New Little Girl Room

My two girls have shared  a bedroom since the youngest was born.  But my oldest keeps getting bigger and is starting to need some privacy. So we have decided to tackle makeovers on two bedrooms, using mostly things we have, a few thrifty finds, and my sewing and painting (haha) skills.  I really want each of their rooms to be a reflection of who they are and what they love, so I hope at the end of this anyone who knows them will say their room is perfect for them.

Who Is My Youngest

child of God and willing to tell anyone
collector of feathers, shells and anything else
lover of all animals ( she has wanted to be a vet her whole life)
lover of horses especially ( she wants to live on a ranch and ride wild mustangs )
still is a closet princess lover (she is much to old for that, HaHa )
lover of flowers and nature

So hopefully these things will come though at the end of this adventure.

My first step into making the room more her was to hand paint a mural on one of the walls

I started with a pale buttery yellow base color in the whole room.

To paint the mural I measured off the diamond pattern and lightly drew it in with a pencil.  Next, I started painting in the vines roughly following the pencil marks. Then, using two different shades of pink I started painting the flowers ( yes, I know they are not a real flower of any kind, but they fit my skill level ).  I finished by adding some metallic highlights over the whole thing to give it a little princess sparkle. I am very pleased with the impacted it has on the room by itself, and my little one can't stop talking about it, and thanking me. Up next furniture.

The bedding is all things the girls had in their shared room.

The bed and the armoire are both pieces we had.  The bed was my neighbor's daughter's when she was growing up and then my sister used it in college and now both of my girls have used it.  I painted both pieces a base cream color and then distressed and glazed.  The sweet doll house on top my mom and I made when I was in Girl Scouts, and the pink chair was a recent thrift store find for $40 ( I couldn't believe it was the perfect pink)

This little lovely started life as one of those 80's brass chandeliers that we have all taken down and tossed. But with some pink spray paint and crystals it has been transformed into a very chic light.

 We built these shelves out of 1x6's and some brackets and hooks.  They are a great place to store her collections, and display art.

I bought this print for her last year and it is her favorite.  I finally bought a frame from Goodwill. Here's how it started.

A just fine picture if that's what you need, but I only needed the frame and the mat.  So, I popped out the print, painted the frame, and put it all back together and for $5 it is framed.  Not perfect but perfectly within my budget.

This keepsake chest  I painted and distressed.  The tea set is the real thing and would be amazing if I cleaned it,  but she is always playing with it.  I love the way this room turned out and think it is perfect for her,  she loves it also.   I will always miss the room with two twin beds and both girls in it, but everything has to change sooner or later.

LOVELY SNOWMAN

I wanted to make the girls special snowmen shirts to wear this winter.  I made this snow man sweatshirt 5 or 6 years ago for My oldest and she wore it several years and now My youngest has worn it a few years and it has become a little sad.  So I decided to change the design a little and this is what I came up with.

I just free hand cut two hats, two noses, and two scarves.  I dug four medium size buttons out of my collection.

Then I used two different size circles to trace around.   Notice that is one of Sweet Hubby's old work shirts, never waste anything.

I cut four large and four small circles of each of the fabrics.  These are going make flowers for the snow"lady's" hat.

I folded each of the circles like this, then rounded the edges.

The one of the left has had the edges rounded.

Then the circles for folded in half and layered.

Sew the four circles together.  I just hand stitched it but you could easily do it on the machine.

I did the same with the smaller circle and attached it to the top of the large circle with a button in the middle.

I layed out the placement of the snowmen next and glued with a craft glue to hold in place.

Next I used embroidery thread and went along the edge of the hat, nose, and scarf.  I then came back in and made his mouth.

Finally, I attached the flower with a pin so I can take it off to wash. This is the final product, The girls are very excited with them.

MY FAVORITE THING TO DO

Everyone who knows me will tell you I have two favorite things to do when given down time, one is lay on the beach ( since I only have 50 bucks, this is out ) and two is to go junking ( this could be yard sales, thrift stores, or antique shops ).  Yesterday Sweet Hubby and I had the day to ourselves---THANKS MOM---and being the wonderful man that he is, let me pick what to do.  So I picked junking of course, so off we went to our local Goodwill. Yes it's out, I love Goodwill.  Sweet Hubby was making fun of my love for Goodwill so I broke it down for him like this:


The deals are amazing
No one else can go buy the exact same thing
It is my way of recycling
It makes you be creative, seldom do I buy things in finished form
It lets me be creative without going broke


These are all great reasons in my mind.  So here are what 50 bucks got me at Goodwill yesterday...

I got this to use for a picture I already have.  I plan to paint the frame and put the new picture in soon.

Check out all of these classics, they are books we can use in homeschooling.  They are all in perfect condition and new were $10 each.

These are two great early readers for my youngest, she loves anything with animals.

I have great plan for these pretty domes, can't wait to show you.

The girls are going to be so excited about this.  I have be looking for one for awhile.  This one is all metal no plastic.

Sweet Hubby got jean for working in,  he restores old cars ( more on this later ) and destroys his pants.

My oldest got sweet pj pants

She also got a bath robe to keep her warm

And my personnel favorite is the vintage wool coat I found for myself .

I just love the double collar detail

SO DO YOU OR DON'T YOU GOODWILL?

IF YOU DO WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE FINDS?

MERRY  CHRISTMAS  TO  ALL , AND  TO  ALL  A  GOOD  NIGHT.

CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE KITCHEN

Has anyone seen the beautiful cupcakes that Bakerella made ( remember when I was on Bakerella's blog, you can read about how I met Bakerella  here) .

They are a sweet winter wonderland.

So Big Sister decided she wanted to make them for two different family gatherings we have tomorrow.  So off to the store I went to gather the supplies.  We started with Paula Deen's sour cream pound cake recipe.

The ingredients are pretty simple butter, sugar, sour cream, all purpose flour, baking soda, eggs, and vanilla.  I was very proud of how well she did measuring and following directions.  The pound cake is yummy.  After the cupcakes cooled, we started the decorating process.

Cutting the tops off of the cones and candy canes was not as hard as I was afraid it would be.  I made sure I did this part,  no more trips to the hospital this year.

We melted candy melts and rolled the cones in it and then in the sugar.

She used the melted candy to attach the ornaments and the candy canes.

Instead of using fondant to make the gifts we just attaches bows to gum drops.

Didn't she do a great job.  And not to be out done Little Sister had to make something.  So all the left over peppermint stick tops inspired me to let her make peppermint bark.

The white chocolate and the dark chocolate mixed together and made a swirly mess, not pretty but it sure taste good.  I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS.