Pinteresting Project #4 (week 3)

   This week I finished those storage boxes for the office-turned-nursery.

   I got the idea from these blogs: Mandy's Kraft Exploits, Make it and Love it,  and Positively Splendid, all of which I found pinned on pinterest.

   I didn't really follow any of their instructions.

   I bought the size boxes I wanted at Walmart for .60 cents because I didn't have any boxes around that were in good enough condition or the size I wanted. I found some scrap fabric at Hancock's that I thought would match the nursery, made some paper mache glue*, cut the fabric, glued it on (following those directions on Positively Splendid) and waited for it to dry. I put a handle on one but once I had it on, I didn't love it so decided to leave it off the other two.

     I like the way they look on the shelf and love the extra space they will provide for baby clothes, diapers etc. They cost a total of $1.50 each and really didn't take much time at all, except waiting for them to dry.

Here are a pair of socks a friend gave me. I'm going to use this bowl for her cutest socks and/or hair bows

                                              *Combine ½ cup flour and 2 cups cold water in a bowl.

Boil 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add the flour and cold water mixture.

Bring to a boil again.

Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of sugar.

Let cool. The paste will thicken as it cools.

It ends of a little clumpy but that is okay.

Nesting

   While we were still in Central Asia I overheard a skype conversation between Brian and his mom where she said "If Kelleigh is nesting, she is more than welcome to paint the office and make it Brileigh's room" All I thought was, I am THE worst painter and have a very hard time finding motivation to do big projects like that, I don't think I'll be painting!

  Yesterday I painted the office which is now affectionately referred to as Brileigh's room.

  My sister Olivia helped me out with picking out the paint, priming, and getting the first coat on. She also helped keep me motivated. My mother-in-law helped me move all the stuff out of the room, finished the second coat (notice I wrote finished, if she had simply helped I would have said finish. She did it all by herself!) and this morning we peeled off the paint, touched up the trim, moved stuff back into the room and found a new home for the things we no longer wanted in it.

 This small space was created by my in-laws when they put up a wall in one of their bedrooms. It is accessed by walking through Josiah's (that's my 10 year-old- bro-in-law) room. Josiah will be sleeping on the couch the next 4 months while Brian and I are staying in his room. He approves of the renovations and has been a good sport about making the sacrifice.

Here is a before of the room (after I had already removed most of the stuff from the shelves.)

The colors were DARK green, brown and grey, so I got brave and choose yellow thinking then we could keep the brown and grey, and I've really gotten into that yellow/grey color scheme! Of course that meant a brighter yellow rather than a soft yellow and A LOT of primer

End result: A bright space for us to use as an office and baby changing area

I am in the process of finishing some boxes to put Brileigh's clothes in and plan on putting a baby changing pad on the right side of the desk. Also, this green chair is going to be painted and I'm keeping an eye out for a deal on a nice yellow/brown/grey schemed cushion. 

The vase was on my in-laws porch, she was going to toss it but it ends up working well in the room, keeping an eye out for a good price on some pretty fabric flowers.

Might make a fabric flower and sew it on that lampshade, might not ;)

And of course the yarn ball hanging from the ceiling and the hemp basket are from this weeks pinteresting project. Don't they look so nice in this space? 

This piece of furniture was made by my mother-in-law a few years back. Even though the red would not have clashed with the yellow, I wanted to keep the number of colors in the room to a minimum (yellow, brown, and grey are enough plus I'm throwing in some blue/teal accents.) So we painted this toy-shelf-turned-Brian's-dresser grey to match the trim. Looks nice, huh? I think so...

Pinteresting Week #2 "Bird's Nest" baby mobile

    This weeks pinteresting project started out with me wanting to create a simple mobile to hang in the corner of the room over Baby Brileigh's cradle. Originally, my sister and I were going to do something like this, but after going to the store and seeing a pretty grapevine wreath (which was cheaper than an embroidery hoop) we decided to do something a little different.

     We followed the instructions on this blog (from a picture I'd repined on pinterest of course) and made yarn balls to hang from the grapevine. The blog she followed also had instructions for a yarn bowl, which I made later with the extra paper mache glue. I still have a lot left and am planning on making these boxes for my next project. They should give us some nice storage for diapers and such and will be a part of next weeks pinteresting project which includes a baby changing station!

   Here is a look at how we completed this pinteresting project. If you are interested in doing the same, you can follow the links above as I don't have full instructions. The only thing I did that they had yet to do was actually hang the balls, and I added some pretty lace ribbon to my bowl.

Step 1: gather material, make paper mache glue, blow up ballons to desired size, turn on your favorite pandora radio station for crafty motivation

Step 2: wrap yarn around balls (follow her instructions here, we did it and it worked. I might have worn latex gloves if I had some because I was washing the stuff off my hands and arms all day) We put a towel over our laps and worn old t-shirts, it's always messy doing this type of project. Before we began we set up a "drying station" by hanging wire hangers on a drying rack and putting newspaper on the ground. It worked perfectly. 

Step 3: Hang balls to dry, this takes a long while. To make sure they were completely dry we waited over night and then some. Don't rush the process 

I don't have a photo of step 4 (just like I don't have one of us wrapping the balls because, well, my hands were covered in goop) but this is where you carefully let the air out of the ballon and gently pul it away from the yarn. If you let the air out too quickly it might pull in the yarn and your ball can collapse. It almost happened to us, but we recovered it nicely. 

Step 5: Hang balls, step back and admire your handiwork :) 

My 3-year-old nephew was here when I was hanging it and called the wreath a birds nest and the balls eggs. I thought it was cute, and so the name "bird's nest baby mobile" but you can hang it in any area of your home! 

I got the idea for this bowl from Caroline's Homework and followed her easy instructions. I did use hemp instead of yarn, and added a pretty ribbon to dress it up a little for my baby girls "nursery" (we are living in my 10-yr-old bro-in-laws bedroom for the next 4 months) 

Keep checking back for more Pinteresting nesting projects and to see before and after pictures of the space we're painting today!