Friday, November 25, 2011

Bella's Beautiful Bedroom

Whew!  It's been a busy time around here.  With what, you ask?  Well, mainly, Bella's bedroom needed to be totally redecorated.  Allow me to set the scene...Our house has 3 bedrooms, though the third may or may not be an actual bedroom depending on which home assessment you look at.  It is teeny tiny and does not have a closet (that's why it's sometimes not considered a bedroom).  Anywho, this room started out as our home office then morphed into a nursery.  It's the perfect size for a crib and changing table.  I carefully picked a gender neutral brick red, navy blue and cream color scheme (because the room already had a dark blue carpet).  The room was so cozy and warm and dark.  Perfect for rocking and nursing.  When Bella came along, Joe moved into the second bedroom.  Then when Trey came along, Bella bunked in Joe's room.  As the kids got older, we felt that it would be good to have a boys room and a girls room.  Bella moved back into the nursery and Trey moved in with Joe.  Bella has clearly outgrown my Americana obsession with stars, so from top to bottom, her room has been transformed.  Most of the artsy ideas came straight from Pinterest....enjoy the pics!  They're not great pictures, but you'll get the gist.

This bed was a labor of love!  I sanded it, sawed it, painted, and built the headboard.  The drawers are huge and make up for the lack of closet space.

Here's Bella's vanity table (sorry about the pajama top!).  Isn't that headband tower cute?  A friend made that!  And the frame was super simple to make....just hot glue ribbons in an empty frame and viola!


Cute little art wall.  The stars were red, white and blue...easy change to simple white.  I painted and stenciled the plywood, and Bella wrote the words.  I love that she help create the art!  The letter "B" was made with a combo of puffy paint and Elmer's glue, then mod podeged onto canvas (seriously easy!).

I bought silver trays at my favorite antique store and painted them with chalkboard paint.  Super easy, super fun.  The dresser was a basic cherry wood from Target, painted Mickey's Shadow gray with the drawer fronts painted with chalkboard paint.

And bookshelves for good measure.  Since taking this picture, the corners have been covered to prevent bleeding head injuries and I glued ribbon to edge to spice it up a bit.  Like I said, the pictures don't really do the color justice.  The walls are painted in Princess Tiara pink, also from the Disney collection.  That's what I've been doing.  Oh yeah, and recovering the dining room chairs, hosting Thanksgiving, etc,etc.

Bonus!!!!  Remember  my friend Drew's "monkey tail" beard??  Well, he did it again!  This beard is called "Oh no!  My beard fell off!" and it's just great...

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Trick-or-Treat Success???

Well, we made it!  Our first year going door to door on Halloween.  The kids lasted about an hour and STILL managed to collect 4 gallon bags worth of loot (not including Huggies, chips or crackers).  I'm probably most excited to say that I have not had one single piece of blessed chocolate!  Hooray for me!  There were a few things that I took note of to improve the quality of Trick-or-Treating in the future...

1) Move to a warmer climate.  It was about 40 degrees AND raining!  My face hurt from squinting against the stinging, incessant drops.  Yes, we had umbrella's, but they were not always the convenient choice.

2) When handing out pillowcases, avoid t-shirt style cases.  They tend to stretch and stretch as the candy piles up, then drag on the ground and trip the child holding it.

3) Visit the houses on ONE side of the street only, so that when we find ourselves about a mile from where we started, we can backtrack and get the houses on the opposite side of the street.  The kids zigzagged the whole way!  Eventually, Jay walked back to get the van to avoid making the kids retrace their route.

4) When holding my husbands pride and joy (a large plastic refillable cup with a handle and lid), do not set it down on someones mailbox post to help a child.  It WILL get left behind much to hubby's chagrin.  Sorry, dear!  Though, on his trek back for the van, he found the cup!

5) When buying costumes, buy sizes much larger than you think they'll need.  For one thing, I think costumes run really small...we got Joe a 8-10 Green Lantern and it was almost inappropriate it was so small.  Plus, unless we really stick to #1 on my list, we need to be able to bundle up underneath these flimsy, yet ridiculously priced, costumes.

All in all, I think I was the most negatively affected from the experience.  All the kids loved it, including Trey!  No one even fussed when they heard it was only 7:00 and Trick-or-Treat lasted until 8!!!  I think everyone was chilled to bone...and ready to dump out their bags and count their goodies!




How was your Halloween?