Willem's Room

So today I finally picked out all my colours for Nohl's new bedroom! I tell you I was a basket case over it! Decorating the kids rooms to me is like picking baby names....I had a million girl names that I absolutely adored - and less than a handfull of boy names that I remotely could imagine calling them for the rest of their lives. I have such a hard time decorating boy rooms arghh!

Nohl's room won't be done for a time...so I thought I'd give you a glimpse into Willem's. Yes, pretty original here with the airplanes, but daddy flies, so I went with it.




What boys room would be complete without a set of these chompers? Oooohhh the day we found these while on a hike was a thrill. Willem begged to keep them....so on his shelf they sit.


If you've read my post on Ava's bedroom, you'll know that I had a little breakdown on the paint colour. Likewise, while Frank was painting the stripes I started second guessing myself. I thought it was going to look like a circus room. I'm no longer allowed to watch while Frank's painting.

DYI ~ Ideas

There are just so many ideas on "Do It Yourself" projects out there! I thought I'd share a few with you from some very talented women. I know they inspire me to get creative.

DYI ~ Mason Jar Candles

Pottery Barn

See tutorial @ domestically speaking

Quilted Coaster

See Cheryl @ APretty Cool Life for full tutorial!

DYI ~ Cloche

A candle stick and a cheese dome

transforms into this beautiful cloche

See the House of Hepworths for tutorial.

Armoire Make-over

Before

After

The multi coloured stripes make this armoire upbeat and fun!

Michelle @ Sweet Something Designs

Spring in my step

I was just about to go to bed when I checked my email from Martha...and I was in heaven! Just a few days ago I was searching endlessly for beautiful and interesting ways to display Easter/Spring arrangements with not much luck! I really wanted to find something other than your typical flowers in a vase. Now at nearly 1:30am when I should be nestled in my warm bed...I find these gorgeous pictures with some clever ideas! To get the "how to" on some of these ideas, go to: http://www.marthastewart.com/ and search for Everything Easter.


A gorgeous combination of tulips and pussywillows.

How simple and beautiful, but these sweet egg votives do take some work...

See complete directions here.

A combination of tulips and daffodils in a nest makes for a charming centerpeice.

What every girl needs...fresh tulips by the gazillions

Country Living

Country Living uses a decorative canister.

The silver plated vase is from Pottery Barn.

What about using a silver ice bucket to achieve this look?

Martha Stewart shows a natural idea for a spring arrangement! I would think that any log would do, all you'd need are the right tools to drill a hole at the top of your wood large enough for your display.

Ooooooooooooo all these beautiful flowers! I won't see my tulips and daffodils until the first week of May : (

Come on April...let those showers bring the flowers!

Ava's Bedroom

When I look at this room, I don't see the furniture. I still see me, slowly trying to sneak out, crawling on my hands and knees, all the while praying to God that my knees don't crack and wake baby Ava! As a babe, she didn't sleep often, so when she did, I did what I could to keep her that way! That was almost 8 years ago now, but as we all know, they never stop being our babies!

I still remember when I painted this room Tea Rose yellow by Martha Stewart. It was a gray day outside and the paint was seriously glowing with a life force of it's own! I thought I was going to cry, hmmm yes I think I did cry being all hormonal and all. I wanted a soft yellow for a baby's room, not some neon from the 80's. Frank calmed me down and said to wait till tomorrow, and sure enough, it wasn't that bad and indeed I liked it.

We added true wainscotting, which was a score from a friend who worked in a woodyard!


When we walked through the model home, we knew instantly that this would be our baby girl's room. We both thought that the window space was screaming for a built in bench. Turns out that was our first project when we moved in.


The hutch was from Ikea and I just adored it because it actually came with the rose petal knobs!

The hatbox and hats were from Ava's third birthday party. The theme was a tea party, so I made all our guests their tea hats. I put our hats above her armoire for a keepsake.

I feel a happy, cheerful feeling every time I walk into this room, well when it's clean that is!

Oh yeah, did I mention she wants her room RED now!!!!!!!!

Burlap Picture Frame

I have some left over burlap from my tablecloth and I was thinking about all the things that I could possibly do with it?! I had these pink velour frames from Ava's room that never did make it up on her wall. They've been stacked in her closet now for about 4 years. So I thought..hmmm maybe they'd look good in burlap?

See this is why I love blogging, not that anyone is actually reading this...hello, anybody there, but 4 years..really? It only took me 4 years and a blog to do this!

If you look closely you'll see screw marks that are permantly there! Cover that bad boy up!

If you'd like to make one too:

• Cut out burlap to fit over your frame
• Place the frame on your burlap and trace out the center of the frame with a permanent marker pen
• To make your corners nice, cut in the middle up to your angle (see pic below)

• When cutting out the extra burlap in the center, don't cut exactly on your marked line...be sure to cut below it so you have enough burlap to hot glue to the inside of your frame
• Continue to hot glue the outside of your frame, pulling snuggly

• For the outside corners, I cut again on the angle, and then snipped them to a 90 degrees, fold over and hot glue (pics above and below)

and here you have it..one burlap covered frame...that's me holding my sister when we were younger...and YES I KNOW I look like "throw mama from the train!"

The little flower is left over burlap pieces that I cut into circles and crumpled up, ribbon and a button. I really really thought this was a super easy effort project. Burlap is my friend, oh and I can't forget to credit the hot glue!

Caution: many a fingertip was burned in the making of this frame : )

Bento for Kids

Sandwich flower, originally uploaded by bentomom.

Making the kids lunches everyday, the same things..day after day....BORING! I was searching for new and interesting ideas to make their lunches a little more fun for not only them but for me! I immediately fell in love with Bentomom and her Bento Box Lunches for Kids. Now this is one AMAZING mom!

a girl walking the dog under the cherry trees

A mouse, a chick and a rabbit

a happy clown

Check out all Bentomom's amazing ideas!

Now this is a little extreme for me. I did give it a try and it is quite time consuming, but well worth it! The kids were thrilled and couldn't wait to show it to their friends...and EAT IT! I felt like I had sent them off with a newly improved healthy lunch with a twist! Because this takes a little planning and effort...I am not doing this on a daily basis, but thought Friday Lunch Fun was an option for me. Fridays used to be the day that I would send in a cookie or something sweet, but I think this tops that, don't you think?

One of my creative snacks....the kids loved it!