Meg vs. The Nursery: Chain Link Baseball Card Frame

I am a little excited about this one because, like my headboard, I actually thought of it myself! Of course, I had a little bit of inspiration via Pinterest...

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this and thought it was super fun:

You can check out all the fun bedroom ideas here at Itsy Bits and Pieces.

I didn't know where to get an old chain link gate, and I had no intention of going to all the effort of trying. So I thought I could make something that brought in a little more color and invoked the sporty feeling of chain link.

Saturday I found this frame at the Habitat ReStore for just a couple of bucks:

I gave it a few coats of red spray paint, then brought it in and turned it over on my table. My toddlers quickly jumped in to help with Toby the steam tram and a Shinkansen car.

I poked thumb tacks in about every three inches around the border of the frame, making sure they were lined up with the tacks on the opposite side. Then I started weaving a chain link with some 1.2 mm steel wire.

I have to admit, the process is super annoying if you are as impatient as I am (which most of you aren't). I suggest just barely poking in the tacks at first to mark your spot, then pushing or hammering them in as far as you can once you have the wire wrapped around it. I found the easiest way to do the weaving was to pre-fold enough wire to go up and down the frame one time so that it looks like this:

Then weave it in and out of the last row and wrap it around the tacks at the end. That may not make sense when you read it, but if you try it and get start it, you'll figure it out pretty quickly. If I can, you can.Here is the finished product from the back. It's plenty uneven and crooked, but once it goes on the wall and the cards go on, it isn't too noticeable.

Next time we head to my in-laws' house we are going to pick out some of John's favorite childhood cards to put up, and in the next few days I'll spray paint the clothespins in coordinating colors, and then we'll be done! To break it in, I had to do my dad proud and order this card on ebay.

You got that right, folks. Hideo Nomo. The only time my Japanese dad ever watched American sports religiously was when he came to LA. Other than that it was all rented videos of sumo championships.

I wonder if they have sumo trading cards in Japan? Hmmm...

Meg vs. The Nursery: Sporty Bunting

Sorry this is a little late in coming...

I used the rest of my old crib bumper and wall quilt to put together a little bunting decoration for the nursery wall, since it is still completely bare. It was really pretty easy, and the thing that took me the longest, as usual, was getting around to putting it up. But I finally remembered while the little guy was awake today, and so here it is:

I am really pleased with it, especially considering that it was fast and FREE. There is a good tutorial over here at Make it Do on how to make your own, but I have to admit that I was a lot lazier with mine, didn't make a template for cutting the triangles, and didn't pin anything. That's how I roll. Which is why I will forever remain a beginner seamstress. I am fine with that most of the time, though I felt a bit sheepish when I saw this bunting on the same blog.

But hey--I am a beginner who is one step closer to having an actual nursery, and not just an empty room that happens to have a crib in it.

P.S. See that chair in the corner? I stood on it to hang the bunting, and it totally broke. That makes a pregnant girl feel really good about herself. I should have known better; it is our second cheap Ikea chair to break and I think the others are on their way out...