I bought a few yards of burlap a few weeks ago potentially for use as curtains. I ended up finding some curtains on sale at Target, so I had $12 of burlap sitting and staring me in the face. And if you’ve ever had burlap stare you in the face, you know it can be pretty needy. And this particular burlap needed to be included in the nursery in some way. So I decided to use it to make cribskirts for the two cribs.

Now, if you’ve ever been in the market for a cribskirt, you know just how flipping expensive they are. Seriously, folks, need to make a few extra bucks? Go into the cribskirt-making business. The cheapest skirts I found were for $19.00 at Target, and since we need two, it’d be $40 just for cribskirts. I just couldn’t do it! So my ol’ friend burlap and I decided to work together. I should warn you that this is the most ghetto-fabulous cribskirt you’re likely to come across–but it looks great, and that’s what matters, right?

First, I grabbed some of this stuff.

It’s the first time I’ve ever used it, but I’ve read rave reviews out there in blogland, so I decided to give it a chance rather than break out the ol’ sewing machine. I took my burlap and measured enough to reach from the mattress to the floor around two sides of each crib (the other sides are against the wall). Because I have this funny bracket in the cribs, I ended up cutting two pieces (1 per side) for each crib. I “hemmed” the bottom of the pieces, and one side of one panel for each crib (the only vertical edge that shows). As for the efficacy of the Heat n Bond–it worked pretty well, not amazing; I wouldn’t use it on a pair of pants, but it was good enough for this project. And it was speedy–just iron and you’re done!

I then put it in the crib and safety pinned it to the springs (I told you–ghetto fabulous).

I folded the edges around those funky brackets on the corner, and made sure the finished vertical edge was right on the corner, so it would be, for the most part, hidden behind the leg.

I put down the mattresses (recently purchased for us by my dad–thanks dad!) with the light blue sheets I just bought, and lastly I tied on the adorable bumpers from The Company Store .

I just LOVE how they turned out!

Now all we need are some babies to go in there…although I have to admit that these cribs look so expansive now. These little babes might get lost in there. Luckily, they each have a little sleep sheep (courtesy of the Hubby’s mom–thanks Barb!) to keep them company.

So there you have it, how I used $12 and many, many shortcuts to make two crib skirts!

While I’m sitting around on my tush, the Hubby has been AMAZING. He’s done the majority of the chores in the house, made dinner, run errands for me, AND continued on with various nursery projects. He’s currently out in the garage painting furniture (pics coming soon!), but I thought I’d show you what he did earlier this afternoon.

Back when the Nursery was a guest room, the one thing that drove me CRAZY about the room was the ceiling fan. I didn’t like the shape of the light or the blades and the wood didn’t match anything in the room. But, a guest room ceiling fan just wasn’t at the top of the home improvement priority list.

So when we started working on the nursery, I knew that a lighting fixture for this room needed to move right to the top of the must-buy list!

All the finishes in the nursery are silver, so I wanted a silver fixture, I debated whether we really needed a fan or if we could go with just a plain fixture. In the end, I decided the option to have the windows open and have a cool breeze here in SoCal is pretty nice–so fan it was. I found this one for $117 on Amazon, not too bad. With our Amazon Prime it arrived in just two days (I LOVE Amazon Prime…if you buy much on Amazon, it’s definitely worth it). The Hubby went right to work installing it, and he had it up in no time. First the chandelier, then the boob light replacements, now this–he really is becoming quite the lighting installer. Here’s how it looks now:

I just LOVE it! And yes, as soon as we have a few more projects finished in the nursery I’ll be posting LOTS of pictures, I promise!

P.S. I hope you’re not getting too tired of all these Nursery projects–it’s kind of been our focus lately!

One of my favorite stores carries these awesome wooden wall hangings in various beachy shapes: seahorses, whales, mermaids. I love them, and really wanted to buy one for the nursery. I settled on the seahorse.

I was in the store, holding the seahorse in my hand, but two things made me a bit unsure about my purchase. Number 1: The shape was a bit ornate for the nursery I was envisioning in my head. And Number 2: At $49 the price was a bit steep for me. I started looking at this little guy a bit closer, and decided that I could make one of these fellows myself.

So off I went to Lowe’s where I picked up a small piece of plywood for a few dollars. I then sketched a seahorse onto the wood–a bit of a more nursery-friendly seahorse.

Then, using a jigsaw I borrowed from my co-worker Mike, I cut the little guy out and sanded down the edges (I will say, I don’t necessarily recommend jigsawing in your 6th month of pregnancy–the big belly can make it a bit hard to see what you’re doing). All in all, it took about five minutes or so.

Finally, using $1 acrylic paints in sea blue, teal, and white, I used a stiff dry brush to layer the color. I just love how it turned out!

Not to shabby, if I do say so myself–and for less than one hour and less than 1/5 of the price of the original. All the more I can spend on cute little boy clothes!