Marek's Room

I think my mother was a construction contractor in another life and the fact that our baby room is up and running is proof.  She stayed with us for a week and whipped the place into shape.  I'd come home from work every day and couldn't believe all the progress she'd made.

She painted the room.  She assembled all the baby furniture.  She laundered and sorted metric tons of baby textiles.  She organized and re-purposed items she found around the house for decoration and storage.  She cleaned and sanitized hand-me-down baby gear we'd inherited. 

Even down to the artwork on the walls.  I'd been hoarding Peter Rabbit things for years because I love Beatrix Potter and we raised rabbits as a family and I thought some day if I ever managed to have children, I'd like a Peter Rabbit room.  These are Wallies wallpaper cut outs I bought on clearance 20+ years ago.  I think I bought them at a Ben Franklin store--that's how long ago it was!  We went to the Dollar Tree and found these floating glass frames and Mom cleaned and assembled them and we didn't have to mess around with mats or coordinating papers.

This is a beautiful art print greeting card I bought in London or York probably 10 years ago: "The First Born" by Frederick William Elwell.  It has been tucked away in my stash of printed matter all this time waiting to be put in a nursery.  She framed and hung it and I'm so glad I can see it every day.

This is a framed print of sheep (you know how much I love wool!) I had in a box of stuff that still hasn't found a home since we moved in.  I think I got this at the Cancer Garage Sale and the frame came from Joann's or Hobby Lobby or somewhere.  She dug through homeless household goods and found it and made a good point, "Sheep are good for a baby room!"  Up it went on the wall.

She made the curtains out of stashed Peter Rabbit fabric and lined them with stashed muslin.  I'd bought the curtain rod months ago at Joann's with a coupon and up it went over the window.  We used our Menard's rebate money to purchase a blind for the window and up that went.  That little Ikea table was new and unused in the package downstairs and consigned to the baby room.  That little trunk used to hold fabric in the sewing room and was dispatched to hold baby blankets.

She bought us that dresser as a baby gift and assembled it for us.  That little bookshelf was already in the room but cleared of all the Katie books and now holds baby books and toys.  The most painful part of the whole process was the carloads of books I took to Saver's to make room.  That closet is filled to the gills with varying sizes of diapers we received from my coworkers.  The dresser is full of baby clothes I've knitted, hand-me-downs from my sister and her friend, and more gifts from my family and coworkers.  I have been so overwhelmed with the generosity everyone has shown for this little boy they haven't even met yet!

Here  is my mother hard at work.  She jokes all the time that she has a degree in furniture assembly.  Doesn't she look like a little Ikea elf?  I told her I was afraid I'd be charged with elder abuse because she was stuck here without a car and worked her tail off all day while I was at work.  It wouldn't have gotten done without her, that is the plain truth of the matter.  We appreciate all her hard work and I know she was happy to do it.  I am thrifty and appreciate how she was able to do so much with things we already had.  It makes everything so much more real now that we have a baby room that will soon be occupied by a newborn.