DIY Home Decor: Tween Bedroom!

By Sherie
Introduced by Amy

So, my sister Sherie has THE COOLEST house.  Have you seen it in her Home Stylin post?  If not, you are missing out.  Fer real.  You gotta check it out pronto.  So, after she recently re-did her daughter's bedroom I was like, "Um, this sweet room wasn't part of your home tour on SOM!  So, you must do another post." And she delivered!  My niece Livi is the coolest pre-tween ever...more into books, music, and art then boys, clothes, and shopping, so I love that this room is such a perfect fit for her.  She is close to my heart, cause we were best buddies when she was a little girl and we would always draw and dance together.  Plus, I too was more into books and the Beatles than the Disney Princesses at her age.  Her room would have been my dream. :)  I'm happy Sherie is letting us all see her hard work in this cool bedroom!
-Amy

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When Number 5 was on it's way, we decided we needed to turn the upstairs Craft/Scrapbook/Storage for anything/Black Hole into some sort of livable bedroom. It was decided that my oldest daughter Livi would get the room - banking on my motherly instincts that the baby was a girl, then girls would out-number the boys. (Motherly instincts NAILED IT.) As you can see, we let the kids have a little fun painting and writing on the walls. Why not, right? Behind the wood door is the furnace for the house… no we did not do that. The room inside would have made the sweetest closet, but alas… it holds a commercial-size furnace instead. At least her room is warm in the winter.

Here are some Before pics:

The walls had old, nasty wallpaper that was fairly easy to rip down. The kids had fun pulling it down after I soaked it with a rag. After we got off all of the loose pieces, I left the rest to just mud over. I fixed all the wood trim and repainted it, then textured the room (including the ceiling) and gave it two coats of paint. And don’t be fooled – that took weeks to accomplish.. with breaks every three hours to nurse the baby ☺. There's a big unused, chimney in the room, so we came up with the idea of making it into a tree which went perfectly with Livi's idea to put a hammock in her room. I liked the idea of very light blue paint which worked great with the look of the sky in the background.

After the walls were painted, Livi painted the trunk of the tree then I began filling in the branches, freehand. We had found the owl stickers at a craft store which roosted perfectly on the branches. My mom added the leaves afterwards.

The floor was a struggle. Originally I was going to sand the floorboards and stain them a dark brown to match the hallway. We realized the gaps between the boards were so big, we would need to put a lot of filler in between the boards and if we were to sand it and stain it, the filler would stain lighter and really stand out. So I rented a big sander and did the whole floor, then filled in the gaps one at a time with thin wood putty and sanded it with a hand-sander. There were still some gaps where the filler dried and shrunk back, so yes, I had to do the process AGAIN to fill it all in. It took hours and the sand blows all over the room and coats the walls and ceiling… plus yourself and breathing through a mask is just awfully comfortable…. But I got it all done! And yes… weeks again. We got the walls / ceiling all cleaned and I decided to paint the floor a pale yellow and seal it with a deck sealer. Thanks Sherwin Williams for the idea. Connecting the hammock to the chimney was interesting, but we just anchored it inside the chimney flue and bolted it to the other side. As long as you don’t weigh over 100 pounds, you’re good! So no, I’ve never been in it... Livi tells me it’s nice….

We had fun furnishing her room with refurbished pieces. We had a few new pieces, mostly from Ikea. Livi reads like it’s going out of style, so we set up her own bookshelf. We found an inexpensive clothes rack to hang her dresses with the rest of her clothes in the drawers under her bed. So Livi loves her room! If definitely reflects her quirky, modern style. I did almost all of the work in the room, so I was proud too! In a few years, we plan on putting a bathroom in part of her room, so the chimney/tree will come down, but we’ll have fun scheming the room out again.

Here's the room!
-Sherie

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Isn't Livi's bedroom so cool!?  I mean, who the crap doesn't want a hammock in their bedroom?  And, Sherie is pretty much the cool mom for working so hard to help Livi have an awesome room...Livi had shared a room with her younger sister for a long time (who is all about the pink! Haha!) so now she's pretty stoked to have her own space.  

So, let's hear about your bedroom growing up!  I loved mine.  I shared with my poor sister Laura till she went to college (I was a hoarder as a little kid...all sorts of "collections" of treasures -aka- weird crap that kids love, like marbles and a million crayons/pencils.  I was NOT fun to share a room with.) From middle school on, I quit my pig-sty ways and spent many hours decorating my room...I bought tons of cool records from the library basement sale and hung the covers in my room, along with a giant beatles poster, a collection of globes, and huge magazine collages I painstakingly made.  Oh, and I rigged up a string of lights and several lamps to all turn on with the same switch of a power strip.  (Lots of extension cords...haha, what a safety hazard!)  

How about you?  What was your room like?  Did you share with a sibling?  Did you do your own decorating or did your mom?  If you have kids old enough to care, do you let them have a say in their bedroom decor?  I'd love to hear. :)  Not that it's an imminent concern (my two kids are little little) but, I've wondered about how that will go down, cause I care so much about the aesthetics of my home--I'm a little leery to give a kid free-reign, ha. What if we end up with black paint or One Direction posters everywhere??  *shudder*...haha.

I hope you loved Livi's room!  Be sure to Like, Pin, Comment, etc to show the love. :)  Thanks friends!  Have a sweet fall day! 

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Taking Time to Find a Friend: Lessons from a Three-Year-Old

By Lalove
Introduced by Amy

When my older sister, Sherie, was in high school, she had a really cool group of friends, whom I idolized.  I longed to be cool like them, wearing makeup, staying out after 9:30, and having parties...they even hung out WITH BOYS! *gasp!*  Whenever these friends came over for a movie night with my sister, they let me hang out too; I happily pretended to be one of them.  (Gosh, I can't believe how patient they were...I was probably so obnoxious--I NEVER stopped talking.)  Lalove was one of these super cool older girls.  

Now we are both mommas.  The weird thing is, if I moved into her neighborhood today, we'd meet and be friends!  The difference between a 10 year-old and a 15 year-old is HUGE...but 5 years isn't such a stretch when your grown-ups!  I'm so glad she agreed to contribute a post--she is so warm and funny...and a fabulous writer.
Enjoy!
-Amy

My son William is three years old, an age where in his mind, the world is his own. 

He fully expects that every person we meet is ready and willing to be his friend and is interested in what he has to say.  The other day as I was wheeling him around Home Depot, in one of those shopping carts made to look like a kid’s car and that have the maneuverability of a small cruise ship barreling down the aisles, you would have thought my son was in a parade.  He was shouting to the people we passed, calling hello and waving wildly to strangers, as if he believed they should be thrilled to see him.  He was especially excited when we saw kids close to his age.  Whenever a small child came into sight, he’d cry out, “My friend!” and beg me to steer the cart over so he could chat with his “friends.”  Most people who saw my son waving and calling to them were kind enough to smile and wave back, and as I watched total strangers strike up a fleeting moment of friendship with my son, it got me thinking.  I think most young children, born into homes where they feel safe and secure, develop a natural sense of love and concern for others around them.  For many children my son’s age, anyone can be their friend, regardless of age, gender, social status, etc.   While children can definitely be mischievous and troublemaking, there is a reason the Savoir said we should become like little children, and I believe part of that reason is their amazing capacity to love others.

Yet somewhere along the journey to adulthood, the attitude of loving everyone shifts.  Somewhere along the way, most children learn that it’s not OK to talk to strangers in Home Depot and not everyone is their friend.  Obviously for safety reasons, we have to teach our children that not every stranger is going to be a friend to them, and they need to be careful about who they try to associate with.  Yet watching my son making friends with each person he came in contact with made me wonder if we sometimes swing too far to the other extreme – to where we become self absorbed, judgmental, afraid of rejection, and unwilling to go out of our way to be friends to others. 

Case in point, I spoke to a friend of mine the other day who recently moved to a new state and was commenting on how hard it was for her to make friends, even though she was going out of her way to meet people.  As we spoke, I understood a little of what my friend was experiencing.  I moved to a new city over a year ago and had a similar experience.  What surprised both me and my friend is that we are both actively engaged in the churches we attend, and both of us had few people show any interest in meeting us when we attended church the first few weeks.  While I wouldn’t expect strangers in Home Depot to go out of their way to be my friend, I would expect that anyone attending a new church would find many welcoming friends. 

Lalove with baby #2: Elinore

Since I’ve been married I’ve lived in two different cities, and in both instances, when I attended church for the first time, I had a few people make an effort to speak to me.   But most people sat with and spoke with the same people at church each week, without seeming to notice I was there.  I found that if I wanted to meet people, I had to go out of my way to introduce myself.  When my husband and I were first married, he was deployed to Iraq, so I spent about a year and a half living on my own.  It was really hard some weeks for me to go to church all by myself and spend the three hour’s worth of meetings sitting alone.  I’m not trying to sound whiney and complain-y because it wasn’t everyone’s job to be my best friend at church each week; if I wanted to make friends, it was partially my responsibility to talk to people, which I did, and eventually I made a lot of friends and met a lot of great people.  However, when you’re the new person – whether it be at church or work or school or in the neighborhood – it can be a little intimidating; having people take time to offer their friendship can make the transition to a new environment much more pleasant and much less stressful. 

Ever since my experience trying to make friends at church that year and half my husband was gone, I’ve tried harder to be aware of people around me.   I try harder to sit by people sitting alone at church so we can strike up a conversation.  I try harder when I’m in public to look for people who seem like they need help or a kind word.  I’m still not as good as my son.  There are still times in life when I let fear get the best of me, and instead of taking time to say hello or give a compliment to a stranger, I keep my mouth shut and miss opportunities to be a friend to others around me.  I hope I can improve.  Lucky for me I have a great example to look up to.  He’s about three feet tall with big blue eyes and a big old smile.  Some of you probably know him – you may have seen him waving to you as we lumbered down the aisles of Home Depot.  His name is William, and he already knows what to call you – “friend.”
-Lalove

See what I mean?  She's so cool.  Don't you just wish she was your next door neighbor so you could talk over the fence and have family barbeques?  I love her ideas about friendship.  It's funny that kids think that grown-ups can do anything and that we're never scared....but when it comes to making friends, they are often SO much braver than us. 

How about you?  Have you an experience where someone reached out to you (or visa versa) that you'd share?  What helps you to make friends?  We'd love to hear from you. :)
-Amy

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Epic Treehouse Playdate!!!

By Amy

So, remember in my "The Elusive Art of Making Mommy Friends" post, I said I had a goal of setting up more playdates?  Since becoming a mom, I hadn't really jumped on the playdate bandwagon...and I was determined this summer to hop on.  So, after hearing of a bunch of the huge bloggers in the bloggy world having these "epic playdates" sponsored by Hyundai... I thought, "Well, Shoot.  We can totally do EPIC too, sponsor of not!"  (No disrespect, I'm just a little jealous cause we didn't have the funds to go zip-lining through the redwoods...Ha!)

So, in true DIY style, I set out to create our own fabulous shindig.  And, I'm happy to report that a few days ago, my friends Amber, Delilah, and I did indeed take our kiddios on an EPIC playdate.  

How epic?

We played and relaxed in a 5 story treehouse.  My dad, my brothers, and I built the treehouse when we were kids.  (Ok, my little bro and I mostly handed up nails and fetched stuff...)  But, a little background on this freaking cool place:

Growing up, I was so jealous of my friends who played night games with all the neighborhood kids or had block parties in the street (picture the "Sandlot".)  I didn't live in a cul-da-sac.  My family lived a quarter of a mile down a gravel road, with nothing but foothills and sagebrush forever behind our house.  Sometimes as a kid, I wished I lived in the city to escape the farm chores of hauling hay and moving pipe, but man...there were some definite perks to living in the coutry.  One of these?  The treehouse.   

It was built in a sprawling tree over several summers out of left-over wood and salvaged nails.  My big brother was the dreamer and architect, and my dad took time from his full-time office job and hobby farmwork to help put his son's "Swiss Family Robinson" dream into reality.  (Which is funny since my dad is not a fan of heights.) We spent hours there, and I read many a book in the hammock, spied on the teenage boys moving pipes with no shirts on in the adjacent field (scandalous!  Ha!) and we even held parties and group dates there.  We loved it!  We played treehouse hotel (I was always the crazy owner down in the lobby) and pirate ship for for entire summers, pulling the water bucket from the pond below to swab the deck.  Life was good at the treehouse.

But, now, my parents' grandkids live hours away and we're all grown up and gone, and the treehouse doesn't get all the love that it used to.  So, that's where I took my friends and their kids!  After a 45 min ride, with my son screaming most of the way, (sorry, Amber!) we arrived.

And...The kids loved it.  Seriously, I thought they were going to set up camp an we'd have to leave without them.  Even the babies were good sports for most of the time!

So here's our playdate!  Please prepare yourself: you're about to see pics for days!  Ha!

Welcome to the treehouse!  My son and my momma.

The treasure chest! 

She's holding the pirate's booty!  Haha....get it?

Delilah and Jasper

Amber with her visiting nephew

Me and my stinker son!  And, I swear I didn't plan to be all matchy-matchy plaid.  It just happened.

DONT JUMP! Ha!  My mom's hand is holding on to the back of him...he wasn't even scared!

Crossing the canal...

Walking back to the house

haha...funny pic of Payden

Sandbox!

The foothills behind the house.

Delicious picnic-ing...

And...somebody realllllly needs nap. 

SO, after lots of fun, yummy food, too much sun, and several baby tantrums, we called our epic playdate a wrap.  A there were lots of snores in the car on the way home. (hallelujah!)  And though this was a pretty sweet location, playdates don't have to be elaborate.  Heck, McDonalds Playplace can make for a great playdate...kids are running around having fun, (probably peeing in the slides...ha!) and moms get to hang out and have some adult conversation.  WIN WIN!

So, how about you?  What do you like to do on playdates?  Do you love a relaxing home playdate?  How about the park?  Have you had any crazy elaborate playdates?  I'd love to hear, cause I need ideas.  :)

 Thanks, friends!
-Amy

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