A Blush & Dark Green Nursery

Hello all! Whew has it been a minute since I've posted anything here...
Today I'm popping in to share some pictures of our second baby girl's nursery - she'll be here in less than two weeks! I'm so pleased with how this room turned out and it brings me so much joy and happiness - despite all the heaviness going on in the world right now with Covid-19. Scroll on down below for a lot of pics and room details along the way! :)

I made the little wicker, succulent/floral wall hangings with supplies from Hobby Lobby and a friend made the door hanging for me for my baby shower!

The dresser is painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "Amsterdam Green" and sealed with Satin finish poly-acrylic and the hardware is from Lowe's. My Dad did the honors of painting the dresser for me - it was my childhood dresser and was pretty scratched up. I decided on the green color before we knew what the gender of the baby was and I knew that gold hardware would look fantastic on it. We don't have a dedicated closet for the baby (the closet in this room is full of TC's photo equipment, fabric, and Legos (haha) so I added a hanging rod to the bottom shelf in order to hold a few of baby girl's nicer garments. The gold, floral wall hooks are from Target and I made the two hair bow holders out of some thrifted photo frames, lace ribbon, and gold cup hooks screwed in the bottom to hang headbands from. I still need to get two more cup hooks because I ran out and there aren't equal numbers on the frames and it drives me a little crazy!

 The gold framed mirror was given to us by TC's grandmother who was no longer using it in her home - it looks so lovely over the crib and I enjoy the way the artwork reflects in it from across the room. I crafted the mobile myself from felt flowers and an embroidery hoop inspired from ones I saw on Etsy that were selling for FAR more than I was willing to pay. I love how it turned out and by making it myself I was able to perfectly customize it to my desired color scheme. I ordered the felt from this Etsy shop.

 The artwork is from this Etsy shop. Originally the mats around the prints were white but I decided they were boring and needed jazzing up so I watercolor painted them blush pink and oh-my-goodness, what a difference that made! The gold frames the artwork is framed in were just basic frames from Hobby Lobby I got on super sale and came without backing (I used old amazon boxes and made my own backs). I made the little wall-weavings myself on Jensen's plastic craft-kit loom with cream colored yarn and wool roving that I ordered from this Etsy shop. I just kind of blundered my way through since I've never done anything like that before- but they turned out pretty cute!

 The grey rocking/glider chair is from Dillard's and is Palliser brand 'Theo' style.The gold rack the blankets are hanging on was a lucky thrift store find - the bottom shelf holds a basket with burp cloths for convenient access. Lamp base and shade are from At Home. The curtains are from Target and weren't quite the shade of pink I was looking for - but I couldn't find any others for the price I was willing to pay and I didn't have the energy to sew curtains myself this time around. The gold, wall-book ledges were from Amazon. My friend made these cute mason jars with baby girl's name and they fit perfectly on the wide window-sill

My sister-in-law crocheted this baby blanket and let me tell you, it is the softest thing ever!! The velvet-look pillows are from Ikea and NO they won't stay in the crib once the baby is sleeping in there. They'll get thrown on the floor and occasionally used as back support against the wall when we're sitting on the floor playing with the baby. :) The quilt was made by my mom and she did an excellent job of making my vision for it come to life! The matching large-scale and micro-scale multi-colored floral print fabric was ordered from Spoonflower from this artist's shop and my mom and I shopped for the coordinating fabric at Joann's. The triangle quilt pattern is from this Etsy shop. We're re-using Jensen's old crib from Ikea which is still in great condition.

 The nursery is still shared-space with my sewing stuff but I worked hard to get it all consolidated in one little corner! These unfinished wood shelves that I hung ages ago in this room used to hold a bunch of TC's lego builds but they look MUCH cuter now, haha.

Hope you enjoyed the little nursery tour - let me know if you have other questions or want to know sources for things I didn't mention!

sugar cookie with royal icing recipe

Hello there, I know it's been forever since I posted anything. LiFe..ya know! Summer, my favorite season, is here! I love the long daylight hours, the warm temperatures (okay hot..), pool time, ice cream, fourth of July festivities/fireworks, and my birthday! I've been in a baking mood here the past month or so and since I have never made 4th of July sugar cookies I decided to give it a go! Over the last five years or so I've been enjoying making sugar cookies and decorating them with royal icing. I finally feel like I've found and tweaked a sugar cookie recipe to get it just the way I like it. Not in any way am I a professional, but my icing technique has definitely come a long way over the years. This recipe is great because the cookies hold their shape really well when baking and taste delicious (coming from me, a person who really could care less about sugar cookies! ha, I'm a chocolate chip girl). I have had several people ask me for the cookie and icing recipes that I use so I thought I'd share them here! Enjoy!

Sugar Cookie Recipe
2 cups of softened butter (salted or unsalted, I use whatever I have on hand)
1 1/2 cups of granulated white sugar
2 tsp good vanilla extract
1 tsp butter extract
4 large egg yolks
4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
Directions: Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla and butter extracts and egg yolks and mix until just incorporated - do not overmix. Slowly add flour and mix until soft dough forms - again, do not overmix. Separate dough into 2 equal portioned sized balls and place each ball in between 2 large sheets of wax paper. Using rolling pin, while dough is between wax paper sheets, roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Leaving between wax paper sheets, transfer both rolled out portions of cookie dough to the refrigerator using a flat cookie sheet or large cutting board and leave in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes to chill. Once the dough is hard, remove from fridge and cut out cookie shapes with your cookie cutters and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. (I have had success tracing my cookie shapes and cutting with a knife as well) After cookies are cut out, place baking sheet back in the fridge and chill about 10 more minutes. Form dough scraps back into a ball, roll out, refrigerate, and repeat the process until all dough is used. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F for 10-13 minutes. Let cookies sit on the sheet until semi-cool, then transfer to counter or cooling rack. For soft, chewy cookies do not let the edges brown in the oven. Best to take them out before they get to that point, they will continue to cook for a bit sitting on the hot cookie sheet.

Royal Icing Recipe
*this is just the recipe from the back of the Wilton Meringue Powder container*
*I usually double this recipe because I like to have lots of icing to work with*
3 TBSP Wilton Meringue Powder
4 cups of sifted (I don't actually sift,I just spoon into my measuring cup) confectioners' sugar (Powdered Sugar)
5 TBSP warm water
Directions: In a large bowl, beat all ingredients at medium speed of stand mixer until icing forms peaks and loses its sheen 7-10 minutes. (will take longer if you're using a handheld mixer).
My method after mixing: After mixing I separate into small glass or metal (do not use plastic, any tiny bit of grease will ruin your royal icing) bowls in the number of icing colors I'm going to make. Cover bowls you're not working on at the moment with a damp paper towel to prevent icing from drying out. For piping consistency, slowly add water (about 1/4 tsp at a time) until the consistency is about that of toothpaste. Then add your coloring. I use Americolor Soft Gel Paste. For flood consistency add water until when you dribble some icing off of a spoon into the bowl the icing lines disappear in 6-8 seconds. If I am making piping and flood icing in the same color I start with the pipe consistency, separate some off into a decorating bag, then continue to water down until I reach the flood consistency.

New Listings in my Etsy Shop

Just popping in to share a few items that were recently listed in my Etsy shop. Follow along on instagram @crazyaboutcoral :)

black floral dress | coral and white dress | baby chick dress | watermelon dress 
Happy Weekend!