Phinehas Year One “Baby Book”

For Phinehas’ “Baby Book”, I wanted to do a special scrapbook album for his first year.  I do it digitally and order it when done.  Well, it’s done and I’ve just hit Submit on the printing of it, so I should have it in a few days!

Now, I’m not the best scrapbooker.  I’m not the best graphic designer.  But I’ll trade “memories documented well enough” instead of waiting for my skills to be perfect.

Know what makes it so easy? PicMonkey.com.  I’ve raved about it before, but seriously, it’s one of the greatest things ever.  It makes collages so super easy to put together.  Just upload pictures and bang!  you’ve got a collage!

And I get my books printed through winkflash.com.  Every so often, they have a “Flat Rate” special – basically, you can order up to 100 page book for the price of 20 pages.  So I just wait for one of those to come along.  While I wait, I do a few pages, upload them and start my scrapbook project.  When I’m done, I wait.  When they have the special, I order it.  I just ordered an 8×8 book with 68 pages for $23.94 (including shipping & handling) instead of the $70+ it would normally be.  LOVE IT!

I wish there was an easy way to show you the end result, but I can’t think of a way.  And really, it would probably bore you anyway.  So, here’s just a few of the pages (put into a slide show):

**Note: I’m not an affiliate of any of these places – don’t get paid a dime to tell you how cool I think they are.  I just think they’re cool and that they make my life easier.

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What I’ve been busy doing!

Since it’s clear that I haven’t been busy blogging, what have I been busy doing?  Beyond just living life, there has been a project taking up much of my time.

It’s a card table playhouse, destined to be a birthday gift for my niece who is turning 2 this month (Phinehas shares her birthday – just 1 year apart!).

Time spent cutting fabric and sewing: 3 hours
Time spent researching and dreaming and hoping and praying: countless

Some forts that inspired me:

Nothing Fancy

Such a simple way to do it - bedsheet and frills that girls would love.

She even has an easier way of doing doors:

Confession of a Craftaholic’s Fort

This one is so doable!  And would still provide lots of fun.  And she just uses a bedsheet…what’s easier than that?

Homemade By Jill’s Felt Playhouse

This is the mother of all felt houses that I found.  It has it all!  Door, trim, garden, dog, flowers, mailbox, you name it – she’s got it!

With a little dog on the back:

And an apple tree….

And a garden:

Etsy Fun!

And if you go to Etsy, there is tons more inspiration!

Miss Pretty Pretty’s Train Station

(and tons others too – outer space, mermaid manor, car wash, cupcake shop,  etc)

BellaFabric even sells the template!

Sowing Mama’s School Bus

So many decisions to make as part of this project!  Holy buckets!

Felt? Or cotton fabric?  (Fabric was my choice for the base.  Felt my choice for decorations.)
What size bedsheet?  Queen?  King?
What size card table?  Is my sister’s the same size as mine or is it smaller/bigger?
Will the door open?  Pull up by ribbons?  Swing forward or upward, held in place with velcro?
Windows?  How many?  What size?  Just a hole in the tent?  Or covered with mesh?  Or covered with clear plastic?  Should the windows have curtains?
Flowers?  Around the bottom?  How about a window box of flowers?
Decorate the back?  With a garden?  With a puppy?  Apple tree?
Mailbox?  On the front?  Side?
Will I put trim on the house?  Just the front?  All sides?  Straight edge or scalloped? 

In the end, here’s what it is coming down to….
How many skills do I really have?
How much time do I really want to spend on this?

The more I’m around kids, the more I realize that you can spend ALOT more time on something, but it might only mean just a LITTLE bit more in enjoyment.  My time might be better served somewhere else!

So I’m keeping it simple.  And praying that she likes it.  After all, she doesn’t have pinterest, so she doesn’t know how much cooler it could be!

 

When I finally get it done (getting closer), you’ll be (one of) the first to know!

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Project: Toy Storage

I built something!  I built something!  I really built something!

(Okay, mostly Jeff built something, BUT I made all the plans and got the wood cut and got the right wood screws and handed him the drill bits when he needed them and painted it when it was done and bought the bins and painted the letters and installed the letters…so that counts, right?!  Right.)

Anyway, I decided to make this kind of toy storage thing – inspired by I Heart Organizing’s.  She used an IKEA bookcase.  But I don’t have an IKEA.  And I didn’t want to pay the money for shipping.  So I built it myself!  (Okay, Jeff-self).  Originally, I was going to put a cushion on top of it to make it a true bench, but then I realized that would cause people to bonk their heads on the little “ledge” that’s right above it.  That’s just mean.  And it’s one more thing for little ones to pull off, so I didn’t do that.

This isn’t a perfect project.  The flaws:

• I hadn’t planned on doing a back to it, but when the nice Lowes man told me that I had enough wood from my 4×8 foot piece to do one, I said sure!  But then I had him cut the back piece an inch too shallow.  It works, but it isn’t perfect.
• I wish my bins were a just a tad bit bigger, but I liked the color and durability of these.  And I didn’t want bins that were a perfect fit since that isn’t as toddler friendly.
• We did split the wood in a couple of places – luckily no where super visible, but next time, I think I’ll go with thicker wood since I think I’d like that look better anyway.

The steps:

1. Get your wood cut.  The top and bottom was 60 inches long by 15 inches wide by 1/2 deep.  The ends and “dividers” were 15 inches tall by 15 inches wide too, of course.  The back should have been 60 inches long by 16 inches wide.
2. Assemble it.  We put the sides on first, then the top.  Then the dividers.  Then the back.
3. Wood putty it up.  We countersunk the wood screws, so I wood puttied the screw holes and sanded them when dry.
4. Paint it.  It took a couple of coats with a paint brush and a small roller.
5. Put felt on the bottom.  Since this was going on hardwoord floors, I just hot glued white felt onto the bottom to minimize scratches.
6. Spray paint letters.
7. Attach letters.  More hot glue.  (I think that will hold.)
8. Put in bins and put toys in bins.

Photos from the process:

The room before

Box with sides and a top.

Adorable child who may have been told no.

Much happier!

Almost finished! The safest place for Phinehas to watch.

Phinehas testing it out. But that isn’t a toy — that’s a paint roller!

Time to Play!

Total cost:  About $50 in wood, wood screws, felt, letters, spray paint and white paint.  Some of that (felt and white paint), I already had, but if I would’ve had to buy it, then it would come up to about that.

Total time: About 5 naptimes/bedtimes!  We constructed most of it during one nap time, finished it during the next day naptime.  Painting I had to do at night or during long naps since there’s no way I can keep his 9-month-old hands off of it!

I’m not sure that I’m done yet.  Right now, we still have one of those big plastic toy bins on the other side of the room.  It’s empty right now, but I can see myself needing something “just dump it in” friendly.  If that’s the case, I think I’ll build a little toy chest thing to match!  And we don’t have any book storage yet, so that need some attention.

But I’m very happy with the way it turned out.  And I’m very happy that I tried it – even if it wouldn’t have turned out, I’m glad I tried!

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Making a Playroom Inside A Living Room

Now that the decision has been made to house our toys in the living room, I have to figure out what that actually looks like.

The problem:
I don’t want to lose the fact that it’s still our living room. It’s the first room you see when you walk into the house.  Right next to it is our kitchen, but since our kitchen table really only fits the 3 of us, we don’t do much entertaining upstairs on the main floor. Instead, we use our basement since it has a table that can hold many more people for dining as well as several couches for seating.

So, I have a combination living room/playroom situation that I’m looking at.  Not just a living room.  Not just a playroom.  It’s a combo room!

The layout:
It’s a fairly decent sized room, but there are many limitations.  One wall has the front door.  One wall has the doorway to the kitchen.  Another wall has the hallway leading to the bedrooms.  I can’t disrupt the traffic flow.

There are also windows on 2 of the walls that I don’t want to block. There isn’t any lighting in the room except for lamps on the end tables that are controlled by an outlet, so I need to keep those where they are. I’m not interested in having someone install ceiling lighting installed.

The possibilities:
I don’t want to buy new couches and end tables – I like what we have and I don’t want to spend that much money.  Basically, I’m looking at possibly re-arranging furniture and adding in something to store toys.

Some things that I’m considering:

Toy Chest

What I like: We have one of these toy chests as a hand-me-down. I could just use that for storing the toys. So, cost: FREE! and it holds bigger toys as long as you can fit them into there.
What I don’t like: There isn’t any organization to the toys. They’re all just in a big box. And it isn’t very attractive. I’m also concerned since I can see little ones being rough with the lid and damaging the walls.

Wall of Storage Bins

What I like: I could build the compartments as big as I needed to. I could paint the fronts to match the colors that I’m already using in the living room.

Bookcases With Cute Storage

What I like: Bookcases are easy to come by. And I could build storage crates fairly easily and paint them to again, match the colors that I’m already using.

Bench With Storage

What I like: Seating and storage all into one! We’d probably have to build it (she used Ikea bookshelves), but the beauty of that is that we could do whatever length we wanted.

Anyone do anything clever?

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I’ll Never: Forget to Make A Pilot Hole

I like to think of myself as handy around the house, but I’m not.  Not really.  But I like to be able to hang my own curtains and blinds and pictures without having to ask Jeff to help me.

When we moved into this house, I put up curtains, but I couldn’t get the screws for the rods into the wall right.  Even using the cordless drill, they just wouldn’t go in!  Then my husband educated me on using a screw to do a pilot hole first.  And let me tell you, it makes a world of difference!  It went from “practically impossible” to “done in 30 seconds”.  Now I really don’t have to make him help me!  In fact, I hung up some more curtains this past week and I didn’t have to get him involved at all.  It’s so nice to not have to add to his “To Do” List when I don’t have to!

 

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Staining Oak Bathroom Cabinets

Long time ago (almost a year ago), I thought out loud on here that I wanted to do something different with my kitchen and bathroom cabinets, but nothing felt right.  Not staining them.  Not painting them.  I asked your opinion.  11 of you responded with the majority saying to paint them.

Well, I didn’t.  In fact, I didn’t do anything.  Until last month.  I found a tutorial via pinterest and it finally felt right.  At least right for my bathroom.  I’m still undecided about my kitchen.  I still hesitate to put paint on perfectly good cabinets (and I don’t know if I have the skill to do so).  And I still hesitate to stain kitchen cabinets in case I accidentally go too dark in a smaller kitchen.

So I just did the bathroom.  I figured if I messed it up, it’s a cheaper fix to swap out 1 vanity and 1 cabinet than to mess up a whole kitchen.  But I like it!  A big difference for a little money!

I used Monica Wants It instructions and it worked great.  Some notes:

• I found the stain locally here in Omaha.  Was a little bit more expensive than ordering from Amazon, but I didn’t have to pay shipping.
• The gel stain is awesome!  I’ve worked with traditional liquid stain before and this was so, so, so nice.  The stain goes where you tell it to!
• I didn’t need to use the foam brush like she did.  I found that my finger nail was small enough to get into the cracks.
• I didn’t use the painter’s stands just because I didn’t have any.  So, it did take me longer since I had to do the fronts, let it dry, flip them over and do the backs.
• I didn’t use gel polyurethane – instead I used normal liquid stuff.  Turned out okay, but I went too glossy. That’s my big regret.

I would totally do this again!  (In fact, I think my sister has plans to try it out in her kitchen…)

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In praise of picmonkey

Have you heard of picmonkey?  Are you using it?  I’m loving it!

It’s a website where you can upload pictures and make changes to them.  What I love is that you can upload pictures and make collages out of them.  What I love most is that it is totally free!  It really has made making Phinehas’s baby book so much easier!  I just upload pictures, pick a format for the pictures to be in and drag-n-drop them into the slots.

For example, each week, I take a picture of Phinehas on Thursdays (the day of the week he was born on.)  I figured at the end of the year, I could make a neat collage.  But why wait a year?  He recently turned 24 weeks old, so I had 24 pictures.  I made a collage out of that!

Step 1: Take your pictures and put them on your computer.

Step 2: Upload them to picmonkey.com

Step 3: Pick your collage type.  (This one was Tile Border).

Step 4: Drag and drop the pictures to where you want them.

Step 5: Change the size of the picture – if you want.

Step 6: Save the file and print it where ever you want!

Here’s what your browser will look like as you’re doing your editing…

Here’s what it will look like when you’re all done!

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Pinterest-Inspired Bathroom

I really do think that Pinterest has done more to help me be a decent despot of my oikos than just about anything.  It can be a treasure trove of decorating ideas, recipes, tips and hints that are just downright useful.  Take, for instance, my bathroom.

Hooks instead of a towel rack

When we moved back into this house (I bought this house 10+ years ago, lived here, turned it into a rental, met & married Jeff and now moved back in), I wanted to get rid of the shower doors.  And thus, the towel rack that was on it.  Instead of having a towel rack, I wanted hooks in there.  I kind of think that they’ll be more kid-friendly, but, really, I just like the way that they look.

So I found a fun hook at Target.  I’m guessing it’s meant to be for coats, but in my house?  In my house, it’s for towels.

From far away:

Up Close:

Easy to Hang Towels

Jeff doesn’t use those towels though.  He discovered that I we owned a green bath sheet.  It doesn’t really go with the bathroom color scheme AND it doesn’t fit on the hooks really well (it’s too long), so he’s always hung it on a hook behind the door.  The problem?  The towel likes to fall down when the door opens & closes.  Which means it sits on the floor.  Which means it looks messy.  Which also means it doesn’t dry.  Who likes a messy-looking bathroom and a wet towel?  Not us.

So I cut a little notch out of it.  And sewed it back on as a hook about 1/2 way across the top.  Now it hangs on the hook perfectly!  I’m considering “re-do”-ing and putting hooks about 1/3 of the way from each side…that might help the towel dry even better.  In the meantime, we’ll try it this way.

From Far Away:

From Up Close:

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Best Cleaning Tip Ever!

Our shower, until like 20 minutes ago, was gross.  I’ve scrubbed it and scrubbed it.  I’ve used chemical after chemical on it.  But, alas, it still was gray-ish.  Not my favorite color for a tub.  So much so that I thought I’d have to do something MAJOR if/when it came time to sell the house.

So I tried this tip found on Pinterest.  (Pin it here.)  OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!  SWEETNESS IN A SCRUB!  It took almost no time at all.

• Mixed the solution (1 cup of Dawn and 1 cup of Vinegar) – I didn’t even put it in a spray bottle, just a regular old Tupperware bowl
• Poured into the tub
• Mixed it around with a washcloth
• Scrubbed for 30 seconds
• Let it sit on there for an hour
• Came back.  Ran the shower for 2 minutes to rinse it all away.
• PEARLY WHITE again!

The tools:

It hasn’t been this clean since I bought the house 10 years ago!  Scratch that - it wasn’t even this clean then!  We have a guy coming on Friday to remove the grout and re-grout all the tile.  I’ll be in shower heaven then!  It’ll be like a whole new bathroom…

I didn’t take a BEFORE picture.  (2 reasons — wasn’t sure I wanted the grossness captured for the interwebs and I wasn’t sure this would really work).  So you just get an AFTER picture.  Trust me when I say that this was awesome.  If it wasn’t, would I really tell you that my tub was gross before?

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Project: Dresser Enhanced!

In our nursery, we don’t have a changing table per-se.  Instead, I took an old (32+ years old) dresser, painted it, put new hardware on it and dubbed it a changing table.  The only problem is that there wasn’t a great place for diapers and wipes.  We had been putting them in the upper drawer, which was fine for the diapers since they lay nice and flat in there, but it didn’t work at all for the wipes.  The container was too tall, preventing the drawer from actually closing.  Which not only looked funny, but was a sharp edge that I often ran into in the middle of the night!

So, my father-in-law made me a box.  Nothing fancy – just using extra wood he had in his garage.  I gave him the demensions, he made it, then I painted it and screwed it onto the side of the dresser.  Now we can close the drawer, but still have supplies on hand!  So thrilled with it!

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