big girl room

This has been something Carlo and I talked about for a while. We originally were looking at a cool daybed from World Market. (almost all of our furniture is from there!!) but this bed never went on sale. So....we took it as simply not meant to be.  I know most kids at 2 1/2 are just getting into a toddler bed but Audrey's bed has been on the floor since she was 12 months.  She never really slept in her crib and I feel it was the worst decision to buy one. I wish I would have gone with a baby hammock.  So, one Sunday we decided to go look for beds at Rooms To Go for Kids. Although we got some good ideas, everything looked really cheaply made and we weren't getting anything from there.  We did find out thought that Audrey loved the princess daybeds, no surprise there, and bunk beds, again no surprise since she loves climbing.  We went to one more store and Audrey was dead set on this ugly brown bunk bed.  It was a full on the bottom and full on the top.  She even picked the boy bunk bed over the princess daybed.  I thought great what am I going to do with that, very selfishly I might add, and wished for something else until Carlo said you can paint it.  A lightbulb went off and I said OMG I can chalk paint it! See, I told you it was a disease.  Anyway, I asked Audrey what color and she said purple.  We bought the bed on the spot and Carlo picked it up Monday.  Audrey and I painted and waxed it Tuesday, Carlo picked out mattresses Wednesday and after all day Saturday modifying the top bunk to make it safe it was ready to be slept in by Sunday.  The process took a week and I wouldn't change a thing! She loves it and so do we.  Audrey and I have since painted that yellow table a dark purple, that matches the dark purple polka dots on her bedspread. Here is what her room was before, then I have the after pictures.



I will always have a soft spot for the way things were.  I remember my little Audrey in this room.  my little 15 month old baby.  She was just the perfect size.  I worry if I am making her grow up too quickly or if just putting a twin mattress on the floor would have been better but I know she loves her new room and we do too.  Sometimes the nostalgia of these pictures gets me.

I love that "A" it always makes me smile!

her dress up basket.

dress up area and toy chest

stuff animal bin and reading nook a la Montessori.  She loves the lantern the most.

dresser with changing pad on it still although it's been roughly 4 months since touching a diaper and mind you that was only at night. 

I can't tell you how many times I would wake up and nurse Audrey in the peace and quiet of her own room when she was little.  I love this chair. Excuse the outfit on it.  Audrey told me the night before what she wanted to wear and I promise to lay it out so I wouldn't forget! lol

my favorite part.  Yes, it's  a little messy with blankets but I love it. That Peter Rabbit was in my brother's nursery and that awesome canopy is something Carlo brought back from India

The NEW room

we moved the chair to a different corner and got rid of the reading nook.

excuse the white on the walls! That is what happens when you don't use command hooks for pictures and instead use heavy duty velcro! word to the wise: Don't do it!!

the table is now purple, I will post a picture soon.  It looks much better.

new curtains.  We put these teal ones over her brown ones so it' basically is like a black out effect.  We moved her toy chest as well. and got a wireless speaker for her rain.

sneak peek

voila!!! There it is the purple princess bed!  Excuse snoopy's ears hanging over the bed! lol  Carlo modified the hell out of this thing to make it safe.  He put the rail near the wall on the bottom, added wood around the head area on the bottom as well.  He made that rail on the top from scratch. It goes ALL the way around and is absurdly sturdy. I am thankful for my handy husband who pulls off my ideas to make this the safest bunk bed ever!

closer look at that homemade railing!

Audrey picked her comforter.  We held up different ones but this one got the best response ever.  She gasped and said "That's mine!!"  Aren't the lanterns fun??!! 

this is where her floor bed used to be.  We moved her dresser there, got rid of the changing pad and I rearranged her butterflies on her wall. I just realized that her little rug didn't move a whole lot.  Probably the only thing that didn't move much.

new butterfly arrangement. They are glow in the dark butterflies.

chalk paint CRAZY!!

Okay, first off big apologizes for being gone for so....long.  We have been really busy around here.  I have officially started my doula certification.  I have been working on my first assignment, although it's been really slow going.  I have been exhausted most nights since Audrey's schedule has changed. Bed time is now between 8pm and 8:30 most nights which leaves Carlo and I with little time.  I have been unbelievably exhausted even thought I have been napping with Audrey.  Did I mention I recently bought about 10 books on parenting! haha yeah NOT kidding! I am almost done with the first.  I think my biggest thing is I have been trying my hardest to figure out resizing my pictures properly so thank you dear readers for once again hanging on.  I really do love y'all and am thankful to have anyone honestly reading! 


This disease or chaos started when I was tired of looking at our 1970's dresser. It was my Uncle Tom's dresser and we wanted to breathe new life into it.  We had been wanting to paint it but painting takes FOREVER so...we put it off....for two years!  I can't remember now how on earth I ran across chalk paint but I did. Sure they have "The chalk paint" by Annie Sloan but that stuff is expensive and we have no retailers here in Lafayette. If you don't know by now I am one stubborn and determined woman. When I have my mind set on doing something it WILL be one and it will be that day! Lucky me I ran across tons of websites on chalk paint and furniture and how to make your own.  So, we gave it a shot.  Here's the recipe we used and we love it.

1c. paint (we like eggshell)
2 TBLSP unsanded grout (you can find this at Lowes and Home Depot)

Take the unsanded grout and make a slurry with a little water (like 1 TBLSP) then mix into paint.  Be ready to start painting then because this stuff thickens up quick and dries in about 20 min. maybe depending on the look you are going for.  Here are our results

You see the dresser for our bedroom, chairs for our patio, and Audrey's brand new BIG girl bunk bed (she picked it herself!) Of course, the bed isn't painted because well...then I couldn't do a big post on it now could I?? :-)

mama's artist

I love that she can help and there are no real worries. The sloppier the better with chalk paint!

Audrey and I had a blast painting together

Peggy thought she would help!



finished dresser

before

bright sunny yellow! Nothing scary here!

done being painted and ready for our patio!

all set and ready to paint her bunk bed!!

more bunk bed boards!!

welcome to our home!

 I have been wanting to welcome y'all in our home for a while.  I just wanted everything done first so now that it is. Welcome!!  This is more of a view of Audrey's world; a Montessori view if you will be

Welcome to Audrey's space in our living room.  This is her Montessori space.  I keep activities on the shelves, she has her art area, and her area where we hand her art.

I love this little area.  That is a homemade chalkboard.  It took scrap wood, a lot of sanding, and homemade chalk paint.  The dry erase board is from that massive red easel thingy.  We took that board out and Carlo made a frame; I painted it.  I rotate what is in her art basket to keep her inspired.  If you can't tell, this area gets used quite a lot!

Audrey's Montessori shelves (sorry for the blur)  I rotate what is on the shelves and move what is on the shelves around to keep things interesting.  This picture was taken a month ago.  Currently, I have moved things all around and changed out some things as well.

these were for Audrey from the Easter Bunny. They are heirloom blocks; and yes, that's French on them!!!  The craftsmanship is really fantastic!

Audrey has really been enjoying puzzles lately.  She loves the sound ones and since numbers are a big thing right now we keep that puzzle out.  I rotate which puzzles are out pretty regularly. 

When I saw Audrey lacing at the children's museum I KNEW I had to get her some lacing beads.  She loves these.  She pretty much has is mastered so I am starting to incorporate small things to lace. 

those are homemade alphabet cards from some free pint outs I randomly found.  On the right are sandpaper alphabet letters. 

Audrey has been having so much fun with these.  You have to match the two halves of the blocks together and then it makes the sound of the vehicle you matched. 

mama's little artist

this is the view from the dining room.  Oh and you'll see her abacus by the fish tank and that basket underneath is all instruments.  She has a drum pad and sticks, marimba mallets, a zumba skirt, 2 different drums, a train whistle, a recorder, jingle bells, and a duck caller.  We have since added Moroccans.  She only gets real wood instruments.  Being a musician that is super important for her to have only the real thing.

This area is in our kitchen.  She has a broom to sweep up messes she makes, and that kitchen was her birthday present.  She has wood pots, pans, plates, and utensils.  She has her green plan toys refrigerator which is loaded with veggies, and wood foods.  On top are leftover spice bottles that she uses for cooking.  In the middle is her shopping cart with her naked baby!   Oh and yes she is in her PJ's wearing my heels.  That step stool on the far right is how Audrey helps me cook. 

this is again, the living room.  That's Audrey's table. It was actually mine and her pink elephant which not only Audrey loves, but ALL of the pups

I know it's a little dark and yes it's messy but hey that's life!! :-)  Another view of the living room.

Garden in a Box

I have been waiting for this package, anxiously I might add!  First off, this is called a Garden in a Box and is done by the magnificent Robyn Pope. Check out her website and blog. Her blog has some awesome pictures that are truly inspirational!  I found about this from Ohdeardrea.   Carlo and I have been saying we need to do our yard, but honestly every time we do something it doesn't feel right; it doesn't feel like us.  It's awful, really!  So...this is where the wonderful Robyn Pope comes in.  She designs yards, front and back and will incorporate whatever feel you want with the yard.  We wanted a zen/Japanese theme. I also asked for an area for birds/butterflies, an area to grow veggies and herbs, and an area that would lend itself for a place to put an Audrey sized picnic bench and a place for Carlo and I to eat beside her. that's a pretty tall order if you ask me  When the box came in, I was blown away and so was Carlo.  It's awesome and everything we could hope for.  What's great about this is she designs it and will help you out along the way, I am talking months after this has been send, and will answer any questions you may have but yet YOU do all the planting.  That is to me the best.  I was literally just telling Carlo I wanted to get someone to come out and draw out a design for our yard but yet I wanted for us to do the planting.  Apparently, I must have thought about it hard enough because not even a week later I ran across Drea's post.  That night I contacted Robyn and 2 weeks later our box came in.  We are so....very anxious to get started that we have already started digging for our decomposed granite patio!  No better time than now!!

look how beautiful!!

this is not only another drawing of our yard but includes all of the plants we need to get and a code as to what all of the flowers on the drawing mean

That's right, she prints out photos of the plants and some of them have a how to care for area too.  It was nice to see what the plants would look like!

this includes what specific species for each plant you would need. It was divided into perennials, annuals, etc.  It's something I can bring with me and basically tell the buyer I need this without mangling the pronunciation

and of course, copies of everything just in case a certain little girl might happen to get a hold of any drawing!

TONS of seed packets. These are the veggies

here are herb seed packets

all of the flower seeds

it's the little details that make this truly beautiful. This is what you see when you open the box, the tissue paper was covering it in the first photo

it's a small basket of goodies

two kinds of rocks to pick from, a good luck acorn to hang on a tree, a little buddha to see where he would go best in our yard (he is scaled down so we can test him out on the drawing) and a sachet of lavender I believe. Talk about smelling awesome when you open up the box

the piece de resistance.  OUR DRAWING

another view of the goodies in the basket. By the way that little basket it is a berry basket from the 1950's. How cool is that??

and yet another package!!

decomposed granite and flagstone.  The decomposed granite hardens and would be a lovely add on to our patio! We want to extend and I am loving this very cool idea! The flagstone is for stepping stones we would like around the yard

here's the planting list. Look at all of those

another shot of the box before I tore into it

a meyer lemon tree to add to the yard!

pictures of the plants!