The Perfect Nursery Giveaway with Q-Tips and Wendy Bellissimo

Between ultrasounds, baby clothes and extra sweet treats to satisfy the cravings, my favorite part of being pregnant was looking forward to creating a beautiful nursery to bring my baby home to. Having a blank canvas to spread my creative juices, with the help of my dad’s painting skills, allowed me to enjoy being pregnant so much more!

Our own “Perfect Nursery” was very themed. I love consistency in any room of our home, so the colors, the butterflies, the crib bedding, all of it had to match.

And with the help of Q-Tips and Wendy Bellissimo, Celebrity Nursery Designer, I have some great tips for creating a functional and beautiful nursery for your own baby. Just delivered to store shelves in Target and Walmart, new Q-tips® Baby Packs are a stylish nursery essential that are functional and finally cute enough to keep out in the baby’s room.

Available in Farm animals and Safari animals designs, these boxes are perfect for keeping just within reach and protected in a box that easily slides open. The best part, you can use the box over and over again when you purchase large refill boxes!

Q-Tips Baby Care Tips

• Q-tips® cotton swabs are great for cleaning and applying ointments to a baby’s delicate skin.
• Moisten a Q-tips® cotton swab with warm water to clean your baby’s outer ear, folds of the neck or between the toes.
• Always remember that Q-tips® cotton swabs are not to be used for cleaning inside the baby’s ear canal (or yours!).

1. Be Your Own Designer: Go through magazines, catalogs and visit baby & furniture stores to see the looks available. Choose a style that feels most natural to you so the nursery can become an extension of your home. Then create your own book or board of clippings, fabric samples and photos for inspiration. Start the design process well before your due date so that you have time to relax before the baby’s arrival.

2. Save the Paint for Last: Select your nursery furniture and fabric before you paint. It is easy to find a paint shade to match your furniture/fabrics and not always the other way around. Keep in mind, furniture and fabrics do not all need to match – a great mix of textures that complement each other can add a truly custom, “designer” feel.

3. Don’t Sacrifice Style for Functionality: It is easy to create a beautiful, organized space in the nursery to care for your baby (without the piles of diapers and a mess of toiletries). Place a basket or fabric covered box (from an arts & crafts or paper store) on the changing table or shelf above and fill with diapers, Vaseline® petroleum jelly, diaper cream and rubbing alcohol. One nursery essential you won’t have to hide is the new Q-tips® Baby Pack! They are available in two adorable nursery animal designs and are functional (with a new sliding drawer that keeps Q-tips® cotton swabs protected for baby) so they can always be within arm’s reach.

4. Add a Personal Touch: Give your nursery a personal touch by adding framed covers of your favorite childhood books or classic black & white or sepia photos of you and your significant other when you were babies.

5. Create A Sleepy Time Sanctuary: We all need our beauty rest, so it is important to create an environment that’s peaceful for your baby to sleep. Create a calming atmosphere with soothing colors and softer tones rather than bright or harsh colors. Then, use accents to add pops of color without being too overwhelming. Be careful not to make the room too dark or too quiet at nap time. This way your child will be able to fall asleep in any environment, which is great when you are traveling or when new siblings arrive! You can also play soft, soothing music or lullabies to help the baby fall asleep.

6. Room to Grow: Choose design options that can grow with your child – consider color palette, furniture style, storage options and a play/reading area. Look for a dresser with drawers and cabinets, rather than a standard changing table and simply secure a changing pad on top. Once your child outgrows diapers, you will have a beautiful piece of furniture with drawers for clothing and cabinets for toys that are within reach for your child.

7. X vs. Y: Not finding out the sex of your baby? No worries! Design a gender-neutral nursery with yellow, green, white or crème and simply add touches of blue or pink accessories when the baby arrives – these simple changes can be made to anything from the receiving blanket to the changing pad. These color options also give you the flexibility to use the bedding over again for a new sibling.

8. To Theme or Not to Theme: Nursery themes such as safari, princess or transportation are a great way to create a fun, lighthearted statement. A themed nursery can still be done tastefully if the items are selected in moderation. For example, if you are doing a safari-style mural, keep bedding and fabrics neutral so the room doesn’t look overdone.

9. Accessorize: A few must-have accessories for any nursery are books, books and more books! You can also add a silver piggy bank and a few irresistibly soft stuffed animals that will quickly become your child’s best friends! Even my celebrity clients still go for the traditional accessories – they bring us all back to that magical time of childhood.

10. The Essentials: When designing your nursery (large or small), you should always keep these essentials in mind – a crib, rocker, changing table/dresser, light dimmer switch and books within the little one’s reach. If you do not have enough space for a bookcase, a basket for the floor will do the trick perfectly. Your little one will be crawling around before you know it and handing you their favorite book at bedtime!

Q-tips® /MomSelect Twitter Party

Date: Thursday, FEBRUARY 4th
Time: 8 p.m. – 9 p.m. EST
Location: #QtipsBaby
Host: @MomTalkRadio (Maria Bailey, Founder of MomSelect and Mom of 4)

Giveaway

One (1) lucky reader will win a “Perfect Nursery Prize Pack” that includes a silver elephant bank and two Q-tips® Baby Packs.

Closed – Winner

#59 – Corey Higgins

Required Entry

To enter, describe the Perfect Nursery that you would like to design for your baby.

Optional Extra Entries

Required entry must be completed before extra entries qualify. Leave an additional comment for the value of each extra entry.

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Giveaway Rules

See 3 Kids and Us Eligibility and Winner Selection Policy. Contest ends 02/11/10.

The product(s) featured in this review were provided free of cost to me by Q-Tips and Mom Select. Opinions expressed are my own and are NOT influenced by monetary compensation.