Teen Room Makeover

Too bad I didn't take before pictures, but picture this...an all white room, a bulletin board and a bunch of pictures, drawings, etc. all over the closet door.  Oh yes, and also a few marks on the walls from the previous owners from moving out their furniture and of course black mascara all over the floor from her littlest sister giving herself a "makeover".  Hailee had been complaining since we moved in that she didn't like her room because it was so boring.  Wow, how do you have a boring room with all the things kids have these days? Seriously!  When I was a teen, all I needed was a radio, a big mirror, a brush to sing in, add in makeup (fragile pink lipstick), nail polish (blue was big back then) and I was the star of my room!

I waited until a weekend she was gone, and transformed her room.  I had planned to makeover Hailee and Felicity's rooms but that ended up being more than I could tackle in one weekend. The first item I transformed was her trash can.   Add

some fake flowers...

...hot glue, and tada!  My inspiration for this came from her cousin Cate's lampshade which is covered in white roses.  For a teen room I thought she would like the splash of color.  The flowers ended up costing $7 and the trash can, which she already had, was $4. Not bad!

I used magnetic paint (where the rectangle is) and then painted over the rest of the wall a lilac and added deep purple trimmings.  At one point she said she wanted the whole room a deep purple, but hey, this is a surprise which means I get to choose :)  I found some magnetic letters and put them up which I know border lined on too young but I knew she would secretly like them and made sure to get two packs so she could spell her name with both e's.  She already had the lamp, and I used the colors in the lamp as a guide for the colors in her room. You can also see the deep purple rug which I think adds a nice accent!

I took all the "stuff" off her closet door 

and added dragonfly mirror accents. :)

She already had this comforter, we got it few weeks earlier, which she picked out herself.  I can't believe how well the paint matched the comforter, and this was just by chance.  I picked these colors because I liked them...I guess she did too!  I found the wall stickers at Target, it isn't as easy as it looks, they stick to the wall...and themselves, but it still turned out cute!  I kept the pink polk-a-dot curtains because she needed some pink to tie to the lamp...and I love polk-a-dots!

I also painted a whiteboard for her. You can tell that these pictures were taken after she saw the room and...she obviously loved the whiteboard!

When Hailee saw her room she: screamed, jumped up and down and cried!  

She was so happy and surprised. She loves her new fun and unboring room!

(I will just love it if she keeps it clean!)

They made it look so easy!

After living in our house for a little over 2 years, everyone's room is finally decorated and painted just like I like with the exception of one...Felicity's room.  Since it's the last room to do, I want to take my time and make sure that it is really awesome, since she had to wait the longest.  So I've been "out there" looking for cute and fun ideas.

I found this cute idea for a rug, using recycled t-shirts and a hula hoop for a frame.  What a fun idea and we love to recycle, so it's perfect.

Although hula-hooping is a dying sport, the girls have multiple hula hoops and are actually, very good at it (See link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-d_CqClsRA&feature=feedu  Aubree and Hailee Hula Hooping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_pHhBAEpks&feature=feedu Felicity and JQ Hula Hooping

I found the biggest hula hoop my fourdarlingdaughters had, there was a bonus, it lights up too.  Fun!

Felicity doesn't look that thrilled, but she didn't have the vision yet.

Basically, you cut the t-shirts into strips and loop them around the hula hoop.  You need 12 strips for the weave part and two of them you push together so that you have an odd amount (or the weave won't work)

This is the first piece we will actually weaved in.  You can see the other "projects" we have going on at the same time.  Not because of our issues with our attention span, but because when you say the word "project" Sadie knows where to go to get the beads, craft scissors and other project items from our project pasts!  We just let her go ahead and do that.

1. It's easier than arguing with a two year old.

2. She might actually come up with a creative idea :)

Here is Felicity, joining in on the fun.  She said it wasn't that she wasn't excited about our project earlier, she just wasn't picture ready. After a change of clothes and fixing her hair, she is ready to participate :)  

It's actually starting to look like something.  At this point Felicity is getting excited.  She is remembering the shirts that no longer fit her and thinks it's pretty cool that every time she looks at her new rug she will think of old times! The instructions said it would take 2 shirts, but then in the comments under the instructions it said 12 shirts.  It wasn't easy to come up with that many shirts, so we used some lounge pants and an old skirt too.

The instructions said to keep pushing down each layer and to keep the weaving tight.  I did that, in fact, I decided it wasn't tight enough at one point, that I unweaved half of the rug and wove it tighter.  I wanted it to be perfect!...and that was my downfall...

This is the "good" side!

 I think I made it too tight!  I would have been better off keeping it on the hula hoop, like everyone in the house thought I was going to do! I had to keep explaining, that that would be ridiculous to have to step over the hula hoop part of the rug.  So instead, this is what we get!

Sadie asked me what is was and I told her a bowl big enough for her.

Felicity, Sadie, Felicity (Sadie's baby) and Felicity's new "rug".

I might make this "rug" into a pouf, or start over, but I should probably keep the hula hoops in this house for its original purpose...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXCiz-hh4U Aubree trying to teach Sadie to hula hoop!

Pumpkin Bashing

Carving pumpkins is a pretty normal tradition in most families.  This year to mix things up, we decided to have a competition: parents vs. darling daughters.  Starting with picking out the pumpkins, choosing a design, carving and then final presentation.  The girls say that I'm the competitive one, but as soon as I mention the word competition, their eyes light up, their ears perk up, and you can see the wheels in their heads start to turn.

We tried to keep the our designs secret, but Ms. Smart A$$ubree said, "What are you guys going to do, a Chiefs arrowhead?" I said, it's going to be way more awesome than that...when she says, "What are you going to try to put a players head on a pumpkin...*my eyes shift sideways to make sure she didn't see our Matt Cassel head printed out on the counter*...because that is so old news, all over Twitter"

Well, since I was not feeling well, I showed mercy on them; we ended up carving...

a Chiefs Arrowhead and some pretty stuff on the side.  Dustin drew it, I was carving it, until I sliced my hand with the x-acto knife.  So I decided to spy on our competition. I was curious as to what they'd come up with since they were talking pretty big and bashing our pumpkin ideas...

Not bad and pretty creative! A three legged unicorn without a horn and toothpicks holding it together :)

It was getting pretty chilly, so I decided to warm up the house by roasting the pumpkin seeds.

Sadie wanted to help!

We took this ourselves using the self timer and the window sill. Not too bad for amateurs :)

Pumpkin Seeds

Fresh Pumpkin Seeds

Butter

Worcestershire Sauce

Sea Salt

Cook for 25 minutes

300 degree oven

As for the winner of the Pumpkin Carving contest, Aubree tally marked the positive comments from Trick-or-Treaters. 5 positive comments for the darling daughters/0 for parents. :)