Week 33 & Reed's Name Board

This picture was taken at my friend Samantha's baby shower at La Duni on Saturday!  

How far along?  33 Weeks

Weight Gain: +34 total (BLAH!)

Maternity Clothes: One of the best maternity purchases I've made is from A Pea in the Pod.  It's the black and gray dress I'm wearing in the picture above.  I've worn that dress for almost every special occasion throughout my pregnancy.  It's grown and stretched with me, and that's what I love it! 

Stretch Marks:  Unfortunately.  

Sleep:  Sleeping great at night and taking occasional naps in the late afternoon...

Best moment this week:  Buying our car seat!!  We were blessed to get some gift cards from friends, and we were able to make one of our big purchases on Friday night!  JJ is going to install the car seat and extra base in the cars sometime this week.  We still have 7 weeks to go, but I'm hoping to be prepared for an early arrival.  Another highlight of the week was the hospital tour on Sunday.  I've never been to a Labor & Delivery wing at any hospital, so I didn't have a frame of reference until now. Medical Center Plano looks like a wonderful place to bring Baby Reed into this world!  :)  

Missing anything?  Running!  I'm pretty much only walking now, and I really miss the endorphins I feel after a great run.  

Movement:  His kicks and jabs are getting much stronger.  According to my iPregnant app, he's probably close to 5 pounds now so he's a strong little man now!  

Food Cravings:  Cool Ranch Doritos and yellow Gatorade.  I eat like a 6-year old.  

Sickness/Symptoms:  Heartburn.   Yuck!  

Labor Signs: Nope.  Just lots of dreams about having the baby!!

Belly Button:  Not natural...

Wedding Rings On/Off:  On for another week...

Moods:  Excited and a bit nervous after childbirth class!

Looking forward to:  Finishing and hanging the gallery wall in Reed's nursery.  (Pics soon!)  Also, the bookshelf and glider/ottoman should arrive this week!!  Yippee!!

I wanted to share pictures and details about one of the projects my fabulous cousin, Michelle, and I did for the nursery.  This piece is really special because it's handmade, hangs above the crib, and is really the focal piece of the nursery!

First, we bought ply wood at Lowe's.  We knew we wanted the name board to be 27" x 38" and centered over the crib.  We had the wonderful guys at Lowe's cut our ply wood into the exact dimensions we wanted.  After we got home and realized our math was totally off, we went back to Lowe's and had the wonderful guys RECUT the wood to the correct dimensions.  Oops!  :)

Then we used wood stain and a foam brush to coat the wood.

It took 2 coats to get the dark walnut color we wanted.  It matches the "sun valley espresso" color of the Pottery Barn furniture perfectly!  

The guys at Lowe's helped us pick out the hardware we needed to attach the four boards together.  Unfortunately I have no pictures or information about the hardware we used, but the Lowe's guys will know. Just ask them if you plan to make it!  :)  

We also purchased silver screws/bolts and washers at Lowe's to decorate the name board.  They don't serve a purpose in holding the name board together, but they look so cool!

We printed the stencil letters for the board on cardstock.  I cut them out very carefully so they could act as stencils on the wood.  We traced around the letter stencils using a ball point pen.  It made a line that was barely visible but left a slight indention for the painting part.

 Notice the string in the picture below...We attached the string to give us a baseline so his name wasn't crooked! {Michelle is so S-M-R-T!}

Next up...Michelle's incredible painting ability!  Using the stenciled line, Michelle free hand painted the letters in his name using bright white paint!

 

My amazing and very handy cousin Michelle was able to hang this bad boy on the wall BY HERSELF!  I consider it a miracle because this thing is pretty heavy!  Again, I have no idea what tools or hardware were used for this step of the project, but the Lowe's guys will be able to tell you what to buy to hang it.

Check out the finished name board hanging above sweet baby's crib...

I'm so grateful to my sweet cousin Michelle for creating this masterpiece!   It's sooooo much cooler than anything I could have bought at the store.  I love it because it's one-of-a-kind!

If you're not into Do It Yourself projects, you can purchase a personalized name board like mine by visiting Michelle's Etsy shop.  It's called TheCheapDecorator!