An Excuse to Use Power Tools

(FYI - Still here. Still no babies. Still monstrously huge. Ugh.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post...)


Due to some unplanned changes in our original nice, calming nursery furniture and decor ideas (thanks to the lovely McGee), it's become necessary to inject a bit more color in there to round everything out. You'll see what I mean when I finally post pictures of the nursery, and I promise I will. But not until I can thoroughly impress you (maybe - or you might find it hideous) with the finished product. :)

To add color, I decided that paper lanterns were the way to go. But in my usual quest to make life just that little bit more challenging and complicated, I decided I'd make a mobile for the lanterns rather than just stick them to the ceiling as most sane people would choose to do. It was a fun, little project and it gave me my first opportunity ever to use power tools. Now I ask you, what's not to love?

Ingredients:


Paper lanterns of various sizes & colors
3-ft long 1/2-inch diameter wooden dowels (I only used 2)
nylon-coated stainless steel wire
crimping beads
wire cutters
pliers
sand paper
drill with a teeny-tiny drill bit
hacksaw (oooh yeah, baby!)

1. I found it helpful to sketch out a plan for my mobile and break up the construction of each portion into smaller pieces. I also found it most useful to construct it from the bottom-up, if that makes sense. I would assemble the smaller pieces and slowly add them together to make a bigger piece. Then that bigger piece would be added to the main dowel to make up the whole. If you try this yourself, you'll soon see what I mean...

2. First, take a wooden dowel and drill two holes, leaving enough space between each to accommodate for the circumferences of the lanterns you'll be using in this small section. You don't want the hanging lanterns to touch each other after assembled.


2. Use the hacksaw to cut the dowel so that each drilled hole is on the ends. (Check out my poor, swollen hand!)


3. You'll want to use sandpaper to smooth the ends of the wooden dowel because it'll be nasty and splintery after the cut - not the best for babies.


4. Next you'll play with the wire and cut out appropriate lengths to create your mobile design. Use the crimping beads and pliers to create little loops on the ends. These loops will be attached to the the metallic C-shaped bit inside the lanterns.


5. Take a quick break to coo over kitty adorable-ness.


6. The looped end of the wire will be used to hang the lanterns. With the other end of the wire, insert it through the drilled hole in the wooden dowel and loop the wire around the dowel a few times. Use a crimping bead to attach the loose end of the wire to the part of the wire hanging down from the dowel. (Hope that makes sense...)

7. After you've attached lanterns to each side of the dowel, you'll need to find the point along the middle stretch of the dowel where, when suspended from that point, each side is balanced so that the dowel will hang horizontally. This was the trickiest part for me (and I messed up on my first try). What I found most effective was using the tip of a ballpoint pen, moving it along the bottom of the dowel until each side was balanced with the dowel hanging horizontally. (This was too hard to photograph, but below you'll see a piece of wooden dowel with lanterns attached to each side and another hole drilled between them.)


8. This hole was secured as described in step 6 (inserting the wire through the hole, wrapping the wire around the dowel a few times and securing it with a crimping bead). With the other end of the wire, attach this smaller piece to the main dowel that runs along the entire top of the mobile. Secure this smaller piece to the main dowel in the same way as above.


9. Continue to attach each smaller pieces to the main dowel, making sure that when each smaller piece twists and turns, the lanterns won't bump into each other. Here's all the pieces assembled.

10. All that's left to do is add a hook to the top of the main dowel, making sure again to choose a location where, when suspended, the main dowel will hang horizontally. I plan on using a thicker wire (and bigger drill bit) for this as it needs to support quite a bit of weight.

And voilà! My bright, colorful paper lantern mobile!

I'll get Greg to insert a hook into the ceiling in the nursery so that this mobile will stretch over both cribs and give the babes something cheerful to stare at while they're stuck in their cribs.

After that, all we really need are the curtains and our nursery will be done. Finally! Can't wait to share. But let me warn you now that all that color above is just a small sampling of the BURST of color you'll find. Prepare yourselves accordingly.