Extreme Makeover: Dollhouse Edition

So Spring Break FLEW by, and I find that I did not accomplish NEAR as much as I'd have liked. However, my house is CLEAN and somewhat gutted (as in 4 huge black trash bags, and a couple small trash bags and boxes), Annie's room is complete, my room is clear, ALL my laundry is done, and my kids are bathed, so I think I did okay.

I started a couple projects that I'll work on finishing this weekend (fabric rosettes over a hideous shell design on my mirror, and Annie's name for her wall), but in the meantime, I'll have a nostalgic post.

Last year my dear friend picked up an old dollhouse at a sneak-peek pre-garage sale. She got the house, and all the furnishings, for TEN BUCKS. Yes, ten. Score of the decade. I decided that since Annie already had the dollhouse (I wanted to get it for her for Christmas, but we got it too early to hide it for months), I'd renovate it for her Christmas gift. Also, since I don't own a home, and will probably not get the chance to renovate my own space for a long time, this gave me a little home renovation fix. :)

I started with the bathroom, painting a black and white checkered "tile" floor, and lime and blue swirled wall. I added tiny little hand-drawn pictures to the wall.

Moved on to paint the "hardwood floor" in the living room,

And "stone floor" in the kitchen. The staircase became black with red and pink alternating steps, and could still use a little tlc.

The house was coming along, but so was Christmas! I busted out the last few details a couple days before the big reveal.



Living room wall is a blue-grey with silver sunburst. The other wall reads "relax...", and the window has little beads hot-glued into the corners. THAT turned out cute. I glued a little flower bead onto the front door as the knob.

The kitchen wall was painted red, and I hung a little "stained glass" window in the window. "K" is for Kelly, of course. The lamp is paper i colored swirls on, hanging by beaded wire.


The staircase wall is complete with some art, a "family photo", and a beaded cross. (Booo on the dark picture! It was dark outside, and a flash washed out the whole photo.)

Added some black curtains to the bathroom (ribbon tied with sequined thread), and the bedroom got purple and blue walls (went for a Mediterranean feel. The pink and yellow design on the wall needs some serious help, but the "painting" turned out cute.), a beaded wire embellishment in the window, and got fresh carpet laid.

Then it was on to the front. What to do... what to do? Yuck...


So I added some landscaping, and painted the shutters and shingles. :)


Swirled porch corners, a red door, and a welcome mat made it HOME!


Needless to say, Annie's reaction was priceless.

Spring Break Room Makeover

Project #3 (or thereabout) for Spring Break: gut Annie's room. We loaded up a huge black trash bag full of "give away", and another of "throw away", and a couple small trash bags of "give back to people, already!"

I really, really wish I had "before" pics of her room. She had a twin daybed with a pink and turquoise comforter, and not much of a room to speak of. Everything was in mismatched plastic storage containers, which worked for their purposes, but just made for kind of a cluttered room.

Today we purchased this 9-cube organizer and some cute bins to accompany it, along with some adorable knobs for her dresser (which needs a serious repainting - coming soon - and has been knob-less for months. Poor dresser and poor Annie. She became pretty particular about making sure those drawers never fully closed).

We bought Annie a full-sized bed a few days ago because she was in desperate need of a mattress that didn't have springs poking out, threatening Tetanus. The full bed was only $20 bucks more than a twin, and we'd like to have a bed that company could actually use, so we went for it. The result: perfect.

Annie is the coolest little girl. She's down for whatever, doesn't want a pink and black zebra room, doesn't care much for pastels, and is so happy for anything she receives. Needless to say, she is ecstatic. Precious, precious girl.

The pictures are terrible quality, but hopefully you can get the gist. :)

A little redhead helper... :) The mirrors were $5 each at Target. I turned them into a wall mirror for use when she's modeling. :\ (Notice the paper fashion show announcement on the wall. That was our first fashion show together. It'll get a frame soon!) The corner houses her library and cute-in-a-creepy-way Hello Kitty humidifier.

This dresser (which will soon get a new paint job) was my sister's when we were little. Well, technically it was "ours' because we shared a room, but I think it was hers before there was even a me. It was putrid white with gold accents. I painted it black (botched that job, too) a while back, and the few knobs that it still had were misplaced. Today we found some ADORABLE ones at Hobby Lobby... on sale for half off. Yesssss. (The dollhouse is something I did for Christmas. I'll have to put that one up here, too.) Her name, which is our next project, will be decoupaged/painted and hung on this wall, I think. Its pretty bare.

And, voila. Her room is beautiful. Brown curtains and rod are from Dollar General. Sheer I already had. Green and white duvet = Target clearance endcap, along with the brown jersey sheet set. Red scarf on the bed = Dollar General. Flower painting = already had. Cube organizer = made the room. Also got a red hamper (on the floor by the cubes) = cute.

The lamp is my favorite part of the room. I wish you could see it here. Perhaps I'll dedicate another post to the lamp that pulled this room together. :)

Total project cost: about $150 (not including the mattress). Not bad, my dea, not bad!

Dum spiro, spero!
Jai

Makeover: Classroom Edition

This January I was pulled in to teach Pre-K 4 at my daughter's Catholic school. The teacher who has been doing it for years left to be a nurse, so they needed someone pretty quick. I've never taught, but after lots of prayer and conversations knew it was my gig.

The kids adjusted really well to their new teacher, and I'm loving my job. Oh, the things that come out of the mouths of 4 year-olds! One of the first things I did was give my room a major makeover. I think that if you and your students are going to spend all day every day looking at walls, they should be awesome. So... here was my weekend project a couple months ago...

I started with the "News Room - Weather Station" and School house (morning Math Meeting, Circle Time, and Calendar)...

Then moved to the Art Depot (where they house art supplies) and City Park (picnics and such).Next you'll see Le Cafe (Kitchen Center - don't worry, someone donated a bigger kitchen!) and the Boutique (dress-up)...

then, of course, no town is complete without a Library...

and a Church, which still needs a little work. Should probably add a steeple. (Church calls us to be leaders, hence the Leader Board. My kids each have their own symbol, and their leader duties change each week by switching around their symbols, which are Velcroed on. The Line Leader is a pocket that houses all the symbols, and changes daily.)

Behind my desk I stapled on different colored construction paper, which gave it a fun and bright effect. Nice for a bulletin board, eh? :)


It was a really fun project, and the kids LOVE it! (Parents do, too! I've gotten lots of great feedback.)I enjoy walking into Mrs. Kelly's Christian City every day (I forgot to take a picture of the door, which is a sky, trees, hills, and street signs. Each kid's name is a street sign, for example, Sarah Blvd. or Cory Ave.

A couple tissue paper clouds completed the project... for now. :)



Dum spiro, spero!
Jai

No more procrastinate! Tomorrow is too late!

My new motto? Nah, but it's a pretty good chant. I had to run it through my head a few times today (and, not to lie, a couple times out loud).

Let the crafts begin! I started Spring Break with a list of projects in mind. I'm not going to write them down, just going to wing it for now, but I'm excited that I've already gotten a couple things done. And it's just day one!

Project 1: Aidan's name for his room. I mean, he IS fifteen months already. Are you kidding me?!
It turned out cute. I got some cheap cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby (while they were on sale for half-off, of course), some really cute scrapbook paper, and some mod podge. I decoupaged the paper onto his name, leaving the cute paper full (A, D, N), and ripping and pasting the checkered papers to the I and second A. Got some "velcro" Command strips to hang them, because they're so light, and they look so cute above his crib! Total project time: approximately 30 minutes (how stupid that I put off such a short project for so long!).













(Sorry for the blurry photo. My camera is in SERIOUS need of upgrade. "A" is cute little dinosaurs, "D" is robots and rockets and outer space, and "N" is planes, trains, and automobiles. :)

Project 2: A friend is having a baby soon, very soon, and I needed a cute gift to add to the package of diapers for her diaper "sprinkle" tomorrow. (Not a shower because it's her 5th baby - all boys! - but we loooove throwing parties around here, and think EVERY baby deserves a little something!)

I started with an 8 X 10 canvas (small, but all I had on hand) that I'd already painted blue a while back. I decoupaged paper left over from Aidan's name onto the canvas...




















Again, sorry for the poor quality. It's night out there, and my kitchen lighting + camera = foul. Then I decided it needed a little something extra. I was going to put a big "L" on it, for the new baby's name (Levi), but decided that since he has 4 brothers, and several of them will share a room, that wouldn't be quite fair. So, instead I painted on their last name. It turned out pretty cute, but I'm torn with the layout of the name. I think names like this are hard to read, and I'm not quite sure why I did that. Meh, too late. And I know she'll like it either way. :)




















More to come tomorrow. I promised my little Annie that we'd do her name, next. She's only been waiting 6 years for it. :)

Dum spiro, spero,
Jai

Spring Break, Lent, and Promise

Spring break has begun! I get to say that, because I actually get "spring break." Now that I'm teaching (pre-school at Slaton's lil Catholic school), it's like being back in school again. Late February, the itch began, and now that it's here, I couldn't be more excited! Nine full days of rest, relaxing, and Lenten promises upheld! I've decided that since New Years resolutions never really work for me, Lent will become my "new year." Forty days of preparing for a life changing event, leading into a life changing year. Sounds perfect to me!

Lenten promise #1: Serious decrease in sugar intake. I'm not going to say I'm "giving up" sugar, because my body needs to keep a few carbs a day, but no sweets, no breads, very little other carb foods, no sodas, etc. I'm doing this because I love sugar, and, in the deprived state, it leads me to prayer. Sure, the prayer may start with "Lord, please give me sugar," but it inevitably leads to a deeper conversation with the good and gracious God.

Lenten promise #2: Pray more. Noted, and doing better day by day.

Lenten promise #3: Take full advantage of time off, starting with Spring Break. Monday is my first day back to the gym (if I can breathe... I'm thinking my bronchitis is turning to pneumonia, but I'm going to give it my all, either way), and I'm kicking out projects left and right. I also have HUGE plans of spring cleaning and house gutting. I've got empty tubs and trash bags ready to be filled, and I've already started the tremendous task. I'm actually looking forward to it!

Lenten promise #4: USE MY TALENT! Crafts are calling, and I must answer. A part of me is missing without doing something crafty, and I feel the void. I started today, and it feels great! I was going to start a blog called "When I Stopped Procrastinating and Actually Started Doing Things I've Been Wanting to Do FOREVER", but the title was too long, and, well, I have a perfectly cute blog right here. I believe, if I'm successful at this umpteenth blog attempt, it will become my craft blog. I'm hoping I'll actually keep up with a blog this time, which leads me to

Lenten promise #5: Return to blogging (in the evening, instead of watching mindless, after 10 pm television). I feel great doing it. I miss writing. I think I need the outlet, and I miss the clicking of keys.

So, here is to yet ANOTHER attempt at Smiling Eyes and Fireflies. :) Peaceful Lent to you!


Dum spiro, spero,
Jai