a very special gift

shelly, my dad's new wife, is an interior designer and she also creates custom handpainted items for some of her customers,typically in childrens' rooms. we had no idea she was working on a special toy chest for declan for several months, she started it even before he was born!!!

it matches his room so well which is red, navy and white. i will be adding nursery photos to the blog soon as i realized i haven't posted any yet!
these pictures came out pretty good showing all the beautiful bright colors. there is a lot of additional detail that can only be seen in person such as woodburning outlines of all the drawings adding texture and sweet little phrases burned into the red trim such as: his full name, "mimi and grandpa love you" "always listen to your daddy" and "giggle with your mommy"
top
note his name being "hauled" in the red truck on the left and the cute yellow michigan bus

front

side
note the Bears truck here and her signature spider web on the bottom which goes on all her work, cute!

side
note the Colts signature horseshoe on this side. good thing we got both football allegiances on here so declan can choose! we like both teams. a funny thing was that as shelly was painting this side, she kept wondering what school the blue "U" stood for...


thank you again shelly, it is very special and we know declan will treasure it always. i only wish i have a picture of you and declan with the toy chest, you'll have to visit soon!