Handmade Christmas Part 1

Preparations for Christmas began early this year since I am hoping to hand make most gifts. In early September I purchased two unfinished castles from Michaels and used my 40% off coupons to bring the cost to $11.99 each. Michaels did not have the wooden pegs that I wanted so I ordered them from Craft Parts . 

Fast forward two months later and I now have two finished castles. This Hogwarts castle is for my little guy. The guidepost on the corner directs students to Hogsmead, Forbidden Forest, Hogsmead Station and other places.

The great room has the school crest and four house flags displayed.

Portraits line the staircases.

This pull out drawer is the Room of Requirement.

I gathered inspiration from Pinterest and other creative sources.

This was an unfinished wood box that I also purchased at Michaels and painted then lined with felt. This will hold my little guy's peg people.

This castle is for my daughter's to share. I took inspiration from Disney's Sleeping Beauty for the trees and shrubs.

One daughter will receive Disney princess peg people and the older will receive the Harry Potter trio, International inspired girls and American Girl doll inspired peg people. 

American Girl Dressing room

American Girl Doll's

Rebecca, McKenna, Caroline & Josephina

  

Unfinished Wood boxes that I painted and lines just like my son's box.

Both were a lot of fun to make and hopefully my children will have fun playing with them too!

These were also finds at Michaels. An unfinished barn and horse stable that I painted for one of my daughters. It's the end of October and I already have a big dent made in my Christmas shopping!!!

Technical Difficulties

As many of you know I am a little technically challenged. So it works out very well for me to have a tech savvy hubby! You may have notice that pictures are missing from blog! In an effort to change some of my settings I also managed to erase most pictures from my blog. After a brief moment of panic I just accepted the fact that an afternoon in the near future will be spent on fixing the problem. Until then I have a sneak peak on some of the projects I have been working on.

Hint * Christmas prep began in September!

Baby "Green" Steps

Ikea

Lately I have been taking baby steps in living a little "greener". Family and friends know that I will make the 2 hour trip to Ikea just to replenish my paper napkin supply. They are thick and have pretty designs on them. (call it my guilty pleasure) A couple of months ago I saw in a magazine how an event organizer buys Ikea dish towels and uses them for napkins at the event's she organizes. (light bulb goes off) So the last time I went to Ikea I picked up 20 of these dish towels and some solid colored one's as well.

I keep some on the counter.

I keep my reserves in a basket located in my pantry and keep an empty basket for dirty "napkins". 

I thought the transition would be more difficult but the whole family took to the change very well. 

The next "green step" was to eliminate air fresheners with VOCs. For years we have used plug in air fresheners. After doing some reading on VOCs and the effect they can have on your health I threw out all plug ins and began looking for alternatives. Other than opening windows and letting the fresh air in I found that beeswax candles with cotton wicks are a good alternative. 

Beeluxe

I found these candles at Target all for under $4. They also sell a vanilla , pineapple and Macintosh apple scent. They smell lovely and I feel MUCH better about the air my family is breathing in our home. 

They may be little steps but it feels good.

Infant to Toddler Room Redo - Wall Art

When my husband and I married I should have presented him with a bouquet of paint chips. Foreshadowing the life he would now have ahead. I LOVE changing the colors of my rooms. We moved into our home two years ago and every room had the same color it was originally painted...until now:) My children are growing up with the assumption that their room can have a makeover every two years. I know...my fault entirely! My Isabelle's room went from purple and pink to "more grown up colors" blue and yellow, Anna wanted a yellow room and I wanted to change Camden's to the blue Anna already had. So Anna and Camden switched rooms and I got to work on some new wall art to go in the new room. I wanted to stick with a light blue/red/brown color scheme. 

I love Dr. Seuss books and especially their illustrations. I purchased some unfinished wood frames from Michaels and painted with chalkboard paint. I was originally going to put pictures of Camden in the frames and write cute things on the frame. After reading The Lorax to the kids lately I changed my mind to the Dr. Seuss idea. I searched the web for Seuss illustrations and added Seuss quotes that I like and printed them on card stock paper. When I tire of this idea I can change the pictures out for something else.

Since I create most of the wall art that goes in my kids rooms I have a lot of canvases. When we change a theme or color I recycle the canvases if I can for the next project. That is what I did for this project. I covered some canvases I already had with burlap. (I will warn you that working with burlap is not the best for allergy sufferers!) 

I found a plaid fabric that incorporated the color scheme I wanted for the room and used felt for the surf board, windows, and tires. I am happy with the finished product with the exception of one thing. The uneven corners of the canvas caused by the bulkiness of the burlap. I guess I can call it "rustic" art! 

Infant to Toddler Room Redo - Storage Bins

Sugar Tot Designs

Like many people I have become addicted to Pinterest. My husbands says that I browse it more than he does ESPN which isn't far from the truth. I saw the above image of superhero storage bins and thought to myself "I have loads of storage bins I've purchased at Target...I can do that!"

3 Sprouts

These ADORABLE critter storage bins, made by 3 Sprouts, served as further inspiration for my storage bin makeovers.

This is the end result. I printed images of the cute 3 Sprout designs onto regular computer paper, cut them out then used as a template on fleece bought at Michaels. Some hot glue later and a clingy toddler whining in my ear and ta-da!

For the love of Chevron

Chevron skirt

I don't fall for pattern's often but for some reason I have been really liking the chevron pattern. (who hasn't lately?) It is a little Charlie Brown just without the black and yellow! Everything from rugs, phone cases to clothes...chevron is everywhere. 

Pottery Barn Kids

The rug above is the inspiration for my next project. I've seen several DIY tutorials on painting your own design onto solid rugs like this IKEA rug...

IKEA

With some painters tape, paint and a foam brush the possibilities are endless. This rug is on my list to get next time I visit IKEA. 

As you may have noticed I have been a bit MIA this past year. Not for lack of discovering new and creative things to do but enjoying these new discoveries and not feeling the need to record them all.

I currently see myself like the floats above and will post something here and there when the mood hits.

Enjoy the discoveries!

Wall Change

My Anna LOVES Africa. By that I mean she loves the animals, the landscape and the fact that you have to take a plane or boat to get there from our home. Her imagination has created beautiful stories of us going to Africa someday. When we built our home almost 2 years ago I created a wall on one side of Anna's bedroom that looked like this:

 

When I asked Anna what she would change about her room she pointed to this wall. 

I began researching ideas and there are A LOT of wonderful ones. 

Pottery Barn Kids

London big girl room

These walls were my main inspiration for what turned into this:

I am still amazed at how thriftily this project was done. The photography is all from Costco. I know!

For $1.49 you can purchase an 8 x 10 photograph. I then found unfinished 8 x 10 picture frames at the Dollar Tree and painted them white. So for $2.49 I have a framed photograph. I found a paint by numbers at Walmart that Anna painted for her wall. Total cost $1.97. The more ornate frames came from TJMaxx for $7.99 each. (my "splurge") The letters were unfinished and came from Michaels for $1.39 each. I reused some from the "Little Birdie" that graced the wall previously. 

I recreated the giraffe art from a print I saw on Etsy and the elephant art was made from a Martha Stewart elephant punch and scrapbooking paper. 

I am thrilled with how this all turned out and Anna keeps telling me how she loves her animals!

Side effect: Too easy = must repeat