The 5th of May is Here…
Weekend Fun: Field Trip + Dolphins + Relaxing
Because all work and no play makes for a boring time… here’s a quick round-up of a few of our busy weekends over the past couple of months. While we don’t get to play like this all of the time, it sure is fun when a great weekend rolls around.
First up is a trip to our local Wild Animal Park with a few friends. We are blessed to have two of the most amazing animal habitats in our San Diegan backyard, and we try to make the most of zoo and wild animal park time whenever possible.
Baby Liv makes a beautiful butterfly.
We also noticed a few uncanny similarities while visiting the monkey exhibit…
She has opposable thumbs on her toes, we’re sure of it (it’s hard to see in this picture) and she stretches like the photo on the right an awful lot.
But I digress…
San Diego is also fortunate enough to be located just a few short hours from snow! Our local group of friends attempts a yearly snow/relaxation trip to one of the couples’ family cabin (this year the snow was just barely visible) and it’s always a welcome retreat. (Cabin photo on the left, cute little Lake Arrowhead village shopping on the right).
As a full time architecture student, Kevin spends much of his time dreaming up neat structural design concepts (I’m not the slightest bit jealous…) and was asked recently to compete in a regional design competition with his group! When I found out the competition would be held in San Luis Obispo (my favorite little town in the whole wide world) I begged to come along for the field trip.
‘Design Village’ is assembled in the rolling hills of SLO, here’s a shot of us in one of the projects, of the village from afar with the 50 or so structures (whose materials were hiked in and built onsite) spread out, and a close up at #24 (a shelter that spent much assembly time in our backyard).
The boys camped in their structure (I wish I had a decent shot of the inside with the hammock cots and LED lighting) while Liv, my Mom (who drove down from Santa Cruz) and I stayed at a cute B&B.
As for the competition? The team placed first and second in two different categories.
We had a really special treat just this last weekend. On especially warm days we love to sail in San Diego Bay and this past Sunday was no exception (blue skies! cool breeze! perfect). It was Liv’s maiden voyage and she was equipped with the ultimate ‘infant life jacket’ and she was the best trooper (it was like a life jacket papoose – there was no moving in that thing except a little wiggle of the arms here and there).
Friends of ours that train dolphins for the Navy (to help identify deep sea objects) happened to be out and about in the bay as well and they joined us for an impromptu dolphin show! So neat. Check out the video I just uploaded to Facebook.
It’s been a busy past few months and I’m so grateful for good times, great friends and a loving family. It doesn’t get much better than that. Now back to work I go.
Project Nursery: Crib Skirt How-To
Here’s a quick and simple way to create a crib skirt.
And a closer look at just the skirt:
As you can see, it’s actually paneling rather than a sheet with a skirted edge. This makes it easy to create, install and update for raising and lowering the mattress as your child grows.
My initial inspiration was from Young House Love’s quick no-sew tutorial – so clever! I modified it to fit this project since my thicker, quilt-like fabric needed a real hem rather than a heat bonded version.
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DIY Crib Skirt
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Materials: fabric, matching thread, sewing machine, scissors, 1 strip sew-on velcro(or ‘aplix’, ‘hook & loop’), 1 strip sticky velcro (this velcro has a sticky side for stick-on application)
1. First up is measuring your crib and allowing for a one inch hem on either side. A standard crib is 30×54″, but all are a bit different so it’s best to measure yours firsthand (measure the height in the frame’s highest position). Don’t forget to just measure the actual mattress frame and not the wood frame.
Our crib is 28×52″ with a 13″ height to the floor, so I cut my longest panel of fabric to 54×15″ and the two side panels to 30×15″. No need for a back panel since the crib is pushed up against the wall.
2. Sew a quick 1″ hem on the edge of each panel. Now your fabric panels should be the correct size.
3. Using the sew-on velcro, cut 1-2″ strips and pin into place every 10 inches or so along one of the longest hems (now the top hem) of each panel. Use your machine to stitch down or hand stitch into place.
4. Cut similarly sized velcro pieces from the sticky velcro strip and add to the sewn velcro pieces.
5. Now it’s time to add your new panels to the empty metal crib frame.
This is where following the photos may get tricky! Here’s a detailed breakdown…
a. With the sticky velcro attached to the sewn on velcro (see the white paper? that’s the sticky side), slip your fabric panel between the wood crib frame and metal mattress frame.
b. Take off white sticky paper
c. Attach to outside of metal frame
d. Tada! here’s how it should look!
6. Repeat for the additional panels.
So easy!
7. Stick several additional velcro sections to the middle cage on the metal mattress (the part that the mattress sits on). This will allow you to move up the panels (using the velcro already sewn to the top hem) when you drop the mattress so that the fabric panels are always the perfect length.
Here’s the final bedding set:
Use any fabric for this project – bright, patterned, vibrant, custom, etc to add a splash of personality to any nursery! And don’t forget that if your chosen fabric is a simple cotton, you can do this entire project using hem tape for a no-sew option.
There’s plenty more where that came from…
More Project Nursery posts: basket liners part 2, basket liners part 1, the great glider makeover, sewing the curtains part 1, part 2, part 3, nursery fabric board, curtain fabric selection, rocking horse find, new pendant light, new sconce lighting, vintage wall art addition, changing table makeover, nursery wall striping tutorial, painted animal project, the initial inspiration board and the before picture posts.
