The rooms

I have been saying I would put up some pictures of the finished girls rooms. 

Abi's still has one big thing to go in it on her birthday but for now this is what it looks like now when looking in from her door.

Looking toward the foot of her bed you see the lego table and the pet shop area...

back toward the door from the bed...

And Maddy's from the door....

the dollhouse area looking toward the door...

the 'store' and the fisher price toys

the housekeeping area...

from the closet/vanity area looking toward the new kitchen...

from the store area looking toward the other wall we see her little bed...

I have since had to throw away that tree on the wall because it was no good. It kept coming off and when it did the color would come off of it. It is nothing like the other one in Abi's room. 

Maddy is doing great in the toddler bed and loves being in her room much more since this transition.

The best laid plans...

I recently mentioned that I was making a lot of things to give the girls a playroom for their birthdays. Well.... not really going to happen.

While my mom was here they shared Maddy's room so my mom could sleep in Abi's bed. It seemed to go really well at first when one day they slept in until 7!! But then Maddy started waking up at 4-5 and always waking Abi up. It was getting crazy. Abi even told me that she thought it would be better to wait to share rooms until Maddy is older and Abi has been wanting to share a room with her for a long time now.

So, my idea of a playroom went out the window along with all the planning, purchasing, and making I have been doing for about 5-6 months now. 

So, what was I to do? 

I decided each girl would have part bedroom/ part playroom. Maddy has to have most of it in her room because her bed is smaller but Abi was okay with that because they can go in there to play together whenever Maddy is awake. 

I started setting up Maddy's room last Tuesday. I brought the kitchen up. I took the closet doors off for more space and set up her clothes in the laundry room instead. I hung up all the dress ups and created a little vanity in the closet.

As you can see in the pictures it still needs a lot of work but it will take a while to get it all together. I basically created a little store area right behind the kitchen so they can go shopping and then go back and cook the food. The vanity and baby stuff is all over there so it is kind of like a house.  I have since moved the bed and some of the other things but this gives you an idea.

Since doing this Maddy has spent more time playing by herself in her room than I ever imagined possible. I love it. In the above picture you can see how messy she makes it every time she plays and how she likes to pile on all of the necklaces!

I also put this little tree on her wall...

Also in her room are all the Fisher price toys and Abi's big dollhouse on a table. I will post more pictures when it is all finished. 

Abi and I worked on her room on Wednesday because she was off of school. We moved her bed, moved around her shelves and new tables to create a Polly/Pet Shop area and put her lego table in a corner. I also let her put the other nicer tree up on her wall. She did a great job. She loved doing it. It is hard to see because of the Lego table but you get the idea. 

I made this Lego table by gluing down a Lego base plate I got at the Lego store to a $7 IKEA Lack side table. It works wonders. 

Her room still has a lot of work to do and one big thing to still put in it (on her birthday) so I will post more pictures in a couple of weeks.

Circus World videos part 1

This wagon played music if you put fifty cents in. I thought it was just for show but these people put the money in and so I got a quick sampling. The older people that were next to us (to the right in the video) were talking about how they remembered the circus wagons rolling through town when they were children. They would play the music and you could hear it all through town so all the children would come out to see the wagons go by.

The above video is Maddy dancing around while we waited for the Children's interactive circus to begin.

Can you guess what I did this afternoon?

Yet again Doug came home to a part of the house re-arranged. This time it was the kitchen again. I have all sorts of weird quirks and one of them is that I like Abi's toys to stay in the play 'area'. It is practically impossible to keep her toys in the family room (although easier than it was when the playroom was the front room) and for some reason it just irritates me when she takes stuff in the kitchen. I decided that instead of continuing to let this bother me I had to adapt. So, I shrunk down our kitchen table to the way I used to have it against one wall in the dining area....
(by the way, that big champagne glass looking thing I have Valentines Candy in I got at Good Will for $2 and I'm loving it!)

and I undid the 'mud area', brought Abi's kitchen toy up from the basement, and made a kitchen for Abi inside the kitchen. I even decorated the blackboard for the occasion...

I don't know why I didn't think of this before. She loved it. It functions well. It was played in for a long time. We are loving it. I let Abi take the camera for awhile when I was cooking dinner and she took some 'artsy' photos of her view of her new play area...
and I got a few of her playing.
Someday maybe my house will stop being re-arranged so much... but I doubt it.

Makeshift Mudroom

The one thing I've always wished we had in our house is a mudroom. I hate how shoes, purses, keys, etc just get strewn about every day and I have to keep cleaning it up. So, I've been brainstorming how to make one without spending any money. I decided to consolidate some of our playroom/preschool toys and I took one of those shelves and put it in the dining room next to the door to the garage. I put a runner over it and a little apple bowl for keys. Our cell phone has a home there now. Our shoes and church bags and purses all have a place too. I put a hook on the wall for whichever purse I'm using at the moment for easy grabbing.

Closet Makeover #5: Abi's room

Today I finally got to Abi's closet. It was full of clothes that didn't fit her anymore and baby blankets and random things that we had just stuck in there. So, I weeded out those old things and re-arranged her leftover clothes with the help of my new friend Roy G. Biv (red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet and then I add pink, brown,black,white to the end). I stuck a few blankets back up in there, a container of clothes that will fit her in a year or two, and her Fisher Price christmas nativity. Then I put her shoes that fit her and will fit her in the next few months some time under the dresser. Her dresser and toy box are in the closet because even falling off the dresser and cutting her head open didn't keep her from climbing and jumping off of these things! The other white box on the left of her dresser is her memory chest. Her hats are in the hat box of course. I am so excited that I only have one closet left to do (the hall closet)and the basement and then I can stop.

Closet Makeover #4: The Linen Closet

I finally got around to finishing the linen closet in our master bath. YAY!
Here's looking in at an angle to see my makeup/nails bag hanging:

The bottom half of the closet:

the top half:

I couldn't really get a full length picture of it to turn out. I love it when I open closets and they make me feel happy and peaceful.

Closet Makeover #3: Master Closet

So, here's my newest closet do-over. I like it much better but closets always look messy to me for some reason so I don't like it as much as my other ones. I re-arranged our clothes into the ROY G BIV order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) and then added pink, tan, brown, black, and white. (inspiration for this came from Becky Higgins closet blog) I put some things into plastic tubs I had already from Walmart and the rest I put in the pink and blue boxes. These are actually cardboard boxes that I covered in extra fabric. This really is a lifesaver as I keep so much stuff in our closet- gift wrap, office supplies, VHS, and gift stuff (I collect things through the year when I see something I want to give someone for a bday or Christmas) along with the clothes and hats and purses. As you can see Doug has way more clothes than me!!
My side:

Doug's pants and some ties on the pants/skirts side:

Doug's side:

Saturday

Yesterday we went down to the harbor again but this time Doug came with us. I was originally supposed to go to Chicago for a TwilightMoms lunch but a few days ago I decided I didn't want to go. I knew it would be fun but I thought that on Fathers Day weekend I should be with Doug and Abi. Also I knew that Doug would love to go to McDonalds since he loves it and we never go and I knew that we'd be able to eat there for close to the same price that we would have spent for me to go to a sit down place.. so we went to the marketplace, the sneak peek of the Civil War Museum, the playground, and then McDonalds and then we came home and painted Abi's bathroom. I wanted to paint it yellow at first but then after doing her room we had so much extra paint and I hate wasting anything that costs money... especially that much money. So, we used the green that we used in her bedroom and I am so glad we did. I think it turned out great.
Abi and her stovepipe hat at the museum:(Doug called her "Abiham Lincoln")

Running to the fountain:

Playing on the toys:

Her bathroom:

Closet organization #2: The Craft Closet

In our 2nd bedroom known as "Doug's room" we set out to set up a closet for my scrapbook stuff. I have been organizing and re-organizing this stuff in different parts of the house for the past year and have finally done it the way it will stay!! What I already owned: The 8.5x11 paper holder- got at KMA in Utah a few years ago for very cheap, the 12x12 paper holder-got at a garage sale last fall for 5 bucks, the 3 drawer cart- got at Walmart last summer for 4 dollars, the white buckets- got at walmart for <2 10="" 3="" a="" above="" added="" all="" and="" are="" at="" below="" bought:="" boxes="" br="" buckets-="" bucks="" clear="" closets="" couple="" craft="" dollars.="" etc.="" existing="" feet="" for="" four="" got="" have="" i="" it="" just="" lobby="" long.="" love="" match="" more="" my="" obby="" one="" over="" photo="" photos="" posted="" room="" scrapbook="" scrapbooks="" sewing="" shelf.="" shelf="" shelves="" so="" stamping="" stay="" stuff.="" stuff="" target="" that="" the="" they="" to="" try="" two="" walmart="" went="" were="" what="" wire="" would="">OFF SUBJECT POST: While going into Target some seagulls flew overhead squawking. Abi pointed at them laughing and said "They said Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine!" This may only be funny to those of you who have seen Finding Nemo.

New Playroom Layout

Now that preschool is out for the summer, I decided to touch up the paint on the walls around the house. I had to move everything to the center of the room. So, being me, I could not put them back the same way. I had to re-arrange. I took some toys to the basement and brought down some of Abi's "own" toys from her room. I really like the new arrangement.

Junk Drawer Makeover

Yes, while doing my pantry makeover, I did my junk drawer too. I really wish I had taken pictures of this. It was terrible!!! So, I bought a few divider thingies (again, from Walmart- <$1 for a package of them) and grouped the most used things into these holders in the drawer. I then threw the rest of the stuff that gets used but not as often into a basket that I labeled with a tag and put in the cupboard above the junk drawer. This is where I also added a "first aid" basket with bandages and the "meds" basket with medicine in it. This kitchen organization has been really rewarding... I can't wait to tackle the rest of our closets!!!

Pantry makeover

I like to be organized.I make lists for everything. So, I was inspired by a pantry makeover I found on the create your own experience blog and put it into action. Unfortunately I did not remember to take before pictures... but it was pretty much your average pantry. Not terrible but things falling over, rice spilling, stuff put back wherever. I LOVE the new makeover. What I did was I used a bunch of cheap (under $2)dish bins from Walmart to organize things in, mostly white but a few red. I then made labels for all of them. As you see the red buckets have big labels, the white ones have tied on labels. I outlined the labels in red for some color and then wrote the contents on them. I tied them on with pretty red ribbon (also bought at walmart for 33 cents a yard!)I used some cereal holder things (yes, again from Walmart). The ones with the black lids are from Doug's mom but the ones with white lids are the Walmart <$2 ones. I labeled these with little address labels. The bins are labeled with things like breakfast items, lunch stuff,Abi's snacks and juice, pasta, baking things, cake decorating, doug's video games, phone books, soda, etc. Now I love opening my pantry!!