Back at Christmastime, I was shopping for my kids and became incredibly discouraged to find so many cheaply made but expensive toys. I know, I should not be surprised by this anymore. After doing a lot of searching in stores and online for a well-made but not $300 dollhouse for my daughter, I gave up. I asked my hubby if he thought that maybe he could make one and I gave him some inspiration photos of ones I’d found online but, again, didn’t want to spend $300 on.

He said yes. Yes!

We went to the store to get the wood for it and spent a whopping $27. I can’t get a “cool” plastic piece of junk toy that was made in China for that at Target. I was a happy mama.

Then I did something that I never ever ever do and I didn’t boss hubby around on the project. I let him do it all himself without saying “oh, do it this way! Make more rooms! Make less rooms! Put stairs in! Put windows in!” I let him hide away in the shed and build his daughter a dollhouse. With the wood we bought, a scrap piece of beaded board we already had for the back and two small cans of oops paint for $2, we surprised our little girl with something she had no idea she even wanted but instantly fell in love with.

I don’t have a step-by-step tutorial and I do know that more went into it than just slapping wood together. I am trying to talk hubby into making another one so I can detail the process. And then he can sell it for $300.

The best part is that when she outgrows the dollhouse part, it can just be a bookshelf. We hope she gets many years of use out of it!

As 2011 began, I set my sights on some long put off goals and now that the year is over, I’m happy to look back and say I completed them.

I signed up for and ran my first half marathon back in February while my hubby and kids stood in the cold for 2 hours to cheer for me for the 15 seconds it took me to go past them. I still get choked up thinking back to that moment of running past my daughter with her “Go Mommy” sign.

I also signed up for and finished my final class for my bachelor’s degree and am officially a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate. Woo!

My two big goals for the year complete. What next? Probably a full marathon, maybe more school.

Around the house, we painted the kitchen a new blue.

We turned our guest room into a playroom.

We did a quickie little makeover at our entryway.

And added a beadboard headboard in our bedroom that just celebrated it’s first birthday.

In the rest of our not picture perfect ready for it’s closeup just everyday living life:

I spent a month cooking all new to me meals.

We spent another glorious summer at the cottage.

Back in January of this year, I wrote this post about The me I want to be and the struggle I was having with blogging, sharing, writing, taking pretty pictures and the pressure that I felt from all of it. I think that this year brought big changes to this blog. I stepped back a lot more. I didn’t share just to share. I took time off when I needed it. I enjoyed the moments and began to really live what is in my heart more than just talking about it. I think it’s safe to say now that the year has passed that I really did become the me I wanted to be this time last year. What a wonderful thing for anyone.

I thank you all for being here over the past year or years. I appreciate all of you and wish you all the best in the coming year.

Happy New Year!!

 and like this on the other:

It’s the second picture that always bothered me. The upper cabinets were too tall (we have low ceilings) but since they came in the lot of them that we found on ebay way back when, hubby used them. He hated to *not* use them even if they weren’t quite right. So, he made this little corner. What bothered me was that I had this whole area of countertop that I could barely use for more than a few do dads and for piling up organizing papers.

Imagine my delight when while we were away, hubby got a new – free! – microwave that got the ball rolling on a whole new kitchen project. I don’t think he knew what he was in for, and neither did I. The day we got home from vacation, he ripped down those too tall cabinets to put shorter ones in their place (that we already had in another spot that wasn’t working – more on that another day).

Of course we had painted since the installation of the cabinets which meant we needed to repaint. I figured if we had to paint, we might as well pick a new color. So, I chose Behr Cumberland Fog. You should know this about me and choosing paint. I am not one of those people that brings home sample after sample until I get a color just right. I walk into a store, pick up a handful of paint cards and choose one. The only color I’ve ever hated was one someone else made by mixing colors and chose for me. I am not the queen of choosing paint colors – I just know what I like and don’t waste time, I guess. You could show me 26 light blue paint colors and I’d love all of them so why bother wasting time making sure it’s perfect? I know I’ll like it just fine.

Hubby got to painting – which also meant that he painted all the trim white again – yay! So fresh and shiny clean looking now. Having him paint the trim sure beats me having to scrub it. Then he put up the new cabinets, built some open shelving between them and we finally had a functional space in my kitchen where I can store stuff and use the countertop for more than clutter. I also took this opportunity to make a new not clashing curtain for that little section of cabinet. A friend gave me a shower curtain she’d never taken out of the package. I didn’t need a shower curtain so I used it to make this instead.

Here’s the rest of the kitchen with the new blue paint color:

That shelf in the middle of the kitchen isn’t staying. Hubby is still working on one area, so that has been floating around and I’m trying to decide if I can live with walking around a kitchen island all the time before I bite the bullet and buy the island that I love at Ikea. Enough explaining. There it is. New blue in the kitchen and some new functional counter space!

Yes, the chalkboard in the background says First Day of School 2011. Aren’t they cute?

It seemed a little silly.

I suggested we move the queen bed from the guest room into our daughter’s room. Guests could use her room when they come and she can sleep in a another space that we create sometime. There are a lot of options for her when the time comes for that – and she’s still little enough that crashing in our bed for a weekend isn’t a big deal if we don’t have that sorted out by then. I wanted the space to be much more useful for our daily life.

My son’s room – small!- had his bed, his train table and a play kitchen in it. This left little room for anything else and barely any room to even move/play/walk through it. His toys weren’t getting used and his space could be much better served with just a bed and dresser and space to move.

Before we even drove home that day from our date, we swung into Home Depot and got paint, trim, and some shelving brackets. I was convinced we could do this without anything else. I didn’t want this project to cost a lot but I wanted big impact. A space my kids would feel at home being creative and playing. I was sure I could pull elements from the rest of our house to cover the rest of the space.

We started Saturday morning by emptying the room of the queen bed and the small desk that was in there with my computer on it. The bed went to my daughter’s room, the desk moved to the kitchen and the rug moved to the living room. We were left with a blank slate:

My handy dandy helpers got to work:

And now my kids have this to call a playroom:

We bought paint and some shelving for the closet (which isn’t ready for it’s closeup). The paint is the tintable chalkboard paint in charcoal gray. The window and door trim and chairs are Behr Intense Teal and the table is Behr Daredevil. I chose these on a whim in the paint department – I figured we’d make it work, and I think we did. It’s so cheerful and playful and perfect for a playroom for both my girl and my boy.

Everything else came from around the house. The table and chairs were curbside freebies painted for just this room. They were the standard oak table and chairs that you can find all over Craigslist. The toys were in bedrooms.

There are some finishing touches – like touch up to the paint job and choosing what artwork to put on the walls, but it’s pretty good now, I think.

I am glad they have their own space to play and create now. For not a whole lot of dough.

I’m adding this to the Paint Projects Linky Party at Centsational Girl. Check it out for all kinds of awesome painting projects!!

Also, adding to TipJunkie!

Here’s how it was before relocating the shelf and bench:

For $15, hubby bought and installed a piece of beaded board and a shelf above it. I wanted the space to be plain and simple but not bare and boring. I hope I pulled it off. A few pictures, the letter W and a chair for putting on and taking off shoes at the door are all I thought we needed. My daughter added the touch of a freshly cut rose from the yard. It’s working great so far. Not one to take a million pictures of one project, here is one:

Right after we finished our master bedroom late last year, my hubby’s dad was moving across the country and getting rid of a ton of his stuff. He sent his bed to us, a nice pretty new king bed frame, box springs and mattress. It was nice to have our new big to us bedroom to put it in. I was in love with the idea of having a side of the bed that didn’t have anyone else’s extremities in it while I am sleeping. Since one or both of my not really babies anymore still show up in my bed on a couple mornings a week, I also liked the idea of not waking up unable to move because of a creaky back or legs from sleeping funny because of sideways bodies and flinging arms.

We moved the bed in and it was wonderful.

Then we got to work on the master bathroom. For some reason – don’t ask me why, he’s usually very good at math – hubby bought one too many sheets of beadboard for the bathroom. With that spare $20 piece of paneling, we decided to make a headboard. If you think this is going to be some long DIY post, it’s not. We didn’t make anything. It’s not really a headboard. It’s just beaded board on the wall with trim around it.

It frames the bed nicely and makes a statement. I don’t know what statement or even what that means, but it just seems like it does so I am telling you it does. It’s certainly more interesting than a boring wall behind our bed with nothing, I know that.

We used the same trim around the beadboard as is around the windows and doors in the room. And, of course, the beadboard matches the adjoining bathroom so I get to say that it’s all nice and cohesive.

It ended up being just the simple solution we needed for this space so that we didn’t have to spend a boatload of dollars on a bulky real headboard. My hubby’s favorite part is that it means this is now the one room in the house that I can’t do my favorite thing ever – move furniture around.

I was feeling a lot like a moose with a muffin or a cat with a cupcake or a mouse with a cookie when I got new cabinet knobs.

Twelve hours before hosting my son’s 3rd birthday party, I painted and rearranged furniture in the living room.

I handed my kids paint brushes and let them paint their Ikea step stools.

I learned how to make an ottoman slipcover. I also learned that white and my kids don’t get along and it didn’t last. But it was indeed nice while it lasted.

I painted a yard sale chair green and have used it every day since. I am sitting on it right this instant, in fact.

I gave my daughter’s dresser a makeover.

We finally converted what was once a garage into our master bedroom.

and last but not least

finished the master bathroom.

I am adding this post to Rhoda’s Top Projects of 2010 Party.

We moved my daughter out of her old room recently. I have been wanting to make some changes in her new space for her, but was procrastinating because I wasn’t feeling inspired. I really couldn’t stand how pink her last room was, so this time I decided we’d leave the walls of her new room the boring beige and I’d just work with the stuff in the room to make it cute and girly but not over the top pink. We kept all of her furniture and bedding and I simply made a few small changes to make it feel special and girly for her.  Her bed, vanity, and bookshelf are all white. The built ins are white, the trim is white and the walls are beige. I was thinking I’d just paint the one thing that needed painting – her dresser – white also. Bo-ring! No wonder I was feeling uninspired.

I decided to pull colors from this DIY wall art that hangs on her wall and have a little fun in her room. I wanted it to feel punchy and whimsical.

She had this dresser that has been in my family for a long while and needed a little love. I am sure it would’ve looked lovely all white.

Instead, we dug into our paint stash and found a green we liked. I wasn’t going to play it safe. It’s a little girl’s room. What mattered most was how excited SHE was about it. She wanted it vibrant and fun. I was the silly one thinking I had to play it safe. As soon as I started putting the green paint on, I loved it. When I was ready to do the drawers, she asked if I would paint the drawers yellow. I was really hesitant but couldn’t resist her “PLEASE?!?! It will be so beautiful and I will love it more than anything!!” My sense of fun and whimsy was being tested. I had to remind myself it isn’t MY room. It’s her room and it’s what she wants. It’s who she is.

I probably don’t have to tell most of you that all while this project was going on, my husband was rolling his eyes and mumbling about how i ruin antiques. By the time it was done, even he was admitting it was really cute. He even told me I did a nice painting job. Then I died. I truly love it. I love that she saw through her 6 year old eyes something I couldn’t. I love that all she cared about was making a part of her room really her. And once I realized how her it was, it was easy to be inspired and continue to make the space fun for her.

I bought a small play table at Goodwill a few months back. I didn’t have the right space for the table, so I kept the bins and gave the table away. They were so easy and fun to make over with the green and yellow paint and some chalkboard paint on the fronts. Instead of a closet, she just has a wall of built in shelving in her room. The bins fit great in one section and are going to keep the wide open shelves from being cluttered and disorganized.

I have had the idea in my head since we moved her to this room to put a curtain up in the opening that connects her room to her little brother’s room.

Without knowing which way I was going to with her room in terms of colors, I hadn’t done it yet. Once the dresser was painted, it was easy to pick fabric, with her help of course.

For $21 (cost of fabric and the tension rod for the curtain), her room went from pretty blah to pretty cute. For the rest, I used things we already had and leftover paint all for a fun makeover that makes my little girl feel pretty special. It was so fun to do this with her input. I love when my kids teach me along the way. To be bold. Be you. Do what YOU want to do.

For a while, we had to do without a new kitchen at all. I had to make do with what was here when we bought the place. Plywood cabinets, faux brick linoleum, yellow laminate countertops.

Did I mention I was quite pregnant at the time? I know, you can’t tell. My babies were good hiders. But I was. I can guarantee I got cranky from time to time.

Then, it slowly became this:

Not terrible. More functional than pretty – kind of like me.

Some paint and subway tile, and the addition of a chalkboard made things a little cozier. Doing it as we could a little at a time.

Recently, I really mistreated my windows and tacked up some white canvas valances above the windows.

And now, it’s like my kitchen is growing up before my very eyes. Headed off to college, not letting me give it a hug or say I love you. All mature and stuff. With real window treatments.

3 bamboo roman shades may not seem like a big thing to many people, but to me they are.

So you see – it’s never perfect and probably not at all finished. There is always something when the time is right and when the money is saved that can make all the difference. It’s fun to see the changes made without a magic wand or a money tree, just lots of patience.

Although I loved the idea, I got tired of how unfinished it looked. Then, soon after doing my Ottoman Slipcover project, my kids as usual claimed that comfy thing as their own. Soon, the ottoman was sitting under the window and the cabinet was turned right side up to resemble a very shoddy looking bookshelf.

Over the weekend, I decided to spiffy up the shelf a little bit to make it something I could stand to have in my living room.

I started with this:

then did this:

(Yes, I *made* my 3 year old do this part. It wasn’t that he was having a total meltdown over wanting to help with the mod podge at all.)

and then we had this:

The top of the shelf got some beaded board and painted to look nice and fresh. The side facing the room got chalkboard paint. I’d love to say this is because I love to provide my kids with canvases upon which to draw all over their little world, but really it’s because they color on everything – walls, floors, cabinets, doors, and making it chalkboard would at least make it so I  don’t have to buy stock in Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and I don’t have to get mad when they draw on this.

So, here’s what we ended up with:

I have to admit, sitting on that comfy ottoman under the window with a shelf full of books to explore is pretty good

This project cost just over $2 for the scrapbook paper. I used chalkboard paint we already have and the beaded board was scrap left over from The Bathroom Makeover.

Just for fun, because we’re talking bookshelves full of books for kids, here are some of our favorites:

The Seven Silly Eaters

Someday

Make Way for Ducklings

Stranger in the Woods: A Photographic Fantasy

Do you have any suggestions for fun books to add to our Children’s Bookshelf?