Beautiful Nursery Banner

I came across the picture of this banner when I was looking for a photo of my youngest son's nursery for a previous post. Isn't it wonderful? One of my close friends painted it for his nautical nursery. I cried and cried when I opened it! My friend got her inspiration from the beautiful (and VERY expensive) banners at Posh Tots. Back then (almost 5 years ago), Posh Tots had a lot more banner choices than they do currently. She painted it on canvas with craft paints, then trimmed the bottom edge in the shape of the flags. She turned the top edge over a dowel rod and added ribbon for hanging. It made the nursery. It fit in so well with his crib and dresser. I hated taking it down!

Yay! Fall is here!

My first fall project this year involved one wispy twiggy wreath and a stash of goodies that I purchased on clearance at Hobby Lobby (AKA my mothership) last year at 90% off. This is one cheap wreath!

Construction Room Ahead

We are finally starting to settle into a routine around here, with summer activities tapering off and the start of school and soccer. I am also finally getting some stuff done around here! One of the hardest things for me being a SAHM, especially in the summer, is being around and in my house 90% of my time, but not being able to get half the things done around it that I want to accomplish. I get lots of ideas from staring at these same spaces constantly, but with four and five year old boys running around, there is no easy way to get them to become a reality!
Anyway, the first place we have changed a little is my youngest son's bedroom. He has a queen size bed, a fact which makes everyone laugh, but his room was the guest room before he came along, so it already had a bed! We just used what we had! It remained in the room with his crib, which was great when he was still nursing! When he moved into the bed, we had a hard time finding any suitable queen size, kid themed bedding. So my Mom made a duvet from 1 queen flat sheet and some Thomas the Train fabric. He loved it. But he is outgrowing Thomas, and has been asking for new bedding. I love the idea, because I am ready to get away from the character theme. I am OK with a theme in a child's room, but like it better without an actual character involved. He LOVES construction trucks, and we already had some construction-themed pictures, so a theme was born! Without being tied to a character, queen size bedding for kids is slightly easier to find--especially at The Company Store! I found construction truck bedding that isn't cutesy or too young looking. AND, it matches a striped duvet that I already had! Woo hoo!
His current plain blue curtains and blue walls were also acceptable, so the only thing left that didn't fit in was his dresser. His nursery had a nautical theme, and we had used an old dresser of my husband's that I painted with a lighthouse and sailboat. You can see what it used to look like here. We aren't able to purchase a new dresser, so I decided to just paint this one again. I had thought about painting it a solid color, like brick red, but then my son asked if he could have a crane on his dresser instead of a lighthouse. How could I say no! I used the pictures from one of his construction books for inspiration, and three hours later, the dresser fit into the room perfectly. He loves it, and I think it will hold us off for a couple years until we can buy him new bedroom furniture. Nothing like using what you have!

Basement Playroom

I am joining the party a wee bit late, but when I found a new blog today, Kelly's Korner, I discovered that every Friday she has a linky party for us all to show a different room/area of our homes. I love that idea! So, last Friday's "Show Us Where You Live" was about playrooms/bonus rooms/laundry rooms. Since this was my blog post on Monday, I decoded to join the party! Better late than never! Go check out Kelly's blog to see everyone else's spaces!

When we bought our house 7 years ago, the basement was just your typical dark, ugly, unfinished basement. If the washer and dryer weren't down there, we would have only gone down when we blew a fuse! Once we had our boys, and the toys began overtaking our once uncluttered home, the need for more space started us thinking about finishing the basement, or at least part of it. It would be the perfect place for a playroom, since the only way anyone HAD to see it is if they chose to! So when we got serious, we began really looking at the space to figure out what configuration would work for us. Of course we had to consider the laundry area, the electrical box area, and the water valve area, and how much space we would want to keep unfinished for storage. The space we decided to finish was almost half of the basement, minus an area that has a rough-in for a bathroom. We left a space large enough to add a bathroom if we ever decide to, but for now, it is where I store all my holiday decorations. I have a LOT of Christmas and fall decorations!

Work on the project began in September 2007, on the day after Labor Day, which was also my oldest son's first day of preschoool and my husband's first day at his current job. Talk about a crazy time! So, here is the space once the studs were up: (BTW, all the wood was brought into the basement through the window!)

The drywall was quite tricky to get down the steps to the basement. The stairwell has a 180 degree turn. We will never be able to fit a full-size sofa down the steps (anyone ever see the Friends episode with "PIVOT!") But, once the guys figured out the trick to turning the drywall just so, the rest of the pieces made it down without a hitch. (I was a little worried for a while!)

Here is the space with walls and a ceiling! We went with the textured ceiling to hide the imperfections from our uneven floor joyces. The door in the back opens to a small space for the electrical box and sump pump. The contractor had a great idea to angle the door to use as little space as possible for the closet! The opening to the left leads to the unfinished half. Our washer and dryer are in this part. It would have been REALLY expensive to finish the laundry area, so we decided to hold off on that.


Here is the room all finished with carpet! Finding the right carpet at the right price was the most difficult part of the project.

And just three weeks after the project began, this was the day we moved the toys down. Yippee!

I love the little curtain I made for the window. I sewed two 79 cent quilting squares together and sewed white rings at the top to hang it from a cheap tension rod. I purposely chose a thin, light fabric that light would easily come through. We need all the light we can get through that little window!

I used as many black accents down here as I could. I love the black with the green (which is Behr Grass Cloth from Home Depot). We bought a cheap black particle board bookshelf for $28 at Target and secured it to the wall:

The white baskets with green gingham liners are from Pottery Barn Kids. They were originally in my oldest son's nursery. The green bins are from Walmart. They only carried this green color for a short while. I was so lucky to find them when I did! Ever since then, they have come in a beige color.

I painted our wicker chair, a pegrack, and my old toy box to finish off this wall:

This black table and chairs from IKEA also received some black paint:

I created a coloring supplies storage system for the wall behind the table, using a wall-mounted magazine rack and two small galvanized buckets. I secured the buckets to the magazine rack using cable ties.

I love our wall of pictures. 8X10 enlargements at Costco are very reasonably priced. The black frames are from Michaels. They come with the mat, and are only $4 when Michaels has their 50% off frame sales! I purchased the "Let's Play" vinyl wall decal from Uppercase Living.

And here is the room today:


We rotate toys around the room and the house as the boys' interests change. I also put some toys away for the summer, so that when we have to spend more time down here in the winter, the toys seem "new" again.

And my favorite part of the basement is behind these doors:



We had a scrapbooking closet built around our old kitchen table! I finally have a spot to keep all my stuff! Of course, an entire room would have worked as well (ha ha!), but I love this space. I can be in the middle of a project, get called away, and just close the doors on it. No more having to clean it all up! My husband loves it as much as I do, because we can see our dining room table on a regular basis now!

And behind door #2 . . .

This is where we left a space for a bathroom if we ever decide to add one. As I mentioned before, right now it is a great storage space for all my seasonal decorations. This is just a small portion of what's in here:

Scary, huh?

A Rooster Parade!

OK, so we're a little rooster crazed around here! (Understatement of the Year!) My husband is a University of South Carolina graduate, and that began the whole rooster (Gamecock) obsession. We have bought some ourselves, and others have gotten us some as gifts. The above rooster from Homegoods is made with beans, and it sits on our FR mantel. Here are the other roosters that have invaded our home . . .

The majority of them are in our kitchen.
My spice cabinet.
I got my husband (when he was my fiancee) the big silver
rooster from Pier 1 when he graduated from USC.
The plate is a piece of Paden City Pottery, made in our hometown in WV.
A pretty blue & yellow rooster from Value City.
My father-in-law got us this chalk drawing from
a street vendor artist in Germany.
I made these cornices from a favorite Waverly fabric.
Prints from Crate & Barrel.
A clock from the Pottery Barn/Williams Sonoma Outlet.

cookie jar
a planter from TJ Maxx used as a utensil holder
I LOVE the welcome sign from Hobby Lobby!

A few have made it into our living room.
An old plate from my husband's Grandma.
A metal rooster from TJ Maxx.
A beautiful petite glass rooster in our secretary.
A gift from a close friend.
These OLD figurines in our secretary were also from my husband's Grandma.
Even rooster bookends!

Then, in the Family Room . . .
A hat box, painted by my husband's cousin.
And a real weather vane, from Restoration Hardware.


And don't forget outside!
Our new scrolly rooster candle holder from Hobby Lobby.
A planter made from rebar!
No idea where my husband's Aunt found this one!


And last, but not least, in my son's BR, Cocky himself!