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:
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.
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.
————————————————
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.
It really is beautiful!
A bloggy friend of mine made a quilt for baby #2. He loves it and it’s well used and well loved.
gorgeous quilt. despite everyone telling me a toddler and a newborn can share a room, ours didn’t until the baby turned one. we slept our two-year-old on the sofa in the living room, but to keep it classy we refered to the sofa as “slumby.”
where did you get Mazzy’s toddler bed – I’m looking to make the switch to a big girl bed for my 2 year old.
My girls didn’t share a room but it seems like a good idea. What was so hard on my daughter who was 3 at the time was the fact that I had to spend so much time in the other room with her sister. I think Mazzy may find comfort having you right there even if you are nursing…you’ll be right there. That’s a comfort in itself.
What a special, happy, cozy room decoration! I love that you did that, and I love the block letter choice for her name. It makes it really stand out.
I love love love the quilt.
Unfortunately, I’ll be singing “Max and Ruby, Ruby and Max” in my head all day today.
Yep.
It’s a full life I lead.
p.s. Can’t wait to see the quilt on the other side of the room.
What can I say, us Jens from England are pretty talented!
That is a lovely quilt, Mazzy is going to treasure it forever I think.
I want one. With ninjas and Barbies on it. For myself.
Fear not, there will be moments of comraderie between them.
P.S. The ad looks great, thanks!
It’s gorgeous and wow, she’s having a good month, a new “Mazzy” quilt and a baby sister! You are such a good Mom two give her two amazing gifts so close together! 😉
xo
Oh that is absolutely gorgeous!
When my son was about 4 months old we moved him from our room to his sister’s room (she was 22 months at the time). They LOVED it! 20 months later they still love it– in fact, they usually choose to sleep together in my daughters queen bed instead of in separate beds. 🙂 My recommendation: use a video monitor! My tall daughter learned to climb into the crib and I caught her trying to “cover up” the baby (AKA smother his head with a blanket she threw in). It made me rest easy knowing I could see that the baby was safe!
It’s beautiful!
On a completely unrelated note, I can’t get Lil’ Bit to say her prayers or bless/name all the people she loves to save my life. Instead, she insists that her father and I go into the upstairs office with her Lambies and her Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls and close the door so that she can then push it open and shout, “SURPRISE!” Then I have to do the same thing to her and my husband.
Weirdest bedtime routine ever.
I thought the same thing about Max and Ruby and was already singing when I read your comment. See… you’re not the only one. 🙂
My daughters are 10 & 4, and they slept in the little one’s room, all curled around each other for two years before I finally decided they could share a room. Hey, they were doing it anyway, so why not? They have the occasional, “hey that’s mine” argument, and my older daughter retreats to the top bunk to play with her barbies or Monster High dolls, which she doesn’t like to share with the little one. I recently asked the 10 year old, “Do you want your room back, now that you are getting older?” She just smiled and said, “Why would I want that?” The top bunk looks like a bed, but it’s really not. The blankets haven’t been pulled back all year. They just sleep curled up together on the bottom bunk. It’s the cutest thing I have ever seen. – – Sister Love – –
That IS a beautiful imperfectly perfect quilt! Love that Mazzy loves it, as she names it at night. I’m sure she’ll love her sister too!
It almost makes me wish I had a toddler and a baby! OK, that was a stretch, a big stretch! I have one boy (and I went crazy on Ebay for baby quilts, back when people had money… to spend). All kidding aside, your Mazzy quilt looks lovely! And hand-crafted quilts are treasures! (Growing up I had a quilt my grandmother made, it lasted into my teen years–yeah, let’s not talk about THAT stage!)