Room Makeover!

This week I got a wild hair and decided to work on the "lounge" just outside of the TV room.  It was a bit junky and had lots of odds and ends...

 

 The other side of the room I had emptied out before I took a picture.  It had the crib and a folded chair and a bunch of other stuff.

So I had thought we would put our chess table in this space.  And thought I would use the two extra dining room chairs on either side of it.  This thought came to mind when I was window shopping through World Market this past weekend and saw dining chair slip covers on sale for $15 each (usually $40) and knew there was no way I'd want to or could make them at that price. 

Unfortunately, when I went on Monday, none of the slip covers would match the dragon painting that my husband's Grandma bought for him when he was around 10 years old from the gift shop at the Little Rock Arts Museum.  And this painting matches the orange side table that I already had in the room.  So while I was at World Market and discovered the slip covers weren't going to match we cruised through the rest of the store.  And to my delight, I found a chair with dragons as part of the fabric design. 

What luck!  But no price tag was on it.  A salesman was nearby and I asked him about it.  He went to find someone to ask about it and came back with a price of $139 since it was the last chair of this kind with this fabric(the other chairs like this were priced at $179).  Oh, still more than I was wanting to spend.  Then the salesguy figured out I wasn't paying that and mentioned on the back base of the chair there was a crack that had been repaired and said he would take $79.  I asked, "Can I still use my 10% off coupon?"  And he gave me a little frown and said, "Yes, I just want to get rid of it!" 
Wahoo!  Score! 

Then yesterday the kids and I went to Goodwill to find a frame for the dragon painting.  And I got a great deal on a giant frame (a little over 24" and 30") for only $8 and to go with those, got a bunch of bamboo tall sticks. 

Here's the before of the frame...

We got this home and while my littlest took a nap, my daughter and I took apart the frame(she even helped take a bunch of the staples out with some needle nose pliers).  Then we spread out the tarp and spray painted it black.  Perfect!

Also because I'm trying to be thrifty, I shopped around my house for knickknacks.  I found a red tapered candle and gold candle holder, a wine crate to use for movie snacks and some popcorn bowls to put in it for the TV room, some little dragonfly paintings I had done years ago, and some chopsticks that my husband had picked up when he was in Korea for the Marine Reserves.  How to use the chopsticks?  I had an old frame with a black background and taped these on the board and put it back in the frame.  Here's what I started with for this project...

Lastly, I emptied out the room, sorted what could go into the attic, and had help putting things into the attic space. :) 

I think it turned out great if I do say so myself!  It was a fun project and hard to beat a room makeover for only $95. :)

 

Things Toddlers Say

Last night, our family went out to eat.  My oldest said, "I want to go home this place looks too restauranty." 

My Little Guy's New Room Reveal!

Oh, I'm sooo excited!  I never got to put together a nursery just for my youngest since he lived in the bassinet for the first several months of his life and then slept between the crib and the playpen in our apartment from when he was a year old until we moved into the house last fall.  Soooo I've been dreaming of what to do for his room for a long time.  Last fall, I found a print from Peony and Thistle on etsy.com and had to have it. 

Here's some of the specs... 

Vintage item from the 1960s

Materials: vintage bookplate, vintage book plate, hot air balloon drawings

And here's a photo of it...

I KNOW   - COOL RIGHT?!  So this is where the theme came from; or maybe I had considered a hot air balloon theme and then found this and so the theme was set in stone. 

First, I started on his room by finding a $10 giant 20" x 30" frame at Goodwill and promptly disposing of the worn print and matboard.  Then I ordered a matboard with the help of a professional framer at Hobby Lobby who helped me find a color and finish that complemented the orange balloon(I just like the orange for a boy's room). 

Ok, also a month or more ago, the crib came down in my baby's room and he started sleeping on the crib mattress on the floor to prepare him for the big boy bed.  I did this at the advice of a friend of mine.  It proved effective in training them to stay on the mattress because while they are learning they are going to roll off generally.  It's not as far to fall which makes mommy feel better about the training time.  

So here's what his room started off looking like...

Not much going on there!  The rug was also sold on craigslist and everything was removed from the room before starting the painting.  Oh, and painting.  I forgot how much time it can take to paint a room even just a solid color!  The original paint was flat so of course it soaked up the semi gloss I had picked out so that made it take a little longer; still it was worth it!  I used a sky blue color to go with the balloons and air-y theme.

Also I've been collecting things since last summer for his room.  I've picked up paper lanterns on clearance to use as balloons and napkin holders to use as little baskets.  Also I got a hot air balloon mobile from amazon to hang from the ceiling, wooden prepainted white letters to use as a art feature with his name, and a bulletine board.  Oh, the bulletine board was painted with the oil rubbed bronze spray paint which was also used on his dresser and on his bookshelf and the iron bed I picked up from... can you guess?  Craigslist!  :)  I'll be posting later about the redo for that.

So where'd all this other furniture come from?  The bookshelf was left in the house in Louisville we bought 12-13 years ago and it has been used in my other two kids rooms at one time or another.  The dresser was bought just after we bought the house in Louisville at an auction for $5.  It was just wood finished and had a hole in the top.  My husband used bondo and fixed the top and then we painted it white.  And now for my little guy's new room, it's bronze. :)

Now all the furniture is matchy matchy and that makes me happy.  Aunt CB gave me an idea of how to hang the "hot air balloon's" with the big one over his bed and the other three at an angle over the dresser.(thanks!  it looks great!)  The mobile is hanging in the corner near the closet and a return air vent.  So each time the air kicks on they start moving around which is so neat!  Let's see I also got his name board designed and painted and I think it looks fun and mimics the orange in the mat board for the print and the little "baskets" for the hot air balloons.  I'm hoping to eventually find an orange round rug to go in the room.(I've been searching online for a while so if you see anything I'd really appreciate if you'd put something in the comment line below.)  I also have a old school prop engine type airplane décor item for on top of his dresser. 

My little guy seems to like all the decorations and it's been fun watching how much fun he has been playing in his room lately.  Tonight for bedtime, he was laying on his pillow looking up watching the big balloon floating around.  So fun!

Ok, so without further adieu...  Here's the big reveal!  [PS My little girl helped with the photography. :)]

 

Things Toddlers Say

This morning while eating grapes for breakfast, my three year old started filling up her cheeks and giggling.  They were just about packed full when she said, "This is how chipmunks eat!"  LOL

Winner Winner!

Do you remember me blogging about our study and how I've been working on organizing and rearranging it?  Welllll, a month or so ago I won a new corner bed by Standard Furniture from completing a survey from MomCentral!  wahoooo!!!!!!!!!  The corner bed can be found under the youth line of furniture but I think it works perfect in a "grown up" space as well. 

I've secretly been wanting to use the study as an art studio and this was my chance to create more space but still have room for guests(by bringing down a twin mattress when more than one person visits)!  We had a giant king size bed in the room for guests but considering we might have 4-6 visits a year total and the couples probably won't mind getting their own twin sized beds...  I decided New Art studio!  woot woot! 

Here's a before picture... 

It looks like a bunch of space but really that floor space was just about all there was plus a walking path on the other side of the bed to get in on the other side.  Not really enough to spread out a bunch of paintings that I like to do when painting series.

So after I got the bookshelves setup and traded my son's dresser for an antique dresser we were using in the entry, I won the corner twin bed!  How convenient! 

It arrived in two large packages that the delivery guy was sooo nice to put in the entry for me(next to the study.  That night I listed the king sized mattress on craigslist for free and in all over 30minutes people started calling for it and by 9pm or so it was gone!  I heart Craigslist. :) 

The next night after the kids were in bed I started on the assembly.  This was super easy.  I did have some help when I attached the rails with the headboard/footboard but other than that I put it together on my own. 

Also the directions were easy to follow and it was packaged very well.  One of the corners of the boxes was squished pretty good and there was a spot that part of the cardboard was pulled back so I thought it surely had to be damaged somehow.  Fortunately the packaging was so good that nothing was damaged or missing!

Here's some pictures of how the corner bed came shipped and all the different parts that came with it...

Wahooo!  My prize arrived!

 Here's all the fasteners and the tool that came with it...

 The feet were SO easy to put on...

 These gaskets went on the ends of the slats that hold up the mattress...

 Easy install of slats to the rails...

 Another shot...  I liked that these fit into holes so the slats stay in one place and not scoot around...

So super easy to put together!

Another thing I did for the study was create a "coffee table" so that the corner bed feels more like a couch.  I used the ottoman that used to go with the upholstered chair that I used to rock my babies in.  We had moved the set to our bedroom but the ottoman just didn't fit properly.  Sooo...  with a new slip cover created from the old King dust ruffle and pillow shame...  tah dah!  New slipcovered coffee table/ottoman!

It feels sooo much larger in this room now(only lacking hanging the curtains soon)...

 Looks cool huh?!  I could make this look even more "couchy" with pillows, a traditional coffee table, and a different comforter but this one was free since I already had it!

 View from my relaxing reading spot; slashy my bed to sneak off to and sleep in when our two youngest climb in our bed in the middle of the night and treat me like a giant pillow. haha

 

I love love love all the extra space in this room!  We can move around easily.  Soon I'll have my sewing machine setup again(sold my free sewing machine table and am going to set up my granny's old table again soon).  After I got this all setup my husband realized I had made a "woman zone" in what was suppose to be his manly man room; but hey, he said he wasn't going to work on it for another year so I thought...  Ohhh I have my own room for a full year!  Yipppeeee!!! 

What do you think about the new space?! 

SCORE!!!!!!!!

If your family is like ours, a box of cereal and gallon of milk can disappear in..one...day.  whew!  My kids drink either milk or Koolaid and hardly anything else; especially water because (I quote my 3 year old) "it makes me puke."  LOL  So when I read yesterday on mylitter.com about the Kroger sale event that ended last night I was stoked!  There was a coupon for $6 off 4 General Mills cereals on the online coupon upload thingy at Kroger.com and could be used up to 5 times in one transaction - FIVE PEOPLE!  Plus, with the Kroger sales event $5 was taken off per 5 boxes of cereal.  You know what me and a bunch of other crazy stockpile couponers did?  Oh, yes.  We stocked up! 

How do I know I wasn't the only gal doing this?  Because I had to go to two different stores to find any of the qualifying cereals and at the second store it was almost sold out at 9pm the last day of this deal.  Another crazy lady like me with a cart full of cereal said that she had been to several stores and this was the only one with anything left.  My, my, my I'm feeling silly about this but, really, WHO CARES!  I got all of this...

all of that... for only $15.17!!!!  I'm soooo thankful for such a great deal!!!  And a bonus was I needed to pick up milk and there were three gallons marked down to $1.79 each.  So the 20 boxes of cereal were actually only $9.80 total or $0.49 each.(PS these are the big sizes...  see the "Family Size" in the picture.  woot woot!)

For more couponing expertise, check out mylitter.com  I'm sending some link love because of my savings of $88.54(that's what my receipt says)!  THANK YOUUUUU!!!

Stain Solutions

This will be a weekly post to make stinky stains go away(or at least make them a little less noticable). Check back each week for more helpful tips or add one in the comments below.

 

THE STAIN:
Liquor

ON COTTON,LINEN,POLYESTER,ACRYLIC,etc:

Sponge stain with cool water.  Soak in solution of cool water and dishwashing liquid:  30 minutes for light stain, overnight for heavy.  Rinse; launder.

WOOL,SILK,ACETATE,SUEDE,LEATHER,FIBERGLASS,RAYON:

Wipe, then flush with cool water.  Use dry-cleaning solvent, then dry-clean.

WOOD FURNITURE,FURNITURE FABRICS,FLOORS,WALLPAPER,CARPET:

Wood floor, furniture:  Wipe, then rub with water and some ammonia on cloth.  Apply boiled linseed oil.  Polish.  Furniture fabric:  Apply commercial spot remover.

*The above tips are from Family Circus magazine printed 5/12/1998 page 12. TheSmellyArmpit's tip is to BE CAREFUL!

 

Things Toddlers Say

Yesterday, my 5 year old looked at me very thoughtfully at the lunch table and asked, "Mommy, do elephant trunks have boogers?" 

Things Toddlers Say

The other day we were riding in the car listening to CCR "Rollin' Down the River"  and my 5 year old starting singing with what he thought were the lyrics, "Bowlin' down the river, do do doooo do..."