Record Display | Home Decor

I truly have a wonderfully talented Husband!

I need to share every last one of his projects/restorations because he is awesome at thinking up these things and then making them a reality.

A few weeks ago we picked up these old Disney record sleeves at a yard sale for $2 (they were just the sleeves, no records included).  I had an idea awhile ago to collect records for Claire's wall, but had never really pushed the idea because I had no idea how we would put them on the wall... frame?  ...shelf with ledge?? 

So when we found these, John was officially motivated to get something up on her HUGE green empty wall. 

Basically, he split a 2x4 and made a frame, then covered the frame with moulding! The record sleeves just lean up against the wall and could be rearranged if we wanted.

Claire's room has been a slow-to-come-together project.  As far as decor goes, that seems to be my MO... I don't like to commit to a decoration unless I LOVE it.  Until then, things are a bit of a hodge-podge. 

It's definitely getting to a point where her room makes me smile :-)

Baby Shower Pinwheels | Paper Crafting

My crafting life has been on hold awhile, it's a little bit sad.  I LOVE to be creative, but as is life, I have been preoccupied with other ventures. 

I was super excited to throw a little shower for a friend a few weeks ago.   She will be welcoming her thrid little one, her first BOY so I fel the occasion deserved a little celebration.  I took a few photos I might add later of the decor (I did a retro-book, ABC theme) but I wanted to share these sweet little pinwheels I made.  

I found the best way to make these is two (12 x 2.5 inch) strips of scored paper attached, folded into an accordian.  Then use hot glue to atttach circles in the middle on both sides.  Other adhesive worked at first, but by the morning they had come apart and I had to use some hot glue. 

Until next time...:-)

Organization: Kids Toy Bin Labels

This summer we made some big strides as far as the organization goes in our house. 

Claire's room has been an orgizational nightmare for awhile.  She is just at an age where she does enjoy playing with most everything she has and it doesn't seem to matter how much effort she puts into keeping things picked up and sorted... the toys always end up in a big pile. There just wasn't a place for everything.  Not good. 

So, I found this shelving and canvas bin system at Costco and thought I would give it a try.  Once I put the shelf together, Claire and I went through her toys with a 'Less is More' mentality and really tried to reduce the toys she wanted to keep.  I felt that including her in the process helped her understand that we just don't have room in our home to fit EVERYTHING, and that when we only keep what we love it is much easier to find the toys we want to play with.  (Ok, so I would like to think that is what she learned... but if nothing else she did not get upset that we sold or donated many of her old toys and stuffed animals.)

We ended up with seven categories for our eight bins and I headed online to find some ideas for cute labels.  While there were plenty of cute kid's toy bin labels available, I just didn't find any that really fit my style or the color scheme for Claire's room.  I also wanted to make sure the labels included pictures for my pre-schooler who can not read yet. 

Here is what I came up with ... colorful and organized labels, printed at Costco as 4x6 matte finish prints for $0.13 each - actually they were printed two-to-a-print, so 6.5 cents each!