and now she has curtains. sorta.

Another step towards finishing Kat’s room.  Curtain rods!

I had a bit of a hard time finding exactly what I wanted.  It didn’t seem like I was asking for much… white, wooden, double rods, with the main rod having some girth, and finials that were pretty and yet simple (but not too simple!), and still substantial in size (I wanted them to stand out a good bit against the darker paint).  As it turns out, I’m lucky to find double rods at all locally, forget about white wooden ones fit for a little girl’s room.

So I stumbled upon the JCPenney website and found these on sale.  I had some issues with JCP customer service (rude responses, not answering my questions, etc)… but the rods finally arrived, in one piece and they’re perfect.  Yay!  (Still undecided as to whether I’ll shop JCP again.)

The curtains are Pottery Barn Kids chambray curtains that used to hang in Jag’s room a few years ago.  We’ve changed the colors of his room since then and they no longer matched, so I’d packed them away hoping to reuse them.  While they aren’t exactly what I wanted for Kat’s room, they’re close enough that I’m not going to bother spending money on something new.

As you can see, some of the panels are a lot shorter than others.  I bought 4 panels in all originally, but only ended up using 2 in Jag’s room.  I bought the extra long panels because they were on clearance, so I had to shorten them for his room.  So the other 2 panels are still extra long.  I can’t let out the hem on the shorter ones because even with a wide hem, there’s still not enough fabric to reach the floor, so I think I’ve decided to cut the long panels down to match the short ones, then sew a wide white eyelet ruffle to the bottom of all 4 panels so that they reach the floor.  (I recently saw some wide eyelet ruffle sold by the yard at Joann’s - it will match Kat’s crib skirt perfectly!)

I realized after taking this picture, that after I get the curtains hemmed and trimmed, all I’ll have left is to paint the dresser and hang wall art!  Not that those are especially small jobs, but they’re not huge either so I feel like I’m almost done!  Yay!

wait! before you buy!

Got my usual Sensational Beginnings catalog in the mail yesterday, and I was flipping through it when I noticed this neat Wigglin’ Water Hose.  Cool.  And hey!  That’s the EXACT Wigglin’ Water Hose I bought at Walmart on Monday for $8.95!  Less than half the price! 

(I know Walmart is the root of all evil… I know.  But when my choice is between shopping at Walmart that’s 5 minutes away, or Target that is 25 minutes away, and especially with gas prices what they are, I can’t justify a boycott.  Sorry.)

As for the sprinkler, we haven’t tried it yet, but I will update if it’s a hit.  I picked this one over others because it looks like several kids could play at once without too much of getting in each other’s way.

that “green” toy camera i mentioned?

We love it!  All the pieces and parts really move, it’s bigger than I expected and it even smells good!

I highly recommend it!

PS.  Took this with the Canon 35mm f/1.4 L.  I’m renting it just to try it on for size.  I really love it!  I’m thinking I’ll probably be upgrading to a full frame camera this spring or summer, so I’m not ready to buy.  I need to get the feel of full frame first.  But this is the 2nd L prime I’ve tried and fallen in love with.  Seriously thinking of trading in 2 of my 3 L zooms for L primes.

tgif!

Long time no post, eh?  I thought I’d brush the cobwebs off the blog and post a few random things while Kat eats her breakfast.

• I logged into WordPress today to see that it looks completely different!  I wanted to update the look of the blog, I think it’ll have to wait a couple of days while I click through and explore.
• floor update - it’s taken longer than we thought.  Jason cut his thumb on a coping saw and it slowed him down considerably.  We’re in the home stretch though, only the laundry room left!
• after the laundry room floor is done, we’re going to take a break (a forced break, actually - Jason has business out of town and then we have family coming into town for Kat’s birthday), but then we’ll move on to tiling the bathrooms.
• speaking of Kat’s birthday, because we took on the flooring projects, her bedroom won’t be done by her birthday.  I feel terribly guilty about that.
• I got Jag a little fish tank for his room; he’s loving it so far!  He picked out all the decor… red gravel, a skull for the fish to swim through/hide in and a few little plants.  He’s got a reddish purplish male betta and 3 rasboras in there now, and we’re thinking of maybe adding a couple of cory cats soon.  He’s been good about feeding them everyday without me asking.
• I’ve been feeling yucky for a long time now, and finally found out this week it’s vertigo.  Not fun.
• Kat’s had a verbal explosion lately.  She’s singing, counting to 10 and pretty much saying everything she needs or wants to say.  It’s funny to finally understand what’s going on in that little mind of hers - she’s quite a character!
• I’m in a photography slump, one of those where I don’t feel like taking pictures, and the few pictures that I do take, I’m really unhappy with.  I know this is pretty typical for all photographers (this isn’t the first time I’ve been through it), but it’s always so painful for me.  I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and feel good about my work again!  I’m thinking of updating my version of Photoshop and investing in Lightroom in hopes of a fresh start.
• I’m addicted to the Packrat application on Facebook.  I’m too embarrassed to say how much time I’ve wasted playing at night after the kids are in bed.
• I bought this as part of Kat’s birthday gift, and it is just sooooo cute.  Seriously.  I almost hope she doesn’t like it so I can keep it for myself.  (also, I bought it from that very site and the transaction was flawless)

That’s all I’ve got for now - it took me over an hour to type just that with all the interruptions.  More later!  (and email replies as well, I’m WEEKS behind - I’m so sorry!)

final color

Welp, painting is done!  There are a few touch-ups that need to be done, but otherwise the bulk of the work is over and I can show a semi-after photo!  (I’ll show a final-after photo when the whole room is done, of course!)

I’ll admit, that dark pink was really overwhelming for me at first.  I walked into her room several times over the course of the day yesterday, looking at the color in different lights, trying to decide if I loved it or hated it.  I think I’m starting to love it.  And once I get all her furniture painted white, I think it will help immensely.  As you can see, it’s pretty cute with the white bookshelf!

Still so much to do, though… paint the crib and dresser, sew some curtains, make or buy wall art (most likely I’ll make most of it, I’ve got a lot of ideas - too many actually, she doesn’t have enough wall space for everything I’d like to do)… but I’m motivated now, so hopefully I can crank it all out quickly.  I’m making it my goal to have it finished by her birthday at the end of April.

Oh, and speaking of making things myself… I quickly painted up a letter “E” for her bedroom door last night in-between feeding the kids dinner and Jason getting home.  I used a purple floral patch from her quilt as inspiration.

(I bought a “J” for Jag’s door too, but he’s decided he wants to paint it himself, so it’s in the works… )

i like to play school

When I was a little girl, I loooooved playing school.  I loved writing on the chalkboard and pretending to give tests and grade papers.  FUN!  Now before you say it, no I shouldn’t have become a teacher.  It takes a very special kind of person to be a teacher.  A very patient person.  When it comes to teaching other people, I have zero patience.  Ask me about the photography forum I used to run and why it’s no longer alive. 

Anywho, Jag has started getting a good deal of homework in the last month.  They’ve started having weekly spelling words and tests, and with that comes spelling homework 3 nights a week (on top of his nightly reading homework and the occasional math worksheet or project that she might send home).

As a kid, I never enjoyed my own homework.  I’m LOVING Jag’s!  I get to play teacher!

Every week I print up little “flashcards” with his spelling words and little descriptive pictures, and tape them to the wall next to his desk.  I print up simple sentences using his spelling words so he can read and copy them on the lined paper I print up for him.  I make little word games, scrambling the words for him to unscramble, or “code word” games where he has to match numbers to letters to come up with the words.  I give him practice spelling tests.

I don’t think he’s enjoying the homework nearly as much as I am.  Okay, I know he’s not.  He grumbles about sitting down to do it most days.  But you know what?  He’s gotten 100% on every single practice test he’s taken (the teacher gives practice tests on Thursdays, and if they ace it, they don’t have to take the real test on Friday and instead get a special “free” time to color, draw or read).  The truth is, I think he’d be getting 100% even without all the extra practice, but I’m trying to teach him good study habits.  It never hurts to do a little extra work, ya know?

Enough of my blabbing - I have homework to print!  Yay!

kitty kat’s room - a home decorating project

So the project has begun.  Okay well actually, the project technically started when I got the bright idea to use the yellow trimmed quilt and buy berry pink paint.

BUT, I have put brush to wall and there’s no turning back now!

Here’s my “before” shot.  Please don’t mind the mess, I pushed stuff out of my way and was about to get started when I remembered I needed to take a picture, so I didn’t bother tidying up.

Here is my paint choice.  The lighter pink is just the primer.  That darker pink there is the actual paint color.

And here’s about all I was able to get done last night before Jason and the kids came home from playing at the neighbor’s house.

I fully intend to continue to document the progress.  The good, bad and the ugly.  Okay, hopefully there will be no bad and ugly, just good and pretty!  Anyway, stay tuned!

as seen on tv

So the kids are watching Sprout this afternoon.  Jag likes Zoboomafoo.

The tv gets quiet, so I glance around the corner and I see Jag’s paused it.  Then he runs in from around the corner with a pen in his hand and yells, “I need paper!”  He quickly snatches a piece of paper off my printer and goes running back into the family room.

I followed him, and found him carefully copying this down from the tv…

Apparently, he thinks we need spacebags.

I couldn’t help but laugh.  I asked him, “are you going to call?”  He replied, “no, I have to be 18 years old to call.  I’m going to save it in my room until then.”

valentines for kids

  

Season wrote up a little thing over at Photojojo Uncut about the Valentine’s Day card I made for Jag’s class last year.  Making the cards is super easy, and I promise you will get a ton of compliments from the teachers and other parents!  She gives a good explanation, but if you have any questions specifically about how I did mine, feel free to drop me a line.  (I’ve included a copy of the back of the card above as well - he went through a stage of loving knock-knock jokes, so it made perfect sense to include one.)

parents of little train fans

I don’t know if this is common knowledge or not, but it’s something we’ve just recently tried and I’m so tickled with how well it’s worked out, I’m going to post about it just incase there’s someone out there who hasn’t tried this yet.

We’ve always kind of despised all the Thomas train and Plan City sets.  I mean, they’re so cute.  And we went through the trouble of building our own wooden table to set it all up (darn nice, if I do say so myself, with a flipable table top hand-painted by moi).  But those tracks - argh, those tracks!  Always getting knocked over or bumping out of place.  Every few minutes it was, “Moooooooommy!  The tracks came apart!  The bridge fell over!  The road broke!”  It got to the point that either Jag would give up and move on to something else (usually playing with the trains or cars on the ottomans instead), or *I* would get fed up, box the entire sets up and put them back into the closet.

WELL, a friend of mine a while back suggested earthquake putty.  I bought a pack, but that was right around the time that we were getting our house in order to sell (long story - we almost moved to Austin, TX) so we had put the train table in storage and the putty got shoved into a cabinet.  Fast forward to this past weekend… Kat has recently discovered Thomas.  She loves playing with the “choo choos” so we thought we’d dust off the ‘ole table and dig up the putty.

Let me tell you something - that putty WORKS!  It’s awesome!  It’s strong enough to hold the tracks, roads and pieces down so that they aren’t bumped or knocked by little hands, but not so strong that the adults can’t pull the pieces up (NO damage to the table top!) and change the track around if we need to.  Seriously - it’s fantastic and it’s made the train sets and Plan City sets so much more fun.  We’ve had it set up since yesterday, the kids have been playing with it non-stop and there hasn’t been a single instance of track or road coming up or moving.

YIPPEE!