Baby Girl's Room

For a long time I was thinking that even though I had a lot of ideas I probably would never get to decorate my baby girl's room. Why? Because I figured there wouldn't be a point if (fingers crossed) our fourth (no announcement, just thinking ahead) is a boy I would have to redo it as soon as it was completed. Not that I wasn't going to do anything. I just wasn't going to paint and really go all out. But then in a spectacular DUH moment I realized that if I just picked a paint color that would work for a girl or a boy I could paint and do all those other little things that make a room and special place.

I'm a real genius, I know.

Here are some pictures I'm looking at for inspiration.

Made by Joel

felt board for babies

Want to know what's hot down under? Then LMNOP is the place to go. For all things fashionable when it comes to Aussie kids this is the site to read. One of my favorites are the featured creations by Joel Henriques. Check out his site Made by Joel for how-to and printable templates! Or better yet buy his book coming out in October.

Handmade stackable and interchangeable wood flowers.

Memory cards created from his own art! Love these. Even more I love that he provides a printable. I'm making mine this weekend!

Homemade forest

Felt garland

Just another bow holder

At the beginning of last week I decided that I couldn't take the jumbled mess that was our bow basket any longer. It was time to make an organized, more attractive, storage piece. I turned to the web for inspiration and decided to go with using an old frame.

I've had this frame from Ikea (along with a lot of other people - this frame is all over blog land!) for awhile. I just love it! I painted it white last year for a project I never followed through with and thought it would be perfect for what I had in mind.

Nothing new here: I took some ribbon I had and hot glued it across the frame and added some fabric to the back.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm sure my measurements aren't exact since I eyeballed it. But since it will be covered up by hair things I didn't think it mattered too much!

I am loving how easy it is to find what I am looking for when doing hair. With three girls I need things to be fast and efficient.

Of course since I was making a cute hair accessory holder I decided that I might as well go ahead and paint and decorate the bathroom. For some reason I thought this would only take a couple of days! Ha!

I'll give you little sneak peeks this week as I add some finishing touches.




I used the left over paint from my playroom, which is much more yellow than this picture indicates. I get such horrible lighting in my house!

I'm hoping to finish up re-painting the step stool and giving some cute little elephants a make over tomorrow!

A little red love

I meant to post these yesterday in honor of Valentine's Day, but between my daughter's dance class and V-day party, I didn't have time for much!

This red chandy is from a cafe inside the Bellagio Hotel. This picture does not do it justice!

Remember these?

A couple of coats of spray paint later...

80's drabulous to current fabulous!

Hope your day of red and pink was full of love!

Bathroom Woes

So I've been tackling a few projects around my house in preparation of hosting a family luncheon that just happened this weekend. One of the biggest projects was our downstairs bathroom. With it's many (at least 8) walls and awkward angles I wanted to do something bold and graphic on the walls. Something that would be the "art" and camouflage all those angles. My big idea? Wood grain. I loved pictures I'd seen of rooms done with faux bois wallpaper. Since I can't afford that I figured I'd buy a wood graining tool and create my own faux bois look. Oh, how that failed! The guy at Home Depot told me it would work on textured walls, just look "a little different." Which in reality translated to looks like someone scratched their nails through the paint.Next, I tried making my own geometric type stencil, but that only worked for a little bit before the pattern didn't line up. That's when I gave up. I'm taking a break from the bathroom this month. I'll revisit it in March. Hopefully with some fresh ideas. I'd share pictures but I forgot to take some, but since I accidentally deleted all the pictures on my camera it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Sigh.

AAA

Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about towing a car. What I am going to talk about is AAA Bar and Restaurant Supply in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is seriously lacking in the thrifting department and when you see something labeled as "beautiful" on Craigslist you might as well insert tacky and ugly. But there are a few interesting places that hold hidden treasures. This is one of them.

I first went here last year when I was looking for some chairs for my kitchen. I found exactly what I was looking for and they are only waiting the perfect fabric to go on them.

They have stacks of chairs. Literally.

{Forgive the pictures - they're from my phone!}

I really kind of love this one. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's still there when I go back. Great lines, button tufting. The vinyl is a little saggy, but I could live with that until I could afford to have it recovered.

These serving tables were great. Next time I'm there I'm going to have someone take them down so I can get a closer look at the top. Wouldn't it be a great side or entry table? Take off the huge casters, of course.

They have a lot of unusual lighting, that have a lot of potential.

But best of all? Drumroll please...After picking my way through rows of industrial size freezers, giant fryers, and the occasional soft serve machine, I spied these - way high on a shelf, tucked almost out of sight - huge ginger jars (see my apple for "perspective"). The color was awful, but there's no way not to love that shape. I asked the owner how much. "$10," he said. I said, "I'll take two."

A little spray paint and these should make a gorgeous addition to my living room!

Dyed Rug II

Maybe it's a little much (but it's so much fun and soooo much cheaper) - I dyed another rug. As I mentioned several posts ago I am currently working on three areas around my house. One of which is our family entry through the garage. One thing I wanted was a new rug. Something dark to hide the dirt and something with a print to add some fun. Since everything cute is over $20 and I really don't like spending more than $10, I decided to try another dyed rug project.

I found this rug at Ross for $11.99. Perfect size, perfect color, and the price was only a little more than I wanted to pay.

I found a rug I liked online, enlarged the picture and traced the pattern onto some computer paper. I cut that out, traced it onto some card stock and used that as my template to make some "stencils" out of contact paper.

After less than half way through cutting out my stencils I really wished I had thought to ask my friend with the vinyl cutter to cut out my stencils for me. Something I'll remember if there's a next time! Once my stencils were cut out I laid out my pattern on the rug.

I'm not sure if it was because my contact paper was at least 10 years old or because contact paper isn't made for carpet, but I did have a hard time getting my stencils to stick and stay in place. Fortunately, that didn't affect my pattern when applying the dye! There was some slight shifting, though, which made for a less than perfectly aligned layout. But you can't really tell.

The finished product:





Overall, I am really happy with the result. The dark brown dye will be perfect for hiding dirt brought in by dirty shoes and the pattern adds that little punch I was looking for. Now I just need to find a mirror the right size, paint it, hang up our family organizing system, get some hooks, add some art and I'm done!

I can't wait to try a more intricate pattern next. Throwing in multiple colors would be fun, too!