Chaos in the Bedroom

hi readers from Kellys Korner!  I had a horrible nesting bug with pregnancy #2 and am now in the middle of redoing our master bedroom.  I think too often people leave this room for last and I was sick of that!  So here it is, and yes it is VERY much in progress, but I love where it's headed!  To see the rest of our progress over the last few months, go to the "our home" tab at the top of the page.

Our bedroom has been lackluster since we moved in.  Not WHAT happens in the bedroom (wink wink totally inappropriate comment appropriate here), but the decor.  The decor was dark and in major need of a makeover.

We figured, if we could make Gloria's nursery look as cute as it does, then surely we needed to give some attention to our room right?

We have ONE big rule for our master bedroom.  Some might think it's weird, but here goes.

The Master Bedroom Rule

NO pictures of children in the bedroom.  Yes think we're weird if you want, but we want the bedroom to be OUR room.  OUR sexy retreat.  It doesn't really put us in the "mood" to see a huge picture of little one smiling on our nightstand if you catch my drift.  There is no putting frames down in our room (40 year old virgin anyone?).  Plus, since when is it wrong to have ONE room that is completely yours?

Other than this two rules, we were set!  To start from the beginning, here's what we had to work with:

Here's our inspiration fabric (something I have been doing with every room now ... choosing a fabric or pillow to inspire the makeover):

First things first, paint ...

We went to Home Depot and brought home three swatches.  They were all uninspired.  We didn't hate any, but didn't love any.  I started looking through blogs and kept seeing a name repeated:

Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue.

We picked up a sample and were in love.  Palladian Blue it was.  We repainted and already felt such relief.

Next, the furniture dilemma.  Time to paint again!

Evan had to paint since when painting furniture they suggest oil based paints, so we painted the nightstands a calming white and the dresser a darker gray.  Our second dresser was actually Liliana's old dresser and is now in our guest room.  We went to Habitat for Humanity and bought one for $45 and painted it for approximately $20.  A new dresser for $65 (plus handles which we haven't tackled yet)?  Not bad!

This has been a tumultous process though.  We really were starting FRESH, so we are NO where near done.  We have curtains up, new lamps, a new headboard, new bedding and the budget is TIRED.  REALLY tired.  So is the mini-van.

We're taking a break for a few weeks I think.  And I realize that the room looks NO WHERE NEAR done, but man, it's coming out GREAT ... every single day we go inside the room and marvel at the progress!

I still have BIG plans for it.  We need a new rug, a new chair and seat, handles on the dressers (obviously) and then comes the accessories.

But here we are today.  HAPPILY enjoying the bedroom (and yes, I mean that in the appropriate and inappropriate way again. winky winky face repeated a SECOND time! BOOM.)

For a reminder.

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

Bedding: quilt bought at TJMaxx.  Grey comforter (it's reversible) and shams purchased at Target.  Curtains and rods purchased at Target.  Lamps (both on nightstand and the floor lamp) purchased at TJMaxx.

Bed skirt: obviously still old.  Driving me crazy.  Will buy another soon.

Pillow on floor: the inspiration pillow that will sit on a chair sometime.  Bought from etsy.

Headboard: bought on sale at Pier1 imports.

Decorative pillows: all purchased at TJMaxx.

New nightstands: Benjamin Moore paint.  Will do another post on repainting furniture in the near future.  New knobs purchased 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

I need to show you guys before and afters of these dressers ... the makeover is RIDICULOUS!
Knobs purchased 50% off at Hobby Lobby.  Spray painted the old ones for the bottom drawers and they're on there now, but I think that will change.  It doesn't look quite right.

Dresser bought at Habitat for Humanity for $45.  Should have seen it before.  It will be a complete beauty when we're all done with it.

Where we are today! : )

Baby Shower Hostess Gift

Last Friday we had our baby shower for Gloria!  My coworkers were sweet enough to throw us a shower even though it's our second baby.  And though I didn't have nearly as many things that I needed this time, there is always a need for people to get together, eat a few yummy snacks, and give some adorable clothing and books! ; )

There were mainly 2 people in charge of throwing the shower and I really wanted to show my appreciation, but how oh how to do that?  I went to TJMaxx and thought of a TON of ideas:

(1) a pizza making kit? Sauce, the pan, dough mix, rolling pin
(2) a gardening kit? Gloves, pot, seeds
(3) Baking kit? cupcake pan, recipe book, whisk

The third one was the winner when I thought of my little phrase:

"You helped us bake our bun in the oven, now go bake something of your own!"

So first I bought some ingredients ...

You can easily go with the gender of the baby so that's why I chose the pink spatula and pink cookbook.  I spent $5.99 on the cupcake muffin pan, $1.99 on the cookbook, and $1.99 on the spatula.  The entire project, therefore, cost $10! : )

Next I wrote a little note.  I thought this phrase was too cute and when I thought of it in TJMaxx I literally told myself, "this is so corny that it just might work!"

Finally, a little tape, some tissue paper, and a ribbon = an adorable affordable hostess baby shower gift!



I Can Be A Parent!

The first of the month is usually a big deal around our house because it usually means Daddy starts a new rotation.  This will change in July when Evan officially starts his Urology years, but during his general surgery year, he switches rotations every month.  This month he is doing Nephrology (kidneys) which is a required month for all Urologists (kidney stones any one?).

Therefore, each month is a new adventure for us.  This month we had no idea what his schedule would be like and then the fellow told him what time they rounded at.  It is MUCH later than when they round on Surgery rotations.  Nephrology isn't a surgical field so they don't have to get people in to the OR. 

Evan sent me a text around 3 pm yesterday saying "I can take Liliana to day care most mornings because I can get to the hospital at 8:30 instead of 5:30!  I can be a parent!!!"

I couldn't help but crack up laughing when I saw that message.  What a great Daddy huh?  Instead of thinking "I get to sleep in to a normal hour for the first time in a year, he thought 'I get to take my daughter to daycare for the first time in a year.'"

I have to admit I was REALLY excited about this development.  I have taken Liliana to daycare every single day without a break and while I don't mind it, the thought of being able to simply drive to work sounded appealing.

And then this morning, I was about to leave to work and ... I didn't like it ONE BIT.  I didn't like the car being that quiet.  I didn't like leaving her at home to spend another 20 minutes with Daddy before they had to leave.  It was, quite honestly, not fun!  I won't take it away from him obviously, because this is the only month in a 5 year span that he'll get this luxury, but it sure does make you realize how much you love certain things and how I was obviously taking that 15 minute car ride foregranted.  Hearing her tell me "this is Liliana's shoe!" and "this is Mommy's car!" and "quiero escuelita! (I love school)" is nice.  The good news is I still get pick up duty ... it's evenly split, so it's rather perfect for now.

So last night, as we marveled at the later start time to his day for the next 4 weeks (have you noticed it's the little things in life that keep you going?), we did something a little ... CRAZY.

Gloria's nursery and the playroom are nearly done (just waiting on a couple projects to be sewed by Evan's aunt) and instead of taking off of decorating responsibilities, we've decided this is optimal time to get working on more rooms in the house since we'll be too busy to do that for a few months after Gloria is born.

We decided that the master bedroom was our next room to tackle and we've known that for a couple weeks but have been LAZY BUMS about getting any of it done.  Evan and I were lying in bed last night cuddling and I told him "you know what would get us started?  If we moved our headboard out of here, transposed it in to the guest room, and had a blank wall!"  I said it mainly as a joke.  Evan didn't think I was joking.

The master bedroom now looks HORRENDOUS and plans to decorate it are underway.  I say plans because the only thing we have so far is the cover to a pillow I ordered on etsy.  This pillow will serve as inspiration to our master bedroom.  Let the planning begin!

This pillow up front is what I ordered from etsy for $20.  We are going to incorporate light blues, light greys, and a couple splashes of that yellow/ green in to the room design.

This pillow is the one that originally caught my eye but it was $70.  The $20 one won ... for obvious $50 savings!

A Closet Makeover (or two, or three)

Not even joking, the nesting got INSANE this weekend.  I was like a mad woman wanting to clear anything and everything of clutter.  I used to think that woman claiming "nesting" was a pregnancy symptom were crazy.  I now join that group of crazies.

On Friday I ran across some blog that mentioned cleaning out your closets.  It looked so pretty.  So fresh.  SO unlike our closets.  And I knew something had to be done.

Immediately.

Since Evan was off this weekend, I was the kind wife I am and immediately told him "we're redoing closets this weekend."  You know, since he has SO much relax time otherwise (worst wife of the year award was already priority delivered to me, don't worry).

Off to Target we went.  We bought baskets and shoe dividers and spent you know, the typical Target amount (= entirely too much). 

And on Saturday while baby girl was napping, we started.  This is what my closet looked like to begin with.  Shield your eyes.

YOWZA.  It was a mess.  A mess of summer transitioning back in to the wardrobe, winter still rendering it's big coats face, and maternity clothes interspersed throughout.   So here was the plan of attack:

(1) DECLUTTER: take EVERYTHING (and I  mean EVERYTHING) out of your dresser and closet.  Start transitioning what you need, what you don't need, what you wear, what you don't wear, etc. 

(2) COME UP WITH A PLAN: once it was empty, I could finally see what I was working with.  Aside from a horrible paint job by the previous owners, the hubby in his brilliant ways realized that the closet wasn't working the way it was because I didn't have enough space to hang my dresses (what can I say, I apparently really like dresses).  So off he was to cut the bottom pole and shelf in half.  He was thrilled to have his picture taken and to be doing this with me until midnight on a Friday night (CRAZY life right?)

(2) MAKE THREE PILES: have one pile for "to keep in closet," one "to keep somewhere else since it's out of season" and "goodwill donation pile."  Be prepared for your room to look worse than ever for the next few hours.  It will get daunting.  Have Pandora on in the background.

(3) START REORGANIZING AND REEVALUATE:  I started putting up what I had envisioned just to make sure my plan was working well.  Turns out, we realized we could take a book shelf that was sitting in our garage and it would fit perfectly in the closet!  This just added a TON of space for me to put more clothes.  SCORE.

 Yes I need to paint that bookshelf and the entire closet for that matter.  But that wasn't a project I was willing to tackle this weeked.  I still had more closets to go and hours to go on mine!  Now, it was all up to putting things away in an organized, functional manner. 

And let me tell you, I saw RESULTS!

(4) ORGANIZE: pants, particularly jeans, go brilliantly folded (unless you're one of those that iron their jeans, ya weirdo).  Purses go wonderfully in baskets, and the shoes you wear most often can go right in front of your face.  Organize dresses by fancy (to the left) and summer (right next to shoes).  Color coordinate.  It makes the OCD indiviudal happy.  As for the bookcase?  It has my workout clothes, my seasonal clothes (scarves, swimsuits), and some more shoes. 

Here's my new closet! 

Five hours later, I was a VERY happy lady.  VERY VERY happy.  I even joked about falling asleep with the closet door open so that I could look at it all night long.  Here's a comparison shot for you:

This inspired me to keep going ... so on Sunday, Evan did his closet while I redid Liliana's! 

For kiddos, my biggest suggestion is having a "too small" and "too big" drawer.  It's impossible to keep up with their growing bodies so this is a good way to contain it all before collecting everything in to boxes.  Liliana has a HUGE amount of built-ins in her bedroom so her closet isn't packed and only took about 2 hours to handle it all.  It was still an embarassing mess beforehand though.

Before for Liliana:

After for Liliana:

We were stupid enough not to take a "before" picture for Evan, but you're just going to have to take my word for it when I saw this is a HUGE improvement.

Needless to say, I am closeted out!  Well, until I handle Gloria's, the guest room, and the hallway closet.  But that's for another weekend!  : )

Linking to Serenity Now. 

Linking to Tatertots and Jello.

How To: Gloria's Embroidery Hoop Wall!

As you recall, last Thursday was/ is always my least favorite day of the year.  Fortunately, Evan got off at a really decent hour and in order to try and keep my mind off things (even though it is impossible on a day like that), we decided to 'FINALLY tackle a BIG project in Gloria's room!  The hoop wall! I had stalked pictures on pinterest about hoop walls and loved how they looked. 

While there are tons of pictures everywhere of this look, I didn't find many detailing HOW they went about doing the process.  For those that are creatively challenged (like me!) I thought it would be helpful to see it in a step by step format:

(1) In order to accomplish the look, I had to do some prep work.  First, I had swatches of quite a few different fabrics.  Etsy, Hobby Lobby, or Hancock fabrics are a good place to achieve this.  I went ahead and got all the fabrics from the Kumari Garden Fabric Collection since Gloria's bedding is made with this as well.

Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabrics have "swatch" bundles where they do the work for you of getting ones that go well together.  I got REALLY lucky with my fabrics because the lady that's making Gloria's bumper was running a couple weeks behind and offered to send these fabrics at no cost to me to make up that tiny dilemma.  I ended up saving quite a bit of money by doing this and she kept a customer happy! ; )

(2) After getting the fabrics, then buy the hoops.  I've read that you can find them at Goodwill and truth be told, I'm rarely available during their business hours so got them at Hobby Lobby.  Either way, they're CHEAP.  I bought 11 hoops for $10.  I got a mixture of sizes, 10 inches around being the largest and 4 inches around being the smallest.

(3) Once you have the hoops, start deciding what fabrics you want in them, and where.  It's a good idea to prepare this in the room where you'll be hanging the wall art to get an idea as to how each fabric looks on your paint color.

(4) Once you've figured it out, place the fabric inside the hoop and cut around it, leaving about an inch of fabric.

(5) Then, apply good 'ol Elmers glue to the inside piece of wood and lay the fabric down to create a seal.  I put a book over them to ensure it would glue down tightly and left that for a while.

(6) next, arrange!  Take your time to figure out how you want it to look on the floor and take a picture to remind yourself where they fall.

(7) Give your hubby kisses as he patiently hangs all of it (with a tiny nail for each hoop).  Be picky about the positioning and bat your eyelashes more.

(8) Marvel at your results!

As you can see, this nursery is REALLY coming together!  The rug, some decor, and the bumpers should all  be arriving within the next couple of days.  Can't wait!

Linking to Serenity now.

Linking to Tatertots and Jello.

Linking to DIY Show Off. 

Linking to  Just us Four.



We've Come a LONG Way

The other day I was feeling pretty down in the dumps in terms of progress we've made on redecorating the house lately.  We have a GREAT time doing it, and it has kind of become our new weekend hobby when Evan is off of work, but I feel like our transformations are underwhelming (is that even a word?) and barely noticeable.

We still have SO many things we'd like to do to the house, but I was feeling a little unispired.  Then I looked back at the before pictures ...

And the inspiration is back!  In 3 short months, we have accomplished quite a lot in our living room, the pantry, the nursery, and the playroom (as evidenced below).  Although not one of those projects is 100% done, is a project EVER completely done?

So before we went any further, I decided to give our realtor a call.  I wanted to know if some of our possible future projects were even worth it!  I thought she would tell me I'm a crazy woman, but she told me she SO wished clients would call before doing renovations. 

She's coming over this evening and I hav esome BIG dream projects i'd like to ask her about.  It would all be DIY, of course, and I'm aware we have little time, but a girl can dream right?  And when you do it on a budget, it makes it all the more fun.  In particular, I'm going to ask her about:

(1) painting the kitchen cabinets white like this photo below (this isn't our kitchen obviously.  It's just inspiration)

(2) redoing the master bathroom (I can't even put an inspiration photo here ... because this one would be a HUGE overhaul)

and ...

(3) changing up the master bedroom (i ordered a very similar pillow off of etsy and this will be the color inspiration for the master.  We're hoping to get some work started on the master before Gloria comes along)

It's exhausting, yet exhilaring, how these projects are never ending!  I have thoughts in just about every square inch of the house.  But don't worry, I still took the time to sit down and be sorely disappointed in last nights Glee instead of worrying over this.  Some of it will get done and some of it won't.  It just depends when inspiration strikes!

DIY Step by Step No Sew $8 15 minute Valance!

The last couple of days, Evan and I have become quite the connoisseurs when it comes to making valances. The only problem, originally, is that we had no idea how to make them.  But with a little bit of brain power, patience, and some adhesive tape, we now have two gorgeous valances hanging in Gloria's room!

Each valance ended up costing only $8!  I saw some on etsy that I really liked, but they were $35 each and I thought "I can make that!"

Well, here's the ONE tricky part: I don't own a sewing machine.  Sure, I could buy one, but the cheap in me started getting creative.

So if you have 15 minutes, $8, don't want to sew, but need a cute window treatment?  This DIY project is for you!

Here is a step by step run down of how to make it happen.

DIY No Sew Valance

(1) First, go to the fabric store and get one yard of fabric.  If you can, get them to cut it for you (might as well right?) to the dimensions you need.  Our windows were about 35 inches wide so we had them cut the fabric 32 by 40 to make the valances approximately 15 inches long.

(2) Lay the fabric out, apply adhesive tape on two ends (where it measures 40 inches), and press down just to secure it.

(3) Next, apply adhesive to the bottom end.  Remove the adhesive sticker (like you did above), but do not apply fabric to it just yet.

(4)  Next, fold the other side over and you are essentially going to make the fabric stick so that you could stick your hands completely through it.

(5) Keep toddler as entertained as possible while trying to explain to her that this project is not for her to play with (aka "Liliana, stay off the fabric!!!")

(6) Fold the fabric over to your desired length (ours was 15 inches) and have adhesive to the rest.

(7) Iron it all to make the adhesive permanently stick.  This takes no time at all.  HINT: if you are doing two curtains, it is a good idea to make sure they match and are the same size BEFORE ironing (learned that one the hard way).
 

(Big pregnancy belly pic!)

(8) Place your new curtains on the rod and marvel at the finished, fast, cheap product!!

What a difference these valances make!  For only $16 dollars, the room went from THIS

 to ... this!

PS You might notice a couple fabric swatches in hoops on the left wall ... that's another project that I plan on posting about!  Gloria's nursery is really coming together!

Linking to Serenity now.

Linking to Tatertots and Jello. 

Linking to DIY Show Off.