Shelf Building

 So I built a shelf to run up high on the wall next to her bed during her room make over. If you have a kid you know all the toys, collectibles and special items they get to be displayed. It's not that difficult to build a shelf with power tools and experience using them. So here it is... just not stained yet. I have built countless numbers of wall shelves because I get the exact size and width I want. I also get to choose the color or stain. The one big advantage is the price. It is cheaper to build then buy. I spent about $15.00 on this shelf 5ft. long and 8 inches wide.

Addicted to crafting and saving a buck or two.

If you truly know me then you know I love to craft and my daughter has blessed me by opening a door into a different world of crafting and I'm love it!!! It's called girly, adorable and cute. I love to shop but saving a buck has become a new thing for me. Maybe because I no longer have a full time job and that income but I traded in for a good cause to be a stay at home Mother and it's totally worth it. I love the natural high and pride I get with a deal/ steal (I do not go around stealing just a term) and anything that is cute, cheap and I can purchase cheap and use it to create something adorable, new or functional  I'm all in. The target dollar bins...it's like Christmas for me! I have even copied and made ideas I have seen from other stores, magazines and from other blogs. Just a Little Susie homemaker but wait...I bet Little Susie homemaker never owned power tools like mine. I can pretty much make or build anything I put my mind too. I even love to take things and reinvent their use. Baby crib into a bench or a dresser into a coffee table or bookshelf. My favorite is a latter into a trellis. I love my power tools. I also love a challenge. I love to dabble in just about any kind of craft area. I wish I had a picture of me using my power tools to post with this.

Kaitlyn's room make over at a savings!

Kaitlyn's room was different shades of pink for the first 3 years of her life. I thought it would be a nice change to go with a new color or colors. The search was on for a decent quilt that would lay out the foundation of the room. Love Pottery Barn Kids quilts but $200.00 dollar price tag for just a quilt was not what I wanted to spend. So I finally found a quilt I liked from JC Penny's and it was different w/ dark brown, yellow, teal, hot pink, orange and light pink flowers all over it. I loved it!!! Being dark brown in color and since most quilts I looked at where white I figured it would not look dirty so quickly as white would in a kids room. So this was the beginning of the new room but wait it was on back order until the end of May and this was the being of March. I wanted to get the quilt before making any major decisions.
1. To make sure I liked it  2. to pick out my color pallet better.
My mom offered to buy the quilt, a set of matching shames and a decorative pillow as a gift for Kaitlyn since she was so proud to be in a real big girls bed. Which was fine with me because I already new I had so much more to purchase. So we watched the quilt and waited for it to go on sale from $179.00 to $90.00 then had it shipped to the local JC Penny's store and used a $10.00 coupon so not to bad in price. Then the decorative pillow 30.00 each but on sale for $25.00 each ordered them separate, shipped to store and used 2 more $10.00 coupons and the only other thing we liked was the one teal decorative pillow $30.00 on sale for $25.00 and used another $10.00 coupon. So when all said and done not so bad with the sale and savings about 140.00 for quilt, 2-shames and decorative pillow. Then the bad news it's on back order to the end of May here we go again. To my surprise everything arrived the following week and I liked the quilt, shames and decorative pillow even better now then what it looked like on the computer screen. Now time for paint. I picked a blueish /teal color for the lower walls and was hoping to keep the antique white for the upper wall so the lighter color w/ the darker color would not make the room look smaller. Took everything down and out to make room to paint. Bought my paint & Prep work. Time to paint. The bottom of the walls painted blueish/ teal.


Blueish teal w/ antique white upper walls.


Well I was not planning on painting the entire room but the blueish/ teal did not look right w/ that antique white. So back to the paint store for bright white.

So here is the upper walls w/ the bright white and I loved the way it looked w/ the blueish/ teal. It's hard to see a great difference due to the picture quality.

So now I wanted to add another shelf to house all the collectibles and keepsakes Kaitlyn has. So I'm sorry but to buy a shelf is easy but the cheapest is to build. So I built a shelf and stained it to match Kaitlyn's bedroom furniture. I had to build a shelf for my sister so when u have more then one to build it's worth it. A cheap 36" unfinished shelf bought at Pat Catan's would cost about $15.00 bucks. My shelves are 5ft. long and 8" wide just the right size to hold just about anything.

This is the shelf  before it was stained but in the picture above and the pictures of the finished room you will see what it looks like stained.

So now I needed curtains and the cheapest way is make your own. I made 2 Valences out of Hot Pink which matched the hot pink flowers on the quilt. Total cost: $8.00 used a 50% off coupon so $4.00 + tax. I couldn't even buy 2 Valences finished at any retail store for that price.

Picture of the Hot pink Valence. Now I need to long side drapes?





 Now since Kaitlyn's bed sits up so high their left a huge gap underneath the bed which is great for some long thin plastic totes but who wants to see that. I had a roll of sticky back Velcro which I used to stick to the under side of the bed frame and made a custom bed skirt w/ Velcro attached to hide what's under the bed. Extra storage is always a plus!!! Well the cost of my home made custom bed skirt $30.00 w/ 50% off coupon $15.00 + tax. Not bad I would of paid anywhere from $25.00 -$40.00 for a bed skirt finished at any retail store.

Bed w/ out bed skirt.

Completed bed skirt.

So what's left... some wall decor, lamp shade, long drapes for the windows, flower canopy and material runner for her dressers.

I fell in love with the Pottery Barn Kids flower canopy but at $100.00- $150.00 dollar price tag no thanks. I had a castle canopy I used before and decided to give it a make over.

Pottery Barns flower canopy.



The old castle canopy.



This is my flower canopy but it looks much nicer in person.


I loved the way my flower canopy turned out. It is not as full w/ tulle as Pottery Barn Kids but I love it. So does Kaitlyn. Next I need side drape panels for the windows. What color? Thought I would go w/ orange and pull another color from the flowers on the quilt but at JoAnn's I fell in love with this buttercup yellow which matched one of the flowers and after I made my Drapes I was very happy w/ the decision. Drapes total cost: $ 30.00 + 50% off coupon $15.00 + tax for 4 drapes beat that.


This what my drapes look like finished in buttercup yellow.

 I like the way the room is starting to come together. Kaitlyn loved every new thing that was added to her room and she really felt involved + special. Here is free labor and her in involvement. Getting her involved was great.

Kaitlyn getting involved in her room make over.

The next few pic's is where I'm at now. I still want to add a few more decor items and runners for the dressers. Here are a few decor items we found and liked. The butterflies and flower from Hobby Lobby w/ 40% off like $2.00 bucks a piece. We made the flower pom poms after seeing them on a how to blog. Easy and cheap I had the tissue paper- so basically Free. We are making a small banner w/ all the colors from the quilt to hang. I also bought a cheap white lamp shade and hot glued a flower and butterfly to it simple and once again cheap. Moved the original shelf we had in Kaitlyn's room up and hung a mirror underneath. Mirror $30.00 home depot.

This shows Kaitlyn's new quilt, flower canopy, wall decor from Hobby Lobby and new shelf.

You can see the long buttercup yellow drapes, tissue paper pom- poms we made and the white lamp shade w/ the flower & butterfly we hot glued to it for piazzas!

This is the shelf we moved up on the wall and the new mirror. Sorry my mirror looks a little fogged in this picture. I took the picture on a angle so I would not show up in the mirror.

Just a better view of the new bed quilt, canopy, w/ the buttercup yellow drapes and hot pink valence.

So I'll keep everyone posted to any new updates we made. Hope I inspired you to take on a cost saving project of your own. So total cost about $250.00 which is not bad.

Big Girl Bed!

So last January 2010 we decided it was time for Kaitlyn to go from a crib to a big girl bed. She had just turned 2 and lucky for us her crib turned into a full size bed. So we went out shopping for mattresses. Well we purchased a mattress set and when we put her bed up no kidding it was about 3 ft off the ground. I was worried about the height & so was my Husband. So we decide to put the bed up against the wall and drop the mattress down on the ground which they fit right between the frame and used a 1/2 rail on the open side. It was great because we now were able to lay w/ her and when she would wake up here and there at night do to a bad dream we could crawl in bed with her until she went back to sleep and be comfortable. Better then the chair.
So I wanted to update Kaitlyn's room too but could not find a quilt or comforter that I liked or that was not on back order for 6 months. I ended up just picking up pink sheets, comforter, blankets until I made my decision. Well I finally got on the ball this year 2011 since Kaitlyn graduated from the 1/2 rail and she was safe in the bed for it to be raised back up to it's real position. So Kaitlyn's room make over was on and I was going to pick a quilt or comforter this time to create the room around.

Pictures of my daughter's nursery

This is my daughter's nursery.

Here is another view of the nursery.

I loved how everything came together.

Never did like how the TV looked.

Busy, Busy and Busy!!

Sorry, I have not undated my blog lately but I've been busy! So I work here and there for CPI but I'm mostly a stay at home mom but when needed at the portrait studio I go for the extras hours and a little extra cash goes a long way. So I was needed their for a while. I also enjoy photography and capturing memories for others and my own daughter as well. I also have been updating my daughter's room and almost have it completed. I will post picture in My Daughter's room make over.

St. Partick's Day Chair Backer

As I promised in my obsessed with the Pottery Barn Kids Chair Backers I would post a picture of the St. Patrick's Day chair backer I had create for St. Patrick's Day when I finished it. So here it is!

St. Patrick's Day chair backer I made 2011!

Traditions- St. Patrick's Day

I say it every month Traditions are important in any family. Traditions we remember, we are proud of, we carry on and become our most fond memories. St. Patrick's Day-Tradition fun and family related. We spend as much of the day as we can together as a family.  My saying is this "Holidays are just an excuse to get together with the ones we love, eat great food and share past, present and make future memories along with laughter" and this is fine with me. I look forward to it monthly.
St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year will start for us on Sunday, March 13th at 1pm at the local St. Patrick's Day Parade! We love it and always pray for good weather. My daughter and cousin Garret have a blast even the adults have a shamrock of a time!! We always wear our Lucky Irish best. I'll post some pic's from last year at the end.
We have are countdown to St. Patrick's Day advent calendar we just made this year to help get us ready for the big day! Then comes Wednesday night the 16th of March when we will bake shamrock green cupcakes and decorate them, make green chocolate shamrock suckers, Irish chocolate cake (he! he!) and cut up all the cabbage for the major cook off on Thursday 17th St. Patrick's Day. By the 17th of March the green blood is flowing threw our veins and we are ready to celebrate!!! I' ll have the family over for corn beef & cabbage sandwiches. So... good Mmmmmmmmmm... after a full day cooking in my crock pot w/ beer. I like to serve it with Toasted Texas Toast, Thousand island dressing and cheese, potato's of course and I do a cabbage, carrot onion tons of butter and noddle dish (some call it Haluski) OK, not so Irish but it's good. Homemade bread and of course chocolate on chocolate cake and we make it Irish. Oh I think I forgot the favorite part for the adults green beer...No just Killian's. The kids get to enjoy the green cupcakes.
 I have to carry on the traditions from my childhood like green toilet water and green milk. If Kaitlyn seems interested this may be the year we make our first Leprechaun trap!! So much fun!! Leprechaun's always leave gold chocolate coins behind!!! Woo Hoo!!! I also always have for Kaitlyn special Leprechaun pajamas for St. Patrick's Day night and a St. Patrick's shirt to wear St. Patrick's Day to add to the festivities. She has her St. Patrick's Day chair backer I fill with goodies for some fun St. Patrick's Day morning!  We always do a St. Patrick's Day craft! We will make cards for close family and friends w/ her St. Patrick's picture in it. We will pass out are cards with the homemade green chocolate shamrock suckers we made when we go visiting or to family that comes to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with us. We get to wear green, and funny accessories. St. Patrick's Day has always been a day of fun and excitement w/ the ones we love. Who would want... to be a few sheets to the wind... singing Irish Eyes...are Smiling or Oh Danny Boy with out your family by your side. This is what my daughter will have fond memories of. This is what she'll carry on. Traditions are nothing with out a good sense of humor, imagination and FAMILY and FRIENDS to share it with! So give it a try with your family... it just might become a tradition in your home as well. So like any holiday my family has our Traditions.



Garret and Kaitlyn at the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010!



This is the St. Patrick's Day chair backer I made!

This is the magnetic countdown to St. Patrick's Day calendar we made this year 2011!



Hard to see the green lights on the St. Patrick's Day tree we put up!!



St. Patrick's Day

So with Valentine's Day 2011 behind us it's on to St. Patrick's Day 2011.  I have to say that St. Patrick's Day is my second favorite holiday. My favorite holiday being HALLOWEEN. Of course we start out taken down Valentine's Decor and replacing it w/ St. Pat's decor. Large Shamrock wreaths on the front/ back door, change out my welcome candles from red to green bulbs, hanging light up shamrock's in the front windows, Large light up shamrock in my big back picture window, changing the outdoor flag to St. Pat's and small little decor threw out the house. I all most forgot about the St. Patrick's tree. I love St. Patrick's Day it might have to do w/ the Irish blood in my veins.

This is Kaitlyn in her St. Patrick's best 2011.