Dr. Seuss Nursery!

Reese's room is FINISHED! 

It is a beautiful, heart warming feeling to my type-A heart to know that her room is READY! She will be downstairs in a pack-n-play for the first few weeks- not because of the doting, diligent mom I am necessarily, but because our room is downstairs, and I sure not about to hike up those stairs every time she needs to be fed. 

I wish she could use one of those automatic feeders like Dixie has. Sigh. 

Even though she won't actually be in the room for a few weeks, my OCD-ness is really happy about it being ready. 

DR. SEUSS!!!!

Backstory on the theme:

Before we moved, we (I) wanted to paint some of the rooms that were beige/awful/boring/gross. For Lily, we chose pink, of course, but I wasn't sure what to do about the nursery. First of all, I wasn't even pregnant, yet, so it felt weird to even refer to it as the nursery. Second, how was I supposed to pick a color?!? I am entirely too indecisive. With Lily, we did a lot of "gender neutral" because we are frugal and wanted to reuse it all if we had a boy one day. It took me about the first 6 months of Lily's life, but I finally figured out...

GENDER NEUTRAL= BOY! 

 It is the truth. Lily's room was green. Her carseat? Green. Her highchair? Green and Blue. 

I was determined to not to paint blue or green, but we are check-it-off-the-list type of people, so we didn't want to wait and pick a color months down the road. So...we (I) went with yellow. 

I cannot promise that it had nothing to do with the fact that the name was Funshine Yellow, and I gasped a little over the pun. 

It clearly should have been named Neon Highlighter 1980's Yellow. Upon first glimpsing the room from the end of the hallway, where the brightness spilled out, it kinda took your breath away a little. Wow. Very bright. 

I was a little sad/hormonal/being ridiculously dramatic. I may even have been unfairly angry/bitter at Hughes for making me choose one color to paint a nursery in our brand new, spacious, beautiful home.  I seriously kept the door to the room shut for weeks so I wouldn't have to see it. 

I know...the horror of it all. 

*I realize how embarrassing it is to admit all of this, by the way.*

We are MUCH too frugal to buy new paint, so I had to figure out a way to live with it. The Happiness Project reminded me to always find the good in a situation, so I started thinking...what can I do with yellow? My first thought was primary colors, like Crayons, which quickly led me to...DR. SEUSS!!!!!!!!!!

I am just THRILLED with how it turned out. 

 I realize most women would probably cut off an arm before they did a theme like this for a GIRL! There is no lace, only one tiny bit of pink, no canopies, no smocked dresses hanging on the walls, no monogramed bedding, etc... It could almost just as easily pass for a boy's room. 

With her name as Reese, I may be potentially setting her up for a gender crisis.

 But, such is my love for Theodor Seuss Geisel. I am willing to take that risk. 

Without further ado...

Bag I got at GoodWill for 25 cents (it still had the tags!)!

I really love turquoise/aqua (what is the difference between aqua and turquoise?), so I bought a cheap bulletin board at Hobby Lobby and painted the border. I hot-glued ribbon and used clothespins to hang up little instagram pictures. I painted dots on the light switch, because polka dots are fun. The Seuss wall decals are from Birthday Express. 

One of my favorite parts of the room is this fabric wreath; I just used random pieces of Dr. Seuss fabric and other colors. In real life, it is much more vibrant, welcoming, happy. 

A bigger picture view. 

Please ignore the awful lighting quality of some of the pictures. It is a combination of: I want the room to basically be a cave so she will sleep/I am too lazy to retake them/ I need to figure out how to actually use my expensive camera. :/

I really love this color, so I painted two frames and hung them with the red polka dot ribbon. 

I adore this picture: the week we were finding out the gender, I found Lily in the backyard, wishing on every dandelion in sight, whispering frantically, "I wish for my baby sister."

The furniture is all from Lily's nursery (thanks, Mom! Love you).

It's clean, organized, and there is no crying baby. Nurseries are so much more fun without the baby actually in it, yet. 

Close up of the curtains!!!! My Mother-in-law is extremely talented/generous/patient, and she MADE THESE CURTAINS!!! They are gorgeous in real life and really bring the whole room together. PLUS, she sewed blackout material to the back! They are just what I had imagined! 

Dresser/changing table. I did have to order the changing pad on etsy, because I couldn't find red.

I already had all of the canvases, paint, frames, etc... from my etsy shop. 

I painted these; it was ridiculous how long it took me to decide on exactly which four quotes to use. They make me so happy. So does Horton. 

I randomly had this in another room in the house. Fantasy is one of my favorites. Just in life. 

1, 2, 3 number bins! From Ikea! They had previously been in the playroom, but I swiped them for the wall. The lamp- isn't it Seussy?- was $15 at Target!

Yertle. 

The bookshelf. Bookshelves bring me so much happiness.  

(Thank you, Toni for the ADORABLE Dr. Seuss bins!!!

Her toybox (Ikea/playroom steal).

Kohls periodically has these cute little Seuss stuffed animals as their Kohl's Cares item, so they were each $5. Mom, Melissa, and I had all of them except Horton already, so I just stole them from their houses. It's hilarious that we had all bought various Seuss stuffed animals over the past 4 years. Our hoarding usually pays off. 

The pink flowers are like the one from from Horton Hears a Who! Lily helped me make them). 

This shelf makes me happy: Reese bracelet made by Lily, saucer from Italy (I didn't even know I was pregnant when I bought it!), framed greeting card ("You shall see wonders." Shakespeare), and a willow tree ornament. 

The girl.

Books! I raided the playroom, again, and took out the baby ones. My mom made my sister and me two books with our first pregnancies- they are filled with stories and advice from family and friends. They are  thoughtful and special, so I wanted them in Reese's room. 

The crib. The sheet is polka dotted, but I also have a turquoise one, of course.

The rug is from Target!

Mobile! It was my one big splurge. It cost $28, which seriously stressed me out a little, but it is obviously worth it. 

I had a difficult time finding letters I liked, because I didn't like the E's in any of the store ones. And, when E is 3/5 of your name, that matters. So, I just painted these. 

Lily is constantly decorating the room, too; the red circle taped to the crib is from her. She even remembered the correct colors. 

Bunting and pom-poms! I LOVE these poofy things, and they took about 2 minutes each plus about 45 minutes for my husband to hang them, because apparently we have 20 foot ceilings which I didn't factor in when I thought about these as decor. 

The bunting!!

 I can't sew; it is all just hot glue. Hot glue is the answer to millions of problems. 

The closet view. 

 They are poofy bursts of color and happiness. I want to make hundreds and hang them from all of my ceilings. 

Lily made this as well. I love how proud she is of being a big sister already. I have a feeling her love for Reese is most abundant NOW, without Reese actually being here. She is going to be shocked when she actually realizes this kid is not leaving. 

I have a feeling we will both be desperately looking around, trying to figure out when Reese's mommy is coming to get her. 

Framed book covers! My mom found a huge bulletin board pack for $5 at Jo-Anns/Michaels/somewhere, and I chose my three favorites to frame in $3 Michaels frames. 

Love that Lorax. 

Easy, cute bow hanger: letter hot-glued to ribbon. 

So...maybe I got carried away? It took MONTHS to get all of this together mainly because I had Lily constantly wanting to "help", but I really enjoyed making the canvases, decorating with Lily, raiding closets for stuffed Seuss animals, finding frugal Seuss items, etc... 

I do realize how unnecessary a nursery is, especially one that is decorated so fully. I know Reese won't remember it, and I sure don't think that I am giving her any advantage in life just because her room has a theme. BUT, it was just really fun for me to plan it all and create and organize and decorate. The nursery is obviously more for me and not really for her at all. 

It was nice to have a purpose/project that didn't involve play-doh, the park, or playing tea party. 

Thanks for looking at all of the pictures, and thank you to everyone who has asked about the nursery! We feel very loved, and I am grateful for all of the love for Reese already!