I did it!!

I've been wanting to hang a door on my wall (ANY wall!) for over 2 years now! My husband thinks I'm crazy, by the way. The only problem was that I couldn't figure out what door and which wall. That was until our recent trip to Round Top. I spotted this blue door for $50 and instantly fell in love. You can only imagine my giddiness after talking the dealer down to $34!! Random I know, but that's what we agreed upon. Yay!!

It now hangs over my younger daughter's bed and pulls in the blue from her comforter and nightstand. The color is off in this picture, but the blues coordinate great together. The black bed is from last year's Round Top trip. Apparently, I can't get enough :)

I think my favorite part about the door, is that I didn't have to paint it or shabby chic it. It was already perfectly distressed, just like I like it. I plan to hang my daughter's initial somewhere on it at some point, but for now it's up and I'm so excited about it.

My older daughter (age 3) just walked in & asked...

"Why is there a door on the wall??".

Apparently she takes after my husband! Haha.

Do you have any crazy wall decor that you just LOVE??

Good Girl Jar

I've created a good behavior reward system for my 3 (almost 4) year old daughter Addison! I first saw this idea here & thought it would be perfect for her. I've noticed that she thrives on rules & rewards lately. Not that she always obeys the rules :), but she likes to know what's expected of her.

I came up with 6 different activities that she could use encouragement on. Each small jar represents that chore or behavior.

The large tupperware is the rewards jar.

I spray painted the lids black (I used primer first) & cut out circles of different colored card stock. I used white card stock & Lindsay's Silhouette machine (thanks Lindsay! I've put it on my Christmas list!) to make the activities . I glued everything together with a glue stick, which worked fine for Day 1, but may need to be re-addressed with further wear & tear.

With each successful behavior, Addi can move 1 coordinating item to her reward jar. For eating well & asking to be excused from the table, she gets a green pom pom. Brushing her teeth earns her a blue flower. Cleaning up her room and the living room gets her a jingle bell. She gets a pink crystal ball for doing something kind for someone else. And a cross if she can recite her weekly bible verse. We've JUST started working on that one, so we'll see how it goes! And I notice that I'm a picture short. But purple is for bedtime. If Addi goes to bed (and does not get out of bed), than she gets a jewel in the morning.

The rewards jar consists of prizes that Addison loves! A piece of candy. A craft project. A trip to the store to get a new toy. And once it reaches the princess crown, SHE gets to pick the reward (within reason). Maybe a trip to the park or ice cream with Dad. I like the idea of letting her pick, but I'll have to see how that one plays out! The good thing about the reward icons, is that I can change them out if they don't seem to work or if she tires of them. I just printed the pictures on address labels so that I could cut them out and stick them on the jar.

Like I said, this was only the first day, but Day 1 was a huge success! Even my younger daughter (just turned 2) contributed to the jar tonight by brushing her teeth and picking up her toys! So this could be a great way to encourage team work with them! Well see!

Baby Boy's Nursery

I finished the nursery last week!! Better late than never right??

I kept it pretty simple. The walls were already blue & the bottom half was already beadboard, a project that Lindsay helped me with last year.

I'm thrilled with the way the crib turned out. It goes well with the bedding and is a good contrast to the cool walls.

I spray painted a "D" to match the crib & framed a sepia colored picture of my buddy in an old Ikea picture frame.

I exchanged light colored baskets with these darker ones to make the bookcase look more boyish. The top 2 baskets actually hold clothes and blankets, since there isn't a dresser in here. The canister of baseballs is a plastic drink dispenser, minus the spout. It looks close enough to the ones I like from Pottery Barn Kids, but was half the price at Walmart.

The pallet bookshelves have worked out great. (If only I had mounted them lower so that my kids could put the books up when they're done with them!)

It was relatively easy to pull together since I already had most of the furnishings. I used a brown shower curtain for the curtain and borrowed a pillow from our guest room for the rocking chair.

Even if it's 6 months after his birthday,

I love having a little boy's room in our house :)

Bow Organizer {Take Two}

I am FINALLY happy with the bow organizer for my sweet girls. I blogged about the first one I made last fall. It served it's purpose, but wasn't ever what I had intended it to look like.

I took the old one apart and was left with the original frame.

I spray painted it using my handy adapter so my pointer finger doesn't revolt on me. You can get these for a couple bucks at Walmart or other hardware stores. I don't spray paint without one of these anymore!

I bought this chicken wire from Home Depot. It was under $7 for a 10' long roll. I stretched the wire across the backside of my frame and cut it to size using my floral wire cutters. Using a staple gun I then attached it to the backside of the frame.


Then it was off to pick the spot.



And gather the bows!

The "roughing" up was unintentional, but the frame was in pretty bad shape and the spray paint was the cheapo kind we already had on hand. Once I sanded down the edges it made the other imperfections look intentional... just the way I like it. Like Peewee Herman said "I meant to do that"!

No, if only ALL the bows for the girls actually fit on here. I guess I'll need another one. How do you organize and store your bows? I'd love to know!! Please, share with us in the comments section.

Baseball Scoreboard {Wall Art}

When I saw this scoreboard in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog a few months back I tore it out (this was before I discovered Pinterest!) and knew I would do it "someday".

Well, that "someday" has come!




Last weekend while my husband was out of town, I got to work on this little project.
First things first... Wood!
I used some scrap plywood we'd been saving in the garage.
I measured the area the sign would hang and cut the plywood to size (4' x 3') using my jigsaw.

I chose to use the knotty side of the plywood to give it a little more character & spray painted it green.
When working with spray paint your colors are pretty limited so if I were doing it again I would have hand painted with a color closer to the PBK inspiration photo. I just like it better.

Once it was dry I used painters tape to mark my lines for the scoreboard. This is where the measure twice, tape once rule would have come in handy! After painting the middle line & ripping the tape off I realized that the two 'boxes' weren't the same size. My mom had come into town and we tried it again, this time successfully!

I created stencils for all the letters and numbers using my Silhouette machine. That little machine was AMAZING for this project.

Using a sponge brush I got to work. Tip: Use a rounded sponge brush for this. I just didn't have one on hand.

For the changeable score plaques I used paper templates to figure out how big they needed to be.

Then I used those templates to cut out the rectangles with my jigsaw & mitre saw. We then gave them a quick coat of spray paint.

Once they dried, I used my silhouette again to create the score stencils and painted them on. We drilled a small hole in the top of each piece of wood for the jute rope to slip through. Mom made a knot at one end with a loop to hang on the nail.

Last thing was to tape off the edge and paint a white border all around the scoreboard.

I nailed small nails in each of the Visitor/Home sections so that I could hang the score for each inning. Once I had them where I wanted them I tied a knot on the front of the plaque and trimmed the excess jute rope. I'm wondering how long it will take my 3 year old to figure out that these things can move (and be lost!). :)

He's pretty proud of the thing and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There are a few imperfections that bother me when I look at it, but overall the end result was exactly what I was going for. So, don't wait... Take those inspiration photos you've been Pinterest-ing and go for it!

UPDATED:I've had several questions about this project in the comments so I wanted to try and answer as best I could.

1. Do you take orders?
Yes! I would love to create a custom scoreboard.  The charge is $325. Remember it's a large piece... So the bulk of this is for shipping. (Shipping costs over $175 will be added on to the total).

 I will also sell the stencils if you want to create your own. The charge for that is $35 (includes postage).

2. What font did you use?
It's called Copperplate Gothic

3. What's the wall color?
It's Sherwin Williams Whole Wheat

4. What are your margins/letter sizes, etc?
See the photo below... :)

Let me know if I missed any of your questions...




Linked here:

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Fingerprints on the Fridge
The Shabby Nest

Pallet project

I found a use for last week's pallet...

Bookshelves.

This was the idea that I found on Pinterest. Gotta love Pinterest!

And here is my version.

2 bookshelves for my son's room.

And here's how I made them.

Using Lindsay's handy hand saw, I cut off both sides of the pallet.

Then cut pieces from the extra slats to fit into the bottom of each shelf.

Nailed them in.

And added hangers.

It was as easy as it looks & actually took me longer to stain them than to make them.

So thank you Pinterest for the great idea!