Day 297 -- Some Finishing Touches

Today my mom and dad came up to help me put the finishing touches on Lizzy's room. We put together the picture frames for the West wall and my mom added a little more color to the flowers we bought for the East wall. My dad also put up the chandelier (another Lorraine's purchase which we painted white and replaced the orange crystals for pink ones). This is one girly room for one girly girl. She has already hung her Snow White dress up on her flower pegs.

The final thing we did today was finish upholstering the bench in the closet. And when I say "we" I really mean my mom and dad. I cut the foam and material, but they did all the hard work. I love the fabric we used. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a blue-green and cream striped chenille that has the texture of corduroy. It looks great especially with the pillows.

And yes, that is the actual view from our closet. Pretty cool, huh? It was a beautiful night here in SLC.

Thanks mom and dad for all the help...again!

Day 295 -- Bathroom Tile

The tile for the small bathroom has been laid. They'll grout tomorrow.

Day 293 -- Sew....

To preface this discussion, let me just state that my mom and I are crazy. We realize this. We have come to accept it. We are not planning on modifying the situation.

After hours of searching on the internet, I was a little more than frustrated with the selection of boys crib bedding. I found a million girls sets that I could have snatched up and been happy with, but I just couldn't find that perfect boys set. I did, however, find some fabric that I fell in love with. So what other option did I have than to make the crib bedding? Settle for something 75% there from Pottery Barn and save a ton of time? No. Not an option. So I enlisted my mom's help to make a quilt and bumper.

This is what we started with. I bought a fat quarter bundle of fabric from Moda in the "Goodnight Monkey" line. It has an assortment of fabrics with retro sock monkeys in a bedtime theme. The colors and patterns are great. We had 35 different fabrics.

Did I mention we are crazy?

I am so glad we're crazy. This is the result of our efforts. It is just what I was looking for. Actually, much cuter than what I was looking for. The quilt is frayed on one side and basic quilted on the other. The bumper is quilted and backed with the blue polka dot. My mom machine stitched the red on the edges to the blue, then I hand stitched the other side down. I'm pretty proud of the result. It actually looks as good as store bought. I cannot wait to see it in a finished room. Grandma also picked up a stuffed sock monkey to go with the decor.



Here's a better look at some of the fabrics. Each time I look at the quilt, I think..."That's my favorite...no, maybe that one."



This little project took us about 2 1/2 days to finish. Well worth it in my opinion.

As if this wasn't enough, I had a specific vision for our master bedroom. I wanted bedding that had taupes, tans and bluish greens. This set from pottery barn was close. I love the stripes. I also wanted a bunch of different kinds of pillows as well. I calculated it out and to purchase this set with all the pillow cases, throw, etc, we were looking at $680. Ouch. I might be crazy, but I'm not that crazy.

I love shopping at Lorraine's. They have much better prices than JoAnn's. Much better. It's so cheap, it's practically free. Actually, it is free. Before you start searching high and low for this amazing craft store. I'm talking about my mom's house. It's our running joke that any time I need some crafty item, there's no need to go to a craft store at all, just go to Lorraine's -- my mom already has it.

Case in point: I was telling my mom about this vision and she said, "Come here, take a look at this stuff and see if you want any of it." She had planned on redecorating one of her smaller bedrooms and had bought all kinds of fabrics, pillows, throws, etc. She never ended up being able to do the room and has since changed her vision. :) Everything she had was perfect. It was exactly the color scheme I wanted and the fabrics and pillows were really beautiful. Sew... we decided to make the bedding for the master bedroom too. Did I mention we're crazy?

I ended up buying some fabric to add to her collection and probably spent about $175 on supplies and fabrics. A far cry from the $680. Here's the pile o' stuff that we started with.









And here is the final product:

We even had enough to upholster the benches and add some pillows there. We haven't done the one in the closet yet, but that is definitely on the list. Not bad, huh? Thanks Mom for everything. I LOVE it all. It is perfect.

Brian, I wanted to make our new bedroom special for the both of us. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Last but not least, they have started tiling the bathroom. Looking good! It is becoming imperative that we get a bathroom upstairs now that I am 8 mo. prego.

Day 288 -- Is That *My* Tub???

Izzypop and I walked into the backyard and I noticed that the tub was no longer on the back porch.
"That's a good sign." I said aloud to myself.
"What mommy?" Iz asked.
"They put the tub in today." I replied.
"Let's go see!!!" We ran upstairs and into the kid's bathroom. "Is that my tub?!"
"Yep, that's your tub."
"Yea!!!" She has a right to be so excited. She loves baths...especially ones with bubbles. But since the only current bathtub in the house is ginormous, she doesn't take them very often. We have forced her to be a shower girl. This new tub is a nice size. Small, but a little deeper than a standard 60 X 30 tub at 20 inches. Sometime in the hopefully not-too-distant future we'll surround the tub with white subway tiles and put 1" white hex tiles on the floor.

Day 283 -- The New Baby Is Here!

Before you get too excited (or angry that we haven't called you), I am still pregnant. I'm talking about the other baby. The 37" flat panel, 2" thin, wall-mounted baby. We got that hung today and put together the new sofa table from IKEA to go under it. Tuesday the cable company will be coming by to get the cable hooked up right.


My mom and I also have been working on the rest of the decorating of the master bedroom this weekend. Tomorrow is President's Day and my mom and I both have the day off. She's coming over to help me get some more done. I should have some good pictures of what we'll have accomplished tomorrow.

Day 279 -- A New Throne For The Princess

Even though the toilet and tub for the kids' bathroom was only delivered today, I am counting it as the official start of finishing the small bathroom. It will be really nice to have a bathroom upstairs. We got the Kholer Kelston toilet and the Lasco Deauville soaker tub. Thanks Jason, for hooking us up there.

Hopefully, the tub will be installed in the next week or so. The next step will be to get some tilework and beadboard done. After that, we can put in the toilet and washstand.

Day 276 -- Getting Crafty

To spice up Liz's room a little bit, my mom and I have been working on some projects. We finished a couple of them and I put them up today. We bought these wooden letters, spray painted them (thanks Dad) and painted a bunch of wooden flowers in some fun colors to go with her bedspread.










We also took the "Live Laugh Love" sign that was in her old bedroom and re-purposed it to go with her new room. All we did was add the flowers and dots between the words. This is hanging up on the boxed out part of her ceiling. We're also working on some picture frames and a chandelier to finish it off.



Over the past few weeks we have been doing a few things here and there, but not a whole lot that's worth blogging about. My mom and I finished painting all the trim and baseboards in the master bedroom and closet as well as the hall (with the exception of the furnace doorway). They put the furnace door in last week as well as the bathroom door with the newly sandblasted window. We're thinking about painting the phrase "Water Closet" on the window to give it some interest.