Striving for Perfection

I've been dreaming about putting together my perfect nursery for quite a long time.  However, when we first completed our home study, I was hesitant to start putting it together.  Mostly I was scared of being disappointed again.  I started looking around for ideas, but I didn't really DO anything until we got the call a few weeks ago.

I am not artistic.  I don't have the patience or the skills to make something pretty.  However, this waiting around is driving me crazy.  I need something to do to keep my mind looking ahead instead of questioning every little part of our profile or home study.  So, I jumped in and decided to try something new - being crafty.  I had already decided on using owls as my theme for the nursery, so I started with that.  I found a wall mural online which I loved.  I also found a cute mobile that I could make for really cheap, and a few other ideas of how to make the nursery perfect.

As I've worked on these projects over the past few weeks, I've been frustrated at my imperfections.  My stitches are uneven, I can't make two matching arcs, I forgot to sew a string into one of the owls for the mobile, my lines on the mural are not at all steady or straight.  The most frustrating thing is that it doesn't matter how many times I redo any of these, I can't get it right.

I wondered why I was getting so frustrated with not getting it right.  It's not like the baby's going to see the uneven stitches on the mobile and not be able to sleep.  And if the shaky lines on my mural discourage me too much, I can always paint over it.  But I wanted it to be perfect because this is the first part of my "parenting."  I don't get to do the prenatal care, or even be there for the birth.  Bringing the baby home from the hospital will be the first memory I have of him or her.  I want everything to be perfect...

If I'm honest with myself, I know that I won't be a perfect mom.  And no one expects that of me, except maybe myself.  But I can give it everything that I have, and do the best I'm able.  The same thing applies to this nursery... who cares if my owl's eye is a little lopsided?  It's MY owl, that I made out of love and anticipation for my future family.  And I'm proud of that.

Since I've come to this conclusion and gotten over my perfectionism, I've been having a blast with decorating the nursery.  I have quite a bit to do yet, and I'm excited to post pictures when it's done, but I'm loving it!  I'm working on the wall mural, I have a mobile (both boy and girl), and I want to try to make knobs for the dresser.  My next project will be making my own curtain.  I'm also looking for an old (antiquish) bird cage, and then I'm going to make a night light out of it.  And overall, my nursery will be imperfectly perfect.  :)