Sunday, February 14, 2016

A Year for Little Man!

One of the great loves…and great chores… of all of my babies' first years has been monthly pictures. It started with Curly Girl when I received a set of onesie stickers at her baby shower from a good photographer friend. Each month I took a picture with whatever outfit inspired me for the month. I also tried to capture a photo with the two of us--so proud of my first babe. With GiGi, I took it up a notch with a hand decorated onesie themed by the month. With little man, I got inspiration from a pin where a mom took a picture of her little one in the same scene each month. 

I so loved the stenciled birch wall in little man's room that I chose it as the background. I grabbed a wooden rocking horse and a stuffed Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox I picked up at a craft fair just after the decision to move to Bemidji and the north woods of Minnesota, where Paul Bunyan and his blue friend serve as our mascot.

I tried to go easy on myself and buy paper mache numbers to mark the months but to no avail at the time…so I stupidly decided to make stuffed numbers out of scrap fabric. Cute but naturally became the chore I grrrrr'ed at each month as I tried to carefully time our photo session so that there was actually natural light in his small bedroom. (A task I found more difficult than I expected with the short days of northern Minnesota winters.)

Here's how the year turned out:














I can't believe how he's grown over time and how fun it has been to watch him develop. He's sweet. He's gentle. He laughs so easily. He's curious and strong. Love you, little man!

Our Girly Room


With little man well on his way, it was time to begin the feat of combining the girlies into one room. We were anxious for sure. Not only were we combining the bedrooms of our two very different little women, GiGi was just making her transition into a big girl bed. Can you believe we decided to just skip the toddler bed stage all together and throw her in a twin bed AND share a room? The decision was as bold as she is… and it worked! Being together for a year now, I can hardly imagine the two apart from each other.

Of course expecting a new babe (and planning for yet another daycare bill), my goal with this bedroom was two-fold--1. Make it girly. 2. Re-use, Re-use, Re-use…and make this makeover as affordable as possible. (After all, we still had little man's room to finish.)

Here's what I did:





Though I fought her, Curly Girl insisted that the room color be purple. Normally, I'm not one to paint walls in such a bold color or put up a fight with a four-year-old but since it was her room that was selected for sharing, I decided to be kind and work with it. I unwittingly found inspiration in their much loved Disney princess castle--choosing purple walls and pink, teal and other bright colored accents. There were few purchases made to complete the room outside of paint, bedding, and those giant paper mache initials. 


 a view from the door to GiGi's side

i spraypainted old pictures frames collected at garage sales in bright colors. and those butterflies? if you're a child of the 80's you probably remember those gold "home interior" butterflies from your mother or grandmother's house. both my mother and my mother-in-law had them hanging in their homes so i snatched some from my mil's home and spray painted them white. where did i find matching teal bed frames? spray painted those too! the previous owners of our home left some primary color bunk beds behind so i used the same teal spray paint to update those 90's beauties. 

penants are just so hot right now! love them! these were made with a package of yellow quilt binding and some cotton fabric scraps that i ironed to some pellon stabilizer and cut into triangles. i left the edges raw and sewed the top into the binding. i made loops on the ends and hung on the walls with simple gorilla hooks. 

a view of Curly Girl's side

 the ruffled curtains i so proudly made for GiGi's nursery found a new home in our girliest of girly rooms.

 "let her sleep…for when she wakes, she will move mountains." one of my favorite little art pieces from GiGi's nursery with piggy banks on the dresser.

another purchase from a local shop. a simple 1x6 painted into a ruler that we're using for a height chart. 

 while the diy'er in me said, "you can do that!", sometimes you just have to admit you haven't got the time and support some of your fellow crafters. 

 speaking of supporting fellow crafters, i found this at a craft fair in Fargo and fell in love. someday i'll remember the artist and link it. she had beautiful graphic prints.

my husband's contribution. though i protested, he grew up with posters on his door and insisted they needed one of their favorite characters. Anna and Elsa so represent the differing personalities of my girlies, i can't help but smile when i walk through the door. 

I wish I had some "before" pictures to share. I'll never forget painting over a pastel lime green color and making note of the fact that I would NEVER let my teenage daughters put so many holes in their walls. It took me days to pull the 50+ drywall mounts and fill in the hundred nail and push pin holes. Ugh.