Austin's Room Revealed

It is done! Weeks and weeks of hard work and preparation and the time has come to reveal it to you!

Well let's start with the road. I had purchased a package of wall decals from Target that had only one sheet of roads. It came to me that I had to create a road or buy spend like $100 on several more packages of the decals just to make a road go around Austin's room. I originally was looking at vinyl and adhesive sprays but that seemed like a ridiculous amount of work. I was about to give up and try another day when while at Joanne's Fabric I walked down the aisle where they keep the Cricut machine and all of the supplies for it. I found a package of adhesive vinyl acrylic that is 12x24 inches long.

I cut the piece in half and stuck them on the wall. Two packages got around most of the wall except for the wall behind his crib. I had a bad experience with decals with Madison so I choose not to make them wrap all of the way around. So the next step was to make the white dashes in the middle of the road and add the cars. Done! Easy peasie right?
Next I put up the art work and whipped up some baby blue valances. All that was left was something to put all of his cars and trucks into.
I was originally going to buy one of those cubicles with the storage bins but this kid loves CARS. I grabbed him the Lighning McQueen storage organizer. Boy oh boy was that a great investment, the smile on his face was priceless when I set it up in his room.
Last thing to show you...Austin had his name written on the wall behind his crib. They were brown to match the monkey scheme that he had before. So I used a technique that I had seen on distressing. I painted over the brown in a white and then painted over both with baby blue. When all was dry I sanded the edges gently. To me it gives a beach look.

Okay so the budget:

2 rolls of adhesive $15 (I had a 50% off coupon for one of them)
3 8x8 square canvases $8 (on sale)
10 bottles of paint $15
car wall decals $12
Country road rug $30( it was given a present for Austin's birthday)
Storage Organizer $30
3 yards of fabric $3
Total $113

It is absolutely amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it! So go ahead and get er' done! And while you're at it check out Andie over at Crayon Freckles. She was inspired by all of the work I had been doing on Austin's room and made her little man a fun room as well!

Detox

I have spent the last few days detoxing from the craziness of the last week. Last Thursday we drove up to Rhode Island for the Birthday party festivities. We held the party at my in laws. Their house is much bigger than ours and most of our family lives up there. On top of the party preparations there were four small children under the age of four running and crawling around their house. It can be pretty busy when you have 6 adults and four children running around.
We got home and went to a carnival on Sunday, we now have a pet fish! Monday was gymnastics, Tuesday was grocery shopping. Wednesday I wanted to crash! I spent most of the time in my "uniform" of yoga pants and a sweatshirt and did all of the laundry. Today I will spend cleaning my entire house of the dust that covers every surface. While we were gone, the walls of our shower were replaced.
My bathroom looks brand new now. Its amazing how new tile can make a room look so bright. I have become inspired now to repaint it and to change out the decor to a nautical theme. As Austin's room remodel is winding down I am looking for new projects. One of the projects that I found which would be super appropriate for the look of my bathroom was found on A Diamond in the Stuff

I love the Pottery Barn look and I have seen so many other bloggers pull it off on a budget by distressing furniture. I think I will be looking for a baby blue and striped shower curtain and possibly distressing some candle sticks this weekend.
I just wanted to share with you a picture of Madison from the party last weekend. My little sweetie pie is getting so big!

Austin's Dr. Seuss Cat in The Hat Birthday Party

So Saturday was the big day! A day that my Sister in Law and I have been planning for the past two months. Saturday we celebrated our babies, Austin and Cassidy, turning one!
The theme of the party was Dr. Seuss and everything and anything that we could possibly come up with to make this day fun and memorable for the guests and kids, we did!

Early in the morning the bouncy house came, this made for a very easy morning of preparation. Madison and my nephew Cadence had the bounce house all to themselves for the entire morning.
I had done most of the food preparation the day before. My sister started the decoration process.

As you can see there were paper poms, colorful striped and polka dotted centerpieces and even some green eggs! During Casey Abrahms devastating elimination on American Idol last week I was sticking 500 white stickers on to a red table cloth to create polka dots. We made all of our kids Thing 1 and Thing 2 tshirts and I whipped up a polka dot skirt for Madison.
I had purchased adorable wooden favor boxes off of etsy and filled them with bubbles, play dough, candy and stickers and was fortunate enough to find bright red bags and blue tissue paper to stuff them in.

After everyone feasted on the food that we prepared it was time for cupcakes! I found a picture of a cupcake that had bright frosting on top that had the look of a Things hair. Austin and Cassidy devoured them, as a matter of fact, Austin loved it so much that he made sure to get even every last bit of crumbs and frosting off of the tray of his high chair.

It was an awesome day and everyone was so impressed with the work that we had done to make the ultimate first birthday for our babies! I can't wait to show Austin some day how special I made his first birthday!

Austin's Room cont.

As you all of you know, I have been working on changing over Austin's room from baby to big boy.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been painting, sewing and gluing like crazy leading up to his first birthday reveal. Austin is turning one on Friday and I am pleased to say that I am nearly there! Last night I finished the art that I had been working on.
A couple of weeks ago I had been on the Rosenberry Rooms website and came across these adorable 8x8 canvas art pictures of different types of automobiles.

If you want to spend $50 per piece, that is great for you! I cannot spend that much money on art work for my son's wall. It's not just that my Husband would think I have gone bananas for even suggesting it...I just think that it's an insane amount of money to spend for a child's room. For example, when Madison went into a twin size bed from a toddler bed we had made her room disney princess and retired the "babyish" Dora. After getting a new bed spread, new wall stickers etc..Madison decided that she didn't like the princesses and wanted Dora back. So for Christmas we asked Santa for Dora twin size bedding, Dora wall stickers etc...
Last week, I went to Joanne's and picked up 3 8x8 blank canvases and the paint that I would need to recreate the art that I had seen.
They aren't perfect but not to far off from what I wanted. Mind you I have never really painted before so I was totally winging it.

So my next project was inspired by this one. I think that the letters hanging in Austin's room to spell his name need to match the theme. I may paint roads and cars on them also!
Happy Tuesday, we are off to gymnastics!

Happy Easter

Hello all! I hope that everyone had a very happy Easter!
Yesterday I hosted an Easter brunch for my family. It was wonderful to see everyone. I made all kinds of yummy goodness including my shrimp bruschetta which was a big hit!

A big thing amongst both my and my husband's side of the family is the Easter egg hunt, so of course we had to have one for Madison. There were only 10 eggs but my father and Aaron kept it going by re hiding some of the eggs. She had a blast!

My father brought with him something very special. When I was very young my grandparents had given me a rocking chair for Christmas one year. My father had been holding on to it to pass down to his grandchildren. I was so happy when he brought it in for my kids to use. It is so special to me and now it can be special to them as well. I am thinking that I might make a cushion to put on the seat of it. My father also brought with him my great grandmother's rocking chair. So amazing to have these special items in my home.

I hope that all of you had a very happy easter! Looking forward to sharing with all of you the items that I have been working on. Also, my big boy is turning one on Friday. The big bash is on Saturday! This Mama has been keeping very busy preparing for that!

I'm a painter!

I have been in the process of transitioning Austin's baby room into his 1 year old big boy room.
I had this simple pegged shelf laying around for some time now. I was never sure what to do with it. It came to me just last week. I decided to paint it and hang it up in Austins automobile themed room.
My inspiration came from these paintings from Rosenberry Rooms
I actually just recently purchased some canvas at the craft store to paint these myself. I consider myself to be a decent artist. When I saw the price of the art work and took into account that I would need at least two or three, I was determined to just "do it myself." That seems to be the theme of my blog. I see something or I think of something that I want to do and I just do it myself. I think down the line my kids will appreciate the amount of time that I spent making their rooms special and unique.
So anyway here is the completed shelf!

The shelf was originally navy blue. The truck that you see is from Joanne Fabric. It was a pre-painted wooden piece. I just had to paint the roads and the sky and Mod Podge it on.
Easter is just a few days away now. I will be hosting my Parents for brunch this year. The kids baskets are all put together. I will be sure to take some pics!
On the menu is a traditional ham and a roast, some scalloped potatoes, texas style french toast and a cheddar broccoli quiche. I will also be doing a nice salad with a shrimp brushetta appetizer.
Hope all of you have a wonderful Easter!

Stuffed Car Pillow

Happy Monday everyone!
Hope all of you had a nice weekend. We had a very busy Saturday, we were invited to two first birthday parties. We got home and the kids were so wiped out. Hubby and I had made plans for a date night with friends of ours so it worked out nicely that Madison was already passed out before the sitter got here. Austin is relatively easy to put down but we just so happened to lose his pacifier at some point on Saturday so we are testing the no pacifier waters for the moment. Wish us luck!
As the countdown to Austin's first birthday continues, I have been in the planning process of changing his room over to a big boy room. Last week, I made the cars organizer bin and now this week I made him a stuffed car shaped pillow. I had originally came up with the idea while speaking with my sister in law over the phone and then decided to search the web to see if anyone else had done this before. I was hoping to see how they went about it.
I stumbled upon Noodleheads Her car pillow tutorial is excellent and she even has added a printable pattern to help you out if you aren't a great artist. Hers came out much better than mine, I am still in the learning phases of sewing but I am proud of it.
I basically followed the same steps as Noodleheads by first drawing out the car on a yellow pillow case and then cut a front and back car shaped piece.

Using the leftover fabric of the pillow case I cut out a long strip 3 inches wide. I attached one of the car piece to it and stitched along then entire perimeter. This gives the pillow a three dimensional look. Before attaching the second car piece I cut out two windows and two tires from black and white felt and stitched them in the appropriate areas. I then stitched together the final pieces and stuffed this guy with batting.
Here is the result!

I had Austin test it out, but he wasnt really into taking a nap at the moment lol