Car - Bus - Truck Themed Bedroom

Just before Sammy turned two, I was busy painting and decorating a new "big boy bedroom" for him.  He got a space-slash-robot bedroom, which left the bug room vacant for baby #2 to move in. Well, it's hard to believe my baby boy is now two already!  And, now that we know just how much he loves cars, trucks, buses, and anything with wheels, we decided to give him his own themed room.

I found an image of an old VW bus online and projected it on the wall to draw the outline, then painted it with acrylics:

I went over the whole thing with some clear poly to protect it.  To an adult the perspective is a little funny since it's not full scale, but from Toby's height it's perfect!

Of course I couldn't stop at just the bus...

I added a street sign on the opposite wall with his name which was really fun.  I also got him a really cool flashing street light that I mounted on the wall.

Here are a couple fun thrift store finds that I added to the room...

Memo board, $2.99 at Goodwill!

Target clock, brand new in the package at Goodwill for $5

We had a really nice wool rug in his room but it was all bug theme.  So, we swapped it out for these cool foam tiles.  Some time when he's older we'll probably get another carpet, but this was a really great and economical floor covering for the time being.  We used two sets to make a large area....

 

The first couple days Toby had a blast disassembling all the circles that Mommy had so diligently coordinated.  But, luckily that didn't last long.  I'm just glad he didn't start biting chunks out of them!  We'll see how long they last!

Fun Friday Finds!

It's been a while since I've posted some Fun Friday Finds! Here are a few for this week!

I love this open/closed necklace!  As a mom who also freelances from home, the lines are so easily blurred between work and family time.   This would be a great way to make it clear what mode I'm in no matter where I am!  ($60, on sale now for $39.99 at Uncommon Goods)

I finally got a case for my iPhone last week, as I was horrified to notice my first tiny chip in the glass on the edge.  I've been saving this one on my Amazon wish list and got it...you can put Legos on the back! I plan to have fun customizing mine for holidays and seasons, but for now I just have a few primary colored pieces stuck to mine.  You can get them in black, clear, and white:

This cupcake bike bell is so yummy!  It would be perfection on my baby blue Electra Townie bike!!  I found it on Pinterest, and the post of course led me on a wild goose chase of broken links and out of stock products.  But, I ended up finding it here on Amazon!

This is another Pinterest find...a fabulous blog post with a full education on blue jeans that will help you avoid the dreaded "long Mom butt!!"

And last but not least...I don't know about you but I've grown tired of digging through my cabinets trying to find a packet of taco seasoning, only to find that I'm out, and then having to go waste more money on a teeny packet of powder.  So, I tried this recipe to make my own big batch of taco seasoning that I now keep in a jar and always have on hand! Buy the spices individually in bulk at Whole Foods and save a TON TON TON of money! Next up, I'm going to try a few onion soup mix recipies...stay tuned!

 Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Valentines Day Preparations

This idea has been floating all over Pinterest so when I heard that Sammy's preschool class was going to exchange valentines tomorrow, I decided to give it a try!

The finished valentine

They requested that we just write "to my friend" to make it easier to pass them out.  It saved me time and I can't imagine the poor teacher trying to sort out the 256 valentines in a class of 16 preschoolers who can't read the names so that was a great idea all around!

The original photo

I had him hold a pencil for the picture, and then I used Photoshop to remove the pencil and do the rest of the text and layout...

Then I used an X-Acto knife to cut slits on the top and bottom of his fists to slip the sucker in, and used a little piece of clear tape on the back to secure it.

I realize of course that not everybody's mom is a designer with Photoshop.  So here's another way you could do it.  Take a photo with your digital or film camera.  Pick the best one and have a bunch of prints done at your local Walgreens, Target, etc...enough for all your valentines.  Use a knife and slit the photos just like I did...you can write on the backs, and even put some Valentine's stickers on the front!

I've really been enjoying having a mantel to decorate since moving here a year ago!  Here's our mantel this year for Valentines.  The mini picture frames have each of our faces in them, and I use them as place cards when I set the table for Valentine's day.  The tall glass candle holders I just picked up at Goodwill a few weeks ago.

I wanted some sort of Valentine's wreathe to hang in the house and I had a wire wreath frame that I picked up at a thrift store a while back.  I was excited to find a big bag stuffed with flowers for just $3 in a clearance bin at Michaels:

...I cut the stems shorter with a wire cutter and wrapped them around the frame, filling in the top with some ribbon from my scrap ribbon bin.  Here's how it turned out in the end:

Not too bad.  I'd love to try making a wreathe of felt flowers one of these days.

Today I'm busy with my boys baking sugar cookies, cupcakes, and meringue kisses in preparation for tomorrow's Valentine's day dinner!  More photos to come!

DIY Kids' Art Gallery Wall

Over the past couple weeks I decided to make a little art gallery wall in our home for the kids' art.  I remembered seeing some ideas for organizing and displaying jewelry via framed pieces of cork board, and thought that could work well for the boys' artwork too.

I picked up a few frames from thrift stores, and specifically looked for ones with unique shapes and/or ornate textures.  I probably spent around $15 total on all of these frames.

I took out the glass and spray painted each frame with some cheap, matte black spray paint from the hardware store.  Then I cut pieces of cork to fit each frame (I had a stash of cork squares and old cork boards that I had also purchased from thrift stores in the past), and put a couple coats of white paint on the cork.  I just used some left-over white wall paint from a previous house painting project.  (A little tip, use the glass or the cardboard backer from each frame as your stencil to draw the shape you need to cut out of the cork.)

Once all the paint had dried on both the frames and cork, I re-assembled them (minus the glass) and arranged them on the wall.  It turned out pretty cute, and now I can easily rotate the kids' work on display, and give it a little bit more noble display area than the fridge!