String Art...AKA Torture

So, as many of you might know, I love Pinterest. I knew, from the first time I ever heard of it, that it was going to be something I became very attached to, and engaged in. So much so that, I intentionally avoided joining Pinterest until after the birth of my son, because I knew I would need/want something to occupy my time during those sleepless nights. Boy, was I right!

Now, all this time later, I still love it. Brilliant idea, that, Pinterest. Maybe someday, I'll get to a fraction of the projects and/or recipes I have collected in there.

One project I did get to was string art. As you might know, after much deliberating, I chose a circus/rainbow theme for my daughter's room. I love it, and have so many great ideas, but it is taking sooo long to actually finalize everything, and bring it all together.

For awhile, I hemmed and hawed over getting a large monogram to hang over her crib. It's sophisticated, but girly, but it just didn't feel quite right.

When I stumbled across this on Pinterest, I knew what direction I was going to go.
I loved that she used cork board instead of wood. I love the look of wood on string art projects, but the idea of tapping all the nails in was very unappealing to me.

As I often do when considering a project, I started looking around for the items I'd need to complete the project. When I stumbled across this bulletin board on amazon, I had to get it!

 

Once the bulletin board arrived, I chose a font that I liked, printed Little Miss' name to the scale that I wanted, and tried to visualize the placement.

I then painted it white. First, I carefully painted over the black trim with white (I was initially disappointed when I received the bulletin board, as the trim is painted around the edge, instead of being raised, as I had initially expected). I was hopeful that, if I painted the edges first, when I went to paint over the cork, it would allow the trim to be distinguishable, albeit the same color. I then cut out the letters, taped them together, and taped them to the bulletin board.

I pushed the nails in around the outline of the letters, and it looked pretty cool!
This was all the easy part, though.

Once all the nails were in, I carefully pulled the paper out from between the nails.

I then took my embroidery yarn (I believe I used six colors), and started twisting it around the nails. I outlined the letters first, then cris-crossed them in the center. Honestly, this was a nightmare. Thankfully, I am really pleased with the result, but goodness, was it less fun to make than I thought! Ha! Someone called it "therapeutic" in one of the tutorials I read. Mmmm, well, I, for one, prefer a different type of therapy.

Even knowing how difficult it was, I would still totally do this again, and might even brave it again for other things in the future. I seriously love the way it turned out!

LIGHTS!

I finally finished the lamps for Little Miss' room!

I mentioned my plan in this post, and then have been doing random things around the house or in decluttering the room itself, so haven't made it to a lot of my projects. Meh.

I have, however, made progress. And, progress at all is better than nothing!

Without further delay, I give you the before pictures of the lamps again:

You'll notice that the lion is missing. I couldn't bring myself to paint him. I really just don't have a designated spot for him -- what baby/toddler needs three lamps in their room?!? And he is sooo cute!
Since I was unsure, I decided to wait. I may end up painting him and using him anyway, if I can find a spot for him, or I might just try to resell him on the online garage sale sites for what I bought him for. We'll just have to see.

I got Krylon white, satin finish spray paint, taped off the cords and electrical parts of the lamps, then got to it!
I also got rid of the lamp shades, as they wouldn't match with the color scheme.
I found these AWESOME, geometric, textured lampshades at Target, picked up a pair, and voila!

I love them! Seriously, I love them! They're so whimsical!

I'm getting everything together for my next projects for her room, and should (fingers crossed!) be posting those soon!

It is coming together! I'm so pleased and excited to get my Little Miss in her room!

Stay tuned for more!

FREE Laundry Guide Printable - from Clean Mama

I found this on my Facebook feed this morning, and am very excited to print it and add it to my newly finished Laundry Room!

I thought I would share the find with you lovely folks as well!

Click here to go to Clean Mama and get your free printable! Thank you, Clean Mama!

Little Miss' Lighting Teaser

As you well know...well, as you know if you've been keeping up with the blog over the last year or so, I've been planning Little Miss' nursery and, though she has been here almost four months, have yet to finish it.

If you're interested in seeing where I started, and how many ideas I had, and how many times I changed my mind, feel free to look back.
(Little Miss' Room Option #1, Little Miss' Room Option #2, Little Miss' Room Option #3, Nursery Option Changes, Art Inspiration, Crib Bedding Part 2, Operation: Inspiration Board, Nursery, Little Miss' Room: Update)

I can't remember when I stumbled across this blog entry, but I think it might have been when I was pregnant with Little Man.
Basically, the writer was inspired by this lamp:

And, after finding this one for a steal:

Transformed it into this:

I actually managed to find the exact same lamp at some point, but for not nearly as good of a deal, so I passed on it, and it never made its way into Little Man's room.

Now, I'm planning on my combination rainbow/circus room for Little Miss, and I found these on Facebook garage sale groups:

I picked up the first one a while ago, the second one last night, and am going to get the third one on Wednesday.

It might have been better for them to be in more of a vertical formation, instead of horizontal (the animals), but I think they'll turn out cute anyway.

I'll pick up a can of Rustoleum glossy white spray paint, pick up three matching shades, and the lighting for Little Miss' room will be ready to go! More pictures to follow, of course!

I am wondering, though, about whether or not to keep/use the lion lamp. It's adorable, to be sure, but now I'm worried about it "fitting in" since the other lamps have multiple animals on their bases. Thoughts? Does it matter? He's in absolutely perfect condition, and I could sell him for what I bought him for, and have more money for whatever other things I decide should be in Little Miss' room. I'd love your input, thanks!

The Laundry Room: Solution

If you're behind (or need a refresher), click on the following links to see: The Laundry Room: Problem Part 1 and Part 2.
Here's what I've done since then.
(which, as it turns out, has been about a year ago)

I had the idea some time ago to use laundry symbols to make a sign to put on the door to the laundry room. I found a free font, SL Wash, downloaded it, and picked the symbols that I wanted. I picked up an inexpensive wooden sign from JoAnn's, spray painted a white base on the sign, then used my Silhouette machine to cut out my shapes. I applied them where I wanted them, then spray painted over them in a bright green color, and topped it off with a clear coat of enamel. This was the result:
Um, or not. I still love the idea of this, but I never got around to actually doing it. I also hemmed and hawed with recreating another laundry sign similar to one I found on etsy, but I never did that either. Enter Hobby Lobby. I <3 that store. I'm fairly certain that I hadn't been there since the birth of my daughter, and that store is now umpteen-million times more hazardous to my wallet. Goodness!
Anyway, I stumbled across an awesome metal sign, and snatched it up. Here it is on my laundry room door:

(love it!)

I saw this on Pinterest, loved the idea, and made 8x10 prints of my son splashing in a bucket, and voila! I used these super cute clips that I found at Dollar Tree instead of the pants hangers - I thought they added a little pop of color, plus looked similar to clothes pins. I mounted the pictures on foam board (harder to do than I expected -- I couldn't find my exacto knife) to give them more stability. I picked up a DIGNITET line from IKEA, and mounted that above the washer and dryer to look like a clothesline. Cute, right?

I also stumbled across this amazing print, and had to print it out and hang it up!

As much as I loved this, it was substantially smaller than the wall art I had previously...but I didn't know what I wanted to add with it. I scoured Pinterest for what felt like forever. Then, somewhat unintentionally, stumbled across inspiration. I had found and really liked this print:

...only to discover that it was an original that had sold, and not a print. Sad day.

I found these via Pinterest (and if you go here, you can get the free digital file to make your own!):

And, somehow, the two things fused in my head, and mixed around, and I came up with a plan! I went to Hobby Lobby (swoon!), grabbed two unfinished decorative wood boards, spray painted them, then drew clothespin shapes on the back of scrapbook paper, cut them out, mod-podged a sheet of white watercolor paper to the boards, then the scrapbook clothespins to the paper. Once they were dry, I drew the metal piece with a silver Sharpe. Voila!:

As for all my storage, I didn't really change things up all that much. I already had all the canvas bins, and had recently reorganized all of those, so that wasn't really all that challenging. I shuffled a few things around, moved some of the more "cluttery" looking items to places where they were less visible, and that helped a lot. I attempted to use  name tags to label my fabric bins, but that was a wash (haha, "wash," get it? In a laundry room? I'm so punny!). You can see in the picture how they're peeling off, but I'm still pleased with the way everything is organized:

(might I just add that it's incredibly difficult to get a picture of this part of the laundry room?!?)

I'd still like to devise a way to hide the hook ups behind the washer and dryer (something like this, perhaps?), maybe switch up the rug, and find a way to incorporate laundry hampers above the washer and  dryer, but those will have to wait!

Here is the final (for now) result!:

Well, whaddya think?

What to do, What to do?

I was going to kick off this post with a rant. I was going to dive into a long and sordid story about why we don't have the crib for my daughter that we registered for and, in fact, received as a gift. However, I don't know that the story in and of itself is all that interesting, and I feel like vomiting it all out here would really just take me back through the negativity unnecessarily. So, let's not.
For simplicity's sake, let's just start with the fact that we do not, in fact, have the crib that was intended for my daughter.

Also, I have had an inkling for the last two weeks or so that my Little Man was ready for us to transition him into a toddler bed. His crib converts into a toddler bed, so that was the plan. However, we went to IKEA with a friend and her girls the other day, and when we entered the kids' section, Little Man launched himself right into the first toddler bed that he saw. So, I decided that I was done with the drama of the crib for Little Miss, and started poking around online, looking for a deal on a toddler bed. I found one, snatched it up, spent all day organizing and "child-proofing" Little Man's room, and made the switch. Last night was night two in his big boy bed, and he's doing AWESOME! I'm super stoked!

I have made incredible progress in Little Miss' room. I have a before picture that I took when I was still pregnant with her, showing just a snapshot into the time it spent as a junk room...and it's embarrassing. I will post it, but not today. I transferred the organizational hanging closet system from Little Man's room into hers, and have more progress to make in regards to organizing it -- especially in regards to her clothes. Girls' clothes are WAAAY different than boys' clothes...waaay different.
I still have some progress to make in getting some of my old stuff out.

Our poor guest room has been invaded by a bunch of the extra stuff. I will be working simultaneously on that room as I finish decluttering and decorating Little Miss' room.

However, I am seeking opinions on the crib color. The crib I registered for was white, and that's what I intend to paint Little Man's former crib. Do you think that's the best choice?

The room walls are this color, Behr Great Falls:

The bedding (that I just received this week, SQEEEEEEEEEE!!!) is MiGi Rainbow:

I have a short, antique dresser that I will be painting turquoise.

And I also have an old dresser that I've painted previously that I will be repainting a soft pink (I'd like to do an ombre finish, but don't know if I have the time or patience...or if it will be overkill -- I'd welcome your thoughts on that as well!).

The only other furniture I'm planning on having in there at present is the crib. So, the big question is: paint it white, or another color? It's getting pretty loud in there at present, but I wanted some input!

I don't have the artwork/decor selected yet. So far, the only thing I've purchased are these art cards from IKEA:

I also found this on Bed Bath and Beyond's site:

I'll need to see the colors in person to make sure they'd work but, if they do, I just might buy it as opposed to making my own. Or I might not go this direction at all, who knows?

I did just use a gift card to order this prints frame:

Big brother has one just like it, and I love it, so I definitely wanted one for Little Miss' room.

Okay -- I think that is all the information I have for right now. Hoping to make a lot of progress over the next few days, and have some updates for you!

Monday, Monday...

Monday has always had a reputation for being a doozy of a day. I used to think that it really only applied to the working folk...but I have since changed my mind; us stay at home types can have a case of the Mondays as well.

 

SCENE I
Our House, 2am.
I had gone to bed gloriously early, had slept incredibly well (which is nothing short of a miracle, at 8 months pregnant), and was woken up by both of my boys at the same time. Little Man was crying quietly to himself, and My Love was starting to freak out, saying that something was stuck in his eye.
I gave instructions to My Love on how to try to rinse his eye out with water, then went to tend Little Man. Once I finally got Little Man to settle down, I headed back down to check on my big man.
After much googling, administering of eye drops, watching youtube videos so I could attempt to flip My Love's eyelid so I could see what was stuck in it, we called it a draw. It was late, there wasn't anything else we could safely do, and he didn't want to go to the ER.

SCENE II
Our House, 7am
I told My Love that he should probably relocate from the living room to the bedroom, as I was supposed to be watching a friend's daughter today, and they were due to arrive around when he'd be getting up to get ready for work. As soon as he woke up, it became apparent that he was still in excruciating pain, and that his eye had not gotten better in the five hours  since we tried to fix it. I called our local optometrist, and they said they could get him in. I threw on the same clothes I had worn to church, and he fumbled around to get dressed while I went to wake up our young son, and get him bundled up to run to the doctor. Thankfully, he woke up and had lots of smiles to give me, and was just wonderful, despite me waking him (you never know what you'll get when you wake a sleeping baby, haha!).

SCENE III
Eye Doctor, 7:45am
We arrived at the eye doctor, I filled out the forms required, and we waited. And, as kind as everyone was, we waited FOREVER. It was over an hour before they saw him, and he was SO miserable.
We did run into some friends from church -- who, oddly enough, were in my dream last night. That part was sort of hilarious. What are the odds that I would dream of them, and then run into them at an "emergency" eye appointment?!?!?
Once My Love finally got back to see the doctor, it turned out that he had an eye infection. I'm not really sure if that's better or worse than having something stuck in your eye. Perhaps mildly better...but they weren't able to do anything about the pain...they said we'd just have to wait until the antibiotics kicked in.
While he was with the doctor, I was in the lobby with Little Man. He was so well behaved, and I was so proud of him. However, my pregnant nose picked up on the smell of urine. I had changed him into a brand new type of diaper (that proclaimed to be snug and DRY) right before we left the house...they're supposed to keep dry for up to twelve hours. It had been one. I picked him up off his seat on the couch next to me...and there was a wet spot both underneath him and on his pants. Fabulous.
I had to go, tail between my legs, and confess to the office staff that he had leaked, and see if they had anything to clean the upholstery with. I wiped it down, dried it off, changed his diaper, put his wet pants in a bag (thank goodness I'd packed a blanket, as it was 20-something degrees outside), and we continued to wait for My Love.
Meanwhile, remember how I was supposed to watch my friend's daughter today? Well, Little Man was using my phone to watch cartoons and...as luck would have it...my battery was dying. So, I had to text her, after already calling her at an unreasonable hour of the morning to tell her we'd have to run to the doctor and might not be back by the time we'd originally agreed on...and let her know that we were still at the doctor's office, and that my phone was dying.
It was truly an absurd morning.
Absurd, and most definitely worthy of the title "Monday."

Here's hoping to a much less eventful, and much more productive, Tuesday.

Little Miss' Room: UPDATE

I think, last time I talked about it, this was the plan for Little Miss' room.

In case you don't want to go back and re-read the blog, here is the inspiration board I made:

I'm not completely scrapping everything, I don't think...but I'm definitely going a different direction.
Basically, what happened is...I started registering for baby stuff. When I was trying to register for baby bedding, I realized that the set I thought I liked didn't come as a set...at all. Usually, with baby bedding, there's at least a very basic set that includes a blanket, sheet, and crib skirt. Not so with this one. Beyond that, it's expensive! So, I decided to look around for other options.

I stumbled across a few great possibilities, and they were on clearance, which is even more fun...but then I found this:

Along with these super fun curtains...

And then, when I stumbled across this mobile, I was pretty sure that I had a winner...and a new theme.

...or, at least a new twist/direction on the theme. The walls will remain purple. I still really like the carnival prints (though, I'm not sure I'm still going to go that route), and the elephant print (although the colors aren't as vibrant, so I might have to make my own). And, obviously, this print would still go great in the room (or something I make, inspired by it), as will these.

Basically, this rainbow theme just opens up a whole new bunch of possibilities, and gets my creative juices flowing. I feel a lot better about this concept than I did the other -- I'm really really really excited!

I was already planning on painting some of the furniture in vibrant colors, and this will help tie it all together!

I may or may not make another inspiration board. I'm really far behind in actual progress...so I'd rather actually get stuff done instead of just planning it all.

What do you think?

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to continue to catch up on laundry, and get our bedroom more together than it has been as of late. Perhaps I'll get going on Little Miss' room Sunday. Better get moving soon, as she's going to be here before you know it!

Holy Contributing to the Delinquincy of Minors, Batman!

Apparently, this is really something that Robin said. I chuckled quite a bit when I found this website.

I'm currently watching our video monitor in shock and sadness as my sweet Little Man throws the most epic of tantrums that I have ever seen. He is throwing himself around his crib like a caged, crazed animal. He is crying and screeching almost constantly, and it's breaking my heart.
*edit* The tantrum lasted almost a full half hour.

It's also freaking me out, as we are due to meet our newest little one in as little as two to five weeks...
Newborn + Toddler (reverted back to younger schedule) = no fun...no rest...no good.

So, here I am, scouring the internet for tips on how to retrain my child...a kid who, in all honestly, I have felt has been relatively easy thus far.

I'm hoping that I find something helpful, that will help me regain the upper hand in our schedule, and will benefit us all as a family. Do any of you have techniques that helped you reset to a good schedule? Especially before introducing a new member of the family?
We were doing well until he got sick, and now we've reverted back. Meh.
Thanks in advance! :)


P.S. There have been some changes in plans for Little Miss' room -- be on the lookout for a new post on that tonight or tomorrow!