(Matt narrating here...) Meghan has always loved Dr. Seuss and has always imagined that his stories and characters would be a perfect nursery theme. In fact, several years ago, she and her brother, Michael, went shopping and found some Dr. Seuss bedding and towels that were the perfect start for the nursery. That day cemented the theme and so we've been working towards that ever since. Meghan has even collected many of the stuffed animals and packed them away for "someday" as she's found them available.
"Someday" came with our 6th anniversary week in March when we found out we were expecting. So although we've had many decisions to make since we found out, the nursery is one that we didn't have to hash out. So we embarked on a mission to create a Dr. Seuss-themed nursery.
Much like with the cakes Meghan creates, Meghan took the lead in creating the vision for the room. She took measurements of the room and created a scaled cardstock model of the walls of the room. With that, she thumbed through Dr. Seuss' works to find characters and scenes that she wanted to portray. She then carefully sketched the characters and backgrounds onto cardstock and waited for me to get home from work. One Monday evening our Family Home Evening was spent shopping for crayons and then coming home and deciding which colors would look best in the room.
Later that week we took that model along with the quilt fabric that we had picked out for the crib quilt and made a trip to Lowe's for paint. You should have seen the look of the the young lady when we put 12 paint swatches on the counter and asked her if she could mix them up (about half an hour before they closed, no less). Her name was Megan and she was very helpful. We showed her the model and she made us promise we would come bring her pictures of our progress.
Then the fun started. And it was fun... at first. We started with One Fish.
We found a pictures of the 4 namesakes of one of Dr. Seuss' works and projected them on the wall from our computer. We painted the yellow first, then red, then the background colors, and then the black lines. Ah, those blasted black lines. They are so delicate and small, yet they essentially make the characters Seussical, so you can't do without them. That first weekend we finished the fish, but it was then that we realized that it was the middle of August, it took a whole weekend to do 4 characters, and Meg was due in less than 3 months!
One Fish
Two Fish
Red Fish
Blue Fish
PANIC! We did. As a comic side note, we were also in the midst of a bathroom remodel at this time. We hired someone to tile the bathroom and... let's just say it didn't turn out as planned, so we took it back down to the studs to start over. You would laugh if I told you how many bathtubs we went through and I won't go into the details of that here, but it was a busy time at the Ruggles' House at that time. Much of this was done while I was in a walking boot from a surgery to repair a badly torn ligament. Needless to say poor Meghan has had a lot to deal with during her pregnancy. If it doesn't kill you...
Meg kept busy and over the next two weeks she had painted signs on the small portion of the wall between the bedroom door and a good portion of another corner. The Lorax was happily perched in his Truffula trees.
The Signs
The Lorax and his Truffula Trees
Several days later we started on the Oh, the Places You'll Go Corner and made some pretty good progress. It was at this point that we gave up on painting the black lines with a brush and went to a much more efficient way... the PAINT PEN. So you'll better appreciate how much the black lines change the scenes, see the before and after of the Oh The Places You'll Go Scene.
Oh The Places You'll Go--No Lines
Oh The Places You'll Go--Lines Added
That same week, we started to feel the crunch even more. With less than 2 months left before the due date we had 3 corners painted. It began to be less fun and more work. We began working several long days into the mornings of the next day. We finished the scene under the window that has a neat architectural feature with Yertle the Turtle as the main character.
Yertle the Turtle
A little over a week later, Meghan noticed one of the areas was going to look too green with just grass, so intricately painted Horton in the mist of a field of flowers looking for the clover with the spec that contained Who-ville.
Horton
That same week Rosann came and painted much of the solid sky colors around the characters which really helped motivate us with a breath of fresh air. Although painting the characters added a lot to the room, the large areas of white were pretty overwhelming. With the sky filled in around many of the characters, the room began looking as though we might possibly get it done it time.
We started a painting on one of the larger wall scenes that came from Oh the Places You'll Go. It's a scene in which these strange-looking bikes are rolling a mound of earth. With some creative liberties we got much of the scene done mid-to late-September.But, the earthmound needed some characters. Meg added Sam I Am and the Sneetches. But, the mound needed a little extra mischief from Thing 1 and Thing 2. We finished painting them before the shower on Sept 24th, about 6 weeks before our little guy arrives.
The Sneetches
Sam I Am
So, for a final, full-span look at the entire room, see the four pictures below:
It's been a labor of Love. So, if you don't know why Truffula Trees are so valuable, or the potential worth of a spec on a flower, or the insignificance of star-bellies, or why the bottom turtle could be the most important... well, you may just have to come by and sit and listen to a Dr. Seuss nursery rhyme.
