Bathroom Stripes

 

 I have seen these stripes all over for a while now and I just had to have some of my own. ;) Yay.

  You can check out Nannygoats stripes here.

 

They took a lot of taping and even more patience, which I am not very good at.  But in the end I LOVE IT, and it was totally worth it. It brings the eye up to the 9 feet ceilings and the loverly arch in here.

Don't you just love my gumball machine? A $15 goodwill find. As you can see my kiddo's love it too. Man I have to refill that thing far too often.

Oh the Love!-Nursery Reveal

 I am proud to announce miss Aspen, our newest addition. Which makes 3 little princesses in our home. So, sorry that I've been AWOL for about a month now. I have been pretty busy with Christmas, being 9 months prego, having 8 house guests for over a week and then having and taking care of a precious new little girl. Phew makes me tired just typing it. But now we are back into our regular schedule and everyone is doing well.

I happy to say that she and I are very much enjoying her nursery. Decorating nurseries is my favorite! Such fun. And I just love how everything fell together so perfectly in this room, and for way cheap too. Here's a recap.

 I used the turquoise dresser I refinished forever ago as her changing table and dresser. (a $10 Craiglist steal)

 Above her dresser I dry brushed an old window and hung on a fabric bulletin board. Window was free on Craigslist and fabric bulletin board I found it at TJ Maxx for $10. Can't wait to add pictures and cute quotes. The butterfly is a $1 Walmart ornament.

 I also found this cute butterfly wall vinyl at Kohl's.

Which matches the scrapbook paper wall art above her crib perfectly.

 The bedding is Pottery Barn's Chloe- now discontinued. I found on ebay for $32 including shipping!!

I embellished the blanket with ribbon and rosettes. I also added these rosettes to the pillow sham.

 

Easily added the pink and turquoise ribbon with permanent fabric glue.

  I finished up the curtains which are just clearance sheets folded and ironed with ribbon sewn to the top. Sew easy. ;)

And you can't forget the beautiful $9 end table I refinished.

I am not the proudest of the big ugly recliner. But hey it is super comfy for middle of the night feedings, it rocks, reclines, is neutral and was only $28. haha

This room is perfect for me and baby. What do you think?

DIY Roman Shades

If you love hot glue, saving money, and sleeping in you will love this post! Here is how you make some black out roman shades using your regular $4 mini blinds! Lots of pictures and very easy steps- sew, disassemble, measure, glue, hang!
Let me also say that these are great because they function as an attractive window treatment as well as a privacy blind!
1. Buy black out liner and top fabric. Liner always on sale for about $2.50 a yard at your favorite fabric store. You will want about 1/4 inch wider than blind size, and actual length of your window.
And for your top fabric of choice about 2 inches wider on all sides.
FYI when buying blinds they always run a half inch shorter than size stated on package.

2. Cut the liner about 1/4 inch wider than the actual size of the blinds. Then lay the top fabric under the liner. Fold top fabric over twice so no raw edge is showing and press, pin, and sew- so it looks like this, but better. It's easy I promise :) I have also seen no sew ones where the ladies fold and glue directly over the back of the blind.


OK you will have a nice sewn rectangle that should measure slightly smaller than the inside of your window, and slightly larger than your mini blinds. If you want to get fancy like I tried, you could make a smaller rectangle and sew it to the top- for a more finished look.
OK all sewing complete!

3. Fun part! Start with your regular mini blind and disassemble as follows. Pop off the caps on the bottom of blinds using screwdriver.
Locate the ladder cords that separate all the blinds vertically.My blind had 3 ladder cords and 2 main cords on the sides. DO NOT CUT the Main Cords. So cut and remove all ladder cords. See picture.


4. Next remove most of your mini blinds off the remaining 2 cords. You didn't cut those right ? ;) This is what it should look like.



5. Measure how many separations/folds you want and space your mini blinds evenly. Remember that this measurement will be divided in half visually -because when the blinds are pulled the separations will be folded in half.

6. Glue 2 blinds on top of each other for more stability and weight. Be careful the glue can burn you through the blinds. :(
7. Glue blinds to your measurements on your fabric. Do not glue the cords or the openings down. Because we are using blackout liner the hot glue doesn't show through. If you use a different liner I suggest a strong fabric glue.

8. Making sure the cords are fully extended tie a knot at the bottom and cut off excess. You can choose to make your last fold before the bottom, so it had a "skirt", or go completely to the bottom and it will fold.

9. Next cut a hole for your pull strings, make sure it is wide enough.
(I had to cut mine a bit wider than this) No the raw edge doesn't bother me-but you could sew a button hole here instead- I'm just too lazy. :)
This is what you have, beautiful!

Even though I didn't(please learn form me) I suggest gluing some blinds at the bottom for added weight so they go down easier.
10. To hang them you will have to pull back the glued fabric on the top for them to fit in the brackets.
Enjoy sleeping in with your new black out roman shades! Really they are easy to do once you get going.

Warm Windows & Ebates

With everyone getting so much snow lately, I thought I'd do a post on thermal curtains. Yep have you heard of those? They are lined with "foam backing" and help to cut energy costs. They claim to reduce heating and cooling costs by 30%. They are also light blocking.

Well our house was curtainless in January and our two story family room and kitchen were getting quite cold. I thought I give thermal curtains a try. We got them up and man can I tell a difference. I don't know if our energy bill has gone down at all, but I can tell that the room is WARMER!! Yes, a good investment. And it is supposed to help in the summer too.

I found my 95 inch curtains online at JCPenny.com for only $15 a panel and free shipping, they are normally $50 or more. Let me also say that it is impossible to find 6- 95 inch curtians in any store. No I am not getting paid for any of this, but I thought it might be helpful for some of you peeps who are freezing your little buns off now and want to save some money. What are some other energy saving ways you have kept your house warm?

Another good tip I have discovered recently is ebates. It is an online site where you get cash back for doing your regular online shopping. On average you get about 5% cash back. Almost every store that is online you can use through ebates. Macy's is 6%, Target is 4%, Jcpenny 3%. You also get $5- just for signing up. Hope this helps someone out there. Has anyone else used ebates?