Great Non-Toy Christmas Gift Giveaway #2 - Stuff for their walls!

Also knows as art.

This is a gift that can work for any age. Bright prints are perfect for a nursery or a toddler's room, and older kids like to put favorite teams, sports, quotes or verses on their walls. And The Meek Boutique has all of that and then some.

Your child's name as a super hero logo?

Check.

The words to "You are my sunshine" for a baby or toddler's room?

Check and check.

Darth Vader reminding your child to wash his hands?

Um, obviously.

The art from The Meek Boutique is sold as digital downloads, so it's emailed to you pretty much instantly (unless it needs to be personalized, of course.) Then you just have it printed wherever you normally get pictures printed (Walmart, CVS, Shutterfly, etc.,) buy a frame (or rummage around in your closet until you find one) and voila! Art worthy of your child's walls! All of the art is designed to be printed as an 8x10, but she can change the sizes for you, too. (I shouldn't even mention this, because this is a post about gifts for your kids, but she does stuff for the rest of your house, too. Like the poem I have hanging in my entryway.)

You can buy The Meek Boutique's awesome stuff here. Most of it is only $5, so it's really inexpensive to give your child's room a little face lift.

Terri of The Meek Boutique emailed me this awesome bird/ balloon art for Lucas's room, and I love it a ridiculous amount! I've been wanting to get more stuff to hang on Lucas's walls for at least a year, and the colors on this match his room splendidly. Plus, when he's older and learns to read, the verse on it will be perfect for any middle-of-the-night fears he might have inherited from his mom. (True story - I shared a room with my older sister when I was little, and I used to wake her up to go with me to the bathroom... directly across the hall.)

Apparently I don't know how to take a picture of something shiny without the flash reflecting off of it.

For a chance to win $20 in digital art downloads from The Meek Boutique, enter below! Don't forget to follow this blog and come back for the next six days for more awesome non-toy gift giveaways! (And check out yesterday's giveaway, too!)

If you could click this as a personal favor to me, that'd be swell. ;)

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I was provided with a free digital download in exchange for my honest opinion. 

Bathroom makeover-ish

We moved into our house in July of 2012, and there are still about a million little projects we'd like to do to make it a little more "ours." I'm sure at least 75% of them will never actually get done, but we're plodding along slowly. I swore that the hideous 90's wallpaper in the master bath and the bathroom next to Lucas's room would be the first two things to go, but it's been 15 months, and... those two bathrooms are still a few decades behind the times. And this post isn't even about them. Because apparently removing wallpaper is very annoying. And we haven't yet gotten up the energy to find that out for ourselves.

Anyway... we have a half bathroom on our first floor, and it's the bathroom our guests usually use. It's painted a chocolate-y brown (the same color that our library used to be painted.) I wouldn't have picked the color myself (I'm all about bright colors), but it's not a bad color. Dan has already repainted the upstairs bathroom in a light blue (it had been sponge-painted a mustard yellow color), and we had planned to do the half bath in the same color, but it seemed like a lot of work... for Dan, not for me. So I decided to just embrace the brown, but it needed something, because for the past 15 months, it has looked like this:

So, basically... we had added nothing to the bathroom but hand soap and lotion (and the garbage I didn't empty out of the can for the picture.) In 15 months. Charming, right? Every time I went to a garage sale, I kept an eye out for a picture or something to hang in the bathroom, but as I mentioned in this post, most of my artistic "eye" is just me knowing which things I don't want to hang in my house. Then I got the bright idea of buying a bunch of matching picture frames and hanging up pictures of our friends on those blank brown walls, but I couldn't decide on a color (and picture frames are abnormally expensive.) Enter Target clearance.

I went to Target a few weeks ago, and their back-to-school dorm room stuff was all on clearance. I found packs of four 4x6 teal frames on clearance for $4.18, so I bought seven packs of them and one pack of three 5x7 frames. In their garden and outdoor clearance, they had a metal lantern in the exact same color as the frames for $4.58 (I think), so I bought that, too.

After that, I decided I needed some friendship quotes to put with the pictures. While I was searching, I found this Etsy shop that had printable quotes from the musical "Wicked." Dan surprised me with tickets to the show in September, so I've kind of been on a "Wicked" kick. The Etsy seller had a cute design with the quote "Because I knew you, I have been changed for good," so I asked her to change the colors of it to match my bathroom and frames. I also asked her to design two other quotes to match it. (You can buy them here, here, and here. Then we can have twin bathrooms. But don't use pictures of my friends. That's just weird.)

Mine don't have the watermarks on them... obviously.

I traced the frames onto paper and then played around with arranging them so that I wouldn't have to hammer forty million holes in the wall before I found an arrangement I liked.

Think Panera will pay me for advertising its bags? No, I guess not.

And then I hung the pictures! Hanging pictures is kind of annoying, especially when you don't feel like using a ruler or a level... But I was pretty happy with the results!

It was really hard to photograph these frames because they kept reflecting off of the walls.

And now our bathroom doesn't look like it's part of an empty house! Tra la!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Vote for me here! You know, if you want to.

DIY Key wall art

Yesterday in my post about our home library, I promised a tutorial for the key wall-art-thingy I did. Since I'm quite certain that you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats and with bated breath (and any other idioms you can think of to describe "waiting impatiently,") here it is!

A few months ago, I found this awesome wood frame on clearance at Michael's for $3. (They no longer have this exact one, but they have similar ones if you want to make one of your very own. I think they're $8ish when they're not on clearance.)

I forgot to take a picture of it before I started painting. Also, there's a toy car. I have a toddler. Although actually he was napping while I was painting this, so I guess I can't explain the presence of the car in this picture.

When I bought the frame, I immediately came up with an awesome idea for it, and then didn't do anything with it for at least three months. I'm pretty good at ideas; follow-through, not so much. I knew I wanted to paint it and hang it in the library with keys hanging from it, but I couldn't decide if I should paint it white (to match all of the furniture in the library) or red (for a bright pop of color in a room that is mostly blue and white.) So since I couldn't decide, I did nothing. Obviously. Then I was talking to my friend Teri about it (the same one who pretty much picked out the chairs for our library,) and she was like, "Oo, red!" So there you go. I wanted sheer white ribbon to hang the keys from, but I couldn't find any, so I had to go with non-sheer ribbon. I'm still on the lookout for thin sheer white ribbon, so if you have some, wanna share?? (Or at least tell me where you got it?)

I spent at least ten minutes agonizing over red paint colors at Michael's, and finally settled on this one:

Americana acrylic paint in Tuscan Red

I painted it with two coats, and I thought it looked kind of fabulous. The inside of the scroll work (or whatever you call it) is darker than the rest of the wood, so you don't need to worry about getting the red paint inside all of the edges of each hole, because it doesn't really show up. That makes it a lot easier and less time-consuming.

Again with the car...

I had three old keys (and two pretending-to-be-old keys that were actually new, also from Michael's) so I went to an antique store to find two more old keys, since seven keys just seemed like the right number for the size of the frame. When I had all of the keys, I laid the frame on the table and then spent a ridiculous amount of time arranging and rearranging the keys until I liked the way they looked. Then I cut the ribbon to the right length for each key, and attached each one to the back of the frame (right now they are attached with super-classy clear duct tape, just in case I find ribbon I like better and want to re-do it. Then I'll probably use some sort of glue. Maybe super glue? I'm not a glue expert.) I started by attaching the two outermost keys first and then did the one in the middle, then filled in the other four keys so they were spaced evenly. It seemed like a better idea than going from left to right, since I probably would've spaced them poorly and ended up without enough room for the last key. Then I hung it on a lonely wall in the library!

I'm not even going to lie: I'm not currently reading that book. The picture just looked better with a book on the table. The pillow and chair are from Ikea, and the wall paint color is Glass Sapphire by Behr. Also, the white spots on the wall aren't actually there in real life. My camera was just being a jerk.

So there you go. "Art!" Feel free to copy it. You don't even have to name a room in your house after me in exchange for the idea. You're welcome.

If you liked this, please click the smiling woman below! If you didn't like it, please click the smiling lady to make me feel better about you hating my idea. Because seriously, that's hurtful.

Our library!

We bought our first house in July of last year. It's a newer house and was in great condition, but like pretty much everyone who ever buys a house, we had a million ideas for things we would change after we moved in... most of which will probably never actually get done.

One of the first rooms you see when you walk into our house is a room that maybe was supposed to be a formal living room, but it's really small for a formal living room. Also, we're not really formal people, so we have no need for a room with the word "formal" in front of it. The people we bought the house from used the room as a music room:

Music room/Formal living room

A music room is a great idea if you actually have any musical instruments, but since we only have one guitar that neither of us really knows how to play, our music room would've been super lame. So I Googled "what to do with a formal living room" (Google knows everything), and everyone suggested making it a library, and I was like, "OH MY GOSH, DAN!! LET'S HAVE A LIBRARY!!!" Because reading is my favorite thing ever. (Let's ignore the fact that although reading is my favorite thing ever, I was apparently unable to come up with the concept of a library on my own.)

Anyway, the library has been a year-long project, and it could still use some more stuff on the walls, but it's totally my favorite room in our house, so I had to share.

You can click on all of these pictures to see them larger. Just so you know...

We got the bookshelves soon after we moved in. My dad helped me assemble them, and my mom helped apply wallpaper (that I spent weeks hunting for) onto the backs of the shelves. And then it came off after the wallpaper paste dried. (Apparently you can't use wallpaper paste on whatever that cardboard stuff is that they put on the backs of shelves. Just FYI.) I reattached it with scrapbooking glue dots because I was fed up and just wanted the project to be over. But once the backs were hammered onto the shelves, the wallpaper couldn't go anywhere.

Then for a year, we had shelves and books in the room and nothing else, because it turns out that I'm very indecisive when it comes to chairs. Dan even gave me a home-made gift certificate for chairs for Mother's Day (which was hilariously worded and the sweetest thing ever) and I still couldn't figure out what chairs I wanted. Then I was talking to my friend Teri, and she was like, "Oh, I just assumed you'd get big, comfy white chairs with blue pillows." And of course, that was exactly what the room needed. So if you need decorating advice, ask Teri. Unless you don't know her. In that case, I guess you're just out of luck.

We found the chairs at Ikea (and the story of the two trips we took to get them could be a blog post in itself), and while white might seem like a stupid color for a house with a toddler boy, the covers are removable and machine washable.

I still need something on the wall above the chair by the window and something else to the left of the bookshelves (so if you have ideas, please share!) but my current decorations include a key wall hanging/picture frame that I made yesterday and am ridiculously proud of:

I'll make a tutorial of how I made it soon (even though it was embarrassingly easy,)
but this post is already getting too long.

A framed quote that says "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." that is hanging above a basket of Lucas's books (I bought it here on etsy):

I feel like this needs something else hanging under it. Either that or a short bookshelf. Any suggestions?

And some framed pictures of Lucas reading:

Also, various other random items that I don't feel like listing.

So that's my library! Like I said, the walls need some more oomph, but it's taken over a year just to get it to this point, so I can't really count on it ever being a whole lot better than this. Unless, of course some of you recommend awesome things for me to hang on my walls! So... get busy!

Stuff on my walls

I would love to live in a home where every wall had something fabulous on it. The hard part is that I have to be the one to find all of those things to hang on my walls, and that's a lot of work! Especially because the majority of my artistic taste is just me knowing which things I don't want to hang on my walls... which isn't terribly helpful.

Anyway, I like when other people post pictures of things they've put on their walls with tips (or links) so that I can copy their look and then pretend I came up with the idea all by myself if anyone ever asks. (Haha! Just kidding. I'm that annoying person who has to give you some long back-story if you ever compliment anything in my home.) So while my walls are (and probably always will be) a work in progress, here are some things hanging on my walls that I really, really like. (Complete with back-stories. Obviously.) Feel free to borrow any of these ideas, provided that you include a plaque under it that says "I got this idea from Bethany. She's fabulous." underneath it. (Ok, fine. Don't get the plaque.) So without further ado, here's some stuff on my walls. (Non-disclaimer: Nobody paid me to show you any of this, and none of it was given to me for free. Unless Dan gave it to me as a gift, which is ok, because he's my husband, and I'll say nice things about him even if he doesn't give me stuff.)

"Our House is a Mess" poem (aka "Song for a Fifth Child")

"So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

When Lucas was a a few months old (see? I told you everything would have a back-story), I was talking to my dad about the fact that I never got any housework done, and he showed me the poem "Song for a Fifth Child" by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton. I loved it so much that I decided I wanted to hang it on my wall. I found an etsy seller who designs various "stuff" for your wall and asked her if she would make this poem pretty for me, so she did! You can buy your own copy of it here. She'll also customize the colors for you. This is hanging by my front door so that people know right off the bat that my house is a disaster...

Pictures of Our Fairytale

These are on  two different walls across from each other. In case you can't tell that.

In the last two places we lived, I had four of our wedding pictures hanging under a wood sign that says "and they lived happily ever after" (which I think I bought on ebay six years ago, so I can't link to where I got it.) After Lucas was born, he became a big part of our "happily ever after" (and a HUGE part of our "living with a lot less sleep," but that phrase doesn't look quite as cute on the wall), so I bought the "Once Upon a Time..." sign (from this ebay store) to hang above the wedding pictures. These pictures are in our home's entryway. I haven't decided yet how many more frames I'll add to the "happily ever after" wall. I guess it depends on how happy we are (so far, very)... or how often I get around to putting more pictures in frames.

An Awesome Caricature of My Husband... Who is Awesome

I should probably point out that he is wearing that shirt because I bought it for him to wear at his graduation party,
and not because he likes to walk around advertising that he's a doctor.

No joke, I found this medical school graduation gift idea for my husband at least a year and a half before he actually graduated from medical school. It's the farthest in advance that I've ever planned a gift. Giveacaricature.com actually charged me extra because I insisted that they add so many extra details (as if it's MY fault that my husband is a water-skiing pilot/doctor/cop who worked out of emergency helicopters,) but I thought the result was worth it. This is hanging in Dan's office in our house.

Pregnant Me

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."

A good friend of mine took some fantastic maternity photos when I was six months pregnant with Lucas (yes, that's what I looked like at six months pregnant. At nine months pregnant, I looked like Lucas was standing on end with his feet on my spine and his head on my belly button. I was a torpedo.) I used Picasa (which was called Picnik back in those days) to put the verses on it. It's hanging in Lucas's bedroom.

Wall Art for Forgetful People

A list of the birthdays we forget.

Dan and I used forget our family members' birthdays all the time. And then I saw an awesome idea on Pinterest for a birthday calendar and found this etsy shop that makes really cute ones in any colors you want. I asked Dan for one for my birthday (after telling him the exact colors I wanted and listing everyone's birthdays, obviously) and now it's hanging in our kitchen. To be honest, we still forget everyone's birthday, but we no longer have an excuse. And we have something cute in our kitchen now, so it's still an improvement I guess.

Ok, so those are some of my favorite things hanging on the walls of our home. If you've written any posts with pictures of things on the walls in your house, please give me the link in the comments so I can steal your ideas. Thanks!

Statistics show that most people who click this are talented and ridiculously good looking.

Random Things I've Made

I like to think of myself as "artistic" in an "I can barely draw a stick figure" kind of way. I always want to make things to decorate my home, but I can't draw, paint, sculpt, or, um.. whittle. So here are two things I made (three and four years ago, respectively) to hang on my walls that didn't require any obvious artistic talent.

Awesome Decorative Earring Storage
A few years ago, my friend Teri and I were at an antique store, and I saw this weird, kind of fantastic hippy-ish picture frame with no glass or back. I wanted to buy it, but I had no idea what I'd do with it, so I resisted the urge to spend $8 on something that would probably just end up sitting on a shelf. A week or so later, Teri saw an idea for making earring storage from a picture frame and chicken wire, so I hurried back to the store and bought the frame. Teri already had a cool frame that she wanted to use, so we each made one.

We bought some chicken wire (actually, Teri bought it and I just stole some. From her, not from the store. ), cut it into the right shape using wire cutters, and then stapled it the the backs of the frames using a staple gun. Unless you're really coordinated (which I am not), the stapling will probably require two people: one to hold the chicken wire in place and one to staple.

Our staples didn't look great at all - they were crooked and only partially pushed into the frame, but since they're on the back, it doesn't matter.

Then I stapled a ribbon to the top of the frame to hang it, and voila! Decorative earring storage!

Framed Button "Art"
I really like buttons. Don't ask why. I just do.

When we moved to Ohio four years ago, we rented a bigger house than the one we'd been renting in Pennsylvania, so we had some empty wall space. We had moved away from family and friends and didn't yet know anyone, Dan was in residency, I hadn't found a job, and Lucas was still just a twinkle in his daddy's eye (ew. That phrase just struck me as vaguely creepy. Disregard.) In other words, I had a lot of time on my hands. For making things. Out of buttons.

Out of my 347,492 buttons (give or take a few hundred thousand), I picked out some in shades of green and blue. Then I sewed them onto a piece of blue felt using a needle and some white thread that I think I scrounged out of an "emergency" sewing kit because I don't sew. I didn't plan out the pattern, I just randomly added buttons until I liked the way it looked. I already had a frame that I wasn't using because I had accidentally broken the glass at some point (I'm clumsy), so I pulled the felt tight around the frame backing and then pushed it into the frame so that it held it in place.

Ta da! "Art."

Nursery DIY - How to Re-purpose Crib Bumpers

I originally wrote this post for the blog Mommys Craft Obsession. You can check it out (along with my extremely awesome bio) by clicking here.

When I was pregnant with my son, I decided to decorate the nursery in a jungle theme. We chose to wait until L was born to find out his sex, so I wanted the nursery to be gender neutral (although it ended up looking more boy-ish then gender neutral, which worked out well in the end.) I found a cute bedding set that I liked and used the blanket as a decorative wall hanging. 

After I made up the crib with the sheet and bed skirt, I was left with adorable crib bumpers that I had no use for. We had decided not to put them in L's crib (since the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents don't use them,) but it seemed like a waste to just throw the bumpers in a closet (or even worse, in the garbage.)

I Googled a hundred variations of "how to reuse crib bumpers," but all of the ideas required both a sewing machine (which I don't have) and some sewing and design knowledge (which I definitely don't have.) Finally I found a post on an online forum that suggested using the crib bumpers as window valances, but there were no instructions or accompanying pictures. So I decided to wing it.

Since I don't have a sewing machine, it had to be a no-sew project. But since crib bumpers are already the right height and shape, they can easily be repurposed as valances even by those of us who can't sew. 

First, I took the two longest pieces of the crib bumper and cut off the ties on the bottom (as close to the seam as possible). Then I pinned them to the back of the top of the bumper in between the other ties with safety pins (very high-tech.) I measured the window and then folded over the edges of the bumpers so that they would be the right length for the window and then pinned them so they'd stay the right length. I didn't cut the bumpers because I knew we were planning to move within the next year, and I wanted to be able to use them again on windows of a different size. (The window in our old house was long, so I used two bumpers side-by-side to cover the top of the window.) Then I just looped the ties over a curtain rod and tied them in bows to hang them.

My grandmother made the green curtains for my mom when she was pregnant with my older sister. They were a little too short, but I loved the idea of having something made by my grandmother in the nursery, since she passed away when I was 15.

The finished nursery. I used the extra ties I had cut off of the bumpers to tie back the curtains.

If you can sew, you can make the backs of the valances look more "polished" than mine do, but since no one sees the back anyway, it will still look nice if you can't sew (like me.) Now I have valances that match the bedding, and I didn't have to spend a lot to get them.

Do you have any other ideas for repurposing crib bumpers? If so, please share them in the comments!