Friday, April 30, 2010

Thrift Store Closing Sale

At least once a month I go to the Salvation Army Thrift Store during my lunch break. It is so conveniently located just two minutes down the road from my work. Today I went and found out that the store is closing. The only good thing about this was that the entire store was 50% off so I bought a few things. I got everything that is pictured for $22 but half of the total was spent on the one large framed seashell print. I tried to talk the clerk down but she wouldn't budge. So needless to say I am really bummed out that I won't be going thrifting as often now that the store is closed but I have a few new projects to keep me busy for a little while.

I am the most excited about the wooden lamp because I really like the style but it's obviously in need of a makeover! I have a specific project in mind for the small square picture frame but the rest of the frames I'll just have to store in the basement until something comes up. The tall glass jar will make an excellent flower vase after I wrap a little jute string around it. The smaller glass jar was just to cute and cheap to pass up! I'm sure I'll find some way to use it around the house. I can't wait to find time for my new projects. They'll have to wait until after this weekend because we are working on a little home improvement project that was inspired by this post.

Wish us luck!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I can't get enough of Chalkboard Paint!

Last week I found these goodies while thrifting. The two matching square picture frames were $1.20 each and the ceramic tray (minus the painters tape-I forgot to take a real "before" picture) was $2.20. All three items were in excellent condition and didn't need to be altered to look nice BUT I had some leftover Chalkboard spray paint that I couldn't ignore.




I painted the tray and decided to display my newest chalkboard in the downstairs bathroom. It turned out well and works great! The paint chips off only if you pick at it {which I discovered when trying to remove a piece of dog hair that got stuck to it while the paint was drying}. While I was re-accessorizing the bathroom I pulled an unused shadow box out of the basement and pinned my Siesta Key sand-dollars inside of it.




If you thought that project ended the chalkboard madness think again. I also painted the two matching picture frames. Then I found some beige linen fabric and attached it to the backing of the picture frames with spray glue. I did iron the fabric but because it's linen it still looks quite wrinkled. I am okay with that since I am going with the beach theme and it just makes them looked "weathered". Keeping with the beach theme I used my glue gun and attached some pretty seashells to the fabric. I love how my new art looks! The best thing about it is that at any time I can easily change what is in the frame.


Total cost of all projects was $8.10 which includes the three thrift store items, a roll of hemp string to hang the frames and a wooden plate stand to display the tray . I already had the shadow box, linen fabric, seashells, sand-dollars and chalkboard paint.

Post note: I was playing around with a new flash for our camera and don't think the pictures turned out great. Guess I need to practice some more with it before I do another post.

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

ALL LINKED UP:


Friday, April 23, 2010

We Are Family

I was just browsing through some recent pictures and for some reason these ones crack me up!


I have to wonder what was going through Averi's mind when all of this was going on.


~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sister Love

Here's some pictures of the girls "just horsing around"....




~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Reflections


Last night Averi slept for 9.5 hours without eating. She only woke up once and cried but it didn't last long and she put herself back to sleep. She is on such a great schedule right now:


6-6:45 am: Wake up and nurse

8:15 am: Eat breakfast (cereal and fruit)

9-9:30: Nap 45 minutes to 1.5 hours

11:00 am: Eat lunch (cereal and fruit or vegetable)

12:15 pm: Bottle (6 oz. formula)

12:30-1 pm: Nap 1.5 to 2.5 hours

4-4:30 pm: Bottle (6 oz. formula)

6:00 pm: Dinner (cereal and vegetable)

7:30-8 pm: Bed time

9-10:00 pm: Nurse and go back to sleep


In between all of this Averi is very content sitting around playing with toys, babbling and interacting with others. When I think back to her first few weeks I never imagined she would settle into such a predictable routine because of her colic. Now I am so thankful that we had a lot of patience and I feel like we did everything right. She is such a HaPPy baby!




~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

More fun with chalkboard paint


I have been looking for a little tree for Averi's bird theme nursery for quite a while. Nothing that I found was close enough to the "look" I was going for until this weekend when I was shopping the Kohl's clearance section. I found this tree on clearance for $4 and knew right away that it was perfect. I took a before picture {see below} but that was after I had removed the mini eggs that were hanging from it, which by the way are adorable so I saved them to be used on a future decorating craft.




The only thing that I didn't like about this tree was the color of the pot because it did not match Averi's room at all. Since I was already using the chalkboard spray paint for this project I figured I would paint the pot with it as well and it turned out great! It is the perfect addition to Averi's shelf.




I'm linked up to Just A Girl linky party! Check it out....



~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

"Magnetic" Chalkboard Project

I have been wanting to do another chalkboard project since I made a beach themed one for Arielle's room over a year ago. I still had leftover chalkboard spray paint and several more unused picture frames laying around the house so any project would have been a no or low cost to me.

Fortunately I found a cute "magnetic" picture frame on clearance at Hobby Lobby which only cost me about $3. The only part about the frame that I really liked was the pink magnetic piece that was screwed into the wooden frame {I forgot to take a picture of the picture frame before I took it apart}. So I got the idea to paint an 11" x 14" wooden frame, insert a chalkboard and glue the pink piece of metal to the middle of the chalkboard. After I painted the frame I wasn't happy with how the paint dried...it was really old paint and I think the frame a partial water damage. To fix this I simply sanded the paint down so the brown showed through. I liked how the distressing "aged" the frame but it needed more to make it look worn down. That's when I grabbed the screwdriver and paintbrush and began pounding away at it. The different sized dent marks gave it that final touch to make it look like it's been sitting around for years.
This project was so easy and serves two purposes...it holds magnets and you can write on it with chalk! I hung it up in Averi's nursery room above her Ikea hanging wall storage. I love how it turned out! Did you notice that I forgot to put the magnets on it before I took the pictures but you can use your imagination and pretend there is a little silver magnet holding up a note or a photo in the center.



I linked up to The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday linky party. Funny thing is that Wendy's post for the day was a pinboard that she created which was inspired by a "magnet" board from a store catalogue. I hope she likes my version of a magnet board.

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Friday, April 9, 2010

Averi ~ 6 Months Old

Last Friday Averi turned half a year old! She started the week off with {another} cold but despite that she has been so happy. She also appeared to be cutting a tooth because she kept sticking her toungue out to feel her gums all day but so far nothing has popped through.


Averi has started following the same schedule every day for about the past month and things are getting easier for us as far as adjusting to life with a new baby. The only bump in the road has been her night waking which always gets worse when she is sick. I decided that something needs to be done to get her to sleep through the night now that she is six months old. So for the past week, when she wakes up at 1:30 am every morning like a little alarm clock, I have not fed her. Of course she cries but she doesn't act hungry so I don't feel too bad about my decision. Her crying increments have decreased from 1.5 hours to 40 minutes in the past week...that is progress even if it is still a long period of time. The crazy thing is that she has been so good at falling asleep on her own for the past several months so I don't understand why she cries when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I think it might be a habit for her since just until a week ago I was still feeding her through the night and she may be wanting to be close to me since I work and we are apart during the day. Averi is very good at taking 2-3 naps a day as well. Overall she is a really good sleeper.

Another big accomplishment that Averi has made since she turned six months old is sitting up, quite well, on her own. She still falls over from time to time but at least she has gotten the hang up sitting straight up instead of her back leaning completely horizontally like she was doing before.



The best milestone so far has to be her first words! She says Mama & Dada often now and seems very proud of herself when she does. I swear she has been saying Mama when she cries since she was about two months old. Dada is a new one though and she definitely says it more often than Mama.

Things Averi enjoys doing to pass the time are the Jumparoo, sitting in her high chair playing with toys and eating of course, bath time with lots of kicking and nursing! She hasn't met a food she hasn't like yet...she gobbles it all up as fast as she can. Things she has eaten so far are green beans, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, squash and bananas. This next week she'll try peas, carrots and peaches. We have been giving her a sippy cup with water at mealtimes too. A funny {but annoying for me} thing that she does when she is eating is tries to suck on the bib. As of yet I haven't been able to feed her a complete meal with a bib on because it distracts her from eating.


So far we have yet to witness Averi rolling from her belly to her back. Arielle said she saw her do it one time in the crib but there has been no sign that she has done this any other time. Averi still gets a little aggrevated with playtime on her tummy but she is getting more and more used to it. I have a feeling that once she starts being able to roll from her belly to her back she will stop the night waking for good. She is doing a very good job at "standing" and has tremendous leg strength although there has been no sign of her starting to crawl or even scoot. I'm really not in a rush for this to happen anyway because we still need to baby-proof two sets of steps.


Way to go, Bear! We are all looking forward to what the next six months will bring!


~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Bug is Five!


It's still hard to believe but my first baby girl turned 5 years old today! I could tell when I picked her up after work that she had a very special day at school. For starters, she got to wear her pink sequin tierra headband all day long! I asked her if they did anything special for her since it was her birthday and she told me they served her a cupcake with sprinkles, her class sang the birthday song to her AND she got a goody bag which the "birthday man" hid for her to find. When she got home Daddy surprised her with balloons then off they went to the airport to pick up Gaby. Then it was my turn to surprise her...this time with another sprinkled cupcake! Tonight before she went to bed she told me, "Thank you for the special cupcake, I love you!" It was so sweet and so "big-kid-like".


Arielle has grown up so much in the past year. We are proud of her for so many reasons. She is a kind, caring soul that is very good at making friends. She loves her baby sister with all of her heart and is so good at talking/playing with her. She gets excited to help her Mommy and Daddy and constantly tells us how much she loves us. She truly amazes us with her desire to learn and ability to learn quickly. I'm going to miss the younger years but at the same time I'm looking forward to the next phase of her life....grade school, crushes, best friends. How exciting to share all of this with her!


Happy 5th Birthday...we love you, Bug!


~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Final Touches for Averi's Nursery

In the past six months I have spent many hours in Averi's room which has been plenty of time to decide what works and doesn't work as far as the decorations are concerned. One of the things that I liked the least was how the wall art was hanging by nails above the crib. So when I found these cute "glass knob" picture hangers that matched the wall shelf we already had I couldn't pass them up. Not only are the pictures more secured to the wall now but they look soooooo much better! The only other changes I made were rearranging the accessories on the bookcase and wall shelf. I also used some more brown paint on a couple of picture frames that I already had so that I could tie the room together with brown accents. I added the white and brown polka dots to the AVERI letters above the closet before Averi was born {with every last ounce of energy that I had left in me}.






Later this week I'll share my "magnetic" chalkboard project that I made for this room out of materials I had laying around the house. It turned out great!

~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Sunday, April 4, 2010

My Easter Peeps

We all had a wonderful Easter this year! The girls really enjoyed their baskets. I asked Arielle her favorite thing about the day and she said, "Spending time with you and Grandmom and Grandpop and the eggs." Yesterday we went to an Egg Hunt in the neighborhood so she got to bring home some plastic eggs which she hid all around the house and kept making everyone look for them. Her favorite one is half green and half dark pink. She is so easily amused!




~Momma to Bug n' Bear~

Thursday, April 1, 2010

A New BIGGER Bed


The time had come for us to buy a new mattress and we both liked the idea of upgrading to a king size bed. Without much hesitation we went shopping and found a great iron frame bed that I fell in love with. It is similar to a Pottery Barn bed but instead of silver like the PB one it is gunmetal toned. Plus the price tag was practically half as much as PB so I couldn't resist!


We also purchased new nightstands that match our existing dresser. We found them at the furniture store clearance outlet for almost half of the retail price and there is nothing wrong with them! The new nightstands provide lots of storage because they each have three drawers.


Of course, we also had to buy all new linens, including a down comforter and cover which we splurged on and got one from Pottery Barn {it was on sale but still ridiculously expensive to say the least}. The thing I like most about the new duvet cover is the tropical pattern. There wasn't a big variety of comforters to choose from that would match our blue wall and brown curtains so I lucked out with this one. Plus I like the punches of red that it adds to the room. In fact I have been trying to find new all art for above the bed that has the same color red in it.


The new bed although wider than our old bed, made the room look a lot bigger since it was over 8 inches shorter {quite an adjustment for my 6'3" husband}. We replaced the slipper chair next to the window with a bench at the foot of the bed. We used the bench from the guest room because we couldn't find one as long as it anywhere {we already purchased a new leather bench for the guest room that has hidden storage}.


Lastly, we found a large silver framed mirror at Home Goods to put in the corner where the chair used to be. The mirror makes the room feel bigger and brighter.


I am so happy we decided to upgrade to a KING size bed!

See BEFORE photos of this room here

***LINKY PARTIES***Cottage Instincts***The CSI Project***

Visit thecsiproject.com

~Desiree~