Time for a Big Boy Room

Sigh.  My little boy is getting older.  He just turned two last month.  Originally, I had his room all done up in classic Winnie the Pooh.

Wow.  That mobile has been long gone for quite some time.  And yes, feel free to laugh at the screaming baby.  I didn't realize you could actually see him crying until quite awhile after taking that picture, then just never got around to taking a better one.  The characters on the wall behind him were all vinyl clings that were a part of the set.  I loved the idea of the clings.  They filled up that big blank wall and could easily be moved/removed. 

Here they are on a closet door in his room in the apartment we lived in when we first brought him home.  When we moved, I just placed them on wax paper, rolled them up, and transported them to the house!  Super easy!

Anyways, I figure Rowan's probably getting a little old for Pooh Bear.  He's currently obsessed with tractors, so I thought maybe I could find some tractor vinyl clings to "grow things up" a bit.  My goal was to not spend a fortune, so in a year or two when he's moved on to something else, I can just replace the clings.  

First of all, there really aren't any RED tractor clings out there.  My dad sells case, so the green John Deer ones are out.  I checked out Etsy to see if I could have something custom made, but since I wanted a super big something, I couldn't find anything for less than about $80.  That was a liiiiitle bit more than I was hoping to spend.

So my next thought was was, "Hey!  I've cut vinyl on my Cricut before, maybe I could just make my own wall cling!".   That was the beginning of a very long, headache inducing  process.

Turns out (after much googling and smashing my head against my desk) that you can't cut anything on your Cricut that's larger than your mat.  It won't let you.  Poop.  Now I had to rethink entirely what I was going to do.  And of course, I had already bought all the vinyl.

So after some teeth gnashing, here's what I came up with:

I really like having his name up there because that could possibly stay even when the tractors come down someday.  I still think it needs a little something.  I do have a Cricut cartridge that has a bunch of cute animals, so maybe I'll scatter some little farm animals around to help fill it in.

Sigh.  Look at that.  No mobile.  Toddler rail.  Pillow.  Next thing I know he'll be driving and dating.  Heaven help us!

The Rad Rav 4 and it's Snazzy New Trashcan

Yup.  I just used the word snazzy :)

But back to the point...  This past weekend I just got a new car!

It's a 2010 Toyota Rav 4 and has a pop-up 3rd row of seating.  I didn't even know they made a model with a 3rd row!  

My Mercury Sable mysterious stranded me twice in 2 days and my husband said, "That's it!"  You know it's a mystery when Walt, a nuclear engineer, can't figure out what's going on.  

While I'm excited to have a fun new ride, the real purpose of this post is share this nifty little Pinterest project I did for the car.  My last car always had a huge wad of trash stuffed in to the side pockets of the doors.  That drove me nuts, but it's kind of inevitable.  

Well, I kept seeing thing little project on Pinterest and finally decided to give it a go.

It's a trashcan!  I took an empty Cascade dishwasher pod container and wrapped in scrapbook paper.  Seriously.  That's it.  The lid opens and shuts to help contain the mess.  I even got fancy and stuck some press and stick velcro onto the bottom of it so it sticks to the carpet.  Ta-da!

I'm rather in love with the zebra print.  It seems to fit the beige and black interior of the Rad Rav 4 :)  and hopefully it will help keep the tissues and snack wrappers at bay!

Princess Daisy or My New Apron

As a mom, I do a lot of laundry.  Especially since I use clothe diapers.  & Since I live in San Diego I get to hang the majority of my clothes on the line to dry :)  When we first moved in to our house, I was super excited to get a clothesline set up so I could hang up tons of stuff.

(Please excuse the mess, but you can see line ran from the porch to the jungle gym.)

One thing about my husband that has rubbed off on me is the need for efficiency.  It was killing my back to always be bending down to pick up clothes and clothespins all the way across that long line.  So I decided that a little apron to hold clothespins would speed up the process.

I found a nice pattern for a gardening tool belt in the book You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail.  (As a side note, that pattern was about the only thing book had going for it.)  Of course, as usually happens, I ended up altering the pattern quite a bit.  Instead of making 5 or 6 slim pockets, I just made 2 big ones to hold the clothespins and I totally went my own with the ties.  The author just used strips of bias tape or gross grain ribbon, but I thought it would be too thin.  So I just used some of my extra fabric and make actual ties.  

(Funny story:  Don't ask my two year old to say fabric.  Let's just say it comes out something that rhymes with Bucket, but starts with F!)

For the fabric, the brown stuff is denim left over from when I reupholstered a little rocker for Rowan and then I bought the floral cotton to match.

There I am hanging up diapers.  Something I do about every 2 or 3 days.  If you ever want to know about clothe diapering, let me know and maybe I'll do a post on it.  I LOVE it!  

The apron works like a charm.  & everytime I put it on, Rowan points to me and says, "Princess!  Daisy."  (Something from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I'm guessing.)  & who doesn't want to be called a princess on a regular basis ;)

Cinderella Time

Bleh.  Every once in awhile you just have to get down on your hands and knees and the degraded step-sister and scrub your floors.  I've got an awesome Shark steam mop, but I still can't escape this dirty chore.

So as I was pretending to be Cinderella this afternoon while I scrubbed the massive amount of tile in my house, I got to thinking that maybe I should share some tips that I think make this chore a little easier.

1.  Rubber gloves are your friend.  They save your skin and your nails and enable you to use hotter water.  I used to hate them until my mother in law gave me a pair from her secret stash from England.  Apparently that's the only place she could find rubber gloves in a size small (It's a long story how she gets rubber gloves from England).  These actually fit my hands!

2.  Knee pads.  I borrowed a pair from my husband's tool box :)  They make being on your knees so much easier!

3.  Mrs. Meyers Clean Day All Purpose Cleaner.  Their slogan is:  Smells like a garden, cleans like the dickens!  I've been  using the Lemon Verbena scent and I love it!  It makes the whole house smell fresh!

Seriously, scrubbing floors is one of my least favorite household chores.   These little tricks help make it go a little faster.  Well, at least a little easier.  What tips do you have for cleaning floors?

The Wookie is Here!

I finally finished the Wookie page for the Star Wars quiet book!  This page went together really quickly and I have to say that I giggle a little every time I look at it.

I knew I really wanted to do a page involving Chewy.  I mean, what's Star Wars without the walking carpet?  He's such an iconic character, he just had to make an appearance.  At first, though, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with him.  Quiet books are supposed to (in my mind) utilize some fine motor skill.  

Well, I happen to follow this great embroidery blog called Feeling Stitchy.  They often have tutorials and showcase a lot of fun things that people have embroidered.  I vaguely remembered seeing some cute wookies appliqued in hoops ages ago, so I went in search of them and found them here.  That sparked my brain!  I thought I could do something similar, but but some type of buckle on his belt.  Buckles are good motor skills for little ones, right?  Surprisingly, the design didn't take near as long as I expected (nothing like the Ewok page).  

I know it will be awhile before Rowan can manage the buckle (we just had his second birthday party last week...blog to follow!), but he'll grow in to it!

On a different note....I've been doing a May Photo Challenge over on my Facebook page.  A photo challenge is a list of things to take pictures of, one for each day of the month.  Here's my list:

So far I've really been enjoying it.  It forces me to put my thinking cap on which seems to light a bit of a creative fire inside.  Good stuff!  Plan on seeing more of these ;)

Happy Star Wars Day and a Little Birthday Prep

A day belated, but May the 4th be with you all!  In honor of Star Wars Day, here's the newly completed page for my Star Wars quiet book I've working on:

I have to say I'm pretty smitten with this page.  The Ewoks are so dang cute!  & Rowan has already been having fun playing peek-a-boo with them.  This is the second page I've designed myself.  The original pages came from Jullie Gilrie's pattern on Etsy.  The next page will be about Chewbacca.  How can  you do Star Wars without a wookie!

The other thing I've been prepping for is Rowan's birthday.  He'll be the big 0-2!  We're doing a tractor themed party :)  I'll be posting a lot more details as we get closer, but here's a few things I'll share.

This first one is my little tree that is not only decked out for a birthday party, but for spring as well!  The  little cake turned out darling!

I made a little cardboard tractor for the kiddos to crawl in to.  There's a hole in the back for an opening and plenty of windows to see out of.  I should have  used a primer under the red spray paint, but it gets the point across :)

I promise I'll post a lot more stuff, but we still have 2 more weeks until the big party!

Sneak Peek...

Here's a little sneak peek of the tractor I'm building for Rowan's b-day party:

I even managed to do all the cutting myself and still have all my fingers!  There's a hole in the back so the kiddos can crawl in to it:

The next step is to spray paint it red.  & I'll spray some paper plates (for tires) and an oatmeal can (for a stack) black.  Then assemble it and we'll be ready to go!

Rowan is already having a good time crawling in and out of it :)