A Nursery Is Complete

So, after deciding that we would be better off re-using Makayla's furniture for the new baby's room, it was time to get to work, literally. The spare room in our house was used as a catch all, a scrapbook room, a craft storage space, a computer room and our dogs room. It took me weeks to creatively re-organize all that needed to stay inside. Our house is small and most of the storage space we have in the house was used. I now have my scrap booking and craft supplies stored in FOUR spaces! A couple of our kitchen cabinets open from the dining room side, so both of those are now filled with supplies, an antique buffet was emptied and is now full of supplies, my old toy box from when I was a child now houses completed books, and half of the floor in my closet is now stacked with totes of supplies. I really tried to purge but I really do use it all! Our pup got a new kennel and his new home is now in the dining room, the computer desk went to the curb & within minutes we had a lady knocking on the door asking for help to load it into her car! I had tried to sell it for a couple weeks, but without any interest I said pitch it. I mean who really uses a desk anymore, now that we traded up from the desk top to the lap top we never did either! So the room was finally empty! It was debated for a couple weeks if we strip it down to the studs and re-sheet rock it or if we just tried to smooth out the wooden panels that were painted many many many times in the past. We figured to save money we would sand. And sand we did, the cool thing about it after sanding many layers of paint off, we came across my hand prints from when I was a child. A little background for you: I lived in this house growing up! My parents divorced and sold the place when I was in I think the 3rd grade. Sanding took forever! Next up we would skim coat the entire room and sand again. That's when I realized that I didn't take a before picture so here ya go:

 The walls skim coated and then again sanded.

Next up, paint! By now we knew we were having a girl! Makayla's nursery was done in Classic Pooh, her walls were a soft yellow. I have never liked the idea of having a pink or purple nursery so I started shopping around for a crib set. I had my heart set on this pink and grey set. Only problem was each piece was sold separately and the comforter for the crib was $400! The bumpers were another price, the crib sheet another, the valance another, well you get the drift! I couldn't bring myself to pay that much money for such small items, so I kept shopping. After getting big sis' input, I picked out a owl set from good ol' wally world online and waited for it to arrive. It has three basic colors; green, pink and brown. Staying away from a pink nursery, I decided for green. Color matching for fabric doesn't work so well on the machine at Lowe's, so after the guy handed me a huge swatch of colors, Princess Pea Green from Disney's color line matched the best. My grandma offered to paint the room when were were ready so I called her up and her and my grandpa headed over. Can't see the wall color that well, but here it is, Princess Pea Green:

With the new crown molding, also thanks to Grandma for picking this up for us!

Now onto the new flooring. The before is a YIKES!(On a positive note, I have a before!)

The after, I love it so much I can't wait until we can do the entire house! A special thanks here to Papa Jerry for the floor installation. We tried our hand at it, but I couldn't bend over that well as by now I was 7 1/2 months along.

On to decorating. The foundation was built now comes the fun part.

My piece of art. I drew a 24" letter E onto a foam insulation board and "sawed" it out by hand. The I wrapped the E in felt and proceeded to cut 1,000+ 3" flower shaped felt pieces. Thanks to granny Lisa for letting me borrow her big slice. I would have never made it had I cut them from hand! Folded each flower into 1/8ths and pined each into my felt wrapped foam insulation. Very long process, but look how great it looks!

One of two shelves made by papa - this one showing each of her piggy banks waiting on her also 100% made by papa! 

The crib wall, a couple of shadow boxes - made by papa with the big E.

 The rocker all cleaned up!

From one side...

To the other... 

Miss Emma's room is finally all complete & ready for her to move in (when ever mom decides that she is old enough to stay in her own room, for now the play pin in mom and dads room is working just fine!)

A Growing Girls Room

Before we could get started on a new nursery, we knew that big sis would need a new room too! After all, going shopping for new baby furniture turned out to be a bust on the budget that I was sticking to.  Instead of new baby furniture we opted for a growing girl new furniture. Her crib had converted into her full size bed, her changing table into a dresser, the armoire still as the armoire and the glider rocker was wrapped and stuck outside for storage. At our old house the rooms were a lot bigger than the ones at our new house, so her room was a tight fit and there was not much space for "playing". We searched for space saving furniture and something that would not be too childish that she would be able to eventually take off to college with her! We found a great full size bed with under bed dresser and a bookcase style headboard. The dresser had a media style dresser option and best of all a small desk for homework! I'm not the best with taking complete before pictures, I get to gun-ho and away I go!

Her room before: a yellow and blue design with flowers and butterflies, let me also mention that she choose this for her room when we moved in 3 years ago! 

Her room after: A hot pink and neon green design, again she was designer with a little guidance from mom. I wanted her to make it exactly how she wanted it and I also don't want to feel the need to re-do her room in another 3 years!

Her new bed and wall colors!

The new window valance box - a basic idea taken from pinterest & transformed by me.

On the hot pink wall!

Her new media dresser & desk. MAKAYLA letters modge-podged with sparkle scrapbook paper. Another inspiration from pinterest! (on the lime green wall)

Finally, her new hair bow holder, idea also taken from pinterest!

Sorry for the quality of pictures, with these bright colors I couldn't get any exposure right!

We are ready for Halloween!

Louisburg Cider Mill, here we come! With the recent chain of events we took the day off from everything and had some good old fun! Here's our trip:

Just about an inch over the 4 ft mark!

"M" for Makayla...of course!

The fishin hole

I sorted through some old pictures today and thought a flashback was necessary:





2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

Okay, so now we carve!

Mom's Haunted House

Dad's Sad Pumpkin

Makayla's Kitten (mostly all completed by her! - she has mom's skills)

My First Pinterest Project

I really do plan to post more often then I do! Maybe the change of the seasons will help me with it. Here's the first of my football Sunday projects:

So a little intro...

As many of you reading this should know by now that we are adding a new addition to our family come December. So an ongoing project in our house is creating a nursery out of our catch all room! I also must mention that Makayla had been asking us to re-do her room, that was completely re-done when we moved in three years ago. We put her off with telling her, her room was okay and the next room we will do is Mom & Dads because it hasn't been done since we moved in. And when we were done with our room we would do hers. But then surprise, we need a nursery! So how would Makayla deal with her, not even here yet baby sister, getting what she had been asking us for? We already know that we will face major jealousy issues...as she doesn't like for either of us to hold or play with Braylyn; her toddler cousin. So to try to keep things simple we decided that its best - to do for both. Lucky for us Makayla's birthday was coming up, so buying her a new bedding set for her birthday along with decor for her new room and a new "flat" tv could kill two birds with one stone. Also, to mention the fact that she also is getting an entire new bedroom set because we will convert hers back down to a crib and changing table.

Ok, so know you know the background; onto the project. I was told about this website; Pinterest & I LOVE it! My first time on the site I came across a pin for hair bow holder & thought Makayla needs one of those. So I did a little more research on them and found a site where a lady would customize one for you for $30. But then I thought, considering I think myself to be a little crafty... I will just make her one & then I will know for sure that the colors will match the new bedding and I can use the same colors to make other projects for her room. SO without further ado...

I am awful about taking before pictures...so semi-before

mid-project

finished project

put to use

Materials List:

vintage 16"x20" photo frame, estate sale $5

spool of 1" ribbon

1/2 yard of fabric

bottle of craft paint

hot glue gun

homemade strips of wood fitting frame

(total investment $10)

In 8 Months Time

Let’s travel 8 months back in time, back to August 18, 2010. The day I thought about all summer long. The day I longed for yet feared at the same time. The day that my little girl would start school, Makayla’s first day of preschool.

6:45am the alarms go off and we are up and out of bed, the first day of our new routine. Let me also mention that we are not really morning people. Makayla does not like being woken up, I do not like being rushed and Philip does not like being late (or last). So back to 6:45am, we kindly wake Makayla telling her to start her “stretching” and she has a few minutes to get out of bed. We have 55 minutes to get out the door! We have teeth to brush, bodies to dress, hair to fix and breakfast to eat. Oh, and I have to get good pictures too. But we make it! All 3 of us load into the car and head down the street. We arrive at the school with plenty of time to spare. I snap a few more pictures outside the school and proceed to Makayla’s class room only to take a few more pictures. We help her hang her book bag and she settles into her spot at the table. As I snap more pictures, Philip pulls at my shirt telling me it is time to go. We give her tight hugs and a kiss, tell her to have a great first day and we will see her after school.  As I walk out of her class room, I look over my shoulder to see how she is doing. She gives me the biggest bravest 4 year old smile ever; I know she is holding the tears back as I am trying to as well. As we walk down the hallway the church bells chime 8 times, signaling the start of the school day.

The next few hours I continuously wonder how she is doing, was she brave enough to fight back those tears? Did she let a few fall? Would her teacher comfort her if needed? Is she having fun? Is she making new friends? Does she like her teacher? Will she want to go back tomorrow?

Finally 11:15 comes and we head back to school to pick her up. Her first day went great, she made new friends and her teacher is nice. She shows us the pages she made, tells us about how the day went and asks when she will go back again. We tell her tomorrow, and a little to my surprise she is excited about it! She can’t wait to go back and do center time with the kids at her table and go to recess where they play on the big playground.

Here she is, the first day of preschool:

The next 8 months fly by and here we are, May 19, 2011. A day I though little about until a few weeks ago. Makayla's last day as a preschooler at St. Pats; graduation day!

Many things have changed in the last 8 months. The alarm is now set for 7:10 and again at 7:20. At 7:10 we start with Makayla to get up. But she has stretched her stretching out to 10 minutes. At 7:20 she slowly rolls out of bed and makes her way to the bathroom. I have her clothes laid out in the living room for her to get dressed. Then she slowly makes her way to the bathroom again to brush her teeth, most mornings she ends up brushing them twice because she refuses to use toothpaste if we leave her alone with it. Then it is a battle to fix her hair, she now wants to do it herself which is great, but some mornings were are running so behind that we don’t have time for her to do it on her own. Next is the dreaded shoe conversation. What shoes I want her to wear vs. what shoes she wants to wear, I’ll tell ya, it was easier this past winter when everyday she wore her cowboy boots. But now with the warm weather and her own style, we spend more time than usual talking about shoes! But we make it to school on time, some days were closer than others, but we were always on time!

I walk Makayla to her classroom, help her hang her book bag up, get her folders out and give her a hug and kiss then rush off to work. There is no more worrying about holding the tears back. I know her teacher will comfort her if she is having a rough day, heck her friends help her out if they notice she is having a rough day. I know she will have fun and I know she has made many friends. My only worry for today is how will she handle the change and a new summer time routine come tomorrow morning?  

So, here she is again, the last day as a preschooler:

My baby girl has grown so much in 8 months. She has learned more than I imagined she would. She is more than ready for kindergarten. She has made me proud!

My First Ever Blog

I have set up this blog to share my creations, life experiences and random thoughts!

I enjoy scrapbooking and crafting of many types, however I don't always have the time! I am continuously thinking up new ideas and projects. If I have a project on my mind I spend time researching it out, figuring the best way to achieve my end result, seeing how others ideas vary from mine, planning time to complete my idea and more importantly how much money will this cost!

So with that said, here is what has been floating through my head for a few days:

While waiting at the doctor’s office thumbing through a magazine, I came across these:

The hanging bulbs are available in 6.5" or 4.75" both with a 2.5" opening. The bulbs run around $15 each, from http://www.sprouthome.com/
Inside is a Tillandsia plant - known as air plants, requiring no soil. They are also available online for around $5 each from www.airplants4u.com

So, I thought what a great way to decorate the window above the kitchen sink! Now, will I ever take the time and spend the money to execute my idea??? Well who knows, but it's my thought of the day!