Train Display Box

So, its been almost a year since I last posted.  Whoops.  I'm just too busy to keep up with everything.

I do have a few things to show you now.

We are really in to trains at our house and we've amassed quite a collection.  The Man and I recently finished making a display box to house all of our trains.  Isn't it cool?  It was completely inspired by this one posted by Green Kitchen.  I found her version ages ago and loved it, and every time I showed it to the Little Man, he really liked it too, although I think he was more fascinated by the trains in it.

We used a thin sheet of luan for the back and some 1/4" thick poplar boards from the hobby section of Home Depot.   I gave The Man the dimensions I wanted it to be and he did the actual construction.  He put dividers on each shelf because the wood is pretty flimsy and he was just sure that the two little monkeys would try climbing it.  I wouldn't put it past them!  I put a few coats of Minwax Provincial stain on it (same color as our floors) and considered trying some sort of grayish glaze to darken/antique it, but I'm calling it good.

I'd love to keep all the trains in it all the time, organized by color, but that doesn't happen, of course!  Ha ha.  But at least there is a place for them to be when they aren't being played with.  This makes me very happy!

We store the wooden track in the basket below (yep, that's all track in there!).  This box is big enough to hold all of our current trains with room for a few more.  At the rate that we are accumulating, though, we are liable to run out of space.  It will do the trick for now, at any rate.

 

New Dresser for the Little Man

We switched the Little Man to a toddler bed a few months ago, so that he could get used to it before his little brother arrives. It went very well, except that the little monkey who never gives up now has an entire room full of distraction that he can use to keep from taking a nap. Sometimes this means his room is a disaster twice a day. Oh well. He does great at night and he entertains himself fairly well during his "nap," so I will be happy with that. The Man keeps reminding me that I can't make him sleep, and he's right.

We also needed to get him a new dresser because we planned on keeping his original dresser together with the crib, since they match. We had a hard time finding anything that we liked, or rather, the right combination of price and quality.


So we bought a toddler bed that we liked from Amazon and went ahead and decided to go cheap and bought the Hemnes dresser from Ikea to go with it. Since they don't match anyway, I wanted to try painting it. I did it a few weeks ago, and it wasn't really very fun to maneuver around my big belly. It took a few hours per coat, since I painted the insides as well, and I put on 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint that I think was supposed to be self-priming.

I am really liking the paint color in his room. I wanted to use the London Fog (the gray I've been using in the bathrooms and on his little stool), but while it looks plenty dark enough on the walls of the bathrooms, its really pretty light on the stool. So I went a couple shades darker and used Plymouth Rock instead.


We'll see how well it really holds up to the little monkey over time. Its already got some chips here and there and the some has rubbed off on the drawers because, quite frankly, the drawers don't fit perfectly. I like the dresser overall, though. Hopefully he won't try climbing in the drawers, because they will never hold his weight!

Anyway, hooray for progress! I just feel like I need to move some stuff on his wall now, but we'll see. Probably won't get around to that. Baby number 2 is due in three weeks!

Leftover Curtain Fabric

And this is what I did with the leftover curtain fabric. The other print is Gotcha Gray also from Premier Prints and it is a twill. They have lots of other colors as well. . . wonder what I could possibly need them for?

Dutch sneaks in the picture for the sunshine.

Our couch pillows were looking really awful, but the inserts were feather and still nice, so I made some new pillow covers.

They definitely need to be removable and washable, but I hate how an envelope back pillow always seems to gape open in the back, so I decided to put in invisible zippers. I've never done that on a pillow before, and when I tried it on The Little Man's bean bag, it worked okay, but not perfectly.

This time I found several different YouTube videos to see how its done, because none were completely clear to me and I can never understand the product directions on traditional sewing supplies like zippers or patterns (is that just me? I consider myself intelligent and the sentences read like some other language altogether). Anyway, it worked and it was easy. They aren't quite invisible because I didn't buy the special Coats invisible zipper foot and just used the one that came with my machine, but they're darn near invisible. Good enough for me!

Porch Pillows

We bought rockers for our front porch this summer, and I was feeling like we needed some pillows to go on them. I was sorta leaning towards buying the Sundial pillow from West Elm for out there, but decided against it, because it was just too much after paying for shipping. I'm pretty sure that these will be on the ground fairly often, as the front porch is an outdoor play area for the Little Man.

Sundial outdoor pillow in Papaya from West Elm

So, this is what I did with the fabric from the Little Man's old curtains. I made some pillows for my porch!

This is a much better use for that shower curtain fabric. I like it much better as pillows, and since its "recycled" fabric, let him throw them on the ground if he must!

Curtains for the Little Man

I finally found the fabric that I wanted to make curtains for the Little Man's room. Yay! I believe that its been a year and a half since we moved him out of my office (his nursery) into his own bedroom.

I tried out some all white grommet top curtains at first, and they were just too plain and boring. Then I found a navy shower curtain with a printed ivory design on them that I thought might work if I cut them and reconfigured them into panels. You can see them in the bookshelf post. They ended up being to dark and too skimpy for my taste.

I was hoping for a chevron print that I could use, but I never could quite bring myself to buy the ones that I found. They have a nice blue or yellow or brown at Fabric.com, but I what I wanted was gray. Pale gray.

Well, then it occurred to me that those are all Premier Prints fabrics. So I searched for Premier Prints and found their website. I am such an idiot. How did I not know these existed? I've actually used several of their prints before when I made all those aprons for Christmas several years ago. Ta da! Their Zig Zag design comes in the perfect Ash/White print. (I'll save you the leg work if you happen to want this fabric and tell you that the cheapest place that I found it was here, btw.)

I ended up buying 8 yards of fabric, so that I would have some extra, because I love it. I was trying to figure out how to cut it the right length, so I ended up folding it in half and laying it out the length of my living room/dining room and just using a measuring tape. Of course, the Little Man decided not to nap that day, so I had to get him up while I still had the fabric laid out and was trying to double-check my calculations before cutting.

He put on his rain boots and his 8-ball bike helmet and was riding his trike up and down the fabric like it was a runner just for him. He was saying "Wheeee!" and going back and forth and stomping around in his rain boots. He was in rare form and totally cracking me up. I was laughing so hard and trying to capture him on video to show The Man. Its a wonder I even cut these things right.

So here they are . . .



I'd never made curtains, but I wanted to do it right, if I was going to spend so much money on fabric. I wanted fully-lined, professional-looking curtains. I found an excellent tutorial here. I bought drapery lining at JoAnns. I don't know much about linings, but it was heavy enough and soft and about middle-of-the-road price. I learned how to make a blind hem on You Tube. Awesome. They turned out perfect!



I am so happy with how these look in his room. They are perfect! I'm nearly finished with it now. I wish I knew of a better way to store all his stuff, but this is how it is. We've already swapped his crib for a toddler bed, and now we need to swap out a new dresser for his changing table/dresser. We've already got the dresser, and I painted it last week.

Now I just have to get my act together and get my office ready to be set up as the nursery again. I'm getting concerned that number two is coming sooner, rather than later, so I need to get things done. Seriously. I'm not ready.

Oh, and if you happen to like this fabric for curtains, but don't want to sew them - lookie here. Someone is selling custom panels on eBay.

Step Stool

A few months ago, I saw vintage step stool plans posted on Ana White's blog and I decided that I was going to make one. Myself.

We have an old "rustic" stool that was The Man's when he was a kid, but its not very tall. The Little Man uses it all the time and drags it from counter to counter in our kitchen, depending on where the action is. I figured we will be needing more stools around this place and I would like something cute. You never see cute stools in the store.

I figured this one would do the trick and get him up a little bit higher.

I convinced The Man that I was really going to do it, so we bought some lumber. It cost more than I was hoping, but what I bought was enough for a stool and half, probably. I even convinced him to carry up his miter saw out to the back patio for me.

The first afternoon I attempted to use it, The Man was already gone for work and the Little Man was supposed to be napping. I couldn't even figure out how to unlatch the dumb saw. I sent him texts and he tried to explain it to me, but I couldn't find the latch for the life of me. I had to cover it back up and wait for him to show me how. Sad, I know.

The next afternoon, however, I got most of my cuts made and realized that some of the lumber is too wide for the miter saw. Oops. Had to wait for help again. We ended up cutting through one side and then the other with the miter saw, because we don't have a table saw. It worked.

The next afternoon I had free, I needed a jig saw to cut out the sides. I found the jig saw in the garage, but there was no blade in it. I texted The Man again and he told me where to find the blades. Found them, but I couldn't figure out how to get them in the saw. I even googled for the manual and couldn't find one online, so I had to wait for help again. Ridiculous.

Anyway, I got everything all cut out and The Man helped me figure out the screws and stuff that I needed and he showed me how to pre-drill the holes and screw it all together. Yay!




Anyway, this is turning into a ridiculously long explanation, but my point is that it was actually pretty simple to make. Obviously, I had no idea what I was doing, but I did manage to make it all by myself. Which means it is easy.

The paint color is Benjamin Moore London Fog (my new favorite gray/taupe color) that I used ages ago in our basement. I love the color, but it didn't occur to me that there would be little dirty footprints on it at all times. Oh well.. I was going to take different pictures of it, but why? This is exactly how the stool is going to be used and what it will look like in my kitchen.

Now I'm thinking I could use one that is maybe a tad wider for the sink in the bathroom. . . but with only 6 weeks to go before the second Little Man is due, when would I do that? At least this time, I know how to use the tools!

Bookshelf for The Little Man's Room

I'm going to just jump right in and start all over again here. I don't know that I really have time for blogging, but who does, right?

So I'm trying to think of things that I've done in the past year that I could post about. Funny thing is, there probably aren't many.

But if you happen to remember waaaay back last year when I posted about a bookshelf under a window that I saw in Cottage Living (I think), well, here's the update.

I did get The Man to build them for me. I happened to find Ana White's site not long after I saw that picture. She posted plans for a very similar shelf, so we modified it a bit, but its basically the same thing.

What are we doing, Dad?

Hey, its just my size!

The Little Man has loved his bookshelf, so it was well-worth putting up. He has easy access to his books - he can see most of them and can reach them all. Being the control freak that I am, I put them all back in the same place and he knows where to find the one he wants. Ha! I have since added a couple big storage baskets underneath the shelf for his toys, so it works out well in such a small room. Unfortunately, there's still too many toys in the room, but what can ya do?

It's based on Pottery Barn's Collector's Shelves, so if you don't have the inclination to build yourself one, you could buy these. They're pretty cheap to make, though.

**if you're anything like me, Ana White's site can be a huge time suck! You were warned!

New Garage Door

So here it is. Our new garage door. We ordered this waaaaay back in October and it didn't get installed until the end of the year. I guess we weren't the only ones wanting new garage doors.

I do like it, though. Its much quieter than the old door and looks better. The old door was wooden and had many coats of paint on it and someone very sloppily painted the trim. We got a little bit wider trim to cover that up. It should give us better insulation as well. Yay!

Busy, Busy

Things are hopping around here right now! Wahoo! We finally got someone in here to rebuild our basement bathroom. Yes, that was April that I mentioned it. It took us up until about 2 weeks ago to get anywhere on it. I'll show ya that later. Its not finished yet.

We also have a new garage door coming on Monday. We ordered that over 2 months ago and what should have been 2 weeks turned into 10ish? Apparently we weren't the only ones looking for a new door right now. Figures!

BUT . . . I did find a bit of time to be crafty lately. I have been working on the little crochet animals in the evenings, but I managed to make a quilt top. Yay! It was super easy and came together quickly. Wonder how long it will take me to get it quilted??


It is my version of a quilt that is included in the Amy Butler software. I didn't quite get the colors I was going for, but it will do. I would have liked the gray a bit darker and the yellow a little more subtle. Oh well. I guess that's what happens when you buy fabrics online.

I do like it, though. It is intended for the Little Man. If I ever do finish it. Wish me luck!

Outdoor Lights

I know this will be super-fascinating, but I was excited that we finally bought outdoor lights. The old ones needed to be replaced badly, but I was looking for something in brushed nickel that I liked and never did find anything, at least in my price range. So I finally gave up and we bought these instead. We've ordered a new garage door and I figure that they will match any hardware that we put on that. So yay! One small thing checked off my list.

Before

After - does anyone else think it seems weird to have a single light up there like that?
I'd rather put up one on each side, but oh well. There are house numbers underneath it,
so that helps a little, but still. It feels a little strange to me.

Front porch before - chipped paint on the railing and all!

After - whoops! Forgot to take an after for the front door and a before for the side. Whatever. They're the same light. I finally got The Man to finish painting the railings for me.
Looks much better.

After - side door light.

There's so much more to be done, but those old lights were really bugging me! One thing at a time........

Child's Bookshelf

I have been going through my Cottage Living magazines recently, looking for something that I think I remember seeing in there and not finding it. I am starting to think perhaps that it is in another magazine. Ugh. This is going to take me awhile to find, I'm afraid. In the meantime, I've been copying recipes and other things that catch my eye, since I have a terrible habit of putting down magazines and forgetting altogether the things in them that I liked.

Anyway. I found this in one of the issues. Unfortunately, I've already forgotten which one, and I'm not going to look it up to find out but I scanned it in to save it for when we start putting together the Little Man's room.

The Little Man is currently set up in my office and as much as I like that, I think its a bad idea. At least for long-term. I am not getting as much work done as I would like and I think after the beginning of the year, he's going to move into the spare room so I can get some work done while he's asleep.

I think this is simple enough that perhaps I can persuade The Man to replicate for me. I like the idea of having a little bookshelf that the Little Man can reach. We'll have to see - its a little room!

Decoys

Occasionally, we have some visitors to our backyard that I like to snap pics of and send to my Dad, because they get lots of turkeys at their house and he enjoys them. I like to remind him that we even get them in the big city. Dad always teases that mine are just decoys.


So these are my decoys wandering around the back yard and finding things to eat. I don't mind these visitors. They don't eat my flowers like the other visitors tend to.

I Actually Sewed Something

I am full of big ideas. I think its because I've managed to surround myself with inspiration from all the blogs, magazines, catalogs, and TV that are full of things that I just have to have or make. The problem is, I never get enough time or focus or whatever to do the things that I would like to.

Part of it is because I am cheap. Part of it is because the Man and I sometimes can't make a decision to save our lives. Part of it is because there are too many ideas, too little time. Whatever it is, its ridiculous and frustrating. I've got to adjust my expectations down to realistic levels and learn to be content with whatever it is that I can do with what I've got. And try to focus.

So that's where I'm at. My house is a mess, there are projects started and not finished. There are improvements that should be made to our house. But we'll get there. Right now, I am trying to just enjoy a certain little man who smiles and laughs and thinks its hilarious if I squeal back when he squeals. I am crazy about the little monkey.


But anyway. I did sew something the other day. I saw this bedskirt at Pottery Barn and I wanted it. I figured I could just add buttons to my bedskirt and get the same thing. It would make those pleats lay nicer.


I couldn't find any fabric-covered buttons, so I just bought these shell buttons cause I thought they were prettier, anyway. I took it off the bed and measured 3" down the pleat and sewed them on. I wrestled the thing back on the bed and then it occurred to me. You'll never see them! The duvet is much too long for that. Suck. Now what? I don't know. I'm still mulling that one over.

Pics on the Wall

Its amazing! I finally hung some pictures on the wall! Okay, there are a few hung up in my house, but precious few. The Man likes to give me a hard time about all the pictures that I have sitting around that are never hung up. My official reason is that I'm waiting until we get our "real" furniture so that I know for sure where I want to hang them. Nevermind that we may not actually buy furniture anytime soon.


So Mom had the idea awhile back that I should frame our feet pictures and hang them above our bed. I actually thought that was a good idea and so I tried to get the pictures printed at Costco. I found frames first so that I could make sure I had the right size. It can be hard to find square frames. I picked these up at Ikea. BTW, did you know that Costco now prints 8x8 and 12x12's? That's cool. That will be nice for scrapbooking. If I ever get around to doing anyway. I have plans. Big plans.


Anyway. So I submitted my pictures to Costco online and got a phone call the next day to let me know that they couldn't print them. She wasn't sure why, but perhaps they were not high enough resolution. The computer was just kicking them out. Okie doke. I made them bigger and resubmitted them. At least they called. I was surprised at that. Then I went in to pick them up. They were kicked out again and they couldn't tell me why. I knew that they were plenty big enough that time.


They gave me a phone number for technical support. I e-mailed customer service online and for some reason, they just resubmitted my order again. Same one. So I stopped in again. No. Still didn't print. ARGH! This time, I decided to try to make them smaller. Good grief, it worked. Who knew? They don't tell you anywhere that there is a maximum size that they can be. The whole thing was just ridiculous. But anyway. I got them. After something like a month.........


I'm not quite sure that I love them there above the bed. Perhaps its just the bed frame that doesn't look right with it. But whatever. I have pictures hung. And that's a good thing.

Second Airplane

We went back into Marshall's a little while ago and The Man decided that we did, indeed, need the second airplane for Jack's room. I'm not alone in my justifications. I have a partner!

Mobile

I found a mobile at Ikea awhile ago and I bought it, since it was cheap and white. It is super long, but I figured I could restring it and make it short enough.I did restring it yesterday. I'm not quite sure that its short enough yet. I haven't decided yet what to do with it. Hang it anyway? I'd hate to put the hole in the ceiling and change my mind. Still thinking it over.

Salad Boxes Follow-Up

So, I got my husband to make me some of the salad boxes that I posted about awhile ago. I think that it was probably about a month ago that we made them and planted the lettuces.

Well, here they are today. I think they are ready to start cutting, although we haven't done that yet. Perhaps tomorrow we will try it! I'm curious to see if they will grow again or if we'll need to reseed. I've never grown lettuce before, so we'll find out.


The smaller plants in the back of this box are spinach. Those don't seem to be quite ready yet. Anyway. The boxes seem to have worked very well! The Man has enjoyed watching his lettuce grow too, so that was fun. I think he was munching on it the other day as he was checking them out. Cute.

Aeroplane

I drug the Man into Marshalls briefly a couple days ago and lo and behold, found something I had to have. Actually, not sure what my problem is just now, because I am generally a tightwad, but I am so in the mood to buy anything and everything my little heart desires. I'm blaming it on the pregnancy and hoping it goes away. Its not like we are finding enough legitimate things to spend money on these days with the equipment that a baby requires. But I digress.


Isn't it cute? We both thought that it would be a great thing to put in the baby's room. Of course. Its for the baby! Perfect reason to buy anything, right?

Tea Poster

Saw this poster a couple months ago at the Keep Calm Gallery and it made me think of Mom. She is a tea person. If you visit her, you will probably end up with a tea cup in your hand.

I thought I'd try to recreate this poster myself and it turned out great. I printed it and framed it for Mom's birthday. I forgot to take a picture of it after I framed it, but here's the poster.


I think perhaps I need one for myself. Then I could add it to the collection of pictures that I love, but haven't actually hung yet. Yup. I have one. You're not surprised, are you?