New Playroom!

Well, things are finally starting to settle down since being back from our vacation. We've been back now for almost two weeks and it's been nuts over here. Hubby and the kids have been in and out of the hospital and doctor's offices so much. Knee injury for the hubs and double ear infections for both little ones. The pharmacy offered me a job, I was in there so much! 😂 There has been so much I've wanted to write about but just never found the time. Poor hubs couldn't even walk for close to a week! I have no idea how other moms find the time to get posts done. I'd love some tips if anyone has any. This is something I definitely love doing and feel sad when I get nothing done on here.

The last few days I've been working on changing my son's room into the playroom. The toys in the living room and in my daughter's room just became too overwhelming and something needed to be done. My oldest helped me move Lily's roommate, aka Grayson, into her room along with all of his belongings. This is a temporary situation till Asia moves out and we can play musical rooms again.

Grayson's old room, though the smallest, is perfect for their new playroom. The built in shelves are perfect for books, puzzles, games and all our art supplies! Side note: the built in shelves were also perfect for books when the room was our office/library! 🙄

Anywho...The walls of the room are a tad dark for such a small space. Instead of changing the color of the whole room, I decided to break up the "darkness" by adding a new art gallery to display the kids art. I waited till the kids went to sleep and measured out the space I wanted and used a level to make sure and double check that my sides were taped off correctly. Two coats of primer and a night to dry later, I was ready to paint! I'm actually pretty happy with the results!

      (Measured, taped and 2 coats of primer)

Once my paint was completely dry I pulled off the tape, slowly! I then measured out some twine and decided where I wanted the art to hang. I brought out some construction paper to help me get an idea of the size of art work that my children may do, to get an idea of where the twine should hang. Once I decided, I nailed in some finishing nails about halfway into the wall and then knotted the twine to the nail. Once my knot was nice and tight, I hammered in the nail the rest of the way.

As you can see from the picture below, I pulled the twine straight across and somewhat tight. I didn't want it loose and hanging. This is because the weight of the pictures will pull it down a bit.

I decided to add a little saying to the top to spruce it up a bit. It just seemed incomplete without adding something to the top of the large white rectangle! I went to Pinterest to gather some ideas and felt that this was the best. A close second was "Look, what I made". I think this works though. Oh and do you like the banner? Shiny scrapbook paper and twine! Total cost of banner $1.75!!

Even with the toys having their own room, we still have way too much stuff! I still have a basement full of items. I definitely need to go through everything and get organized for a yard sale!

Priceless Works of Art

 

 

 

One of Lily's favorite things to do is paint. I have to admit that we haven't painted as much since Grayson's been born but now he is finally at the age were he can participate as well. Even if it lasts only a few minutes for him. Yesterday I got out some supplies and decided that it was time Grayson got to experience the joy of finger painting. Instead of just painting on paper I wanted to have that very first piece of artwork he did to be extra special.                                                   I used an 8x10 canvas from Michael's and tiny pieces of masking tape to mask off their first initial. Using tiny pieces helps you get a curve in the letter easily. Once I got the look I wanted I taped down some newspaper to protect my table, put their smocks on and added a few drops of different color paints to their canvas. They had blast! Lily isn't big on getting messy so once she was done finger painting I gave her a small tray and some Q-tips to paint with on regular construction paper. Q-tips are great for those kiddos who just don't want to stick their fingers into paint for either sensory reasons or those who just don't want to get dirty. I highly recommend that you have extra paper handy for them to paint. That way as soon as they get the canvas art done you can quickly give them a sheet of paper to continue their art. Otherwise the canvas may end up so over done that you end up losing the look of the different colors.

Once the canvas was completely dry I slowly peeled off the tape and Ta-da! I now have beautiful art that I can hang up in their rooms. Here are their priceless works of art! 

 

 

*You of course don't need to do their first initial. You could do hearts (great for a Valentine's Day gift), words, just random tape strips or no tape at all.

 

 

Discount School Supply    Discount School Supply is where I get most of my art supplies

 

Paint                 Smocks

 

Michael's

 

Canvas                 Paint