Nursery Tour - Penelope's room

I don't think I ever gave you all a tour of Penelopes room... which doesn't surprise me. Everything has been so hectic and busy the past couple months. I know at one time I mentioned making a post showing her room but never got around to it. My B... Well better late then never I suppose right!? :P

{one of my resolutions this year aside from losing the baby weight? Become more ORGANIZED!}
 

You might remember her room used to be the studio...

It's definitely changed a lot! Moving all of my stuff into the office {that we all share} really forced me to downsize and weed out a lot of my crafty stuff. Which was a good thing. I had a TON of it and probly about 80% of it I haven't used since ive bought it and more then likely won't plan on using it.

I am a crafting/art supplies hoarder, let them make a show about that!

This wall makes me smile. I remember making these fabric pieces right before she was born. We were all in the living room on a Saturday night. I was about 38, almost 39 weeks pregnant and Jayden helped me put these together. One of those small moments that you just never forget.

I intended to paint these little bird houses and hang them from her ceiling but deiced to hold off on the painting and instead wait until she is older and let her paint them with me. It will be a little special project her and I will do and she will add her own special touches to them.

 

Some of J's old books he had when he was a toddler ♥

Before, during and finally after.

I miss having my own space to create my art BUT having my little peanut and the moments I share sitting in the rocker with her and seeing her babble and 'chat' with herself while she is in her crib are just priceless and I wouldn't give it up for the world.

Fall nesting??

I have had this wild hair up my butt lately to clean, clean and do some more cleaning. Is this was nesting is all about? I only thought people nested when they were pregnant... {and no im not preggo}. I remember I was cleaning everyday it seemed like once I hit my third trimester with my son. So bad I was down on the floor, scrubbing the grout with a toothbrush at 36 weeks ha!

For reals though, I think it's the changing of the seasons. In the summer I don't like to spend so much time inside, therefor I don't clean as much where as when the weather gets colder, the days appear more dreary and the sunlight only lasts so long, I think that is what sparks my 'nesting' to go into over drive.

Yesterday I spent 3hrs cleaning the bathroom.

WHO does that?!

I do apparently.

I started with the bathroom closet first. I have a love hate relationship with this closet. for the most part it has lots of room for everything but because there is so much room it's hard to keep everything completely organized on each shelf.

You like our ghetto curtain? i.e- towel hanging over a tension rod. I seriously have to think of something to do with that window. I tried the frosted glass {the valspar spray} but after about 3 showers, the frost started to chip off from the water and humidity from the shower and since our master bathroom is still being worked on, this is the only shower we can use.

So I pulled all the little caddies out, cleaned them, sprayed them with lysol and then put each product into a specific caddy as shown.

I know the 'Mama and Daddy' one makes us look like we have some 'issues' but don't worry. I usually throw any prescribed medicine out after im all better but Josh never throws it out. Some of that medicine is almost 4yrs old and hasn't been used in about.... oh 4yrs. BUT since Josh wasn't home, I didn't want to throw any of it out, would much rather wait for him to go through it and discard of what he doesn't need.

So all of our 'medicine' caddies I put on the very top shelf so I know little hands wont have any chance of getting to it {the actual medicine is also pushed all the way to the back}.

The second shelf has the insanely big towels, like beach towels... towels that don't get used regularly.

And since we don't have a formal linen closet, the bottom shelf has fitted sheets, top sheets, pillow cases and a blanket.

I had attached a little shelf to the inside part of the door awhile back and this is mainly used for the daily essential items that you saw in the ghetto shower/window pic. {shampoo, body wash, toothpaste... etc}.

I didn't stop there folks. Oh no sir-y.

The handles on the shower faucet have been bugging me because of that nasty grime you see the arrow pointing at.

Yuck.

So I popped the little caps off and unscrewed the actual handles.

Yum.

best. scrubber. ever.

end of story.

while the handles were drying, I decided to take the 80's style plate things that were on the inside of the caps, out.

I used my little exacto knife, dug a hole into the middle of the silver plate thing and popped it out. Then I scrubbed the inside of the cap.

All clean now!

That sonic scrubber I have? I also used that to scrub the chrome pieces of the faucet. They had some stained on water spots that wouldn't come off with a regular scrub/sponge, so I sprayed my cleaner on, let it sit and then used my sonic scrubber and 98% of the water stains came right off.

BUT I didn't stop there.

The wall to the right. the toilet wall... this wall is oddly long and very bare. I wanted to warm it up a little so I added some artwork.

It doesn't make the bathroom seem so cold now. That one little frame I had above the toilet in the 'before' photo just wasn't cutting it. Now it has more character and when you sit on the toilet, you can look at the mirror in front of you and have all of these lovely things to look at ....to pass the time you know.

kidding!

But that is what happens when you spend 3hrs cleaning a bathroom.

{for real... who does that!?}

Have you been nesting lately?

Jayden's Room - Before and After

Well I am happy to report that I have one completed room in our home. We have been living here for a year and a half and one, keyword there, one, room is finished. Done. Complete. Although I say it's completely finished but is any room ever really 100% finished? [especially when said room involves a toddler].

It has taken us approximately a week to complete this room. Not to shabby if you ask me, and I must say I am super happy about the final result, Jayden is super happy about his 'new' room and I am so excited to finally be able to share it with you!

At the bottom of the post I have added the complete breakdown for you. Budget was a big focus for us with the complete transformation of this room.

Before

Here was his room before. The wall color was... honestly, I can't remember what exactly it was because I haven't really liked it since it went up on the walls. The tree and the owl I painted almost a year ago, which I adore and am sad to see it go, however just in the past year Jayden has changed so much as far as what he likes. 

His 'style' is more defined now. He knows what he likes and there for it makes it easier for me to create a space just for him, with all of his favorite things. A room where his personality shines through and where the possibilities for his creativeness are endless. 

After

And that's exactly what we did. 

I still wanted to stick with a lighter shade for the wall color, however I wanted something a little more 'warm' to keep the space bright, but not make it feel like a hospital.

As you can see we picked one wall and painted it with Rustoleums Chalkboard paint.

There is the new home for my $15.00 dresser that I blogged about the other day [you can read about that here] Above the nightstand is a painting I made for him, of a Robot. He is all kinds of serious about some Robots right now. 

 

The nightstand itself currently holds his chalk, coloring books, shape and numbers books and flashcards.

We already had a twin sized blanket for his bed because when we bought his toddler bed, I could never find a smaller sized blanket I liked, so I went with a twin sized and kept it folded. So in the end we saved money during this room redo. Also the little 'blanket' you see in the photo with the tree's, is not a blanket it at all. It's a shower curtain that Josh's mom picked up for about %75 off [Target] and at the moment it's being used to add some color to his bed. I do plan to make something out of it... just haven't committed to anything yet [possibly a blanket?]. 

I had a shower curtain stored away in the closet of my craft room, never really knowing what I wanted to do with it. I'm glad I kept it because it was the perfect color and match for his already plain/white curtains he had in his room. I cut 13" off the top and sewed sections of the blue patterned shower curtain on. Made some button holes with my sewing machine for the hooks to easily go through without them fraying, once hung up.

The art you see in the above photo is from Vintage Printable. It's vintage stamp art. The colors worked perfectly!

The other art you see is also various photos from my own collection, scrapbook paper, vintage printable and art he already had in his room before the redo.

His own little Art corner.

Complete with crayons and stamps.

 Before

 After

And someone.... definitely loves his new room! :)

Paint Colors-
Walls :: Olympics 'Oatlands Subtle Taupe' and Rustoleum 'Chalkboard Paint'.
Bed :: Olympics 'Asparagus'.
Nightstand :: Olympics 'South Pacific'.

Budget Breakdown [rounding up to the nearest dollar]-
Paint and Supplies :: $50.00 [already had the chalkboard paint].
Nightstand :: $15.00 [Goodwill]
Bed Frame :: $23.00 [Goodwill]
Serta twin size mattress ::  $100.00 [Big Lots]
Books :: $4.00 [bought 7 new books to add to his collection].
Frames :: $5.00 [bought some extra frames @ Goodwill to add to the collection of frames I already had].

Total :: $182.00

I reached my goal of staying within $200.00 and im pretty proud of myself. I have learned that it's super important to set a budget for yourself on the specific room you are working on so that you don't go overboard and break the bank on stuff you really don't need.

For this room I also did a lot of the things myself. The Art throughout the room for example- Photoshop is your friend people, cannot stress that enough and also AC Moore Arts and Crafts has sales on their painters canvas from time to time. I bought a 2-pack of 16x20 canvasses for $7.00. I didn't need them at the time but because they were such a steal [for real, those things can get pricey!] I bought a few packs and have had them stored away in the closet. So glad I did!

I also buy tablecloths or cotton/fabric shower curtains when their on sale because they make for great curtains [or even pillows]. You already read where the blue pattern I sewed onto his [already there] curtains, was a shower curtain. The white fabric part is also a shower curtain [100% cotton] that I had snagged on sale @ Target last year.

The furniture as you saw was bought at Goodwill. It didn't look so hot when we bought it, but for solid wood [which is rare these days] you can't beat the price. A little elbow grease goes a long way and in the end we are left with a colorful, solid piece of furniture that will last for many more years. 

And last but not least, the bunting was super easy. Some white yarn, scrapbook paper and presto. Easy and totally fun, colorful bunting [stay tuned further in the week for how I created the simple bunting hanging throughout his room].

That concludes our tour. I'm pooped, but relived that we have one completed room in this house. How exciting is that!?