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Welcome!

I’m Jen Woodhouse. Thanks for dropping by! I’m a songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. When I’m not writing, recording, or touring, I’m enjoying everything life has to offer with my husband, Adam.

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Entries in nursery (15)

Wednesday
Feb222012

Nursery Tour

It suddenly occurred to me that I've never posted a tour of the nursery here at the House of Wood. I've shared bits and pieces of nursery projects as I've completed them, but never a full tour. Evie is now over a year old and it's been complete since... well, before she was born. Yeah, I'm that kind of slacker. At least when it comes to blogging.

It's one of my favorite spaces in our home, mainly because Evie and I spend a ton of time reading, daydreaming, singing, playing, and napping in here. It's a bright, cheery, magical place where anything is possible. So, without further ado... welcome to Evie's nursery!

I love that this little guy offers you his most formal welcome:

If you're interested, our DIY curtains tutorial is here:

And tutorials for the fabric bunting, owl pillow, and bookshelf revamp:

Here's a shot of one of my favorite prints in her room. I did an "Evelyn" search on Etsy and this pretty girl came up. I think this is what Evie might look like when she's older. And look! There's an owl on her shoulder... she fits in perfectly here.

One of the first things I made for Evie's nursery was her bird mobile (which was extremely tedious for a novice like myself) and I love how these little birdies watch over her while she sleeps:

Evie's monogram pillow tutorial is posted here:

So there you have it... a year overdue, but thanks for visiting all the same!

Monday
Aug012011

Salon-Style Gallery Wall

The Lowdown: I'm taking the Pinterest Challenge! The wha... you ask? Basically, these four swell gals (I don't know why I just called them that - I rarely use the word 'swell' and I've never used the word 'gals'... until now. But anyway. Moving on.), SherryKatieEmily, and Lana have dreamt up something called 'The Pinterest Challenge.' They've challenged themselves, along with the rest of the blogosphere to stop pinning and startdoing. As you may know, I can get lost for days on Pinterest (which is why I didn't answer your phone call or emails... I was missing, you see. Sorry about that btw.) - it's an unending source of inspiration for me and so many others. But, much like everyone else, it's so easy to pin yourself to death curate these beautiful collections and never get around to actually executing said ideas. So... these girls have challenged us to actually complete a project that inspired us from Pinterest. And so I took on the challenge and actually got around to seeing a project all the way through. Woohoo!

And if you want to see the pins that inspire me, I'm here on Pinterest. Let's be friends. It'll be fun.

So I've been lusting over salon-style gallery walls FOR-EVAR and I finally got around to creating our very own! I'll take better pictures soon and let you in on the complete how-to (or, at least, my how-to process), but for now, here's a quick peek of the gallery in our living room:

And a more asymmetrical mini-gallery hanging in Evie's nursery:

Monday
Aug012011

Revitalizing An Old Bookshelf

The Lowdown: I'm taking the Pinterest Challenge! The wha... you ask? Basically, these four swell gals (I don't know why I just called them that - I rarely use the word 'swell' and I've never used the word 'gals'... until now. But anyway. Moving on.), SherryKatieEmily, and Lana have dreamt up something called 'The Pinterest Challenge.' They've challenged themselves, along with the rest of the blogosphere to stop pinning and startdoing. As you may know, I can get lost for days on Pinterest (which is why I didn't answer your phone call or emails... I was missing, you see. Sorry about that btw.) - it's an unending source of inspiration for me and so many others. But, much like everyone else, it's so easy to pin yourself to death curate these beautiful collections and never get around to actually executing said ideas. So... these girls have challenged us to actually complete a project that inspired us from Pinterest. And so I took on the challenge and actually got around to seeing a project all the way through. Woohoo!

And if you want to see the pins that inspire me, I'm here on Pinterest. Let's be friends. It'll be fun.

Evie is starting to collect enough books and toys that I need extra storage for her nursery. My father-in-law built this bookshelf ages ago and it's been collecting dust in our garage, so I decided to put it to good use... but not without a quickie facelift first. So, I broke out my trusty power sander and set to work. 

Viola! I quickly ran the sander over every surface using 100 grit sandpaper. I didn't bother doing a perfect job since I'll be using a primer before I paint. Also, I plan on covering the back panel with a cute patterned fabric or paper so I popped it off and set it aside.

I primed it with a grey spray primer and then hand-painted it grey. Then I sprayed adhesive on the back panel and laid some pretty grey patterned fabric on it. Then I nailed the back panel back onto the bookshelf and Husband hauled it up to Evie's nursery.

Then we anchored it to the wall so it doesn't topple over on her (safety first!). 

Monday
Aug012011

DIY: Fabric Bunting Banner

The Lowdown: I'm taking the Pinterest Challenge! The wha... you ask? Basically, these four swell gals (I don't know why I just called them that - I rarely use the word 'swell' and I've never used the word 'gals'... until now. But anyway. Moving on.), SherryKatieEmily, and Lana have dreamt up something called 'The Pinterest Challenge.' They've challenged themselves, along with the rest of the blogosphere to stop pinning and startdoing. As you may know, I can get lost for days on Pinterest (which is why I didn't answer your phone call or emails... I was missing, you see. Sorry about that btw.) - it's an unending source of inspiration for me and so many others. But, much like everyone else, it's so easy to pin yourself to death curate these beautiful collections and never get around to actually executing said ideas. So... these girls have challenged us to actually complete a project that inspired us from Pinterest. And so I took on the challenge and actually got around to seeing a project all the way through. Woohoo!

And if you want to see the pins that inspire me, I'm here on Pinterest. Let's be friends. It'll be fun.

There's an empty space on the wall above Evie's closet that has been driving me crazy. I can't help but stare at it as I'm sitting in my glider nursing or reading to Evie. It's just crying out for something pretty to be hung there. So, naturally, I scoured Pinterest for some "pinspiration." I decided to DIY a fabric bunting banner and banish that empty space once and for all. Now, there are a TON of bunting options out there, but here are just a few that sparked my inspiration: 

1) Cut out an isosceles triangle (one 5" side and two 7" sides) on a piece of cardboard. It'll serve as the pattern template for the fabric.

2) Cut out two pieces of fabric for each pennant. Since Evie's nursery has a yellow and grey color scheme, I chose fabric in those colors.

3) Put the two pieces of fabric together, right sides together (wrong sides out) and sew up the 7" sides, leaving the 5" side open.

4) Cut the point off on the triangle to make it easier when you're ready to turn it right side out.

5) Turn pennant right side out. 

6) Measure a piece of bias tape to the length you want your banner to be. My bias tape was 3 yards long because I want a bit of extra ribbon hanging on each side of the banner. You can use ribbon, but bias tape is so much more convenient because it's already folded in half, lengthwise. My first attempt was with ribbon and I ended up scrapping that idea because the ribbon melted when I tried to fold it in half and iron it. Not pretty. So I wised up and bought some bias tape from the fabric store. Prior to this excursion, I didn't even know what bias tape was. I had to sheepishly ask the lady at Jo-Ann's.

7) Arrange the pennants along the bias tape inside the fold and pin them in place.

8) Sew a straight seam down the bias tape, taking the pins out as you go.

10) Hang it up!

Buh-bye bare wall, hello baby bunting banner!

Monday
Sep062010

Nesting Overload!

Happy Labor Day! We spent the holiday weekend being very productive. I feel like I'd been nesting for the past 6 months, but this weekend we really got down to the nitty gritty. We got my car windows tinted so that Eggroll doesn't fry in the backseat, installed the car seat, Husband bought a new truck - with 4 doors this time, so now we have a backseat for her, we cleared out the nursery closets, put the baby swing together, designed and addressed our birth announcements, and made drapes!

The nursery now has curtains! Yes! Hopefully they'll block out enough light for Eggroll's daytime naps. If not, I may opt to add some blackout curtains... we shall see. When I was making the crib skirt, I bought enough of this sunny dandelion fabric to allow for some floor-length curtains as well (about 6 yards at $10/yard allowed for both the crib skirt and curtains).

Dandelion fabric

The fabric came on a 56" wide bolt, so I just kept it at that width. Then I cut two panels 90" long each and hemmed up all the edges. I picked up a drapery rod at Target, along with a couple packages of clip-on curtain rings and hung the curtains high and wide.

Drapery rod and curtain clips from Target

Watson approves!