I've been having a lot of fun decorating my apartment with things I've found here and there and things I've been making. I'll show the kid's room first because this is the room that I'm most proud of!!! I think their room turned out so cute for a little boy and girl to share!!!
The Kid's Room:
It hasn't changed too much since I posted pictures when we were living in Boise and it was just Brady's cowboy room.
The biggest changes are that I had to make all of Olivia's bedding and include her in the room by making it somewhat "girly."
My mom gave me the three stars above the window and at first I didn't know where I was going to put them so I was just holding them and walking around my house aimlessly looking at places where they might look good.
When I walked into the kid's room it just clicked that they would be so perfect up there and I think they totally bring the look together! (Thanks Mom!)
As you walk into the room this picture is the first thing that you see. My mom found the frame and the sign at D.I. (yeah, we heart D.I.!) She also took this cute picture of the kids and I made this matte, if you will, with a red bandana and hot-glued it to the frame.
Rustic and cute for $1.50!
As you look to the left these pictures are hanging on the wall in
the empty space before Olivia's crib.
I've been wanting to make some sihlouettes of the kids for quite some time now and got an idea off of a cute blog the other day to use scrap-book paper and embellishments. I thought it would be a cute way of making the room both of theirs.
I've tried putting little touches here and there that include Olivia and make it her room too!
I found these frames at where else, the D.I. for $1.50 a piece
and I already had all of the other materials.
To hang the pictures I just stapled some bandana strips onto the backs of the frames.
The sihlouettes themselves were very easy to make. I just took a picture of each of my kid's profiles (the hardest part!). I had Brady look up slightly so his sihlouette is looking up at Olivia's and for Olivia I was just lucky to get her to sit still and look in the right direction!!!
Then I uploaded the pictures onto my camera from my picture card and copied them to a Word Document where I opened the picture toolbar and made the picture into a black and white outline and cropped the picture to elimate printing extra ink that wasn't necessary to print.
Then I just printed and cut out around the sihlouette, leaving space so I could do a detailed cut. I then put the sihlouette on the paper that I wanted to use and cut through both papers at the same time along the sihlouette to get the outline. Easy!!!
(TIP: when taking the picture have their profile fill up your screen,leaving as little around the edges as possible. Then when you're editing the picture you can make it whatever size you'd like)
Olivia's picture has a red polka-dot background but for some reason it looks pink in this picture (must be the flash).
Underneath their sihlouette I put the words that describe what their name means.
Brady's bed:
Olivia's Bed:
I feel really proud of myself for making Olivia's bedding!!! I didn't know if I could actually pull it off but I decided to do it and just winged it and it came out so adorable!!! I wanted to make it really nice so that when the next little boy "GRAFFER" decides to come along he can use it(since he will share a room with Brady, and hopefully Olivia will have a girly room!)
Here's what I did: I bought 2 denim curtain panels from the D.I. for $2.00!!! They already had the ties on the top so I instantly knew that I wanted to cover Olivia's bumper with them. I then bought some really cute dark brown material with white swiss polka dots (really small polka dots on them). The denim is on the outside and the brown is on the inside.
I also used the denim remnants to make a box-pleated skirt for around the crib. All of this cost me $11, which I think is really awesome because I'd been pricing out bumpers and crib skirts for weeks and the cheapest ones I could find that were cute would have come to a total of over $36.00!!!
Plus, it feels really great when you know that you made something all by yourself!
For the two pillows: I took 2 blue bandanas (yup, from D.I., a quarter a piece and sewed the edges and then covered a pillow form and tied the corners together. The other pillow I slip-covered one of my old couch pillows with some faux-cowhide fur.
I used one of Brady's top sheets as her crib sheet and just tucked it under
the matress using "hospital corners."
This is Olivia's mobile and I'm really proud of this too!!! I had the vision in my head and I think it came out cute (just don't look too close!!!)
I had bought her a mobile for her other room so I just looked at how they constructed it and then winged it again. It was actually pretty easy and I used up some of my remnants so it was FREE!!!
I still need to make Olivia some of her name letters that I'll hang over her crib. That's my last project for their room and then I'm done!
Eventually I'd like to make them a retro kitchen to go along with the vintage stove that I inherited from my Great-grandmother.
Here's the miscellanous parts of their room:
Brady's Nightstand:
I made the lampshade (still need to add some fringe to the bottom),found the stacking star boxes at a yard sale for $4 and I've had the frame since I was a teen. I'm going to change the picture out eventually.
Brady's "library:"
Where he also displays his super cool Teepee tents that I got at a used children's store in Maine for $2.00!!!
He also likes his football goal posts that he found with Daddy at D.I. for 50 cents!!!
Olivia's Dresser:
We use her changing table as a dresser and a place to store diapers and wet ones. Above the dresser we keep the baby books and on the hanging shelf (which one of my brother's made) hangs Brady's cowboy hat, his Quarter collection, and his nature box.
Onto to the rest of the house!!!!
The Livingroom:
This is basically the first thing you see as you walk into our apartment(but from an angle as the door is to the left of this).
This small wall seperates the diningroom from the kitchen and the other half of the room is the livingroom.
I made these curtains and the ones in the background on our "buffet tables" to hide books and our DVD collection. It was really easy and I just attached them with spring rods, which are adjustable to the space.
I also re-made these livingroom curtains by using leftover material to add to the bottom and top of the curtain panels I already had.
I made the large pillow, got the smaller tan one from D.I. for $1 and the other two red ones from Wal-Mart on sale for $9.99 each(they're silk so that was a good deal!)
We have a small balcony off of the livingroom with sliding glass doors. It's nice because we can see the Perinne Bridge from our apartment. I'm planning on having some herbs, tomatoes and flowers out there this summer.
Now we just have to figure out what to do with all of our strollers!!! We have the bike trailer in the diningroom, the double jogger in the entryway and the single stoller on the balcony along with Chris' bike! I'm going to be getting a bike soon too...we may just have to get a storage unit here in our complex!
The Kitchen:
I really love our little kitchen. It's really cute and has just enough space for right now-keeping me happy until I can have a nice big kitchen with tons of counter and cupboard space someday!
The Diningroom:
Our trusty table made another cross-country move with us! I picked up these two pressboard paintings at a yard sale, total: $20! (great deal considering they still had the $30 tags on them from Home Goods!)
This is a little "vingette," if you will that I composed of yard sale finds and
clearance items at Wal-Mart!!! Total cost was $18 for EVERYTHING!!!
The Hallway:
I am still in progress with finishing my family gallery in the hallway
(I have some pictures ordered and still need a few more frames...)but I love how this came out! I have pictures from our childhood, our wedding,our seperate families and our little family.
Most of the pictures are in sepia tone but there are a few in color too,which I think makes it have some interest.
Our Bedroom:
I really love our bedroom because it's big and bright and ALL OURS!!! It's so nice having a room to ourselves again and not having children in with us! It has really helped me to sleep better at night.
We also have an AWESOME walk-in-closet and vanity/dressing area which I really love too!
This is our brand-new bed!!! Isn't it lovely? I LOVE having a REAL bed for the first time!!!!
I set up our bench underneath of the windows and found these two matching
brand-new POTTERY BARN pillow slipcovers at D.I. for $2.00!!!
The Bathroom:
I took some western-style pictures that I had collected from calendars and my personal photography (cactus, Idaho wheat, Joshua trees etc.)and framed them using bamboo placemats as the background. I got all 4 placemats in a package at Target for $1...not bad for some interesting art!!!
