I've been bitten...

...by the SEWING BUG! I spent almost my entire Memorial Day weekend sewing, and it was fantastic!! Of course, I took a break to hang out with family & to be thankful to live in such a wonderful and FREE Country, thanks to all the brave men and women.

So how did I find out I liked to sew? I found a tutorial, on Pinterest, for girls' "T-Shirt Dresses", and that was all it took!! I am HOOKED. Here are some pictures of what I've made over the past few months:

This was the first dress I made!

Who Doesn't love a MAXI!?

Adorable!! And so easy! The tutorial says it's for old t shirts that have stains on the bottom, or have gotten too short. Yeah, well, I just went out and bought new shirts. I got a few at Target that were on sale for $3.00 (regular $5.00), and I got a few from Hobby Lobby using my 40% off coupon. All fabric used was from Hobby Lobby as well. 

At first, I followed the tutorial exactly as outlined. Then I figured out what worked best for me. I replaced the fabric bow with actual ribbon & the two maxi dresses are actually double hemmed. (I guess that's how you would describe it. I'm no seamstress, people, bear with me!) Anyway, on the bottom, I did a 1" hem, then folded it up again about 3" and sewed another hem. This way, when it gets too short, I can let the hem out & it'll still fit! I found this out the unfortunate way. Those cute dressed that I posted first were actually sewn about 2 months ago & don't fit anymore! Sad face! Because they were SO adorable on her.

I realize this isn't a tutorial on how to sew these dresses & that was completely intentional. I wanted you all to know about how easy this project is, even for a beginner like me, and the blog that I followed was extremely easy to understand and to follow. If you attempt these dresses, I highly recommend following her tutorial. All you need is a yard of fabric, a t-shirt & maybe some ribbon! Oh, and about an hour of your time!

Now, I've been sewing those dresses for a few months now & I felt like I had mastered it. (Mastered may be too strong, but I'm going with it.) I wanted to try my hand at something else. Something for Olivia, of course. I'd been wanted to make her a new nap mat for a while, but wasn't too confident in my ability. I had read several tutorials, but none seemed to be the style that I wanted.... or easy.  So I took bits of information from each tutorial that I thought might help & went from there. That's right, I didn't follow a tutorial. Whaaat up??? ;) 

Here's what I did, and I hope it helps you too!

First, I found my mat insert at Walmart for around $7.00. Here's a picture, nothing fancy (yet). 

You can also just use a foam insert, available at any fabric store such as Hobby Lobby or Joann's. Then I decided on my fabric choices. For the mat cover, you will need 1 2/3 yards. I used a lightweight duck cloth, because regular cotton seemed to thin. You may think otherwise, that was just my opinion. For the blanket, I chose chenille (I was feeling cocky), and I got two yards.  I also got a package of velcro for the end, since I wanted to be able to open it and take the mat out for washing. 

Now I had everything I needed and headed home to get started. Oh crap. What the heck am I gonna do about a  pillow?! Hmm. What about a pillow cut in half? Yep. That'll work. 

So that's what I did, and sewed it up! My mistake actually saved me a little money. However, you can buy a $10 pillow insert from your local fabric store if you wanna save some time. 

Ok, hiccup solved. Next, measure your fabric, leaving enough room for your hem. I laid mine out, because I'm a visual person. I'm sure you're wondering why I had so much "mat fabric" at the bottom. Well, when I went to get my 1 and 2/3 fabric cut, there was just a little bit left, so I got it for free, that way she didn't have to try to sell such a tiny bit of fabric. 

So, after I got all my "measuring" done, I cut my mat fabric in half & then sewed one side together, leaving the side where the blanket will go open. I wanted my blanket on left side, so I left that side open. 

After that, I set it aside & grabbed the blanket fabric. Such tricky stuff to work with. Not only is it slippery, but it's heavy! I laid it out again, like above, and marked where I needed to cut the length on the blanket fabric, leaving just a little for the hem. After that cut, I just folded it in half, wrong sides out, and sewed the top and bottom together, leaving the side open so that you can turn it right side out. 

Now you're ready to sew the blanket into the mat cover. Lay the mat fabric out evenly, wrong sides out (like above) and place the entire blanket inside the mat, with about an inch of the open side of the blanket fabric sticking out. Then close the mat fabric & pin it to keep it from slipping. Time to sew it together!!! 

Oh, by the way, you'll need a heavy duty needle. Learned that the hard way. Oops!! However, I just noticed that you can see how I joined the mat & blanket together. Kinda. It's a little blurry, but you can see how I have the mat fabric wrong side out, blanket completely inside the mat fabric, with just about an inch sticking out. Cool, huh? 

Anyway, be sure to grab some heavy duty sewing needles, because when you're sewing the 4 layers, you'll need it! I believe I used the 16 gauge.

Woo hoo! Still with me? Hard part: OVER. So, you've got both sides enclosed, with your blanket neatly attached. What's next? My opinion? Make sure the nap mat fits inside, just in case we need our handy seam ripper! Mine was pretty snug, but it fit! If it all fits, mat & pillow together. Go ahead and sew up the top. I just turned mine inside out again, and sewed it up. 

Time for the bottom! Since I wanted it open on the bottom for easy mat removal, velcro seemed like my best option. I wasn't cocky enough to go for the zipper option. I folded the fabric back about 1.5 inches and sewed it. Remember how much extra I had at the bottom? I'm SO dumb for cutting it all off before I thought it through. Lucky for you, you can learn from my mistake. It would have looked SO much better if I had been able to fold it back 5 - 6 inches, that way when you opened it up to get the mat, you wouldn't really see the wrong side of the fabric. Get it? If you've got the extra fabric, do it! 

Now get that velcro out! Measure out how much you need, and attach it on all four sides. Top, bottom and each side. Yes, it's a lot, yes it is worth it. Just do it! 

Pretty awesome!! But now you need a way to fold it up, and keep it folded up. This will really be a personal preference, but I'll tell you what I did anyway. I rolled mine up, like I wanted, and then marked on each side with a washable fabric pen, where I wanted a fabric strap to go. Oh yeah, remember that fabric I cut off that I was so sad about? BAM! New fabric strap. Under her pillow, I hand sewed the strap to the mat, then used fabric glue to attach a small square of velcro. On the other mark, I attached the opposite piece of velcro, with fabric glue. AND I WAS DONE! It folds up nicely, and looks awesome!! Yay me! 

Hopefully this was easy to follow, if not, I'm sorry :( but here are some of the tutorials I read that gave me some ideas on how to make it:

Jenny Garland - If I was choosing, I'd choose this one.

Sew Like My Mom

That Village House

Good Luck! I hope you enjoyed it!

NEW PROJECT:

I conquered another sewing project! A floor cushion, or "poof" as my family has been calling them, including bias tape (piping). I was soooo nervous to use the bias tape. It was new, unfamiliar, and I had NO clue what I was doing! I followed this tutorial, Living With Punks, line by line (except the handle, I didn't like it), and she explained everything extremely well! Instead of creating my own tutorial, I suggest following hers. There's NO WAY I could do a better job at explaining! Oh, and the best part about this project, is that it only calls for ONE YARD of fabric!!! Good luck!

P.S. How freaking adorable is that fabric?!?!?!?! I got it at Hobby Lobby, using my 40% off coupon, for only $5.50 a yard! 

Laundry Room Makeover

I'm baaaack. But not for long. We have started on our next DIY project, and can't wait to share with all of you, but it will be a while before that happens. Awww, sad face. Until then, here's a past project that we have done! Our itty bitty laundry room!
Here is our before picture:

No storage space, ridiculous & totally pointless wire rack (FREAKING HATE THAT THING), and clutter. I despise clutter, but I sure seem to have a lot of it. 

Here's the after:

Oooooo, ahhhhhh. 

Now, here's what we did! As far as the cabinets, Mr. Awesomepants bought two pre-made, unfinished cabinets from Lowes & painted them white. During that same trip to Lowe's, we spotted TWO humungous sheets of wainscoting that were covered in scuff marks, no scratches, just scuffs, listed at $2.00 a piece. SCORE! They just needed a little paint & they'd be perfect! He cut the wainscoting to size and glued them to the inside of the cabinet door & caulked to finish! Instant wow factor. 

Then he found some scrap MDF in the garage, cut it to size and made the top piece as well as the center shelf, and again, painted them white. He added crown all the way along the top, and moulding around the bottom of the cabinets and along the shelf to give it a finished, crisp look. 

The cabinet in the middle, well, we just got lucky. We took a chance when we bought it, hoping it would fit & it did (Thank you, Jesus)! That cabinet didn't come with a top, as most don't so initially we thought we'd just put some of the white shelf board on top. Ummmm, newsflash, those are like $20. Okay, okay, maybe we are cheapskates. But hey, I don't skimp on what matters. So... back to the garage! We found some spare wood & covered it with white vinyl. (I think that's what it's called. It's the stuff you generally line your shelves, and cabinets with, to protect it.) It worked perfectly, only cost $2 & is super easy to wipe down. Win Win! 

It's a great laundry room & extremely functional. But guess what? I'm not done. Mr. Awesomepants & I bought a brand new front loading washer & dryer that opened up a world of ideas & options including a countertop, backsplash & old metal pipes. Poor Mr. Awesomepants. Stay tuned for the next update. Until then, have a relaxing and SAFE Memorial Day!

Rustic Headboard

It's been raining like crazy where I am, so unfortunately, I haven't been able to do a thing with my darling bookshelf tree. Boo. So instead, I'm going to share a really, REALLY old project with you guys!!! When we moved into our house back in 2009, we only had a queen size bed. It worked.

Then, I got pregnant. Really BIG, uncomfortable pregnant. I needed more room to stretch out, and to toss and turn. My grandma had recently moved as well & didn't want to take her large, king size, 4 poster bed, that my late Grandpa had built so many years ago. JACKPOT! I wanted it. This is the picture I took the day we put it up. I didn't even put a comforter on it, just my pregnancy pillow. I was too fat & hot. Leave me alone. 

Anyway! Can you see that small board on the back? Yeah, that was the only "headboard" we had. No bueno. I needed something to lean against!! 

So I got on Google (this was before Pinterest took off) and started looking for ideas, when I found this blog: Today's Letters, with this image:

GORGEOUS!!!! A wooden headboard WITH lights!!! I immediately got Mr. Awesomepants to work! We used 4 - 2X10 wooden boards from Lowe's for the planks, and then 2 - 2X4's to attach them to on each side. We stained the wood first before assembling everything because we knew it was going to be a huge, heavy piece & I did not want to have to move it. I was huge, remember? So they best option was to assemble it in the bedroom where it would live it's beautiful life. Matching the stain was our biggest hurdle with this project. Obviously, I wanted it to match the existing bed & my grandma SWORE that she & my Papaw chose "Dark Walnut." Well, I've got news for her! Maybe she told him to use dark walnut, but what he actually used, was "Red Oak." (He did what he wanted) Once we figured that out, it was smooth sailing.

As far as assembling it, I didn't want the headboard to actually attach to the bed, because I didn't want to alter the way my Papaw built the bed. I wanted to leave it just like he built it when he was alive. So it really just sits behind the bed.  I wasn't blogging at the time, so here's a super awesome "Paint" drawing. Yes, I know.... Skills.

Now you can see kinda how he did it. And no, it doesn't move. It's way too heavy, plus, it sits REALLY snug between the two posts.
After assembling the headboard, he measured where the lights would be & installed them with the hardware included. We didn't want them to high, because we are lazy and didn't want to have to reach too high to switch them off. Remember to notch out a small hole for the cord to fit through. Since we didn't have an outlet right smack in the middle of the wall, I plugged in a long surge protector and was able to plug in both lights, plus both lamps. Handy! The headboard lights are from Ikea, only $10 each & like I said, the hardware was included.

Finally, here's the AFTER :) with a comforter this time! This project only took two days. One day for sanding and staining, the second for assembling. Easy peasy!

What a difference it made! It totally updated the bed and changed the entire look of it. I am so pleased with how it turned out. Thanks again to my Mr. Awesomepants for making my dreams a reality!

More information on bedroom furnishings:

Comforter: Urban Outfitters

Lamp Shades: I made them!

Lamp Stands: Target

Curtains: Target (Only $20, such a great buy!)

That awesome piece of furniture at the foot of our bed??? A pop up TV cabinet. Big thank you to my Momma for giving that to us, YOU'RE STUPENDOUS! 

Rustic Barn Doors

Anyone wanna know why I haven't gotten my Bookshelf Tree done yet? Because my most dearest, bestest friend bought a house & needed our help!!! Mr. Awesomepants to the rescue!!
Don't get me wrong, her house is totally awesome, even without our help, but she had one minor issue; Her laundry room is off her kitchen, and there was NO DOOR to hide it! Here's a picture that I snagged from her Facebook page that shows the archway. (Sidenote: I am IN LOVE with her granite!!!!!)

Totally crazy, right? Oh well, no problem, easy fix. She loves the rustic look, so swinging barn doors were the perfect solution. Since it's an archway, and wasn't intended for doors, we're gonna get a little fancy!! ;)
So here's what we did, in case you wanna get fancy too!

Measure the archway. Or breakdown a box, trace the arch and cut it out. I preferred the latter.

Now gather your 1X4 boards and begin gluing them together, then clamp to dry for about 30 minutes.
Since we are doing two swinging doors, they ended up being 5 boards wide. Here they are being glued together. The horizontal board on the top isn't attached yet. As you're gluing, you may notice that your boards are bowed and aren't laying flat & flush together. Totally normal. Tell your Mr. Awesome to use his big boy muscles and force them to flatten then quickly clamp them together to hold. We also used big rocks to keep them down while drying.

After about 2 hours of work waiting for the door planks to dry, here's what we ended up with on day 1. Check back tonight to see the semi-end result. 

UPDATE: May 7, 2013

Mr. Awesomepants and my BFF's hubby got the doors completely constructed today! YAY! They added the signature, barn door "X", using 1X3's and cut the arch using a jigsaw. 

The hardware isn't attached, just laid on top of the doors to preview what it will look like. The next step is sanding and staining. Mr. Awesomepants and I are leaving that up to them though. It's time to get back to work on our bookshelf tree!! But don't worry, I will definitely post a picture of their progress too!! 

OH! And while we're talking about her new awesome house, here's a picture of the house warming gift we got her!  

It was full of all kind of goodies for a new homeowner, such as Goo Gone, batteries, a hammer, wood glue, super glue, nails, screws, a squeegee for the shower, etc. So fun!

DIY Tree Bookshelf

So it's finally time to shake off my lazy bones syndrome and get busy on Olivia's playroom again. Remember when we built that fantastic storage plus reading nook back in November & I didn't know what I wanted on the walls???? Guess what? Five long months later, I figured it out! I tossed around ideas like black and white canvas portraits of Olivia, or framing her artwork in crisp white frames, but decided I already had those in the dining room. So it was time to get creative. I wanted something just as awesome as those built in's & something unique, like Olivia!! Over those five months I was able to see how Olivia "lived" in there. What she played with most & what toys needed to be more accessible. I came to realize the kid loves babies and books!!! Her books were shoved in one of those cabinets and stayed in complete chaos because she was constantly getting into them. So we decided she needed a bookshelf. I thought about floating shelves, then had visions of her hanging on them. Scratch that, next idea. Shelves made from wood pallets or the "spice rack" shelves as seen on Pinterest, but those didn't really go with the white and pink theme, or the "unique" factor I was looking for. I was about to give up and just head to Ikea to buy a floor bookshelf, when I ran across this image on Google:

I was in LOVE. Isn't this an amazing piece???? I'll give you a moment to swoon. Ahhhhhh. IT'S SO PERFECT!

However, the price tag of $850.00 (available at Nursery Works) resulted in my jaw making a huge THUD as it hit the floor. There's no way my dear sweet husband was going to let me spend that on a freaking tree. I was so sad, because once I saw this tree, I knew nothing was going to compare. I HAD to have it, this was my WOW factor. 

After looking around some more, and coming up with nothing as awesome, I picked up my jaw & presented my idea to Mr. Awesomepants, being fully prepared for the "look", the one that says "Lady, you are off your rocker." But instead, he responded with "I won't buy it, but I'll build it." YAAAYYYYYYYYYYY! Happy dance time!!! 

Now, how the heck are we gonna do it? Mr. Awesomepants already had a plan, as he usually does. The tree above is metal, and we were wanting to use wood. So here's what we (he, whatever) decided. 

Buy 4 or more large sheets of 3/4" MDF and cut the tree out of each one, then glue them all together. That would make it solid and deep enough to hold her books. 

Once we bought the MDF (at Lowe's for about $35 per sheet), I pulled out my projector and hooked it up to my computer to display the image of the tree on the MDF to be traced. I found an image that was "straight-on" of the tree, instead of an angled picture like above. Once that was done, he got to work cutting. 

After he cut one sheet, I took that piece to trace onto the rest of the MDF sheets. It took him about an hour to cut each one, using a jigsaw. He cut four and we decided to test it out. Just our luck, a standard size book wasn't going to hold with just 4 sheets. Boo. 

Now, we are still in the process of building this beauty, so we're thinking about 2 more sheets will do it. So that means $70 more in materials then another $20 in PINK paint was putting us at an extra $90. Luckily, I'm all about pinching pennies, a reason Mr. Awesomepants picked me ;)

We had HUGE square pieces of MDF leftover after cutting. I put them all together and they made another whole piece of MDF. YAY! So I traced it out over those pieces and instead of gluing them to each other, I will glue them to a tree that's already been cut. That "puzzle tree" will become an inside piece, and you'll never know the difference. $35 SAVED! 

Check back soon, as we will be finishing this project in just a couple more days!! In the mean time, here is what a cut piece looks like! If you have a good eye, you probably noticed we made ours just a little taller, so that her PB chair will fit nicely underneath the tree. 

UPDATE: May 2, 2013

Alrighty, so last night, I glued all 5 of my pieces together, including my "puzzle" tree. Guess what? It's still not deep enough. Blah. So I headed back to the garage (and our back porch) to sift through our scrap pieces. I found enough pieces to make 2 more trees! Yay! So that will make 7 trees total & 5 1/4" deep. Fingers crossed that this will finally be deep enough! If you are following this post to try to make your own, I really encourage you to buy 4 pieces, then use scrap pieces for your middle trees, it's a good way to stretch your dollar. Now, if you are planning to make this for standard, novel size books, I really think 4-5 would be fine. But kids books come in such crazy sizes. Anyway, here's picture of the "progress" we made last night:

 

Yes, I am in my living room! We tried the whole, work outside thing & that was a bust. Princess Olivia is stuck up mommy's rear end, unless Shrek is on! So I laid a big sheet down, turned Shrek on, and got to work!

Back to the tree: here are my 5 pieces glued and clamped together. We used regular wood glue and left it clamped for a little over an hour, and it was completely dry.

UPDATE: May 5, 2013

I finally got Mr. Awesomepants to work on the tree today. He says this is his least favorite project, & honestly I don't blame him!!! It has definitely been a learning experience, lots of trial and error. I hope that you all are learning from our experience. We cut out one more "puzzle piece" tree today, and FINALLY, that made it deep enough to hold her books! WOO HOO!!! We were so excited. NO MORE FREAKING CUTTING!!!!!! Ok, one more cut. He cut out a little notch on the bottom so that it would clear the base moulding and sit flush on the wall. Genius. 

 Finally, it was time to move on to the next step: Sanding.

Here's what it looked like. Needless to say, my tree needed a little work. I sanded for about 10 minutes & decided that was going no where fast. Plus, my sander wasn't going to be able to get into the little angles, which meant, not everything would be smooth & flush. Grrr. So, I called in Mr. Awesomepants for a little brainstorming. HAHAHA ok ok in reality, I went and took a shower & told him "FIX IT." By the time I got out, he had done just that :) Love him.  Off to Lowe's we went. 

Spackling. DUH! ($8.00 at Lowe's) At first, I was just going to fill what needed to be "evened out". But as I went on, I decided to just do the whole tree. Why not? It will guarantee that it's all the same & I won't have to worry if the paint will look different on each surface. Once it dries, it's time to do a light sanding & then paint!! I see a light at the end of the tunnel!! 

If you are going to attempt this, be prepared to put $900 worth of labor into this project!!!! Thank God for Mr. Awesomepants. 

UPDATE: May 7, 2013

Sheesh. Are we ever going to get this done???? For the past few days we have been helping my best friend make some custom barn doors for her kitchen. In between, I swear I have been trying to give my poor tree some attention. Here's a quick update picture. I'm ALMOST done covering it in spackle! Stay tuned, I promise I'm going to finish SOON!

You can see one of the areas that I haven't finished yet, compared to the spackled section, and what a difference!!! We ended up needing to buy the LARGE tub of spackle to cover the entire tree, so don't even waste the money on the small container, it only covered a few branches. 

UPDATE: MAY 12, 2013 (Happy Mother's Day!!!)

Oh. Em. Gee. It's been almost a week since my last update on the tree! I finally got the entire tree covered in spackle, and started sanding it smooth with a fine grit sand paper. Apparently, I didn't do the greatest job, as far as sanding, before I started with pink paint, and it looked like CRAP. I don't do well when things don't go my way, so in stepped Mr. Awesomepants to fix my mess up & keep me from jumping off the ledge. But first, here's a picture of my mini helping :) 

He sanded REALLY well, added more spackle where needed, and sanded some more. During the process, we realized that it wasn't going to be PERFECT. Unless we re-thought the entire tree. And I wasn't willing to do it. So we decided to go with white paint, as it would hide the imperfections better than the pink. 

Finally! We are DONE. Well, okay, not completely. It's not attached to the wall. I'll show you how we are going to do that tomorrow, because that's when we'll figure it out! ;) I hope you all had a FANTASTIC Mother's Day! I know I did!!! 

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering.... Our recommendation is saving your money and time & buying the darn tree!!!! This thing was a pain in the rear end!

UPDATE: May 13, 2013
It's attached! Woo Hoo!  We used these brackets, attaching it to the back of the tree, and then into the wall. Be sure to drill it into a stud for maximum stability!

The moment you've all been waiting for!!!! Here's the reveal!

So??? What do y'all think??? I think it looks fantastic, and you can't even see the brackets where we installed it. I used my handy Silhouette to print out stencils for the cute little birds. I painted them on, but you can use vinyl as well. 

So all in all, I couldn't be more pleased with the final product. The total cost for this project was about $160. That included 4 sheets of MDF, the spackle, hardware & paint. Pretty darn good compared to the $850 to buy it, but I think that your time & labor is worth something, & trust me, we put way more than $850 worth of labor into this tree. If you've got the time & the patience, I say go for it, and send me some pictures too! Just be warned, this is NOT an easy DIY. I appreciate you all being patient & sticking it out with me!! That's a wrap on the Tree Bookshelf!

DIY Built In Reading Nook/Storage Bench

Okay folks, we aren't quite done yet, but that's not going to stop me from posting! Let's do a progress report, shall we? Here's the before.... kind of. I forgot to snap a real "before", before Mr. Awesome ripped out the floor trim. So I guess, call that step one, rip out floor trim. We didn't rip out the carpet, because we knew that the unit would be open on the bottom. However, if you plan to have a closed bottom, it's best to rip the carpet out too & then tack it back down. That part may require a professional to come out and re-stretch.

What a mess. But how much do you love that ceiling??? HA! It took me probably 2 weeks to complete, and now I'm going to cover it up. Hindsight: probably should have painted that first, but we were too excited to begin putting up the towers. Check out the walls, so BARE, minus the cubbies that we decided to mount to the wall. Another plan, not thought through. Whoopsy! So we covered step one; step two involves getting your 19 month old entertained long enough so that you can help your Mr. Awesome cut the huge, heavy MDF boards. This is most definitely a 2 person job! How do y'all like his bow? Our made him wear it, and I gotta say, she didn't have to try too hard. He's such an awesome dad.

Anyway, back to the project, here is a picture of the sides of the towers, the most important pieces you will install, so don't skimp on the nails. These two pieces hold a lot of the weight, and keep it all together!

Nailing the side of the soon to be storage tower into the wall.

Okay, so one side of the tower is installed, time to do the other side right? Wrong! You need to cut all of your shelves first, because the shelves are going to be what attaches the two "walls" of the tower together. Once the shelves are cut to size, drill out your pocket holes to prepare them for install. They're like $30 at Lowes, and it looks cleaner and more professional. Which is our main goal as a DIY'er right?

Pocket Holes for Shelves

To help Mr. Awesome, I held up the other "wall" side of the tower, while he screwed in the shelves. I only wanted 3 cabinets, because I wanted them to all be tall enough to hold Olivia's big toys such as her race track and her shopping cart.... or her daddy.

If you look on the right side of my overgrown man child, you'll see that we put trim on the outside, versus the untrimmed left side. It gives it a finished look, and also a place to install hinges if you plan to do cabinets. The trim is just 1X2's.

Just another cute picture of our little mimic - Oh and Mr. Awesome working.

Ok, shelves are done, so put the rest of that trim up! Just cut it to size and install. Pretty easy. Once the trim is up on the towers, you're ready to move on to the window seat! Yippee!

Stay tuned, I will post more information and pictures this evening!!!!

Ok, so I obviously didn't post the pictures that evening. Oopsy. This was right before Thanksgiving, meaning my in-laws were headed in! So we had to get BUSY and get everything complete and clean the house so people don't know how we really live. ;)   Anyway, I do have more pictures to post, but hey, you've waited long enough, so here is the final product. The paint was still wet when my in-laws walked in.... No, I am NOT kidding.

I wasn't able to get any wall decor up, and honestly, I'm still not positive what I actually want hung up. Anyway, those are faux doors on the bottom, but the top lifts up for storage. We found that we would have more space this way.
For the doors, Mr. Awesome cut some wainscoting to size and notched out some 1X2's for it to slide into. I am LOVING it. The cabinets are freaking huge and all of her toy's fit somewhere. I can't wait to get her kitchen in there and add some wall decor! Oh, and I'm going to redo a vintage chandelier!! I hear a new project in the works!!!

A big BRAVO to my husband. I love you and your awesomeness.

UPDATE: