Welcome Home Nina

 

This adorable stork was made with love by a friend and has been passed around yards all over town. So fun to see it in ours when we pulled in the driveway.

 

The star comes off and stays with the recipient. He wasn't created before Addie was born so handyman Jim has already agreed to cut one out for me to paint and add her stats on it as well.

Hand-Me-downs

Since Addie will be taking over the current guest room, it was necessary to take all the clothes out of that closet. I told myself I could not move any item into my closet without trying it on and really plan to wear. So my new project begun - go through and purge my closet of things I need to stop hanging onto. I finally admitted that I am not going to take business attire to get altered. Even if they fit better, I can wear yoga pants to work for goodness sakes! I also certainly do not need to have bridesmaid dresses from weddings 10 years ago. Pictured to the left, Addie is modeling a windbreaker I wore in high school, YES HIGH SCHOOL! {Stop the hording tendencies!}

First I donated a few dresses to Prom Project. Then I took a huge stack of clothes to JT Posh, a high end consignment shop, to sell. While they only took 4 items, 3 have sold and I made an easy $54.  I took that same stack to Clothes Mentor but they had similar high standards so only made $9 on a single sundress. {I have now seen the light!} None of the original stack of clothes were allowed back into my closet! I have started trying on more and more things and have 2 new stacks forming... one for consignment and another for Goodwill. Not to be dramatic, but it is very freeing!

Princesses & Paint

Elsa uses powertools and she also paints! Who knew?! I agree with Sophia the First and believe that ANYTHING can be a princess thing. I love her enthusiasm to help.

The walls are done but all the furniture is a whole different ballgame. It needs to be sanded, primed and eventually painted. We're moving right along but that is going to take a lot of time. I did find knobs that I like and won't break the bank. Hooray!

Princesses & Powertools

Helping daddy put together some cubbies for her new closet. This was an "easy" update that makes a huge difference. Jim is now ready to do the coat closet as well, (the last one with wire racks).

Big Girl Room

We have a few new projects on our brains. The first being moving Addie into the bigger bedroom with the "real" furniture. She requested and has never wavered on the room being red which I am honoring but in limited amounts.

We will keep the white matelasse-esk duvet cover then turns out we had red shams from when we first got married still in the attic! Everything is in perfect shape, Pottery Barn still sells the shams and it was all the right price so the base was quickly set.

After much internet shopping and Pinterest board stalking I pulled the trigger on a lavender rug from One Kings Lane. I could not believe I ordered such a big item online but it was a great price and they do accept returns which was my mental safety net. An added bonus, it arrive just a few days later but what delivery man thought this  ----->
was the best place for it?!

Halloween Prep

Re-purposing one of her dance costumes into a kitty cat and the brown boa I found on amazon totally makes the outfit. Could not find brown pointy ears anywhere which means I am going to try and rig some up myself. Should that fail I painted this mask that she can keep in her trick-or-treat bag. She enjoyed my make up test for whiskers and is already practicing being in character so will be fully ready for the upcoming holiday! Meow, Hiss Hiss!

 

Domino Effect

Having the bed delivered today was more work then I really thought about. This morning we had to take apart and move the crib because that wall is where the new bed would be going. Since we were moving it we cleaned behind it {yuck} and then since we were cleaning, I wanted to rotate the rug. To do that we had to move out all the rest of the furniture, and since all the other furniture was moved we cleaned behind where they were as well. This is only the beginning too! :-)

Off to Marshalls after work to try and find some bedding (at least basic sheets) for the interim.

Moving up in the world

After plenty of furniture shopping (both physically driving around to stores and internet scouting), we decided to get Addie a day bed for her "big girl room". Eventually the plan is for her to take over the queen set but the transition from crib to queen is just too much (for me). We ended up ordering her a sleigh day bed with a trundle today and it is being delivered (set up included) on Thursday!

In the mean time I will easily be keeping myself busy looking up all the cute bedding out there. Addie has requested multiple times that there be red polka dots on the bed and officially claimed red and blue as her favorite colors. I can work with red and blue but have to convince Jim to repaint the walls. How would daddy like to try his hand at wallpaper too? Just one wall?!

I have started saving inspiration ideas to a Pinterest Board. Let me know if you spot (no polka dot pun intended) anything fun. I am leaving towards a plain quilt, polka dot sheets, fun rug and then tone-on-tone decals or wall paper on one wall. Or what about something like this for our little polka dot queen?!

Project in Progress

I informed Jim that for Mother's Day I wanted to do "my" outdoor chalkboard project. It was a beautiful weekend so everyone enjoyed being outside and since it really was a full family affair that made me happy.

The supplies ran more then the project guide I had seen but we both agreed that the magnetic primer will be a fun addition. I took forever to pick out the right shade of bright outdoor paint while Jim critiqued the plywood sheets to try and get the smoothest one possible. All while Addie was able to run up and down the oversized aisles to hers heart's content.

Supplies

The frame

Pre-drilling holes

Mounting this thing was much harder then you would think

Making sure everything is level

Cheese daddy!

2 coats of outdoor sealer on the back & 2.5 coats of magnetic primer on the front complete.

Unfortunately it will be a few weeks before we can officially check this off as complete. (Busy weekends in and out of town.) We are wasting no time though and are already playing with some magnets out there. Looking forward to being able to draw on it so be sure to check back for our first masterpiece though.

Another addition

It seems we got more compost then we ordered or at lease more then we needed so Jim extended one of the beds. I hate to be wasteful and since we had the space and more leftover deck boards it worked out great! Maybe turn this new part into an herb garden?!

Outdoor Chalkboard

Even though we have done so much to the house, it is too nice to be hanging out inside. AND even though I should be looking for window treatments and things for the walls, our focus has shifted to the backyard.

Here is my latest inspiration for the backyard. Wouldn't this go perfectly on the side of the garage?

 

http://lowescreativeideas.com/idea-library/projects/Outdoor_Chalkboard.aspx

 

Start of this year's Veggietales

I have said before a busy/focused toddler makes everyone happy and today was another example of that. We had compost delivered and the little one had a ball helping move it to the garden. We actually got more then enough so going to take advantage of the space and extend the front bed another 2 feet. Yea for the vegetables in our future, hopefully! I can taste the squash soup already - YUM!