Cute Letters for Kids

I love the look of letters.  I made a pink A and a pink C for my girls when they shared a room. 

I love, love, loved the way the turned out.  Shabby chic! 

So, as you know, we moved to a new home a few months ago, and now the girls don't share a room any more.  My oldest wanted to keep her room pink, so her "A" matches just fine.  Don't mind my crappy paint job on the edges of the wall there if you enlarge the picture at all, haha.

I nestled it on to a shelf above her bed with some other pink/white/cream odds and ends. 

I had my youngest's pink C on her wall, but we're slowly working on her room, to make it more purple, as per her request.  So, last night I finally whipped up a more purple C for her! 

What do you think?

All I did was take a plain white C, that I got from AC Moore.  I didn't take any pictures of the unfinished project.  Whoops!  So anyway, a plain white C, and then I pick out 4-6 sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper.  Then, I tear it up!  You can totally let the kids help you with this part.  Tearing paper is FUN! 

Once the paper is torn, I just use a glue stick to stick it to the letter (kids can do this part too!). 

Once the paper and glue is dried enough to handle the letter, I take a razor blade to the edges to cut the paper off the edges of the letter and get a clean line.  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Then, I give it a coat of clear gloss spray paint.  I let it dry, and then give it another coat.

Once it's completely dry, I take some sand paper (love the sandpaper blocks!) and smooth out the rough paper edges, and distress the edges a little as well to give a bit more of a shabby chic look.

So, here is my finished C on my little girls wall, and a sneak peek of her room progress!  One of these days we will paint her room for her too, she picked out a pretty lilac and we have the paint, it's just sitting in the garage until we get around to it.  Also, her shoes need a home, I was keeping them in the bin there under her bed, but the bin is a little too tall so it was hard for her to get it out.  I'd just put the bin in her closet, but I need to clean the closet out first, haha.

I'm not sure if I want to keep her silhouette pink too, or make that purple?  I tend to like things more monochromatic in scheme...but, she does have pink in her bedding too, and I kept some bits of pink in her letter C as well.  What would you do?  Leave it, or swap it out for a purple one?

Some Fun and Some Not So Fun

Last night, the husband took the girls and I to spend some time with friends.  They have a little boy who is Ava's age, and he is a trip! So fun!  Makes me want a boy.  :o)  My girls are a lot of fun too, and Charlotte is a total tom-boy at times though.  We went to Chuck E. Cheese.  I normally HATE that place because I'm all paranoid of the germs and one of the kids getting lost, and even though they're supposed to check your number stamps as you leave, I don't think they really pay that much attention to them and I have had them not even check before...so, yeah.  I mean, I watch the girls like a hawk, but I get super antsy when they want to crawl around in the tubes and aren't right by my side, haha.  I always drill it into their heads not to leave with anyone but mommy or daddy and to stay with one of us at all times.  We had fun though!  And I do like their pizza. 

After that we rushed over to gets our seats for The Lorax.  Such a cute movie!  The girls loved it, and so did hubby and I.  Ava was dissapointed that she didn't hear Taylor Swift sing in the movie, she LOVES her, haha. 

That was the highlight of our week, I guess?  I had an appointment with a new doctor on Wednesday.  He confirmed what I thought, that the doctor I saw a few weeks ago was wrong about the tissue I passed.  Since I was so unsure after that appointment, I took the tissue home and took a few pictures of it before I threw it out.  The new doctor said it was absolutely not a blood clot.  It was an endometrial/decidual cast (and that they can be very painful...no kidding! I was in tears a few times over the pain...I felt like a total wimp at the time, but now I don't feel bad at all.  He said sometimes women end up in the ER for them).  He said that the Seasonique I was on essentially made me have a D&C.  Awesome.  He also said it should have been sent to the lab because it had some spots that concerned him, even though he said cancer at my age would be extremely unlikely.  So, still bleeding, of course.  It's been since January 22nd...so 42 days now and counting.  But I'm on the last week of my current pack of Ortho-tricyclen so, yeah... I'm hoping it stops once I start the new pack, but I'm not counting on it.  New doc says it could take another 2 months for it to calm down (ugh) and if it doesn't, then I have to come back in and try something else.  He said last resort would be surgery, and there are a few we could discuss, but not until we're sure we don't want any more children.  And I'm not sure at all, as I'd really like to have at least one more.  Sooo, yeah. 

Other than that, it was Dr. Seuss week for us, and at Ava's school.  So fun! 

We have a low key weekend here at home planned...full of, not much at all, haha!  I'm going to enjoy it though.  It's gorgeous outside today, other than the wind.  I have a few windows open to let in some fresh air and the girls played outside for a little while earlier.  I still need to finish up the end tables I'm working on for Charlotte's room, and I'm hoping we can manage to get her room painted soon.  I keep planning to work on it and then not feeling well or we lose track of time on something else.  Oh well.  It's not like it's going anywhere. 

Room Re-Do!

I've been laying low for the past week.  Still not feeling too well.  Seems like it will never end! 

We did manage to get Ava's room switched over, it's all painted and pink and girly now.  My parents had the girls for a sleepover while we worked on it, and I had hinted to her that I was going to paint her room and make it pretty.  I didn't come right out and tell her I was going to switch it, because I'd asked her how she felt about it before and she said no way...but she's five years old, and she doesn't like change, of any kind.  At least, at first.  She warms up to it, and then she's fine.

So, she got home and immediately ran upstairs to check it out.  She ran into her "old" room first, which is now the play room.  I'm not finished with it yet so I didn't take pictures, it's done enough that the girls can play in it, but I still have a few more things to do.  Anyway, she was hysterical, crying and just...inconsolable.  I ruined her whole little life!  But then she went to see her new room, and after a few minutes in there things weren't so bad anymore.  After an hour or so, she was loving it.  She even gave me thumbs up and told me it was "cool."  :o)  

I'm still not quiiiiite finished with her room yet either, but the only things left to do are to re-paint the ceiling, get a lamp shade, and fix a dresser drawer that broke.  I took some pictures anyway.  Let me know if you have any other decorating ideas!  There is a LOT of pink, but that's what Ava likes.  She's a total girly girl and loves pink.


Heading in to her room.

So, there you have it!  :o)  I think it's cute.  Super girly, and fit for a little princess!  Like I said, the drawer is being fixed, and I need a lamp shade...thinking maybe green to tie into the green on her bedding and the greenery around the room.  I don't know.  Break up the pink a little.  I can't decide if I want to paint the lamp base or leave it cream, her blinds are cream and so are the lampshades on her little chandelier.  Also, I replaced the little babydoll cradle with a basket bassinet...the cradle was missing a part that I couldn't find.  I have no idea why, but Blogger isn't letting me add captions to the pictures except for the first one. 

Next up, Charlotte's room.  She wants her room painted purple so I picked out a lilac color.  I wanted to start working on it earlier this week, but you know, life happens.  It will probably wait until next week.  I'm still working on painting some end tables for her, I'm almost finished with them.  I finished that book case I was working on last week, except for that I decided I wanted to put some trim around the bottom.  I have to figure out how to cut it and get the angles right, I'm soooo not a tool using kinda gal.  I want to be, I'm just...not, haha. 

In other news...I just got an email about a wind advisory, up to 57mph winds, right about the time I have to pick Ava up from the bus.  That oughta be fun!  :o)  Mike said to tie Charlotte to a rope so she doesn't blow away, hehe.  I will just carry her. 

I *love* this deal!

LOVE when they offer free 8x10 photo canvases!  The others are a great deal too!  I really need to get a move on with decorating the new house.  There is nothing on the walls in the living room, family room, kitchen, hallway...and I could go on, haha.  With re-decorating and updating my style, it's going slowwwwwly, but this is an awesome deal and some black and white or sepia canvases would be timeless.

FREE 8x10 photo canvas (Just pay shipping!) or $35 off larger canvases.

11x14 photo canvas for just $27, shipped!

16x20 photo canvas for just $37, shipped!

What a great deal!

Gift Ideas!

I shop for the holidays all year round. It's the only way to go, so I don't totally irritate my hubby with massive spending, hehe! A little here, a little there, finding great deals, and Christmas (or Easter) is a breeze!

 

Right now Vistaprint is offering six free items to help you showcase your most important photographs.  All you have to pay for is, is shipping.  Not bad!

Shipping Starting Prices:

Calendar- $5.67
T-Shirt- $4.86
Magnet- $4.52
Mouse Pad- $4.41
Mug- $5.67
Photo Book- $5.83

What a Week!

Weeks like this, make me absolutely LOVE being a firefighter's wife.  The schedule is absolutely amazing.  Handsome Hubby had the entire week off, thanks to a trade he made a couple months ago.  He didn't have to work his second job either thanks to him finishing his "training" and having to wait for the new schedule to come out unless someone called in...and no one did.  It's also been a sloowwwww week for volunteer calls too.  He got up with the girls every day this week and was on bus stop duty.  With my not feeling well lately, this has been so nice for me.  I'm so lucky to have a husband who takes such good care of his family.  He only ran out to go to the gym (he does Cross Fit) and to do some training at the volunteer house.  Such a nice week of him being home so much. 

We haven't really done too much this week, despite his time off.  I fully intended to get some painting done, but all I've done is work on painting a bookshelf for Ava's room.  That's something, at least, right?  I just get worn out so easily (and yes, I have been working on this shelf all week...it's COLD outside and in the garage).  I spent lots of time on the couch snuggling.  We are watching How I Met Your Mother from the beginning on Netflix and we got through Season 1 and most of Season 2.  We did go out on Thursday to take the girls to the library, and I needed to run into the grocery store.  I told hubby I was in the mood for a nice big salad, so he took us out to dinner.  It ended up being Family Night where we went, and the girls had a blast.  They had balloons and fun headbands/hats for the kids, plus a cotton candy machine.  We had a really nice time and my salad was delicious.  We haven't done a mid-week dinner out for awhile since Ava's been in school, and usually we don't do much of it on the weekends because everything is packed.

Today I'm planning to finish up painting that book shelf.  The girls are going to my parents for a sleepover tomorrow, and I asked the husband if he would help me switch Ava's room, with the playroom.  The girls picked their rooms before we moved in, and Ava picked the what seems like the biggest room upstairs (well, the master bedroom is bigger, but you know, the biggest other room, haha).  It's pretty comparable in size to the room Charlotte picked, but it's a bit longer and narrower, so it does feel bigger.

This is only part of the room, it's long... big enough for two beds...bigger than the room that the girls shared in our old house.

It is painted blue with clouds and glow in the dark painted stars on the ceiling and it has decals of trees and butterflies and stuff... and Ava wants to paint it pink.  I am fine with that (though everyone else I mention it too seems to protest), but, the fourth bedroom is the playroom and the layout is just not working out for the amout of toys and big stuff that the girls have.  They keep some toys in their rooms, but most of them stay in the playroom so they can share.  So this weekend while the girls are at my parents, I'm going to switch the rooms.  And paint the current playroom/Ava's new room the color pink that she wants, and have it set up really nice for her when they get back.  She doesn't like change, so I'm hoping she likes this (and the more pink and girly, the more chance she will, haha)...if not, I guess I'll have to consider switching it back, but really, I think they'll love it and having room for all their toys since some are still packed.  And this way, we'll get to keep the pretty walls and not paint over them since they'll look great for a playroom.  At least for now, until we maybe decide to have baby number three...  which won't be for probably at least two years with my health issues.  At that point, we'd just have to move the playroom down to the basement.  Maybe we should just do that in the first place...but the basement is still unfinished. 

I should probably go ahead and paint Charlotte's room too so she doesn't feel left out.  She wants purple.  Bright purple, but I'm thinking more of a lilac. 

So, yeah, kind of a lazy day today.  The girls got me up at about 8:30, and I made them waffles, hashbrowns, and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  They're watching Tinkerbell right now and I'm waiting for the last coat of paint I put on the bookshelf to dry before I add another coat.  I plan to enjoy being lazy today since it will be crazy here tomorrow with painting and rearranging.  Fun, fun! 

Just a note, don't be alarmed by the crazy posts today.  I decided I wanted to switch over the personal posts over at The Coupon Wars, to here and keep that strictly for shopping and coupons talk. 

Fairy Gardens

http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/2009/04/fairy-gardens.html

How cute is that idea??? I am so getting some bigger pots to sit outside...probably one for out back and one for the front... I know I would have loved that as a little girl so I am sure that the girls will like it now and really grow to enjoy it as they get older and more imaginative.

And, I will have fun picking stuff out at the craft store because I'm totally girly like that... :o)