What started with a little rocket to hold Tsum Tsums became a room transformation for J. Besides his Tsum Tsum holder, here is how I updated J’s room this summer…
Last day of school project
Yesterday was J’s last day of 3 year pre-K! He has grown so much this year (and not just in height). He can count to forty, knows all of his letters, and can tell us lots of stories from The Bible! He LOVES school and much of that is because of his wonderful teacher this year. I’m so thankful for the program that J has been a part of and I can’t believe next year will be his last year of pre-K.
As it was his last day of school, I decided to forgo my usual lesson planning in the morning and tackle a project I’ve been planning that would be more difficult to accomplish with him at home! We have two bar stools in our kitchen:
Obviously this is not our kitchen. And obviously I need to pressure wash our drive way. However, that’s besides the point. My parents gave these stools to us when they moved and they are great function wise, but the color doesn’t match our kitchen. At first I decided to just buy new bar stools, so I headed to Target and picked up two. A showed me how immediately he could easily tip them over just trying to get on the stool. Thus, we returned them immediately. I then started looking elsewhere, but really didn’t want to spend $300-500 dollars on a bar stool.
While at Hobby Lobby I picked up this paint:
I had read about it here and decided to give it a try. The 8 oz jar was more than enough to paint both bar stools (with two coats). You only need to lightly sand (if it’s finished) the furniture and you don’t need a sealant.
I collected a few more tools that I already had on hand:
I did the first coat:
The main issue I had was there are a lot of nooks and crannies with the stools, so I had to use the brush to get in different corners and then smooth it out with the small roller. I used really light coats. You want to avoid glopping it on because then it will bubble up (something I’ve learned from past projects). I let the chairs dry for about thirty minutes and then lightly sanded them and did a second coat.
After the second coat, I looked at the chairs in the sunlight and noticed a few more spots that were not completely covered:
So, I touched up those and then let the stools dry in the garage for about two hours:
And voila! Chairs that look as good as new.
Boys’ bathroom update
If you recall about three years ago, I re-did the boys’ bathroom. 
After three years, I decided they needed some updates, since both are a little past jungle animals. I also wanted to bathroom to be a little more updated, since their bathroom is also our guest bathroom.
I took a trip to Target, and picked up a few new canvases, wall hooks, shower curtain, and a few other essentials and then J and I spent about thirty minutes putting it all together. This was the result:
Super simple updates that make the bathroom a little more grown-up, but doesn’t lose the whimsy from before. While it’s not shown, I also put in a fresh toy holder that is less intrusive, and instead of a yuck bath mat, I put in permanent bath clear adhesive stickers.
Here’s a catch-all of the new stuff:
You can find it all at Target or Amazon!
Online shopping on a sick day…
This poor baby took a turn for the worse with his cold at the beginning of the week:
So B and I had to take shifts staying home with him while he recuperated from his double ear infection and fever (and no I didn’t ask him to hold his ear in that picture…that’s his typical “Mom stop taking my picture” stare). J and I sat together and watched various Winnie the Pooh movies, while I lesson planned and answered e-mails. However mid-afternoon online shopping got the best of me and I did a little holiday decoration list making…
If you’re thinking…seriously? A Christmas dinosaur? I’m telling you right now…I already bought that. That’s right. He goes perfectly with a certain penguin that has graced our fireplace hearth since 2006. Hopefully he won’t eat the penguin. That would be tragic. Anyway, all the decorations come from Target, H&M, and Pier 1. So go do a little Christmas decoration brainstorming of your own. And then go shopping before it all sells out. It’s almost the middle of November, people! Times a-wasting! HA!
Halloween Extravaganza
This past weekend myself and two of my friends hosted a Halloween extravaganza for A’s class and his BFF’s class. They did the bulk of the decorating and work, I was mainly in charge of cupcakes and games, so I felt like I had the much easier end of the hosting responsibilities! Here are all the great decorations and some of the fun!
A quick pic of the hostesses and A’s wonderful teacher:
B and I were Where’s Waldo and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego:
I originally borrowed a terrific red coat (because Carmen Sandiego is usually in red), but it was so hot, I had to go with my thinner black coat. Almost 80 in October!
So on to the decor:
And now some of the party game set-up…
We did a pin the spider on the web, a candy corn guessing game, a ring toss, and a pumpkin run with spoons. I learned some things if we ever do another party (number the spiders, get smaller pumpkins for the spoons, and make sure the kids don’t pick all the same number for guessing the candy corn). The kids had a lot of fun, but the saving grace of the games was three tubes of glow bracelets that one of the hostesses brought. Genius!
A little fall…a little Halloween…
We don’t do a lot of Halloween decorations, but of what we do have I require that they be friendly or goofy. I’m not interested in having a lot of ghoulish skeletons hanging about. We add just a few decorations each year and this year we added a silly monster, little spiders garland, and a spooky sign. A new orange throw and autumn wreath completed our fall decor. The monster was a hit with the boys…it is too hilarious not to have hanging about the fireplace!
**All of the items above are from Target…I’m not endorsed by Target, I just don’t have time to shop other places…hahaha!”
Back to school
Back to school decor (subway print. chalkboard):
Back to school treats for the boys:
Back to school treats for their teachers:
Back to school J (First day of 3 yr pre-K):
Back to school A (first day of first grade):
The boys both had a terrific first day of school! I can’t wait to see how much they grow and learn this year!
In a blink of an eye…
We went from this…
To this:
Overly cramped in his toddler bed, J was desperately in need of a full size twin bed. He was thrilled with getting a big boy bed, and was announcing it to everyone when I told him it was on the way (which I waited until the very last minute to tell him…J has NO sense of time, so once you tell him about something, he expects that whatever you tell him will happen immediately). I’m hoping for sweet dreams and more space for J in his new bed. And more space for his peeps!
When Darth Vader shows up in the kitchen…
I added a Darth Vader print to our kitchen and waited for the boys to notice….
And they are still talking about it. I’m still trying to figure out how to fill in the blank space above the pictures and the area between the plate rack and the black frame. Without more Darth Vader. I think one Darth Vader is enough for a room.
Closet Re-Do
This seems like just yesterday…
J is almost at the point of needing to move from his converted crib/toddler bed into a full on big boy bed. His toes are almost at the edge, and every time I see him in the bed, he just looks more and more cramped. With that in mind, I know that we are going to have to set-up a larger bed, which means that a lot of the items that are in baskets and buckets around his room are going to need to be moved.
I’ve been trying to think of a good way to update his closet, but because of a few factors (utility items that we have to be able to reach, mainly) we can’t do a full closet system. After doing lots of web surfing for closet ideas, I was actually inspired by our re-do in our garage and came up with this:
This is a basic metal shelving unit from Lowe’s. It’s build allows for easy securing into the wall with anchors. I couldn’t believe that this would actually fit in his closet, but after measuring, I found that it will with room to spare!
Which gives me room on one side to put this:
This will allow me to still make use of his soft sided boxes, and his current cube system will get moved out to the garage for outdoor storage options.
There is still room at the top of the closet, so I can move his wire shelving up about five-ten inches and that will allow for some extra storage (I’m thinking right now about using it for a certain person’s game system items that are taking up A LOT of space in our closet right now).
It’ll be several months, I’m sure before we get it all put together, but I will definitely post an update when it is complete!