Back in business!

Tonight I finally got to do something crafty.  It has been waaaaaaay too long!  Last month, my husband and I were involved in a craft fair in our hometown.  It was his second time and my first.  Let me tell you, it was definitely an eye opener! I saw first hand what it was I needed to be prepared for, what to bring, what not to bring (a very curious toddler).  But it was a lot of fun!  So I have a plan for next year.  Each month I am going to devote my time to one craft and one craft only.  Hopefully it'll work out!  But going back to tonight, I started looking at Pinterest while I rested.  Yesterday my husband and I traveled a couple of hours with our toddler to return some things.  I didn't want to wait until after Christmas to do so....since I will be going shopping then :D.  So, even though the trip was successful, today I was extremely tired!  Anyhoo!  I saw a lot of fun ideas for pictures for the holidays; Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Valentine's Day. Yup Valentine's Day!  Most of what I found was either done on the Cricut or Silhouette.  I own a Silhouette but still am quite the amateur when it comes to operating it.  So I decided to go old school.  Ya buddy! I broke out the Microsoft Word.  I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the result.  Now, I don't have a tutorial on how to make it, but I'm sure if you all really wanted to know I would be able to tell you :).

They aren't quite done, but I'm proud of them nonetheless.  I will be so glad when I get the hang of my silhouette.  I really wish there were classes I could take.  But that's alright.  We will be better acquainted soon :D! 

So now that my children and my hubby are asleep, I guess it's my turn!  Goodnight all! Happy Crafting :).

Daughter's Room Reno

I just wrote about my son's new room.  Now I get to write about my daughter's!  I have to be completely honest.  When we learned we were having a girl, I had no idea how I wanted to decorate.  My son is almost 10 so I've had nothing but boy stuff for the last 9 years.  Doing a girl's room was just foreign to me.  I knew what I liked, but it wasn't necessarily "in" for little girls.  I was lucky enough to find a bedding set on Craigslist for $45.  That was a bumper, three sheets, crib skirt, a bunch of changing table covers and a huge safety pin...which I still don't know what to do with.   So again, I relied on Pinterest....except I was let down.  It took me many months of shopping around, returning things, and shopping around some more.  But finally! After a trip to Hobby Lobby, I found some fabric.  By that time, Emma was here and we had just moved into my mom's house.  All she had for room was furniture and bedding.

I just have to say, I have always loved Potter Barn Kids but never took the plunge and bought anything big from there.  This time I decided "why not".  I first bought her the light pink twill curtains and was very excited.  However, after having them up for over a month I realized it wasn't the color I wanted.  There needed to be more of a pink color in her room.  Sadly, the ones I wanted to exchange them for were all gone...sad face.  So I looked at the fabric I had gotten from Hobby Lobby months ago and thought...hmm those would make great curtains.  AND! they go with her bedding!  Six yards later, along with blackout panels, her curtains were made.

Isn't this fabric lovely?

Voila! Blackout Curtains!!

The other thing I struggled with were decorations.  I couldn't find anything that didn't have elephants, owls, or any other animal in a picture for a girl.  I did love the idea of kites and hot air balloons.  That's where I found this.  I had already bought a couple of pictures from Hobby Lobby.  While I loved the colors, it just seemed too ornate to me.  I needed to keep her room sweet and simple.  Again, while looking on Pinterest, I stumbled upon Caravan Shoppe.  Immediately, I bought the prints, got them printed at Staples, and bought some picture frames from Target.  Love, love, love!!

Another place I love to shop is Ebay.  Oh yes, Ebay is my friend.  Not only have I scored a lot of Pottery Barn/Kids items, but it hasn't hurt our budget one bit!  That's where I found her letters.  We didn't take the strips off of her walls this time.  I wanted to get her room done and at that time, she wasn't sleeping through the night.  When she's older, we will go back in and take them down.

Again, I apologize for my lack of photography skills.  I'm starting to learn again.  

I knew there was more I wanted to do in her room, but wasn't sure what.  I saw a saying that fit her perfectly.  Though she be but little she is fierce.  And I also had a lot of left over fabric.  So I put it to good use.  This was my first time using the silhouette, but I'm still proud of it :).

Now we have a huge wall that has nothing on it, but soon will have some shelves.  When those get put up, she'll have these.

Every girl needs some flowers, right?  I did have a picture frame on the night stand, but took it off.  There isn't a picture in there yet.

So there's another room almost done!  Like my son's room, we have shelves to put up and then they will be completely done for now.  Later on, we plan on putting up new trim, baseboards, and new flooring in their rooms.  Until then, I'm very happy with what we have done thus far.  Next up?  The main bathroom!

Where everything came from

Fabric and canvas: Hobby Lobby

Bed and Dresser: Given to us, but can be found at Pottery Barn Kids

Letters: Ebay

Pictures: Caravan Shoppe "Fly Away"

Picture Frames: Target

Bedding: Craigslist (Pottery Barn Kids Sophie from 2009 or earlier)

Lamp shade and Base: Pottery Barn Kids

Flowers: Michael's

Son's Room Remodel Take 1 Update

Here is the update for my son's room.  I wanted to give him more of a soon-to-be teen room, or I guess a "tween" room (I'm so behind the times).  Since he'll be 10 in a couple of months, I wanted to do a more "grown up" room, so we went with a sport's theme.  I gotta say, I'm lovin it so far!  And bonus, most of his things were on clearance or given to us.  So that helped with the budget.

 

His room isn't very big, so we had to come up with something creative.  Pinterest is my best friend.  We spend many hours together!  It was there I found this from Shanty 2 Chic.  I used the same storage bins they used.  Those can be found at Ikea for $4 each. You can find the plans here and the bins here.

  As you can see, the storage bin isn't finished.  My hubby made this during the summer heatwave and we decided we will stain it when the weather cools off!  So until then, we have a blanket on the top to protect the wood.

Here is the updated closet! I'm loving all of the storage.  Sorry, I don't have any plans for that.  He pretty much put the measurements together and went from there.

So there you have it! The lovely update, with still so much more to do.  Maybe one day I'll have a room completely finished :D.

Disclaimer:  I am aware that my photography isn't the best, but that's okay :).  And I didn't try to make the room look like it just came out of magazine on purpose.  It is well lived in and it shows :D.  That's just how we roll!

Project Details:

St. Louis Cardinals Wall Art: Target

Baymax, curtain rods, colored storage bins: Target

Bedding, curtains, and basketball hoop: Pottery Barn Kids

Basketball Lamp: Pottery Barn Teen

White storage bins: Ikea

Feel free to leave a comment! I would love to hear some feedback.

Memories!!

So I just have to express my excitement from today.  I took my oldest to the library to get his own library card and some books.  While he was trying to find his favorite book, which happens to be Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I found some of my favorite books growing up.  The Babysitter's Club!  Yes, you read that right....and now I am showing my age :D.  I almost brought some home to read, but I didn't.  Only because I'm in the middle of reading a book from one of my favorite authors, Sandra Brown.  Now, I can't promise that when we go back that I won't get one of the books I haven't read.  I think I ended up stopping at #40.  So I guess it's time for me to catch up hehe.  Man, I forgot how much I loved going to the library!  That might be my new hangout this summer.

Son's Room Remodel Take 1

Hello everyone!  Ever since we moved back down south, we have been extremely busy.  Our new home is a manufactured home that only needs some cosmetic work (yay!!!).  We have put in a new garden, gone through some things so we could have a yard sale, planned for remodels, and now we are doing just that.  We started with our son's room and it has been fun :D!  Now of course, some of you who have manufactured homes know how beautiful those walls are...you know, the ones with the strips.  Thankfully, my hubby is very handy.  He took them down so we could mud the walls.  Now.....we are completely new to all of this so it is definitely a "learn as you go" process.

This of course was the start and as you can see, the walls were so beautiful...I almost didn't want to cover them up (ahem).  One thing I we didn't do, but should have, was prepped everything.  I'll admit it.  I was so gung-ho about starting this project, that I didn't want to take the extra time to fill in gaps in the trim or caulk.  Now, thankfully this room has the old trim that came with the house.  Later on, not much later, we are going to replace it with real trim.  So when that happens, I will take my time and do it right.  Back to the room.  After a lot of sanding and wiping, we finally got the paint up.  It took two coats (this was paint and primer).

See! Isn't it pretty??  This isn't the final picture, but that was the wall with two coats.  I think the hardest thing for me during this process was waiting to put anything up.  I hate cure time!  But anyway, I digress.  It took us about a week and a half to get the room painted; trim and all.  And then it took a little bit longer for me to get the closet finished.  Which by the way, I STRONGLY suggest you work on the closet first!  It was hot and dark when we painted it, however it got done.   
Here's another "work in progress" picture of the closet.

 We plan on expanding the opening down the road.  The closet itself is a really good size, but the doorway isn't.  Before we started painting, we decided the closets needed to lose their doors.  And oh my goodness did it help!  IF we decide to put doors back on, we will be looking for some alternatives.  But until then, no door is fine with me!

We had been eying this lamp for months!!  I finally got a pretty good deal and went for it.  And I'm not sorry!

So there it is for now.  Next we're going to work on this cool toy storage thing I found on Shanty 2 Chic! I'm so excited.  Because ALL of his toys will be able to fit in there, and he has A LOT!! Of course before we moved the first time, his toys were divided between households, mine and my parent's.  Then when we moved, all of those toys came with us.  So he has tons!  And soon, he'll have some storage :D!! I will be putting more pictures up again, just not sure how soon. You know how that goes :)!

So, until next time!  God Bless!!




Paint color: Walls - Behr - Oat Cake
                    Trim - Behr  - Weathered Sandstone
Closet: Hubby Diy
Lamp: PB Teen