split level home makeover on a budget

I visited my friend Tia about two years ago. They had recently moved to a split-level home with builder grade dated basics. The upstairs main room housed furniture around the TV with dead space behind it.

Because of the layout, it took Tia a few attempts of adjusting before she figured out her main room - on a tight budget. And two years later when I visited again, it looked quiet different.

 

She found one sofa on craigslist, and though it's a little shabby, there is no scolding her cat, dog, or four children when they utilize it. The other sofa was $30 at a garage sale. And her rug was a craigslist $40 find. The coffee table was built from a curb reject bottom with aunties old deck boards as an industrial top.

She split the awkward room into two sections and simplified the crowded kitchen by moving the dining table out here.

The table legs (I need a picture Tia) were from a $20 table. The top was discarded and $30 worth of lumber on top created a farmhouse table that was bleached with liming wax. The legs and top surprisingly blended together nicely with their coat of liming wax.

The chandelier was another thrift store find - spray painted white to update it. And these retro-modern chairs were blue, but painted white. The two end chairs were wicker from Tia's mom that she incorporated with new cushion covers to go from 90s red to subtle.

Her gallery is a blend of photography, art, and meaningful concepts - all in a coordinating color scheme and neutral layering.

Each piece in this livingroom was a make-do or slow find, or usually both.

Tia has always impressed me with her eye for simplifying and arranging what is already available. She has a gift for seeing magic amid the functional. Here are some of her secrets:

1. Its okay to not have everything at once. Small steps over time are a healthy balance for the many balls we all juggle.

2. Get up early. Early enough to soak in steady silent minutes. With coffee, your Bible, your husband, or just in stillness. But ample time to adjust from sleep to wake. Then the day can be productive and creative.

3. Make intentional effort. Even when it doesn't seem to be returned.

4. Figure out what works and what makes you happy and have a reason and a purpose for everything in the home. If it doesn't have a major (usually double) purpose, it doesn't deserve to fill up your life. We can't do the important things if we're busy managing stuff.  Get rid of it by the trash bag full.

5. Savor old memories and old friends and invest in the future - but enjoy and appreciate and live fully present, today. That sounds too cliché. So practically it looks like this for their family; ditch the phone when you're with someone else. No one can leave the house before they hug mama goodbye. Sunday nights have a tradition of popcorn, apples, and cheese for dinner. Simple, filling, and time to connect. And girl weekends, dinner parties, and good food are a part of regular life for catching up and cherishing wholesome relationships.

So how does she do it? How does she fit in work and 4 kids and hubby and pets and church and exercise and writing a novel!

This is what I love about her livingroom. And her perspective.
She finds a way to make it work by getting creative with what can be done.

When I arrived she had no time to cook. So together we gathered and she poured wine and chopped a few veggies and took things out of the fridge. She laid out whole wheat pitas and a pile of different pizza options - pears, onions, fresh tomato and precooked bacon, blue and goat cheese and cheddar and so on. 

The pita tasted like a delicious thin crust, we all shared each others creations, and clean up was a part of the fellowship. It was amazing to eat and no pre-prep and enjoyable to just share the kitchen - yet a very grown up and gourmet experience.

Hers: cranberry pear blue cheese and spinach
Mine: pineapple feta spinach orange pepper bacon and balsamic drizzle

(Salad was made by Heather but that amazingness is a recipe and a topic for another post)

Dressers

 

Here are a pile of dresser makeovers

 

 

 

Calmed down the spray painted black of that dresser with some flat black craft paint and gold spray paint to make the charm of the curves stand out.

 

This next one was a lot of tedious work, but I tend to love the time consuming ones more!

 

 

I tried sanding out the scratch on the top of this one. The other dressers had easy mars like cup ring stains on the top. But this had a nasty gouge. So I sanded away.

 

One of the handles was missing so I replaced it with some I had. But I refinished the dresser in a gray and white shabby chic style and the handles were modern and industrial. It was a bad combination. 

So I did some metallic over it all and went for the faux zinc. I need one finishing smooth dry brushed coat to make the dresser look right but I wondered if it would sell as is and maybe I don't care. We will see. If it doesn't sell right away I'll have time to give it that last layer and then I will like it :)

 

Next, was a night stand. Simple and sweet.

 

 

This dresser I was going to resell as is, but it got a scratch on the top when I was hauling it in the van. And then one handle was lost (you'll see it missing in picture below, but I didn't want to wait to take the picture so oh well)

 

 

 

 

Since I had to paint it, but liked the wood and it was in good condition most places - I just painted part of it in gray and some black distressing. I sort of liked this style as a modern and older quality piece... would be fun with trendy antler art above. Or a little southwestern flair like a cowhide rug and Aztec throw pillows.

 

 

 

So that was my last effort of furniture flipping before the cold weather. Goodbye autumn.

Minecraft Party

This is a good spot to put the birthday party photos from April too

My son wanted a "minecraft-lego" party, those two elements specifically combined.

 

 

The cake was created by my talented exchange student. She used a lego to make the imprints on her fondant so that it would combine "Stampy Longnose" and "Steve" and Legos. It's going to be hard to make cakes after my boys got used to her special creations.

 

My boy was thrilled. He and his brothers also loved making their own decore for the party.

 

These guys seem a bit creepy, but birthday boy was proud of them.

I kept party favors simple. Didn't try to match the theme, which I do sometimes. Just a jar full of squirt guns for them to all take home.

 

We did minecraft posters and word art for the rest of the decore. And big balloons - though my son pointed out that round shapes don't happen in minecraft.

 

The game is what made the party a hit though. We have tons of duplo legos, which I named various components of minecraft (red is lava, blue was water, green was leaves, and then I forget what colors nether and other unfamiliar words were). It was a large group of kids so they were in several teams and had to stack their own 6 layers of lego to win. (My son was turning 6)

 

The trick was, you had to stay together as a group because the ender dragon (is that what its called?) which was Papa, would be able to send you back to the starting line if he caught someone on your team. To protect yourself, the whole team had to hold hands in order to be spared from the dragon.

 

This help the kids to run all over our huge lawn without the little ones being left behind. The teams really worked together with as a team, studying their clipboards and stacking their six elements.

We had some minecraft art time somewhere during the party too. It made a happy birthday boy, but I'll admit, big parties with a lot of kids is rather exhausting!

 

 



French Detective Party

I've had a lot of boy's birthday parties. All themed. I sometime wonder if it's possible to run out of birthday themes with 4 boys using them up. Anyway, this last one was a French detective party. The invitation was printed on 8x10 and delivered in a top secret file folder.

 

 

 

When the children arrived they played some games and then I told them it was time to eat cake - but alas it had disappeared and in its place was a shoe print and a pink toothbrush.

 

Everyone was given notebooks and pencils. Since the majority of the kids could not read or write well, this birthday was wordless. We drew pictures of each clue and I didn't leave any written clues - they were all objects.

 

The three questions Detective Quentin asks: Where? Why? What?

 

So pink toothbrush

Where does this go? (It's moms, it goes in her bathroom)

Why is it here? (Maybe whoever stole the cake left it)

What do we do next? (Let's put it back and find out if there are any other clues)

 

And of course in the bathroom there was another clue - a spoon, so off to the kitchen, then a shoe so off to the cubbies, a book so up to the bookshelf, and all over the house. We took a moment to draw out our clues and ask the three questions because engagement and repetition makes things fun by building familiarity with the game and anticipation.

 

The last clue led them to the culprit - Papa.

 

We asked our three questions.

WHERE is the cake? Here with Papa

WHY did he take it? His answer, "I thought no one would share with me"

WHAT should we do about it?

 

We had a little board meeting and decided to forgive him and share.

And that was the end of the activities, off for cake and gifts.

I kept decorations simple - just set up my mantle as if it were the office of Detective Quentin

These are my guiding rules for parties:
- group games where everyone is moving is easier than waiting in line for your turn
- keep decorations simple by going large. a big area - like my chalkboard wall or mantle, makes a quicker statement then a lot of little details everywhere. I usually have one main spot of décor and skip the rest.
- the boys love to help with party prep by doing big posters for the party, and this makes fast easy themes
- morning parties are nice when our day has multiple bookings. sometimes we offer breakfast (cinnamon rolls as a cupcake in the paper wrap with the topper)
- kids wont care that you spent money on the matching napkins and plates. Have your wow factor and skip all the add ons.

Now time to put up autumn mantle again!

baby shower

I went to a friends baby shower and wanted to share some of the decore detail - it was darling.

 

First, because the colors were mint and blue and coral, these flowers were SPRAY PAINTED so that they would match the flow. Isn't that commitment?

 

 

Because mama-to-be was on bedrest, this pillowpile was a literal bed for her to cozy down on during the shower.

 

 

 

 

 

Hand painted feathers and sweet arrow art were in detail all about the shower

 

 

 

We will look more at the desserts later - this is just to show you the arrow and feather detail on the cake pops.

But speaking of "pop" the food area theme was "Ready to Pop" and there was also a popcorn bar, with appropriately designed popcorn bags!

 

 

Each window was decorated with quotes and canvas and arrows and decoration, but all the decorations were ready to use in baby's nursery after the shower, since his bedroom "theme" was arrows. Notice the items in the photos below and how perfectly they'll go into a nursery!

 

One activity was "baby's first year bucket list" and even the bucket full of fun suggestions will match the room's style.

It was a well done shower and I love the idea of putting time into shower decore that will then go straight into the nursery. Dual purpose makes me happy!

Reviews of Parenting Books

A summary of  advice from "Babywise," "Happiest Baby on the Block,"  "Baby Whisperer," "Bringing up Bebe" and "Shepherding a Childs Heart" as well as my own 2 cents.

1. “Babywise” promotes an ‘Eat-Play-Sleep’ schedule — with this schedule, your baby wakes and feeds, then engages in an activity (shaking a rattle, reading a book, tummy time, etc.) before finally going down for the next nap. Parents are urged to put their babies down drowsy, but awake. Parents are to encourage their babies to go at least 2 hours between feedings in the first few weeks after birth, and then gradually to push for 3 hours and eventually 4 hours between feedings. The authors believe that by intentionally spacing out feedings, and not feeding on demand, parents can encourage babies to consolidate their feedings, and eventually sleep through the night at a few months old. Babywise is a good theory, for parents who know how to be flexible when appropriate. Putting the child to bed while awake teaches them to self-soothe. Babies will wake up many times a night. If the baby needs to be rocked to sleep or patted to sleep every time he has a natural wake up, it will mean the parent spends many hours up rocking over the week. And this is not healthy for the parents or child.

 

2. "Happiest baby on the block" emphasis is (for 0-3 months) to be aware that it's a harsh transition from womb to world and to focus on the 5 "s" (Swaddling, Side-Lying—babies can experience the sensation of falling when held flat on their backs—Shushing—a loud, droning, white noise type sound—Swinging, Sucking) to sooth your baby and provide a healthy environment. This is especially helpful for babies with colic. It tells parents that they cannot really spoil a child before 3 months old and this is a flexible space for adjusting and a grace period of just enjoying your newborn. The 5 “s” are how the baby self-soothed in the womb and you are making those available in the great big world. AFTER the first three months, a pacifier (and some of the other 5 “s”) is more of a habit then a useful tool (during first few months it can reduce risk of SIDS) so it can be offered less frequently and by 6 months is not needed. Babies need a lot of skin-to-skin connection during those first three months, and their security and trust are developed at this young age. The most important thing is for your child to be loved during this first phase, but relax and don't worry about "training" your child. Developmentally this is a time for building security through meeting basic needs and a lot of touch/contact.

 

3. “Baby Whisperer” has an E.A.S.Y. routine: Eat, Activity, Sleep, You Time. Basically, baby wakes and eats, engages in an activity, goes down for the next nap, and then you get some (much-needed!!) "you time", in which to unwind (put dinner in the crock pot and hopefully take a nap – goodness knows you need one, right?). The E.A.S.Y. routine is just that – a routine. It’s not meant to be a strict, time-driven schedule like Babywise. It's more about the order in which things flow. Hogg is clear that one day may look different from another, in terms of the timing of feedings and naps. Also, while parents do need to help direct baby’s day, they also need to watch baby’s cues closely, and use those to drive the routine. For example, in a growth spurt, baby might need to nurse more often then the Babywise schedule would accommodate.

 

4. "Bringing up Bebe" is more like a memoir, and a fun read. It looks at the expectations of French parents and how their children are less likely to throw fits or need special food at meal time or have issues with sleep. The concept is that French parents observe their babies but don't rush in. They don't get stressed about their baby crying, they don't rush to fix it, they just watch and expect them to get it eventually, or act when they know what the child needs but not with excess. The difference is, many American parents give their baby a habit of Instant Gratification.

At about age 3-6 months is a good time for parents to know what works best for the whole family and implement healthy patterns and more consistent routine with self-soothing. The basic idea is the child should sleep (at night) a stretch at least as long as many months they are (4 hours at 4 months, 6 hours at 6…). And 6-9 months is a great bedtime rhythm step, where the baby starts to have prompts and cues for settling down. This may be a story book or singing or praying time - some parents practice saying goodnight to favorite stuffed animals. Just something that gives baby a connection of settling down and calming down to get ready for sleep. The parent should still put baby into crib while he is awake, but have that bonding time as a happy tradition.

Elizabeth Eliott quotes a man that said a child must be trained and obedient by 18 months. The benefit of starting young with healthy expectations is a lot less discipline needed. Elizabeth reminds us that, though we have goals as parents, God gives a lot of grace and there is always hope and ability to change. The point of reading up about parenting is not to have a perfect child, but that a husband and wife can work together for mutual goals and connect in this parenting journey. This makes parenting more connective and happy instead of discouraging and clashing. Having a chance to talk about parenting goals beforehand can save some 2am fights on whether to rock baby or let her cry it out.

As you begin your family it's a great time to talk about your values and what Things means to you (how much stuff do you want to buy and how important are brands and how much free stuff do you accept) and how much stuff you want to add in for a new baby, and for a toddler, and for a child, and for a teen... and what you want Christmas and birthday to look like and what fits your goals and heart. How much media time, how important homework is, what is acceptable for your children - these areas of controversy continue to come at parents and learning how to talk about things before they're an issue is a great way to be a connected team and bond instead of divide.

If both parents were alike and thought alike, one of them would not be necessary. Listen to each other and find a balance, but know what your core values are beforehand. If you wait until baby is yelling and dad says "let him cry it out" and mom says "well he just wants me" and this is when you have your big discussion on what to do, it will end in a lot of over-tired emotion and frustration for everyone. Dads tend to pick up their children and throw them into the air while moms pull them in close for a hug. Dads tend to nurture independence while moms cuddle and connect. Both are important. But a game plan will help both parents provide a wholesome environment for their children. 

One of my favorite books was "Shepherding a child’s heart" which is ideal to read once your child has a will of their own. About age one is a good time to start this book and a good re-read when your child is at an older stage of 6 or so. This is a good book to read early on as a way to talk about your styles and views as a united parent team and how discipline will look in your house.

 

HAPPY PARENTING :)

Exchange Student Room

This little room is too crowded with furniture and not finished but I'm still posting. Maybe one day I'll adjust it, but this is to embrace that you can still have a happy area even when it's not quiet right. Even if it's in a process. For now this room needs to hold a table and chairs that I'm not ready to part with but have no place to go yet - but will once I'm done with some baby stuff. So. That's the story. And this is what it is so far.

This mirror was free at a garagesale due to its aging glass. But I loved that.

Ideally I'd have a fresh bowl of roses here. But who can keep fresh roses on the bedstand? So feathers. They get moved around a lot. Here they are now.

 

My assortment of pink pillows are all from goodwill and salvation army. Pillows can be dropped in a hot wash cycle in the washing machine and happily purchased for under $4. And they're nice quality. I love nice quality throw pillows. 

My mirror wall isn't totally finished or perfect but for using what was available, I'm satisfied for now.

 

This little cutie was $7 at a thrift store. I love the solid wood with the beautiful carvings. So whimsical and fun.

 

 

 

This was my great grandma's kitchen table. Now I have so much space I can shove it in the corner of a guest room. Funny how in a few generations we have so much more STUFF. And such larger stuff.

And that's the end.