Costume Wardrobe and Nursery updates

I'm beyond thrilled to finally show you a project I've been waiting to finish for a while now. I've been to thrift stores, stalked Craigslist and local garage sale sites, and even toyed with making a cabinet to hang the girls costumes in for almost an entire YEAR. Since they share a room and a closet, and since they happen to have a large collection of costumes which probably stems from the fact that their mom has a degree in musical theatre, and since there was barely room for the real clothing, much less the make-believe dress-up clothes, we needed a solution.

Enter our local facebook garage sale site.

Enter the top half of an entertainment center, listed for $25.

Enter me, happy.

After picking up a curtain rod kit at Lowe's which hubs installed on the inside of the cabinet, we had ourselves one gawgeous costume wardrobe. The fact that it was only the top half was perfect since the two little gals who will be using this are, how shall I say it....vertically challenged? They have no problems reaching the costumes, it's the 'putting them back on the hanger' part they find challenging.

There have been a few other notable changes to the room in the past several months, so I put together a few side-by-side shots to compare. The angles aren't exact and it's driving me nuts, but I'm working to get past it.

We sold the double bed that had been in the room since it served as a guest room before it was a nursery. Now the girls can actually move and play in here. About time.

The chair moved to the man cave where it looks wildly out of place, and we put the girls tiny sofas in the corner to make a reading nook. Oh how I love finding them both in that corner with a book, which is quite often. (p.s.- for a tutorial on how I made those flowers on the wall, go HERE.)

The dresser moved to the wall where the changing table used to be, allowing space for the play kitchen. The baskets hold dolls, stuffed animals, etc. The round mirror from Ikea was relocated from above MM's bed to right above the kitchen so that the girls can see themselves twirl and cook in their costume finery.

And as of yesterday, MM finally has her name on the wall like her sis.

Another new addition to the room is this child-sized dresser which my parents found on the curb in front of their neighbors house.

Yes. You read that correctly.

Their neighbors were throwing this out.

As in, they didn't want it.

Throwing. It. Away.

Mum texted me a pic, explained that it was on the curb and asked if I wanted it, to which I replied, "duh".

Check out this gawgeousness...

The only thing missing was the mirror, which my dad had replaced at a local shop. Now we have plenty of drawers to hold tiaras and plastic clickety-clack shoes, and it's a beauty to look at, yes?

Yes.

Back to the hutch.

Here she is, in all her glory.

Love those carvings at the top.

Reminds me of another famous wardrobe...

I can hear her now,

"You'll look RAVISHING in this, my dear!"

That's when Belle tells her she's not going to dinner, putting all of the castle objects in panic mode.

I digress.

The spaces on the bottom intended for dvd players and such are perfect for hats, antlers, and 18 pairs of fairy wings.

And here's a drawer full of plastic clickety-clack shoes.

Gotta love that clickety-clack.

Here's a better shot of MM's name on the wall. There are several sites that sell the vinyl name decals, and for the life of me, I can't remember where this one came from. I do know that it was purchased on Groop Dealz, which is a deal-a-day site. Anyone else out there shop on Groop Dealz?

We sold our changing table, and put the dresser where it used to be. My costume drawings by Cecil Beaton (for the film My Fair Lady) stayed put on the wall, as did a few of the items already on the dresser.

That's a Scentsy 'tiara' warmer, and that spatula under the book?

Well that's a spank spoon, my friends.

The girls fear the mention of it.

And it lives right there on the dresser. Under the book.

Just thought I'd share.

So glad the kitchen gets to live in this room now and not the living room. I love having kiddos, but if you're not careful, their 'stuff' can start to take over every.corner.of.the.house. This is especially true of a house with no 'playroom', which is what our formal living room has been serving as for a while. There are still toys in it, but for the most part, they are containerized when not in use. Oh how I love containerization. Is that even a word?

Don't mind me.

Just trying on hats.

Here's what it looks like when I hold the camera high above my head and take a picture.

And here's what it looks like when I do the same thing with the cabinet doors open. Fab, right?

So glad to finally have this project finished and to have a space that's more suited to the needs of a 2 and 3 year old. So glad to have more space in their closet for the clothes that usually end up on their bodies in public. Not always, but usually. Also glad to take a break from constantly stalking the furniture listings on Craigslist. It's more exhausting than it sounds, I promise. It just proves that good things do in fact come to those who wait, and sometimes they have gawgeous carvings and a price tag of 25 buckaroos.

And also, I'm totally going to confess to you what was still on the dresser in this room yesterday when I went in to take pics.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who still had a bit of Christmas hanging around in January...

My Fair Lady nursery

hello Friends!

How was your weekend?

Nothing too spectacular went on here, however, I did finish a project that I can't wait to show you. Have to wait for daylight for better pics though...

Today, I thought I'd share with you our girls nursery.

I love their room, and I also figured if I don't start cleaning/photographing the rooms in my house soon, I'm never going to finish the 'house tour' tab under my header and it's driving.me.crazy.

I went with a My Fair Lady theme for our nursery because we named our first daughter Eliza- after Eliza Doolittle. I'd actually had that name picked out for my little girl since I was about 12 years old, so it's a darn-tootin good thing the hubs didn't hate it. (It was also around this time that I started loving anything and everything to do with Audrey) Framed movie poster is from ebay.

Here's an aerial view.

sort of

Those curtains are on my to-do list for this room since they don't go to the floor. They're made by Dwell Studio and that's just how they were made, but it drives.me.crazy. I bought an extra one, so I actually have plenty of fabric to lengthen them all. Just haven't done it yet. The window boxes were already in the house when we bought it- we just painted them white. The room was also a buttery yellow and we went with Tomorrow's Taupe by Behr. Really makes the trim and boxes 'pop'.

Here's what you see when you enter the room.

Changing table,

chair (from a second-hand furniture store for $25)

book rack (free from my church)

shelves (which the hubs put up a few weeks ago)

To find out how I made the wallflowers, go HERE.

The prints above the changing table are reproduced sketches by Cecil Beaton himself of costumes that Audrey wore in the movie, My Fair Lady. I scored all 4 sketches for 5 bucks on ebay.

oh how I love me some ebay.

I also love that the background color of the sketches happens to be the exact color of the paint on the walls.

Eliza has a big 'E' in white with her name in cursive over it in hot pink-

love those vinyl decals. Her crib bedding, as well as the cutains, chair pillow, and random accessories in the room are the Olivia pattern by Dwell Studio. I purchased every single bit of it on clearance at 4 different Target stores. In one day. Lots of driving around with my mum and sis and big huge belly, but oh so worth it.

I found the little teal vases at Michael's on clearance for 35 cents a piece (there's another on the dresser) and the pink car is from the hubs collection. I wanted something of his in the room, and this was the perfect fit. Lamp bases and shades are also from Target. The table is an original Drexel and was purchased at the thrift store. I think $25? The black wooden animals are from the $1 bins at Target.

Since this room was our guest room when we moved in, we kept the full bed and bought new linens (Shabby Chic bedding from Target). The door in the corner leads to a jack-and-jill bathroom connected to the master. I know- that's weird. We think the master was originally the bedroom located down the hall that's connected to the other bathroom. It's a much smaller room though, so we opted to put the master in one of the larger bedrooms.

The dresser is from Sealy Furniture (the same Sealy that sells second-hand furniture, which is where the $25 chair came from) and was purchased new. It's actually a media stand and the spaces for DVD player, Wii, etc. were perfect homes for some fabric bins I had in the Dwell Studio fabric. The black initials are from the hob lob and the frames were gifts.

The porcelain Eliza figurine is from ebay and the book is from Sams. Yep, same place we buy 5 gallon barrells of cheese puffs. I LOVED the cover and knew I wanted to find a spot for it in the room. Book stand is from Home Accents.

And here's baby #3 in crib #2! MM was hanging out with me while I snapped pics of the room. Th round mirror is from IKEA and was once centered over the dresser. When we found out about baby #3, we moved the dresser on down to make room for another crib and never relocated the mirror. On the to-do list...

MM's bedding is also Dwell Studio, but a different pattern. I wanted her to have her own thing, ya know? I found the dots bumper and crib skirt on clearance for 17 bucks and the sheet was 10.

The lovely canvas on the door was a gift from 2 of my voice students. (thank you Mary Helen and Ashton!) As you can see, it's sometimes used as a makeshift bow holder. That's also on my list of things to make...

And that's the nursery!

As you can see, I still have quite a bit I want to do in here, but for the most part the room is put together. Interesting story about the drum fixture- do you have time for a story? The hubs and 2 friends were actually hanging it in the room the night before I was scheduled to be induced. I sat and watched them working, and commented that B-H contractions were just the coolest because they didn't hurt but my tummy would be rock-hard one second, and then relax again. hahaha....

Fast-forward a few hours and E is in my arms.

Perhaps I'll blog our speed-to-the-hospital-and-barely-make-it-on-time story someday soon.

And for any of you out there that may be wondering-

our girls are 12 months apart.

E was born in May 2009,

MM was born in May 2010.

Don't you just love how God knows exactly what we need, and who  we need, and when we need them, even when we have no clue?

oh how I love my babes-

have a wonderful day!