So Jen and I have spent more time on the nursery; four more photos in the gallery. I've mismeasured some of the dots, so it won't be exactly the way dad drew it, but I still think it looks really great so far.

The big circles made out of small dots aren't nearly as bad as I had worried they might be; just put a small nail in the middle of the circle and measure out the radius of the circle in a length of string, one end tied to the nail. Do the four "compass point" circles (E, W, N, S) first, then just use a tape measure and the string to divide out where the other circles should be. (For example, once you've done the "N" and "W" circles, measure the distance between the nearest points of each; in our case this was 29 inches. Divide that in half to give 14.5 inches, and put a dot [we'll call this the "NW" dot] there. Measure from that dot to either the N or W dot--in our case about 14 inches. Divide by 3, giving 4.33 inches; pull the string out until it crosses the tape measure at 4.33 inches from one of the existing dots--that's the center point of your next dot. Do the same thing 4.33 inches from the other existing dot, and that's the last dot in that quadrant. Multiply by four and you're done. It's easier than I'm probably making it sound. ;)

Anyway, Jen came up with the nail, and the measuring idea was mine, so it's a good thing we're together; either one of us might have had a lot more trouble alone. ;)

Anyway, I think we're making good progress--this represents probably 10 hours of work so far.