Play Pom Pom letters

So it's been awhile...I'm not sure how that happened.  I guess I've been more into completing projects lately than blogging about them.  Plus I've had some big changes in my life as I'm transitioning from teaching full time to staying at home with my girls and starting my piano studio back up again.  But my intent behind starting this blog was to share my ideas to pay back for all of the great ideas that I get from other blogs.  So here I am again to finally blog about a couple of projects that I completed way back in May.

After I finished my makeover of my sewing room I figure that I better start on the family/play room since I would want the girls down there playing sometimes while I'm sewing.  I decided to paint the room the same color as the living room upstairs: Behr Silver Drop.  So I've been terrible about taking before pictures in this house but I have a few pretty awful ones for you.

The original wall color wasn't terrible but it wasn't my favorite either.  I also painted the trim because I prefer white trim to this dark stuff.  The rock wall is something that we want to remove of course but it will be quite sometime before that is high on the priority list to do.  So we live with it for now...

The lighting down here is terrible because it is a basement.  The wall color actually reads much lighter in person.  We were able to get the book ledges put up from Lyla's bedroom at our old house.  This also meant that I was finally able to finish unpacking all the boxes from our move since the only boxes left were the books from Lyla's room!

In this photo you can see the true color of the walls a little better.  The media console from our living room from our last house lives down here now and you can also read more about those stenciled storage boxes here.  We decided to put the benches from our porch at our last house on either side of the media console.  They are awesome for concealed toy storage in this room.  They also make great extra seating for reading books etc.

I decided to re-cover them with a black and cream ticking stripe fabric to make the bench a little more neutral since I wanted to go pretty colorful in the decor.  As you can see I am kind of picking random and fun pillows to go on the benches.  I don't quite have enough to fill both benches right now because I just buy them as I find one that stands out to me at a store.

For the decor I wanted to go with a fun kids theme and I wanted the colors to be rainbow.  You can see that I was taking these pictures while Lyla was watching her favorite show, Vampirina.  I can't wait to get started on her Halloween costume this year because she wants to be Vampirina and I have the perfect sewing patterns to make it happen!

I found some shadow boxes at Michaels online that came in a variety of colors.  I popped out the glass of each shadow box and moved the back to the fronts of the shadowbox so that I could pin the girl's artwork to them as a changeable gallery.  I found the crayon print and Picasso quote print on Etsy and just stuck them in my favorite white Target frames.  I made the rainbow ABC print myself on my Pixelmator software using the clipping mask tool.  The Jane Austen quote art is from our porch in our last house.

Now finally I will get to the tutorial part of this post: that Play pom pom sign.  I found lots of inspiration for this on Etsy and Pinterest but I knew that I could make my own.  I bought the largest paper mache letters at Hobby Lobby and found these wool felt pom poms at Oriental Trading.  I started by cutting off the fronts of each letter with an exacto knife and then I pushed that piece into the letter so that it was about halfway in.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this step.  I wanted the pom pom texture to be coming out of the letter.

Then I spray painted the letters white.

Then I glued in the pom poms with a hot glue gun, easy peasy!

The hardest part was actually hanging it on the wall.  I was going to use those command picture hanger strips but the wall was too bumpy and I couldn't get them to stick properly to stay up.  I ended up just nailing them to the wall.

I have a bonus project with this post because I also finished a little gallery wall above the piano in our living room as well.

The funny thing is that I actually just changed this up on Saturday so I'll share that with you at the end of this post.

This clock was a gift from my parents and this little music art piece next to it was from our porch at our old house.

I made this Sound of Music print with my Pixelmator software for my student teacher a few years ago. I of course printed an extra one for myself. It sat behind my desk in my classroom.  This is actually sitting on the piano now since I switched things around.

I bought this little piano player print on Etsy.

Finally, I saw piece of art like this in Hobby Lobby and decided I could make my own.  I found the framed wood piece at Hobby Lobby and used my Silhouette Portrait to cut the words and piano keys on vinyl.  I free handed the lines with a sharpie and I totally should of sketched them out first because a couple of them are pretty rough but I'm embracing the imperfections.

Here is what the wall looks like now.  I didn't edit this photo at all so it isn't the best.  My favorite fabric store in town is closing which is super sad.  They are selling everything in their story including the sample projects for kits that they sold.  I am not a quilter so when I saw this little sample for sale I was excited!  The background has subtle music notes quilted in.  It is so amazing and cute!  I'm not entirely satisfied with the layout of the thing in the gallery now, I'm thinking that I might swap the music plaque and the clock to balance it out better.  What do you think?

So I have so many posts that I can write next: my daughter's Moana 3rd birthday, tons of sewing projects, a little Ikea hack kids table, a dress up closet that I made out of a Target bookshelf from my classroom, and I am currently working on an update to our little mudroom.  And I totally forgot to take before pictures!  Hopefully it won't be as long this time before I post again!

4 Years

The fourth year in our house has been the fastest one yet.  The biggest change in our lives this year was our family addition last July with the birth of our daughter.  Technically her room was mostly finished before our 3 year house anniversary but I only shared one photo last year so I thought I would share some more this year.

Above is a reminder of the blank slate that I started with.  The only updates that I did to this room before turning it into a nursery were to paint the walls and trim.  The only furniture in the room was a full bed and the rocker that I bought at a thrift store several years before getting pregnant.

As you can see the room looks completely different.  I loved the way it came together (although it is a little messier in there right now).  I hope to share one more big project in that room in the near future.

The other room that is in the process of getting a large makeover is our bonus room.

A few years ago it looked like this but then it got water damage over the last several years.  The carpet was stained and ruined.  Thankfully everything else in the room besides some drywall was unaffected by the water.

So we had drain tile installed and new drywall and flooring put in.  The workers also installed a banister and built a drywall banister to close off the previously open stairs.

Last weekend we took a trip to Minneapolis and made a stop at IKEA.  We purchased a few furniture pieces there for the room and we are in the process of building them right now.

Well those are the major changes in our house this year.  Most of the rooms of our house are done now but you never know what kind of projects I might come up with over this next year.

More Updates in the Bonus Room

When I last posted about this room it looked like this:

And here is a reminder of how it looked before:

After the workers were done with their part of the redo it was our turn to start on our work.  First off we selected some baseboards at Home Depot and my husband took on the task of installing them. There are still a few left to install but we are waiting until we get a new door for the closet first.  Then it was time for paint.  I didn't mind the paint color in this room which is also in the hallway upstairs but for some reason it looked pink under the lights in this room.  It was even more noticeable in person than in the above photos.  We had to paint anyway since the bottom 3rd of the walls were removed and then replaced because of the drain tile installation.  The color we selected is Behr Windrush.  It is a lovely greige that looks different in different lights and at different times of day.

We purchased a new futon because the frame of my futon that I purchased in college was shot.  I think it had been taken apart and reassembled too many times with many moves over the years.  We purchased the Emily Futon in gray linen from Target.  I like this futon because it has a nice modern look and it isn't as bulky as my old futon.  It is also so simple to change it from a bed to sofa.  My other futon required two people to switch it back and forth but this one is easy to do all by myself.

I also purchased this 5' by 7' area rug at Target.  I wanted a soft surface for Lyla to play on in the room.  

This room still needs a lot of things:

1. finish installing baseboards, fill nail holes, caulk, and paint

2. install closet door (the current door wouldn't close)

3. paint trim around the closet door

4. curtain rods and curtains

5. media furniture for the TV

6. toy storage

7. pillows and a throw for the futon

8. wall decor

I hope to have the room mostly finished by the end of the summer.  Wish me luck!