Jaxson's Outdoor Adventure Nursery

So Jaxson arrived in April, but before he came into the world, there was so much to do.  I called dibs on his nursery when I first found out his mommy and daddy were pregnant, wanted that job so bad!  I immediately started searching for decor, his room needed to be perfect for him.  He is definitely the sweetest boy and deserves all we could ever give him -  love, time, attention, holding him, caring for him and the world of course! 

Having a first grandchild is like no other, he will always be the first. He stole out hearts the moment his grandpop and I set eyes on him, another little someone to carry on the family name. He certainly brought life back into our "almost empty nesters" home.  I can't wait until he is running around the backyard, looking for frogs and turtles in the creek and catching lightning bugs like his daddy used to do. 

This is his nursery, all complete and waiting for him when he came home.  His mommy took him in his room and said he was looking all around, I think he liked it! The room is full of bears, foxes, tee pees, arrows, canoes, trees and adventure.

To view photos in a larger format, click on them.

This is the wall color his mommy picked out, it's called SPA by Behr Paint.  It was pulled from one of the colors in the linens for the room.

All his furniture, except the rocker which was a shower gift, came from COSTCO. This is the changing table, nice and big with lots of storage. The bureau came with the changing table top and the changing pad. The tee pee and arrow were purchased at Hobby Lobby, bear head from Target and Explore sign from Marshall's. Gray felt storage containers were purchased at IKEA.

The beautiful rocker matched all the other furniture perfectly. The tee pee clothes hooks are from Hobby Lobby. The pillow is from The Christmas Tree Shop and the blanket from SteinMart, have to keep Jaxson cozy! 

I love everything in his room, but my favorite is this bookshelf from Babyletto, shaped like a tree to go with the theme of Outdoor Adventure.  Seek Adventure picture is from Target and the Canoe is from Hobby Lobby.

Some of Nonna's favorite books, more will come to fill up all the branches.

 

Arrow print curtains and coordinating valances are from Sweet JoJo Outdoor Adventure pattern, all from Target (online only).

A chiffarobe with drawers, shelves and a clothes bar. Fox lamp, bear nightlight and felt fox storage basket are all from Target.  Be Brave wood plaque from Hobby Lobby.

 His crib, love it!  I did make one mistake though, I purchased rail guards for front, sides and back.  You can not attach one to the back of this type of crib.  Tee Pee wall shelf is from Hobby Lobby.  Quilted wall hangings were included in the Sweet JoJo linen set. The set also included a comforter, sheet, bolster pillow, crib skirt, diaper stacker, toy bag (under the tee pee shelf) and the window valances.  This crib also came with the rails to convert to a youth bed, day bed and a full side bed when he gets older.

 Remember the letters from those diaper boxes from his mommy's shower?  This is the wall over his crib before I hung them........

This is the wall after I hung them, along with "I love you to the moon and back".   His Nonna surely does!

For Jaxson......

Be a little boy for as long as you can, play outside, play in dirt, jump in puddles, catch lightning bugs, catch frogs and turtles, build a fort, read lots of books, run around barefoot, try new things, learn to ride a bike, learn to swim, climb the Bagheera tree, go sledding in the snow, dream big, go on adventures, be kind, be smart.

 I LOVE YOU SWEET BOY!

                                     Nonna

The Christmas Spirit Has Begun

I finally got the tree up, after tossing around the idea of getting a fresh one this year, I used the artificial instead.  I love the scent of a fresh tree, but I just don't like the mess and I need to get a big one because of the size of the room it goes in, they are very expensive.  Having 18 foot ceilings is a job when it comes to getting a tree, a small one just doesn't look right in the room. I purchased this pre-lit, 3000 light tree, about 10 years ago and it still looks good.  It's a 15 footer, but this year I took out the bottom section so it stands about 12 feet high.  I'm a shorty and can't reach the top any more, even using a clothes prop doesn't help.  I tested all the lights before assembling the sections and they all worked, and yes you guessed it, they didn't work when I got the tree up.  There were about 300 of them out and to go through all of those was just not going to make me happy.  So off to the store I went and purchased 500 new lights.  I plugged them in end to end, started at the top of tree and filled in all the way down to the bottom.  It looks great!  Then I started to decorate it, usually takes me a day, but took two days because of the light debacle.  Now my Christmas spirit has begun!

Catwalk is done on both sides.

Front stairwell is looking festive!

On the front steps, lanterns are lit, decorated with plaid bows and snowflakes, just have to fill in with poinsettias.

Now I am getting ready for my Annual Christmas Cookie Baking Party.  I have this party every year with a few of my friends and family, this year I am hosting 15 people for a day of baking cookies and a nice luncheon.  We'll bake over 2500 cookies for all of us to share, it's fun but hard work, and in the end all of our cookies are baked and decorated in one day.  We all get to spend time with each other, share laughs and news, and I have to say there is some imbibing of wine or whatever, while all this is going on, it relaxes the muscles, hahaha!

SO, I wanted to get some ideas for my table scape for lunch that day.  I wrapped these linen napkins, that are kind of sparkly, in red and white baker's twine, added a handmade stamped place card, a jingle bell and some fresh greens.  I am using red chargers, and instead of my Christmas china, just plain creamy white plates.  I also used an off white, silver and gold plaid tablecloth, as well as some red plaid vintage scarves across the table for more red color.

Glitzy reindeer and a sled full of shiny and glittery Christmas balls down the center of the table.

 I found these faux birch tree branches at Lowe's, they were so unusual, so they came home with me.  I thought once I get the fresh greens on the table (photo later after it's done) I would use these too.

 For three branches, about 27" long, they were $4.98. They are also beaded so they add shine too!

Also at Lowe's were these beauties, 20" fine glittered champagne colored bottle brush trees, with red berry clusters and clear beaded branches mixed in. They come in a clear decorative glass stand, $24.98 each.  I added the matching champagne colored snowflakes to the top.

 

To tie in my birch tree branches,  I had these birch and pine cone candle holders in a box of things I was not going to use, so I put them on the hutch with some fresh greens and red and silver Christmas balls.  When the whole room is finished I will post a photo.
  HAPPY DECORATING!

Timber!

We had a Black Walnut tree right by our driveway that had to be cut down before it fell on top of our cars.  I was sad to see it go, although it was a nuisance, the squirrels knocking the walnuts all over the driveway and the cars, leaving the nasty skins, that they chew off to get to the walnuts, all over the place.  The skins are acidic, and do cause damage.  I never like cutting trees, they offer a lot of shade from the sun blocking ultra-violet rays, they clean the air, provide oxygen and conserve energy, just to name a few things our environment friendly trees do for us.  But, when one gets diseased or eaten by bugs, it becomes hazardous, and needs to be taken down.  We had a tree expert come out and do an analysis of the tree and she told us to let it go, it could not be saved. 

It only took about a half an hour to remove it, after strategically marking where to cut it so it did not fall on the house or another tree.  My hubby first cut a wedge into the tree with his trusty STIHL chainsaw - he calls it Killer,  and it fell perfectly, no damage to the driveway, house or other trees, "Operation Tree" gone good.

 It was more rotted than we thought, it just snapped into a lot of pieces.

 Making cuts to put onto the wood pile for the fire pits.  We use the fire pits all through the Fall months, we never have to buy wood.

 It had insect dirt under the bark of the tree, and the bell, the very bottom of the tree, was rotting out.

 Insects were boring into the wood to make a home.  Tree gone and grass planted.  Next year we will plant a new one.

Cookies, Cookies and More Cookies

My Christmas cookie party is coming up fast, so I started pulling out some of the cutters, sprinkles and jimmies, to see what I have and what I still need.  This is just a sample of some of the things we will use.  I found quite a bit of sprinkles/jimmies at Home Goods, they had some very unique colors and shapes.  One of the shapes I found, which I had never seen before, were gingerbread men sprinkles and candy canes, so I grabbed them.  IKEA had cookie cutters that are 3D, in the package are a big tree, a reindeer and a star.  I also found a reindeer face with antlers, he is really cute! And an angel turned to the side.  I found Food Writers, Wilton makes them, you can write on the frosting after it dries.  I have two cookie stamps, one says Merry Christmas, the other is a snowflake, and a Linzer cookie cutter.  We will be working hard that day so I like to prepare in advance and have everything lined up and ready to use.  I will also bake some things ahead of time.  The sweat shop will soon be open for business, there is a big list of cookies to bake, share and enjoy!

Another set of 3D cookie cutters and stamps.  Cookie cutter on one side then turn it over and stamp your cookie with the other side.  Pretty cool, found them at Sur la Table.  Santa, Snowflake, Christmas Tree and Snow Globe.  Each side has a different stamp so there are 8.