight race, but we might be able to pull it off!

Steve is home from work today and working on the book ledges. I don’t see any reason why those won’t go up some time this week, and you know I’ll keep you posted.

Have a happy Tuesday on this lovely Fall day!

 

 

 

 

 

Bird No-bile

(Get it? Like mobile? Yeah, thought so.) I won’t go as far as to call this project a FAIL, but I’m also not going to write about it, show you guys pictures, and pretend that I didn’t carelessly throw around some choice words during this DIY.

Let’s start with the good news: Steve and I scored this totally functioning and adorable baby swing from a garage sale for an impressive $15… (And yes — for all you germaphobes, I already sterilized and washed the entire swing.)

Now this was before we knew the gender of our little baby girl, and I thought it would be a BRILLIANT (!) idea to swap out the pink flowers for something more hand made-y. Pink stuffed flowers aren’t really my thing, and I figured my baby would appreciate something a wee bit more gender neutral.

Using the PDF that you can download from this blog post, I made three stuffed birds to replace the flowers on the mobile. (The birds on that post are stinkin’ adorable.)

Ok, go ahead and Awww it up. From a distance they do actually look like non-drunk birds.

But then as you get closer you start to realize they look a little… well, special.

For starters, the first one I made looks like a #*(&$@(#*$&ing dolphin. I totally botched the face and beak on this one. But I SHALL NOT BE DEFEATED.

I let this project rest for about a month before I regained the strength to continue. Finally, I completed the last two.

This guy turned out a little more ornithological and a little less cetacean, but still looks a little derpy.

Derp derp.

And then last, but definitely my favorite of the bunch, was good ole Turquoise.

He turned out the least special of the bunch, and the most bird looking. But it also looks like he/she had an enormous rack implanted. He’s the Anna Smith of stuffed birds. And obviously damn proud.

Our poor little baby girl is soon going to be subject to these little birds, and as a soon-to-be mom I can only hope they don’t give her nightmares.

Here is how our little alien will view these creatures:

Not too, too offensive. Nothing to send her to a psychologist in her toddler years, I hope. I wish I would’ve used more variations of fabric, but there are a bunch of creative changes I wish I would’ve made. And you know what? I’m not redoing them. Or making more of them. EVER.

Olive tried to console me. She said “Don’t worry crazy lady, you haven’t yet managed to screw up the food you pour in my bowl every morning, so there’s still hope for you.”

Did you know that making eye contact with a dog is practically an invitation for them to come over and sniff your butt? Or lick your face? Or just generally get all up in your business?

After a quick inspection Olive approved the birds and their deformities.

Everything deserves love, right? Even if it’s some Frankenstein attempt at a craft project.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. Just kidding, go ahead and give it a try. I dare you. I’m going to be insanely jealous if yours actually turn out normal looking.

Can I give you a few tips?

• Print the pattern out larger. I think my biggest problem was that they were just too small.
• Make sure to not sew the tail too narrow. You have to turn it inside-out through that tunnel.
• Go slow and steady around the face to achieve the correct curve around the face and beak.
• Don’t stuff the tail too full. You’re not making a sea creature, okay?
• Attack this project when unpregnant so you can get tanked before and/or after you attempt this craft.

Go forth and make birds, my friends. And send me pictures if and only if they turn out worse than mine.

Bunting Banner Bonanza

Boo!

Which is just me saying hello and trying to carry on the alliteration from the title. “B” is a hard letter to stick to.

Today’s post is all about how to make your very own bunting banner!

Much to Steve’s curiosity, I brought home a pile of smelly, wrinkled, vintage handkerchiefs from the local antique shop. After hand-washing them (some of them are super delicate) and laying them out to dry, that distinct Antique Shop Smell was gone and they were ready for pressing.

That was my little station. Iron, fold, iron, set aside. And I did that about 20-some-odd times. And yes, Olive sat there in the background for the length of this project, just begging me to throw the ball. If she was ever going to learn to speak English her first and only four words would most definitely be THROW THE BALL, WOMAN. Either that or I JUST ATE MY OWN VOMIT, FYI.

Once all of the fabric squares were magically turned into magic triangles, I placed them on the floor so I could play around with the arrangement. I’m always working on the floor around here. I highly recommend it — aside from being covered head-to-toe in dog hair once finished.

To secure these triangles all together I used a very inexpensive and simple method: Bias Tape.

It’s basically a pre-cut, straight piece of fabric. You could probably make this yourself but I was all about the time-savings bonus of using it. And it was like a dollar. Maybe two.

All I had to do to prep was iron it in half. Hot dog style. (You totally read that doggy-style, didn’t you? You dirty bird. I’m onto you.)

You can see where I’m going with this, can’t you? Now there’s a nice little pocket for the triangle edges to fit inside.

After I sandwiched the fabric inside the bias tape all that was left was pinning these puppies in place.

And I’m not kidding, if you can sew a straight line you can do this project. If you can sew a sometimes-straight-sometimes-it-has-a-little-curve line you can STILL do this project. And even if you don’t have a sewing machine you could sew this by hand.

All you do is run a stitch down the length of bias tape and you’re done! It’s seriously that easy.

This is going in the nursery — DOY — but I’m not going to show it hanging in there, yet. I want to do a grand reveal for the nursery, which is going to be much more dramatic in my head than in reality — I realize this. Until then, you’ll just have to pretend this bunting banner looks good in random locations around our home.

Isn’t it charming? It’s right up there with Ryan Gosling.

And in true Harpster fashion, we have to test all new DIY ventures on Olive. She’s our guinea pig. A mighty fine looking guinea pig if I dosaysomyself.

She looks like an adorable, little, Jewish grandmother. She’s seconds away from serving us chicken soup and screaming EAT! EAT! in our faces. I can almost hear the Yiddish curse words rolling around inside of her brain.

Thanks for being a good sport, Olive. Can’t you guys get a better sense for the final product after seeing it modeled by our canine superstar? I thought so. It’s all for the blog. It’s all for you people.

TGIF! I’m so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning and enjoying the added layers of covers on our bed. Welcome Fall! Have a great weekend, everyone!

They’re Baaaa-Aaack

Remember when I told you that the teddy bears were only going to be a distant memory? Well, I lied. Because here they are:

Fear not my friends, after this post I promise you’ll never have to see them again.

This cornice box was so nice and sturdy and I just hated to get rid of it. I decided to keep it, and just upholster the whole thing so it was much less offensive and didn’t scare our baby girl every night when she went to sleep.

I pretty much followed the exact same process as last time I made one of these, but the corners wrapped a little differently because this one has a top to it. Let me show you…

After I wrapped two layers of batting around the box (one layer felt too thin — so I just stapled on another layer — nothing scientific here, folks) I (Steve) cut the fabric to size. And then I stood there and took the most awkwardly angled photo in the history of time. Am I levitating? Am I 10 feet tall? You will never know.

This is how I started, buy stapling the fabric onto the top of the box. This is the part that no one will ever see because it’s awful close to the ceiling.

After that was all secured and taut I flipped it on its back and stapled the bottom.

After giving it another flip so I could see what I was left with, well, this is what I was left with:

I took careful measurements and then proceeded with caution. <– I’m totally lying. I winged it. It really is like wrapping a present… but you just have to keep playing around with it until the fabric folds right.

I sort of pinched the fabric so the bulk of it fell under the fold. Does that make sense? It’s so hard to describe. Actually, it’s much harder to describe than to actually just do it.

After the fabric is pinched and folded exactly how you want it, BOOM, put a staple in it. Sort like put a ring on it, but not. Wow. I literally think that’s the first and last Beyonce reference I’ve ever made / will ever make.

I put my staple on the inside so you can’t see anything from the outside. After it was secure I unloaded a whole bunch more. Partly because it needed them, and partly because it was so much fun.

Once you complete all of your corners you’re done! Here she is hanging in all her glory:

I’m in LOVE with the cornice box and the floral fabric. In. Love.

I had this grand idea of how I wanted to use this vintage lace curtain that we used at our wedding. So we stapled it into the inside of the cornice box. I’m not totally over the moon with how it turned out, but I’m not ready to rip it off, yet. I think we’ll wait and see how we like it when the rest of the room starts filling up with furniture.

Steve walked by the other day and said “it’s definitely growing on me”, which I agreed with. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done to a window before. I ALWAYS use curtain panels, and no blinds. So, this switcheroo (and using the blinds that came with the house) is kinda a nice change. And the lace softens the hardness of the wood blinds.

We’ll see how we like it when the whole room comes together. The crib won’t get here until the end of October so we’re sort of at a stalemate until it hurries up and gets here already.

Steve has the day off today and his goal is to get the room cleaned up and ready to fill with furniture! Our next big project is refinishing the dresser / changing table. I’ll update you as we make progress!