Another Gilded Treasure

Today I would like to share with you a successful project, and a failed one.

First, the successful project:

Last December I picked up three of these crown ornaments thinking I would paint them and make something for my mom and Sister (sorry girls, I never got around to it!). Once I decided to do a castle/princess theme for Muffin and Baby's room, I thought they would be perfect in pink! I started out with the same color as the poodles, but it just wasn't popping, so I went a few shades darker.

From gilded......

To perfectly pink!
I even followed through on the project, and hot glued them to her cubby shelf. I'm hoping the glue will hold. If not, I will call in Daddy Man and his power tools.
Close up:
I took the opportunity to give you a little sneak peak of Muffin's work in progress room. I think I'm pretty much done, it's just that its hard to get photos of the whole room at one time (this would mean the whole room would have to be clean. ;) Asking too much, right?).
I found this cutest-of-all chairs at Ross, and got 25% off for a scuff on the leg! So girly and cute!
On to the failed project:

My third attempt at upcycling a men's shirt into a boy's shirt did not go so well. This time I used this tutorial for making a onesie, and modified it for a shirt. It was looking good until I sewed the ribbing on backward on the front half of the shirt. Arg!! At first glance it looks OK....
but closer inspection reveals a slew of errors. I'm new to sewing knit fabrics, so the neckline is all warbly (yup, made that up). As I said, the front neckline that you see is supposed to be on the inside of the shirt...the other side looks better, but since I used the existing hem of the old shirt, I couldn't turn it around. And, as you can see right by Muffin's fingers, I didn't catch the edge of the ribbing in the sleeve.
Well, I will try again. Hopefully I can get it right before this weekend's birthday party for Baby Keller! As for the fate of this shirt? It's not so bad to be doomed to the dumpster, so I think Mr. Baby will use it for a sleep shirt (just like the first two I tried. UGH!)

Mr. Baby's Room

Well, Here it is: Mr. Baby's room. As part of Operation Beautify, I decided to move him into his own room, and let the girls have their room together. I think it will work best this way, but a major deciding factor was the decorating factor....much easier to have a girly room and a boyish room, then try to mix them together. As usual, my pictures aren't that great. I don't know how she or she or she does it. How do you take decent photos with kids running around, pulling on you, messing up your staged areas, poking each other, you get the picture. (ha ha) Anyhow, here it is.

I still need to hang the curtain rod higher, but I'm pretty happy with how the curtains turned out. I sewed circles on them to match the bedding.

I painted this bookcase....

...and these shelves.....(thanks Sister for the cute arrangement on them!)

...and this table. I love the Uppercase Living on it!
My Uppercase tree on the wall is a bit lonely....not sure what to do with that yet. Any ideas? That green pony- one of the kids' favorite toys. I highly recommend it. It is called the Rody Horse, and it is a blow up toy to bounce on. You can inflate it to different sizes depending on how big your kid is. Love the fun colors too. If you live in Redding, they can be found at Sugarplumb Cottage.

This fabric is what I based the whole room on...ironically it is the last thing to go on the wall. I'm looking for a large frame from a thrift store to paint orange or green. I found this amazing fabric at a garage sale...score!! I wish I could get more of it.

So there you have it. Mr. Baby's room. It is so nice for him to have a space with all baby-safe toys to play in. I don't have to worry about him choking on a pea-sized strawberry shortcake doll purse, and he seems to enjoy having his own space to play in. It is also perfect for bed times. Girls' room to come soon!

Update: After some searching around I found this lamp that was sold at Urban Outfitters a few years ago. Oh how I want that for his room! I can't find it anywhere, just found this picture on a post where someone was ranting about how Urban Outfitters ripped off the design from the vintage fabric, originally offered in an apron kit. Honestly, is it that big of a deal? Anyway, I think my fabric must be from one of the apron kits. If you ever see this lamp, or even just the shade, send it my way!!!

I love my kids!

I feel like I have a renewed sense of appreciation and love for my Babies. Maybe it is because their cheeks are so kissable.

Maybe it's seeing them enjoy their new turtle pool ($5 at a garage sale!) together on a windy spring day.
Maybe it is seeing them get so excited about each other....
or seeing how their faces light up when they look at me.
Or, it could be that I decided to sit and relax, simply watching them enjoy themselves, instead of trying to get something done while they were occupied.
Whatever it is, I am glad for it. I love feeling that heart-warming, overwhelming joy when I look at them or hold them. It's such a better feeling than stressing about what needs to be done, or why they are cranky or fussy. I think I am going to bottle this feeling in my heart, and pull it out when times are less fun. (see last post)

You can almost see his tooth in this one. :)

I just can't get enough of this sweet face!
Mr. Baby likes to investigate and figure out how things work, much like his Daddy.
Ok, have you had enough of their cheeks? Didn't think so. But I do have other things to talk about. ;) This week my Sister and Mom came to visit me and help me get prepared for new Baby Girl. Can you believe that I am almost 8 months along, and didn't even have anything set up for her? Sister and Mom to the rescue.

Part of the preparation was moving Mr. Baby into his own room, and setting up baby's crib in Muffin's room. The girls will have a castle/princess theme, and Mr. Baby will have a more modern, orange, green and brown room. I will post pictures of each of the rooms once I finish a few projects, like making curtains, painting some of the furniture, etc. Here is the first thing I made for Mr.'s room: his crib blanket.
I modeled it after an Uppercase Living tree that I ordered for his wall. It took quite some time to make, but thanks to sister's expert drawing, it came pretty close to the model. We had so much fun doing all our projects; from changing pads and pillows, to blankets and shirts, we did it all. (Yes, my living room looked like a craft store exploded in it for a few days, but it was worth it! Sorry housemates!)

The back of the blanket is flannel owls. It was my first attempt at a real applique, and I'm pretty happy with it! Can't wait to finish his room and show you how it all looks together!

Operation Beautify, Day Two

I had to call in for reinforcements to get today's projects done, but Daddy Man and I had fun getting our room put together. First, a little side project to spruce up one of the walls (previously blank) in our room. I paired our engagement photo with a couple of new framed Uppercase Living words. I cut a piece of fabric to go in the frame (yay for using fabric on hand) and put the word on top of the glass. It took about 5 minutes.

Now on to the nitty gritty. A couple of weeks ago we bought a new platform storage bed, and moved it to a different wall. We've been wanting to move our TV/computer to this wall, but just didn't have the time. Well, tonight we made the time, and beautified it big time!

Before:

After:

That's the before picture on the TV. :) We have a Mac Mini computer hiding in the black and white box in between the plates. All the cords are beautifully hidden...a must, since this table is right at the entry to our room. It's the first thing you see as you walk in (from the side). It is a bit monotone for me, but I think I like it. LOVE how clean it looks. I'm sure Muffin and Mr. Baby will have fun playing with the printer conveniently placed right at their level. Ahh well, you have to give them something. ;)

Up next: our desk area, which previously housed our TV/computer, office stuff, and a whole lot of junk, is being moved out to the living room. It will hold my sewing machine (yay!!) and be a clear work space for Daddy Man to do homework. Not sure what is going in it's place yet, but it feels great to get our room less crowded!

Operation Beautify, Day One

It's official! Operation beautify (see last post) is under way. I think I finally found a groove, because today I had laundry done, bread made, trip to the play area done, dinner prepped, and two areas of my room beautified, all before the kids took their afternoon nap! Yeah, I'm shocked too. Not sure how that all happened, but I'm definitely going to try to repeat that in days to come!

First of all, I love the play area at our mall. The kids do too. Mr. Baby tried out the race car today.

And Muffin fought some fires with her baby doll.
Don't worry Mom, my hands were at the ready to catch him!
How cool is this? I want a tree slide.
Mr. Baby started crawling yesterday, but he's been climbing up the slide for weeks.
We had the play area all to ourselves this morning- perfect for Muffin. She likes things a bit on the calmer side. She usually finds one friend at the play area and talks with her and follows her around. Usually a girl around 3-4 years old. And she always remembers their names.
Now, down to business. Check out this post for my motivation for Operation Beautify. I decided to post before pictures too, however embarrassing they may be, because I think it will help me to keep things from getting that way again. So here you have it, the top of my cubbie storage, my first before:
And After:
Ok, so the "and they lived..." sign is going to have to wait for Daddy man to come home to be hung. I gave it my best shot, but decided to forgo frustration and leave the retarded double-screw-hole pictures to the professional. And the cubbies themselves will be tackled another day.

And here's the next one, the top shelf of my closet. Before:
And After:
Love those bins! (And I didn't even just pile everything in them!) One holds extra craft stuff like knitting, mohair, and stuffing. The next one has fancy shoes (it's true, I hardly ever wear heals, but I do have a few cute ones) each in their own box, and extra purses and wallets. The last one has winter clothes. Yay! This is so fun! I feel better already!

An Orderly Palace

Are you the kind of person who can't be comfortable in a room until it is cleaned, organized, and generally spotless? Some people just can't relax until the chaos is non-existent. I am not that kind of person... which I am thankful for, because with two kids, clutter seems to create itself. Yes, I prefer things picked up and orderly, but I can deal if they're not. I am, however, greatly affected by a room's esthetic- if it is not put together right, or decorated in a cool way, I feel antsy until I fix it. It is worst in my own home. Since moving to our new home in Redding, I have not really designed the kids' room how I would like it. There's a few dolls on some shelves, but it's mostly a room with a crib, toddler bed, cubby toy storage, and toys. My Mom gave Muffin this great Uppercase Living sign, so I decided to run with the castle theme. Totally works for a girl and a boy, right?

So I designed and made a castle pillow for Muffin's bed, to start. This makes me feel slightly better about their room. Next on the agenda: sprucing up some old curtains, finishing a keepsake shadowbox for each kid, and whatever else I can think of! I'm pretty sure I can't paint, so I have to be a bit more creative with color. Anyhow, the castle pillow gives me hope!
For the castle part I used fabric samples that I've had for 6 or 7 years. I didn't allow myself to buy anything new for this project, and I love how it turned out! It makes me happy when I can use something that I've had for a while. This cute fabric was just asking to be used!

As I write this post I am looking around my room feeling a bit disgusted with it all. Pictures un-hung, projects half-done, clutter begging for a home (or the garbage can)..... I suppose it's the collateral damage of a busy family. Does it really have to be this way? I think not. We seriously clean our room every day, or sometimes every other day, but it seems to get right back there every day! And honestly, when I have one hour or less of kid-free time in the day, and am faced with the choice to organize my desk, or do something fun (project, watch a show, play a game with a house-mate, or sleep), for sanity's sake I often choose to do something fun. But enough is enough. I've decided, operation beautify is officially under way. Time to get my Palace looking how I want it. I have no idea how long this will take, but it will happen.

So farewell for now. I am going to kick off operation beautify with a nap. ;)