Simple Easter Mantel

We don't have a mantel, per se (no fireplace here!), but we do have a shelf above the TV in the living room and it's usually a junk collector (and dust collector). As if they need an introduction, here are the before pictures:



Full disclosure: I forgot to take the before pictures and had already cleared off the shelf. So, this was waaay worse than what you see here. I was too lazy to put the clutter back up :)

If you know me, you know my house is too small for our family. You also know that my house is in a constant state of chaos, as is our schedule. Hubs and the kids are home during the day and then we are usually running around at night doing different errands, obligations, etc... so there's rarely a moment where everything is picked up, dusted, vacuumed, wiped down, and just perfect. It's just not realistic. BUT...since we aren't able to sell it for a while, we are trying to reorganize so that we can fit better and the kids have room to play. Once this is done, I feel like we can get on to a schedule and cleaning rotation that won't be too daunting. HOPEFULLY.

Last week, I bought some speckled eggs to display for Easter for 50% off at Joann Fabrics, so I bought two packages for a total of $9.99! Score for sure. I don't have an overabundance of cool items in which to display them and I cannot get to my ribbon right now, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I remembered that I had two identical clear, tall vases that we used at a fundraiser last year, so I gave it a shot.

I think it turned out pretty well.  What do you think? The wall art is actually the inspiration for our playroom, but since we're still working on that project, it's  been sitting on the mantel and I thought it went well with the eggs, so I left it there for Easter.

The bunny is one of those singing-and-dancing novelties my mom likes to buy for the kids at holidays.  They love it and can listen to it 100 times per day.  I'm sure you can relate!  So, needless to say, I felt that he had a place in our holiday decor.


When we were at IKEA a couple weeks ago buying the bookshelves for the playroom, we also bought doors for our entertainment center and hadn't put them on yet, so I figured I would try it out.  I'm not great with tools as I normally don't read the directions; I just "figure it out as I go".  Hubs has had to come behind me and re-do things plenty of times. I'm just impatient by nature.  But this looked pretty easy.  And it was.   Here's how it looked before the doors - very cluttered and dusty in there. 



The TV stand that holds our DVR, DVD player and video game consoles

See all the dust and random junk on those shelves?  And that pile of paper to the left?  That's mostly my scrapbook paper that used to live in the dining room and was  removed when we started to convert it to the playroom and just haven't found a place for the paper yet.

Here's how it looked afterwards:

 

Ta-da!  It only took me about 10 minutes on each door and that includes opening the packages and reading the instructions.  Not bad, eh?  In all, I only spent about 30 minutes total (including installing the doors) and it looks 100% better than it did.  Now, I just need to install a clutter repellent and we'll be good to go!

Also, I realize that it may seem odd to some of you that this is an "after" picture when that paper pile is still sitting there.  But, my focus was on getting the entertainment center organized and cleaned off.  The papers are for another day.  If you notice, there are toys hiding out underneath it even.  Not cleaning under, inside, or around; just the entertainment center itself.  I will eventually organize the things inside of the cabinet. But not this week.

I think that's a good lesson for us sometimes.  Stop trying to do too much all at once.  You have to do one thing at a time or you will constantly feel like you've failed.  That's my encouragement for the day and I hope you liked my project!

 

Oh, and I hung up the kids' Easter cards from their great-aunt.  And yes, those are blank picture frames.  I need to get some updated pictures of my family for those.

Happy Easter everyone!

Weekend fun

Over the weekend, we had a lot of fun, but not exactly together.  Friday night, Calah & I went to the mall to shop for some new Spring pieces I needed.  I found some jewelry at Charming Charlie on CLEARANCE (score!), and a few basic tops, and a dress at JCPenney.  Those weren't on sale, but they were reasonably priced.  I also bought a couple of shapers at Sears but I need them mostly for my abdominal area, so I bought the "granny-panty" kind and it kept rolling down and folding over when I bent over, so I may need to re-think my strategy here.  I was also feeling pretty nauseous when I was wearing it, so maybe I need a bigger size.  The boys went with Hubs to IKEA to return a couple of things and pick up some new fabric drawers that fit our shelving units in the playroom better.  (I will do a separate post for the exciting reveal once it's all done!). 

Saturday, we went out for breakfast to Southern Belle's using a groupon that Hubs bought for us.  We ordered WAY too much food and had to take three containers home with us!  I didn't realize how big the portions would be.  I could have ordered one meal for all three of the kids for sure.  But, Hubs likes having leftovers at home, so it turned out just fine.  After breakfast, he went to help a friend move his office stuff out of the building since he is closing his business next month.  I took the kids to Sam's Club to pick up some Easter candy since my cousins were coming over that day to stuff eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt next weekend.  Here are a couple pics from last year's hunt:   

My aunt has a sweet yard with lots of greenery in which to hide the eggs. The past two years, we have had great weather and didn't even have to wear jackets. This year has been weird because we go from 40 degrees to snow and back. This weekend is supposed to be in the low 50's, so I'm praying that it actually IS that nice out and we can still do the hunt. The kids love doing it every year - even though they never get through all their candy before it has to be tossed out. My motto: If we have Easter candy left at Halloween or Halloween candy left at Easter, it gets tossed. So, we will be purging quite a bit this next weekend.

My 4-years-younger-than-me cousin is pregnant with a baby girl making her debut in June (yay!!), so I will be able to unload all my no-longer-needed baby gear on her (I mean, give it to her :)), so my spring garage cleaning will be just a bit easier this year, I hope.  I still need to decide whether a small storage space would be worth it or if I should just let go of the furniture that's taking up half the garage. We will be in this house for about two more years, so I know I will  be able to use the furniture at that point, but how long is too long to hold on to it? I feel like we can inexpensively replace all of it when the time comes.  I guess the other thing is that I don't know what our future home will look like and I may just end up throwing it out in the end anyway.

The "big kids" lunching and cracking each other up


 

Anyway, my 5-years-younger-than-me cousin Holly and her sister, my 7-years-younger-than-me cousin Jen, came over with their kids on Saturday.  I was super proud of how well the kids all played together considering how young they all are and are still learning how to share and use their words nicely. Their ages: Benji 5, Dillon 4, Alana 2.75, Josiah 2.5, Calah 10 mos, Austin 5 mos.  After a while, I made some chicken taquitos and the always-toddler-approved mac n cheese.  They loved it.  They sat down at our makeshift table (and Alana in the high chair), ate nicely, and cracked jokes to each other.  Well, as much as kids their age can crack jokes.  It was mostly something about Mickey juice.  Who knows! :)  They had fun; that was the most important thing.  And since they were getting along so well, it gave us girls a chance to chat for a bit. While they were sitting down eating, I noticed some of my pom-poms (the art supplies type, not cheerleading!) were on the floor in the kitchen.  Jen told me that they were all over the floor in the playroom and she wasn't kidding! I found the bag completely empty on the floor of the playroom.  There were about 300 pom-poms of various sizes in that freezer ziploc bag.  AAhhh!!  And they dumped all the puzzle pieces onto the floor, too.  Oy.  When Hubs came home, the kids had just finished eating.  He said hi to everyone and immediately enlisted the "big kids" to clean up the playroom by turning on some music and delegating a task to each of them.  I.WAS.IMPRESSED. They actually listened and enjoyed helping! And 20 minutes later, they came back to the living room and the playroom was once again clean.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of that scene.  Big ups to my husband for that one! No yelling needed there!





Jen taking a picture of
me taking a picture of her



Holly and Austin hanging out



Calah, just waking up from nap



After they left, we had a little time to clean up and then I ran to the new store down the street, El Guero, to pick up some eggs, butter, and brown sugar so I could make cookies for Bunco night.  I had lots of fun at Bunco and was happy to have a chance to get out of the house for a few hours because I had had a headache all day and the kids were being a little high maintenance for some reason.

On a great note, though, Jo Jo has been wearing underwear at home for the past five days and has only had two accidents. Whoo hoo!! He is doing so well with telling us when he needs to go.  I am really proud of him.  He just turned 2-1/2 about a week ago, so I wasn't even going to start potty training him until around now and he started it himself about four months ago.  He did well for a while and then took a hiatus but now he's doing better than ever.  I'm still hoping that I'll be done with diapers within the next year (or 18 months max).  I love the baby phase, but not the diapers!  I'm also excited for my kids to be at the age where we can all do things together as a family.

How was your weekend?





Birthday Girl Scrappy TuTu

  
Our little girl is going to be 1 in May and I wanted to make her a tutu to wear to her party.  Well, I've never made anything like this in my life and I can't even get my mini sewing machine threaded properly.  Thankfully, there are cheap classes at the local craft stores but I won't have a chance to take one before the party, so I decided to make her a fabric scrap tutu.  I've seen tutorials all over Pinterest and I must admit, it looked very easy.  Even to someone who is not naturally crafty and has never sewn before (other than hand-sewing buttons that pop off of a shirt). 

 

So, I ventured off to the fabric store and was IMMEDIATELY OVERWHELMED!  So many patterns, so many fabric types, so many colors.  Oh my; I'm on my lunch break.  How in the world will I choose within an hour?? I had a feeling that might happen, so I decided before I got into the store that I was looking for a pink and soft blue combination.  I also have a newfound love for owls and have started collecting owl art, so when I saw this chocolate brown, 100% cotton fabric with the vibrant-looking owls (that were staring me down!!), I had my starting point.  I like some variety, so I got one print and one solid that would match.

I started off by measuring her waist (in my mind.  I would love to say I actually took the time to measure her, but I really just estimated based on how big her pants are) and adding about an inch to that since her birthday is still two months away and I want her to be able to wear it throughout the summer.  I was, after all, planning to pour all my blood, sweat, and chipped nail polish into this. I need it to last!  You can either tie a knot in the elastic or sew it into a band.  I was brave and hand-sewed it about 1/2" from the edge.  It was really easy. I just made a criss-cross pattern.

I also eye-balled the length of her femur to get an idea of how long the scraps needed to be.  I wanted the tutu to land just above knee-length but I also had to account for some length to be lost once I started attaching the scraps to the elastic band.  I'm not real technical with these types of things, so I just "guesstimated" and figured she could always wear skinnies or leggings underneath if the skirt was a little too short on her. 

Next, I laid out my fabric and measured 21" lengths (about 1-1/2" wide) and cut up all the fabric I had bought at the craft store. I bought 1/2 yard of each of the three fabrics above.  Since this is a new thing for me, I really wasn't sure how much I would need but I figured I could make a hairbow or something out of the left over scraps - or another, bigger tutu for Calah or even another tutu for a friend.  Now that it is finished, I can see that I probably would have been okay with 1/4 yard because I did end up having enough to make another one.  Lots of new baby girls on their way, though, so I'll get some use out of these for sure.

 

At this point, I turned to one of the tutu-orials (I crack myself up:)). Here's what I did:

1. Put the elastic band around an object that would keep it in place.

 

I used this tissue box because it was handy



2. Fold the scrap in half, then thread the loop end through the elastic band and pull the loose ends through. Repeat until the elastic band is fully covered. I put my thumb under the loop and pulled on the loose end to tighten without pinching the elastic.




3. To finish it off with some texture, cut the ends of the fabric at an angle.

 

There.  It's all done.  I love it - especially because it's not perfect; it's juts fun!  I plan to pair this tutu with a white onesie with an iron-on; I'm just not sure what kind I want yet.  The only other thing I may do with this is add some pink tulle that I have at home just to fill it out a bit more.

I do have to say that the cuts are nowhere near perfect and the fabric does fray, but since it's just for her to wear at her party and around the house, I really wasn't that concerned about that.

When it's 100% ready, I'll have the model take some pictures for you all to see!

What do you think?

Gwynnie Bee - Designer Clothes & Free Shipping!

Recently, Allie at Wardrobe Oxygen wrote about the online clothing subscription service, Gwynnie Bee, that allows you to pick out garments great for all occasions and they are shipped to you for FREE.  This had me intrigued, so I followed the link and became enamored right away with all the selections.  I browsed the site a bit and decided to sign up for the 30-day free trial.  This was on Tuesday morning last week and I had a wedding on Saturday afternoon to attend.  Perfect time to try out a new dress!  I wasn't sure that I'd receive the dress in time, so I did have a backup just in case.  I put several dresses that I could wear to the wedding in my virtual closet and two dresses were SHIPPED THE SAME DAY.  Well, that was much faster than I expected and was pleasantly surprised! 

I received the package on Friday with the mail (it was shipped USPS).  I opened the box to find the dresses folded very nicely and wrapped in tissue paper and inside a plastic envelope which was inside of a sealed (weatherproof!) box.  If you live in the Midwest, you know we have had a LOT of snow, sleet, and rain lately.  Needless to say, it.was.wet.outside.   But my dresses were NOT.  They weren't wrinkled either.  All I had to do was put them on. 

This is how the package looked when I first received it:

  



Sealed around the edges





Garment wrapped in tissue, inside a sealed plastic bag


Included with each garment is washing instructions and a comment card to leave feedback on the fit and quality of the garment. 

And they fit!  Most of the designers have sizing charts based on your bust-waist-hip measurements for their garments so it was super easy to make sure I picked out the correct size.  Another great thing is that Gwynnie Bee pictures models of all sizes wearing these garments, so if you're a bigger girl, you get to see how it will ACTUALLY look on you instead of seeing it on a much smaller-than-you model.  Looking at a model that is not your same size, shape, or body type can give you a skewed perspective of how it will look on you; I know I have become frustrated and disappointed more times than I'd like to admit because something didn't fit right in my mid-section.  Three kids, all c-sections, in four years makes for a trouble-spot-of-a-tummy, let me tell ya.  

Dress: Gwynnie Bee's Simply Bee Printed Sheath Dress,
Leggings: Target, Bracelet: Premier Designs,
Shoes: Lower East Side by Payless nude flats

 

  Please excuse the bad lighting in these photos; I'm still learning how to take high quality shots :)

This dress is straight, so it did not cling to any trouble areas.  In fact, it really didn't cling anywhere.  I may have benefited from a smaller size.  I also wish I had a chunky bubble necklace to go with this because I think that would have completed the look.  I wore a scarf with this at work on Monday, but I wasn't really pleased with it.  The bottom line is that I need more basic pieces and accessories to add to my wardrobe to finish off an outfit.

When I was ready to ship the garments back, I put them in the provided UPS  prepaid envelope and dropped it off at a UPS store location.  Before that, though, I filled out the comment card to provide some feedback.  I had no issues with the garments at all.  In fact, they were fabulous!  They were of good quality and fit like I expected. Alos, just a note on the washing instructions card; you may wash the garments according to the instructions if you are so inclined, but Gwynnie Bee takes care of that, too, so no worries!  Sweet.  Laundry for five people is such a large task even after I thinned out the kids' wardrobe two weeks ago, so not having to wash these too is a load off.

So, check out the catalog.  I am sure you will find one several items you like and want to try out.  I also love this website because it allows me to try out a look that I normally wouldn't and without any commitment. Being bolder in my wardrobe is one of my goals for this year and this is the perfect way to do it without going broke.

Key details to point out:

• Gwynnie Bee is offering a 30-day free trial, so there is no cost to you to just try it out!
• Right now, the garments are for women sizes 10 and up but they will be adding other sizes.
• Shipping to you and return shipping is FREE every time.
• You don't need to wash the garments; they do that for you for FREE
• You can keep the garments as long as you want while you have the subscription and have an option to purchase a garment if you really like it that much. And I'm sure that is quite possible.
• There are several subscription levels available starting with one garment at a time to 10 garments at a time.
• The staff at Gwynnie Bee is very helpful and quick to respond.

So, if you're a girl-on-the-go like most of us these days and you don't have much time for shopping, laundry, or dropping off dry-cleaning, Gwynnie Bee is the site for you.  So, check it out and get your 30-day free trial started today!

All links to the Gwynnie Bee website are my affiliate links.  Any new paid subscriptions using this link will give me another 30 days free of the service.  I was not paid to write this post and these are all my personal opinions based on my personal experience with Gwynnie Bee. 

Spel Chek Mutch?

Today, my post will be a short-ish rant about the erosion of writing ability in this country.  You see it everywhere these days.  STFD, LMBO, how R U?, and so on.  Text language is taking over, especially in the generations that encompass those 25 and under.  Over the weekend, I was talking to a friend of mine who is a grade school teacher and she said they are not teaching grammar in school anymore.  What?!  How will our future learn how to properly structure a sentence?  Are we going to start seeing prepositions at the end of sentences, the improper uses of they're, there, and their, and very obviously-negligent proofreading?  I don't think it's a reach to say that we're already their they're there. 

Whether you are in school or the workplace, grammar and spelling are crucial!  Professors are going to make your papers bleed with red ink from correcting all your mistakes.  Companies are not going to want to hire you when you can hardly put together a coherent sentence.  They want people with 'Excellent written and verbal communication' - look at almost any job post online and you will find that requirement in the list.

It's bad enough to see misspellings and bad grammar in my casual email and text conversations;  But this post was inspired by catching these things in articles published on websites like CNN and professional bloggers, too!  Your credibility really suffers when these mistakes are made.  How am I supposed to focus on the conflict in North Korea when the writer has completely left out a word and used 'do' instead of 'so'??

To everyone out there writing for business or pleasure, please, do us all a favor;  take five minutes to read what you write before you publish it on the 'inter-web' for everyone to see for all eternity.  Don't be lazy.  It's not cute. I'm all for making up words and providing some comic relief in my communication, but we all need to have a foundation of solid writing skills that will allow us to reach our potential and not detract from whatever message we are trying to present.  I'm certainly not perfect at spelling or grammar but we can all put in the effort to sharpen our skills.  I think it would benefit us all greatly in the long run.

TY4R!

CUL8R pCe Homie!

Very Respectfully but thunderstruck-edly yours.

I am going to take my own advice and proofread my post but please feel free to point out anything I've missed so I can learn :)

2013 Goals Update - 1st Quarter

I figured it was time for a goals update - especially since I don't even remember all the goals we wrote out at the end of 2012!  Wow, I've really been focused on them, huh?

GOALS FOR 2013


1. Get Hubs to 70% of budget - Not much progress on this, but some prospects to help are coming our way.
2. Pay off credit card and NE - Ggy - Paid off the credit card in February and NE - Ggy will be in 2014 after we save up Baby Step 3 and for our Vow Renewal ceremony.  I know it's a little backwards, but with unpredictable income, I'd rather have the money in savings.  The student loans can always be put on deferral if necessary.
3. Lose the last 15 pounds and maintain. Workout twice per week.  I have actually gained 5 pounds over the last couple of months so I will have to lose the last 20 by summer now.  I had to cancel the gym membership, so I won't be working out at the gym but we do have volleyball on Monday nights and then volleyball practice on Thursday nights (if we choose).  Once it gets warmer outside, we'll take walks as much as possible.
4. Meal-plan for the month ahead of time. We have been doing this since January.
5. Get the house short sold and move to a bigger place to rent.  Thankfully, we were able to catch up on the house and are staying there until the market comes up.
6. Live simpler. Purge items, organize. Work on one room at a time. We have been doing major purging and reorganizing starting with the kids' clothes and the dining room/playroom.  We'll be working on this project for several months probably.
7. Build family emergency kits by 2/1/13.  Have not even thought about this in the last month and a half.

About half and half.  We're doing a lot of work and I feel like we're making good progress for the time that we've had free lately.

More updates to come!

Thinning out the herd

Laundry. Sigh. Every-day chore that I never seem to catch up on. Laundry.

Sounds poetic, right?  Well, it doesn't quite feel that way when our tiny mudroom is overflowing with dirty laundry.

We have a family of five, including three kids:  Benji (5), Josiah (2-1/2), and Calah (9-1/2 mos). 

Needless to say, they go through a LOT of laundry every week.  We have spills, diaper explosions, and hand-wipe-marked clothes just about every day, so the younger kids can go through up to three outfits per day. Each.  Then, you add bibs, towels (for the spills, of course), cloth diapers, sheets, and my clothes and Hubs' clothes, and you have a mountainesque pile of laundry.





(source)

If only my laundry was as beautiful and glorious as Mt. Everest.  I was tired of stepping over and around the mounds, so I decided it was time to thin out the herd (of clothes, of course.  I can't kick these people out for another 13, 16, and 18 years, respectively).  I asked Hubs to bring into the house all of the tubs holding clothes and shoes from the garage.  I pulled out all the kids' clothes from their drawers and the closets.  All.at.once.  I wish I had taken a picture of it but I might have to go into hiding from the embarrassment.

Then, I started making piles.  Piles of sizes and types of clothing.  I put some outfits together for Calah (the baby).  The boys can just wear jeans or 'swishy-pants' and a tee or long sleeved shirt.  Simple.  But, ladies, you know we have all spent countless wasted hours trying to pick out an outfit, and Hubs is the one that gets them dressed during the week while I head off to work in the office, so I tried to make it easier on him by folding a top with matching pants or leggings for Calah.  I have come home a few times with my girl looking like a boy.  The almost-bald head doesn't help.  One side note:  I came home the other night and she was wearing a Chicago Bears sweatshirt and sweatpants but had on pink socks and a pink headband. I just thought that was awesome.  The perfect way to show that she's a girl while wearing some Bears swag (Oh great, now I have 'Bear Down Chicago Bears' in my head...that'll be there all day). 

Anyway, here's a breakdown of the steps:
If you're not as crazy as I am, I would suggest doing this process for one child at a time.

1. Pull out the old. Pull out all the tops, pants, and dresses or one-piece outfits if applicable.
2. Sort it out by size.  Check the sizes to make sure that you only have items that still fit the child.  If something is too small, store it in a rubbermaid container or donate it to a friend or Goodwill.  If your child won't be able to fit it for at least six months or is not appropriate for the season, store it in a container and when the next season comes,  you can re-evaluate.
3. Sort it out by outfits and keep it to a minimum. I decided that the oldest child needs about 10 everyday outfits plus 2-3 nicer outfits for church or other events.  The younger two need a little more because they still go through more than one outfit per day typically.  For Calah, I put a pair of pants with a shirt and stuck them in the drawer.  Her skirts and other pants and tops that could not be made into outfits, I put in another drawer and stacked them in piles of pants, tops, and skirts.  Her dresses get hung up and her one-piece outfits go in the 'outfit' drawer.  For the boys, I just put all their pants together and all their shirts together since their outfits are simple.  Their sweaters, polos, and suits are hung up in the closet.
4. Donate & Purge. I found that my kids had waaay more clothes than I realized.  We have a lot of generous friends and family that have given us so many hand-me-downs and birthday/Christmas/justbecausethey'recute gifts and I have always kept everything in the past.  But, I'm realizing that since we are VERY limited on space, I simply can't keep everything.  Or even most things.  So, my girl clothes are going to my cousin who is a first time mommy-to-be with a little girl and my boy clothes are going to Once Upon A Child, and inevitably, Goodwill. 

Once I was done putting everything back into drawers, I did feel better. More organized.  Less overwhelmed by piles of laundry in the bedrooms and mudroom.  But, there's still more work to do before I feel like my system is really running on all cylinders. We will be doing a major re-organization of the house over the next couple of months, so once things are in place, I'm sure I will find some extra space I didn't know was there and come up with something that works.  Until then, we are at least keeping the clothes in baskets and not piling them on the floor in front of the washer.  I call that progress.

Dining Room is repurposed into the Playroom

Since we are not going to be moving out of our 2-bedroom, 1bathroom, slab foundation,

no-storage home for at least a couple of years while we wait the market out, the Hubs and I decided to re-arrange some rooms to create spaces that will work better for our growing family.  If you have been reading this blog, you know we have three very young and energetic kids and our home, as-is, did not have much room for them to play. 

Our dining room was always a room of transition for:

1. Items going to the garage for storage

2. Items going out the door to Goodwill or Once Upon A Child

3. Items we need to bring with us somewhere

4. And lastly, items for which we have no plan!

Since the space has always been a source of frustration because we can never use it to eat dinner together or effectively use the filing cabinet or computer desk, we decided it would be best to turn it into a playroom for the kids. I found a small wall art canvas picture of a sleepy owl on a branch as inspiration for the theme. 





 

Here's how the dining room looked before: 



She's a beaut, ain't she?



NOT a fan of this chandelier or the clutter on top of the filing AND dryer in this shot



  

 
Let the Painting Begin!



You will probably notice in the picture above that there are fingerpaint marks on the wall from my spontaneous insanity episode where I helped the kids fingerpaint on the wall.  It apparently didn't wipe off as well as I thought. 



Once we finished painting, we removed the table and area rug, vacuumed the laminate floor, and laid down these:

Foam floor mats from Sam's Club - $21.86 for 8 24" x 24" mats. We used two packages and had a couple left over.

These mats are really soft and give the kids some protection for their legs and backs from the hard floor.  It also protects their noggins when they fall down and we're talking about a 9 month old and a 2-1/2 year old here....they fall A LOT.  Sam's Club had the cheapest and most immediately-available option although I didn't get to pick my colors, so they don't really go with the theme I picked out.  But, we are on a tight budget, so cheap it was!

Once the floor was laid, we brought the train table and the bucket-shelf into the room.  We are also going to be removing the Hubs' desk and filing cabinet but our closet isn't quite ready for them yet, so they are still in the playroom.  We are playing musical furniture throughout the house and I'm trying to wait until the weather turns toward Spring before I clean out the garage to make some space for some of this stuff. 

We did make a trip to IKEA yesterday and picked up some Expedit shelving units that I am seeing everywhere on the blogosphere.



http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70193745/#/10103088

We bought the unit pictured above and another two-cube shelf.  We're going to lay the bigger one on its side as a divider for the room and place the two-cube unit on top of it perpendicular to the bottom one (parallel to the wall).  I will upload photos once it's all done so it's easier to envision.  We bought some teal and white fabric drawers to store toys on these shelves.

This is as far as we got over the weekend so I will be posting about the progress as we go along.  Thanks for reading!

This is the next thing to tackle in this room - the broken spigot from 2010