Our Sanctuary (and a space for Arrow)

Zac and I have longed to turn our room into a "sanctuary" for years.  A place to go at the end of long days to relax.   A calming place.  I am very bad, apparently, at taking "before" pictures so I can't show you the sunshine yellow our room used to be.  But trust me, it was a bit overpowering.  While I layed on bed rest, my amazing husband worked circles around me (literally....he pulled the bed to the middle of the room and painted around me).  It was fun to watch the progress each day.  By the time Arrow was born, our room was repainted and redecorated.  A sweet little sanctuary with cozy spaces for Arrow too.  Here it is.

 Zac made our bed a few years back.  When I was a little girl, I had a friend down the street who's parents had a tall bed.  It was so tall they had a step stool for the kids to use to get up into the bed.  I loved it and ever since then, I wanted to have a TALL bed when I was married.  That was my one request when Zac made this bed.  And he met that request.  It is so tall it was hard to get up into during the last months of each pregnancy.
 The lights above our night stands were made by Zac too.  They're hard to see and for the life of me I can't get a good photo of them.  But he raided my Pinterest boards and made me mason jar "chandeliers" that I had pinned.  They are on dimmers and I love them! 
Those pillows were one of my partial bed rest sewing projects.  Quick and simple.
The crib is a special hand me down.  My wonderful friend's daughter, Olivia, used this crib.  Olivia went to be with our Lord a few days before she turned one.  My friend handed down her crib to us and every one of my babes, other than Logan, has used it.  I think of Olivia VERY often, having her crib in our house.

 



 

We don't cosleep because it freaks us both out and then no one gets good sleep.  But we have always had our babes in our room right next to our bed for the better part of their first year of life.  I love hearing Arrow snore and sigh in the night.

 

 

Towards the end of Arrow's pregnancy, Zac spent a lot of evenings out at his work bench crafting with wine barrels.  Here's one of his creations that hangs near our closet.  The photos are double sided and any slight movement of air makes them spin.  When I sit rocking Arrow, I stare at these pics of my sweet babes.

 

Opposite the wall our bed is on, is Arrow's changing station and my rocking chair.  I made the twig art above his changing table while I was on bed rest.  The "Arrow" sign was made by my dear friends for Arrow's henna belly party.  He LOVES to stare at his sign and the red mushrooms hanging from the twigs.  That little rocker sits on four legs and only the seat part of the chair rocks, on springs.  It was my Grandnana's.  A few years back my mom and Papa refinished it for me.  It isn't the most practical rocker, but I love it because of the love and history in it.  I have sang Arrow to sleep many a time already rocking here.  The main reason it isn't the most practical is because I can't lay my head back and fall asleep rocking with him myself.  :)

 



 

On Grandnana's rocker sits a baby afghan that my Nana made when I was pregnant with Logan.  I specifically asked for a mint green afghan, and I love it.  But when Logan was born, Nana wanted to make him a more boyish afghan (we hadn't known his gender while I was pregnant with him).  Logan's boyish afghan is a bit wonky and shows Nana's first signs of Parkinsons affecting her work.  When I was pregnant with Felicity, she started an afghan for her but by then was unable to finish it because of the Parkinsons.  Her sweet friend helped her finish the rest, so Felicity has an afghan started by Nana, and finished with the love of Nana's dear friend.  I feel like that little mint afghan was Nana's last bit of knitted perfection before Parkinsons stole her talent from her.  It has wrapped all my babes in warmth. 

That little table was also my Grandnana's.  My iPod sits here so that Arrow and I can listen to my relaxing "labor and delivery" playlist while we rock.  I also have burp cloths at the ready for nursing, and in that basket under the rocker is my Moby, and taggies for when he's older.  The quilt hanging here was Zac's and my wedding gift to each other.  I was hoping it would become a family heirloom but sadly, it is already worn so much that we decided to take it off the bed.  Maybe it just wasn't made to last.  I don't know.  But here it can hang, on the twig hanging branch Zac made for it using branches from my mom's property.

 

So there you have it.  Simple with a lot of hand made love thrown in.  Just how we like it.