Sam's 1st room-- TOUR!

We moved, and I know you all are anxious to see pics of the new house and all that... but there was something important I needed to do before we left the town home behind. Something I promised you years ago and never followed through on.
Sam's room was my favorite room in that house. I put a ton of effort and thought into making that room special, and before we left it for good, I really want to document it and share it with you-- in it's complete form.
Before I packed a single thing in that room, we gave it a good clean and pick-up and then took pictures so we would always have documentation and something to remember Sam's first room. The room we brought him home from the hospital to. The room where we spent countless hours rocking, feeding, playing, reading, and growing up. It was the only thing about the old house that I had a bittersweet pang leaving. But here it is, for you-- but mostly for me-- to enjoy and for posterity.

This is the view looking in the door. The chair is a rocking overstuffed chair we purchased at Babies 'R' Us. (Talked about our purchase here). The curtains were made by me. Bobble throw on the chair was made and given to us by my good friend Amy Lee. The P pillow a gift from another friend. White shag rug from target. Trunk has been mine for years. And the bureau is part of the furniture I refinished for the room. The awesome bear painting on top of the bureau was a gift painted by my Aunt. (It is SO COOL.) The letters spelling his name came from HomeGoods.

The crib was purchase at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Bed sheet (white with green polka dots) and the crib skirt were made by me. The chevron quilt I made for him is over the side of the crib. The three small canvases above the bed were taken by Kim Joyce Photography, and the canvases purchased from ArtsCow.com. The corner shelves are from Target. We have an AngelCare monitor (on the right) that we LOVE. Blocks that spell Samuel (corner shelf on the left) are from Little Sapling Toys. The leaf mobile above the crib was made by myself and my friend, of etsy inspiration. To the right of the crib is Sam's hamper, and in the top middle of the photo you can see a little 'sweet pea' ornament that my mom gave us, we hung it from the fan pull, and it became part of Sam's goodnight ritual, touching the sweetpea before bed every night.

This dresser was another piece that I refinished for the room. The changing pad was purchased from Babies 'R' Us, and the changing pad cover I made. The elephant lamp on the right was purchased at HomeGoods, and Amy Lee and I recovered the lampshade. Peeking around the corner (on the floor on the left) you can see the bag holder I made, and also the wet bags for Sam's cloth diapers hang there. Above the dresser is the tiled round miror I purchase at HomeGoods, as well as pictures of Z and I, the puppies, sam's sonogram and framed hospital bracelet. Above the changing pad as pinwheels from the Baby P shower my friend Erin threw. Sam loved those hanging pinwheels!

The view from the other side of the room... My favorite part! Sam had a regular old boring closet that was dingy and had broken sliding doors on it. We removed the doors and painted it this happy bright green color. My dad built the shelf going up the middle, and I painted that and all the other shelving (going up the sides of the closet you can't see) a bright shiny white. We installed the wooden clothing rods. The green tubs along the top shelf and the green kids hangers came from Target. We added a ton of storage, and made the room feel more open bright with out closet remodel. I was so happy. The large ruler to the left of the closet I made as a growth chart for Sam's first birthday. (Meant to put that project on the blog, but... oops.)

 And I think that's about it. If you saw anything in there I didn't mention that you are curious about, please ask, I will answer to the best of my ability! I was so proud of this room, and felt so happy in this space.

Goodbye, Happy Room! We will miss you, but we gotta move on to bigger and better things!

It's a little weird to go back through all those older posts as we were preparing this room for Little Sam... especially since we now have a Baby P II we are preparing for. Oh, we have Big plans for his first little room! I can't wait to get started and share with you along the way. :)

Family of Four in a New House

That would be my family of four.
In front of our new house.
Yes, this is an annoucement.
Two, actually.

I am sure you guessed from my absence on the blog that I was either dead, lazy, or pregnant. If you guessed the last, you were right!
10 points.
If you guessed the second... well... you are mostly right too.
Oh who am I kidding, all those who voted lazy get 10 points too.
If you follow me on pinterest (which you totally should because I pin awesome stuff) you may have even guessed that we bought a house... or at least that we were in the market for it. And you would be right too.
So 10 points for you.
And you know what? Just... 10 points to anyone who cared enough to spend their time wondering why I blog so infrequently. Because sometimes there is a reason, but usually that reason is I am a little neurotic and spastic. But nevertheless I appreciate that you wasted your time pondering my whereabouts.

Anyway.
I AM pregnant!
We DID buy a house!
I've been sick like whoa and overwhelmed with this whirlwind real estate thing and preparing to move.
But the house is incredible and the timing, though chaotic, is pretty great as well. There are so many moving parts that just seem to be falling into place and we feel blessed and elated and so RIGHT about this whole thing.

The house is like 6 years old, but never been lived in. It's really bright and spacious and in a nice, young neighborhood in the town I grew up in. (Which just makes the whole thing so much cozier!) We've got friends around the block, and family just a mile away. A great yard, and lots of space to grow into as our kiddos (and family!) get bigger!

The kitchen is great and look at that dining room... all the windows and pretty warm wood tones make me happy.

We are most pleased that this little guy loves the new house too. Here he is looking out his second story window. There are 'doggies' and other 'babies' in the neighborhood that he is so excited about. The first time we saw the house, Sam laid down on the carpet right in the middle of the living room, put his hands behind his head and sighed contentedly. I am not even kidding. It was hilarious and awesome, and just confirmed that, yes, we all felt right in this house.

The rooms are all spacious and lovely, the closets generous. The laundry on the same floor as the bedrooms, and check this out:

That's a jacuzzi tub in my master bath. (it's okay if you want to sigh, I do whenever I look at it.)
I am SO EXCITED about this awesome new dream house we will be moving into very very soon. (Can ya tell???) Of course I'll share updates as we move and get settled, and I have great plans for some exciting new decor on the cheap and some DIY stuff thats going to make our dream home even more awesome. I can't wait to show you.
But patience.
(That was for me, not you. But you can be patient too.)
I should go work on a little packing. Goodbye for now, pretty house. We'll be moving in soon!

 

Goodbye for now, sweet friends and readers. Be back to update you soon!

How To Shrink Your Tree

Four years ago, when I was living in my first little apartment after college, christmas time came along, and I had no tree. So I ran to the nearest walmart and grabbed an averagely cheap, pre-lit, full size (6.5 ft) artificial Christmas tree. I don't love artificial trees, but it was the only kind our apartment complex allowed... so I got it. It was not a thing of beauty... but it was a thing. It served it's purpose and looked lovely once it was plugged in and sprinkled with other shiny things.
Fast forward a couple years... and I am living in a smaller townhome with a baby on the way and our spare bedroom is now a nursery, and our basement is now a spare bedroom, and we have no storage or wiggle room in our furniture layout... or room to assemble and display a full size tree for the month.

So last year we put off Christmas Decorations while we searched for a tree solution. We decided we could set a mini tree on top of the buffet in the living room... but after about a week of searching for an acceptable mini size tree that didn't break the bank or look stupid, I had given up. I told Z it was hopeless.
Then I started thinking about my 6.5 ft tree. And how it comes apart in three separately lit sections. And how the top third was still a decent size, and just had a little peg of sorts that fits down into a pole running through the center of the other trees... and then I knew all I needed was to assemble a base and we'd be in business.

So I inlisted the help of my father (this was last year, I was 9 months pregnant and not allowed to use power tools...) and in about 5 minutes he screwed two pieces of wood together and drilled a hole and we had a tree stand.

I came home, dug out the top of our tree and popped it in the little base.
Admittedly, I didn't hear the angels singing yet. I mean, it's a little sparse and sad still.

Buuuuuut...
Once it was lit, wrapped in glittering ribbons, and bedazzled with all manner ornaments...

I think it looks pretty darn good. This year I got it all out again to set it up, and realized that this is really a much better situation for a 1 year old anyhow. Some day, we'll get the rest of the little tree out again, but for now, we've got the shrunken guy, and he's still merry and bright!

Pumpkin centerpiece

While in IA early this month, Z's parents took us to a lovely pumpkin farm for a fall afternoon outing!

It really was so colorful and such a beautiful day. I could have stayed there all day taking pictures of all the cool stuff... but I'll save that for another post. We pulled Sam around in a wagon and looked at all kinds of pumpkins and gourds... he loved it. See our little Pumpkin in with all the pumpkins?

We all selected a pumpkin or two to take home with us. Linda (my MIL) and I selected some lovely fat green ones with a fun project planned.  We made a little run to The Lob, to gather a few pretties, and when we got home, we get to work!
First, we washed our dirty pumpkins.

Then we gathered up our supplies:
Pumpkins, ribbon, burlap, artificial leaves/berries, feathers, beads, sparkly picks, wire, and a hot glue gun.

Next we sat down and layered and arranged and rearranged until we liked the way things looked... then we glued it all down and tied big bows for the top... to create fall centerpieces for our tables!

This one was Linda's and I think it turned out so fun and cute!

This one was mine... and I like the funky spiky feather and blingyness. :)

We even made a mini one for Grandma to put on her desk and she was quite pleased. It was a simple and fun project to create a centerpiece that should last the season. We were happy with the results, and I really enjoyed myself putting it all together!
Have you created any fall decor recently? Just the other day I remembered that Amy Lee and I made that cool wreath for my front door, time to get that out! And my black candlesticks to create Halloween display, maybe? Ooh speaking of Halloween... it's time to get started on the little Pumpkin's costume... FUN!

Hang it up!

This is probably not a post that is going to change anyone's life... but it is one of those things that has been on my to do list for... almost 9 months now, and I finally got to it. [Internet highfive-ing myself]
Remember way back in the day when Sam was brand new and I promised you a nursery tour?  And then a couple weeks ago I shared some prints I made for Sam's room and told you I was finally finishing it up to get around to that?
WELL.
This is just one more thing.

When Sam was born we had some awesome newborn photos taken of him. Our photographer really got in there close with some detail shots... and I love the pink roundness of those tiny toes, his sweet little lips, and how long his fingers were! Oh, man! I am getting high from new baby smell just thinking about it all. Anyway, I meant for 8 months to get some canvases made with those little detail shots to hang on the blank wall of his room.

I finally got them.
And it was time to finally hang them.
Grabbed my tape measure, level, and a few nails (these things are pretty lightweight, so even though they are hanging above the crib... no special anchor or equipment was required to keep them in place.) and got them up on the wall.

 
And there you have it.
I also re-hung his mobile but (Ooh, foreshadowing!) more on that later...
I am so happy to check that off my to do list! Just a few more things and then I will clean the room and get you a proper nursery tour... hopefully before the kid turns 1. (but no promises.)

Race Bib and Baseball Display (FATHER'S DAY!!!)

I know I am a day or so early here, but I wanted to share with you the father's day gifts I have been working so hard on the past couple weeks.
I think I have mentioned before that my husband is a runner, and my dad has recently (within the past two years) really gotten into it. In the spring and fall (not the hot summer-- yuck.) they like to do road races together... 5K, 10K, and their longest race was the half marathon last fall. In some races they got finisher medals, some races they placed and got medals, and in every race they run, they get a race bib (number). It's fun to keep them, but they start to pile up fast, and it's hard to know what to do with them.
So I made both my dad and my husband a race bib holder for father's day this year.

I like the way it turned out. He has a spot to put the most recent race bib on the top of those hooks, and the ones along the bottom can hold his medals. I looked around online and didn't find anything purchase-able that I liked, so I made my own. My dad really like the two-tone wood thing I did. Here's how it was done:

I started with a board-- 1x12x14 inches. I sanded reall well and used a wood prep... then I painted on a thin coat of a light stain. I used Minwax PolyShades (color: light oak). I

I let  the stain/poly finish dry for 6 hours, as recommended on the can). Then I flipped it and stained the back and sides of the board. After another 6 hour drying time, I sanded it very lightly with a high grit paper. I used my silhouette machine to make a vinyl decal that said RACES and placed that that the top.

Then I used a second darker stain (color: Honey) and painted right over the top of the vinyl and the entire piece.

 Then I let it dry for 6 hours and did the back and sides, and another 6 hour dry time... and then I peeled of the vinyl... leaving a two toned wood look.

Next I measured a race bib and measured and centered and marked everything on the board, then I drilled pilot holes for my hooks. I used small, right angle hooks that screwed into place.

I also put hardware on the back to hang it with.

And here is the completed project. Then we ganked Dad's race bibs and medals from his house and hung them on there when we gave it to him, he seemed pretty excited to receive this gift:

Oh, and that race bib on the top there? Is actually not from a race... rather it's a father's day card I made to look like a race bib:

I used publisher to create the text and banners, put the number in (the number... 61712 (June 17, 2012??? Father's Day?!?! My mom recognized it right away, we had to explain it to both my dad and Z... oh well) and then we put sam's footprint on the left there. It made a unique fun card.
Z got one too, although he was involved with the creating process (or at least watched me do the whole thing) so gifting it to him wasn't an exciting surprise and I didn't even think to take a picture. But anyway... They look really nice hanging on the wall, and my husband was especially happy and proud to have a place to hang all his medals.

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Z's dad is not much of a runner, but he is a huge baseball fan, so we decided to make him a little gift that combined his two favorite things: Baseball and his grandson.

These are pretty self explanatory-- so no fancy tutorial here. But we took a baseball, and used normal ink to put Sam's handprint on it. (I did not have a black ink pad, only grey, which is why it is a little light but it doesn't look too bad in person.) Then I just took a regular ol' sharpie and wrote a message on the back (there are two becuase we made one for daddy while we were at it.)

Z wanted to make a stand for it, so he got a board, cut it into squares, then he and my dad disappeared into Dad's shop for a few minutes and came back with decorative edges and a nice hole in the middle for the ball to sit on. (I can't tell you how this was accomplished other than... if you have the right guys and the right tools around... things happen.) Then I stained the little wood stands and tied them up with a pretty ribbon.

 

(I always have this problem trying to figure out ways to package or giftwrap things to give to guys that doesn't look too girly. Z always says it doesn't matter he doesn't care, and he doesn't need bows and frills... but it matters to me that it looks nice. anyone have any great ideas???)

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So there you have it... that's what Father's day looks like for us this year. Well, there are a few other little surprises in store still... but SHHHHHHHHH! It's not QUITE father's day yet!

The fathers in my life are truly remarkable men. My Dad, my father-in-law, and my husband are all strong, generous, loving men and fathers. I am blessed to have all of them in my life.

Happy Father's Day!

(Marriage Saving) Menu Board

This is a really easy project that I bet you have need for, supplies for, and skill set to create. All at your fingertips! How's that? You're welcome.
Perhaps 'marriage saving' is putting too much on the shoulders of this menu board, but it has saved us from quite a few arguments and quiet angry dinners where my husband scoops the food I made into the trash because he's " just not feelin' it tonight". The unfortunate truth is we always have and always will fight about food in our house-- but having a menu written out has made a huge difference. Everyone knows what to expect on the table that evening and the picky members of the family-- who shall remain nameless-- can mentally prepare themselves to try something new, or at least sit at the table next to something new and resist the urge to throw away my food.
(BY THE WAY... if you really want to get Valerie boiling mad fast, start dumping food I've prepared in the trash. YAAAAARRGH!!!)
Anyway, back to the project at hand... I used it for a menu board, but use it for whatever the heck you want. Because tell me a room in your house where you WOULDN'T find a dry erase board useful??? You can't think of one can you?
Because you started to say-- why would I need one in the bathroom? And then you were all... oh, I totally thought of something I needed to write down the other day while I was on the toilet. And you know that dry erase board would have been handy.
Wow am I talking about things we do while on the toilet on my blog now? Things are going down hill.
SO back to the project at hand: A dry erase board!

I received this picture frame as a wedding gift. It's a lovely frame, I am sure a lot of people would like it-- but the whole 'bless this home' quote and the style are not really my gig. So it sat unused in a tub in my basement for almost two years. Then I was digging through stuff one day looking for something entirely different and saw it sitting in the tub vertically-- and I went, HUH. I've never looked at it like that before.
So I pulled it out of there to do something with it. Originally I thought I would put some cute pattern scrapbook paper behind there, but I didn't have the right size, so I grabbed a chunk of burlap and stuck it in the frame behind the glass. Then I took it upstairs, propped it against the wall, and wrote on it with a dry-erase pen, and there you have it, a Menu Board:

You could really do this with any photo frame (that has glass in it), any size, shape, or backing you like... so go make it happen.
Who knows, it could save your marriage too!

Curtain-y Goodness!

You didn't think it was going to happen, did you? You were trying hard to believe my claims that there were actually curtains made... but the lack of blogged evidence made you doubt, didn't it? Well, guess what... the long-awaited curtains post is here!

This curtain project started a looooooong time ago. It was one of the first projects I tackled, actually. It just hit a big delay.

When I started my nursery project I discussed budget and inspiration here. I knew I wanted BIG panel curtains, but I knew I needed to get them for CHEAP. And that wasn't going to be easy. Erin and I went to a fabric outlet store in hopes of finding something fabulous and cheap... and we actually found several options, though I am indecisive and left empty handed. We found this lovely, bold, geometric pattern in black and white-- and I loved it. It was 8.99/yd which is pretty darn reasonable for the heavy interior (possible upholstery weight?) fabric that it was... but I was needing 6.5 yds for my drapes... and that would put me at around $60 in fabric... which isn't extravagant, but I was hoping to keep it under $50. There was another fabric that I didn't know for sure if I LOVED... but it was much cheaper and had the perfect shade of green, but a deeper shade of blue than I wanted. And it was a very subtle 'texture' rather than bold print like i was envisioning...

But I went for it, because it was in pile marked-- get this-- $2/yd. It was worth the risk of not loving it in the room when they rolled over 7 yards of the stuff for fourteen bucks. I felt good about that purchase.

So I got it in the room, and guess what???

I didn't love it.

Sigh. I was frustrated with myself for not loving it... but it wasn't singing to my soul, and I needed a song.  After staring and sighing at that big roll of fabric for a few days I made the decision that since I only had $14 invested in these curtains I could go ahead and slap them together, then replace them at a later date when I did find something that made my heart sing.
So I went to Target (you know, God's store...) to buy some hardware. I opted for a brushed nickle (to match the hardware on the the dresser) rod and curtain clips. So I could make simple panels and clip them up without worrying about pockets or tabs or whatever. Walking through the aisles at target I passed the sheets and found some lovely green ones... the PERFECT shade of green, actually. And all of a sudden inspiration hit, and I had an idea that might make my unhappy curtains a bit more song-worthy.
Time to get started... I used this tutorial for making professional drapes and this tutorial explaining a blind hem stitch and this curtain post as inspiration for size and style and installation. Armed with all that info... I set out to make me some curtains.
My finished product was to be 90 inch panels, so to allow my self plenty of 'mistake' room and a large bottom hem... I cut two panels 100 inches each. Then I cut 2 pieces of the green fabric the width of the panel and 20" in length. I serged and ironed those green pieces well.

To attach my green... I measured 18 inches from the top of the panel and pinned down the green. right sides of fabric together.

Then I stitched the green down, flipped it up, ironed it well, and top stitched on the right side along that seam.

At the top of the panel, my green accent piece was now longer than my curtain panel. I ironed that hem under and sewed it down for a nice pretty finished hem. Yay.

And that created a green accent for the top of the panel curtains. Looks like this hung up:

To finish the curtains I used that newly learned blind hem skill to finish off all the edges...

(Super excited/proud of this new skill)

(You'll notice I decided not to line these curtains. The fabric was already a heavy weight and we do have blinds on the windows to block light and make it nice and dark in there... so I didn't think it would need extra light blocking power... plus... I am on a budget here, remember? I was too cheap to spend extra money on lining. Don't judge me.)

And from here... we sat for about a month while I tried to convince the husband to fix the curtain rod. It wasn't anchored correctly when we first put it in, and the weight of just one of the panels as I was trying to hang it pulled it out of the drywall. Oops. So he finally got some heavy duty drywall anchors and got that puppy SOLID. Seriously, I could trapeze from that curtain rod now.

I put a nice deep hem in the bottom (about 5 inches...) and they were ready to be hung!

I already had this info on my radar, but recently found this picture which is an excellent visual illustration about hanging curtains:

Source: homegoods.com via Valerie on Pinterest

High and wide! It plays tricks on your mind and makes your window look bigger and grander. (Grander? Is that a word???) Which we definitely needed with this puny thing in our baby room:

But with the curtains up, the same window looks bigger and more balanced on that wall...

 (I know what you are thinking... I could have gone higher/wider, huh?)

But the curtains are officially up, and guess what?

I LOVE them now.

They make my heart sing that happy tune I was hoping for. They are not punch you in the face statement curtains... but simple and nice and just the right ease for the room. I am happy. And happy one more project is complete. Yay.