Category: Current House

In 2013, we took a few days to show the boys’ bedroom a little love.  We started with a blank beige box.

While installing new windows throughout the home, it changed ever so slightly, and I was in the planning process.

When the time came to get serious, I scraped popcorn off the ceiling and smoothed the ceiling out, Ben installed new trim.  Together, we built a pair of beds and painted the walls a fun yellowy green color the boys picked.

For four years, it was a fun, happy room that we all liked.  More recently, it has felt a tad too young for our growing boys, but the main elements were all still a good fit.  Fresh paint, new art, and pillowcases made for a quick refresh that didn’t break the bank.

One look at our house and it’s obvious I love green, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I chose Vintage Vogue from Benjamin Moore to splash on the walls.

It’s a deep green with a slight blue tone that plays well with the blue rug and blankets; wood tones pop against it.

After the paint was dry to the touch, we moved the furniture, snugging the right bed closer to the dresser to match the left.  Now that our boys are older and we don’t have the worry they’ll roll out of bed, it seemed best to center the beds on the off-center window.  I called the boys in and showed them the updated room and they were thrilled with the color and new bed placement.  At least until bed time, when they asked for it to be moved back against the wall.  So, we’re back at the only layout that works for this room.

Due to the bed placement, same sized art isn’t an option.  Instead, I took inspiration from the theater room art and made two engineer prints, one with each boy nestled amongst beautiful scenery.

To give their beds a fresh look without buying all new bedding, I pulled out two king pillows to fill the width of the bed.  Two striped pillowcases that came with the basement sheets make up the base layer.

I couldn’t find pillowcases in stores or online that I liked, so I stopped into Joann fabric and found a green, black, and white plaid that feels both boyish and updated.  Buffalo check fabric from Hobby Lobby now covers the accent pillow, because it’s just hard to go wrong with buffalo.

Across the room, between the bedroom entrance and the closet, we filled a thrifted printer style tray with Lego minifigs.  The tray is still within their reach, but holds their favorite characters.

First initial letters, a sign picked out at Yellowstone, and a race ribbon are all items that have personal significance to them.  With only $30 and a day spent to clear the room, fill nail holes, tape, edge, and roll, paint always give the most bang for your buck.  Fabric for the pillow cases and accent pillows cost $20 total.  The hanging engineer prints cost about $15 to make both, bringing the total for this room to a whopping $65.

Each Halloween, our boys tell us what they want to dress up as, and we’ve had adorably kooky ideas throughout the years.  And each year, I do my best to turn their ideas into reality, and this year was by far my most time-consuming adventure.  This year one wanted to be a bag of Skittles, then the other asked to be his favorite candy, a Milky Way.

Naively, or stupidly, I thought they’d be quick to make.  I wouldn’t say difficult, but I would say time-consuming.  Drawing the lettering, cutting the felt, then hand stitching on the small details before using a sewing machine for the bigger details all took a decent chunk of time.

And the entire dining table while getting everything ready.

After multiple days of intermittent work, both costumes are completely done, and we have two happy boys.

The goal:

And the reality:

Our Milky Way has a hard time not talking while getting a picture taken, hence the not-quite-a-smile smile.  Ben thought I was certifiable for adding the lettering shadows and the registration mark, but I’ve always cared about the tiny details.

If your Halloween costumes are still up in the air, there’s still time!  Here are our past years of costumes, all DIY, to get the creative juices flowing.  We have a Minecraft Zombie and Steve:

A Lego brick and light switch:

A 9 volt Duracell battery and rain cloud with rainbow:

A Rubik’s cube:

And a yellow Angry Bird:

A stop light (and Thor but he was too blurry):

A credit card:

And finally, baby Hulk Hogan:

Wishing everyone a fun and safe Halloween.  May your kids get plenty of your favorite candy that you can sneak while they sleep.

Obviously, based on the content of this blog, it’s clear Ben and I devote a large amount of time (and money) to fixing up our home.  We’ve made it our financial priority to fix up and pay off our home as quickly as possible.  To do so, we do sacrifice expensive family vacations, with the hope that as our kids get older, traveling will be easier, more enjoyable, and they’ll actually remember the trip.  On our previous travels, I have purchased a coffee table photo book of the area we’ve visited.

With that said, in August, we took a family trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  It was a week of camping, sight-seeing, and about 1,000 photos taken.  Yes, I have an addiction, but it’s easier to take more and delete later.   Upon returning home, I loaded the photos on my computer and picked out my favorites.

I enlarged one and turned it into art for our basement theater space.

Another sits in a DIY frame on our entertainment center shelf.

Two down, only 998 left to get out of my computer and into regular view.  I didn’t buy a photo book while on vacation, as I planned to create our own, using our photos and memories.  After some research, with a coupon in hand, I ordered a photo book through Shutterfly.  No, this is not a sponsored post; I purchased the books with my own money and simply love this product.

After loading my edited photos into my project, I set about creating a design with few words and as many photos as possible.  To create as professional looking book as possible, I picked one picture to fill the front and back covers.

Using Photoshop on a near daily basis, I didn’t like how limiting the standard editing mode was, so I switched to Advanced Editing.  From there, I stretched the photo to cover the entire front.

A simple title in a coordinating color overlays the pale sky of the photo.

Shutterfly offers a wide variety of page layout options, but again, I found some to be limiting to photo orientation.  I found it easiest and quickest to load the photos chronologically onto each page, grouping based on the site location.

Before arranging the images, I first filled all 20 pages with pictures so I knew they’d all fit in my book.

I found it so easy to arrange photos, as the software keeps the photos in the proper proportions.  In some cases, I stretched a vertical photo to fit my layout or zoom in on an interesting area.

Once arranged, I selected a hard cover upgrade and submitted my order.  Having never ordered a photo book before, I waited until this one arrived to assess the quality and my feeling about it.  When it arrived, I tore open the box and flipped through the book.  I loved it, but wished I upgraded to a matte cover.

Ben loved it, the boys loved it, so I went through photos from previous vacations and ordered three more, this time springing for the matte covers.

It’s a subtle change, but does feel much higher in quality.

For a cohesive collection, I chose the same spine, fonts, and filled the covers with a single large photo.  The backs are single images as well.

This stack lives on our stump coffee table in the family room, readily available to flip through.

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth 1,000 words” so I kept the text brief with only a location and date.

At first, I worried the 8 by 11 book size would make the images too small, but I’m thrilled with the size.  By enlarging favorite photos and keeping the supporting photos smaller, it’s a great balance.

How do you deal with the photos you take?  It’s sad, but so many great photos sit on our computers, forgotten about for who knows how long.