Inspired by fall holiday posts on Pinterest (e.g.: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AdC52G8bRMzEEpAO-owLRJrWO5HHM2tQloX4h74BGzoIqIA6AjFZW9s/), I went to Dollar Tree and purchased all the materials to make this wreath. Using a hot glue gun and some creativity – I was able to finish this craft within 30 minutes.
Materials:
$ 5.00 grapevine wreath
$ 5.00 Orange spray sprigs
$ 5.00 Metal pumpkin sprigs
$ 1.00 Holiday wire ribbon
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$ 16.00
Baby Room Remodel
I was inspired to create a relaxing space for our newborn son when I saw the following post on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/82894449364113087/).
We hired a contractor to build custom adjustable shelves with a window seats which extra storage below. They also continue the traditional wainscoting around the room, scrapped the pop-corn ceiling and put in crown molding which they trimmed around the custom built-in shelves.
We had custom cushions made for the window seat had plantation shutters installed which really helped insulate the room and helped block the light from the sun which is great during naptime and season changes when trying to get our little one down.
All we had to do in the end is add furniture and a few wall décor items to complete the room.
We did pick out a bedding set which came with a ton of matching accessories:
– bed spread
– dust ruffle
– crib bumper
– 2 curtain panels
– diaper holder
– toy swag
– 3 wall art bears
We also ordered matching:
– bear mobile
– bear border
– 2 bear lamp shades
$3k – Local Contractor
$99 – Ginny Bear Bedding (Amazon.com)
$60 – Matching accessories (bear border, lamp shade, mobile) (Amazon.com)
$650 – Storkcraft espresso baby furniture (4 in 1 crib, changing dresser, chest of drawers) (Amazon.com)
$300 – Rocking chair w/ ottoman (Amzon.com)
$500 – Plantation Shutters (Blinds.com)
$40 – Floating wall shelves (Hobby Lobby)
$25 – Wall letters and paint (Hobby Lobby)
$300 – custom window seat cushions (etsy.com)
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$4,975
By keeping with a traditional style, our son can grow into this room without having to change much other than the bedding and bear theme as he gets older! Shelves provide great storage as do the trunks under the window seats. It turned out to be a great tranquil space to rock him to sleep and for him to play in.
Children’s Play Space
As older parents, we wanted to keep our space separate from our child, but still wanted to be in the same room together without having their toys all over the place. The compromise was creating a designated gated play area, one where they could have their space all to themselves, yet still be near mom and dad.
I haven’t been able to find anything like this on Pinterest yet – so I struck out on my own and created this layout to bring order to our lives. This design keeps our son’s toys and him safely in his space with a child’s gate door which enables us to get to him without breaking our necks trying to step over to get to him.
What more we wanted to protect our carpet and make it easy to clean up when our son spit up or spilled so we incorporated the foam mats. The surprising added bonus of putting these mats in place was that it’s easier on our joints getting down on the ground with our son when kneeling, sitting or laying!
Tools used to create this division of space:
1 – Baby Kids Playpen 8 Panel Play Center Safety Yard Pen (Amazon.com) $120
3 sets – ProSource Puzzle Solid Play Mat for Kids – each set comes with 36 tiles with edges (Amazon.com) $29.95 each
Total: $180
The Pinterest Experiement 