Landon's Room Make Over

You may remember back in August Zane and I made over his bedroom into a soccer themed room (per his requests).  In that same post - I said to stay tuned for Landon's room make over.  Here we are 6 mos later and his room is finally done!  Poor second child! Thankfully he could care less and didn't even realize his brother got a new room and he didn't!

Zane & Landon have been at their grandparents since Wednesday due to mid-winter break; so I thought this would be the perfect time to make over his room.  This way, it could be uninterupted and a surprise for when he gets back tonight.  I've talked about it for a couple weeks, but I don't think he gets what I mean - so it'll be fun to see his reaction tonight.  JoAnn if you're reading this - do not show Landon this blog post before I pick him up today :)

I had so much fun doing this!  I really wanted and needed to do this on a budget.  Other than a few pieces of wood - I didn't buy anything.  I made it all or re-purposed things we already had (frames etc).

Here is/was his room BEFORE:

Now without further a-do (no idea how to spell that or even if it's a word) - the AFTER:

I made the C car T truck photos on Photoshop and had them printed at Costco.  I also made the road L on Photoshop and had printed at Costco.  I framed all 3 photos in frames I already had around the house.  Then I glued cars onto the glass of the "L road" frame.  Hot glue would not keep the cars on, so I had to use a super glue type glue...this frame will have to be trashed after he's done with it, but that's ok - it has had many good years in our home and hopefully many more in his room! 

Thankfully my husband is a license plate hoarder!  He has TONS of them - and thankfully he shared them with me.  I knew I wanted to use some in Landon's room, but wasn't sure how without making a ton of holes in the wall.  So thanks to a little search on Google (Pinterest was no help actually this time) - I found the plans on how to make a little wooden frame (not pictured, forgot to take one) and then I screwed the plates ontot he frame and just hung the frame.  I went to Home Depot to get the wood and totally misread the labels - I was so mad.  I thought they were $.99 per board (it was like a molding type board) and so I cut them to the sizes I needed at the store with their handy saw - got up to pay for them and apparently, they were $.99/per linier foot - oops.  So my $2 project ended up being $25, dammit.  Oh well, live and learn.  I was having some trouble with this project and almost just gave up on it - then I remembered how much I paid for the wood and knew Josh would kill me when he found out - so I knew I couldn't admit defeat and had to persevere - so I did and I'm so glad I did.  In the end, I think it was worth the accidental $25 - you agree, right Josh?  Love you!!!

Josh got the poster in the frame at some car event he went too - I just cut it down a little and framed it with a frame we already had in the house - looks so much better than just a poster taped to the wall.  I'm not a fan of anything taped to the wall - so this made me happy!  Everything else on the dresser were things we already had around the house or garage!

I found something similar to this stop light on Pinterest, so decided to have my own take on it.  This was super easy and free!  I already had the canvas', so painted them black.  I already had the vinyl, so cut each color into a circle and stuck it onto the canvas and voila!

I'm so happy with this room - I may just have to sleep in it myself!

Decorating

I LOVE Christmas time & I LOVE decorating for it!  It is definitely my favorite time of the year!

Pretty much in love with the wreath I made - so simple, yet so perfect :)

As per any normal 3 year old...all 100 ornaments must go on one branch :)
Thankfully he didn't notice when I moved them every time he put one on!

He's a LITTLE excited for Christmas this year!  Every year it just gets better and better!

Introducing Clark Griswald Alexander :)

Ok - not quite Clark, but still pretty in my opinion!

 This is a new place for our tree this year and I love it.  But because it's not squished between two big chairs like usual, it looks so small.  I think I'll be on the hunt for a bigger tree during the after Christmas sales this year!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's Signs...

Thanks to Pinterest and a wild hair, I decided to DIY a couple new signs for the house!  One for our new picture wall when I find the time to tackle that and the other for Christmas decoration!  I'm SO happy with how they turned out!  I thought I'd post a little step by step in case anyone was interested! And if not...then just scroll down to the bottom for the final result!  Oh and don't bother telling me if you hate it!

First I bought some wood at Home Depot (1x3's) and had them cut it into the sizes I wanted for each sign.  Then I used some wood glue to glue the wood strips together.

I then took some strong(er) left over upholstery fabric I had and stapled strips on to the back of each sign to help make them a little sturdier.  You could do this with thin wood strips too, but I didn't have any.

Next I sanded and then stained the wood.  This was tough...picking out a color!  I grabbed two because I couldn't decide between them.  I then tested them on two scrap pieces and picked the one I liked best...dark walnut.

I didn't take a photo of this part but next I cut stencils out with the words I wanted on each sign. These were cut out using my Cricut. I couldn't live without this wonderful little machine (thank you JoAnn for that great gift almost 4 years ago)!


I then placed the stencils onto where I wanted them to go on the wood and prayed they were straight and actually where I wanted them.  Success!

 

Next, I painted them!  The vinyl didn't stick as well to the wood as I was hoping it would, so I had to be very careful to not have any paint seep under.  I was pretty successful.

I sanded them a little after the paint dried to give it a little more of a rustic flare!

Ta-da!!!

Lets'a Make'a Pizza - {7th Birthday Party}

Mr. Zane turns seven on Friday and to celebrate we had his friends over for a party this past Saturday. This was the first year that he has had a total "drop off party" - it's the thing to do now that you're {almost} 7 I guess! No adults allowed aside from his own parents (someone needs to supervise this hoodlums)!  More kiddos RSVP'd with a yes than I had anticipated would - but that's ok, they were a good group of friends.

The theme of this year's party was "Pizza Chef", so each kiddo received their own apron, chef hat and pizza making supplies!  We decided to turn the garage into the pizzeria since there's more room and we weren't as concerned about a mess happening out there!  Josh set up the projector and screen and had the Lego movie playing while they made their pizzas and devoured them - great plan daddy! Kept them in their seats and calm for the most part (actually, completely zoned out)!

As per the usual with my kids' parties, we pick the theme at least 4 mos ahead of time, so I have time to go overboard as Josh would call it...I call it, crafting, diy'ing and having fun!  I love this stuff and thankfully Zane likes it too!  He likes to give me ideas and help execute them.

The crafting/diy'ing goods:

Activity "place" mats.

Favor Boxes

Inside of the favor boxes (the favors, haha).

Photobooth props...

The "Pizzeria" & Photobooth:

The Pizza Makin':

Zane has had the biggest crush on this girl since K - he was SO HAPPY
when she came to his party!  She could only stay an hour due to a soccer game, but he didn't care!

Zoned out to the Lego Movie!

Cupcake Eatin' Time:

Little embarrassed when being sung too!

Pinata Time:

The Pizza Makin' Crew:

Twister:

The Birthday Boy:

I.cannot.believe my first born is almost 7 - seriously...where has the time gone!  I could go on and on about this kid and I will...but I'll save that for his actual Birthday post!  For now, just know he is the light of my life and I am absolutely blessed to have him as my son.

One party down...one more to go...