In The Jungle Part 2

When I did our baby's nursery with the glow in the dark starry night mural on the ceiling, I was inspired to revamp the rest of it.  I've had the jungle theme since our now eight year old was a baby, but I really became inspired when my kids told started singing the "In the Jungle, the mighty Jungle" song.  I wrote about the ceiling mural and how to do it here in the first post about the nursery, but I still didn't show the whole finished product.  I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out!

 

 

Obviously, this isn't a crib anymore.  Jackson figured out how to pull himself up and flip his feet over the rails so we transitioned him to a toddler bed.  I was so sad though!  It is just a tangible reminder that he isn't a baby anymore!  Anyways, I found the letters spell his name at A.C. Moore and painted them with the undiluted paint from doing the wash for the ceiling mural.  I loved this bedding from Target, but sadly they don't have it anymore.  They do have some other cute jungle themed sets that are pretty inexpensive.  We had quite a few stuffed animals that fit the theme so I set those out to decorate with.  Jack Jack loves his giraffe from my mom, although they occasionally are on the outs and Giraffe has apparently committed some travesty according to my two year old and is not allowed to be on the bed.  Two year old problems...

One of my kids' favorite songs is "In the Jungle" which is basically what inspired our nursery so it seemed like the logical choice to use that for some word wall art:

Halloween: Angry Birds Style

Last year, we decided it would be really fun to dress up thematically for Halloween.  At least, I decided that would be fun while the boys would still go for it and Brian would humor me.  I've been looking back nostalgically this year since the boys thought it was so fun dressing up as a group that they want to do it again this year just this time Avengers style.  This means, however, that being the only girl, I automatically get to be Black Widow with the cat suit as I accompany a miniature Hulk, Captain America and Thor around the neighborhood.  I'm somewhat doubtful that would be as cute as last year's white angry bird costume on me!

So many people asked me though how I made last year's costumes that I thought I would share it since it was really easy, and as I usually strive for, really economical. 

In The Jungle Part 1

Back in January, I was reading some old stories looking for some fun ones to read aloud to my boys when I came accross The Princess and The Goblin by George MacDonald.  While I haven't read it to the boys yet, I was really excited about an idea in it:  the main character's bedroom ceiling is painted like the night sky.  Such a fun idea!  Add this to the fact that while I was mulling the idea over, I saw a magazine with a bunch of "inspiring" nursery ideas and wasn't too thrilled over any of them so I felt challenged to do better.

Baby Jack Jack's nursery was exactly the same from when Luke was in there.  When we moved in to the house, the bedroom was pink and all the trim, including the window mullions, was a really bright teal very similar to our house color.  After that, I just wanted something really soothing to go with the jungle bedding that we had.  Hence the gender-neutral creamy wall color that is probably the biggest clue that I was still hoping for a daughter one day.  I think I have been secretly dying to inject a huge does of personality and creativity into our house (thank, you pinterest!).  When Ethan was born, Brian and I still lived in our small one bedroom apartment in SoCal and so the poor kiddo's crib was squished into a corner of the living room in an effort to keep our expenses down since I had just finished college.  Pretty uninspiring.  Our next place was much better since we actually had two bedrooms but the nursery was white and still fairly bland.  So now, since we actually own our house now, I can do whatever I want (or more accurately, whatever I can sell to Brian...)

He took the idea fairly well.  There was a lot of silence until I promised that he wouldn't have to do any of it and if it came out badly, I would repaint the ceiling white again.  He did like the fact that I would be repainting the damage from where the previous owners had just painted over the wall paper and liked the idea that one day, the ceiling would transition well to the Star Wars room that seems inevitable with three boys.

I stared at blue paint for a couple weeks to make sure that the blue would go well with the creamy walls and would work with the jungle theme. 

And after finding a good one, I got started.  I usually don't tape since I can hold a really steady line when cutting in but painting upside down is a whole different ball game.  Tape is important!

I used Valspar's Indigo Steamer in an eggshell finish so when I did the wash, it would be easier as well as have a little bit of a sheen that would look good with the stars on it.  The paint I used was low VOC which is awesome for the nursery since no one wants to gas out their baby.  Not good.  The paint also had primer already mixed in so it only took two coats which is huge since it was just builder paint up there and so it was really thirsty.  It was a little more pricey, about $32, than regular paint but worth it since it smelled less and covered better. 

I bought a gallon and used two thirds of it for the just under 11' by 11' room's ceiling. 

A little trick when closing the paint can so it doesn't splatter: put a plastic bag over it when hammering the lid closed.  It catches it all!  Because my white countertop does not need blue polka dots.

I still had some leftover of the creamy color, milestone, by Valspar from the walls to mix into the blue to do the wash.  By using the wall color, it makes it pretty much a given that the tone of the wash will work with both colors.  White would also work but it would have been a little more stark and not as easy to blend.  Note: I made waaaaay to much paint for the wash; a cup would have been generous.  I forgot how far it goes!  I didn't mix the two colors completely; just swirled them to get some variation in the wash for added depth. 

My mom and I did some fun paint techniques when we were decorating my parents' house and she taught me how to do a faux finish with a really wet washcloth.  I found an old washcloth willing to take one for the team, soaked it with water (but not dripping) and dipped in the paint and then started having fun on the ceiling. 

The great thing is that if you get too much paint on, you can just wipe it off and work it around until you like it.  As you can tell, I am a huge Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night fan!

I looked like a smurf!  Mom would have been proud ;-)

I know a lot of people really like the stick on glow in the dark stars but it made me kind of uncomfortable putting them on the ceiling of my everything-I-touch-goes-immediately-in-my-mouth baby.  I thought painting them on would look a whole lot more finished too.  I found glow in the dark paint at A.C. Moore for $2.50 to use instead so it will be so fun for Baby Jack Jack to stare at in the middle of the night!

In the middle of the swirls, I painted a diamond star and a six pointed one at the ends to create shooting stars.  I used the wrong end of the paintbrush dipped in paint to put on all the little dotted stars following the pattern of the wash.

I can't wait to finish it off by painting the words to the song In The Jungle on the wall:  "In the Jungle, The Mighty Jungle, The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to pull it all together.  It seems so appropriate since I grew up singing that song at Mount Herman, a camp in Northern California, with my siblings that will always hold a special place in my heart!  I sing the song all the time to my boys and have adapted it to make it a little longer and fun.  The boys are confused though that everyone else "forgets" the verses about the squirrel and the camel! 

When I get it finished, I'll post more pics!  Sadly, it is taking more time than I would like since the last time I tried to get it done, I think I broke my toe (which still hurts, by the way ;-) ) But, as an update, Luke is doing much better!

If this inspires you at all, I'd love to hear what you are doing too!

Weekly Menu Planning Fun

I have had a long running problem that has somehow turned into a running joke.  I, extremely frequently, forget to take food out of the freezer to defrost in time for dinner.  It is to the point that when I call Brian at work with the "I messed up" tone, he immediately asks me if I did it again which the answer is most often "yes".  Cheap take out is the answer to feeding our ravenous family on those nights which is neither very healthy or very economical.  As Brian and I have been working on our budget, I have been trying to stretch our money as far as possible so these unexpected (relatively though, since it happens all the time!) trips out for food was adding up and something I decided needed to end.  I have committed to being a better meal planner, or more accurately, more advanced meal planner!  To help keep it all straight and to help keep people from eating things that are part of an upcoming dinner, I made a menu board for really cheap since that is also a huge value.

I wanted something really cute rather than just a plain whiteboard or piece of note paper since, as girls know, if something is cute, we will use it more.  So, I headed to Walmart since they have the cheapest frames around that still look nice.  I picked up two for $3 apiece and a package of three dry erase markers for $3.50 and walked out for $10 for two projects.  When I finish the other one, I'll post it too!  I used a few craft supplies that I already had but I think most people have some extra glue sticks and scrapbook/construction paper saved somewhere.

Getting Crafty

My sister in-law is getting married this week and I'm privileged to be one of her bridesmaids.  As one of my duties, I made the bow bouquet for the rehearsal from the bows and ribbons from the gifts from one of her showers.  Since she is registered at Pottery Barn, there were a bunch of beautifully wrapped gifts from there all sporting the same sage green grosgrain ribbon and silk flower embellishment.  And that is about where I started to get carried away...

All the ribbons, flowers and bows matched.  They seemed far too fun to just tape them on a paper plate.  So I had to do something pretty with them right?

I started with making the white ribbon into ribbon rosettes by hand stitching them and I thought they came out super cute.  All I had to do was to gather and circularly attach one side of the ribbon and a rosette was born.  I think I was a little too proud of myself for being able to do it even though my hands hurt from the fibro pain after a little while with it but it was a small victory in crafty-ness for me.

I used a Styrofoam ball and wooden dowel to make the form of the bouquet and started by hot gluing the green ribbon over it. 

I wired the ribbon with florist's wire to stick into the Styrofoam.  Yay for needle-nose pliers!  These ended up being my must-have tool since my fingers were getting raw from twisting the wire and then forcing the ends into the Styrofoam until I realized that the pliers could grip it for me.  Revolutionary.  The long green ribbons ended up looking really fluffy and foliage-like as I tucked the loops around the "flowers".

At this point, I started to get excited since it actually looked like a bouquet and not just a mess of ribbons and bows.  My fear that this would turn out to be an embarrassing wad was beginning to look like it might have been unfounded.

I wrapped the dowel "stems" with another ribbon, added a charm that was on one of the gifts, and tied a bow.  This was all held together with pretty much all the glue that my glue gun came with when I purchased it.  So, if a little is good and more is better, then all of it has to be the ideal, right?  I think I got a little heavy handed with it but there was no way I wanted that thing to fall apart after spending hours working on it.  And what is more, my sister in-law loved it when I gave it to her early since my boys were taking a keen interest in it.  I think they thought that it looked like a great alternative weapon to battle with instead of only light sabers.  While I was being crafty, they were trying to figure out how to destroy things; there is a profound difference between girls and boys.

Happy crafting!