Big girl room

This project has literally been in the works for months! The project really got pushed aside when I lost all my energy in the first trimester of my pregnancy. I am still not at 100% energy, but the project is complete! My husband helped out a lot too, once we realized I was pregnant and should not be painting. We cannot be happier with how the room turned out and it truly is a labor of love. Not a lot of money was spent in the room because so many things were repurposed, but a lot of time and energy went into it. The curtains were the big splurge from West Elm and as a general rule, I am not a fan of curtains. This is the only room in our house that has curtains. My husband jokes that I must have been pregnant and nesting to decide to purchase those, but they really add to the room.








The walls are a gray with glitter paint on top. It doesn’t show up well in photos, but I really like the effect. The bed has been in my family forever. It was once at my grandma’s, then my mom’s, then I inherited it. I painted it (ok, my husband did the painting) white and sanded off the paint for a rustic look.




I got the nightstand from a garage sale for $1. It had a tacky checkerboard painted on the top, but I painted and sanded this to match the bed. The ceramic tractor was a gift from our little girl’s friend. He painted it for her and she keeps it close to her bed because sometimes she likes to sleep with it.




The bookshelf was a gift to my little girl last year for Christmas. I made it in my woodworking class. We moved it up from the basement.




I made the signs using picmonkey to reflect what I say to my little girl every night and had them printed at our local UPS store for $.85/each. I put them in repainted frames that were in our master bedroom when I redecorated that room.








And the teepee…my fave part of the room. Since the closet in this bedroom takes up one whole wall and has plenty of storage, we could justify the loss of space that would otherwise have a dresser there. I was looking to buy a teepee online and figured I could make it for less than the $150-200 they sell for. We bought (6) 1 X 2 boards for $.79/each and drilled holes in them and tied them together. Then I bought a king size flat sheet ($15) to wrap around the teepee.




Our little girl wasted no time moving “just her favorite” books in here and reading. My husband and I also fell asleep in there…it was a cozy place to nap:)




Our little girl LOVES the room so much that it is all worth it! We did not have to worry about the transition to a big girl room for her being difficult; she was so excited to sleep in there, she asked to sleep in her new room when the only thing in the room was the bed and piles of randomness on the floor and it was far from finished! And much to her delight, every single person that comes over happily agrees to look at her new room when she excitedly asks them. Bless their hearts...
Now the nursery awaits its latest occupant- our baby that is due in October.
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Rest. Refresh. Renew. (Easter)

We made the decision to stay home for Easter this year, just the three of us. This is the first holiday since we've been married that we did not see either of our families, which was a change for sure, but it was such a wonderful weekend.

It was a weekend of rest and relaxation. We all took naps. We colored Easter eggs. My husband and I went on a date. We played with our little girl. We went out to eat so we didn't even have to worry about cooking or cleaning.











We woke up at our own house Easter morning. We celebrated Easter at our church, with our church family.



The Easter bunny came to our house and we helped our little girl hunt for her basket and Easter eggs there. The holiday was not about racing around to pack, spending hours in the car, and exhaustion once we arrived at our destination this year. It was about slowing down, being together and celebrating a holiday in our own home.


When we visit our families, it is always hectic and that is a chaos I love, but this year, I was glad to have a low key holiday that provided some much needed family time for our growing little family. The year so far has been absolutely exhausting for us and for the first time in months, I feel like we look and feel refreshed. It is amazing how rest can do that to a person.

As we anticipate spring's arrival any day, I look forward to starting the season out refreshed.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Using hangers to display photos

Being that I take thousands of photos, I am always looking for unique ways to display them, like when I hung photos from a branch here. I mentioned before I don't mind doing laundry and spend a decent amount of time in my laundry room, tending to laundry, making my own laundry soap and repairing clothes. I decided to add some personalization to the room with pictures of my little girl.  I had taken these fun pictures when we were out puddling last summer and found inspiration here. I found these antique hangers at a thrift store and mounted the 8 X10 photos to mdf that I cut to size. Then I used Mod Podge to adhere the photos to the mdf.

Clip them in a hanger (mine were purchased from a thrift store), hang with 3m Command Strips- done!
~Angela

Roads from painters tape

As is often the case, the best laid plans don’t always go as planned, but we try to roll with them around here. I had the day off of work and planned to send my little girl to daycare as usual, so I could focus on painting her big girl room (I anticipated this to be much easier when she is not around, trying to be a “helper.”) Then, I was getting a massage. Painting always makes me hurt in muscles I forget I have.

My little girl woke up and her fever put a spin on that day to myself. I kept her home and instead we stayed in our pajamas, cuddled, we colored and we made reading corners.

We played with toys, pulling every last one out of the toy basket, rediscovering past favorites and settling in to play with a constant favorite of hers- cars.

I looked at the painting supplies and tucked them away for another day, when I had an idea with the painters tape- I could make road for her cars! So I made random roads, bridges, and intersections. I even made a weird shaped parking lot. I figured since the tape comes off the wood trim with no problem, it would not hurt our hardwood floors.






This was such a hit! We had so much fun together with this! She spent hours playing with these roads and we left them up for several days. And as suspected, the tape came off the floors, no problem!

What a fabulous day off after all:)

~Angela

Super SIMPLE Recipe: Apple & Feta Cheese Pizza

We had this pizza at a museum cafe and I thought I could duplicate it at home. It was tasty!!

Ingredients:

1 premade pizza crust

1 C feta cheese

2 C cheddar cheese

apple, cut into thin slices

bacon (optional)

Directions:

add all toppings and bake as instructed on pizza crust package.

Seriously easy. And so, so good!

~Angela