A New Look for Nap Time

First night in new beds

 Their eyes dance when they walk in the room, unsure what to study first. Small one stands on tiptoes trying to kiss the owls. Big one jumps and squeals: G-een bed! Pointed to the footboard: Ooh, my letter! She owns all "G's." They sit sideways, toes together, hands held, bouncing with excitement.

This might be our best project yet. We've made more complicated things, but never have we constructed more harmoniously. Plenty of artsy, painting work for me; plenty of power tool, woodwork for him. We finished just under $50 with furniture we really need. That's right, two beds for $50!!

The headboard and footboard are scrapped doors, abandoned to the overwhelming church set construction pile. Old doors are furniture genius. For $20 or less at a salvage yard or Habitat Restore, you can pick up solid, reclaimed wood. These had the bonus of really neat hardware, seen better here.

Hemming Rectangles

Rental houses are a beautiful thing. My previous experience with renting, a dorm room, came with a delightful lady Martha. She cleaned my bathroom every week. I miss her.

As a couple, we're buyers, project hunters. Our first condo had no toilet; our first house seeped cat pee. Trend? But here we are, Mellon St., renting. Hot water heater blows? Call the landlord (true story). Our real lesson in this house: live with it. We don't live with anything. We pull up every scrap of vinyl flooring, yank out every dated light fixture, paint every. single! wall. Now in a rental, I'm learning to work around the existing. For instance, our kitchen floor is red and white checkerboard. Bold statement. The walls are light blue, and I'm forbidden paint. Fine IKEA-esque pallet, but not one I would pick. I've largely ignored it, but we've been here a year with no plans to leave. Time to integrate.

Exhibit A: red checked floor

Crib Skirts

Our girls are officially roomies now. We found a crib for Afton and moved her in last week. For some reason, the move triggered a mini nesting streak in me. I wanted crib skirts. Not sure why I had to have them now. Gwenny has gone a year without one. Now that we have two cribs, their naked undercarriages just would not do.

So, I pulled out the Brother, dug through my fabric stash and came up with all the needed materials for this crib skirt (why reinvent the tutorial when Star wrote such a lovely one already). I spent all Friday and Saturday evenings hunched over the sewing machine (hence the burning along my shoulder blades today), but the skirts were so worth it.

Side by side cribs - I love having Irish twins.

Seeing them sleeping next to each other makes my whole body smile. I know their concept of "sister" is pretty immature now, but this is just the beginning of great things to come!

A close up of the new crib skirts
The peek-through effect is so nice on this pattern.

I chose this fabric to tone down the "babyish" feel of a nursery. It doesn't have to be all pastels.

For the rest of the room:

Tim found this amazing antique dresser when he found our new desk. All it needed was a little wood conditioner.

The tea party table - more to come on this ReStyle It project 

Found this at World Market. They are so cute and match the room perfectly. Gwenny loves to ring the bells at the end.

In the same World Market line - an elephant fan pull. We're constantly lifting G up to play with the hanging pachyderms.

I heard somewhere that any project boils down to three aspects: time, scope and money. You can only be deficient in one area. When it comes to our house, my decorating schemes encompass a lot of scope but we have a small budget. That necessitates that I take my time, collect pieces slowly, make items when I can, etc... until I meet my vision. The girls' room took a step forward this week. I'm itching to continue improving our home, making life more comfortable and hospitality easier.

Infestation

My sister specializes in bugs on her pottery.

I need a huge venus fly trap. Not so large it will take on the neighbor's dog (although I wouldn't complain if a plant ate our neighbor's Camaro). Just large enough to handle a big gnat problem. Admittedly, I'm not the most fastidious house cleaner, but my pride is hurt when guests swat in the air at gnats threatening their noses.

They came in with the house plants. You think you're doing a good thing by increasing the oxygen in your home, adding a bit of green to the house, only to be repaid with fungus gnats. At least, I think they're fungus gnats. They're not fruit flies. I'm well acquainted with them. In high school, someone broke a jar from the fruit fly experiment. They swarmed the hallways for years.

The internet says I have fungus gnats that live in the fungus laden soil from Lowe's. They're described as "harmless." Really? Then why did God include them in the 10 plagues? I don't mean to questions God's judgement, but I think mosquitoes would have been more effective than gnats.

Whatever they are, I'm done with them. This is war! (For effect, please hum "War Pigs" as you finish this post). I've looked up a few home remedies, and most of them sound quacky. Rub lemon juice around your pots?? Leave vinegar in a jar with holes in the lid. The fruit flies will crawl in and get stuck. Why can't they find their way out if they found their way in??

Forget it. I'm going to Lowe's for plant fungicide and gnat spray. Because let's be honest - I'm only organic until it gets really annoying.

I was going to write about my crafty ReStyle project today but iPhoto and Safari aren't talking, so my pictures are stuck in limbo. Tomorrow. I promise a better post tomorrow.