Vinyl Wall Decal For Closet Nursery Nook

Our family is growing by one very soon, only about five weeks to go before baby boy gets here.  I emptied the closet in my guest bedroom and have slowly been turning it into a nursery nook for when my grandson gets here.  My first purchase was a mini crib.  I found a Davinci brand cherry finished one on Overstock.com and I also bought a thicker mattress to add to it.  I got the blue knit mini crib sheet at Babies R Us.  

Since the guestroom was already a chocolate brown color I chose a soft light blue for the closet nook color.  I spent many weeks searching vinyl wall decals on EBay and Etsy before finally choosing a mama giraffe.  This was my first time to apply a vinyl wall decal to a wall so I watched videos on YouTube several times before starting the process.....

It was a little intimidating at first but once I got to the point where I could pull off the paper it was an easy process...

I love how my little nursery closet nook turned out.  Simple and fresh looking and the mama giraffe looking over the crib is my favorite part.....

until the time comes when there will be a baby boy sleeping in this little bed.

Now I need to make a soft baby blanket or baby quilt to drape over the side of the crib !

Transforming A Built In Bookcase

Two weeks ago, Katie moved into her new apartment.  A new accommodation with much more room.  One of her dilemma's though was this bookcase.  She did not want to store books on it.  It needed to be something better.  Something to gaze your eyes upon and take in each detail.  It's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door, so it had to make a statement!

After everything got moved in and assigned its new location, she got busy thinking of ways to transform this bland white space.

She invited me to help her come up with decorating ideas.  We went to Hobby Lobby and searched the aisles and decided on getting some scrapbook paper to accent the back of each shelf.  We did not want to use a permanent adhesive so we went with regular scotch tape and double sided removable scotch tape.  We measured the height of the shelf space and trimmed all the 12 X 12 sheets to fit.  We needed a ruler because all we had was an old curled up measuring tape.  Walmart helped us out with that for 88 cents on the school supply aisle.

Bookshelf with its new backing............

While at Hobby Lobby we came up with the idea of placing some greenery in a glass jar.  We liked the look of this jar and it's lid and then chose some bright green leaves to compliment the color of the jar lid and the scrapbook paper.  All supplies were half off yesterday!  Whoo hoo for a good Hob Lob sale!

It was easy to tear off the sections of leaves from the large stem that they were all fastened to.  Katie then laid each stem horizontally in the jar and stacked them around the inside edge.......

We were both impressed with how well this project turned out.  Another one will be made today and added to the bookshelf to balance out the pops of color more between the shelves.

Katie also picked up a couple of baskets at 50% off.  She will be going back to get another basket today too to help balance out the decor between the shelves.

She has had this cute ceramic bird for a couple of years.  We liked the idea of placing something short in front of something taller.  Katie also picked up a "W" and "K" at Hobby Lobby........

Last week she found this ceramic owl at Marshall's.  It was white and she spray painted it this bright color.  Yesterday at Hobby Lobby, she walked by the mirror aisle and this small round turquoise mirror caught her eye.  It has small amounts of the same yellow as the owl swirled in the paint.  Another perfect find for the day !  The green "alligator" skin candle will get replaced with something in a more suitable color.

This "Save Time See It My Way" sign was also a great bargain at Marshall's last week and very appropriate for it's new owner !

We love how this bookcase has been transformed !!!  One more jar of greenery and one more basket to make it complete!!!  And as a bonus, while we were decorating, William was painting the master bedroom.  I will show pictures of that room after it gets completed.

Scroll down to see who I have linked to this week.

Moments That Take Our Breath Away Plaque

One day before Christmas Katie was shopping at her favorite store, Home Goods, and found this plaque.  Just finding these words on a plaque when George Strait's song has so much meaning for our family right now, was a moment to take our breath away all in itself! 
Katie had to buy it, ideas were flooding through her head of what she could do with it.  Uncle Steve had taken some amazing pictures of grandma and pappaw at their city park a few weeks earlier and that's where Katie's vision began.  She created this great spot in her hallway right by the entrance to her kitchen to honor her grandparents. 

It is breath taking !

Mother Daughter Time

Today was one of those special days.  One you want to record in your "life's special moments" book.  Today I got off work at noon and headed to Katie's.  She was off all day and we had planned some mother-daughter time.  Time to ourselves, time to catch up on life, to tell stories and give updates on all the little things.  It was a day of running all over the west side of town, searching for great deals while shopping, eating at healthy restaurants and spending lots of time in the car talking while hopping from one place to the next.  Katie had lots of errands to run and I was along for the ride.  Being the co-pilot in the car, offering advice, doing the typical "mom" stuff and loving every minute of it.

Today's goal was to find some halloween decorations to add to Katie's stash.  But as luck goes, when there is money in the pocketbook, the deals are hard to find and the choices are slim.  We went to Pier One, The Country Store at Cracker Barrell, The Home Goods Store, Marshalls, Walmart, Macy's, J.C. Penny's Home Store, Bath & Body Works and Hobby Lobby.  Those last two were where we found a couple of good deals......... Bath & Body Works had these candles on sale two for $20.  Katie got scents called Leaves and Pumpkin Patch.

and Hobby Lobby had their Halloween/Thanksgiving Fall decor on sale for 40-50% off......Katie picked out a couple of fun pumpkins and a candy corn dish to hold her favorite treat of candy corn and peanuts!

Today was also a hat hunting day for me.  I needed a cap to wear to the fitness center in the mornings.  I set my alarm for 5:15 each morning,  take Riley for a quick walk and then off to the fitness center.  But some mornings when I get up, the "bed head" look is so bad, it can't be tamed.  On those mornings I reset the alarm and sleep an extra hour before having to get ready for work.  It was time to get a ball cap.  That way I could no longer have an excuse to not get myself to the treadmill and the weight machines!  We looked for hats at Walmart but only found silly ones with Superman emblems or football teams.  We found no hats at Marshalls so we headed to Dick's Sporting Goods where I found the perfect fitting hat......

So along with all these stores we visited today, we also made stops at two nursing uniform places looking for fun Halloween or Thanksgiving scrub tops but came up with nothing, made a stop at the cable customer service store and ate at two healthy restaurants.  B.D.'s Mongolian BBQ for lunch and then at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, both in Overland Park.  We finished the evening off at Sam's Club to stock up on Tide detergent, toiletries, liquid Advil and lots of berries!

I loved spending the day with Katie.  I wish these days happened more often!  I cherish every one I get.  I only wish I was younger and diseases like Lupus would leave my body, so after fun days like this,  I don't have to resort to pain patches and pain creams and Tylenol before I crawl up into a soft cushy bed for the night....

But as soon as Katie gets another day off where she wants mom to run all over town with her, I'll be ready.  I'll be re-energized, ready to put in another 15,000 steps.  Ready to be her co-pilot.  Love you Katie-girl !

Apothecary Jar Ideas For Bathroom or Nursery

While spending time with Stephanie at her store this weekend I was looking for ideas for apothecary jars.  I kept going back to the rubber duckies.  They are too irresistible!  I filled one of her apothecary jars up with them and loved the idea.  If you are looking for an idea for a child's bathroom or nursery and you like this idea too, contact Stephanie at ROOM 5 Home Decor Boutique.  She gladly takes phone orders if you are too far away from Ozark Missouri.
Her phone number is 417.581.1404.  She'll gladly box these up if you want to grab some of these before they are gone!

Spring/Summer Apothecary Jar Ideas

What to put in my apothecary jar for this time of the year? Holidays are easy. Halloween it was pumpkins, for the fall and Thanksgiving it was orange leaves and nuts, Christmas it was ornaments, Easter it was eggs......but now what? I can't think of anything really creative.
I read a post on the Internet, that you should fill your jar with stuff that reflects who you are. My first thought was spools of thread but that would be a hassle since I'm always using my thread and I would not want to empty out the jar every time I needed a color that was near the bottom of the jar. Plus I don't want to be getting in and out of the jar all the time. With my luck I would drop the lid or knock the jar off the table. So my next thought was ribbons. I have a large collection of them, I don't sew them on burp cloths very often anymore and I don't make taggies very often either. I keep all my ribbons separated by color with each color having it's own jar. I picked out some bright "summery" colors and filled up my apothecary jar.
I'm not sold on it yet. Guess I'll look at it for a couple of days and think about it. It is spring and summer looking, but not sure if it's what I want in my living room!

Bathroom Apothecary Jar

I finally accomplished one of my goals for my hall bathroom.......Find something to put in the empty apothecary jar. While "surfing" Ebay two weeks ago looking for unique soaps, I found a woman who had 90 bars of soaps that she had collected from her world travels. It was perfect, just what I was looking for and I was determined that I would win the auction. I had two other competitors but I persevered and won the prize, $38.00 later, but I WON! (That includes shipping!)
Riley has a fascination with soap. I've always had to keep the Dove soap boxes away from him. He loves the smell of fresh soap and if he does get a hold of an empty box, he will rip it to shreds! So of course I had to tease him with my large collection of new soaps. I opened the box and spilled a few of them out onto the floor and he went crazy....He stuck his head into the box to see how many treasures there were!
This is the one he snatched and ran off with.....
I got that one away from him and he came back to find a new one.......
I wanted to put all the green leaf shaped soaps in the bottom of the jar. When I opened the packages to get the soaps out, the smells caught his attention and he was all over my jar.....

It was right here that he stuck his head down into the jar and tip it over..........
I had to work fast to keep him at arms length and get my jar filled. All the extras went into a basket that I'll keep in the closet. I let Riley get close to the soaps again and he could not decide which he wanted more, the basket or the jar. He had one paw on the basket to tip it over and was putting his head into the jar to do the same. Silly, silly dog...........
I liked the way it turned out. It suits me. It makes me happy. It's my simple pleasure of the day...........

Show Us Your Life Fall Decorations

This week at Kelly's Korner Blog, Show Us Your Life it is fall decorations. Pumpkins must be my favorite because that is what I seem to have the most of.

The pumpkins on the left are made of fabric. I made them about 15 years ago and used twine to "sculpt" them with.

I have not bought any pumpkins to sit outside yet. My dad grew these "pumpkin like" gourds in his garden this summer and he gave me a bunch of them to display on my front porch.

The Cinderella shaped pumpkin is my favorite. I display it in the kitchen.

Got the crow at the after Halloween clearance sale at Jo-Ann's. I've tried hooking him on to several different things in the house, but can't find the right spot for him yet....

Last year Katie and I spray painted pumpkins and then she used a circle sponge applicator to decorate them with...

We also found some Styrofoam skulls that we sprayed with adhesive and then poured lots of green glitter on them to get these "glitter skulls"....

Click here to get back to Kelly's Korner Blog to look at other bloggers fall decorations !