Baby Boy's Room

Mandy here. I know, I know. It's been a while. I've been working on creating this little miracle here. I guess that was about 5 weeks ago. Man, babies are a LOT of work. You kinda forget about that. So, excuses, excuses. I might as well keep going. I haven't ever posted my older son's room, which is now the baby's room. I did make a few changes, so there are some before and after pictures.

I made these curtains. Easiest thing ever. I found all the fabric for the room online.

This is the room before, when it was Zeke's room. I made the bumper pads using those bumper pad fillers you can buy at the fabric store. Instead of piping along the top, I used jumbo rick rack. (My mom made that adorable quilt hanging over the bed, isn't she the best?)

Here's a lovely blurry picture of the new crib. Gotta love when the old crib is recalled at the same time you're pregnant with the second. It worked out pretty nice since the two year old really made a mess of that first crib.:)Oh, and yes, my mom made the new quilt hanging over the bed for Max. Seriously, our mom is FABULOUS!!

Here's a little vinyl magic and I added some pictures(these are actually pictures of Zeke, but these boys really look a lot alike!) Don't worry, I ordered more pictures today!

And one more pic of the bed. Ok, now time to feed, change, rock, repeat. The story of my life. Love it. Seriously.:)

2011- Crafty dreams

So I know I was going to be completely blissful this 2011 and not want anything more but just enjoy what I have. Um, that totally lasted like a day and I've moved on to my more greedy self. Is it really that bad to want something if you intend to create it yourself? I say no and I win! I'm happiest when I am able to create. My husband is happiest when he gets to use his arsenol of tools. Win, Win! Here are some projects I'm dreaming of.

Homemade light fixtures. I know my mason jar chandelier wasn't the best experience to install but I still believe that lighting is WAY over priced and I need to figure out a way to replace every lighting fixture in my house. This reclaimed wood fixture is a beauty!
This old mirror with writing on it is to DIE FOR! I love quotes and any artwork that incorporates quotes is a winner winner!



I totally need to make one or 10 of these. They are perfect for a side table for couches or kids bedrooms. I've even seen some with shorter legs for pet beds. Seriously, the person who thought of these should receive an Oscar or crown or something!


These clipboards will be perfect for my daughters growing artwork gallery in her new bedroom. Plus I'm pretty sure they'd hold her giant collection of accessories as well! Got to find super cute hot pink paper. (Image by Martha Stewart)



Something about a grouping of nine makes me happy. I love symmetry. I also love a little chaos too- go figure. I keep thinking about this set of numbers and I'm pretty sure I will have a grouping of 9 of something in my home by the end of the year. I also love this color combo. It reminds me of fall, which also happens to be my favorite season.

This is what's on my mind for the near future. No more yucky carpet. I will have to be more careful on the stairs though, since I'm the most accident prone in the house!

From Centsational Girl

I've convinced the hubs on the staircase, but haven't yet dropped the bomb on the rest of my projects. I know he's gonna love my vision, he always gets this cute glazed eye, deer in the headlight, eye twitching, head spasm, completely lost look in his eyes when I describe my crafty dreams. I know that look means he totally wants to help because he's completely enamored by my excitement. :) Did I tell you that 2011 is going to be a year of blissful denial too.
What's on your crafty agenda?

Top 10 Fav Posts of 2010

Another year has gone by and you know what? I'm not too sad about it! I used to wallow in my own self pity of my children growing up too fast or time moving too quickly. But I'm learning to not rush life and really enjoy each phase I'm in. So when it passes, I'm not aching that I didn't enjoy it enough. It's a process though, I have to remind myself on a daily basis to hug the kids tighter, acknowledge their concerns (more like dramatic reinactments) and not wish for them to be independent or less needy. I'm telling myself to just enjoy this life and not wish for anything more. I will NOT be making a New Years Life filled with wants and must haves this year. (Probably a total lie, but aren't all New Years resolutions?) Instead, I'm looking around me and being grateful for everything I have. With that mushy stuff behind me, I will now tell you my top 10 fav posts of last year- In no particular order, drum roll please.........

Number UNO: Turquoise & metallic striped bathroom. Forgot to take a picture before I painted the boring white walls and added the turquoise frame. It still needs new light fixture and faucet and counter top and floor. But PAINT made a BIG difference!

Numero 2. Mandy's ABC quilt. The fact that she made a darling quilt for a friend is impressive. I would start one with good intentions, never finish it, and then mom would come in and take pity on my half done project and finish it for me. Then I would decide that it was WAY TOO MUCH work and keep if for myself! But that's just me...... Mandy is the nice one.

Number Tres: Mason Jar Chandy- This project still haunts me in my sleep because of the legistics of shoving 21 wires into a small metal ceiling canister (whatever it's called). I didn't do it, my hubs did and I really felt for him!



Number Quadre: Peg board love- Isn't this perfect for a little boys room? I think it's difficult to find hip things for younger boys. Decor for boys tends to be cheesy or infantile for say a cool 8yr old boy. My sisters peg board hipped-out(I heart blog vocabulary) the room and mad a perfect spot for your child's newest artwork.





CINCO: Master bedroom makeover- Umm..... lame, uninspiring, blah, snooze. Ahhhh, peaceful, calm, a bit more personal and a lot more me!


SIX: Modern Quilt- So I don't know what happened. My mom makes amazing quilts. My older sis makes amazing quilts like this one below. And my lil sis makes cool quilts. What happened to me? I've got to figure this out, because I'm itching to do something like this one for my little boy when he transfers to a twin bed. Isn't this SA-WEET!

Lucky Number 7: Dresser makeover. The picture says it all. Bliss, happiness, punch ya in the face with color, squeal!!!!! Why does this dresser makeover make me so happy? Because it's over!!!! Painting & sanding projects are my least favorite to do but most favoritest to look at!

OCHO: Woodwork artwork- This is a masterpiece in scroll saw magic and sheer patience! You win the award Mandy & hubs! It is gorg!
Nine: These buckets look so cute on shelves to catch knick knacks. I could definitely use some to hold the 100 matchbox cars I find throughout the house. I love that Renee made these and used them as her gift bag for baby gifts. Super cute!

Number TEN: My favorite wreath of all time. The Ruffley wreath! Mandy cut out 300 felt circles by hand! and sent them to me as a birthday gift so I could make my own beloved wreath. Sigh, I just love ruffles. Another sigh, I really love turquoise. Join together now for a super blissful sigh of sheer happiness, and you just made the purtiest reef you ever did seed! Mandy also made one for my parents front door for my lil brother's wedding. Deep plum. It was just as fantastic! So there you have my top 10 fav posts. Now I'm moving on to 2011 and the possibilites of makeovers and re-do's and upgrades and crafty bliss. Watch out hubs, you got a major TO-DO list coming up!

turquoise dresser

This is just the beginning to my daughters bedroom makeover. When I tell you it is a pain in the bucket to re-do a bedroom for Christmas- BELIEVE me! Never again! One room renovation trickled on to a 3 room re-do. Might as well do her bathroom, I think to myself. Oh, and the other child will feel bad if she doesn't have a nifty new room, so I better do something special for her. And there goes my every second of the next 3 weeks! As if December ain't crazy enough! We decided to switch dressers between the girls rooms and paint M's new dresser her new favorite color turquoise. Her favorite color will probably switch tomorrow, so I'm thinking this dresser will have about 6 layers of paint on it before she goes to college.

Steps for finishing a dresser:

1. There is NO EASY WAY to do this. No product out there is magic. Nothing to come save you hours and hours of time. So, DO NOT try to buy paint and slap it on. You will regret it.

2. After my husband bought regular paint at the store, he sanded the entire dresser really well and began painting.

3. Wow! That was easy! ...... Wrong! Latex paint would not stick to a 40 year old dresser. Back to the specialty store to buy OIL based paint and primer and paint stripper.

4. My husband spent an extra 15 hour stripping and sanding all because he didn't use expensive oil based paint to begin with.

5. With the dresser now down to the bare bones, he primed it with oil based primer, tinted gray.

6. Paint with oil based paint and a brush. Let dry and do several coats.

7. Add texture with some gel glaze by minwax. We put it on too thick and used a clean rag and paint thinner (we use alot of that stuff around hear) to remove the excess glaze.

8. Add knobs and Walah! My daughter squealed when she saw it. A true designer at heart.

So the moral of the story is THERE IS NO EASY WAY. Do it right the first time. When I see these 24 hour makeovers on TV they make it look so easy. But have you every seen a close up in High Definition? It ain't pretty folks and even though I'm not a perfectionist, (thankfully my husband is) even I have standards!

Stay tuned for my daughter's bedroom reveal.... It's only a few craft projects away!

I've linked to this fabulous site:

And to the Nester here

Letters to my family

You remember how ultra (pour on the cheese & pull out the tissues) sentimental I am? I am grateful however, that I'm not a hoarder or this issue could be catastrophic! For Christmas one year I decided to write each of my family members a letter telling them how I felt about them. The letters consisted of memories of growing up, how I felt the day they came home from the hospital as babies, the funny things I remember about them, etc. It was theraputic to relive these memories in my letters. It made me happy to remember how kind my brothers were to me, how creative my siblings were on lazy Sunday afternoons and how thoughtful my sisters were. After I compiled letters to all 6 siblings and both of my parents and mailed them, I then made a book for my dad. I made the book thru a book editor online. It was complicated. It was miserable. It took forever and I would NOT recommend it. While I think my dad enjoyed the book and having these memories written down (I definitely get my sentimental side from him) I thought the book binding process could've been better. I always wanted to make one for my own family but the task has seemed daunting to go thru the process all over again. Then I thought how easy it would be to do it thru my favorite online scrapbook company and complete it with pictures. Because you know how much I love pictures! The finished product came in the mail the other day and I can't wait to give it to my husband and children on Christmas morning. However, I don't think it will be quite the reaction I would want (no one is as sentimentally challenged as me) I think they'll appreciate it in their own way. It makes me happy to know that if something happens to me or my loved ones, I will have told them how much they've meant to me. These letters bring me peace and this book is one way to show my family how much I love them. I used http://www.shutterfly.com/ and here is my finished product.


Each child and hubby have a two page layout with a letter from me.

Mini bathroom pick me up

So it's 10 days before Christmas. Most people are wrapping gifts, finishing their shopping lists, mailing gifts, baking treats and just enjoying this fun season. What am I doing? I'm redo-ing my daughters bedroom. Sounds insane even to me! And why just stop at a bedroom? The bathroom is just a few feet away and I don't want it to clash! So I throw in a bathroom makeover as well. Seriously, what's wrong with me? Why do I feel the need to make life more chaotic? Since I had painters coming for my daughter's bedroom, (you'll see her makeover after Christmas) I felt the need to get this bathroom done too. I had very little time to think about it and just threw it together in a night. Not my best work, but the kids love it and my eyes are getting used to the neon green. I thought I was pretty good at selecting colors, but this was not the best choice. It's granny apple green by Behr and it's BRIGHT! It's a small bathroom, shared by the 3 kids and I had to make it more gender neutral. Here's the interesting before's.

In case you were wondering, No I did not paint Ivy and bugs on the wall. If you thought I did, you don't me well!Yellow, blue and lady bugs. Sounds pretty but in reality, just odd. This bathroom has been neglected since we moved in. My kids never use it and it's just been one of those someday projects. Here's what some last minute Target shopping can do for a well needed makeover.
What's a makeover without some polka dots? You know I can't resist polka dots!

This bathroom certainly won't win any creative awards, but it's done and the girls are excited. Maybe they'll start using it now and stay out of my bathroom & the guest bathroom. Honestly, the bugs have scared them at night. Can't say I blame them. Goodbye bugs, grasshoppers and ivy. Hello apple green and turquoise.

Merry Mantel

So this year I needed to go more modern Christmas and tone down the country Christmas that I've done for years. While I love the sentimental ornaments I pull out each year, I remembered how clausterphobic I felt with all the decorations. I need to de-clutter my Christmas and it's made me feel a little less stressful with having less around the home and taking up every inch of wall and table space. Less is more they say and I'm embracing it! I keep seeing all white & silver Christmas decorations and they just ooze glam. Throw in a touch of blue/turquoise and I feel like I'm finally an adult and less college-dorm. After putting up some fun items from Hobby Lobby on my mantel, it needed one more thing. That's when I decided to make a garland with fun papers.







I bought a 2" circle punch at Joann's, and found paper in silver, white and turquoise. 5 different papers in all. I wanted to make sure the back of the garland was just as pretty as the front incase it turned. Which it does. I carefully put two circles together, held on tight, and prayed I didn't sew a finger! After each circle was sewn, I continued on to the next circle. Carefully holding them so the front and back wouldn't slip. You really only get one shot at this if you're sewing to make it continuous. I thought about having a ribbon glued in between the papers if you were hesitant to sew. Same idea. It really wasn't hard to sew though. I took a piece of string and draped it on my mantel to see how long I would want it. Mine ended up being 90" long. And 5 pieces of 12x12" paper is more than enough. Some were only 8.5x11". The whole project took about 40 minutes from start to finish. Quick and easy and I'm ready to make more for birthday parties!





While my street art above the mantel isn't very Christmassy, it is the right color! And it does say, industrial glam doesn't it? Either way- I'm liking that the whole mantel only cost $65.