Nursery to Playroom Makeover

I am so thrilled to say that our Playroom is now finished!  It is now officially my favorite room in the house.  Kind of like the nursery was before we had a baby and I would just sit in there and enjoy it...wait, y'all didn't do that?  That's not normal?  Well, then just forget I said that.  Anyhoo, I thought I'd share some pictures of the nursery before so you could see where we started.

In the past few weeks, we have been busy converting the nursery into a playroom.  You can read here about converting the closet into a dress up room.  We kept the paint color and window treatments because I loved the shades of green.  We also kept the rocker because we needed a cozy place to cuddle and read.

Here is the view of the room as I walk down the hall...  I just love seeing it!

One of the first projects I tackled was creating an art display wall. It was, of course, inspired by Pinterest posts and ended up being much more simple than I anticipated.  I'm sorry that I don't have pictures of the process, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  First, I went to a local thrift store and bought $18 worth of frames and framed art and then to Home Depot and bought 3 colors of spray paint.  I removed the glass and art and painted the frames.  Then Robbie and I mounted the frames on the wall with 3M mounting strips.  We put up a few wooden clothespins with more mounting strips and voila!  Instant art display!

We hit up IKEA for some of the furniture: the EXPEDIT shelving unit and one of their $9.99 end tables which we are using as a kids' table and two of their kids' chairs.  I found the pink and polka dot baskets at Target.

In the corner I wanted to create an "activity wall" so I mounted one of the painted frames from the thrift store and painted the wall behind it with chalkboard paint.  On the other wall I put up a magnet board that I found at Goodwill and painted to match the room.  Underneath the boards I hung some cute little buckets I found on the $1 aisle at Target to store chalk, eraser, etc.  So far, they are both a big hit!  (In case you're curious, on the magnet board I put some magnetic pattern blocks along with a pattern block mats printed from prekinders.com.)

For more storage (especially book storage) I used an old bookshelf from Robbie's college days.  It was looking a little scruffy, so I painted it with some extra trim paint we had.  The white looks nice and clean and ties in with the white little chairs.

The last little project I tackled was inspired by this art I saw on Etsy:

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I just loved it and was mistakenly fooled by Pinterest into thinking I could re-create it with a canvas, some letter stickers, and a little bit of paint.  Not exactly.  I did my best but it turns out that stickers don't really like to stick to canvas.  And when you add a little bit of paint, they move.  So, the girls and I did our best and with a white paint pen to touch up the lettering, I think it turned out...ummm...ok.  Not great, but definitely hand-made which is what I wanted for the playroom.

 

The girls already love the room and I love that many of our toys have moved back there!  It's the perfect place to read books with them, for Campbell to have some quiet time while Maggie naps, and for the girls to make memories! 

Oh, and I'm proud to say that this whole room makeover has been completely funded by selling a few baby items on Craigslist!  Yay for reusing items we already owned, finding cheap deals at thrift stores and IKEA, and making money by selling a few things we don't use any more!

5 on Friday

It's been a while since my last 5 on Friday post due to our fun, busy summer!

 Here are 5 reasons I'm loving my girls this week:
1.  Maggie is doing really great with her potty training.  She cracks me up when she's on the potty because she'll put her finger to her lips and say "Shhh...listen" like she's about to do something really special and important.  I have been trying to get a picture or video of this, but she refuses to do it on camera...

2.  The girls and I met my friend, Anna, and her two boys, Hampton and Daniel for our annual trip to Edventure.  Anna and I were in the same sorority in college and it's always so nice to get to spend some time with her.  Campbell and Hampton look like twins with their blond hair and I think that Maggie and Daniel will look alike also as he has darker hair with a bit of curl.

The kids had a great time pretending to be newscasters, dressing up like firefighters and playing on a firetruck, playing drums against a green screen and watching themselves on TV playing with an African drum, and checking out the butterflies in the butterfly exhibit.

3.  The girls love their bubble machine...they must taste good, too!

4.  Robbie has been waiting for 4 years for Campbell to be able to play with him on the Wii and finally this summer she's starting to get good.  Her favorite is the sword fighting and she beats him a lot of the time!

Check out that serious face!

Celebrating her win

5.  Campbell and I have been doing a few reading activities during Maggie's naptime.  Most of the activities are ones I brought home from my classroom and involve word families and initial consonant sounds.  I'm always amazed at how quickly Campbell understands an activity and masters it.  This activity is one with a set of cards with different letters and corresponding sets of pictures of items with the initial consonant sounds.  We did this activity only once because she mastered it on the first try. 

Nursery to Playroom Makeover- Dress Up Closet

We are in the process of turning the nursery into a playroom.  We have moved the girls into a room together and so far they love being together as well as having a room just for them to play in.  I will be doing a series of posts on this transformation because it's been such a fun project for me!


One of our first ideas was to take the walk-in closet (no idea why the smallest room in our house has the biggest closet!)  and transform it into a dress up room.  This idea was borne out of several issues: 1. they love to dress up and we have lots of dress up items that we were struggling to shove into the dress up box that we had, 2. the closet had become a messy storage area for me and I really wanted to organize it and make it more functional, and 3. the nursery/playroom is very small and using the closet almost doubles the size of the room.

I started by taking the door off to open up the room.  Also, that leaves the section of the wall that would be hidden by an open door unobstructed and it's now been turned into an activity wall (a later blog post about that!).  I had some extra trim paint which I used to touch up where the hinges were.

Our first issue we had to address was storage.  I needed a dresser for Maggie's clothes that would fit into the closet.  We sold our nursery dresser (I didn't really like it anyway) on Craigslist and bought an inexpensive, but cute dresser also from Craigslist.  It was already painted pink and was perfect!   I also needed some storage for the top of the closet.  I keep a gifts box filled with toys I find on clearance ready for the many birthday parties the girls get invited to.  I also needed something to hold some of the larger toys the girls have (tunnel and tent from IKEA, specifically).  I found those two hot pink baskets at Home Goods.  The little basket between them holds Maggie's nebulizer and equipment. 

The next issue was hanging a second rod that was lower so the girls can reach it and hang the dresses up themselves.  That was no problem for Robbie and now the dresses are all within reach of the girls!  So, now the dresses are hanging and the hats, shoes, fairy wings, masks, jewelry, etc are all stored in the box.

We used the mirror that used to be above the nursery dresser by turning it on it's side and mounting it on the wall at a height that the girls can see themselves model their outfits!

The girls are loving their new dress up room and I'm loving that the dress up clothes and accessories aren't scattered throughout my living room as they're playing!

The Hopper Girls Tri-ed!

You might remember that last year I participated in my first mini-triathlon, the Ramblin' Rose.

The Ramblin' Rose is an all women's event and perfect for beginners.  I had a great time and talked so much about it that this year I was joined by 5 members of my family!  Two of my sisters completed the whole triathlon with me and my cousin, aunt, and mom did it as a relay. The past few months have been a lot of fun as we've talked about our training and planned for our big day.

Two of my sister, Sara's, friends, Kristen and Heather, also joined us. 

I was really happy with my times this year.  My goal was to finish in less than an hour and I made it in 58:07.  I shaved off a minute and a half off my swim time from last year and 4 1/2 minutes off my run time.  The bike ride this year was shorter so it's harder to compare, but I was definitely faster!  Last year I came in at 185th place overall and this year I came in at 59th place!

When I crossed the finish line, it was great to have my little family waiting on me and cheering me on!

A few minutes after I finished, I went back to run with my sister, Sara, across the finish line.  

My aunt, FA, did the swim for the relay team.  Their name was G.R.I.T.S. Tri Harder! (G.R.I.T.S. = Girls Raised In The South).

My cousin, Beth, (FA's daughter) did the bike ride.

 My mom did the run.

Julie, Sara, and I went back to run across the finish line with my mom.  (I'm not actually in this picture because I had fallen a little behind thanks to my 4 year old running partner who wanted to run with us ;) )

It was a fun experience and I'm even trying to convince some of them to join me at the Charlotte Ramblin' Rose in September!

Getting Organized (Post 1- Junk drawers and laundry closet)

One of my goals this summer has been to try to get a bit more organized.  We've been in this house for 6 years and there are areas that have just gotten junky.  I have been scouring one of my favorite websites, Pinterest, for ideas and inspiration. 


I started out small.  We have two junk drawers in our kitchen that were almost impossible to use because there was so much...well, er, ... junk in them.  This is what I started out with:

First, I went through the drawers and emptied them out.  I went through and trashed a lot of stuff that I'm not sure why we even kept in the first place.  After a trip to the Dollar Tree and Dollar General and spending less than $10 on baskets and spending a couple of hours sorting, this is what I ended up with:

Every basket has a purpose (even if that purpose is broad, ex. there is a basket for "connectors" such as tape, clips, etc).  Of course, there is also a miscellaneous basket, but I tried to keep that to a minimum.  If you look closely, you can learn a about us: one of us is addicted to pens (can you guess?  I'll give you a hint: it's not me), we have way too many bottles of krazy glue (mostly because we could never find any when we needed it), and our kids must not be too safe since we have an awful lot of child-proofing materials that are not being used...  (Also- a note to other wives: I did give Robbie a lesson in how to use the baskets and what goes in each one since they are not labeled. So far, that has helped :).)

The next organizing project I tackled was our laundry room.  Well, it's more like a laundry closet actually.  I saw this on Pinterest and was inspired.  I don't have a "before" picture of our laundry closet, but suffice it to say: we had 1 shelf and a bunk of junk on it.  Since we are doing laundry almost constantly at our house, this closet is open a lot of the time and I hated it.  Now, I love it and won't be embarrassed to have visitors see inside!

Check it out!  Here is what $12 in cute, color-coordinated baskets from Dollar Tree, a second shelf hung by my handy hubby, Robbie, a few cup hooks, some wooden clothespins, and some free printable labels will get you!

You'll notice a few of the labels are blank.  I laminated them all for durability plus that way I can write on the blank ones with a dry-erase pen and change them up as needed.  The little basket on the dryer is labeled "pocket treasures" for all the little things I dig out of pockets.

Be on the lookout for more Getting Organized posts!  Do you have any organization tips?  I'd love to hear them!

4th of July Celebration

We had a wonderful 4th of July.  We went to our favorite Baxter YMCA waterpark in the morning and then had a cookout with our friends and neighbors, the Popes.  The kids enjoyed playing in the baby pool while the grown ups enjoyed conversation and fun beverages!  

 

After dinner, we had fun with some fireworks and sparklers.

Many thanks to the Popes for having us over for a great 4th of July!

Ocean Lakes 2012

Last week we enjoyed our annual family vacation with my family.  This year it was our family, my parents, and my sister, Sara, her husband, John and his son, Potter.  We had an absolutely fabulous time.  The girls loved the pool and the beach.  Campbell is becoming a great swimmer and Maggie has no fear!  

We really enjoyed the porch on our house with its' view of the ocean.  The kids really enjoyed the porch on our house with the baby pool and bubble machine :)

There is so much to do at Ocean Lakes!  We went fishing, fed the ducks, and took many rides on the golf cart.

There was even some golfing...

Robbie and I even got to enjoy a double date night with my Sara and John.  I had an awesome fruity drink and we enjoyed spending some grown up time with the Hazzards!

Many, many thanks to my parents, aka Nana and Pop, for an awesome week!  We are so thankful for the memories!