Audrey's Room Reveal

I feel like we worked on this project for a hundred years.  And the truth is, it isn't quite finished yet.  But really, what in this house ever is?  Things are always evolving and changing as we get used to living in tighter spaces and with less stuff.  

Audrey was so surprised by her room transformation and we are very pleased with how it turned out. 

Especially since we started with this:

before

after

The most notable thing that we are still missing is the bedskirt.  My mom seamstress is still working on completing the box pleated skirt in the striped fabric.  I figure I can wait for the free labor. 

The fabric was super duper cheap.  It's from Ikea and comes in at a whopping $6.99 per metre.  When we found it, I was so surprised at the heavy weight of the fabric and the perfect colour palate it gave me to work with.  If you remember, Audrey wanted a riot of colour and I wanted calm, simple and more neutral.  I feel like we really struck a perfect balance here.

We both really love the desk wall.  Jay made the desk out of two brackets we bought and some wood he cut to fit the exact space.  I painted the brackets in the same aqua as the bed to unify the space.  I especially love how all the bright colours pop against the dark chalkboard wall here.  The desk is the perfect size for Audrey, although it doesn't offer any storage.  She isn't really one to put things away anyway ; )

This way, her pencils and markers are right out on display so she can keep things tidy (hopefully).

I also think this little hook system will help keep her things up off the floor.  It's funny, when I was spraying out all the frames I absolutely detested this lime green colour we used, but now it's one of my favourite parts of the room.  Audrey, of course, loves it.

So there you go.  One room looking good.  I'll talk about sources and paint colours in another post.

What do you think of Audrey's new room?

xo Meg

Project Surprise Room - Part 2

Last week, while our kids were away at the cottage with my parents, we did a major overhaul on Audrey's room. If you remember, it looked like this:

before

Poor kid.

  I have a few posts lined up about this project (there were lots of small DIYs in here) but for now, check out my girl's reaction to her new and improved bedroom:

She had no idea we were working on this while she was away. And the good news is that she loved it.

   Slowly, but surely, we are working away at this house.  Things are really starting to look like 'us' in a lot of rooms.  

    The basement is nearing completion - Elliott is now in his new room downstairs and loves having his own space. We even watched our first official family movie in the basement family room last night. I can't tell you how much happier I feel now that things are shaping up.  I'm a homebody and it's really important to me that our house feels like home. We've spent a lot of months with somebody else's decorating choices. And we will spend many more while we budget and work on the things that are important to us.   

Have a wonderful Monday!

xo Meg

Project Surprise Room

In about a week, my kids are heading to the cottage to spend a week with their Nanny, Grandpa and Auntie.  They are so looking forward going and love everything to do with cottage life - swinging in the hammock with a good book, playing on the beach, swimming and boating.  I've written about Cedar Beach before and what it means to me and my family.  It's my true north.

While they're gone, I have some big surprise plans for Audrey.  When we moved into our house, her room was one of the first ones we painted.  It's pale lilac, although I know she wishes it was a much brighter colour.  But that's all we've done.  I wrote about that here, you can check out the little bit of progress we've made.

The list of projects for this room was long. And sadly, we've yet to accomplish anything on the list. Not. A. Thing.  In all fairness, we have been working hard on other reno projects around here.  However, it's my goal to complete a few projects to make her room something special while she's gone.  And then surprise her when she gets back!

This is the fabric for her long pillow.  

 

It's been purchased and is just sitting there waiting to be sewn.

This is the bed:

She wants a brightly coloured room so we're going with turquoise.

We found her chandy in someone else's trash.  My favorite kind of treasure. We're planning to dress it up with a paint job. I have yet to choose a colour.  I will likely choose something pulled from the striped fabric we're using. Pink?  Any colour suggestions would be appreciated.

Additionally, a chalkboard wall is happening on the desk wall, a la:





I have a zillion ideas swirling around in my head.  I'm always good at making inspiration boards for a space - but it's somehow hard for me to commit the ideas to the actual room and actually get it done.  There are a few craft type projects I'd like to create for the space but we'll see what kind of time crunch I run up against.

Some things that also need to be addressed:

• hooks for hanging sweatshirts and pjs
• hooks/jewelry organization/display
• hang string lights?
• make a pompom garland/flower/paper/other creative garland 

Isn't planning a surprise FUN??

xo Meg 

Away

This little peanut has a gymnastics competition out of town this weekend.

The girl does gymnastics, not the dog.

Hopefully she does as well at this one as she did at the last one.  Check out her gold bling! She's such a champ!

Not much work will be getting done around this house while I'm away.  But I'm starting to feel good about things in this little house.  Getting settled and feeling like it's home. 

I hope you have a happy weekend.  

xo Meg

Scavenging

Summer vacation officially began for my kids last week.  They are the type of kids who thrive on doing stuff - sports, hanging out with friends, going places and seeing things.  They like to be busy.

I, however, prefer to chill. But that's a whole other story.

You know the debate about over-scheduling your kids?  About how they need down time?  My kids are both very active in their sports and social lives and they don't ever seem to want down time. I worry that they are over-scheduled all the time.  However, I don't want them sitting around staring at a screen (computer, ipod, tv, etc) in their down time either.

It's week one of summer vacation and I'm already hearing the dreaded, "I'm bored, Mom!"

So when I found this fun pin on Pinterest, I thought we'd give it a try.

I basically used the same list, with a few additions.  You could do this in your own backyard but I sent my kids to the green just across the street from my house.  

Here's Audrey, showing me the stuff she found.

The prize for completing the scavenger hunt was a popsicle!

Overall, I'd say the Nature Scavenger Hunt was quite a success.  My kids really enjoyed it.  Maybe I'd put some trickier items on the list for them next time and have them pick up 5 pieces of garbage.  They did complete it much faster than I thought they would!

What are you doing to keep your kids busy and off the screens this summer?

xo Meg