What the internet, 5 dollars, and a dream will get you

This afternoon I was searching for a new storage system for our bedroom/baby’s room when I got sucked down the internet wormhole of fancy baby nurseries! My friend Jazmin told me that the average person spends something like 3K on a nursery. I’m glad that I don’t know anyone who’s actually done that. Our baby will not have its own room, much less a nursery. He will, however, have a colorful Ikea shelving unit that he shares with us and some awesome pictures framed in our house to look at! I mean, nurseries are good for like 3 years and then the kid starts to have preferences and no longer needs a crib. Plus, don’t babies just want to be with their parents anyway? It seems like nurseries are for parents, rather than babies. But if my kid is anything less than a genius, then I will take full responsibility and assume it’s because he didn’t have retro fabric circles to gaze upon whilst transitioning to nap time.

This whole becoming a parent thing has brought out the environmentally conscious person within. I went to the consignment baby store this weekend and picked up some used stuff—I see buying new stuff as sort of wasteful and unnecessary. Don’t even get me started on diapers!

But I digress (I think the pregnancy is also bringing out more strongly felt opinions in yours truly. It’s best to not talk to me for a while.)—I was in this internet wormhole when I came across a parenting blog about recycling old kid toys, and was reminded of these dinosaur planters I’d seen on Etsy a while ago, but forgot about.

I immediately got re-excited about them and decided to go make some! It took me a total of 1.25 hours (including procuring the supplies) and under $25 to make three (and that’s only because I spent $10 on the turtle). The elephant and dinosaur toys were $2.50 at target and the succulents were $2.50 at OSH, making it a $5 project! The ones on Etsy are painted vibrant colors, but I'm a realist and much prefer their natural colors. Although, how DO we know what color dinosaurs were? Skin isn't preserved in the fossil record (or is it? I clearly need more schooling). Are we basing their color on their evolutionary relatives? Plus, don't we now think they all had feathers? The toy industry is way behind the science on this one. In that case I say, "Bring on the pink dinosaurs!". Now I just need people to give them to (secret santa gift! My friend’s birthday! Keep one?!). I will note that NWB is appalled at this project, which means that it must be REALLY AWESOME.