Evolution of a Room

My younger daughter is now 6 weeks old! Six weeks- I can't believe it.

My older daughter turned 17 months old yesterday. Which is equally unbelievable. In about 3 months we're hoping to transition her from her crib to her toddler bed in her "big girl" room.

I've spent the last couple of months transition our third bedroom from this:

Scary, dangerous looking mass of clutter...

To this:

Adorable, colorful, happy looking retreat- don't you want to just run in and play?

So what all have I done in there?
To start we had to move all the junk out. When we moved into this home we gained a bedroom but lost any kind of outside storage. So the room housed our tools, seasonal decorations and other random things that we use occasionally but not enough to need in any easy to reach, daily place. We slowly sorted through everything and moved some things to the attic, others into other closets, and a decent sized portion went to Good Will. Unfortunately the floor of the closet still holds our tools (that gives you an idea of the amount of tools we have ey?)

Once the room was cleared out we were able to start moving things in. Now for the tour. The market stand, the box of train stuff, and the purple toy box were the first things in there, followed by the bed. My inspiration for the room was from the colors in this chair:

I wanted the room to be bright and fun!

The chair was a Craigslist find that my husband reupholstered with fabric we found at Hancock's Fabric back in October.

Before:

After:

  

The toy box was a Good Will find that my husband repaired and painted. The bottom had been damaged by water  which caused it to warp and start falling out. 

Before:

 After:

 I try to keep her pretend produce out of here, for ease of playing's sake. The market stand was bought from someone selling it online and the train box and all the train stuff was bought from someone on Craigslist (an awesome find- that whole box was only $30!).

The bed was a Craigslist find and the rug came from IKEA. The bedding I made along with three of the pillows. I bought some white sheets for cheap and dyed them with Rit brand dye to match the color scheme. I bought enough to make baby sister a matching cover for next year. She has a set in yellow and a set in purple. I made a duvet cover for her comforter. The chevron fabric came from amazon.com After washing the fabric shrunk 2 inches, which created the need for a border to make it big enough to cover the comforter. So I bought some pink and orange fabric to make the girls' blankets coordinate. I had never bordered anything before and I have to say I was really proud of my corners. I used this tutorial to learn how to make such awesome edges.

The pillows were made from the leftover pink and orange fabric. I also pulled out leftover purple fabric from the table runner I made from Mia's first birthday party. I stuffed them all with polyfill.    

The basket holding books was another Good Will find.  And the basket holding stuffed animals came from Home Goods. I always try to organize Mia's toys, I find she plays with them more when she knows how to easily find them. For example, she knows which basket holds her Duplos downstairs, which shelf her puzzles and books are on and whenever she wants them she heads right for them. She also knows where they go when it's time to pick up.

The art gallery wall was something I knew I wanted in the room from the beginning of the process. I had a couple frames lying around, and the rest cost about $10 after a couple trips to Good Will. I bought plain wooden frames and painted them with leftover craft paint from when Mia painted her canvas (which is also hung on the wall). I bought a two pack of canvas on sale at Michael's for that project. Aryana will paint the blank canvas when she's older. The subway art was made by Lovely Little Hello.

I'm so happy with how the room has turned out! All in all I'd say the entire room cost less than $150- without the cost of the toys. I want to empty out the closet and put her IKEA dresser in there- it keeps her from pulling everything out.

I think it's my favorite place in the house- I love all the bright colors!

Let's Go Shopping!

How hard would it be to go grocery shopping without bags?
Seriously. I meal plan week by week and shop for each week's items once a week. That's when I restock things that we always have on hand as well. I cannot imagine having to bring each and every little thing in one armful by one armful... 

Whenever I bring the groceries in Mia LOVES to start unpacking the bags for me. Generally that means she starts unpacking them in the living as I'm out grabbing more bags to bring in :) She loves going shopping as well. She's always asking to go "buh bye" when we're home. 

So when I saw on a site like craigslist that someone was selling a Melissa & Doug market stand, a bunch of plastic produce, and grocery cart for a great price I could not resist picking it up for her. She ended up getting it as an early big sister gift. Which despite being a little young to really understand shopping she loves it. Apparently babies do NOT ride in the baby seat. We put them in the back of the cart- head first normally. She loves to load the cart up with all the fruits and veggies she can. However, I quickly saw it was missing something.

Grocery bags.

Thanks to this awesome tutorial from Serving Pink Lemonade I quickly put together a grocery bag for Mia, despite my very limited sewing capabilities. I adjusted the dimensions a bit, I made the bottom 4 x 6 and made the sides an inch higher. I used some scraps to make handles. I cut the top with pinking sheers to give that true paper bag look :)

After making one I got to thinking I should have made the bag double layered for more durability. So I decided to just make the one and wait and see how durable it would take to toddler play. And, sure enough, after about a month of heavy handed toddler love there are a few holes that need repair. So whenever I make her more I'm going to make them double layered and see if they hold up any better.

 Well, for the time being at least, little girl has a bag to make transporting her purchases easier :)
 

Little Update

It has been far too long since I've written a post- all because of this little thing:

Our latest addition Aryana arrived on March 3rd and it's amazing that she's been here almost a month. Her big sister adores her and is always loving on her- it's funny to think how many times we've had to tell her "Stop kissing Baby Sister- she's trying to sleep right now!"

Obviously I haven't done too much crafting the last month. I'm currently planning on sewing a couple duvet covers for Big Sister's room, in the process of painting some frames for an art gallery wall, I still need to make that cushion for our toy box remodel, and of course trying to stay on top of taking and sorting pictures for the girls' (gracious I have TWO girls!) baby books and our yearly photo books.

I'm in no rush to accomplish any of this. I'm still adjusting to being outnumbered during the day and enjoying the newborn time that leaves much too fast.

SMASHING Through This Pregnancy

I've put Mia's baby book work on the back burner (although I have finished a couple month's spreads in the last few weeks).

I decided that it's more important to me to catch up on my pregnancy journaling. I kept a journal through my pregnancy with Mia, it was a Word Document that I tried to add to at least once a week about how I was feeling, any new developments with the pregnancy and just whatever was on my mind.

For example one entry is just about a text I shared with my husband while I was grocery shopping:

Me: I really have to pee and baby keeps moving and making it worse.
My husband: Haha Baby's got a great sense of humor.
My thought after reading his response: How am I going to survive having my husband and Baby ganging up on me and picking on me all the time?
 

I knew I wanted to transcribe it into some kind of book complete with pictures to make it pleasant to look through, but I didn't know how I wanted to do that so I kept my eyes open and waited. About six months after I had Mia I came across SMASH books and decided they would be a perfect way to display those memories. Coincidentally I had just become pregnant for the second time- so I ordered two books and some of the SMASH book extras- little pockets with calendars in the front, their SMASH tabs, a library style stamp, and some extra pens and stickies from an online scrap booking store.  I love how the SMASH pens have glue sticks on the other end.

The left is the original SMASH book- it's their baby book themed book. The right is the completed journal from my pregnancy with Mia. 

So my package of supplies arrived and then we moved, and everything sat untouched for a few months. I kept up with my journaling on Word for this pregnancy. Then one day I decided to sit down and get serious. I put together at least 6 8x10 collages with 16 photos on each (they were set up in a 4x4 grid) and had them printed from Shutterfly (my photo printing site of choice). This gave me an easy way to have all the photos that I wanted in the book in a nice little size so I would have plenty of room for the journaling (the main purpose of these books). Once the photos arrived I sat down and got busy.

The first step was taking apart the spiral binding so that I could rearrange the pages. Some pages were perfect for later in the book (like a list of 10 Little Things I Love About You; I felt that made more sense to have after she was born rather than in the middle of my pregnancy).

Next I looked over my journaling and notes and filled in my calendars. Then I worked month by month. At the start of each month I have another calendar pocket, then added my journaling for that month.

 
I didn't stress about layouts or having anything written perfectly- although I tried to keep everything legible. I figure I'll be the main person ever looking at these books- although maybe the girls will be interested in reading them once someday.  

I put a tab to mark the start of my First, Second, and Third Trimester and one that marks the start of Mia's Birth Story.

Inside the pockets I tucked notes from the doctor, cards I received from family, and anything else I found worth saving haha!

I used mod podge to attach some fabric that I found at Hancock Fabrics to the cover and some ribbon to tie the book shut. Then I rethreaded the binding to put it all back together. Unfortunately as you flip through the book the pages in the front start sliding out. I need to find some other way to rebind these books but for now I'm content.

It took me a couple of months working an hour at a time to copy the 14 page long journal and fitting in the pictures. I had two pages leftover, I just left those pages out. I have to say I'm really happy with the end result.

So as of right now I'm working on copying my journal from this pregnancy into the other book. I'm halfway through November currently meaning that I have 2.5 months to finish and I'll be caught up. If I keep working at the rate I'm going (2 months per week which is about 3-4 hours worth of work per month of journaling) I'll be caught up by the end of next week, which is my goal. I've only 3 weeks till my due date and once Baby Sister is here I know I won't be crafting at all for a bit.

Turn the Page

Last week I posted about the first page in the baby book that I'm making for our daughter, this week I thought I'd share the second page.

I knew I wanted to share about my pregnancy and where we lived in the book as well as the highlights of her first year. After all the time spent growing her was a pretty big moment in our life.  So I had plans for four pages of information.

The first is a map of where we lived at the time she was born (we have since moved out of state twice).

I used a tourist map that had been sitting in our glove box for over a year and a half. Upon inspection I was able to cut it into a 12 x 12 square and was able to mark  almost all the important places that I wanted to showcase.

I used scrap red paper, tooth picks, and glue to make the flags. I broke the tooth picks into thirds, and used the two pointy ends. Then I cut little triangles out of the red paper, wrapped the widest edge around the tooth pick enough to hold it into place and glued them together. Then I glued the flags into place.

I marked our home with a little house shape, used dotted lines to show the military base my husband was working at the time, used dotted lines to show our favorite walking trails (I walked almost everywhere while we lived in California- I miss being able to do that!), and used arrows to show the direction of places that we would go to often that weren't on the map.

I have flags showing:
The hospital Mia was delivered at
The movie theater we went to ofter
The shopping center
Other tourist-y places in the area

It was so easy to put together compared to the first page- lots less writing and it took a lot less time too! It's also my husband's favorite page in the book so far.  

A Shelf Can Be an Awful Thing

Our townhouse's almost open main floor layout doesn't allow for much space to hide toys, and I'm not comfortable letting our 13 month old, Mia, play in her room upstairs unsupervised. So a good chunk of her play things reside in our living room. We have this nice little window space that once held a fabric tote of toys, her little chair and her lion....

Well it worked for a long while, and never looked terribly messy. Until the toys started reproducing. My husband loves legos, as does Mia. And he is more than happy to spoil her with duplos. What started out as one box of duplos became two overflowing boxes of duplos, a large plate, and an alligator that eats them (Okay- I'll admit the alligator was my birthday gift to her). Then her birthday and Christmas came and suddenly there was so much the poor girl couldn't even get to anything.

*sigh* The OCD part of me is so embarassed by this mess, and the Mom in me can't believe my girl is big enough to be able to play with toys.

We did some research and tried to figure out the best solution, knowing that the living room arrangement will change once we finally find that perfect sectional for the right price (so before this new year is over) and also knowing we don't want to give up the empty space we have in the living room by getting a coffee table or ottoman that has a lot of storage space. My husband discovered that Ikea's expedit shelf had the perfect dimensions to fit in the space, so we decided to go get one.

We grew up in an area with no Ikea's nearby, so let me first say for two HGTV addicts with plans to purchase an old home someday and spend years remodeling it,  their showroom floor was pretty awesome. We got so many new ideas for Mia's "Big Girl" room. We tend to like older furniture with character, but it was still a pretty neat experience. 

We got home just in time for lunch and a little bit of play before it was time for a nap. It turns out the box doubles as a slide for toddlers. Mia kept climbing up it then letting her body slide down backwards.

We found our first piece of Ikea furniture to be really easy to assemble. We got it done with plenty of time to spare before nap time was over.

Then we quickly loaded it up with all the fun stuff.

I didn't want to pay $18 a basket, so I'm still on the hunt for baskets. The fact that the shelf comes
above the window ledge also bothers me more than I want to admit. So ironically even though we bought the shelf because it fits that space I'm considering moving it.

And how did Mia like her new toy shelf? 

She hated it.

She saw it as soon as I was bringing her downstairs and immediately started crying. When I set her down and tried to get her to play she started throwing herself to the ground and wailing. I've no idea if she was still tired, didn't like the change, or mad that we did it without her help but honestly it was a hilarious reaction to a new shelf.

Does anyone have any stories to share of ridiculous reactions kids have had to any changes in the home? And does anyone have any suggestions for baskets that will utilize the maximum space in each cube without an almost $20 price tag?

My DIY Baby Book

Before my daughter was born I knew I wanted to take the time to document her first year in a scrap book rather than the traditional fill-in-the-blank style baby book. I wanted to be able to easily add all the mementos and photos I could, while still making the book easy to flip through.

The first page of her book I wanted to hold a bunch of facts from the year she was born (2011). Inspiration struck when I finished rereading the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time (I'm a huge fan). I decided to make the layout of the page like the front page of the wizarding newspaper. I was unable to come up with a unique title that I liked for my newspaper page- and wanting to start the project NOW I named it the Daily Prophet- like from the books.

I had taken a few nights and googled a bunch of information, then it was time to lay it out on paper. Not having a fancy printer or the software to be able to lay out the information on a standard 12 x12 scrapbook page I hand wrote all my facts- three times. Once as practice, once in pencil on the real page, then again in ink. My hand hurt at the end and I was so glad to be done- and happy with the end result!

My "articles" include:
What was Popular in 2011
Music that was Popular in 2011
What We Watched on TV
Big Movies in 2011
Average Cost of Things in 2011 (postage stamp, milk, car, house, gallon of gas, a 7-11 Slurpee etc...)
Big Headlines for 2011 (Osama bin Laden was found and killed, the end of the world was predicted twice by Harold Camping, the Occupy Wall Street Movement etc...)
I also included what her name was ranked by the Social Security Administration and who visited us in the hospital. 

I used a fine tip pen and a regular sharpie to give different dimension to the page. I also tried to write in different fonts and directions to help give it a less monotonous look. I chose to use a picture printed in sepia style to also give it that authentic "wizard newspaper" look.

When my 9 year old brother first glanced at the page he shouted "She was in the newspaper!" I told him that I thought she was special enough to have her own paper.