Sperring Stories: The Nursery Is Complete!

This has been maybe the best week I've ever had...ever! It started with Leigh Ann Agee & ended with a fabulous baby shower, but I'll save that for another post as I don't have photos yet!
I finally feel like our sweet baby girl can make her grand entrance as she now has a truly magical place to sleep! There are so many things going on right now that I never, ever in a million years imagined! The biggest is that if anyone had told me last August that in one year we would be only 4 weeks away from the birth of a sweet little baby, I would never have believed it! Sometimes I still have to look down at my ever so round belly just to make sure it's real, and of course other times, she makes her presence known all on her own reminding me just how real this is! Something else that I would have never imagined is that a nursery could be so perfect! And I can't take any credit for it at all! It's hard for some people to believe, but my hubby actually has incredible taste, especially when it comes to his girls. As I said before, his idea for the arrangement of the nursery ended up being perfect (after several of my failed ideas), he actually chose all but one piece of the furniture and, most importantly, he hired Leigh Ann Agee to paint the most beautiful room I've ever seen!!

Annabelle's nursery before Leigh Ann

Most everyone is aware of my obsession with Paris; both of us truly adore it there! So, naturally, I wanted Annabelle (now that her arrival is only 4 weeks away, I feel ok using her name, so that's it!) to have a nursery that reflected our favorite place. We initially planned to have an Eiffel Tower above her crib in the distance and to make the whole room look like a Parisian park. Leigh Ann loved the idea, but needed another focal point for the opposite wall, which my genius husband immediately thought should be a carousel as there is a gorgeous one right by the Eiffel Tower, as well as in the Tuileries Gardens & Luxembourg Gardens, which we also love! SO...that was the plan! Right up until Leigh Ann had the idea to do a canvas with the carousel so that one day when we move, we don't have to leave everything about her nursery behind on the walls. Genius!! SO, I then started emailing her some our favorite pics from Paris, and the next thing we know, she has painted a truly incredible oil that Annabelle can have in her room forever (or until she wants boys on the wall instead)! We both are totally in love with the painting and can't believe that she a) painted it from a photo so perfectly without ever visiting Paris or b) has never done oils before! I find it really unfair that one person is allowed SO much talent while I can't even draw a stick man!

Once the oil was finished and we decided where to put it, it was back to the drawing board for the space about the crib. I again started sorting through some of my fav pics of Paris and just let Leigh Ann choose what she felt like painting! I know that her taste far exceeds mine, so we would love anything she decided on! She ended up using a photo of another Parisian park, Place du Vosges, for above the crib. And I love that it's painted from a photo that I took! So I did have a tiny little part in Annabelle's nursery!

The rest of the room, we just asked that she paint whatever she felt like, and we love it all! I was initially totally against any animal that wouldn't be found in a park setting, but Steve & my mom both thought Annabelle needed some sleepy lambs on one wall (we had seen LA's sleepy lambs before), so I finally caved and let her paint the lambs, and I'm so glad I did! They have ended up being one of my favorite parts of the room! It helps that she wrote "bonne nuit" along with the lambs, which means "good night" in French!

So, that's the explanation of this week's painting of the nursery! I'm completely amazed every time I walk in, I feel like I'm seeing something that I haven't noticed before, so I'm just going to post a TON of pics to try to capture it all! Hopefully next weekend, Annabelle's bathroom will be finished, I can't wait to see what she comes up with for it!