Little Girl's Room

We have a second bedroom in our apartment which used to look like this:

 This was actually on a day when I made it look nice... usually it was just a place to dump stuff.

Now it looks like this:

It was fun to try to decorate this room using mostly things that I already had or was given. I made the "headboard" for the guest bed out of an old curtain rod and some white sheets. Notice the dresser from the before picture? I love it's new look and crystal knobs, even though it was a ton of work.

I just finished the blackout curtains this week! I am excited about how they turned out, and they really do make the room very dark, even in the middle of the day.

Most of the picture frames are still empty. I'm planning on making some bunting with Little Girl's name on it to go in the open frame, and then baby pictures and family pictures in the other frames. I got the "medusa" lamp on Craigslist and it has been in my classroom for the last few years. Perfect colors!

This project took forever... until I figured out I could just drill holes in the bottom for the hook screws (I was trying to screw them into the bottom of the frame by hand-- not so smart). Do you think that Little Girl has enough headbands? I'm not so sure...

 

I thrifted this $4 mirror from Goodwill. I didn't take any before pictures, but it was UGLY. The frame was brown plastic open circles that kind of look like wicker. Or like someone had glued a bunch of bangle bracelets together. I tried painting it, but lost patience and ended up just wrapping the whole thing with white fabric. The turquoise lamp I also got at Goodwill and painted 2 years ago. It's been on my desk in my classroom until now.

I LOVE my rocking recliner! And the first quilt I've ever made and not given away. 

 I made the pack-and-play sheet, too--using this great tutorial.

A girl's gotta have plenty of books....

 ...and clothes! I think Little Girl will be able to wear a different outfit every day for the first year of her life, at least.

My favorite part of the whole room:

 I framed pieces of my Great Grandma Bessie's jewelry. Above are a pair of clip-on earrings and below is a matching brooch.

I was Grandma Bessie's first great-grandchild (she insisted that we were NOT to call her "great" grandma, it made her feel old). She made me a quilt with yellow toucan fabric on the back that I adored. I remember visiting her in Bountiful, Utah when I was pretty young and I have vague memories of a sparkly chandelier, running through the backyard, and eating orange rolls. I love having Grandma Bessie's jewelry displayed! It's a fun way to remember her and they are perfect sparkly accessories for the room. 

27 Weeks and a Project

I can't believe we only have 13 weeks left!

I definitely look way more pregnant in real life than in pictures, but here ya go:

  

This week I also finally finished my first big baby project. This awesome dresser was given to us by our good friends when they moved.

BEFORE

 

I have wanted to refinish it for the last year but haven't gotten around to it until now. 

AFTER

 I am so pleased with how it turned out. I only spent $30 on the whole project ($12 on knobs, $10 on polycrylic sealer, $8 on brushes, the dresser was free and I already had the paint).

My favorite part is (are?) the knobs! So pretty!

Spring Break

I had so much fun doing projects over Spring Break!

Coffee Table Re-do! ($15 craigslist find)
Started out with this:
Halfway through day 1 of stripping it looked like this (I had to run to the store to get more stripper!):
After 2 days of stripping (3 cans of aerosol paint stripper later...) it looked like this:
(I didn't get a picture of day 3-- sanding with my new mouse sander!)

Mid-day 4-- painting and priming!

And the finished product!
I love the pretty blue knob!

Baking S'mores cookies

Baby Onesie Embellishing
I have a friend at work who has a daughter named Seven. She gave me some onesies and fabric and told me to do whatever I wanted with them. I had fun...

my inspiration board

I had WAY too many ideas lying around on my desk, so after reading this blog, I decided to make myself an inspiration board. Luckily, I had a snow day to complete my project!

I found a big frame at goodwill ($6!) with an ugly picture in it.
I took out the ugly fox picture (apparently this was an original! No wonder it is so pixel-y)
Spray paint! Can you see all of that snow?! I had to spray paint on my front porch because I could only stand to be in the cold for as long as it took to quickly spray a coat of paint and then run back inside!
While the spray paint was drying, I cut out the joist sheeting that I had bought from Lowes (WAY cheaper than sheet metal! I found it in by the air duct materials).The blue was a little bit bright, so I glazed it with some old white paint mixed with water to give it some texture and tone down the blue.
While that was drying, I used my handy dandy glue gun to attach ribbon as a border. I tried to use materials I had on hand, thus the tiny polka dots. I may switch that out later if I find some ribbon that I like better (on sale of course!).
Then I put it all back in the frame and added some stickers. Again, I was trying to use things I already had-- I wanted to put some back vinyl in the shape of some scrolly damask or chandelier silhouette in the middle, but alas, the dollar store alphabet stickers will do for now!
Now it looks great above my desk! I can start pinning up all of my ideas and inspiration for new creative-ness!

Treasures

The first Saturday of the month is
Half off Everything at Goodwill day!
I'm a total dork, but I love it. It's like treasure hunting!

This month I found so much good stuff for my projects: Sheets with some really fun prints that I'm going to use as fabric, frames that are going to look great once they have some new paint, etc.

My favorite find:
I'm 99% sure they have never even been worn! And the very best part is that they were $2.50!!

That's right, only $2.50!!!

Now I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up so I can actually wear them...