The Mural Completed...

...so the mural is done...kinda, I'll explain later. But first off, let me share our inspiration with you all. After Matt shot down my Dr. Seuss idea, on Christmas we set down and explored Pinterest together. He was really loving the tree, nature look and I've always loved the turquoise and white tree that Meredith decorated Lizzy's nursery. So this was the official inspiration we decided on, unfortunately/fortunately this is nursery in Norway which is good because it's not anyone we know but at the same time, the whole blog was in another language so we couldn't read any tips or directions!!!

Another view (note the frames above the crib, will discuss later):

Since we aren't finding out the sex, we both really liked this idea because it wasn't the green or yellow, Winnie the Pooh or anything too cartoonie or babyish. We figured it was better to go with blue because blue is WAY easier to make girlie than pink is to make boyish. Side note: my camera has NO lighting at all, his cousin took some pics which turned out great so I'm hoping I can get a copy of those to share too. So on to the pics, right? Here you go:

Another view, the far right will be over the crib so that's supposed to be the momma bird and there's a

small baby bird in the bird house.

This was my idea and I was really excited about it! On the bottom part of one of the trees, we painted this. It's supposed to look like a carving in the tree. It says A + M for Alyssa plus Matt. We're going to add the baby's first letter of their name once s/he is born after the equals sign and then we put 8.26.11 because that was the day of our transfer. I really love this personal touch. The crib will cover this up so it won't be seen to the visible eye.

Katherine hugging Matthew...it was a LONG weekend. I love sneaking pics like this.

Katherine with her squirrel that she made specially for me because squirrels are the mascot of my sorority.

Matt watching paint dry...seriously. To speed the process along, we brought out the hair dryer.

Jenifer with her owl creation. She said he looked sad and I said, no he looks sleepy which is good because then that will make the baby sleep and not a night owl-ha, ha!!!

The fabulous artists with their finished product!

The view from the doorway:

First off, sorry about all the weird alignment...blogger was being weird. Now to describe why it's not officially done. Well, we don't know if we're having a boy or a girl!!! Right now it looks more boyish, right? Well, if the baby is a girl then we'll be adding pink wings on the birds and the owl will get some painted pink toenails and some long girlie eyelashes. :)

The second inspiration pic had some frames above the crib which we were planning on doing and then adding pink prints if it was a girl or some blue prints for a boy. However, after seeing the mural done and the space of the room, we may not do that due to lack of wall space. We may do it on the wall opposite of the mural above the changing table but that can all be added later. The floor is hardwood so if it's a girl, we're going to get a pink rug and if it's a boy, we're going to have a darker blue rug (we have both pink and blue carpet in our basement right now to make that rug that we got for free-thanks Andy & Julie!).

I was a little worried about doing a mural because you know how you see things online and visualize in your head and then it turns out NOTHING like you expect? Yeah, I had that fear but I have to admit, I absolutely LOVE it especially the couple personal touches that we added. You can't tell in the pics but the trees aren't exactly straight but they were also painting on raised wallpaper so it bleed through a little with the tape. We decided to leave it and let it look more "natural" like tree bark rather than make ourselves crazy trying to straighten it all out! Once we clean up the room, and get the furniture in place, I'll do another post but needless to say, I think it's safe to say the nursery won't be done until AFTER Baby G arrives.

A huge thanks to my painters for their amazing work!!!