Goodbye mermaid wall decal

I am very slowly working on some household projects, one of which involves trading rooms with The Cupcake sometime before winter. The rooms are about the same size but will work better switched for a few (not extremely interesting) reasons, plus it will be a fun change, so I'm making a tiny bit of progress while I wait to win the lottery afford the necessary accoutrements. A few free things I was able to start with included taking down the mermaid wall decal that was over TC's crib: 

 

 

It was really cute for TC, but not really what we had in mind for our bedroom, so I took a deep breath and started peeling. It came up pretty easily, though there was no way to "save" it unless you were willing to spend hours - it stuck to itself and tore easily coming off. It also apparently took off some paint, as you can see all the tiny dots of teal on the final product below:

 

 

The particles of missing paint weren't even noticeable on the wall, except for one small area (under 2" square) that came off pretty significantly:

So it definitely wasn't at all reusable, but it was mostly removable. We're planning to repaint anyways, so no big deal. All in all, it went up and came down better than I thought it would. I would definitely do a decal again in the future.

The light at the end of the aisle...

How cool is this?



It's The Cupcake's new nightlight! I fell in love the first day we were at the fair and had to scoop it up (new booth in the grandstand this year!) I had gotten this one at IKEA and was really excited, but it actually puts out too much light, and she stays awake trying to do things, but this one was a softer glow and really fits the watery theme of her mermaids & pirates nursery so well. I haven't decided where to hang it for sure yet, but it makes me super happy:

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - VooDoo Shop

Yeah, yeah, it's been 4 months, but there are a few last details from Halloween I wanted to write up before I'm on to next year, one being the nursery decor. You see, it went through quite a metamorphosis this past year. It started as a seldom used guest bedroom with ugly tulip print wallpaper. When we bought the house, it was staged as a little girl's room, but not exactly my style:



When we found out about the cupcake, I knew that wallpaper had to go. I was really worried about scraping it all off, but one day I started picking at it and the whole thing just peeled off in huge sheets:



Underneath it was baby pink, but that wasn't appealing either, so with the help of my BFF we covered it in "tantalizing teal:"



And then we took a big 'ol detour from traditional nursery decor in the month leading up to Halloween, turning the nursery into a N'awlins VooDoo Shop!



This was where the psychic readings took place, I wanted to create an eerie backdrop packed with details so that everywhere you looked, you noticed something new, sort of how Disney has made even the ride queues and long lines part of the attraction by setting the mood. And I wanted to do it on a budget, so I focused on repurposing free stuff, using what I had, and finding great bargains for the rest.

To start with, I arranged the bed as a couch so people could sit and listen to other fortunes being told (and, it turns out, wait in "line" because it was so popular!). I covered it with a $6 black duvet from Goodwill and all the throw pillows from the living room. I used shelves and hutches I already had around the house as the "store shelves". Since the walls were so bright, I draped long panels of fabric around to dull the happy tone and create a more intimate setting. I used fabrics I already had and a few picked up dirt cheap at goodwill (I got real good at shopping on $1.49 days!). I used 3M strips and hooks to hang everything - no way was I re-painting again :)



I gathered all the skulls, crows, and skeletons I had in my Halloween stash, and re-used the bloody rose garland from last year's Queen of Hearts scene. I also pulled a bunch of creepy religious relics I had acquired over the years, a lot of angel Xmas ornaments I had inherited, and some spooky nun dolls I found at the goodwill a few years ago and could NOT pass up.



I filled some bigger spaces with cheap art from Goodwill - remember the distressed painting in the broken down frame and the puzzle in the ornate gold I found back here? Rustic candlesticks and old wine decanters fit in well too. Old photos in antique gold frames also fit the mood, and I picked up a couple sets of battery powered candles at Costco that I mixed in everywhere:



I kept the lights really low, it was dark other than all the battery powered candles and a single lamp (shrouded in white gauzy fabric) on the psychic's table, so that helped to blend the scene together and draw your eye to the details (and away from the empty spaces). More items "from the vault" stocked the shelves - an original Ouija board, a fake heart, plastic bugs and snakes. I saved all the unsold glassware from the summer's garage sale (candle holders, dishes, vases) and filled them with foam eyeballs or water and "grow animals" from the $1 store (make sure you do this a few days ahead, they take a while to reach their full size!).



My favorite was the snakes - I had saved them from the bathroom decor in 2009. I had asked people to save clear jars and containers a few months leading up to Halloween, and my mom came up with this great pretzel jar - don't they look fantastic?



I did a few quick and cheap crafts for this room too. My husband was on a Pelligrino kick so we managed to save a ton of bottles. Rather than going to the trouble of soaking off the labels, I just printed new ones using shipping labels and creepy fonts (yay for 1001 Free Fonts!) and slapped them over the existing labels. I used a black permanent marker to color in some of the words, used fabric paint to simulate contents "dripping" out of the bottles, and voila - creepy "ingredients" for sale at the voodoo shop:



I used the same process for other shapes and sizes of containers too - tea tins held "werewolf fur." A clear jar full of tiny pieces of string became "mummy stitches."



This was actually a pretty cheap & green craft. The bottles were all free & bound for the recycling bin - I just kept them a while longer and decorated them a bit before kicking them to the curb. I didn't even bother cleaning most of them out first - a pickle jar easily becomes slug slime or swamp water with little effort. The paint and labels I had on hand, and these really made up a big part of my "display."



The only other craft project I did was some crudely painted signs advertising various voodoo shop sales and policies - "We Have Wart Remover!" and "Deadly Nightshade - $9.99!"



This room took weeks to actually put together, mainly because I arranged and rearranged everything so often. Turning on and off all of the candles took another chunk of time (and a few fingernails) but it really worked out well. Of course, the main decorative element was the table in the center of the room where the psychic held court:



Luckily The Cupcake didn't try any funny business like showing up a couple months early, or she would have had a voodoo themed nursery that I'm guessing might have garnered some sideways glances (and possible calls to child services). But she cooperated, so I was able to get everything taken down and turned over to a more child friendly look.

This room took time, but saved money. In fact, I think I might have actually come in UNDER budget on this room (don't worry, I blew it + much more on the food). I wish I would have gotten a better pic of how the lighting levels looked, but I'm still a rookie with my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it - the darkness helped, and the final effect was spooky and excellent!

Frightful Weather = Delightful Nesting Time

You may have heard about the "Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse/Tsnownami" that hit Minnesota this weekend, dumping 17+" of snow on my house, then blowing it into stiff meringue like peaks well over 3' high. I'm not all that bothered that the Metrodome collapsed, but the video is pretty cool, and major gold star to my poor hubby who had to dig us out all alone this year, as my "fragile condition" doesn't allow for much shovelling.

Instead, I found other ways to support our family unit, like working on the nursery and online shopping.

I didn't upload my "real" pictures yet, but I managed to get a whole gob of work done when everything else was cancelled (thank goodness) and that included pretty much finishing up the decor in Cupcake's room. Here are some not great camera phone photos:



The black frames with gold accents are holding these mermaid alphabet cards, they frame the top of the room on 2 sides. The gold frames underneath hold two Paulina Stuckey Cassidy prints of mermaids that I've been saving for YEARS and never hung, and I decided to order this print for the third.

I also nabbed up this reading mermaid I've been eyeing on Etsy for months, I'm hoping I can put it in the gold frame I picked up for the voodoo room at Halloween (it had a creepy puzzle in it then). Hubby is stuck in a book most of the day, we're both English majors so reading is quite important to us and we hope it is to the Cupcake as well. Reading mermaids set a good example :)



Blackbeard there (orange beard?) is guarding a pile of newborn diapers. The curtain rods are hung, and the valances that are part of the bedding set we picked out for the twin bed, and I did decide to pair them with purple blackout curtains (not shown) but Target only had 2 panels in stock, so I need to find another set before that project is finished. I also broke down and bought a mattress pad and sheet for the crib, despite trying to wait and use my registry coupons I just HAD to get that part checked off my list, it was driving me insane :)

My final art purchase, also on Etsy, was a set of prints from this seller - she also made the thank you notes I sent out for shower gifts:



They're going in simple gold dollar store frames, with a big gold pirate ship medallion from Goodwill, and that should fill the wall above the twin bed. I hope to have everything hung and finished in the next two weeks. Fingers crossed! Maybe I should move on to Christmas shopping now...

Nursery, Ahoy!

I got a couple of HUGE items checked off my list this weekend, including assembling my Boppy pillow (with protective cover and decorative slipcover), Diaper Genie (hopefully to keep Norm out of the mess, let alone the smell out of the room), and hanging up all of the Cupcake's clothes for her first 6 months (the rest are in drawers, since they won't fit in the closet). I started packing my hospital suitcase, and I also got up the courage to try my vinyl wall decal! Remember, I recently bought this on Etsy:



I was kind of terrified to start it, since I haven't ever done one before and I know I did NOT want to have to repaint if I really fudged up the walls, but I LOVED this image and decided to be brave. I cut around the design loosely and figured out where I wanted it before peeling the backing paper off and smoothing it on the wall:



Then I started the long process of rubbing the transfer, careful to really focus on all the edges and around the cutouts. At first I used a clothespin, because it was sitting there, but eventually moved to the side of the scissor handle for more ergonomic support. The only downside of this was that I somehow cut my nose by flipping the scissors around carelessly with the handle pointed at the wall...meaning the blades were pointed at my face. Whoops. Once I thought I had it all rubbed on enough to transfer, I started slooooooooooowly peeling off the clear transfer film:



Every few inches or so I'd find a scale or tendril of hair that hadn't transferred, so I eased the film back down and rubbed some more. A few places took 2-3 tries, but as long as you go really slow when peeling the film off, you can see it happening and avoid ripping the decal. I probably spent 30 mins on this part, I REALLY wanted it to work!



And it did! I absolutely LOVE how it turned out, the contrast with the bright blue walls is excellent, and though there are a few bumps and bubbles, you really can't tell unless you are looking for them. I decided not to add the water swirls or bubbles - I didn't want to ruin the clean look I had managed to capture :) While the directions had "strongly recommended using 2 sets of hands," I didn't find that necessary - and it came out looking GREAT. I was so inspired, that I decided to put the new pirate bedding on the twin bed next to the crib:



So cute! We picked this out before we knew if Cupcake would be a he or a she, and I love it. It seemed silly to spend a bunch of $$ on crib bedding, when you shouldn't use bumpers or blankets in the crib anyways, so this was where I chose to get cute bedding instead - where it would actually SHOW:



I have matching window valances which I hope to get up this week after I pick up some curtains, crib sheets, changing pad and all the other stuff on my "final necessities" list. That is going to be one fun Target trek :)

Tomorrow marks pregnancy week 35, just 5 weeks until my due date and the pages are absolutely tumbling off of the calendar now. Less than 3 weeks until Christmas?!?! I can hardly believe it. I'm frantically training my temporary replacement at work, and we're down to under 3 weeks before our holiday closure to get her all "learned up." I'm still suffering at the hands of late night heartburn & hip pain, and though my hands don't LOOK swollen to me, I think I may have to ditch the wedding ring for a while now. And I'm totally craving Peanut Butter Kisses:



I got a few at an event this past weekend, and by the time I had convinced myself I was okay shoving the rest of the plate into my purse, they were gone. But not forgotten. I may have to do some baking this week, despite my exhaustion and lack of will to clean up afterwards :) Better yet, can you just BUY these anywhere??? Since I'm down to eating about 3 things and drinking 3/4 of a gallon of milk a day, I've decided I'm fine putting away about a dozen of these a day :)

Happy Holidays!

34 1/2 weeks

We're going to have a baby.

If the hourly acid reflux wake up calls, nickel sized bladder, and pronounced waddle in my gait weren't enough to give it away, I got the official news at my doctor appointment this week that "if your labor were to start now, we wouldn't do much to stop it."

Whoa.

Though I am feeling less and less EMOTIONALLY prepared for this every day (I'm having dreams about living in the dorms again, easy & carefree...or my childhood bedroom...think that's related?), at least we are reasonably close to being prepared in a physical sense. The kid has a wardrobe that dwarfs mine and her fathers (at least for the first 6 months). She has a bright cheerful room that is actually mostly clean. And she even has a place to sleep - did I show you this GIANT gift at the baby shower? :



It was sort of the "grand finale" of the gift opening...



What could it be?



It's a mattress! And a crib! Thank you Mom & Dad (soon to be first time Grandma & Grandpa :)

They even delivered it to our house and helped the hubby and I put it together last weekend:



Norm "helped" too:



And without too much trouble, we got it done:



Shortly after, we arranged all the furniture, cleared off the dresser/changing table, and hung all of the tiny little clothes on baby hangers. It actually looks pretty good - at least it's clean :) Next steps (hopefully this weekend) are to put up this mermaid decal on the wall (ordered from Etsy - not sure exactly why they staged the photo with a bride & groom kissing behind it?!?!):



Then I need to get moving on curtains (I had a dream about curtain rods last night too...guess I'm feeling anxious about getting this done!), replace a switch plate cover, and mount our mermaid alphabet cards & a few other prints I've picked up along the years, and possibly add a few little shelves/hooks over the changing table. Oh, and probably pack my hospital bag, since somehow 8 1/2 months have passed me by already...

Cheers to a safe and productive weekend, Cupcake staying in the oven until after the holidays, and planning an epic Target shopping trip to pick up the rest of our essentials. TGIF!

The Next Nursery Project - PAINT!

We really hadn't done much in way of preparing the nursery yet other than tearing down the wallpaper a few weeks ago. So last we left it, the walls were an icky pale pink:



We decided not to worry about infant bedding, since they don't use the quilts, the bumpers are controversial, and you can hardly see the crib sheets (we'll just get solid sheets and skip the rest). Instead, way back at the beginning of the pregnancy, I bought a cute comforter for the twin bed that will also be in the room, and will be much more practical and visible. Before we even knew if we were having a boy or girl, we decided on a pirates & mermaids theme, and I fell in love with this bedding:



And back on the day we heard the heartbeat for the 2nd time (14 weeks?), I splurged on my first big accessory, this alligator fan:



That pretty much brings us up to this past week, when hubby and I finally decided on a paint color - "tantalizing teal" from Sherwin Williams, and I scooped up a gallon ("Harmony" = low VOC's, in a eggshell finish). I was excited, but a little scared when I opened up the lid to really face how bright it was:



Eeeep! But there was no turning back now. I ended up wearing some old pajamas for the job, so forgive the lack of glamour - when you only have a few pairs of pants that fit and can't afford to ruin any of them with paint, you have to get creative :) I taped off all the trim, stacked up the furniture, and used old "scene setters" from Halloween as drop cloths (thus the bats and ghosts on the floor. Yay recycling! Yay not having to buy drop cloths!)



Oh my goodness, this is really bright...



There were a few moments of wondering if I had made a huge mistake - I clearly hadn't done enough (or anything) to the walls after tearing down the wallpaper (oops), so there were a few areas where the finish was strange (wallpaper glue?). The walls are plaster and lightly textured, so there were areas that just didn't seem to take paint right away and had to be retouched a few times. Al came over and helped me with the "cutting in" (and fixed my streaky lines) and we were finished with the whole thing in under 2 hours. The room looks like a giant Tiffany box, but I think it will be really cute once everything is assembled:



I am DYING to go shopping now for fun accessories, but luckily I'm broke, so no budget busting shopping sprees for me. All in good time, I'm sure. For now, I'm doing a lot of "window" shopping and dreaming on Etsy, and I have a few plans in the works.

Hope you like it, little one! Can't wait for you to see your new home :)

"Tantalizing" Weekend Plans

We picked a color for the nursery, and I'm *hoping* to paint this weekend.


Check out "tantalizing teal" - kind of a provocative name for an infant's room, but hubby thought all the lighter tones I picked out looked "like a hospital" and I'm terrified of going too dark and creating a cave. So we met somewhere in between, at a color that happens to perfectly match the happy little octopus guy that is all over our pirate-themed bedding (we're doing pirates & mermaids).

So now that the act of painting is actually getting close, I'm kind of scared.

I've never actually painted a room in my house before. I've only recently had "my house" and it's still kind of unreal that I can actually alter things to my liking. Even permanently. I sort of feel like I'm playing dress up in mother's high heels.

And I really hope I don't end up spilling a gallon of paint, falling off a ladder, or otherwise playing out the comedy of errors that seems much too possible right now...

Today I will be happy, dammit.

I had a remarkably crabby day yesterday (there was much discussion of stabbing someone with my letter opener, but somehow bloodshed was avoided) and in an attempt to create a much more tolerable day today, I'm pulling out all the stops to manufacture happiness:

- wearing a new sweater ($9 on the clearance rack at Motherhood)

- wearing new (to me) corduroy pants ($4.99 at Goodwill!)

- accessorized with blue sparkly necklace (bling = happiness) and striped socks

- looking forward to the cheesy but addicting "Vampire Diaries" season premier tonight

- put together the rest of my new dining set last night! The table looks fab, went together very easily, and I can't wait to start using it.

- lunch with Dad! And on a day I forgot/was too lazy to scavenge for something to bring!

- hubby and I caught up on the MOUNTAIN of laundry we had accumulated. It's still not put away, but at least it is a CLEAN mountain now

And I'm spending my morning looking at all the cute things on Etsy that I covet for my Pirates & Mermaids themed nursery, such as:


Walk the Plank print on vintage dictionary page from Etsy seller Winterberrycottage:



I love this because it fits the theme, but also because books and reading are so important to my husband and I (both English majors), and we hope that same joy will be found by our little one.

I have always been fascinated by these folded stars, we had some on our Xmas tree when I was growing up - how fun are they for a mobile?



From Etsy seller Starcraft, I'm drawn to this even though it doesn't necessarily fit the theme, the colors are so great and bright. Plus, compared to shaped mobiles which are ridiculously expensive, this seems much more my speed!

This melts my heart a little:



Mermaid Hugs print from Etsy Seller RubysBrush, it's just too sweet for words. I actually have a couple other mermaid prints I bought YEARS ago that I'm excited to find and frame for the nursery as well - I'm thinking ornate thrift store frames could be really fun.

I haven't bought anything yet, but just the "window" shopping and planning is fun. Plus, How could I be in a bad mood after looking at such pretty things?

Here's hoping your day is bright and bearable...

H.

Nursery

I am off oogling my baby's junk this morning (in addition to having some sort of important measurements and developmental testing, but we all know finding out the sex of your zygote is the real fun - if not an acceptible reason for the insurance company to cover an ultrasound), and since so many of you jerks are voting it will be uncooperative in this endeavor, I think I'll just keep it a secret for a while. Ha, take that Internet. Or the 3 of you who might care a little...

In the meantime, here's a super fun and partially related project I've got in the works:

When we stumbled upon the open house, here's how the room that would eventually become the nursery was staged:



The wallpaper was a cream/yellow with a small floral print:



And the valances matched:



We set it up as a guest bedroom, but since most of our guests actually stay in the basement (pull out couch, big screen TV, separate bathroom) it didn't get much use other than storage and we never bothered with updating (or taking photos of) it until now. A couple weeks ago I cleared out most of the closet, de-cluttered the non-baby friendly crap, and shoved all the remaining furniture to the center of the room in anticipation of tearing down the wallpaper and repainting for the little one. I have actually never painted a place in which I'd lived, and aside from a short experiement helping a friend, I've never painted a wall at all. I definitely haven't torn down wallpaper, and was pretty much expecting the worst - layers of painted over wallpaper, or plaster walls crumbling without the wallpaper holding them together like fondant...who knew what was lurking under the cheery tiny tulips?

I had planned to use these kind of kits that I had watched on QVC or the DIY network or something and was won over by, but I was waiting for the $$$ to invest in them. In preparation I had taken all of the switchplates off, and around the lightswitch there was some "extra" hanging paper.

I gave it a little tug.

The whole sheet came down!

In a matter of an hour, I had done this:



With no tools, no water, and just a little tugging, it all pulled down in long strips:



And the walls underneath were not falling down! In fact, they seemed to be in pretty good shape! They're an ugly powder pink that we will still be repainting, but I breathed a big sigh of relief:



This was all the same weekend I had my little nesting fit, so I felt quite accomplished. I've just got to fill a few nail holes, decide on a paint color, and we're ready to roll!