Living Room Update

Even though I am supposed to be on bedrest, I still cannot control my nesting urge sometimes. Months ago, I bought enough materials for two toy shelfs for the living room, but only had energy to build one. But now I cannot stand the toy mess in the living room any more, I had to finish the second one. Since I cannot lift heavy stuffs, I just painted the boards in the basement, then brought them upstairs one by one, and finish building it right in the living room. Here is the before picture of the west wall of the living room. What a mess! When did I get all these toys for just one girl!
We don't have a family room or a separate room to set up as little caterpillar's playroom, so I have to make this small living room a multi-functional room. Here is the after picture, kind of. Well, it's not all done yet, but it does look more organized. Now everything has its own spot. The shelf on the left is the new one. Look closely, you can see it's not done yet. I need to trim the sides a little bit to make it even with the first shelf, paint the raw edges, and polyurethane it. Look at the height difference here, it doesn't bother Stubborn or little caterpillar, but it really bugs me! But I am exhausted, and it doesn't worth risking having my baby premature. So, it just have to stay this way until this baby is out.
Here is what the left side looks like now. I made that alphabet art a couple of nights ago. I found it online, and printed out the individual letters, cut them out, and taped them to a piece of white board. So easy! Cannot remmeber where I found it online though, it was months ago. Whoever created this art originally, THANK YOU! My girl loves it! The blue floral bins on the upper right shelf are so easy to make also. They were just these boxes from BJ's. I built these toy shelves 18" deep to accommodate her music table and some other big toys, and these free boxes are the perfect size. Some self-adhesive shelf lining paper and several minutes later, this is how it looks like! Much better! And each of these bins costs me about 50 cents! I just need to make some pretty labels for them. They each hold a different type of toys, like building blocks, musical toys, pulling toys, teaparty toys, etc.
This is the right shelf. As you can see, her favorite toys are on top of the shelf, so she can play with them anytime she likes, without digging or pulling them out of big boxes. And notice I removed the horse painting, and tied a piece of yarn to display her arts. Aren't they cute? Little caterpillar is very happy to see her masterpieces proudly displayed on the wall!

Before I show you the other side of the living room, I have to show you some of her toys! I just love wooden toys! Almost all those plastic toys came from friends! Look at these, my girl is more into cars, airplanes and dinosaurs than dolls!
She loves that cashier machine, and sings to that microphone all the time. And everytime she sees someone playing piano on the TV, she starts playing along on her little piano. So cute! We might need to get her a real piano in a couple of years.
These globes are my favorites. I can show her where grandparents and other relatives live. The big and midium ones are from thrift store, the tiny glass one was a party favor from a wedding.

OK, now the east side of the living room. This is how that tiny corner looked like during the holidays. I wanted to set up a painting table there, so I took down the xmas tree 2 days after. Moved the animal alphabet art up a little bit, so I could hang the little DIY blackboard and some buckets right under it. Now she can do coloring, finger printing, and draw with chalks on the blackboard, right at one table! The activity bag hanging on the wall holds her coloring books. All I need is a walllamp above it. It's kind of dark. I love this ikea lamp very much, but not enough to drive 1hr to get it. I will get it next time we go there for more stuffs.

There you have it, my living room is taken over by my girl! And I am happy about it and supporting it. This is the exact situation I said I won't allow before I had her. But you know what, my love to my baby totally won! I don't mind toys in the living room any more, just need to have them under control!

Key Situation

We always had a key bowl by the front door, even before we moved into this house. Ever since we got our beloved console table, it has been sitting on it proudly, and super conveniently. I even have a special Christmas bowl to swap out every year. Isn't it cute? Well, technically it's a candy bowl, but hey, a bowl is a bowl, and it's perfect size for our keys.
OK, back to the normal key bowl situation. You see, now our little caterpillar is growing up, there has been lots of new toddler proofing to do around the house. Apparently, tall and curious is not a very safe combination. She can reach almost anywhere, including the higher countertop in the kitchen. So, she has been grabbing keys and changes and other small objects (I drop my earrings in there sometimes too, bad mom) from our keybowl. Stubborn got really fed up one day, and cleared out all things dangerous from the top of the little console table, and the tiny drawer (yeah, she can open everything too). We also really need more space for mails and magazines. So, sadly the little keybowl has to go. The only free space right by the front door is this tiny wall space between the door and the windows. A short trip to Lowe's, some measuring and drilling later, we got two new shiny keyhooks. Nothing fancy, just practical. Enough space for all our keys (backup ones are in a box in the home office).See how nice and clean they look now? Not covered by the curtain, and not bothering the light switch. The color is not matching the curtain rod, but this is just a quick solution, and I am more into nickel finish these years anyway. One more look at the less cluttered console table. Now I don't need to worry about mails and magazines falling off the table any more. Just hope my little girl won't suddenly love to tore apart our mails.

Upgraded Deck Gate

This was what we used to block the deck staircase. Ignore the opened new gate in the picture, I totally forgot to take a real before picture. This is just showing you how it was used to be. It was just to block my girl from getting off the deck and wander off (our yard is not fenced in). It's too heavy for her to move out of the way, so it was functioning, but when other kids pushed it away to get their balls that fell on my deck, it scratched the deck floor, a lot! And of course, I want something looks more attractive, and we need that chair now summer is here.

Now look at the shiny new gate! It fits like a glove! I am so proud of myself for a good measurement for a change. I am so tired of stupid measurement mistakes, really crossed my fingers hoping I don't have to take it apart and redo it.

This is what it all started with, parts of a broken crib! Yes, I picked them up from my neighbor's curb, but I asked for permission first. I was not stealing my neighbor's trash. They were sitting there collecting dust for more than a year. Yeah, that's how lazy I was. It took me more than a year to start, but the building process was as easy as it could possibly be. I measured the two 2 by 2 I had, they were going to be the side for the gate. I measured the opening, minus the two 2by2s and 1/2" so the door won't stuck when swing open. Now transfer the measurement to the crib railing, cut the top and bottom frame with my miter saw. Predrill some holes, and screw the side pieces (2by2s) to the top and bottom frame. It's basically done! Now some hinges, a gate lock hardware, a couple of coats of outdoor paint (leftover from last year deck refinish job). I made myself a simple deck gate,all for less than $5! So, if you have a deck and super active baby or toddler, go find a broken old crib and some 2by2s, you can build it too. Oh, if you cannot find an old crib, a couple of old shutters will do. Just saw them to size, place two of them side by side, and screw the side to them, you will have a gate. A little bit different looking, but very nautical! You can paint any fun color you like, I just want it to blend in, so white it is.

Happy DIYing! And let the summer begin!

DIY Toy Shelf

I should have said "shelves", since I planned to make two matching ones. But since I don't have time to make the second one this month, and the first one is so fresh and lovely, I have to post it now, standing there proudly, but very lonely. Don't worry, your twin brother will join you soon, I promise!
Well, I drew this plan in my little pocket book, like months ago. Finally got the courage to get started. Once the wood was cut, there is no turning back. Oh, I have to remember to post pictures of my plan for the shelves, and measurements and cutting plan to the original post. I measured all her toys, so even the big ones have their own spots in this new system. I love how crispy clean the white is, plus a couple of coats of polyurethane, it should hold pretty good. One thing I do regret is painting the inside aqua-blue. What can I say, mommy loves blue! Remember her room? It's blue! And the dresses I refashioned for her recently were also blue! But now seeing how many of her toys are blue, I should have just left it white, or painted it apple green? Anyway, I am getting some white plastic bins or baskets for the top shelves, so I can group toys, and it will look less messy. If I cannot find bins big enough, I just have to make some myself. To utilize every inch of the shelf space, I will need bins that's long and narrow, like 10" by 18". That's very odd measurement!

Here are the before pictures. It's hard to tell, but it's kind of messy before. Toys all over the floor, above and under her little table, so she got nowhere to doodle. And most of her smaller toys and stuffed animals are piled up in that big canvas bin. Of course there were toys in other rooms too. And do you see all those pillows on top of the sofa back? No one sit in that corner, it's taking up too much space, just to hold some pillows and toys sometimes. Yeah, it was our fault buying such a huge sectional sofa for such a small room. But it didn't look so big in the big bright showroom! We didn't even have space for a sidetable or shoe rack! So, to make space for the twin toy shelves, I removed that corner sofa! Look how much space we got! That metal shelf came out of little caterpillar's closet, and it's there only temporarily, holding the space for the second toy shelf. We also got more than enough space for a shoe cabinet! No more piled up shoes in front of the door. And we still have enough sofa for 3! OK, take another look at my new 'old' shoe cabinet!
It holds so many pairs of shoes, ours and little caterpillars. The door stucks a little, so you have to wiggle it to open. But it can be a good thing, so little caterpillar won't open it all the time and pull every single one of them out. I got it from my best friend, who moved away two months ago. It's still in good shape, but just dingy. Nothing some fresh paint couldn't fix. Now we have a spot to put our bags. And I am eyeing the narrow wall next to it for a cute coat hanger, so our coats and jackets won't pile up on the sofa again. OK, there is still much to be done for this room. Some are simple, like hanging some more modern arts, but others are very big job, like reconfiguring the living room closet. Those will be posts of their own, one day. For now, I just like to sit back and admire my handy work. Oh, did I mention this before? Little caterpilalr loves this new arrangement, she can get to all her toys now.

Nursery Closet Reconfiguration

We all know that babies grow up too fast. I used to wish little caterpillar can grow faster, but now I want her to slow down. I really miss the feeling of holding that soft little baby in my arms. Anyway. As she grows, our needs for storage in the nursery has been changing. CONSTANTLY! It was quite simple, like this. Then there were more cloth and toys, so we added a sweater organizer (for blankets) and more hangers. This worked fine for a long time. But now that she is much bigger, she wants to help mommy to hang the clothes up. Also, Stubborn wants the clothes sorted and set up the way he could understand, since he will be the one drop her off at daycare. And it became very hard to hold her still on the changing station. So it's time for our elfa shelves to go back into the closets again. Base on all the reasons above, mommy had to reconfigure her closet, a total transformation.

The actual plan involves painting the inside of the closet pink, and building a narrow shelving unit for the left end of the closet to hold accessories and small items. But I didn't want to paint it while all the windows are still closed, and I didn't have time to build shelf yet, so these will the in progress pictures. First, I removed the sliding doors. I like they don't take any extra space, but hate that we can only access half of the closet at a time. So, they had to go! Now that the doors gone, you can see better how the closet was set up. A metal shelving unit inside a builder standard closet. Oh, plus some canvas bins and a hanging sweater organizer. And this is the changing station made with two elfa shelves. Oh, I already removed the changing pad.
After some measuring, cutting, and painting, here is the new shelf and rod. Also, one elfa unit inside the closet. I had to remove the wheels, since they are not very stable, and we won't be moving it for a long time. This is when I noticed that the new shelf may not be level! I couldn't find my level, so trusted the baseboard. Stubborn thinks it's not a big deal, but it really bugs me. I will fix it one day. Oh, that little box on that new shelf holds all her socks and tights.Look, little caterpillar was inspecting the new closet. She was very excited to find the new rod at her level. To the left of the new shelf is where the narrow accessory shelf would be. For now I just hang a canvas shoe organizer there. Once the shelf installed, I will somehow change this organizer to a 2 by 5 (two columns of 5 next to each other), instead of a single column of 10. So, one column will hold her entire sets of outfits from Mon to Fri, while the second column holds the backup outfits.
I will paint her closet before our next vacation and leave the window open, so it will have time to air out. I will never let my baby sleep in a freshly painted room, even if I use the no VOC paint. I will post the updates once all are done, probably in a couple of months.

Toddler Safe 2-D Felt Christmas Tree

Sorry for disappearing for this long. Things were just crazy, and I was busy decorating the living room with all things made with felt. Like I said before, I want little caterpillar to have a fun and safe Christmas. So here is the big reveal of my secret, a totally kid friendly 2-D Christmas Tree!

These are the materials I used to make the tree, very simple, foam boards, felt, packaging tape, and some other tools. And a couple of hours later, here is the end result, minus the decorations. Oh, I did filmed the whole process, if any of you interested, I will make it into a tutorial.
Update: I just posted the tutorial.
And here is the moment of truth. The tree lit up!
Then it was the fun part, decorating! I made lots of felt poinsettia flowers and felt ornaments. Plus some of the little wooden toy ornaments I had for years.
I think this tree is my best ever! So fun, and colorful, and absolutely safe. Little caterpillar loves it, she touches the lights, and pulled on some ornaments. Nothing broke, or fell off! Yayyyy! Huge success! A round of appluse for mommy! Yayyyy!

Here are the rest of the decorations in the room, some felt circle garlands, felt stocking, nutcrackers, and some glass ornaments. Yes, I do have glass ones in the room, but I hang them with some ribbons and taped on the wall, way up high, so little caterpillar cannot reach them. So, even though technically not all my decorations are made with felt, it's still totally toddler safe. You can see more pictures of my felt ornaments on my flickr.

Thrifted Kids Play Table Set

Score! I spotted this set right after it was dropped off at my local Salvation Army! So, without second thought, I grabbed it. I know there are only 3 chairs, missing that piglet one, but com'on, how can I pass on such a cute set, especially when it looks almost like new. I have been looking for some kid's play table set for the playroom (aka. the living room) and the nursery. Since all our rooms are small, I have to try even harder to find something fits the scale. The day before I bought this gorgeous set, I picked up another set on the curb! Yeah, I do pick up other people's trash once a while. They were even smaller than this pooh set, with princess design. But the finish was really badly damaged, and some pieces are loosen. So, they are in process of being fixed and refinished. I will show you the before and after of that set once I am done with it. That set will go into the nursery, since it's smaller and has just 2 chairs. Meanwhile, little caterpillar and her stuffed animal friends are enjoying this 'brand new' set. And I got it right in time for her bday party. The older kids (5yr old) can eat at this table! PERFECT! And it's just the right size for that tiny corner of the living room. I used to put my Norfolk Pine tree there over winter, but since we need space for little caterpillar's toys, it has to go. I am so glad someone came and picked it up, along with several other house plants I left on the curb. Here is how this 'new' table set looks with alphebet art I made her, and some of the bday decor. I will show you the rest of the decor after the big party.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

How I love your new look! For a long time, we have been hunting for a more modern mirror for the entrance. I bought the rectangle one from Building19 years ago, when we were still renting and we didn't need fancy stuffs, just a plain mirror. And for just $10, I was quite satisfied with it for all those years, until a couple of years ago. We found the perfect little console table for the entrance space, right size for the narrow wall space, not too deep to block traffic, and we both love the style and rich color. Then this old mirror started looking like an eye sore.

I have been kicking my own *** for not buying a matching mirror when we bought the console table, because when we went back for one, that store was closed! Too bad. I wanted a round one, Stubborn wanted an oval one. I wanted one with thinner border, so it won't overpower the console below, but stubborn wanted one with very wide and heavy frame, because he loves the one Charlie (Two and A Half Men) has in his bedroom. I kept telling him the reason that one works, it's because it sits above a equally heavily built dresser, and our console table is just too skiny for it. The ones that met both our criterias were way too expensive, no way I am going to spend $300 on a mirror, even $200 is a huge stretch on my budget line. So, imagine how happy we were when I spotted this baby at T.J.Maxx last weekend. It was the right size, oval shape, and almost perfect color match to our little table. And for just $39.99, I had to put it in my cart immediately. Even though it's not actually made of wood, it has the feel and look of it, without any joint lines. I could love one with bevelled mirror, but for this price, I can live with a plain one for now. Look how much difference it makes! Mirror, mirror on the wall, I am so in love with you!