Babyproofing is in full swing at our home! Our little bud started taking his first steps a few weeks ago, and he is moving fast. We originally had our living room set up with my old couch and our sectional pushed together to make a giant couch-jail for the baby, which was meant to be a temporary solution to delay the inevitable babyproofing overhaul. After three months, we moved the small couch into our formal dining room and created a little gated playroom to give our baby a little more space for play and walking in a safe environment. One of the things we weren't sure exactly how to babyproof is our fireplace. Once our baby began walking, we became worried about him hitting his head or breaking a tooth on the hearth, so I decided to make a little cushion to cover the top of it. While I consider myself somewhat skilled in DIY projects in general, I've only taken one sewing class. But I have an upholstery stapler, a glue gun, and a stubborn will to babyproof the thing. We ended up finishing this in about two hours, after baby had gone to bed. I've had a couple of friends ask how we made this, so I decided to write up a quick little tutorial for anyone interested (Hi, Mom!). The Project: Tools used: Wood Craft Board from LowesOld Memory foam Mattress TopperUpholstery Fabric from Joanne's Sharpie SawSand paper Glue Gun Upholstery Stapler I measured the length and width of the fireplace, then went to our local hardware store to see what plywood boards they had in stock. I originally expected to be buying something that would be too big, and having them cut off about a foot and a half, but I ended up finding a 16"x72"…
Living in the Music
We moved into our new house about two months ago. We've been slowly, slowly hanging pictures and rearranging furniture. I'm sure that eventually everything will be just right; and inevitably, at that exact moment, we will have some sort of life-changing event that suddenly puts a dent in our plans. (Isn't that the way life works?) For now, I have a favorite wall. See wall: Because my husband is a musician, we've ended up collecting a lot of instruments over the years. One of my favorite things about this wall is how accessible everything is. John plays guitar much more now that everything is within reach 24/7, and I've been messing around with my guitar a lot more often. I love listening to John play guitar, and I love that this wall has helped bring music into our home. TIP: If you (or your child) are learning an instrument, do everything you can to make that instrument as accessible as possible! Keep it out of its case. If the guitar goes back in the case, it's less likely to be played and more likely to be passed over. My favorite instrument up on the wall is the Luna ukulele. John and I bought it together when we went to Austin a month into dating. We got stuck in a lot of traffic on our drive home, so we pulled the ukulele out and made up songs about being stuck on the highway.