Mommy-shorts-nursery

It’s no secret that Mazzy is about to have her world rocked. Every parent I have spoken to about having a second kid says, “The baby is easy. It’s the toddler who will make your life a living hell.”

In addition to having to share Mom and Dad, Mazzy will also have to share her room.

At the moment, she doesn’t seem to mind splitting her space— we switched her to a toddler bed a few months ago and put the crib on the opposite side with minimal changes to the rest of the decor.

But, of course, Mazzy has yet to behold the screaming, crying, breast-hogging newborn that will soon be her new bunk mate.

Thankfully, two girls make sharing a room pretty easy. I’m not a huge fan of doling out colors based on gender lines, but living in Mazzy’s pink, gold, and aqua abode would surely be considered punishment by most little boys.

Once we made the toddler bed switch though, Mazzy’s side of the room felt kind of empty. The lower bed accentuated her lack of wall decor.

I never hung anything on the wall over her crib when she was an infant, for fear of it falling on her in the middle of the night. That actually happened with her mobile. Luckily, the mobile was paper and Mazzy ripped the poor thing to shreds instead of the other way around.

I decided the perfect way to remedy the situation, while also making Mazzy feel like the room was still very much hers, was to hang a personalized quilt above her bed.

I wanted something really special so I did what any self-respecting mother does when faced with a nursery decor issue— spent countless hours on Google, Pinterest, and Etsy trying to find THE MOST SPECIAL QUILT IN EXISTENCE.

You know, the quilt that would make having a new little sister who sucked up all mommy’s time and energy, totally forgiveable.

Finally, I found my answer in Jennie from Cheeky Handmades. She creates bespoke children’s quilts out of her home in England and works with customers to create one-of-a-kind designs with personalized details, colors and of course, your child’s name.

Check out a few examples of her whimsical designs:

Unique-handmade-quilts-children

Cheeky Handmade quilts are handcrafted from pure soft cotton, appliqued and patchworked with designer fabrics on front and back, and lovingly double bound (which Jennie says makes the edge indestructible).

I sent Jennie pictures of Mazzy’s room, told her Mazzy liked butterflies and that I wanted to incorporate some kind of garden since her middle name is Rose (short for my maiden name— Rosengarten). We discussed colors and Jennie emailed me a few swatches of potential patterns. After that, it was all a big surprise.

A few weeks passed and finally I got a cryptic picture of a small corner of the quilt on Instagram with a note that said, “Mazy’s quilt is in the mail!”

Quickly, I shot her back a reply, “Ummm… please tell me that was a typo and you spelled it M-A-Z-Z-Y, right???”

No response.

Then the hurricane happened which slowed all the mail. Two weeks later I received a package from across the pond, crossed my fingers and pulled it out.

RELIEF! Mazzy was spelled correctly and the quilt was nothing short of PERFECT.

Well, more like imperfectly perfect.

Mommy-shorts-quilt-cheeky-handmades

This is the kind of quilt that could not have come from a factory. The stitching and design are obviously done by hand and I mean that in the best way possible. It looks gorgeous in Mazzy’s room, taking on a vintage modern feel, and is everything I hoped it would be.

My daughter, like every two-year-old narcissist would, immediately recognized the big pink letters as her name and fell in love with it too. She stared in awe as I hung it above her bed— solidifying HER SIDE OF THE ROOM.

It’s now been up for about a week and tonight when I put Mazzy to bed, we did the part of our routine in which we take turns naming all the people that she loves.

Halfway through our standard list of friends and family members (“You love Poppy, “I love Ya-Ya”, “You love Uncle Eric”, etc.), Mazzy stared dreamily at her wall and said, “I love my Mazzy blanket”.

I’m hoping one day she looks at her sister the very same way.

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Please do me the favor of checking out Cheeky Handmades on Etsy. If you want to get something really special for a child, I honestly don’t think it’s possible to find a more treasured gift.