Playroom Makeover… Part 3 Finger Painting and Trundle Bed

I started this post just about the paintings and then I realized I never mentioned the finished trundle bed and curtains. I made 2 very simple curtain panels out of that bird fabric I found and I LOVE them so much!!! Can’t really put my finger on why, but I do. I think they are very classy yet casual. The bed also turned out great! I got all of the bedding at Target and then made some throws out of left over fabric from the curtains. I also brought the little yellow table I painted in here, but now I am not too fond of the yellow so it may get refinished in the future.
Here is the finished product

So, anyways, back to to the paintings. They are hanging in the picture above. I love them but I think they need a little something more but I am not sure what it is yet. maybe frames?
Let me back up. I wanted to add some art above the trundle bed in here but since it is a play room after all, I figured who better to be the artists than the kids who play in here? So, we had a finger painting day. We don’t do this often (if at all) because Avery is just now getting to a point where she can handle a craft like this and Norah, well, she needs lots of help and direction. It was a blast though and their personalities really came out!! Avery wanted the paint to be put exactly where she wanted it and needed to be very precise (as much as an almost 3 year old can be anyways). She got really upset when I helped her splatter the paint lol! Norah, probably due to her age, just wanted to roll and smear all in it! she did a better job of really covering the canvas but didn’t have a real plan. She loved splattering and thought it was funny.
I was able to sit back and just let Avery paint so I got a few cute pictures but I really had to help Norah out. Luckily Jeff was home at this point and was able to take some pictures (don’t look at me and my pajamas! lol)

I am so thankful to have a room where we can do stuff like this!! Here’s some close-ups of the finished products.
Avery’s:

Norah’s:

I especially love the foot prints in Norah’s. Can you spot them? She took off running across hers and I actually kinda like it! lol
If I really want to get interpretive, Norah’s could be a field of flowers with a blue sky. There’s even foot prints in the grass! haha Ok, maybe a little bit of a stretch.
As I was cleaning up I wondered why I do these things to myself; I must be a glutton for punishment! But then I think back and can still remember days when I was little painting at my grandma’s house. Memories, that is why I do it! Who cares about the mess?!

Playroom Makeover… Part 2

I mentioned a while back that I am working on transforming our playroom/office into a more functional space to also become our guestroom.
It is still a big work in progress but we were able to finish a huge part of the makeover this weekend. With enormous help from my dad, we built these shelves for all of the toys. Words can not describe how much I love it and how thankful I am to have a dad who was willing to build these with me and come spend a whole day assembling them!! I have a wonderful husband too who is always there to help me out during my crazy projects . 
I want to do a before and after picture but I really want to do one big post showing the overall transformation. I couldn’t pass up doing a special post for these shelves since they are so wonderful and took a lot of work!

Here it is in all it’s glory! there’s even a very snug spot to fit around the TV mounted on the wall. (I say “snug” because I gave just enough space around it to barely get it mounted and all the plugs down the whole in the wall behind it). The top shelves are stuffed with stuffed animals. I could really get rid of some of these, or at least find another way to store them, but for now it works. Plus, that is about 7 feet up so I can barely reach it so I don’t want toys they play with regularly up there anyways.

Adjustable shelves for different size cubbies and toy boxes. Speaking of, when we went to put the shelves on, we realized we miss measured the holes so we had to go back and re-drill all of the holes. It was such a pain to try and get the shelves even and level at that point!! Thanks for your patience, dad!!

Shelves up high for DVDs so the girls can’t get to them anymore

I went out and got different size plastic boxes for every toy that has multiple pieces. Isn’t organization a beautiful thing??!!

I ordered a Melissa and Doug magazine rack for all the board puzzles that they got for Christmas. 1 was just enough for all of them but I will need to order another one very soon. It’s wonderful!!

Unfortutely, as large as this shelving system is, I am out of room already!! I had to put all of their books on the other built-ins in here, but I am hoping that for every birthday and Christmas I can just keep going through the toys and getting rid of stuff that they don’t play with.

This has also began to force some disipline on us. Since they can’t reach everything (especially Norah) they have to ask for something to play with. This allows me to start enforcing the “put your toy away before getting a new one out” rule. We aren’t perfect about it, but in the past few days, the mess has stayed under control a thousand times better!

Hopefully within the next week or 2 I can reveal the whole room!

Making the best of a yucky rainy day

What do you do when you have a chilly raining day? Go play in it, of course! lol The girls got these adorable rain coat sets from their Meemy for Christmas and they LOVE them. How can I pass up a drizzly day like this to let them get some use out of their rain coats and boots?

Holiday Baking

Now I know why people say they gain weight during the holidays. I’ve done more baking just for the fun of it with Avery this year than I ever do! I love to bake but I hardly do just because we have horrible self control and will eat a whole batch of cookies in about 24 hours! It’s a lot of fun with a child, though! Snickerdoodles were on the menu today. yum!

A Day to Be Thankful!

I can not even imagine what those parents in Connecticut are feeling right now; all I know is that what I can imagine is so much pain. I don’t have many words to say but I do think we can all be a little more thankful.
Today, I am so incredibly thankful for the little things about my babies. After a rough morning yesterday of some of the worst tantrums I have had to deal with, I came home to hear the horrible news about those babies whose innocent lives were taken way too early, and quickly realized what is truly important. I gave my babies extra hugs and kisses and prayed that God would give me patience to get through the rough days and always remember how lucky I am to have my children! I feel so horrible for those parents and can only pray that God gives them peace and they are able to forgive that boy very quickly. I also feel for the families of the surviving children who have been traumatized and they will have to deal with the horror they saw for the rest of their lives.
I added a few thoughts this morning:
I once had a pastor while living in Louisiana share something with me (I am sure I am not the only one) that I still remember to this day. He was diagnosed with cancer (in his mouth, I think it was on his tongue), his tongue was removed and he was told he would never talk again. He said that the important thing when horrible things happen is to change our perspective from "Why me, God?" to "For what purpose did you allow this to happen, Lord?" If you think about that for a while, that is so powerful. Think about how many lives you touch on a daily basis, most of the time not even realizing it. He went on to recover and eventually talked again and is still preaching to this day! Faith is a powerful thing if you learn to let go and let God. (i really struggle with this)
We may not fully understand God's purpose in letting this happen but one things for sure, that city changed and where did everyone go? To church. It's sad that sometimes it takes these events to make us run to God but at least that is where they went. Hopefully the rest of the country will run to their families and Jesus Christ and look at themselves to see where we can change to make this country a better safer place.
Turning to the government is not the answer. Guns have been around for a LONG time but our country has not always been this crazy and dangerous. Turn inside your own front doors and examine what can be done to change this world.
Please pray for this country. I am fully convinced that this kind of stuff happens due to the break down of the family structure, society, and the lack of Jesus Christ in our schools and country. Pray, pray, pray that the Lord will bring this country back on track!
For today, though, focus on your family and capture the little things so that you can always remember how special they are!!
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”  Romans 16:24

Playroom Makeover… Take 2

Actually, in my head this is more like Take 5000 but I really think I have decided what I am going to do for sure!
I went fabric shopping today with my mom to help her pick out some fabric for some furniture she is having reupholstered and I found some fabric that I am head over heals in love with that has become my new inspiration!!
Obviously, I started out with the whole gray and yellow scheme. I really do like that but I was having trouble finding stuff that wasn’t too modern.
Let me back up. My in-laws offered to give us their old trundle bed instead of buying a sofa bed. At first the designer side of me really just wanted a sofa, but then the practical side came out and thought that since it was free that would be really nice and the creative side of me came out and started to think of ways I can refinish it and make some bedding for it. True to my style, there is no simple task around here.
Anyways, so back to the yellow and gray stuff. I started to look for some yellow and gray bedding to go on the trundle but I couldn’t find anything that looked durable enough to be sat on constantly and wasn’t too modern either. It is also really hard to find a gray daybed cover!! They have just about everything else out there! So, I started to look at fabric thinking I could make one. I ended up deciding that I wanted to keep the gray but maybe go with green instead of yellow. I also thought that maybe I would do purples and greens since the girls bean bags are those colors… It takes FOREVER to look at fabric online and it is impossible to really know if your colors are matching and I have to be able to touch and feel it before I decide if I like it.
So, to spare you my whole thought process, I will skip ahead to the fabric I found today. I found it at a little fabric store in The Woodlands and it actually reminds me of some I have seen at Potterybarn. Here is a pic that my sister took with her phone of one little section.

Here’s a few reasons why I love it.
1. it has gray and green in it
2. it has lots of other colors so I wont feel limited to just those 2 colors.
3. I love how light weight it is. (almost a linen, but I don’t think it is) This is a small room with not a whole lot of natural light so I didn’t want thick heavy window treatments.
4. There’s lots of different little panels like this one that I could cut out to make throw pillows from.
5. I think it is really classy looking and will give a more “grown up” look to the room but Avery loved the birds so that’s a plus! lol
Here’s what I already had picked out that I think will go great with it:
~Right now the Day Bed/trundle is stained so I will paint it a light cream color or white
~I like this quilt (plus, it’s a great deal cuz you get the quilt and 2 shams) and I think it will be good as a cover for the top of the day bed. I found it in the store and I think it will be durable enough and easy to wash.

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~This would be used as a throw blanket and the bedding for the trundle bed. I love the texture on it and the small throw that goes with it!

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I would then get a bunch of white ruffly throw pillows and the ones that match the fabric from the little panels images, a white bed skirt and continue with my idea of having the girls make me some art for the walls and painting the shelves that my dad is building white.

I am pretty certain this will be the direction I continue on but we will see if I change my mind once again!