Random Thoughts During the Day

Here are some random thoughts I’ve had lately, none of which are long enough for a post, but just long enough to make you think I have too much time on my hands.

 Remember when you were younger and you would argue about who got to sleep on the top bunk? Now, that I’m older there’s no arguing from me. Just let me lay here for a quick 20 minutes and you can have the top bunk all to yourselves.

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The thought of purchasing a mattress used as the model at Costco grosses me out yet as soon as I roll into a hotel room I throw myself all over the hotel bed.

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 Why do people walk around a pool with their goggles around their neck? Stop! You look ridiculous! Real swimmers don’t do that!

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“Caroline, did you cut with scissors today at school?”

“No.”

“Did you learn about the letter C today?”

“No. We just did some Jesus things today.”

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And there you have it – observations by me.

Lots of Shoe Storage

Here’s my latest find at the Habitat store. Bought it for $30.

(And yes, those are Caroline’s Wonder Woman red boots below)

When I opened up the trunk of my car my husband was a little less than thrilled.

Maybe that’s because I had brought home a night table (which will require a paint job) for him the day before.

I told him, no worries, all we have to do is clean it up a bit and it’s ready to go – no work on our part.

Although I might have fibbed a little bit.

I was thinking about adding a little something to it with paint – roman numerals, shoe sizes, etc.

What do you think I should do with this piece?

Leave it as is or add a little something?

Kids Work Spaces

I’ve been looking at tons of desks for kids on pinterest and have found some beautiful work spaces.

My helpful crafting hint for the day is that you simply do a google search for “pinterest + kids desks” and you will find tons of examples. Or type in, “pinterest + printables,” and you will get loads of boards with printables.

Here are several kid desks that caught my eye.

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How fun would that wallpaper/doodle art be in a room?

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Ummm…YES PLEASE! Love the bright colors!

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Love the art wall and the organized art desk

The wall reminds me of the art wall in our house

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The empty frames here just invite creativity but I would have to move this wallpaper to an area where the kids wouldn’t have to climb on the desk to use it.

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This desk is brilliant for a small space – it folds up!

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Nice use of an odd space

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IKEA to the rescue again!

Looking at these inspiring work spaces makes me think I might be painting some walls white in the boys room.

Shhhh!

Don’t tell my husband because he would freak out if he knew.

Sleeping in a Fort

Summer time around here means lots of fort building.

The last one they built with their Dad. He added some great modifications which kept the tent up through a few wrestling episodes.

They have loved it!

For the past 3 nights all three kids have slept in the fort together.

They love having books read to them in there and being together.

One of my favorite parts of them sleeping in the fort is the giggling and conversations that come from there.

The only negative has been that they tend to fall asleep a little later than normal and all get up at the same time.

But to me there’s no bigger comfort in knowing they are all together.

And sleeping on top of each other and not on me 🙂

 

***Update: The kids have added a trench to their fort. They created it from toy boxes and chairs. They are now officially pretending to be in the French Resistance Army. They are wearing winter hats and mittens – I guess this happens when you have a 10 year old who loves reading about World Wars***

Lamp Opinions Needed…

One of my February goals is to paint my lamps and get new lampshades for them.

This is currently how they look….

sorry for the poor pictures – still waiting to buy a good camera

The uneven lamps will be taken care of eventually with new side tables but that’s for another month.

I have 4 options for color schemes but am having trouble deciding on one.

Currently we do not have a headboard but there is one waiting to be painted in our garage. I think it will end up  black.

Here are the options:

Version 1 – green bases with white shades

(the green would be more subdued as it is in the large pillows )

Version 2 – black bases with white shades

Version 3 – white bases with burlap shades

Version 4 – black bases with burlap shades

So what do you think?

Leave me which option you think would look best in the comment section.

And PLEASE don’t tell me to get new bedding…I just made the pillows in January 🙂

Bedroom Pillows – It’s Love, eh

One of my January goals was to make pillows for my bed.

My biggest hurdle for this project was the fact that I knew I had to change the sewing machine needle before I started this project. Sounds easy but to someone who had never attempted to change the needle I was terrified. I didn’t even look at the manual because I just knew it would be difficult. I bought the fabric to make these pillows way back in September so that was a lot of stalling on my part.

But guess what?

It was easy. I’m talking 10 seconds easy.

So here’s the final look…

In case you don’t know, I’m married to a Canadian and there’s quite a bit of “eh” going on around here. I kept asking him, “Doesn’t it need an exclamation point or a question mark?” My husband insisted it wasn’t necessary since, “We use eh for everything.”

Here’s the run down of the pillows:

3 Large Pillows- Annie Selke Fabric – Seema/Oxford Ivory/Raspberry

(Our bedroom wall is the same light blue/gray in these pillows)

2 white pillows  – I bought two king pillowcases – I put them on our wimpy standard pillows and wrapped the remaining fabric in the back – I will need to get the proper king sized pillows for these someday.

2 Pink Swirl PillowsAnnie Selke Fabric – Scramble Raspberry

1 “Love, eh” Burlap Pillow – burlap on front, Annie Selke on the back

I first taped off a section on the burlap and drew my words on with a sharpie.

Next, I went over my letters with black fabric paint.

After humming and hawing for awhile about the next step, I took the extra tape pieces off the sides – in other words, I made a rectangle of tape but didn’t take a picture.

I now had a perfect rectangle shape to follow when I free handed a rectangle with my white embroidery thread. I double the thread so it would be thicker throughout.

Here’s a fuzzy shot of the embroidery thread.

And the final products once again.

Now onto the bedroom lamps!

Outside Set

I don’t even tell my husband when I’m planning on a trip to the resale store.

It just stresses him out.

He begins envisioning long hours behind a sander and even more time with a paint brush in hand.

A few weeks ago I went and saw this for $39.99. (There were two cushions and a piece of glass,  I just forgot to take a picture before I started working on the set.)

I asked the guy if that was his final offer.

He said, “You can have it for $29.99 as long as you take it away today.”

Done.

Honestly, I have no idea if it was a decent bargain or not, I just knew I needed a place to park my rear end while my kids are playing outside. (Yes, I play with my kids outside but there are days when this mommy just wants to sit and flip through a magazine too.)

Please pardon the enormous, in your face pictures, I was having some technical difficulties (a.k.a. I wanted to hurry up and watch The Real Housewives).

Did I take the time to sand this puppy? No I did not.

I simply sprayed him with an outdoor gray spray and called it done.

I also found an outdoor fabric I loved for the chairs and placed it right over the existing green covers.

The final project on our new deck.

My rear end gives this project two cheeks up! Awful, I know.

Have you finished any recent house projects?

Stair Organizing

Our stairs probably give the impression that we designed our house without closets.

Coats, book bags, toys, art supplies, you name it, it ends up on our stairs.

I had been contemplating for awhile how I could solve our stairs dilemma when I came across these “crap baskets” at Sew Many Ways.

I decided this was the solution to our cluttered stairs.

Now all I needed were baskets. But then I thought? How many baskets?

As I began counting all the baskets I would need, I envisioned baskets halfway up my stairs. Not quite what I had in mind.

Then I stumbled upon this beauty hidden on the bottom shelf at the resale store.

$1.99 – I’ll take it.

A little spray paint and we were in action.

Added a friendly little sign and the basket was open for business.

For some reason my husband and I seem to be the only ones who are enthusiastic about the basket.