Recently, my oldest daughter turned 24, and my youngest daughter turned one. That got me reminiscing about all the years we've been blessed to spend in happy "babyland".
For 24 years now we've always had a nursery in our home. And while the homes may have changed, the rooms I made for our babies all looked about the same, with the same blue sky wallpaper, the same curtains, the same crib and cradle, and the same wall hangings.
I don't think I'll ever be able to part with the nursery, even when our last baby grows older. Maybe I'll just have to move into the room myself!
While it was on my mind, I thought I'd give you a little tour of my vintage nursery, and a little history of the items in it.
The majority of the items are the same as the ones that I first acquired for baby number one. I was broke then (just as I am now!), so nothing in the nursery was new. Most things were hand-me-downs or garage sale bargains that I painted white and decorated with old Meyercord Decals.
The blue dresser was my little brother's baby dresser, and the cradle was one my dad made for my brother when he was born. (All nine of my babies slept in that cradle!)
Inexpensive, white, wall shelves with my old toys, vintage blocks, and knick-knacks we received as gifts from special friends make up the decor. Along with the 1950s Dolly Toy Co. "Mother Goose Pin-Ups" press-board wall hangings I'd collected.
I covered the upper half of the walls in blue sky wallpaper with puffy clouds, and the lower half with a grass-green faux finish, separated with a white chair rail.
I also made curtains, a changing pad cover, and lamp shades for my vintage Dolly Toy Company lamps with Mary Engelbreit's "Mother Goose" Nursery Rhyme fabric in blue.
A more recent addition was the Little Golden Books display rack which I was lucky enough to acquire from the publisher when we owned our toy store. The golden books in it, though, were all our own personal collection. One other more "modern" item is our giant Melissa & Doug Stork--another leftover from our shop.
(And what do you suppose the most "expensive" item in this room is? It's the original, Meyercord 1950s water decal of Peter Pumpkin Eater and Hey Diddle Diddle! I won it in an Ebay auction back in 1999!)
The ultimate goal of this room (not that I think I ever consciously laid out a goal) was a space full of happiness, and I think I accomplished that. A person has a lifetime to aspire to be "hip", "stylish", or "on-trend", if that's one's desire. But a person only has a precious few years where one gets to experience the pure joy of childhood.
Everything in this room holds special meaning for me and my kiddies. Every item has a story of how and why it came into our children's happy realm. It might just be old toys and knick-knacks to some, but to me it's all precious. I couldn't even begin to place a value on it all, because the memories they hold are priceless.
Here are all nine of the birth announcements I embroidered for my babies. A happy collection!
Many babies have teethed on the edge of this crib.
I've repainted it five times already!
Here's the "artwork" that graces the back of the nursery door. :)
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