For this child...

Can I take a moment to say that I have spent the last three months staring at our nursery with no ability to decorate or work on the many projects it requires. Unable because, for one, I was far too sick and for two...I couldn't do fun crafty things while I was in my first trimester! I wouldn't be able to blog about them! (I'm saying this as if it's a joke, but this is real life. I waited to do anything to the nursery until I could blog about it.) But now that I'm feeling a little bit better AND the news is finally public, the nursery is about to have its life changed. And I am so stinking excited, guys.

I chose the inaugural project very intentionally. A verse from 1 Samuel has floated around Pinterest for years as one that is perfect for nurseries, and it has always really resonated with me. As time passed and we experienced the loss of Sam as well as the handful of months where we didn't get pregnant, this verse kept popping up in my mind and heart:

"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to Him. Therefore, I have left him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord." 

1 Samuel 1:27-28

These verses couldn't be more accurate; we spent so much time in prayer for the children that we longed to have, and we fully intend to do everything we can to give this child and any that follow to the Lord. Our children belong to the Lord above all, and I knew that I wanted that message to be a clear focal point in the nursery. 

After doing a little bit of mulling over how exactly I wanted to use the verses (in a small frame by the rocker, on a large canvas, etc.) I had one image I couldn't shake out of my head: a large, oval mirror that I converted into a chalkboard. I set out on a thrift store excursion, expecting it to take me many trips and multiple stores. But wouldn't you know it...I found exactly what I had pictured at the very first thrift store, for only $20. Chalk one up to the Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift Store. 

It's great, isn't it? I almost didn't see it and was about to walk out of the store when I took one more quick sweep of the walls and saw her. And then grabbed her. Large, check. Oval, check. Super sweet details, check. 

I contemplated painting the frame a different color (first I thought white and then I was pretty set on silver) but after getting home and looking at the nursery again I felt confident sticking with the gold. Gold is wearing me down, ya'll. 

First step was to tape off the edges so I could paint the mirror without having to pay too much attention to cutting in. 

Next step was to paint. I used the same chalkboard paint that's designed for glass that I used to make our kitchen chalkboard.

I used a foam brush again to apply the paint. Foam brushes aren't really my favorite because, as a general rule, they take a lot of paint off as you're trying to apply it, but I think they're a better tool to accomplish the smooth surface of a chalkboard. 

The first coat wasn't enough at all, but the second one did the trick. Here's the finished chalkboard:

Yep, you can see it's still drying in a couple places. I get impatient sometimes. 

The writing would be done with white paint pens, to look like chalk but to be permanent. I'll be honest: here's where I got really and truly terrified. For some reason, I'd seen the writing of the verse as a simple step. Just...throw it on there. When the time came to actually do the thing, though...I basically had this feeling like nothing I'd ever done was any good and I have no ability to be creative or artistic ever. I was pretty solidly frozen for about two and a half episodes of The Office while I just stared at this blank chalkboard. 

When I finally started to jump on it, I made several key errors. The first was that I measured the height of the mirror, determined how many lines of text I needed to have, and measured out where all the lines would go on the mirror. This was a super logical first step, and seemed to be a great beginning. Then I sat down with a piece of paper and doodled for a while to come up with a design that I liked. Again, seemed like a really and truly great step. I was feeling almost confident by this point. 

And then I, logically, started writing it out, just like my sketch, onto the chalkboard with a pencil. Except my spacing didn't always work and sometimes my sizing didn't look right. Knowing from my last chalkboard adventure that pencil eraser marks can be slightly permanent, I ignored my mistakes and just kept doodling over it until I was happy. (Honestly, this was a good call because it was/is really hard to see the pencil unless you're at exactly the right angle and the light hits it just right...which I will mention makes it hard to trace...) When I started tracing with the paint pens, though, it just didn't look right. I had spaced all the lines out evenly over the whole mirror, so all the words looked scrunched from right to left on each line and yet there was a lot of awkward space between all the lines from top to bottom. Even with my little doodles in there to fill space, it just didn't work. So...I painted over it. Yep. Not exactly how I pictured it going, I won't lie. I painted over it all, took a step back and looked at it again...and just started free-handing it. I'm fairly certain I held my breath the whole time, but I really did abandon all instincts and fear and just did the thing. And all things considered...I am extremely happy with the final product. 

I still used the paper draft as a guide, and only really improvised a little, but I think the space is filled much more completely and fully in this free-handed version than the original measured out version. And by "I think," what I really mean is "it's definitely better." You're going to have to take my word for it though, because I didn't exactly take any pictures of the version I was unhappy with. But I promise, this is better. 

You'll notice, if you pay really close attention, that I changed some of the words to the verses when I put them on the chalkboard. I normally wouldn't approve of this at all, but the words I changed don't affect the purpose or meaning of the verses. Instead of keeping the "I," "me," and "my," I changed it to say "we," "us," and "ours." See what I mean? I wanted to make it clear, in this nursery context, that the hubs and I both prayed fervently for this child, and that we both intend to surrender our children to the Lord.

I'm so excited to have a nursery project done, and I love the symbolism of this particular project. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I chose the first project very intentionally. It was important to me that before anything else was done to this room, we established our gratefulness for God's provision and blessing as well as our intentions as parents. And now that that's been done, I can keep crossing other things off the list as well.