Pins #77-#80: Hey Girl, Let’s Laminate
Pin #77: Hey Girl…
Ok, if you’re not already laughing, this post is not for you. How funny is this? I pinned this after seeing it right after I bought a laminator at Costco and right after my husband’s response was “awesome. I’ve always dreamed of owning a laminator, we soooo needed one.” (Total dead pan voice). Of course he laughed and chalked it up to yet another thing he doesn’t understand, but I have confidence it will be another thing he’ll appreciate when the end product is in front of his face. So back to Ryan Gosling. I pinned this also around the same time my girlfriends and I spent the weekend away watching one of his movies no less than 4 times in 48 hours…..and we are not even teenagers! Read more about that awesome trip on No Umbrella: The Seattle Travel Blog, written by my friend Ali. Ok…if we must, back to laminating crap.
Pin #78: Faux Chalk Labels
So, this is not a post about organizing, simply about preparing to organize using a laminator. I’m close to being somewhat organized but still miles away from where I’d feel super good about it. I printed out the above labels for pantry items, kids craft supply items and general ones with just all of names so we could label baskets, etc. designated for each person. Then, laminated. They are up and glorious in the pantry and with the kids crafts – but I’ll save those photos for part two of this which will be an organization post.
As part of this massive lamination spree I also laminated some cool handwriting exercises I made for Luca. We really believe in play based pre-school, therefore he’s had almost zero practice writing. I thought it was time to at least introduce it as a fun activity.
Pin #79: Laminated Dry Erase Letter Writing Practice
I had this set of super cute ABC animal stickers that I wanted to do something special with for the longest time. When I saw this pin, I thought this would be the perfect use for them.
Finally, we just got an extra freezer and I’m going to need all the help I can get to not lose stuff or waste food that goes in the freezer. I found this awesome guide (Pin #80), laminated it and posted it above the freezer. It tells you how long you can freeze tons of things and how to freeze them properly.
Pin #80: The Freezer List
80 down…20 to go….
Pin #76: Baby in a Cradle Photo
My for the last 4 1/2 years my mom has been telling me that she’s saving my baby doll cradle for me just in case I EVER have a girl. So when Colette was born I was so excited to recreate this shot, to the best of my extremely novice abilities, with my very own baby doll cradle from childhood. I had my mom ship it up when I realized she wasn’t going to fit in it much longer when she was a couple weeks old and growing like crazy. (And still is!). I have such fond memories playing ‘baby’ with this cradle and I’m so thankful to my Mama for hanging on to it for me.
Pin #76: Tiny Human in a Baby Doll Cradle
I tried my hardest several time to get the entire naked body shot – but ended up being happy to get these. By the time I attempted the naked baby sleeping photos, I actually think she was too old and past the super-milk-drunk-baby-can-sleep-through-anything-stage. (More on this in a future post about newborn photo shoots). The first one is my favorite where you can actually see the cradle. But the favorite from the day has to be the third one down. It is already hanging on my wall and included in the birth announcement.
76 down…24 to go!
Pin #75: Happy Father’s Day, Pinterest Fail
Pin #75: Father’s Day ‘Handy Craft’
This one is a borderline Pinterest fail. It turned out ok, but not as intended. I wanted to make Andrew the stacking hand print canvas seen here for Father’s Day. Milo, aka “Dr. No,” put a wrench in that plan. He’s not a fan of messy hands and would not dip his hands in the paint. He was excited to watch Luca do it and then put his hands behind his back and you couldn’t pry them out! So, after some cookie bribery, I talked him into letting me trace his hand and then I painted it in. Since I had to trace it, I decided to do three separate canvases. Colette was pretty easy except she’s just discovered her hands so with a hand full of purple paint, her hands went straight to the mouth…I remembered why I’m not a huge fan of art projects with kids. Ahhh, I tried.
Happy Father’s Day to all the great Dads out there!
75 down…25 to go….
Pins #66-#74: 2 Boys in a Room
2 Boys in a Room – a room inspired by a Pinterest board full of ideas!
I started this post with the ‘end product’ for once since there are SO many pins that went into the putting together this space. It has been so fun to work on this room from start to finish and see how many ideas came from Pinterest.
First things first. So far, only Luca sleeps here. Milo is still in his ‘nursery,’ but it was really important to me that this room start out as a space for two boys. This will now be the third* room that Luca has had created for him. (*See pictures of Luca’s nursery and ‘big boy room’ from our Seattle house pictured below just for fun/reference). It hardly seems fair that Milo not be involved from day one designing this room even if he’s not sleeping here just yet. We hope to move him by the end of the summer, around when he turns two. This room was the original master bedroom for our 50-year-old house. Since, the current master bedroom was added and this room is just too huge for one kid. So, on with the pins…
First – The Walls: Please do your best to follow along as I explain my labyrinth of a thought process here. First, Pin #66: I knew Luca wanted DARK blue walls. In fact he originally chose a blue so dark that might as well have been black. I talked him a few steps up on the color wheel and we settled on a color I LOVE that I call ‘surfer blue.’ I was a bit concerned that the color was still too bold considering we have very low ceilings and no moulding. I searched Pinterest for ideas that may look similar to what we were planning and this pin is a great example. It even had the medium shade brown furniture similar to the beds we have for the boys – beds built by my husband’s uncle when he was a boy and the beds he and his twin brother slept in until they were 18 years old! Then this picture got me thinking about how nice the white ceiling and thick crown moulding looks. I loved the clean crisp look of this ‘surfer blue’ and the white white. I remembered that I had pinned the nursery example in Pin #67 with the ceiling color extended down a foot or so onto the wall. AH! I thought, perfect for this room with no moulding and it would break up the boldness of the blue for a ‘breezier’ feel, I thought. Then, when I was picturing the blue room with a white ‘cap’ I started seeing the classic VW Bus in my mind. So, I searched and pinned a few examples of how that inspiration as well, Pin #68. The complete picture was starting to come together for me but wasn’t exactly ‘finished.’ Finally, after consulting with our family favorite painter and paint color consultant she gave me the brilliant idea to bring the white the same distance (12 inches) from the bottom as well as the top for a giant stripe effect. Perfect.
Pin #66: Bold Blue Walls, White accents, Wood Beds
Pin #67: Ceiling Color extending down the wall.
Pin #68: My vision – for the room to have the effect with color that this classic VW Bus has – classic blue/white combo
You can see in this picture how the white ‘stripe’ on the top matches the 12 inch white on the bottom. This makes the blue look less heavy, cleaner.
Lighting: This one is easy…Ikea. Done.
Pin #69: Ceiling Light by Ikea
Pin #70: Reading bedside lights by Ikea
Pin #71 actually inspired a lot of ideas but mainly the two large framed photos over the kids’ beds. I also bought the supplies to do the book wall, and intend to do it eventually, but not in time for this post. I just adore this blog - she had quit blogging for a while and now she’s back! I’m so excited go and read up on all her fun projects in all my free time.(ha!)
Pin #71 Two large photos over beds – from Daffodil Designs – one of my favorite blogs!
Next, Bedding: Pin #72 is where I first got the idea of mixing into the pattern of Luca’s existing quilt (that I MADE, well, I had it quilted because I royally screwed it up, but hey…it is a finished sewing project…who cares how it happened!). I hope to make one for Milo to coordinate one day. But for now, back to the stripes. This bedding is from West Elm for a pretty hefty price tag. I was SO excited when I found the exact same duvet at Target for a whopping $19.99! (Pin #73). Not only cheap, but SO soft.
Pin #72: Original idea for matching bedding – grey and white. I love the photo and picture wall too and was going to implement, but it is really unrealistic – I mean, come on, do you think these boys in this picture have knocked those things off the walls 100 times?? I do!
Pin #73: The bedding, the affordable option. From Target for $19.99 each set of duvet cover and pillow case. AND SO SOFT!
Finally, Pin #74, the magnet boards. This pin was quite the ambitious project I thought I’d attempt. As mentioned in my Knock off Ballard Design Pin Board post, I don’t want tons of junk or magnets on my refrigerator, so a place for the kids to put their super cool gear magnet toys and of course ABC letters was a necessity. I found these great boards at Ikea and they work great. Milo even started playing on these boards when he first started sitting up.
Pin #74: Magnet Board
Tent made by my mom a few years ago – NOT inspired by Pinterest surprisingly!
“Ok, you’ve seen my room, you’ve seen my blue walls, my striped duvets, now get the hell out!” **Door Slam**…..can you tell I am a child of the MTv generation? A La ‘MTv Cribs’…No? Not funny? I tried…
I hope you have enjoyed checking out this room as much we enjoyed putting it together. It truly was a group effort with me, Andrew (the best stripe painter on the planet!), Luca and Pinterest. I’ve included the real estate listing photos of Luca’s big boy room he moved into when Milo arrived when he was 3 and the Nursery in our old house.
74 down….26 to go!……
Come on people, this is going to be a photo finish, cheer me on, leave comments share with friends. I have 2 weeks to blog about the rest of the 100 completed projects to make it within my ONE YEAR deadline!!
Luca and Milo’s Seattle nursery – where all the stripe painting began in 2008 (Some other furniture/touches removed for real estate photo here)
Luca’s Seattle big boy room – colors chosen by him. The Gray stripe is actually chalk board paint!
Pin #65: Choosing the Nursery Rug; Pinterest as a Tool
When we moved into our new house last year one of the things we needed to buy was a rug for Milo’s room. It just had hardwood floors so we needed to warm it up and soften it up in there. I knew he’s be moving in with Luca eventually so I didn’t want to spend a ton of money just in case we changed how we used the room in the future. The cool thing I did to help get some opinions from friends and family who are quite skilled at home decorating and quite stylish was created a ‘Nursery Rug Board” to share with them. I pinned lots of options and had them vote on their top choices. Creating boards like this is a great way to use Pinterest.
This is the rug we went with:
Pin #65: Nursery Rug
I’m not going to show pictures of it because Milo’s room is already starting to be disassembled for his eventual move to Luca’s room. But it is a great rug…but will soon be replaced by a pink one! 
65 down…35 to go…
Pins #62-#64: Instagram Obsessison
I think it is fairly safe to say I’m not alone in my love for Instagram. A silly little free app that allows you to create really amazing versions of awesome pictures or even just average ones. This blog post from Finding Joy really sums it up for me. She says, “It’s a beautiful way to document the everyday moments.” It all comes back to a thought I’ve mentioned before about hoping that when my children see the photos I’ve taken of them that they can have an idea of how I was feeling in that moment. I think instagram really allows you to make that feeling extra dramatic to say the least.
Pin #62: Why Instagram is Awesome for Moms – a blog post from “Finding Joy”
Here are some fun everyday moments I’ve captured lately that were able to be enhanced and shared via instagram:
If you’ve been reading along at all, you know of my current obsession with photography – learning more and hoping to be getting better at it. Since I’m so early in my education and have not yet voyaged down the path of learning post processing software (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.) I feel like instagram is the gateway ‘drug’ to that next step. It allows you to take an ordinary picture and make it look even more special. Neither one of these pictures taken to ‘copy’ the original pins are anything special on their own (other than the stolen composition) – but instagram helps them look a little dramatic.
Pin #63: The “Oh-So-Milo-Pose”
I pinned this weeks ago thinking how much this cutie pie reminded me of Milo – and wouldn’t you know it, without prompting, Milo started doing this pose out of the blue just last week. I think he originally was trying to look at me through his legs like his big brother was doing but it turned into this move and then quickly getting up to say “mama, no hands!”
I was actually hoping to pull this next photo off seriously during my pregnancy because it is so cute and beautiful at the same time. I also loved that I was a prego-belly shot without actually having to show my face in the picture. Since this Spring in SEATTLE has been all about sunshine, I was able to capture a great long shadow moment complete with Andrew’s shadow photo bombing me while riding scooters with Luca in the driveway! So, this is definatley a silly version of this shot, but by using instragm’s black and white high contrast filter, it feels like a great shot with high drama of an even bigger than life belly.
Pin #64: Prego Shadow
Around 39 weeks pregnant with Colette, April 2013
64 down..36 to go….
Pin #61: Knock Off Ballard Design Pin Boards
I’ve had this one in my que for a long while. In fact, I’ve had it partially done in my dining room for several months!! I finally just finished it last weekend and it is one of my favorite projects EVER.
Cheap, easy, and best of all, I got to use my staple gun again! YES.
Pin #61: Ballard Design Pin boards, very pricy $$$ $50 for that tiny one. We can do better right??
Similar to my post about wrapping canvas with fabric for art, aka Pin #44 and Pin # 45, you simply need a few supplies. In this case I had three 16×16 inch magnetic cork boards that I had up in my old house in the little play nook in the basement that I wanted to repurpose. The were also wrapped with a cheerful childish polka dot print for that space. I’ve decided I want to put these up in my kitchen to take the place of putting crap up on the fridge. Having loads of stuff on my fridge stresses me out so this is a great solution for those things that you DO want to put up temporarily like birth announcements, school pictures of cousins, fun cards, kids art projects, etc. Also, these are going to go on the wall facing INTO the kitchen. In other words, you have to be IN the kitchen to see them. Upon walking in, you don’t see the clutter.
The notes on this pin were from someone who also planned on doing a ‘hack’ of the item. They said they were going to cover them in burlap. I had that intention going to the fabric store, but the burlap just reeked of what seemed to smell like gas to me. (Pregnant nose). So I went with wrapping them in a linen fabric. It was much pricier at $14.99 a yard, but luckily I had a 40% off coupon. I think the look is much nicer too in the end.
My ‘naked’ pin board. After sitting in the garage for a year, they were in pretty bad shape, but the beauty of this kind of project is making something old look new again!
Staple Gun = old to new!
I marked dots every 2 inches around the edges for the decorative upholstery nails.
Nails in! I chose silver since I have stainless steel appliances in my kitchen. The original Ballard Designs boards had an antique gold.
The hired help….precision work.
Wha-la! Milo is not too impressed but I LOVE them!! *note wall color is best seen in the first picture with the naked board. This iphone photo makes the wall look quite green.
I’m sure they will get more cluttered, but for now, I’m loving looking at some recent instagrams, baby announcements, Luca’s soccer team photo and a few other goodies. *note above about the wall color.
61 down..39 to go….
