Big Girl Room Makeover

My husband and I wanted to make sure that our daughter was excited about having new sister.  Therefore, I decided to give her a big girl room makeover (we also needed to get her out of the toddler bed so we could use it as a crib again :) )

I didn't want to paint her room because I loved the gray walls with the green strip, so those colors where our jumping off point.  My daughter also loves the colors pink and purple, just like every little girl, so we added those to the mix.  The first thing I did was find a poka-dot bedspread from Target that had some of our colors that got a thumbs up from my daughter.

Next we needed curtains.  I couldn't find anything that I liked so I asked my mom to make some.  I found some cute fabric that was white and had gray/silver poka-dots on it.  My mom also added some pink ball fringe to add a girly touch.

At the state fair I found a neat lantern that lights up and changes colors.  I also decided to hang two metal plant hangers on the wall to hold some of her toys.

We finished off the room with a new big girl bed, some wall art that I made, and an old dresser and night stand set that I used when I was in college.  All I did to those was spray paint the knobs silver to give it a little update.

Here are the before and afters...

My daughter really loves her new room.  I like the fact that I was able to update it with out spending a lot of money.  I also like the fact that the decor items are not too trendy and I don't have to worry about redoing it again in a year when she no longer likes Frozen :)

Where is Summer Going?

So I can't believe that it is the middle of July already!  Like most summers, this one is again going by too fast.  I have all these plans, these long to-do-lists and I feel like I have barely touched them this year.  There are a couple reasons for this, one of them being my three year-old daughter.  I am having too much fun playing with her!  It seems like the only time I have to work on house projects is during her two hour nap in the afternoon (and that is if I don't need a nap myself :) )

Anyways, I have gotten a few things done on the Updating The House To-Do List.

1.  I have all the window molding painted white in the upstairs of our house.  Two of the four rooms also have the baseboards and door molding painted.  I first painted the molding with two coats of primer.  Some of the molding was rather "shiny" so I wanted to make sure that paint would stick and other molding was covered in marker from a previous home owner so I needed to make sure that wouldn't bleed through.  Then it was about two more coats of white paint.  I found that a small sponge brush worked the best and my mom found me some floor guards at Menards that were a life saver with it came to painting the baseboards.

Before


After

It is amazing to me what paint does to a room.  Painting the molding has really updated the rooms.  I am very excited to get the entire house done.

2.  We have hired someone to redo our upstairs bathroom.  We have picked out all the finishes and the flooring.  Now we get to wait until they reach us in their schedule.

My daughter and I have also crossed some items off of her Summertime Bucket List.

1. Run through the sprinkler.
2. Go to the local swimming pool.
3. Roast s'mores.
4. Go to the zoo.
5. Go to the fair.
6. Go to the lake.
7. Paint a picture on the driveway with water.
8. Take a nature walk.
9. Go to the park.
10. Go on a color scavenger hunt.
11. Go to the children's museum.
12. Go on a picnic.
13. Have lunch with dad during during the work week.
14. Have an outside "toy" wash.
15. Grow sunflowers.
16. Build a fort.
17. Have a PJ and movie day with snack necklaces.
18. Have a tea party.
19. Play chalk hop.
20. Make ice cream.
21. Play in the rain.
22. Have a water balloon fight.
23. Pick strawberries.
24. Go to a concert in the park.
25. Have an alphabet treasure hunt.
26. Go to a baseball game.
27. Go to the library.
28. Go to the circus.
29. Paint with ice cubes.
30. Go star gazing. 
31. Go to the Train Museum. 

Sometimes I Have to Slow Down...

With my Type A personality, I always have a To-Do list.  There is something that I think I should always be doing.  This means that I do not like just sitting down and relaxing.  When I do that, all I can think about is what I could be checking off of my list.

One of my friends shared the poem "Slow Down Mummy" by R. Night on Facebook this week and it brought me to tears.  I really need to just let my To-Do list grow and spend time with my daughter because I am not going to get this time back.  I printed a copy of it and taped it right in my planner so I won't forget it.

Here is this amazing poem. Rebekah Knight has many other great poems on her blog. Enjoy!

Slow Down Mummy

Slow down mummy, there is no need to rush,

slow down mummy, what is all the fuss?

Slow down mummy, make yourself a cup of tea.

Slow down mummy, come and spend some time with me.

Slow down mummy, let's put our boots on and go out for a walk,

let's kick at piles of leaves, and smile and laugh and talk.

Slow down mummy, you look ever so tired,

come sit and snuggle under the duvet and rest with me a while.

Slow down mummy, those dirty dishes can wait,

slow down mummy, lets have some fun, lets bake a cake!

Slow down mummy I know you work a lot,

but sometimes mummy, its nice when you just stop.

Sit with us a minute,

& listen to our day,

spend a cherished moment,

because our childhood is not here to stay! 

Rebekah.Knight (c)2011

Summertime Bucket List

I really miss summer.  It is too cold here in Wisconsin.  Winter seems like it is never going to end.  Everyday it is either snowing or so cold, you do everything you can to stay inside. To try and perk up my mood a little, started to create a list of activities to do with my daughter this summer; a bucket list if you well.  Most of the activities are done outdoors, however it does rain once in a while so I tried to include some that we could do inside on a rainy day.

Summertime Bucket List

1. Run through the sprinkler.
2. Go to the local swimming pool.
3. Roast s'mores.
4. Go to the zoo.
5. Go to the fair.
6. Go to the lake.
7. Paint a picture on the driveway with water.
8. Take a nature walk.
9. Go to the park.
10. Go on a color scavenger hunt.
11. Go to the children's museum.
12. Go on a picnic.
13. Have lunch with dad during during the work week.
14. Have an outside "toy" wash.
15. Grow sunflowers.
16. Build a fort.
17. Have a PJ and movie day with snack necklaces.
18. Have a tea party.
19. Play chalk hop.
20. Make ice cream.
21. Play in the rain.
22. Have a water balloon fight.
23. Pick strawberries.
24. Go to a concert in the park.
25. Have an alphabet treasure hunt.
26. Go to a baseball game.
27. Go to the library.
28. Go to the circus.
29. Paint with ice cubes.
30. Go star gazing. 
31. Go to the Train Museum. 

Valentine's Day Crafts

As I have stated before, my daughter loves to do anything that involves glue, paint, and paper.  With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought today was a great day to make some Valentine's Day crafts to use to decorate the house.

We first made what I am going to call a Love Bug.  It was pretty simple.  Just a couple of hearts and some ovals.

Of course everything gets better when you can add some "googley" eyes and a pipe cleaner :)

Then we made a caterpillar out of hearts.  Again, I just cut out a punch of hearts that she glued in a row.  She added some eyes and I added the smile and legs with a black marker.

Here are some other neat craft ideas that I found on Pinterest:

• Butterfly with Heart Wings
• Paper Plate Heart Hat
• TP Roll Heart Stamp

Elf on the Shelf Ideas

Last year I really wanted to do Elf on the Shelf with my daughter, but she was only 1 so I figured she was a little too young.  Her grandma got her the Elf on the Shelf kit for Christmas last year so that I could start it this year with her.  So far, it has been a lot of fun!

In November, I started to plan out what Elf was going to do each day starting December 1.  I created a calendar on Google Drive and starting looking at different pins on Pinterest to get the ideas flowing.  Here is the calendar that I have created - December 2013 Elf on the Shelf.

On the first day, he appear sitting on the coffee table in our living room with his book.  I read the book to my daughter and at the end, you need to come up with a name for your Elf.  She decided to name him Jeff.  Throughout the entire month of December, I will come back here and add more pictures of Jeff and the cute ways he greets my daughter morning.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Toddler Crafts

Saturday's in my house are craft days for my daughter and me.  Just about every Saturday morning, my daughter wakes up asking me to paint :)  Most of the time that is what we do.  We paint on paper plates, on construction paper, on bulletin board cutouts.  Sometimes, we glue googly eyes or pom-poms on our paintings as well.

I thought with Thanksgiving coming up, I would try and find some crafts that we could do that were related to Thanksgiving.  Below is our first craft for the month - a toilet paper tube turkey.

For the feathers, I traced her hands, cut them out, and glued them on the back.  She glued her favorite googly eyes on the front and I add a little beak with a marker and cut out a little wattle from some red construction paper.

Pinterest is full of great, fun Thanksgiving crafts.  Here are some other ones that I hope to try this month:

• Candy Corn Turkey - Trace your child's hand to make a turkey.  Glue candy corn in the fingers of the hand to form the feathers.
• Turkey Puppets - Make turkey puppets out of brown paper lunch bags.
• Fall Tree - Use wine corks as stamps to create a beautiful fall tree.
• Turkey Coloring Page 

What do you and your toddler do in the spirit of Thanksgiving?

Displaying Artwork

My daughter loves to draw, paint, glue, and color.  I always have a ton of art projects that she has either done at home or at daycare.  I feel bad just looking at it and then throwing it away.  I have created three different ways throughout my house to display her artwork.

In her bedroom, I hung three frames above her dresser and display some artwork there.  I have removed glass because some of her projects are 3D.

In the toy room, I hung some string above a table using two eye hooks.  I use binder clips to display the art projects on the string.  You could also use paper clips or clothes pins.

The last artwork display spot is in our dinning room.  Earlier I took an old painting and turned it into a bulletin board.  You can read that process here.  

Reagan loves having her artwork on display and enjoys showing people when new art work is being displayed.  

Toddler Bag for Church

Like every family, we are having a hard time keeping our toddler quiet during church. Going to the nursery isn't working; we usually get paged after about 10 minutes because she won't stop screaming.  This results in my husband watching the sermon on TV from the church cafe as I sit in the sanctuary by myself.  This is resulting in us not going to church because it is becoming too much of a hassle.  We might as well just stay home and listen to the sermon online.

To try and fix this issue, I decided to make a church bag for her that would have many different (quiet) items to keep her busy in church.  I decided to visit my local dollar store to see what I could find.

Here is what I came home with:

I found several things including:

• A color book and new crayons
• A magnetic dress-up doll
• Stickers
• A magnetic drawing board
• A plastic folder

I am planning on putting just a few of the coloring pages in the folder along with one sheet of stickers, some blank pages of paper, and a few Sesame Street color sheets printed from Parenting.  I am hoping that by using the folder, I can cut down on some of the noise from turning pages, ripping pages, etc.  

These will be only things she gets to play with at church, hoping the excitement will help in keeping her interested in them.  Wish me luck!

What do you do to keep your children quiet at church?

Creating a Playroom

Our house is not very large and a two-year-old comes with a lot of toys (as I am sure most of you already know).  We used to keep some toys in a cubical unit in our living room.  However, when she turned two she got a lot of big toys for her birthday what wouldn't fit in the fabric bins that go in the cubical unit.  We decided to keep these upstairs in her room.  This worked for a while until she wanted to spend every waking moment in her room.  I can't just leave a two year old alone upstairs while I cook dinner or get other work done around the house.  I told my husband that before summer vacation started, we needed to figure out a way to store most of her toys downstairs.

One night I had a brilliant idea.  We would move my husbands office, which is right next to the living room, upstairs to where my office was.  We could then turn his office into a playroom!  I never really used my office anymore because I was always playing with my daughter.  I only need a place to plug my laptop in.  I really had to convince my husband.  I explained how if I had to be upstairs with our daughter all summer long, I wouldn't get any of the home improvement projects done that he wanted me to work on.  I also explained how nice it would be to have a place that all the kids can go to play when we have friends over.  We could maybe then have some adult conversation instead of having to always yell over the kids.  Finally, he gave in and said we could do it.

My husbands office has not been touched since we moved in 8 years ago!  Not a single piece of furniture has moved, not a single new picture has been hung.  Nothing ever really left the office, but many items found their home there.  I was hoping to use this as an opportunity for him to go through all of this stuff and do some purging.

I new that it was going to take a while so I suggested we start on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.  I could not believe all the stuff that was coming out of his office!  Once we had everything out, before it went into the new office, he decided if he really needed it in the new office, if we could pack it away, or if it could be donated.

Once everything was out of the old office, we took down one of the built in desks.  I also had tons and tons of nail holes to fill before I could give it a fresh new coat of paint.  I don't usually like white walls, but I didn't want the wall color to compete with all the great colors of the toys and books so I decided to keep it.  Who knows, it may change yet this summer :)

After painting, in came all of my daughter's stuff.  I also needed to create a little office space for me so I also brought in all of my necessities - bill paying stuff, Project Life stuff, etc.  I found in our basement a plastic rolling cart and a file cabinet that fit underneath the built in desk.  These worked perfect to hold all my stuff.

We used an old bookcase to hold all the books and coloring books.  I used two wicker baskets that used to be our coffee table to create a reading nook in the corner (and the offer more storage space).  My daughter's table that she loves to play Sesame Street on fit perfectly in the old closet.  The cubical that used to be in the living room fit perfectly on the little wall under the window when you walk into the room.

Because I didn't like all my stuff showing through the clear plastic drawers on the plastic rolling cart, I covered some cardboard in wrapping paper and glued a label on each drawer.

So far, the playroom has been a huge hit both with my daughter and my husband and I.  It is so nice to have our living room back and to have a place where we can quickly throw her toys if we are having people over. My daughter also loves to be able to play with her toys without having to ask to go upstairs.

Daughter's Art Display

My daughter comes home just about every day from day care with various drawings and arts 'n crafts.  I felt bad just looking at them and then setting them in a pile on my desk.  Once in that pile, I had no idea what I was going to do with them.  I decided I wanted to somehow display them in my kitchen above her play kitchen.

The idea that fit the best was to use some sort of a bulletin board.  However, I didn't just want a standard bulletin board you can pick up at an office supply store or Target.  I wanted one that looked more like a picture frame holding her artwork.  I browsed the Internet looking for the perfect one, but I could justify spending $30 to $50 on a bulletin board.  So, I took to Pinterest to look for some ideas of how to potential make my own.  

I came up with the idea to buy a large picture frame, remove the glass, and use cork board squares to turn it into a bulletin board.  The hunt for the perfect frame began.  After looking at a couple of thrift stores, I found nothing and was starting to get discouraged.  Then I came across this beauty at Goodwill for $10.

There was no glass in the frame and I loved how chunky it was.  After investigating a little further, I found that the painting was actually painted on some sort of a cardboard material and that it held push pins perfectly so therefore I wouldn't have to use cork board squares.  

At first I had planned on painting the frame black and covering the painting with some fabric that would go with my kitchen.  I looked at several different fabric stores, but could not find fabric that I liked or that didn't cost under $5.00 a yard.  Remember, I wanted to create this for cheaper then what I could have bought one.  After venting my frustration to my mother, she came up with the idea to paint the frame a funky color and cover the painting with basic black fabric.  That way the artwork would stand out and not be over powered by a busy patterned fabric.  

I went to the local hardware store and found the perfect paint in their clearance bin for $2.  I got left over black fabric from my mom and turned that lovely picture into this great bulletin board.

It looks great in my kitchen and my daughter loves to show other people her artwork.  I love the fact that I did the whole project for $12!