Making it Lovely

Tag: Land of Nod

  • Eleanor’s Bizarro World Room

    Eleanor’s Bizarro World Room

    The Land of Nod was so into the bedroom I designed for Eleanor (which they helped furnish) that they recreated the look for their new catalog. It’s on page 61.

    Our copy arrived today, and I showed it to Eleanor. “Does this look like your room?” I asked her. She looked at it, then started pointing at toys and asking to play with them upstairs. The girl really wants her mercury glass mushrooms and toy calliope, please.

    Here’s Eleanor’s room, for reference.

    Quite the resemblance, right? (Although, now that I think about it… they’re based in Chicago. I’m in Chicago. Dudes, why didn’t you just shoot here?)

    Anyway, thanks team Nod! It was neat to see the Bizarro World version in the catalog.

  • Wooly the Sheep Giveaway

    Wooly the Sheep Giveaway

    We received Wooly the Sheep recently from The Land of Nod for a review and giveaway.

    There’s something irresistible about the knit texture and little nubby bits on this sheep. August likes to chew its ears, but more often Eleanor is in possession of it. She has a little toy bed at the foot of her bed, and she likes to tuck the sheep in and say goodnight. I heard her crying last night and when I went to check on her, she was at the foot of her bed trying desperately to reach the sheep so she could sleep with it.


    Giveaway

    Do you have a little boy or girl in your life that would like Wooly the Sheep of their own? Leave a comment below to enter, and a random winner will be drawn on Monday. Good luck!

    One entry per person, open to US residents only. Enter by midnight CDT, Sunday November 12.

    * Congratulations to the winner, Sprizee!

  • Toy Storage in Eleanor’s New Room

    Toy Storage in Eleanor’s New Room

    Partially Furnished by The Land of Nod

    Eleanor was happy to sleep in her big-girl bed, but bringing in her toys really sealed the deal on her new room.

    There is a nook behind the door to her room that lends itself well to toy storage. It used to look like this when it was still my studio:

    Storage Behind the Door

    Now that all of the studio furniture has made its way down to the basement, I put a couple of storage bins for toys along that wall. I was going to switch out those curtains that I made, but I decided that they were too cute to get rid of.

    Larger toys go in the opposite corner under the eaves. It’s looking a little messy already, so I think I’ll add a big basket help contain things a bit.

    We gave Eleanor a train set for her birthday, and she’s been having a lot of fun with it (“CHOO CHOO!!!”) on her play table. I like that there is a trundle underneath for storage too. That’s where her vintage colorforms blocks and a few other toys are.

    The bookshelves in her room are gorgeous, but they could use a little bit of styling. Nothing too over the top (this is a toddler’s room), but a little prettying up wouldn’t hurt.

    I need to figure out what to do above them for art. You can see the closet to the right there, with the recycled paper bunting that I made a while back, and that’s staying. The bunny clock was in Eleanor’s nursery and I like it in her new room, but it isn’t necessarily staying where it is. I think the fabric ‘e’ might get hung too, but I’m not sure what else to do. Maybe a big art grouping? Any ideas?

  • Eleanor’s New Big-Girl Bed

    Eleanor’s New Big-Girl Bed

    We’ve made the transition from crib to twin-sized bed! Eleanor took to it right away. Brandon and I hyped it up for her (“your big-girl bed!”), and she watched us put it in her new bedroom. We started with Eleanor’s afternoon nap for a week before trying to get her to sleep in the bed overnight, and by that point it was no big deal.

    Look how tiny she is in her new bed! Aw, little peanut.

    I wrote a lot about trying to choose a bed. Vintage wicker peacock headboard? May not survive the toddler years. Toddler bed? Not for us. Adjustable toddler-to-twin? A strong contender. But in the end, I went with my favorite, a Jenny Lind bed.

    I blame my indecisiveness on being very pregnant with August at the time, but happily it led to my working with Land of Nod to help furnish Eleanor’s room. Turns out they’re fans of Making it Lovely as much as I’m a fan of theirs! Brandon and I had already bought the bed on our own, but I’ll be furnishing the rest of the room in part thanks to them.

    They provided the mattress and pillows, and they are super comfortable. I may have fallen asleep a few times while getting Eleanor to bed. The bedding is a pink zinnia quilt and sham mixed with striped sheets from west elm (the same sheets we have on our bed, but in green). We also have a comforter with a pink polka dot duvet cover for when it’s colder. I hung our vintage Tammis Keefe linen above the bed because I was concerned about hanging anything too heavy there, and I really like it. Also, you may have noticed the giant toy with one eye? Yeah, that’s our Muno pillow (Eleanor loves Yo Gabba Gabba).

    I’m looking forward to getting the rest of the room set up too. We’ve started moving things in and bringing in some toys, and Eleanor’s excited!

    * The bedding is on sale for 15% off through the end of May with the code “sleepy”.

  • Decision Made.

    Decision Made.

    Eleanor will be sleeping in a Jenny Lind bed.

    I know the peacock headboard is cool/unique/cute/awesome, but almost everyone that had one when growing up admitted to breaking off the circles. And the Minnen extendable bed is a great size (twin-sized width but adjustable in length), but the thin mattress and difficult bed-making would have bothered me. The only downside to the Jenny Lind bed was the higher price.

    OK, I could have tried to be patient and waited for one (in good condition) to pop up on Craigslist or eBay. I could have even hoped that the poor review was wrong and went for the more affordable one at Sears/Kmart, but then I’d have to pay $90 for shipping. And either way I’d have to find bed rails and slats or a box spring. And prime and paint the frame. And really, with a basement renovation in progress (and plenty of work ahead there), and me being seven and a half months pregnant, the ready-to-go bed from Land of Nod was looking pretty good. And hello, it just happened to be on sale at a store that never puts their furniture on sale, for one day only on the very day I wrote about it? Yeah, I went ahead and took that as a sign. I ordered the bed that day, and Brandon picked it up at the Naperville warehouse Saturday morning.

    Of course, we can’t set it up until we get the studio moved down to the basement. But soon. And by soon, I mean hopefully before the new baby arrives.