When we were in Delta for a month, our nephew had his 16th birthday party, and I don't know why but I was in my sister-in-law's basement rummaging through their stuff and saw this kids' rocking chair. I picked it up and said: "this is awesome". My niece told me, "go ahead and take that piece of junk." My sister-in-law said to take it, they wouldn't need it anymore and I was pumped. All spring I'd search the junk piles on the curbs in Missouri hoping someone would have thrown one out I could get cheap/free. I'd always planned to paint it, but this little gem landed in my lap and I couldn't decide. I knew I wanted to recover the seat cushion, with the giraffe fabric I so love.
I reinforced some of the joints and decided not to replace the broken back support in the name of character.
Also, in the end, I decided sanding it and repainting the wood would destroy all the history developed over the years by our family so I wiped it down with lemon oil and it turned out the wood matches the giraffe fabric really well in my opinion.


Because the fabric isn't that durable alone, I machine quilted a piece of batting to the underside of the top of the cushion. Hopefully this will reinforce it for all the little bums that will hopefully sit and use it. To attach the quilted fabric to the old cushion, I'd originally planned on using the staple gun, but got lazy and decided the glue gun was easier and faster so hopefully it will hold up.

My mom planned this project, got all the supplies and pretty much did it all with me helping a little bit. It was kind of a surprise project when she came to visit me when I had the baby and it was a nice distraction for the week we waited before I went into labor.
The base of each letter is a chunk of plywood. The backgrounds are the leftover fabrics from the quilt she made for the crib. Originally the zebra print didn't fit because the white was too bright compared to the rest, so she dyed it with a cheap tea bag. We used a hot glue gun to glue the fabric to the wood. The letters she got at Robert's crafts. The edges were painted red, then the whole letters were painted white. Sanding the edges showed the little red edge. We glued red gross-grain ribbon around the borders.

I have been planning to make nursery items out of junk for months. Here are a few of the initial finished projects.

This is the sign with Baby Rhett's feet and handprints when he was 3 days old. The plan is to put all our kids' prints on as babies, each baby a different color so we know who's who. Then it will have their name and birthday in the color to clarify.



When I first made the board, Rhett said: "Well I hope you can fit 40 little prints on there." I replied: "I doubt we'll have 10 kids so I don't think I need to worry about it." I guess we'll see and we can squish...if we need to.

This is just a little clip for the binky so it won't fall on the ground if he spits it out. I know a lot of people like them beaded, but the beads get stuck in his double chin, and the ribbon is softer for the chubba baby.

This project is more for the idea than the skill involved to actually make it...

from a speach by President Gordon B. Hinkley. He mentioned in his 60+ years of marriage, he can't remember one fight with his wife. He continued to say these four attributes are what made their marriage so strong and happy. Love, encouragement, appreciation, and respect. My friend is hanging this in her bedroom so she and her husband will always have the reminder. I thought it was a really good idea.

Just a few more family signs and a 6"x8" block with the baby's hand and feet prints for a shelf in his room.

The top sign is for our baby. I'm planning on putting all our kids on this one sign so we have the whole fam together for when they have no interest in displaying their newborn hand & feet prints on the wall. I figure we can keep it in our bedroom or somewhere for Rhett and I to enjoy, maybe with a collage of a baby picture of each kid or something.