Doll Cradle

A few years back, I got given a couple doll cradles that someone's child had outgrown. Neither was in great condition. So, they got put in the garage with the intention of sanding down and painting up sometime in the future.

BEHOLD, THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED!! 

Well, Marco threatened to throw them out. So, we took a closer look at them. One is completely rotten. The other, however, while looking awful, could have a few years of life still in it. 

And, then came the clincher: We set up our cot (crib) in anticipation of the baby, and the girls immediately wanted to know where their babies could sleep. 

I forgot to take a completely BEFORE picture, but here it is after just a quick sand (by Marco)

A quick coat of primer. I can't believe the pink is still showing through. I'm getting a bit nervous at this point!

  The general (but unspoken) rule in our house is that any "craft" that I want to take on, shouldn't cost us any money (or much, anyway). This rule is in place because, in general, I am not very good at crafts. That is to say that while my intentions are good, my execution sucks. :)
This might be a good time to show you the blog where I actually got my ideas from. A blog where she actually does a GOOD job. Where it appears that things turn out the way she intended them to! However, it was also because of her blog that I was afraid the pink would continue to show through - it might have been her intention, but it was NOT mine.

Anyway, to determine what colour the doll cradle would be, I pulled out our trusty box of Resene test pots. Can you tell I've been trying to get Marco to paint a green wall in our house?? So far, no luck.. but I'll keep trying :)

And Voila!! The finished product - all painted!! 

I ended up using 4 colours in total. The 2 back sides (blue) are painted Resene Crescent (same colour we used in our middle bathroom). The inside panels (green) are all painted Resene Koru (one of the colours I tried to convince Marco of to no avail. The cursed spindles and bars they're attached to are painted Resene Milestone (one of the colours that we trialed to do our small bedroom - its sort of soft brownish-pink, relaly mutely pretty). And finally, the rest is painted Resene Bon Jour - a basic off white. No idea where we wever tried to use that colour!

So, if you checked out the blog that I was originally inspired by, and if you know at all about my lack of sewing ability (not to mention, my lack of sewing machine), You might've already guessed that I was excited to see her idea for making a doll "mattress"!!

So, step 1 - grab an old pillow case that I don't need.  (mostly because the sheets have  immigrated to the garage as drop cloths over the years)

Step 2: measure cradle (in hind sight, measure twice, or more). Add 10 cm to each side (oops, only added 10 cm  to each measurement). Cut pillow case to smithereens. 

Step 3. Tie knots around sides. Find something to stuff  inside the "mattress" (in my case a small bit of polyester insulation from the garage). Stuff it. 

 Step 4. Realize that the finished "mattress" is WAY too small and as usual my finished product sucks.

Step 5. Remember that its for a couple of indiscriminate children and not for resale and they'll probably love it. Decide to pretend the "mattress" is really a pillow. All solved!

Aww..