Playroom Makeover & DIY Play Kitchen

When John and I started talking about Christmas presents for the kids, we both thought it would be a fun idea to finally finish the playroom for the kids! With two kids, and Christmas coming, it's only a matter of time before the current state of the toys in the living room gets out of control. Now that Roman is getting older, he often wants to play with his toys in peace, away from Bianca who wants nothing else but to play with Roman all the time. Plus I feel like it's a right of passage to have a play room where you can spread all the toys out and make a giant mess. The best part? I can close the door and walk away :)

This room was in a pretty sad state when we started out. Bare concrete floor, wood panelling in the closet and no ceiling. Unfortunately we didn't have the time, to drywall the ceiling, but I don't think Roman will notice.

The beauty of young kids is that you can have them help with their Christmas present and they have no idea! Roman and I got a head start on the room but spending a couple of Bianca's naps painting! We didn't get it all done in one shot, but at least it's started. Then on one of John's days off, the boys started laying the same laminate flooring that we laid throughout the rest of the house during the flooring marathon. Again, didn't get it finished but it gave us a head start for today!

In an effort to finish this project before Christmas, we shipped the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a sleepover (Bianca's first!)! While John finished the flooring, I finished painting the blue and green. I had to let the paint dry for awhile before I could start the middle stripe, so while I waited I got started on the kitchen.

John and Roman had already removed the backing from the stand and cut a fridge and freezer door from a sheet of MDF. We took the doors off, and I got down to painting. We had some leftover white Valspar paint in the house, and it has really great coverage so I didn't think it was necessary to sand the stand first. It took 3 coats to cover everything, but it didn't take too long to complete because I blasted the infrared heater at it in between coats. Once it was completely dry, John installed the bowl for the sink. I had purchased a good sized round bowl from the dollar store but it was too big. Luckily, Superstore's deal of the week awhile back was a set of plastic containers. So we stole one from the set, cut a hole to fit, and glued it in. Roman ended up pulling it out in the first day in the room, so John eventually had to screw it in.

To make the burners on the stove, I traced around a bowl and painted the circles black craft paint. For the fridge door I decided to turn it into a chalk board. Chalk paint is pretty expensive but I got lucky and found some at Dollar Tree in the craft section. I wasn't sure how well it was going to work but I figured it was worth a shot. Be darned, that paint works just dandy!

I finished the kitchen about the same time as John finished up the floor, so I quickly painted the white stripe around the room and we were done! Or at least for today. Just before Christmas John installed the hinges and attached the doors to the kitchen and we filled the room with all the toys we needed to leave the living room.

The kids love the playroom, and John and I loved seeing Roman's reaction on Christmas Eve. There were a few things that I still want to do in the space. Obviously it's going to need a ceiling of some sort eventually, a window box would me nice, and I'd really like to make the closet more functional and cover it with a cool curtain. I also noticed that I forgot to paint the window onto the oven door. I'm sure we'll get to all these things eventually (hopefully before the kids are teenagers) but for now, I'm just glad that they finally have a space that is their own!

Marshmallow Christmas Tree

When it comes to Christmas decorations I have a bit of an affinity for trees. I have quite the collection going on top of our entertainment stand where we have our Christmas village that my mom sewed for us. I've purchased a couple cute ones but I like the idea of making my own. Mostly because I like inexpensive Christmas decorations and partly because I like having decorations that not everyone has in their homes. A few years ago I made a set of foam trees. With being extremely pregnant last year (and exhausted) I took a hiatus from the trees, but Roman and I are back at it this year!

Roman loves making crafts and usually requests to do it while Bianca is taking her morning nap. You'd think by now I could prepare for this kind of thing but I haven't. I have these grand plans of having everything prepped and ready to go for a craft each week but it just doesn't happen. I remembered this marshmallow ornament I had made in grade 1 or 2. I was sure I had all the supplies, but alas, I did not. In this moment, the idea of this tree was born!

Materials
Styrofoam tree form
Mini marshmallows
Sequins
Craft glue

Run a line of glue around the base of the tree form and press on each marshmallow. Alternatively you can put the glue directly on to each marshmallow. I found that running the line of glue worked better when working with a 3 year old. You'll want to stagger the rows as you continue up the tree, just to make sure you cover all, or as much as possible, of the tree form.

We let our completed tree sit for a couple hours for the glue to completely dry before we started attaching the sequins. I dabbed a small amount of craft glue onto each marshmallow and Roman stuck a sequin on top of the glue. With Roman in charge of sequins some and right side up and some aren't, and sometimes there was ever 2-4 stuck together on top of the marshmallow. We also went for a random color pattern. Not that there is really an option when you're working with kids.

In the original ornament I made when I was little we used pins, beads and sequins to hold the marshmallows to a Styrofoam ball. If you're working with older kids or doing this on your own (you lucky devil), you could use the same method on the tree and it would be that much more secure. If you have that odd ball marshmallow that just won't stick, try a bit of hot glue. I gave it a go, and other than melting a small portion of one side of the marshmallow, it did the trick.

I'd love to see how your tree or ornament turns out! Post a picture in the comments of your creation!!

Bianca's Baptism

The time finally came to have our baby girl baptized! The baptism itself was a small ceremony for just our family. Bianca worse the same gown Roman did when he was baptized. If you haven't read that post, this gown is actually made from my wedding dress. Apparently back in the day it was tradition to use the mom's wedding dress to make the baptism gown for the kids, but I had never heard of it until my dad mentioned it to me. Bianca's headband is one that I made for her to match the flowers I used in the table centre piece for the after party. Is it called an after party?

As soon as the ceremony was over Roman started trying to blow out the "happy birthday candles" from the pews. The Father was nice enough to let Roman blow out the candles, which I'm pretty sure was the highlight of his morning.

I felt a little guilty that Bianca's party wasn't as elaborate, and didn't have as many guests as Roman's did, but I actually like the way it all came together. Who says a small family get together can't be pretty and special! I'm not sure what brought on the peony theme, but once I had my heart set on it I had to make it happen. I picked up some faux peonies, burlap ribbon and pearls from Gale's Wholesale to make the centre piece for the table. I painted one of the many mason jars I have floating around the house pink and wrapped it with the ribbon and then the pearls. I had some pink and white glittered tissue paper and twine on hand, so I decided to make some tissue paper garlands for the window and Bianca's highchair. I think I'm going to hang the longer window garland over Bianca's bed to make her room look a little more girly.

B thought her garland was delicious, but not quite as delicious as her lunch! We had a pretty basic lunch of meat, cheese, buns, pickles and veggies. I realized after we started setting the table that I forgot to run the dishwasher so I didn't have enough plates for everyone. Next problem, rounding up some paper plates. Turns out we did have some on hand. However, the were leftover from Roman's construction party *face palm*. So I thought it would be fun to post a picture of how I staged the table for the pictures and how it actually looked when we sat down to eat.

Of course, no party is complete without cake! Or cupcakes in this case! I knew I wanted to do something super girly and fun for Bianca's cupcakes because I haven't made a girly cake in forever! I'm well versed in the cool boy cakes but I really miss making pretty things. So I decided to give buttercream peonies a shot. I found this video on YouTube to brush up on how to do it, then headed into the basement to find my tools. Then when the kids when down for a nap one day, I sat down with my bowl of buttercream and started piping. The first few were pretty rough and went straight into my mouth, but then I got the hang of it. I also realized that I didn't have to eat the messed up flowers and could just scrap them back into the bowl. I'm super pleased with how they turned out!

Normally I save the first cupcake for the kids' birthday but we decided to make an exception for B. Well, turns out Bianca is my daughter in more way than one. She was slightly confused by the strangely shaped food at first, but after I touched it to her lips, it was game on. She grabbed on to that cupcake and devoured it like a champ. It's proud moments like this that make me tear up a bit *tear*

All in all it was a fantastic day celebrating our amazing little girl. Now just three more months to prepare for her first birthday!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Fall is the season of pumpkins! Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin cookies; really I could go on forever. But all of delicious treats have on thing in common. Pumpkin, specifically pumpkin puree. Your first instinct is probably to pick up a can from the grocery store, but why not set your pumpkin masterpiece apart by using fresh pumpkin!

 Pumpkins are readily available right now and very inexpensive. I promise this isn't as scary or difficult as it might sound! You want to choose a pumpkin a smaller pumpkin as the larger jack-o-lantern pumpkins can be a little off in texture.

The first step, and the nastiest in my opinion, is to cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the guts. I tried to enlist Roman's help on this one but he wasn't having it. If you can't cut the pumpkin in half you can just chop it into a few pieces, it's all going to be blended anyway. Place your pumpkin pieces skin side down on a parchment lined baking sheet, and pop them into a 375° oven for 45 minutes.

Let the pumpkin cool slightly before cutting the flesh away from the skin. Or ignore this step and burn your hand like I did, it's really a matter of personal choice. I like to live on the wild side. Toss the pumpkin into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You may have to add a little water to get it to blend well. Of course Roman was more than happy to help with this part.

Now that you have your pumpkin puree you can do one of three things with it;1. Use it immediately, 2. Transfer the puree to a freezer bag and freeze it for later use, or 3. transfer it to an airtight container to use in the next few days. I decided to use some mason and jam jars to hold my puree until I can get around to making some muffins with it. I didn't have any lids kicking around so I used a layer of tin foil under the collar to seal it up.

See, that was pretty painless! Now you have some delicious, homemade puree to use in your Thanksgiving pies, tarts, cheesecakes, cupcakes, muffins, brownies, cookies.....Well, look at the time! Time for me to hit the kitchen and make some muffins!

Plan With Me - May 2015

April showers bring May flowers and they are all over my planner for May!  The more I decorate my planner pages the more I get into the grove and get a feel for how I like to decorate them.  In April I was just kind of throwing things together and hoping that it turned out well.  I also didn't have the massive collection of stickers and washi tape that I have now amassed.  Between the supplies I picked up in Bismarck and the things I picked up at Michael's recently (if you want to see a post on that let me know!), I now have what I feel is a decent collection of things to make some well coordinated pages.

Each month in the Plum Paper Planner is color coordinated, so to keep things looking harmonious I try to work with that color pallet for the monthly view.  I really wanted to use this super fun gold washi tape I found at Dollar Tree so I decided to go with a purple and gold theme this month.  I also inserted this journaling card into the monthly view so I can add little notes or "To Do" items for the month that don't necessarily have to be done on a specific day.  Or maybe it'll just sit there empty and look pretty, who knows.

 

This week is honestly my least favorite week in May as far as decorating goes.  I was still experimenting when I decorated this page and I think it shows.  I love all the elements individually, but it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it too.  Oh well, live and learn!

 



"Shine bright like a diamond!".  This is what happens when you decorate your planner while listening to the radio.  I'm pretty happy with the way this page turned out and was excited to get to use a cute cupcake and party hat sticker for Mother's Day.  I probably could have been a little more creative with the lettering but it serves it's purpose.

 

This is where it starts to get interesting!  Hello color!!  Most of the supplies from this page came from a recent shopping trip to Michael's.  I went a little hog wild because all the stickers were 60% off!  How could I not really?!  I decorated this page on a bright sunny day which transferred o the page. It's amazing how the weather can affect you without you even noticing.  I also ordered some stickers from Sweet Kawaii Design which is where the money stack sticker and "Weekly Weigh In" stickers came from.  This was the first time I didn't use scrap book paper at the bottom of the page and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.  Layering on washi allows me to customize the look and it doesn't add as much thickness to the pages. 

 

 

For this week I was inspired by some hydrangea stickers I came across in my craft room.  It also happens to go well with the purple theme of the planner for this month.  Hydrangeas are one of my favorite, if not my favorite, flower so it was fun to be able to incorporate them into this weekly spread.  

 

This last spread was completely inspired by the alligator washi tape I picked up at Dollar Tree.  Before I knew it these pages had exploded into a tropical oasis.  The stickers are also from Dollar Tree and while the foam stickers do add some bulk to the planner itself, I think it's worth it because they are so much fun!  The pink checklist on the bottom left on the page is what I'm now using to keep track of my monthly cleaning tasks like cleaning the vacuum filter and other large cleaning jobs that only happen once a month.

 

So that is what my planner looks like for the month of May.  June is a blue color scheme and I'm super excited about it because I already have a few pages planned out in my mind.  I can't wait!  Happy planning!!





Christmas Decorations 2014

John and I love Christmas and we love to decorate!  We put our decorations up right after Remembrance Day and they usually stay up until the middle of January, after Ukrainian Christmas.  Since it is the season of sharing I thought I'd take you for a tour of our decorations, along with the stories that go with them!

Let's start with my favorite, and probably the most important decoration, the tree!  I prefer an artificial tree because you can use it year after year and it doesn't shed needles.  Plus with 2 dogs, a cat and a toddler, I think a real tree might put me over the edge.  We picked up this amazing 9 foot, pre-lit tree from Superstore last year during their boxing week sale.  Would you believe we got this tree for only $14!!  If you are in the market for a tree I highly recommend looking later on in the boxing week sales, and checking out stores like Superstore that don't have to space to store the trees for the rest of the year.

At first I wasn't sold on the pre-lit tree, but now that we have one I love it.  This is the first year that divorce papers didn't need to be drawn up before we got the lights on the tree!  I also love that the lights are strung throughout the tree and not just on the edge of the branches.  I do kinda miss having multicolored lights but I guess you can't have everything.

I love having an eclectic mix of ornaments on a tree.  I've never been the kind of person that had a color scheme for the tree that the ornaments had to match.  Growing up Mom had all kinds of ornaments including ones that Selby and I had made.  Those are the ornaments that I think make a tree unique to the family and interesting.  A few of those ornaments have now made their way onto our tree.  Everyone has a "Baby's First" ornament, and I'm surprised mine hasn't disintegrated by now as old as it is.  The gold ornament was a gift from an aunt and Selby has one very similar to it. 

Roman's "Baby's First" ornament I picked up from a craft sale in town for his first Christmas.  I also made hand and foot impressions that year in salt dough.  It's a little crazy now to compare his hands and feet to these ornaments.  How did he get so big so fast?!  I'm sure it will just be a matter of time before our tree is full of paper snowflakes (like Grandma's) and marshmallow balls (like Mom's) and I really can't wait for that day!

Even the pets have made the tree!  I ordered these ornaments from Etsy over the years as our little fur family has grown.  When I ordered the ornament with Casper on it (our late puppy) I ordered one for each member of our family so we would all have Casper on our tree.  Casper was an amazing dog and he definitely deserves the honor of being placed on the tree.  Actually, Mom has two Casper ornaments!  Unfortunately the lady no longer makes the ornaments or I would have her make one of Roman.  I might have to send her a message and see if I can convince her!

Last year during the boxing week sales, Mom and I hit up a couple stores to find some good deals and I came home with a few things.  I don't normally shop at Pier1 because it can be very expensive, but boxing week is the perfect time to go!  I found a handful of beautiful ornaments for a fraction of the cost.  When I find unique items I like to pick up just one to give the tree some interest.  *TIP - when buying ornaments for a tree you want to buy 1 or in groups of 3.  This will give your tree a nice balance.

I came across these adorable clip on birds at Michael's during that same shopping trip last year.  My Mom made ornaments years and years ago from clothes pins and tiny bears and these birds reminded me of them.  The other day I came across these beautiful pine cones at Superstore when they were setting out the decorations so I just had to pick up three of them.  The rest of the ornaments were from a $25 bundle pack from Costco to help fill in the bare spots since we recently cleared out some of the more tattered/ugly ornaments that made their way onto our tree.

Onto the entertainment centre!  On the very top I have the beginning of what I hope will be a forest some day.  For now if consists of a few foam trees that I made this year and a silver tree I picked up on sale at Canadian Tire years ago.  This thing loses so much litter every year that I'm actually surprised there is any left on it.  I also have my little light up reindeer and penguin on the top shelf.  These guys are from an Avon catalogue years ago, and the only work sporadically, but they are cute none the less!

Now the nut family is actually out all year long but it does remind me of Christmas.  When Selby and I were younger we would play a game at our grandparent's house called hide the thimble.  Basically one of us would hide a thimble in the house and the other would have to find it.  You might think this would be an impossible game but it was actually extremely easy.  Why?  Because we ALWAYS hid the thimble on the walnut's hat!  We played this game all year round but something about my grandparent's makes me think of Christmas.

These three amigos used to live on the air conditioning unit in our apartment and would often get their butts frozen to the unit.  I bet they think they are flying high now!  The sparkle balls I made last year when I had all the time in the world because Roman napped three times a day and couldn't crawl.  Man those were the days!

Funny story about these angels.  I actually bought these angels two years apart at a craft sale in Regina.  I must have really liked the angel because I bought the same one twice.  What are the chances of that?  I wish I could remember the name of the booth at the sale to share with you because they always had amazing things there.  I actually picked up this moose there as well.

The elf and moose standing beside the TV were part of a boxing week bundle that we picked up at Canadian Tire years ago when John was working there.  Most or the bundle was ugly (that's where most of the ornaments that got tossed came from) but these two were worth the cost of the bundles.  We used to stand them up next to the Christmas tree but that just isn't going to work anymore with Roman running around.  Luckily he hasn't touched them once yet!

Lastly we have Pingoo and his Associates.  I'm pretty sure John is the one who named these bad boys that we found at Sears, if I remember correctly.  They light up and change colors but like most things in this house the batteries are dead and I never remember to buy more.  You would think with so many toys that take batteries we would have some somewhere.  Maybe I should ask for some for Christmas...

Hanging over each of our front windows is a giant piece of candy.  This was another project I completed last year while Roman was immobile.  They are super easy and inexpensive to make and I think they look great.  I bought a disk of Styrofoam and traced the pattern on a candy piece onto the disk.  Then I painted it, wrapped it in cellophane, twisted the ends and tied it up with some ribbon.  Viola, instant giant candies!  You could even make smaller versions for your tree!  We also have window clings on the front windows but they are a little hard to take photos of so you'll just have to trust me on that one.

The last of the indoor decorations are in the hallway.  Here I decided to flank our Christmas card holder with Roman's snowflake paintings.  The card holder was another project from last year (man alive I got a lot accomplished last year!) and it was super easy.  I found the board with Santa on it at Dollarama.  I painted it and hot glued three strips of ribbon onto the back.  At Michael's I fond some mini clothes pins that I use to pin the cards to the ribbon.

Out into the cold we go to check out the outdoor decorations!  Our display is significantly large than it was last year but we are nowhere near done growing.  We want to be the Griswolds of Moose Jaw!  John and I picked up the bow on the gate from Canadian Tire to hang from our balcony when we lived in our apartment.  We didn't really have a great place for it here so the gate is where it got stuck.  The tree silhouette was a boxing week find at Wal Mart last year.  It has a stand that allows it to sit anywhere but John didn't think it would stand up to our crazy Saskatchewan winds so we wired it to the fence to make sure we weren't retrieving it out of the neighbors yard every other day.

I actually found these cute little devils at a garage sale!  The snowman had never been taken out of the box and the penguin was only used inside.  At $5 for the pair, how do you go wrong?  The only downside is that because they are on the smaller side they tend to get stuck in the snow when the wind packs it on top of them.  Not a big deal though.  I just wanted out there and dig him out.  Roman usually gets a kick out of it.  We had the carousel last year and I was excited to see it again this year.  Unfortunately it stopped working half way through the winter last year.  I'm sure there is some way to fix it, I just haven't put that much effort into it yet.

You are seeing clearly.  We have a Christmas tree in our front yard!  This is actually the tree we used to have in our house, and the tree my Mom had for years before that.  This time we strung it with outdoor lights and zip tied the lights and ornaments to the tree.  John roped it down on two sides and it doesn't move an inch in the wind.  A house down the street from us had a tree in their yard last year so I can't take the credit for this idea.  What a great way to re-purpose an old tree!

I purchased the white wreath at a wholesale craft store last year and used twist ties to attach the ornaments and bow to it.  This year the bow broke, it was from Dollarama and I'm impressed it lasted one winter, so John just zip tied it on while he was hanging it.  The candy canes also came from the wholesale crafts store.  To stick them into the ground, John ground down some 12" spikes, heated them in the oven, and stuck them into the bottom of the candy canes.  Once the spikes were in the candy canes he just pushed them into the ground.  Not only do they tie the driveway into the rest of the yard but they make navigating the driveway in deep snow a piece of cake!

So that's the tour!  I hope you enjoyed seeing our Christmas decorations and maybe it will inspire your own display!  This is the time of year to spread kindness and cheer and restore our faith in humanity (at least it is for me).  John, Roman and myself would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy whatever you celebrate!

Craft Room Makeover

I have been waiting for this moment since we first bought our house over a year ago!  It's been sitting on the back burner since the upstairs and Roman's spaces obviously take priority over my creative lair.  Now that Roman is a little older and a lot more independent I decided it was time to get this party started!

This room has sat unused with piles of stuff everywhere since we moved in.  Once in awhile things get moved around when I need something, and the piles have slightly grown with added projects and supplies.  Roman loves doing crafts and I'd love to be able to find all of my supplies to come up with little projects for him instead of buying more stuff every time I come up with an idea.  I of course have to admit my selfishness in wanting a space where I can work on quilting, scrap booking (I'm still working on my class Europe trip from 2004), and any other fun projects I dream up,  Plus I think John has had enough of me hauling supplies onto the kitchen table.  I'm actually surprised he's lasted as many years with all my craft stuff as he has.

The room was pretty bare bones when we moved in.  The closet basically didn't exist and the color of the walls was an institutional grey - I swore I had a before photo of this room but it seems to have evaded me.  Like every other room in the house all the trim and baseboards are missing and that is a project we are going to tackle once we replace/install flooring throughout the house, or at least level by level. The carpet, while not something we would have chosen, is fairly new and in great shape, so the green monster is here to stay!

This is the one room in the house that I feel like I can stamp "GIRL!!" with a big rubber stamp so I knew I wanted a girly color for the walls.  I had originally tried to pick something that would pair nicely with the carpet, but with a house full of boys, blue, grey and green walls, I decided that just wasn't going to do.  I threw all design logic out the window and went with hot pink!  Anyone that knows me was probably a little shocked when they saw the color choice because I am not a pink girl, but I wanted a happy color that would inspire me.  Because the room is in the basement I decided to paint 3 walls white and use the pink as an accent wall.  Our basement is full of these little bulk heads that enclose the heating ducts, and while most people would be annoyed with them I actually love them!  To me they feel like beams and I knew that I wanted to accentuate the bulk head instead of trying to hide it.  What better way the accentuate it than slathering a coat of hot pink on it?  I used this same technique in our basement living room and loved the way it turned out so I just had to replicate it here.  This paint job took a whopping 4-5 months.  Not because the paint was horrible or we ran into problems, but solely because I got busy with Roman and this room was abandoned. 

Fast forward to present day and I need storage, and lots of it!  As you can tell from the piles all over the room, I have a lot of crafting and party supplies.  Probably way more than any one person needs, and I might be considered a hoarder to some, but I'm okay with it.  I decided to re-purpose a couple storage cubes that we already had in the house and turn them into a desk.  I found this idea on Pinterest, and as soon as I saw the pin I knew I could make it happen.  One cube was sitting in storage while the other was being used as a dresser of sorts for Roman.  Now that Roman has his own dresser that I revamped for him, I decided to nab his cube.  I purchased a table top from IKEA when we were visiting Trellyn and her family in Alberta (IKEA you NEED to come to Saskatchewan!!!).  John sunk a few screws into the table top and voila, a craft table for around $100.  It may seem like a lot but look at all the awesome storage!

 

On top of the desk I have two lazy susans, one for scissors and one for pens, glue and other random stuff.  I also have a basket that houses my one true love when it comes crafting, my glue gun.  There is nothing you cannot do with a glue gun in hand!  The wireless speaker from out kitchen has also made it's way onto the table right beside one of our wedding favor glasses filled with the pheasant feathers from my wedding bouquet.  One of these days I will find a project worthy of these feathers!  The Roman (the group of people, not the kid) looking vase was a score from Value Village that I plan on doing something to soon.  In the mean time I popped a few flowers in it.  The smaller ones are actually made from wire and almost a stocking material.  They are super cool and I love them, plus they are from my first trip to Toronto to visit John! Aww....

I positioned the table in the centre of the room because I've always wanted a desk in the centre of the room (I'm not sure where that strange desire comes from), and it will make cutting and moving fabric for quilting much easier.  Where ever you decide to place your table take into account where your light is coming from and where you will be sitting.  If the light is behind where you sit, you will always have a shadow where you are working which can be extremely frustrating.  The lighting isn't the best in this room, again because it's in the basement, so I knew I wanted to have a light on my work table to cut down on the shadows even more.  To avoid extension cords running across the floor for Roman to grab onto, I decided to run the cord up the wall and through the t-bar ceiling and then down onto my table.  Let's hope this keeps Roman from ripping the pretty lamp from Wal-Mart off the table.  I found this super comfy stool at Home Depot and I really like the way the black chair anchors the table.

The next adventure was the closet storage system.  I purchased this Closet Maid kit (plus a few extra pieces) from Lowes for $200 which was a great deal!  I compared prices at Home Depot, and to purchase a similar system piece by piece would have cost nearly $300!  I have never in my life installed something like this but I figured it couldn't be too hard.  Boy was I wrong.  Granted I think it was more the materials I was provided with that caused the problems and not my building competency.  Luckily John came to my rescue and solved all my problems.  The top rail is secured to the drywall with butterfly anchors and each vertical rail has two screws anchored into the drywall as well, making it nearly bomb proof or at least hopefully toddler proof!  I also picked up this neat hanging basket which adds more storage without needing to add more holes to the wall.  Plus I can move it around depending on where it will work best.  Most of the plastic storage stands I either already had or I inherited when Mom cleaned out her craft room.  Hey, if these are the things people are getting rid of I will gladly take them!

No makeover, or any project for that matter, would be complete in my house without something from the dollar store.  All of the bins, baskets and tubs are from Dollar Giant or Dollarama.  The super cute black tiles hanging on the wall are also from Dallarama.  Art for $6, why not?!  The paper lanterns I originally purchased second hand for our wedding.  I made sure to keep a few after the wedding because I knew I wanted to hang them in our house some day.  Now that I have my very own space, I can't wait to get down to business and create some amazing things!

DIY Dresser Makeover

Looking at this photo your probably thinking "Why would you make over such a gorgeous dresser Kendra?".  Okay, maybe not.  I will be the first to admit that this dresser isn't much to look at.  It was however, free!  You read me right, FREE!  I came across this gem in the fall on a local buy & sell Facebook page.  I had been looking for a dresser for Roman as he is quickly growing out of the current system I have set up for him.  When this diamond in the rough came up I jumped on it in a hot minute.  John thought it was pretty ugly when he went to pick it up but he knew I could turn it into something pretty and useful.

The first thing to keep in mind when attempting a project like this is to pick a dresser that works.  I personally have no experience fixing the actual working parts of a dresser so I made sure to pick one that was just ugly.  Ugly can always be fixed!  The selling feature for me was the draw pulls.  They were originally gold with a flower pattern painted on them.  Not the most appealing design but the shape of them was great.  Like I said, ugly can be fixed.  Let the project begin!

I know your probably jealous of my amazing work table.  You too can build your very own!  I took my two planters and laid an IKEA table top on top of them.  This is the table top that eventually made it's way to my craft room in a recent Follow Us Friday and is now part of my craft table.

 

I started by removing all the hardware from the dresser.  I was a little worried the draw pulls were going to be glued down.  Luckily they weren't, so after removing the screws they fell right off.  There was only one knob in the top drawer so that saved me some time.  To be truthful all I had to do was touch it and it basically fell off.  To give the pulls a new life I decided to spray paint them.  I used a silver Rust-Oleum paint with a metallic finish.  I built a make shift spray tent out of a diaper box.  This keeps the pain from drifting all over the garage and attaching to other objects.  I like to do multiple thin coats so that I don't have bubbles form in the paint.  Always remember to spray paint in a well ventilated area!

Once the pulls were painted I moved on to sanding the dresser.  I started with the drawers and used and fine grit sandpaper to scuff up the original paint.  This will allow the paint to stick to the dresser without having to prime.  I honestly have no idea who grit the sandpaper was, I just came across a few random sheets in the garage so that's what I used.  I LOVE Valspar paint for Lowes!  We used it in our Bathroom Makeover as well as the rest of our house.  The best part of this paint is it only needs one coat!  I have yet to find a color that needs more than one color, which makes painting a breeze.  I decided to use white for 2 reasons.  1. I already had a can of it on hand, and 2. white furniture will go with any theme room Roman has for the next several years.  This paint isn't tinted at all so it is the white color out of the can.

I started using a brush to paint with but I didn't like the streaks I was getting, so I decided to switch to a roller.  I'm not nearly as good with a roller as I am a brush (I usually do the cutting when we paint while John rolls) so I ended up doing a couple coats to cover up my mistakes.  If your more skilled with a roller than I you can probably get away with one coat.

All that is left to do is reattached the pulls and add some knobs.  The knobs I picked up from Lowes on a previous shopping trip and had planned to use them on another project but I decided to snag them for this one.  Older dressers are made of thinner wood so the knobs sag a big because the screws are too long.  On my next trip to the hardware store I'll pick up some shorter ones, but for now they will work.

 

I'm extremely happy with how this dresser turned out!  You would never guess by looking at it now how ugly it was to start with!  This entire makeover cost around $50, most of which is the cost of the knobs, since I already had the paints on hand.  This dresser should be able to grow with Roman for a few years which gives me a great bang for my buck!