projects: the twinkie's room

A dream come true ... my brother- and sister-in-law recently bought a house for their growing family and have asked me to help them decorate their house, room-by-room.  Ahhh!  How much fun!!! I recently finished the first one: their two-year-old twin daughter's room (affectionately called "The Twinkies").  I was given $300 and free reign to beautify the space.  Here are the results:

Before:

 

After:

I absolutely love the way it turned out.  Since the room had been recently painted an off-white color around the time of the home purchase, my sister-in-law didn't want to have to repaint the whole room.  Instead, I decided to paint these bright white, semi-gloss, 12" stripes all around the room to add some interest.   

The bright yellow bookshelves I got off of Craigslist for $10/pair, which I painted the cheery yellow to bring in some color.  (The paint refused to completely cover even after sanding, priming and three coats of paint, so I ended up sanding everything down to give them an aged and antique look.  And heck, after being in a little kid's room for any length of time they would have ended up like this anyway!)

All of the artwork was hand made by me.  I had no room in the budget ($300 may seem like a lot at first, but boy-oh-boy it was gone so fast!) to purchase wall art, so after creative thinking, this was the result!

The bedding is a mis-match of items from Target, Ikea, and Babis R Us.  I absolutely love the way it came together.  I had a hard time finding reasonably priced toddler bedding (their cribs convert into toddler beds) that is actually cute.  Most of the options I found were covered in characters (i.e. Minnie Mouse and Dora the Explorer), which is not quite my taste.  The stuff I love (eh eh Land of Nod eh eh) is waaay too expensive for this budget.  But I like this result much better.  Once the girls get old enough for twin beds, the black and white throw pillows can be kept too.

I changed out the light fixture from a boring "boob light" to this fabulous thing.  Gorgeous. And it makes the room so more special.  From Urban Outfitters.

They loved it and I had a great time putting it together.  Excited for the next project!

my first autumn

I'd have to say that this was the first year I actually got into autumn.  Usually, as soon as it turns cold I just want it to snow (my Minnesota days), and get to Christmas (seriously the most wonderful time of the year).  But this year, as my kids are getting older and learning about each season and holiday, I decided to get into autumn.  I bought a wreath and some garland on clearance at Target to get the home into season, we made a thankful tree, did a little fall artwork, and played in the leaves.  It was a good first autumn for me.

being good

Yesterday I was having one of "those" moments with Seth.  It started by him disobeying, which ultimately led to a stream of non stop bad decisions and more disobeying.  I have come to learn that Seth is a very sensitive child and yelling or being firm with him often only makes things worse.  But even in that moment, after me trying to correct his behavior, after discipline, Seth was still screaming uncontrollably and would not give up.  I pulled him in, his face to my face, and tried to explain why I am being firm with him and correcting him.  I told him, "Seth I'm doing this to help you stay on the right path!  I want you to be a good boy and make good decisions!"  And Seth, in the midst of tears, says, "But it's too hard to be good!"

I was stunned.

He said what we all learn at his age and deep down carry at the deepest part of our being: It is too hard to be good on our own.  Even if you want to believe that your goodness will bring you to heaven and right-standing with God, you know that you will never, ever, ever be good enough.  

That moment became a gospel teaching lesson between me and Seth.  "Seth, you're right!" I said, "Being good is too hard!  That's why Jesus is here, Seth.  Jesus helps us be good, and Jesus came to be good for us!  The next time you want to make a bad decision, pray and ask Jesus to help you make a good one.  And He will!"  He's a little too young to understand that Jesus, the Perfect One, made it so that even amidst our failures He will make us right before God, but these little baby steps are the foundation for that in his heart and mind.

It was a precious moment.