Room Re-Do

I remember when I had just Emily and I learned of a friend who had twins and they were like 3 and still in cribs I thought that was just too much!  Seriously, a 3 yr old still in a crib?  Emily started crawling out of her crib aound 15-18 months.  By the time she was 2 she was in the bottom part of a bunk bed as we prepared for twins in a couple more months. 

Later, I felt so bad for thinking that.  It is so true that you don't really know until you are there, right?

My twins young life was a blur so I can't even remember when we pulled them out of cribs.  There is a little over 4 years from the twins and then our next baby.  With Emily we needed the crib for the twins, and she was climbing and falling out anyways. 

I had two cribs so I didn't feel like we had to take Amber out before Samantha came.  Amber was just about 19 months when we had our next baby.  I couldn't stand the thought of having a nap time for the 19 month old and have her be able to get out of her bed.  I kept the crib and set up another one for the baby.

Next thing I know, I am that mom with the baby (who isn't really a baby) in the crib.  I think Amber was surely older than 3 when we finally took one side of the crib off so she can get in and out by herself.  I was tired of her saying, "Mom, can you get me out of my crib?" 

 We had a daybed that we got from our neighbor when her girl out grew it or upsized.  It is white, had a few scratches in it.  I decided to paint it and have it be a Christmas present for Amber so she could be in a big girl bed.  Maybe she would stop making her way to my room at night. 

I never finished it in time for Christmas, then I kind of forgot about it.  I finally finished it maybe in Feburary and I took down a crib. 

 Some of the balls where missing too so I just got some from the craft store and painted them adn got some hardware to put them back together.  Pretty cheap re-do if you ask me.  I wasn't super thrilled with the out come, there are lots of places I didn't get a good paint cover.  But, for now, it will be just fine. 

And I have one crib left.  I am in no rush... she is turning 3 soon and is potty trained.  That is my only dilema, having to get her out of bed to take her potty.  Yeah, now I am that mom I couldn't believe would have her 3 year old in a crib!  Samantha did ask for her side off one night, but  the next night she wanted it back on.  Funny girl!

Amber tried out her new bed after I set it all up.  When I went to see what she was doing, she was asleep already.  Guess she likes it, or she did.  She still would prefer to sleep in my room. 

(My girls loved the transformation of the bed too.  In fact, my twins were jealous that they didn't get the bed.)

Up all night

While Robert was running the Ragnar and basically staying awake all night... I was up all night too.  I got this last minute idea when I was getting contact solution for Robert late one night.  I have been looking for some solution for our bedroom, fabric that I like, comforter/duvet cover that I like.  I wasn't for sure what I wanted.  I did want a bedskirt which we didn't have, I wanted a pretty place to unwind and a place that would be desirable to be in.  (I was going to get him a holding banquet type table.)

While I was shopping I ran across a "bed in a bag" kind of thing, which had sheets, blanket, sham covers, bedskirt all in the same package.   Most the one I see and like are upwards of $100 or $200.  I am cheap... I am VERY cheap and don't like spending that kind of money on things.  Robert on the other hand, he is not cheap, he doesn't even look at the price tags I don't think. 

This bed set was $44, so I thought.... I can do that for a KING size bedding set.  I can live with that.  Not to mention fabric may be at least that and then I would have to sew it too.  At that point I thought... this will be for Robert's father's day gift.  I grabbed the bedding and then went to look at fabric.

I got fabric for the curtains, for $5....  a piece that would do shear under curtains and then grey outter curtains too.  I also picked up a grey flat sheet for $3 which I thought would come in handy.  (I love buying cheep fabric from other things to fill my needs.  I often will go to second hand stores and buy sheets that I like for other things, or even curtains to turn into different things.)

I also have been wanting to get a headboard for our bed, which we have NEVER had for any of our beds.  I remember seeing something with wooden pallets that people have used the wood from them to make other thigns... then I also remembered seeing a wooden fence like look for a daybed or a girls garden kind of bed.  I decided I would kind of go that route. 

It was Friday about 2pm and I found some wooden pallets off KSL classifieds for free... picked them up and then went to get paint from Walmart.  I also got some sand paper.  (Later found out we already had sandpaper, but that is okay.) 

I came home started pulling the boards off the pallet... and my goodness, they are stuck on there really hard!  They have those pallet nails I guess they are called, they are twisted nails, so they are inbetween a nail and a screw.  They don't pull out too well.  I had a hard time getting them out without breaking the boards or splitting them in half. 

I finally just got Robert's circular saw and cut down the sides of the pallet, then I just had the middle nails to get out of the boards.  Some of the boards would have 4-6 nails in just one side of the board.  Once I started cutting the boards things went much smoother.

At about midnight, after putting the girls back to bed (they were having a friend sleepover) I started to sand my boards.  I had shut my garage door, and spent the next 3 hours sanding my boards.  I then played with the salvagable boards to make a headboard.  I didn't have enough of them to make a full headboard without spaces, so I moved things around and played with it. 

I then decided to paint some of the boards pink and some grey.  I painted all my boards and about 4am, I ran out of paint.  Ugh!  I didn't want to go to the store to get more paint with the kids at home.  I knew I needed to clean the house too, so I went inside and cleaned the kitchen starting with the dishes. 

Once the paint was dry (it didn't take too long) I started arranging the boards together, and then nailing them together.  I have to admit, I wasn't loving it... something was missing.  I couldn't do anything more, it was now 5:30 am... I swept the floors and did some laundry and sent a few texts to Robert who was trying to figure out why I was awake.  Finally at 6am I went to bed, knowing I needed to wake kids up at 8:30 to get breakfast before the sleepover girl had to go home at 9:30ish. 

I woke up at 8, took a shower and suprisingly felt pretty good all day.  I think it was because I was too busy and was on the go all day so I didn't have time to be tired.

I talked to my sister for ideas... since I wasn't loving it and was afraid it wouldn't look rustic but instead just look like it was unfinished with the screw holes and the cracks in the boards.  I was afraid the fabric style and the headboard style wouldn't match. After talking to hear I decided to putty some of the holes and paint the whole thing grey and leave the pink out.  I puttied and sanded, then repainted.

In the meantime of it all, I made the curtains, hung them and cleaned all the toys out of our room and tried cleaning things up in there.  I made the bed and pulled it out so I could attach the headboard.  I sanded the corners of the boards and got a call from Robert that was saying he was on his way home... I quickly took the headboard up to my room (it was in two parts) and screwed it to the wall.  I pushed the bed back, put all the pillows on it and it looked great, or so I thought!

I am always trying to be frugile and Robert knows that... so once he saw it and we were laying in bed, I was asking him... how much do you think the headboard cost me?  He answered $4.  I told him to guess realisticly, then he said $40.  He knows how frugile I am I guess.  The headboard cost me $17... wood was free, paint was about $13 (including the pink that I repainted) and the sand paper was about $4.  And the curtains were $5, oh and the curtain rod was like $7.  I did buy 2 extra pillows too for the shams so that was extra too.  With all that, even though it was a good buy and things were pretty cheap in my oppinion, I was out of grocery money... which is what I used.  Oops! 

Amber seems to like our bed too! Almost as much as she likes her hat which she wore to the girls' baptism.

Now I just need to work on the furniture in our bedroom that I would like to replace...  Maybe that will be for Robert's birthday in September?

School is out!

School is out.  I didn't ever do anything for Teacher Appreciation week (because I was too busy, but more accurate would be because I am just lame) so we decided to do end of the year gifts.

I saw this idea on another blog... wish I could remember which one it was so I could link it.

I found these at Ikea which were under $4 a piece.  They have dividers inside.  We got some from there years ago that were blue.  I looked all over at other office supply stores for these with lids and couldn't find any.  I finally went to Ikea, and wala! 

The girls decated them with stickers and sharpie markers.  I put mod podge (2 coats) over the lids to seal them and keep the stickers from peeling off.  I wish I would have gotten the matte finish. 

Then I filled them with things I had on hand like gum, chapstick, candy bars, rubber bands, paper clips, cap erasers...

(gum and chapstick were free after coupons)

The boxes were a little under $4 and then the supplies on average were under $7 a piece. 

I then bought a few things in packages and split them up for the 2 boxes.  Binder clips, small (2 boxes @ .88 each) binder clips, large (2 boxes @ 1.37 each) pink erasers (6 ct for $2) glue sticks (2 pk for .97) Expo markers (8pk for $5) small post-it notes (3 pk for 1.44) Lined paper pad (3 pk for 1.77) then I got more rubber bands (.46) and cap erasers (40ct @$1) to add to replenish my supply.  Oh and the tissue and the purell were on average $1.12 each.  Not too bad for a gift around $10!  The stickers and sharpies and modge podge I already had as well.  I thought they turned out cute and the kids loved making them.  I also wrote a little personal thank you note to each teacher on the lined paper pad.

Now I am off to do some birthday cakes for Lindsey and Lauren, since it is their birthday today!  While I have been baking cakes the other girls have literally been sitting in the kitchen... that would be Samantha's kitchen that she got for her birthday... they are such crazy girls. 

Amber came up to me and told me she gave Samantha some chocolatey splishity splash.  I asked her what that was... she told me frosting... which she gave the frosting tub to Samantha to eat. 

Yeah no worries, I am not stressed... she is a mess, my house is a mess, I am making 2 cakes which I am not sure how I am going to do what they want me to do...  I am totally calm and in control.  I can do this!  But I better go just in case I can't!!

We are going to Disneyland!

I think we are going to Disneyland this year.  The girls are so excited!

Disney is doing a "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program this year.  If you give service for a day then they will give you a free ticket to your choice of Disney resort.  We try to go to California each year to visit Robert's sister and brother, and his sister lives very close to Disneyland, that will be our plan for this year then. 

The project we participated in was Project Linus.  They collect handmade blankets to give out to children in need.  My girls had so much fun doing the blankets, Emily said, "do you think we could do more?" 

The nice thing about the "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program is that children age 6 and up can participate in it and get their own ticket for a Disney Resort.  For us, that meant everyone but the two young girls got to get a ticket for free!  That is pretty cool huh!

Disney is only giving out so many tickets, so the sooner you act the better your chances of getting a ticket.  I think the tickets have to be used by Dec. 16th or something like that, and there are a few blockout dates that the tickets are NOT good for. 

We had fun, I would definitely recommend it to others wanting to help out.  We made 3 fleece blankets, a quilted panel that I put a binding on, and then I made a rag quilt too.  Those were our 5 blankets. 

The girls cut strips in their fleece blankets and then tied them in knots.  Emily did a little different things on each edge of her blanket.  I cut their blankets to the correct measurements and made sure they were square.

This is the rag quilt I made, before I washed it.  I was feeling good that for the most part it was square, and most of the squares lined up.  I made one for my brother and sil's little boy and it wasn't very square at all, it looked more like I was trying to make it all staggered and brick laying kind of look.  I got a cutting board, and I think that helped out a TON for this blanket.

Project Linus recommended sending "blanket hugs" on the blankets.  Wrapping cut out hands/arms around the blanket with a note inside.  These are done, so now we have to just wait to see if they are accepted and wait for our vouchers to be sent via email. 

Samantha and Amber even helped with my pins... they would try to pin my quilt squares and then Amber would take the pins out after I was done.  Samantha mostly just took the pins out of anything she found and put the pins on the floor.  She would say, "pokey, hurt, pokey, hurt" over and over again. 

I am so excited!  What a great way to get free tickets. 

Something new

I have seen this before so I thought, I would try it. Shortly after we moved, I went to an enrichment activity for RS Birthday dinner, and some of us brought cakes. I had nothing pretty or special to bring my cake on, so I covered a cardboard piece (like I normally do) with aluminum foil and took that. I saw so many pretty cake stands and told myself I was going to get one. A few months passed and I saw an add for Target I think having a cake stand on sale. I bought it! Then I saw someone that made their own.

You take a glass plate and a glass dish... candle stick holder, vase, sundae cup, milk shake glass, or thick stemmed wine type glass. (The one on the left is a candle stick holder and then a vase on the right. I got them at the dollar store along with the glass plates. I had looked at DI and Savers but didn't see much there.)

Then I got some apoxy type glue for glass... (which I got really for my side mirror on my car that I broke this morning... oops, hope Robert doesn't notice the shattered mirror, although the girls did when I took them to school.) There is a glue called E6000 or something like that at home improvement stores you could use. I picked up mine at Smiths. It was like $3 something. After you wash and dry the glass pieces you turn the plates upside down, and put the "stands" on the bottom of the plate. Use a wet q-tip to clean up any extra glue. My glue said it would set in 5 minutes, but then to not use it for 20 minutes.

Then you have some new cake stands.... I am excited to use them, I almost made some cupcakes just to use them. So it costs about $2 without glue and about $6 if you count the glue.

I kind of ruined my glue and couldn't save it so I was thinking of what else I could use it for. Then I remembered another project I had seen and wanted to do and hadn't done yet. I had bought a stairs banister rod (I am not really sure what to call it) from Home Depot for like $2.40 I think. I then bought a cup and saucer at Savers for $1.49 for the pair. I made the bottom of the banister become the top of my stand and then sawed it to make it level. I then glued my cup to the saucer and the saucer to the stand/banister. I put the banister in the ground first so it would hold the cup up.

Now all I need to do is put bird seed in the cup and I have a cute little bird feeder in my front flower bed. I hope my cat doesn't catch on to the idea or his own bird feeder... one that he gets to feed off the birds. (cost about $4 without glue) I have also seen where they cup and saucer is screwed into the pole... or using a copper rod or tubing I think is what it was called. I still have another banister, thought I would maybe do this as a gift perhaps too. Yeah, Robert has a birthday coming up... he would LOVE it! I have also seen this with the fancier china dishes, but I wanted something more casual. I don't really like the white banister, I will have to do something with that still... still thinking. Maybe just paint or maybe just sanding will make it look more rustic.