The Laundry Room Reveal-finally!

Yeah! My laundry room is finally done (I think)! I have to say up front that I got a ton of inspiration from Centsational Girl and from House of Smiths. Thank you very much! Okay, drumroll, please....

Here it is in all it's glory! Now how about some before shots:

I know this room looks really terrible, but let me say that it's actually a bit better than it normally had been here because I'd already started to do some de-cluttering before I remembered to take my "before" shots. Hard to imagine it being much worse, I know!

Don't you just LOVE the periwinkle color? I've lived with that for four years now and believe me, I'm ready for a change!

There are (were) only two rooms in my house that we had never painted at this point. The laundry room and my downstairs office (next project). Every other room has been painted at least once, some even twice! Now, it's my turn to make the rooms I spend a lot of time in more enjoyable to be in there.

Old valance (just wait until you see the new!)

I HATE flourescent lighting, don't you? This has GOT to go!

Goodbye periwinkle, hello....sprig? Ummm, maybe not. Thankfully, those Kwal-Howells people were able to convert the sprig into something a bit nicer--florence roof--at no extra charge. And especially thanks to my hubby, Nate, for being the runner to get that paint changed.

Yeah for florence roof! (Keep in mind, this is a working laundry room people. That is actual laundry hanging up). And here's what the other side of the room looks like now:

And behind the door:

How about some close-ups:

In this picture, you can see that we raised the cabinets up several inches and put in a shelf. Thanks (again) to my friend Julie for all of the vinyl.

This sign just might be my favorite thing in the room. But there're so many cute things that it's really hard to decide.

Baskets, vase and flowers from Roberts craft. Also that is scrapbooking paper behind the shelf. I tried sticking it on with double-sided tape, but it wouldn't hold. I ended up using a spray adhesive.

Chandelier from Ikea (just $40). I love it, but I'm not sure it's staying. I may end up putting it in Sarah's room.

Magnet board also from Roberts. Then I added the pretty wood piece from Home Depot. I spray painted it white, but antiqued it with stain. Then I covered the metal with more scrapbooking paper. I love having pictures of my favorite people decorating the wall.

Got the idea for this ironing board holder from House of Smiths.

This was a really fun project! We recently bought a bigger kitchen table to fit our growing family and our old table was just sitting around waiting for me to sell it. I was trying to decided what to do under the window here--whether or not I was going to put in counter or some other type of shelf when I remembered the table! It turned out to be the perfect length for the space. Nate took it over to our neighbor's and cut it in half, lengthwise, on his table saw. He attached it to the wall on the backside with some brackets. Brilliant, isn't it?! (And didn't cost a penny!)

This is my new laundry soap dispenser. I recently decided to try this recipe for homemade laundry detergent. I'm really liking it. And it's super-de-dooper cheap to make. Were talking cents here, people. The dispenser came from Walmart for like $6. (On a side note, and not to disgust you, but Sarah [my 8-year-old] asked me why we were keeping a container of throw up in the laundry room).

New valance! I made an identical one for the mud room as well. I LOVE this fabric. It's Heather Bailey's Turqoise Wallpaper Roses. I'm going to be making a diaper bag out of it pretty soon. :)

Okay, and let's just have one final looksee at the before and after of this room. I think it's pretty amazing what I lived with for so long!

More projects

This past weekend I decided to work on the gifts that I will give to my kids teachers at the end of the year. I know it's early, but it's something I will have to get done before the baby is born and there's no time like the present, right? As some of you may know, I have a large stash of really cute fabric that I really need to use, so instead of buying new fabric, I decided on these:

This line is called "Polly Goes to Paris" and I just LOVE it! Some of you may recognize the fabric from a little dress I made for Eliza a while back.

Anyhow, I thought it would make adorable bags for the girls' teachers. Here's how they turned out:

Cute, huh? I may add a flower or some other cute little accessory. I'll have to think about it.

Also, one of the many things on my list of projects to complete before baby is born is to catch up on my scrapbooking. I have pretty much switched over to digital scrapbooking. It's just easier, more convenient, and less expensive than the old style. My friend Kelly recommended this new company to me, so I tried them out and I LOVE it!

They were SOOO user friendly and the options for backgrounds and layouts is huge. They have regular deals, too. Like this weekend if I completed and ordered a book I would get $10 off plus free shipping. Even though there was much else to do, I decided to go for it and spent most of Sunday working on the book. I got it done (Yeah!) and was able to get the deal. That's one book down, and many more to go, but at least my 2010 family book is finished.

If you are interested in trying them out, use this link to create your account and I'll receive $10 in "picabucks": http://invite.picaboo.com/?UZADMNA

PS. The laundry room is almost done, I promise!

Nesting, part 3

I actually painted Skyler's room back in February. As soon as we found out that we were having a girl, we decided she needed to share a room with Eliza. That meant that Skyler and Eliza needed to switch rooms because his room was a bit bigger.

So....goodbye pinky, feminine girl room, and hello cute gray/green boys room! Darn it, I forgot to take a before shot of the pink girls room and couldn't find any old ones even. Just envision that this room used to be very.....pink.

Oh, and to give credit where it's due, I was TOTALLY inspired by this blog when putting this room together. To the point of copying her paint colors and many of her decorations.

We decided to skip the toddler bed phase. I just can't stand our old metal toddler bed! I started looking for a twin sized bed for him when my sister-in-law offered us this bed that actually used to be Nate's about a million years ago (or maybe just 30). I got the "transportation" bedding at Target. It's just perfect for the stage he's in. The curtains I made myself. Here's a close-up of the fabric:

Cute, huh?

How about a close-up of some of the decorations?

Yes, I copied the sign. With the help of my friend Julie who has helped me with all my other vinyl stuff. Thanks, Julie!

This embroidery is something I made while pregnant with Skyler, but always a good reminder so it stays. And the shelf with the balls came from his nursery, too. The shelf, the dog, the football and the basketball were all yard sale finds three years ago when I was expecting Skyler.

This poster was a gift from my brother's family on Skyler's first birthday.

Here's another carryover from Skyler's nursery. I love to hang all the boy birth announcements in his room. (The girl birth announcements are hung on a board in Eliza's room). And, that's also the tags from his hospital bassinet that you can see there!

The lamp and the canvas art are from Target. Yes, I copied them from that other blog.

Here's one thing we still have left to finish in his room. I want to build a "parking garage" for all of his big trucks, boats, planes and school bus. Something akin to a shoe rack but large enough to park vehicles on. I have the lumber in the garage so I'm sure we'll be getting to it before long. (Thanks, dear!)

Something else I would love to put in this room (not that there's really a spot left) is the 12 points of the scout law (you know, "A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly....") done in subway art style. Something like this:

or this:

Wouldn't that be cute? I love to have things hanging in his room to remind him who he is. :) So if any of you know how to make subway art, and your a tad bored some evening, let me know.

Edit (3/28/2011): I just discovered http://www.wordle.net/ where you can create this type of thing. Check out the one I made on the sidebar!

Stay tuned! It won't be long before I show you what we did this weekend. And it involved cutting our old kitchen table in half! (We really did)!

Things I've been working on...

I've been hard at work, but I don't want to reveal everything I've done until it's all done! I've been painting my laundry room, and I've been putting the finishing touches up in Skyler's and Eliza's rooms. (I painted Skyler's room last month, but it's taking me forever to get everything put together).

But here are some gems that I can and will show off. I found this mirror at a yard sale last summer. I got it for $5!! Isn't it gorgeous? Yes, yard sale-ing is my favorite hobby. However, I wanted to change the color for putting it in Sarah's room. Nate about died when I told him I was going to spray paint this. He was completely against it. And to be completely honest, I wasn't totally sure because I did like it as it was.

But here's how it looks in turqoise. Not bad, if I do say so myself:

I LOVE it! I am really glad I went ahead with adding the color. Sarah's room is in the basement and doesn't have good lighting. Her room needed brightening, so last year I made her the brightly colored quilt you can see on her bed. The mirror just adds to her room. It's not in it's permanent spot, but I will get to that later.

Next, this embroidery is one that hung in my parent's home while I was growing up. My mom gave it to me (thanks mom) when I was pregnant with my first child. And it's been in my nursery ever since. But the best part? The title of this poem is "Song for a Fifth Child". Guess who is my mom's fifth child? That's right, you guessed it, ME! And guess who's now expecting her fifth child? That's right, me again! I'll definitely have to pass this along to Leah (yes, that's her name) when she's a mom.

BUT, I had it in the ugliest frame ever! So I've reframed it and it will be hung back up in the nursery once again.

Stay tuned, I hope to have my laundry room done before too long...

Nesting, part 2: New Car Seat Cover

The infant carseat that I've used for my last three babies is about 10 years old now. Not exactly going to pass any safety checks. My friend gave me a carseat that someone had given her that is not even 3 years old. The only problem? A big melted crayon stain going all the way through the seat and even all over the belt. Impossible to get out. But when I found a tutorial for re-doing your carseat cover on this blog, I knew I had it made!

(okay so I forgot to take a good before picture of how the old carseat cover looked, but here is one picture I did take of the stain. Ooooo, gross!)

Now, here is the new and improved carseat:

I wasn't sure if I should really go this feminine, but I decided that if my next is a boy then I can always re-do it or maybe find someone who'd like to trade. But that's not going to be for a few years....

Nesting, part 1: Pantry Project

I was just starting to get the nesting bug last month when I found this blog that TOTALLY inspired my to clean up my pantry. It hit me at the right time because I'm in the mood to MOVE and get things done. Here is the finished product--neat, clean, organized and labeled. (Now can we make it last?)

Here is what it looked like before:

What a disorganized mess!

If you look close you can see how chipped and gross the shelves were before. What a mess! How did I find anything? Okay, so here's what I did:

First, I took everything out of the pantry and scrubbed down all the shelves.

Try living like this for three days!:

Step 2: Painted the walls (two coats). I used paint that I already had. I'm being frugal, and it already matched my kitchen.

Then, taped off and painted the shelves white (two coats).



















Oh, doesn't it look beautiful? To protect all my hard work, I covered the shelves with white contact paper as well.




















My friend Julie helped me by making labels with her silhouette. Oh, how I would love to have one of these machines! We labeled just about everything! Aren't these glass jars cute? They are from Wal-mart for only about $3.50 each.

Isn't the bottle of maple syrup cute! I borrowed that idea from that other blog as well.
Since I bought a new trash can to replace my disgusting old one, my family complained that the couldn't tell apart the recycling bin and the trash. So we even labeled those.
Once again, here is the final product:

What a beautiful sight!