Simple easy nursery

I was discussing decorating nurseries with a friend recently and we were talking about how difficult it is to find accessories for themes that are not as "popular." For my second son's nursery, I wanted to go with a cowboy theme. Do you know how difficult it is to find cowboy stuff for a child's nursery?

This is how I solved my problems. Please remember that you can use these ideas for other themes besides cowboys.

First, the no-sew window treatments. I was incredibly short on a budget. So I went with bandanas. At places like HobbyLobby or Michaels or Joann's you can find a large selection of bandanas. Not just country themed ones either, you can find them with flames, patriotic flags, pink ones with dolls, the sky's the limit. Once you have the bandanas, just fold them over a simple, cheap curtain rod where the point hangs down. I had several to use and just overlapped them a little so that it brought more color and interest to my makeshift valance. I pinned the front and back of the points together towards the tip to keep them from waving around so much when the ceiling fan was on. Here's the result:

Next was artwork for above the crib: Draw/Paint/Sketch it yourself, or better yet, have another child do it. Whether you have another child already to draw it for you or cousins, nieces, nephews or even just a child down the street, your new baby will adore artwork created by these little artists. Have them do their artwork on and 8 x 10 piece of paper, mount it on construction paper (remember this is for those of us with no budget) or poster board and frame it. I put mine in the acrylic box type of frame and placed them right above the crib. You might want to move them up a bit higher than I've done mine since now my little guy keeps trying to play with them.

Next, you have the little accessories that make the room. Notice the comforter that is hanging over the crib rail? It's a simple quilt with different blue and white squares that leant itself very well to the cowboy them. Keeping your basics simple like this is both inexpensive and will put more emphasis on the accessories that you choose for your room. My oldest son already had a stick horse, so I hung this on the wall as well (with an accompanying cowboy hat of course).

I raided my older son's room once again for cowboy boots and hats to spread around the room. I already had a cactus (which will have to be removed soon I'm sure, though he hasn't noticed it yet) so that went into the room as well. At a flea market I found a horse shoe coat rack/hanger for a couple of dollars and on ebay for a mere $11 bucks I got a cute 1950s lamp. And the rocking horse that you see was found on sale for $20 marked down from $100.
Anyone can do something like this. Flea markets, thrift stores, antique stores or even an older child's bedroom can be searched for the perfect accouterments to your new baby's nursery. And the furniture doesn't have to be all baby stuff either. Notice the above furniture? That was my grandparents. It works great with the old west theme too although the above pic doesn't do it justice.

If you keep it simple, this will be a breeze. Pick your theme, a few simple colors, a few pieces of artwork and a simple but cute set of bedding and you will be good to go, I promise!

It's been a while...

Yes, it's been forever since I've posted anything. But, lest you think that I've been idle, here's a little of what I've been up to:

To combat being cold, I made a "Snuglet". It's a blanket that you wear over you that has sleeves in it so that you can be warm and still have your hands free. I used the leftover fleece to make draft stoppers for our doors. It's made a huge difference in the temperature of our house.

I also made a ton of reindeer ornaments. I would highly recommend these at Christmas if you work with preschoolers or early elementary age children. I had about 70 kids make these in an hour. It was pretty awesome and cheap too! I hit a thrift store, bought three puzzles (100 piece size) and spray painted them brown. The whole project, including the spray paint, tiny red pompoms, small googly eyes, yarn and puzzles was around seven dollars. I used the leftovers that I had and made about twenty more for my son's kindergarten class and still had more leftover. You can get about 100 ornaments made for around $7.00 or less. You can get the directions on how to make these here. Personally, these are cuter without the legs and much easier on everyone if you leave them off. If you're in a hurry and are using regular school glue, the pieces tend to slide off. If you add the legs to the ornament, that's just more pieces to have fall off and you'll end up with some really upset children.

We've dealt with a bout of the flu with our oldest child. He had to miss his class party, so I went for him and took the ornaments with me and got his goody bag and gifts from classmates.

During this time, I managed to finish my youngest son's sweater! The first sweater that I've ever knitted! Kinda proud of myself, since this is only my second ever knitting project. Here's a pic of the little guy modeling it:

We also made it through his first birthday party. He was born on New Year's Eve, so we held his party in the evening and combined it with a New Year's party. We called it "Reece's New Year Jammy Jam" and asked that everyone bring their children in their pjs so we could put the kids to bed and the adults could ring in the New Year. It was pretty fun. Here's the cake that I made (he's really into Blue's Clues) and a pic of him and his brother with the presents.

two simple rants

Today, I want to express my dissatisfaction with two simple rants.

First, Why the hell does Wal-Mart and Sam's Club have the idiots working the door check your grocery cart purchases as you are leaving? Is it truly productive to have said idiots to barely glance at your receipt, then barely glance at your cart, then mark the receipt with a highlighter? Do the companies really expect to catch someone stealing? How? Everything is bagged or boxed up and buried under all the other bags/boxes. I can understand having the people at the door to mark returns. That actually makes sense, but not to check your cart as you leave. Treating people as criminals as they leave from purchasing stuff at your store is really a slap in the face to your customers.

This leads me to my second rant. This one about the Methamphetamine Precursor Control Act. WTF was Congress thinking? This is not going to slow down the meth makers and dealers for one second. It is however, going to punish me and other law abiding citizens like me. I am now in a national database (which is scary in itself) and I am allowed to only buy a certain amount at a time. This is a huge inconvience and waiting in line to get my Claritin-D is a waste of time. I can't tell you how aggrevated I am by this. I have to buy for two people at a time, me and my husband, since I am the one that does all the shopping while he works. Now in order for us to both get the amount of medication that we need, we have to tag-team purchase the Claritin-D and he has to go out of his way for it. Also, if my two children have colds and I want to get effective medication for them, it is possible that I won't be able to get this due to my purchasing of the allergy medication due to it having the same ingredients. The meth. makers/dealers can make meth out of other things, not just the main ingredient in Claritin-D and Sudafed. Why are we being punished?

Well, I don't feel better, but it's now off my chest. I hope the idiots at Wal-Mart and the idiots in Washington D.C. read this.

face recognition software

Found a great site called My Heritage that has face recognition software. You upload a picture and they tell you who you most look like. I did this with a photo of my mom and these were the results:

While cruising around the craftster website, I found a great jewelry artist who has some fantastic stuff. I've already ordered two of her necklaces and my order more for Christmas gifts. I like the long bead ones. This chick is way talented and for the amount of time and effort she has to put into making these lovely pieces of glass, her prices are fairly reasonable.

Birthday Party Madness

Well, we survived my older son's 6th birthday party. It was pretty awesome actually. We went with a Rocket Ship theme. Most of the party was held in the backyard due to the activities. We had water bottle rockets, foot launched rockets and the galaxy foam gliders from Oriental Trading.

I made a Space Ship Cake from Familyfun.com also. One thing that I would recommend to all those folks who decide to make this and use real sparklers instead of sparkler candles is to light them outside. I managed to fill our house with smoke and our guests thought I was slightly crazy, but it made a cool looking cake!

Socks and Bags

Yeah! My first knitting project is complete! Not bad for a beginner huh? Although the cuffs make my ankles look huge in the picture, it's not so bad in person. I got the pattern from Bev's Really Quick Knit Socks
Sooner or later I will try making socks with dpns or circular needles, but for now I'm just too chicken. I am trying to make my brother's upcoming new son a baby blanket, but will have to post on that later.
I also managed to finish a new purse a few weekends ago. The embroidery was so cute with the fabrics that I picked out for it. It's now in someone else's hands, but I wish I could have kept it.

All Things Shea