Baby Adalynn's Room

Doing Adalynn's room was way more fun than I expected! I was feeling absolutely no inspiration on a theme or whatnot, but once I got rolling it came together rather quickly. It ended up being an "enchanted forest, princess-y" sorta theme. I will probably add more greenery on the ceiling eventually. But it's finished for now, and very pretty!

Her "grand" entrance...

My favorite corner of the room.

I made these curtains from 2 solid creme panels (which I bought at Ross for pretty cheap.) I hung a scrap 1x4 board with small L-brackets, after hot gluing the 2 panels to the top & sides. (I used both panels back to back to give it plenty of bulk at the bottom.) From there, I hot glued my ribbons to the top, and pinned the other part of ribbon to the back so I could bring it under and tie it.

Easy-peasy, and no sewing!

Not hanging anything over a crib that could possibly fall and injure the baby was a real challenge to me. I mean, who wants a bare wall?? So we ended up angling the crib a little and using my veil & tiara (from my wedding) as a soft canopy.

My mom *the miracle worker* secured the veil to the ceiling using wide silk ribbon and large [ribbed] nails.

I put up the greenery using small nails & hot glue.

These frames were originally mirrors. Nick said there were too many mirrors in the room... (he was right,) so I tried out this idea I saw in a book & hot glued silk flower heads on them to make my own wall art.

My mom had the idea for hanging this mirror (which came from my grandmother) low to create a little "dress up" area. The pretty hooks hanging beside it & the stuff to make this garland was actually the only thing I had to go out and buy for this room. (Hobby Lobby :)

This is the *gorgeous* dress her Mimi Mofley bought her for her dedication... I don't think I could love this dress any more- I HAD to display it!

These tap & ballet shoes were mine when I was little. SO glad my mom kept them all these years!

A little tulle... and a little ribbon to soften up this lamp.

The changing table on the opposite wall...

(btw- thanks so much to mom & Courtney for painting this room for me!!! It's hard to see in the pictures, but they did a ragging method with a light creme color. It's subtle and beautiful- just what I wanted!)

These Cinderella plates were mine when I was young. They've been in my hope chest for so many years... I can't believe I finally have a use for them!

Addy's closet:

The renter who lived here was a carpenter. He removed the original hanging bar that went across and replaced it with 2 shorter ones on each side which works great for a kid's closet. There's SO much more hanging space. The one thing we added were these 1x6 boards across the back and sides for a shoe shelf:

Her tiny shoes don't take up the entire thing so I also have small stackable baskets on this shelf holding her socks, headbands, pantyhose... etc.

Wonderful space saver!

*We did the same thing in Ben's closet. He's in a size 7 now and his shoes still don't hang off yet, but if you have a bigger child, you may want to go with 1x8 boards instead. Just make sure your L-brackets fit whatever size board you're using.*

Thanks for looking!

Homeade Granola

Well, Becky's post about her homemade granola bars inspired me to make some as well :) I haven't made homemade granola in YEARS and I don't know why.

It's so much cheaper,
so much healthier
and so much yummier!!

Now that Benjamin eats snacks every day our grocery bill has gone up a little so this is really gonna help out with that!

I make substitutions EVERY time I make this recipe- just depending on what I have in the pantry or what I'm in the mood for- but, here's the original recipe:


6 c. rolled oats
1 c. sunflower seeds
1 c. sliced almonds
1 c. coconut
3/4 c. sesame seeds

1 c. honey
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla

Here's what I made today...   (Craisins in the place of the coconut, and chocolate chips in the place of the sesame seeds... oh, and I halved the recipe.)

Mix the dry ingredients together.

Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl...

...and pour into the oats mixture.

Toast on a greased baking sheet @ 325F.

I always cut half into bars, and I break up the other half to eat over yogurt.

YUMMO!

Easy right?

Ben's Room

For the very first time, Benjamin now has his own room!!

He loves it. Mommy and Daddy love it. Everyone is REALLY happy. ;)

It's really the only room in our house that is totally finished. The rest of the house is really close... just a few minor things here and there before I post pictures. I'm working on drapes for all the other rooms right now.

I wanted Ben's room to be fun and colorful, but at the same time, very functional. I think I managed to achieve both with this room and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Here's what you see when you walk in the door:

(sorry this pic is so dark)

I found some long purple & white panels on a clearance rack and re-worked them to make Ben's curtains.

I cut off the purple part... (they didn't need to be floor-length for a kid's room anyhow,) then I sewed on some red bias tape to the bottom.

I made his top valance with a large piece of cardboard, quilt batting & some

extra red fabric I had.

*tip: I've learned from HGTV to always make a window look bigger if you can- so I hung the curtain rod far above the actual top of the window; making it appear taller. This "valance" covered that little trick.*

I added some red pom-pom trim.

*Don't use pom-pom trim in an area that can be reached by smaller babies as it can be a choking hazard.*

Then I made a euro-sham pillow case (w/ some red trim) using another identical panel.

Okay, so here's to the left of the bed:

The first main thing I wanted was toy organization...

Shelves - Home Depot

Baskets-Dollar Tree.

Ben is allowed to have 2 baskets down at a time. If he wants something different, we clean up1 basket before taking another down. This saves me SO much clean up time. Our "dump everything into enormous toy boxes" system we had going kept everything a mess. Now, toy sets stay together, puzzle don't lose their pieces, and I can decide whether or not I want Ben playing with noisy toys.

(Those aren't the ones in his reach.)

2nd thing I wanted in Ben's room: a comfy movie area.

*the 2 wooden airplanes hanging from the ceiling were on top of Nick's grooms cake at our wedding- (Since he's an A&P)

This old toy box and rocking horse belonged to Nick when he was little...

Nick and I found this old-fashioned writing desk at a resale shop & loved it!

The Dr. Seuss quote "Oh the Places We Will Go" titles this wall filled with maps of far-off places, Great-Grandpa Mofley's binoculars and the mileage distance to destinations we plan to visit.

I bought these letters at Hobby Lobby for $1.77 each, spray painted them red, and hot glued twine on for some cheap, extra decor.

Well, that concludes your tour of Ben's room : D

Hope you enjoyed it!