Bunk'd

Let's take a quick walk down memory lane, shall we? When we first moved to our house, we had two extra bedrooms because it was just us three... but that soon changed and one of our extra spaces changed from a guest bedroom to a space fit for a princess. 

We put so much time and effort into making that space perfect for our little girl. Ryan spent an entire weekend painting the walls and hanging the railing and was so excited to show me when I got back from a work trip. I loved every inch of that space - the antique windows I found in Brenham, the custom sign above her bed, that magnetic bird to showcase pictures... every little thing was perfect. 

Well a short year later we found out we were expecting and we kind of needed that crib for the new baby but Emmy wasn't quite ready to be out of the crib (who am I kidding... I wasn't ready for her to be out of the crib) and while I can't quite remember why or how, the Munsons had an extra one laying around. So one weekend, we got busy again and the room had another update... she came home from a weekend with Gigi and Pops as big girl with a big bed.

She eventually outgrew the crib so we handed it back over to the Munsons and her room turned into this... 

And it stayed like that for all of 5 minutes before we were at it again and flipped it one more time. We loved the idea of the girls sharing a space, freeing up an extra room to contain all the toys and an overnight guest if we needed it. 

This has worked well for us and them - I'd say they like sharing a room at least 90% of the time. But as they've gotten older, they could use a bit more space in their room. Whether it's when friends are over, they want to study or just need some alone time to do what they want. So our Spring Break consisted of creating this... 

and it may be my favorite version of this room ever. 

Also, the girls loved it, too... 

They love their gallery wall, easy access to their jewelry, the clean bulletin board and mostly all that floor space!

I love that the same space can serve so many different purposes. Seriously, if you are thinking of making a design change - just go for it. Small changes can make a HUGE difference and they don't have to kill your bank account OR your sanity! Sadly, the next change to this room is going to come when they really don't want to share a space anymore. Until that day comes, they have to settle for being bunk'd! 

How does your garden grow...

Tis the season for picking weeds, moving dirt, planting veggies and waiting for the birds to enjoy all the literal fruits of our labor. 

Well...

Not.

this.

year!

Ryan and I decided that we are all in for our little garden area this year and recruited some of the cutest muscle around to help. 

While the girls were busy rescuing doodle bugs...

Rad had serious enough work to do for the hair to come back.

He wouldn't let me man bun it... but it's bound to happen sooner or later, right??

#agirlcandream

She must have had at least a dozen in there and named them all and really wanted to bring them inside to live. I think I distracted her with some gum.

I got a wild hair and decided to post their clubhouse on a local Facebook group so Radley volunteered to power wash it. One hour and $60 later and that was an excellent decision!

The next day, we started mapping out the garden...

and cutting timbers for our raised beds.

Landry was eagerly moving some dirt (while looking for bugs)... 

and Emersyn was putting together a menu for her new restaurant. 

(And that's when I got to actual work and quit taking pictures).

This weekend we were back at it and everyone was all in... hauling...

sawing...

and taking the occasional break.

(Also - why does she look so grown up?!?!)

When it was all said and done... we were one step closer to a summer of fresh veggies straight from our back yard. 

Stay tuned... 

Friday Favorites...

So it's a good thing I didn't make "blog more consistently" a resolution. Because, well, obviously. I am keeping the post title as Friday Favorites even though I am posting on a Sunday night at 11:35pm simply to make you all jealous with how together I clearly am. 

On Friday, when I planned to write this post, I got side-tracked with important things like catching up on Parenthood. (Oh the tears. The big fat ugly cry, folks. I can't believe this show is leaving me. It's like Brothers and Sisters all over again. A break-up that is most definitely not mutual.)

Then I picked up the kids, grabbed pizzas, and started to settle into an uneventful evening when Landry began to scream like 2-year-olds do. She was clutching her ear so I asked her if she stuck something inside her "ee-a" and she kept saying no. An hour later after crying pretty consistently, we gave her the benefit of the doubt and Pops and I headed up to urgent care to discover that she in fact had an ear infection. That moment, dear readers, is what we refer to as mom fail. How did I not notice she had an ear infection? Weird. 

We got settled back into our easy Friday night with a MAMMOTH tent Ryan made for Rad and his friend. In fact, I was jealous. I wanted to sleep in there. Ryan and I finally headed to bed only to realize that hot air had been replaced by cold air blowing from our vents. 

Yep. It got that much better. 

I woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of Ryan watching YouTube videos on "how to fix a heater." I'm gonna let you guess how successful that was. 

I am currently typing this post wrapped in a blanket with two space heaters next to me - just like in all the fairy tales. ;)  I also just reviewed the lovely estimate that the nice heating company sent us explaining what it's going to cost to replace our "furnace." (Like using the word "furnace" makes it worth all that money. If I call it a heater can I get a discount?) Y'all. I think I'll just keep the space heaters. I mean, it gets cold in Texas for like what, a total of 20 days? 

(Just for funsies, I looked up how much it would cost us to all fly to Hawaii. Let's just say the tropics are a better deal than this "furnace" I keep hearing about.)

(But I'm not bitter.)

(Or annoyed.)

(Or pouting.)

Nope.

Meanwhile, this is what my kids look like... 

They are in heaven. Sleeping in a fort. Oblivious to the cold, because they are kids, and hoping that they can sleep like this all the days of their lives. (or until puberty.)

So if you visit us in the next few days, be warned that we may have a house full of space heaters. 

Aloha, is all I have to say to that.

Flipped...

We had the most productive weekend of all time. And it wasn't even the entire weekend. I'd say it was 24 hours. We had the most productive 24 hours of all time. 

We have been considering the pros/cons of flipping some rooms so the girls would share opening Landry's room up for a guest/play room. We had a window of opportunity this weekend when we sent the kiddos home with Gigi and Pops after Rad's soccer game. 

And y'all. Chaos ensued. 

The amazing kind where nothing gets done but stuff getting done. You copy?

Good.

We organized, decluttered, got rid of and rearranged. 

Painted, moved, cleaned and fixed. 

We rocked. 

AND we had time for a date on Saturday night. 

Crazy talk. 

And the results are so stinking cute!!!

First up, the GIRLS' room…

(before on top)

(Note: this is why you shouldn't paint rooms green, horrible yellow casting in pictures).

(unless you are Sarah).

We were worried that there wouldn't be much "room" left but there is more than enough for them to get dressed or read books. I love walking in and seeing the shared space and getting dressed is so much easier because it is al in one place!!!

And - SISTERS, y'all. 

We did get a little sad taking down the crib and moving all the baby furniture up to the attic. I may have cried a few times. That sweet furniture has served us well.

But we do love the new space. 

(Before on top).

Please take special note of the bunting above the closet door. What used to say Landry, I turned into Play - I just used a box cutter to change the "R" to a "P". 

#totalfixeruppergenius

#callmeHGTV

We are on the hunt for a sofa bed - send recommendations our way!

Everything is combined and functional and glorious. The only toys that aren't in here are Rad's legos (because I'm not a lunatic) and the girls' princess dresses (but those may move, we haven't decided). 

Rad's room got some love, too… but nothing you can notice by pics. He's grown 20 inches it seems, so lots of clothes cleaning out and toys being moved from his closet so he only has empty drawers. We are about to update his desk area, so stay tuned. 

It was finally time for the big reveal…

and they LOVED it.

(mom fail on wrong camera setting).

(I seriously have to start checking that).

"Mommy! A BIG bed!!!"

And then my heart broke. She really isn't a baby anymore.

Then off to the play room...

Yep, they liked it. 

And as amazing as being productive feels, their excitement was the real motivator! 

From this to THAT...

We love a project around here. We especially love a project that includes spending $15 or less!!!!  I am going to try to track our redoing, revamping, refurbishing addiction in a fun way to show you that if we can do it - you can do it!

So today, I present: From This to THAT: A wardrobe makeover fit for a princess! :) 

The girls love playing dress up and it just so happens that Santa brought them the cutest handmade by "elves" princess dresses for Christmas. We were quickly running out of dress up clothes space and I knew that we needed something to contain it all. I wanted something that would match Emmy's room and that looked more like a piece of furniture than a store bought storage unit. And then I remembered we had some old chest of drawers in storage. 

I thought that we could remove the top three drawers, add a dowel rod, paint it and voila! A princess wardrobe! (And that is where my contribution ended). 

So, Ryan drove to storage and got to work. 

First he removed the drawers and rails. Then he and Radley began the process of sanding and removing the veneer facade and sanding some more. 

Then he spray painted the interior this lovely aqua color and "killzed" the outside of the furniture. (We probably should have also killzed the interior, but we figured there would be a ton of dresses hanging inside and you wouldn't notice the blotchy spots.) On a whim I bought some aqua glitter spray paint and he added a light layer on front. And so ended my ban of glitter. 

He had to patch a few spots to get the wood even, then sanded the sides down and added one more layer of Kilz.

We had some cream paint in the garage that he used for the base. To give the piece that distressed look, he brushed on some dark wood stain and then painted it again. He repeated this process a couple of times to get that perfect distressed look.

He ran into one issue that we didn't plan for - the base of the piece broke off, so he ended up having to build one for the bottom drawer to work correctly. (I was at work when this happened and he didn't take pictures. I think it involved a saw, some sanding, some nails and wood glue). 

It basically turned out 100 times more adorable than I could have imagined!!!

(Side note: this picture illustrates perfectly why you shouldn't take photos in green rooms. Yellow caste pictures. Ick.)

We added some glass knobs to give it a girly touch and I would never have known that he added the piece on the bottom - super proud of my handy husband!

This is the perfect piece for all of their girly goodness!

And they were pretty ecstatic when they saw it!

Needless to say, only seconds passed before it was no longer an organized master piece. 

They have had the best time getting down their own dresses, picking out shoes, putting on jewelry and strutting around in their dresses. 

Thanks, babe for being such a wonderful Daddy! Our sweet girls are lucky to have you!

Pinterest WIN...

We have lived in our house for 3 years and 50 days and I have wanted to do some type of window treatment in our family room for 3 years and 49 days. (The first day I was worrying more about getting everything out of boxes).

And after all that time, I am happy to report that we now have window treatments!!!

I didn't want anything fancy. Or expensive. Or hard to make. So turned to my trusty friend, Pinny, and am thrilled with the results. Not going to lie - searching "DIY valences" was a bit overwhelming, but I found one that seemed simple enough and the rest is, well... pretty awesome. 

Step one: 

Gather supplies. I spent $29 total on everything I needed. The fabric I chose was actually one curtain that was on sale at HobLob. 

Step two:

Follow all of these instructions.

Can we pause for a second and reflect on the fact that this person just seems to have come up with this idea/process on her own? Like she was just walking through Lowe's and said... "I know, I need some polystyrene insulation - that will make the perfect valence."

I was really kind of impressed with my direction following skills. Unlike baking or cooking, I actually followed everything step by step.

And she, Diane over at In My Own Style, gave really great instructions. And awesome pictures. Seriously, if you are looking for a way to dress up your windows, this is your answer!

I maybe should have possibly attempted to iron this fabric first, but if anyone wants to judge my wrinkly window treatments, then feel free. 

I am mostly amazed that these are still hanging (I made them in early June and have just not taken the time to blog about it). I mean, they are held together with pins!

I tried to make my corners just like hers, but, well... 

Before:

After:

I know, right? I am OBSESSED!

(please be surprised when you get these for Christmas)

(please also don't stare too long at the picture because you will notice they may be hung a little crooked)

And since I sometimes like to pretend that people read this blog other than my mom, Cindy, Jenni, Katelin, and Ryan and that those same people want some "advice", here goes:

1. I am not exaggerating. This was freakishly simple. 

2. Maybe try to iron the fabric first ;)

3. Get more straight pins than she suggests - I used a lot because I wanted to make sure the fabric stayed in place

4. Wait for someone to help you hang them (as she suggests). I was a little stubborn and attempted it alone the first time and maybe have the scuff marks on the wall to prove it. 

5. If you ever come to my house, don't look at the back of these. I'm a messy crafter. 

6. At some point I am ordering this slip cover for the couches. (unless Gigi wants to order them for me).

7. I think my favorite part about this project is that when I get sick of the chevron, I just have to buy a few yards of something new and get a whole new facelift for the room!

:)