From Awkward Coat Closet to Fun Toy Closet!

In our small family room, we have an awkward coat closet that angles back under the stairs. Up until two years ago, we just had it stuffed with random items and then had the children's train table pushed up against the door so they would stay out of the closet. It made the closet rather useless and the train table difficult to use.

So, two years ago I decided to make it over as a surprise for my little ones! I don't have a really good before picture with all the junk in there, but here is mostly what it looked like--dingy paint, a light fixture with a pull string, a metal wall box with our house alarm mechanics, and a single wire shelf running across the back of the closet. Not very pretty!!
My husband's contribution to this project was to convert the pull-string light to a regular light fixture with a wall switch. At the end of the project he removed the door from the closet and sanded down the hinge plates so there wouldn't be any rough edges for the children to hurt themselves. We kept the door on the closet until I was done with the makeover because this was a big surprise for my children.

I wanted to make it a light and bright space for my children, so I painted the entire closet blue and painted the trim white. Next I painted puffy white clouds using a sea sponge. Then I stenciled on flowers and little bugs in bright colors.
I wasn't sure how to cover up that metal box, so I used my staple gun and put up a piece of fabric. Then I put a toy shelf in front of the fabric so that little hands wouldn't pull the fabric off the wall. Another problem was the access panel in the floor that is used to get to the crawl space under the house. I covered up that area with a small area rug--I didn't want the children picking at the carpet edges on the panel access area.
After that, I hung some small butterflies from clear thread in the ceiling (of course I don't have a picture of that!) and I was done.

My children LOVED the space and used to spend lots of time playing in the closet. It was a great way to add more space to our family room. Now that it has been two years, they don't really play in there any more...so this summer I think I'll be changing it to a book nook for them. I'll change out the toy rack for a bookshelf and give them some comfy pillows to lounge on. I just want to wait until after we do our small construction project this spring.

For more fun ideas, visit The Lazy Organizer for more Talk about Tuesday posts!

Organic Tomatoes

The other week we harvested our FIRST organic tomatoes! They were gorgeous red globes chock full of meat and with hardly any seeds. So tasty and good! At last count there were 39 more tomatoes in our little garden in various stages of ripening. I have a feeling that most of them will be ripening at the same time! Good thing we love tomatoes!

My tomato plants are HUGE. The Early Girl plants are almost 6 feet tall and the Roma plants are about 5 feet tall. They're just enormous! Next year I need a better staking system. I wasn't thinking they would be this tall, so I'm a bit worried they'll fall over as the fruit at the top ripens. I've already trimmed off extraneous (non-blooming) branches and done what I can to lighten them...now it is a wait and see approach!

Mmmm, I'm looking forward to harvesting more tomatoes!

For more Talk About Tuesday, visit Lara at The Lazy Organizer.

Room to grow...

When you sleep like this, you can stay in your crib until you're seven...

This is his favorite way to fall asleep although when I check on him at night before I go to bed, he usually has his feet pulled back in.

For more Talk About Tuesday, visit Lara at The Lazy Organizer...or come read more of my blog!

Random Cuteness

My babies are so gosh darn cute, I just have to write down some of their latest things so that I have them for posterity. This will be a random list, so be forewarned!


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Both my children have allergies to animals and I detest creepy-crawly things. Needless to say, we don't have any pets. Well, last week I was eavesdropping on my children as they were playing in the yard and realized they were playing with a slug. (Gross, I know!!) Anyhow, they were carting the slug around the backyard on a large leaf and calling it their pet. Hilarious and gross at the same time. The kicker was when they sent the slug (on its leaf) down the slide! Now everytime they go out in the backyard, they find a slug to be their pet. It's so funny and yet kind of sad at the same time.

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Today we went to pick strawberries--this was Handsome's first time not having the berries cut up and prepared for him. (Yes, he's sheltered--I like it that way!) Anyhow, neither he nor Princess realized that you could eat the berries as you picked them. I clued them in on that after about half an hour. Ohhhh, Handsome was SO happy! My mom went with us and the two of us quickly tired of pulling the leaves off the berries for Handsome, so we showed him how to take bites of the berries. After that he happily munched away...until we heard a strange noise and then he said "Handsome no like leaves. Noooooo, Handsome no like leaves." (Except, of course, he used his name instead of Handsome...he answers to Handsome but doesn't say call himself that.)

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Last night Princess was singing to herself in bed after she went to bed. It was sooo cute! She was singing "Halleluia" for awhile and then she switched to "Christ is Risen, Christ is died, Christ will come again." Yes, a little bit backward, but absolutely adorable nonetheless! Even better was that she was singing it over and over again. Totally hilarious!


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And, no list of anecdotes is complete without a potty reference. Handsome is in diapers fulltime still but uses the potty on occasion--we're not doing potty learning yet though although I think he's almost ready. Anyhow, he wanted to use the potty the other day and almost immediately pushed out a poo-poo. After telling me all about it ("did ONE poo-poo, Mama), he proceeded to push out another one--at which point he said "made poo-poo FRIEND!!" So cute and definitely gave me a chuckle!

After you leave me a comment (just click on the "bees buzzed by" link at the end of this post!), head on over to The Lazy Organizer for more "Talk About Tuesday"!

A Girly Bedroom

Today on Talk About Tuesday over at the Lazy Organizer, it is a home tour where people pick one space in their house to talk about. Without further ado, here is the bedroom my little princess sleeps in. It is pink and green and very girly--I love it and so does she!

Her white four poster bed was my bed when I was growing up and I just love that. Her name is done with wall letters along the length of her bed (not pictured) and then I'm planning on doing a rag garland on the wall at the head of her bed.


You'll notice there aren't a lot of toys in her room, mostly it is books. The children spend most of their time playing downstairs, so that is where the toys mostly are located. However we have a LOT of children's books so those are spread throughout the bedrooms as well as downstairs.
Her dollhouse bookcase and traditional bookcases are from Target and I love them! When she is older, we'll probably replace the dollhouse bookcase with a desk. Her long dresser is one that we bought for her before she was born. When she was a baby we had a changing pad on it, but now it is pretty empty. We still have a diaper pail in her room because it makes a great garbage can that her little brother can't open! Oh and yes, those are some of her bows to the right of the window--she has more inside the big basket on her bookshelf.
Our long range plan for the house includes replacing all of the oak hollowcore doors with white six panel doors--but for now we have oak. I am so NOT an oak person!
I love my Dutalier glider! I used it all the time when Princess was a baby and she's still rocked in it every night before bedtime. Handsome has an identical one in his bedroom--someday my husband and I intend to reclaim them and use them for ourselves (that's why they match and are in a neutral fabric).
No photo tour of this room is complete without a look at the chandelier! I looked all over before I found this one and I *love* it! It is so over-the-top girly! When I first took it out of the box I was worried it was *too* girly, but it really works in this room and my daughter loves it!

What is in bloom?

It is "Talk About Tuesday" over on The Lazy Organizer and I'm talking about my garden!

Summer has arrived and my garden...well...it barely is blooming! It has been so rainy and cool here...my Endless Summer Hydrangeas have been poised to bloom for weeks and weeks--and yet I have just ONE bloom on my bushes--and I have five or six bushes!! Finally at the end of this week we'll be getting some nice warm weather and SUNSHINE so hopefully things will start blooming soon!

My first daisy is blooming--I can't wait until the black-eye susans follow suit. I love those flowers!


I'm trying not to spend much money on annuals and instead invest that money into perennials...but I couldn't resist these Wave Petunias.

Balloon flowers are a new addition to my garden this year. I just couldn't resist them and the name is perfect for the bloom. Don't you just want to reach over and pop the flower?!

My planter boxes and porch pots are filled with red geraniums and white alyssum--looks pretty with my blue house!

Here is my one lonely hydrangea bloom--and yet look at all the hydrangea bushes I have! There are two more in this row of bushes that aren't in the picture. Oh well, at least I'll eventually have a lot of blooms--last year I had ZERO blooms from these bushes due to some overzealous pruning the year before. They've come back better than ever this year though, so all that pruning did pay off in the long run.

Mirror Before and After

Yesterday I posted this lovely picture (ha!) of my laundry drying racks in my "formal" dining room and mentioned that I was planning on painting my dining room mirror and candleholders.


Well, yesterday we finally had nice weather (today it is back to rain...ugh!) so during naptime I brought the mirror and candleholders outside and spray-painted them black. Woohoo! The paint job isn't perfect, but it works just fine for me--and I *love* the change!


Now I need to get small white pillar candles to replace the cream ones. That will really pop and make it look better with my shades on the dining room light fixture. I am a million-and-one times happier with this look than I was with the blech oak framed mirror.


Someday I'll be able to replace the table and chairs too, but not now. For now this table does just fine--especially since it mostly is used for craft projects and puzzles!

See what other people are talking about for Talk About Tuesday over on the Lazy Organizer.

Mistreatments

Today, on Talk About Tuesday, I'm talking about mistreatments! If you know the Nester, then you already know what I'm talking about--aka, the world's easiest window treatments!

We moved into this house 4.5 years ago. 4.5 years ago (while 36 weeks pregnant and suffering from pre-eclampsia and pregnancy induced hypertension that was exacerbated by a cross-country move...but I digress) I tore down the vertical blinds on the windows in my kitchen and family room. My husband was not thrilled to come home and discover his hugely pregnant wife (hello, 60+ pounds of baby weight and water weight!) opted to do this instead of keeping her feet up as instructed. I say that he just didn't understand the powerful nesting instincts that Mother Nature was inflicting on me. He claims that Mother Nature had nothing to do with it--it was all about my *strong* dislike of vertical blinds. He may have a point.

Anyhow, for 4.5 years these three windows have been naked. They look out into our backyard so there really isn't anyone who can see in except for one set of neighbors and they don't go in their yard very often.

I finally decided that enough is enough! I special-ordered wood blinds for the *huge* window in the family room. That set me back almost $300 and that was after a 60% off sale--it was a necessity though; we bought a new couch for the family room and didn't want it to fade the way our old couch faded. Now I need to wait and save up for the sliding door in the eating nook and the window over the kitchen sink. In the meantime, I'm tired of naked windows--so I've started mistreating them!

Here is the kitchen window--the before picture shows my naked (dirty...it's been too rainy to clean outside) window with some of my collection of strawberry plates.

This is the bare naked picture--plates are down and I decided against filling nail holes and removing the anchor from hanging the clock.

Here is the first try--I like the mistreatment, but I think the mistreatment should go higher. Oh, and please notice how the light over the sink is centered on n.o.t.h.i.n.g. That is par for the course for this house. We love our little house, but many things about it drive me crazy! Oh, and yes that is my girly little red hammer on the counter. My husband hates it.

And here is what it looks like today--I raised the mistreatment up and I love it! Our window looks sooo much bigger. My only disappointment is that the adorable rag garland I made to hang across the window looks dorky. I stuffed it in with my sewing materials in the hope that out of sight would equal out of mind...but it isn't working.

Working with the calico in the kitchen was so easy, I decided to see what I could do with the silky stuff I bought on a whim. It was in the decorator fabric clearance section and was on sale on top of that. It was the exact shade of the accent color in my family room so I had to buy it...but I bought the entire amount left on the bolt and I wasn't sure it was enough for a mistreatment. Still, I opted to give it a whirl. No nails this time though--just straight pins and drapery clips. I'm not as sold on this window mistreatment, but I like it better than a naked window, that's for sure!

Click on the pictures to enlarge them and get the full effect.

I still need to mistreat the sliding doors off the breakfast nook. I think I'll do the same thing that I did on the kitchen sink window. I'd rather have long panels down the sides of the door, but my 2.5 year old son would destroy those--he already puts sticky finger prints on the door while he eats because his high chair has to be right next to the door. Long curtain panels definitely are out of the question for now.

The "Formal" Living Room

Lara over on The Lazy Organizer is doing a "Talk About Tuesday" and this month it will be a tour of people's homes. I *love* getting a peek into other people's homes! Today I'm opting to talk about my formal living room. It is the first room you see when you walk into my home and it opens right into the formal dining room.

Ahhh, the "formal" living room and dining room. I like the living room couches and chair...but the rest of it is kind of blah...too formulaic in the living room, if you know what I mean. Last week I bought some blue/white/yellow striped fabric to make new throw pillows for the couch and chairs--I think that will help freshen things up a bit. And, as a bonus, the fabric is decorator weight fabric marked down to $9.99 a yard from $19.99! Woohoo!

Ignore the oak framed mirror and wall candles you can see off to the right of the picture. I dislike all of those pieces and want to change them out. Heck, I want to change out the whole dining room! I'll save that for another post though.

I do have some barn stars I want to put up on the wall (ala The Nester) but I'm not sure where to position them--should they be over the armoire or centered under the peak of the ceiling? Decisions, decisions! The armoire, by the way, houses our office stuff--desktop computer, wireless modem hub, envelopes, bills, and my husband's clutter. The little table to the right of the armoire isn't usually there--usually it is a petite round black table...but we bought a new family room couch and I needed to borrow the cute little black table for that room.

I do want to add a tray to the coffee table so that I can add some decorative items to the table. I also think the round table between the armchairs needs some pizazz. Maybe a contrasting piece of fabric over the tablecloth and some more frames and such on top.

One thing you can't see very well in the living room picture is the antique Wedgwood plate I have hanging on the wall. I love the plate--it has a picture of the chapel at my college alma mater...the place where my husband and I were married almost seven years ago. LOVE that plate!