Lucky's Closet: Take 2

Here's the story of Lucky's closet.  Once upon a time, we bought a foreclosed home.  It was a nice home overall, but it was missing something very, very important: closet shelving and/or hanging racks.  This was Lucky's closet last July:

We were working with a rolling rack and a rubbermaid container, essentially.  (The mini blue dresser was full of Pull Ups and outgrown clothing.)  This was actually the best closet in the entire house because it had the only rolling rack we owned in it.

Then we had Harmony shelving installed mid-July 2010:

After awhile, we got around to redecorating Lucky's room, and the closet got really messy with decorating cast offs and assorted other stuff.  It looked like I posted here:

Then, I spent an afternoon cleaning it up and moving around the adjustable shelving, and now it looks like this:

The silver bins just below the pink striped Itso bins in this picture were borrowed from Charm's Room.  He didn't mind sharing.

Her clothing is arranged rainbow style with short sleeve tops first, then dresses, then long sleeve tops.

The clothing hanging on the upper hanging rack (and out of Lucky's reach) are clearance finds that are too big for Lucky currently.

 Lucky loves playing with her castle in her newly cleaned closet!

I picked up two of these white plastic baskets up from Walmart on clearance for $1.50 each.  The other was already in her closet.  The chalkboards are from Michael's and are $2.29 each regular price, but I used a 20% off coupon for the 5 slates in the closet, so they were $1.83 each.  I used a staple gun to attach twine to the back of them and then strung the twine through the holes in the basket.

2 more rubbermaid containers, 1 was purchased new from Walmart for $1.50, and the other was holding 'newborn gear' in our linen closet.  The red boxes are holding toys, and will be updated with photo labels in the near future.

I picked up these chalkboard tags from the dollar bin section at Michael's and used a 20% off coupon to get 4 for $0.80 each.  Here they are all packaged up:

The chalk I had on hand already from my Chalkboard Label Jars.

I used these Itso storage bins, that I picked up on clearance at Target a few weeks ago.  They were $2.32 each.  One of them will hold Lucky's outgrown clothing (which will then get transferred to Rubbermaid containers in the basement for now), one of them will hold Lucky's clean sheets and the other is storing blankets.

Closet Clean Up Cost Breakdown:

Walmart Rubbermaid Containers: $1.50 each x 3 = $4.50

Slate Chalkboards: $1.83 each x 5 = $9.15

Floral Mini Chalkboards: $0.80 each x 4 = $3.20

Pink Itso Bins: $2.32 each x 3 = $6.96

Grand Total: $23.81

The End.

Sunshine On My Mind

It's May, and this was our thermometer reading Sunday afternoon:

On Monday, I don't think we even reached 40 degrees.  I don't know why this is such a cold spring, but I'm really yearning for some warmth and sunshine.  When I think of the sun, I think of a yellow ball of energy, so it's fitting that yellow be the color for May.  (See this post and this post for March and April colors.)  Yellow is easily my favorite color.  Ironically, I don't have many yellow accents in my home....so this month will be a bit tricky.  I've decided to keep our family room mostly blue, but add in just a few yellow accents as well.  This will work especially well because May is a busy month with a garage sale and lots of projects lined up....at least they're lined up in my head anyway.  I've given myself a $30 budget, and I'll update with posts as yellow items are infused into the room.  We'll see how this goes:).

Here's the first project:

I took these items...

and made this!  It's the first blast of bold yellow to enter the room this month.

Do you see the feet on the couch?  I just want to tickle them whenever I see this picture!!



Materials and Cost:

Drum Lampshade: $4.98 Target Clearance

Old Brass Lamp: $3.50 at Goodwill (50% off)

Sun Yellow Spraypaint: $2.50

Total: $11



Lucky's Closet...

...is a mess.  It's a huge closet, and it's a mess.  A huge mess.  See:

It's one of my projects for today.  I'll post more tomorrow.

Calling all Puppeteers!

Until 2 weeks ago, we owned this puppet theater.  It was being stored in our attic while we finished our basement.  It is plastic and takes up too much space in our home.  I like the idea of having a puppet theater, but I didn't want this one.  I originally bought in on Craigslist for $25.  I listed it for $30 on Craigslist and sold it within 2 weeks for my full asking price.  Happy Day!  I decided to take the money I made on the sale of this guy and make a new puppet theater.  Any leftover funds go to Lucky's Room Fund.

Making Our New Puppet Theater:

 

Supplies:

• Fabric to fit a table (more on table below) $7.20 for 2 yards, but I only used half
• Heat n Bond (Sew-Free Fabric Adhesion) $2.09 with 40% off coupon at Joann's
• 3M Velcro (we ended up using 3M picture hangers because they are removable.  The item pictured above is permanent and we wanted the option to remove the velcro from the table in the future if we choose.)  We had the picture hanging strips on hand already, and I believe they are about $4 or so with a coupon.
• Kids Table like this one from IKEA.  We had this table in our playroom already:

It is our cash register table for our grocery store.

I measured the fabric to fit the table, and applied the Heat N Bond according to the directions, with an iron.  Next, we applied the 3M picture hanging strips to the table on each of the four legs like so:

We weren't sure if the picture hanging strips would stick and stay to the fabric, but we took the sticky backing off the back of the velcro hangers and pushed the fabric to the hangers so they'd adhere in the right positions.  We carefully removed the half of the picture hanging strip that was attached to the fabric and found that they held onto the fabric nicely.

 We hand-sewed the top of each of the hangers to the fabric like so, just in case.

I love the look of hand stitching.  We applied the fabric to the table after sewing the tops of the strips.

Let the Show Begin:

We set the puppet theater up in front of the kiddos theater we made earlier this year using a tension shower curtain and fabric that we turned into theater curtains using Heat N Bond.

Cost for the Project (Since we already owned the table):
Fabric: $3.60
Heat N Bond: $2.09
3M Picture Hanging Strips: $4 roughly (we already had these on hand too)

Total: $9.69

(Even including the cost of the table ($24), the overall project would be $34...still less than a brand new plastic puppet theater and you'd have a super versatile kids table for building blocks, drawing, grocery store check outs, etc.)

Our total cost of $10 (roughly) means $20 more goes to Lucky's Room Fund!  ($30 plastic theater sale price minus $10 replacement cost.)  I love that we used a table that we already owned, and that the table has many functions in the same room.  Some days the table will be our grocery store check out stand.  Some days it will be a puppet theater.  Some days it will be used for building blocks.  We can remove the fabric if we choose and easily store it when we aren't using the table as a theater. 

Keeping our kiddos environment fresh and exciting stimulates their learning and development.  I can't wait for today's show!

Weekend in Pictures

Another busy weekend best summed up in pictures:

Friday Night:

 Whip It. 
Funny Stuff.

Saturday:

Garage Organizing:

Sun Porch:

Garage Sale Pricing.  I can't wait to get this room back!

Craft Project #1:

Blue Chair:

Lucky's New Shirt Dress:

Charm's New Big Boy Bed:

We moved it into his room.  He's not sleeping in it yet, but we thought it'd be good for him to get used to it.

Menards:

Electric Knife and Orange Spray Paint...aren't you curious what these are for?

Sunday:

Wake Up:

I slept in until 10am on Saturday, which is ridiculously late for me.  Bill got up with Charm at 5:30am.  On Sunday, Lucky was the first up at 7:47am.  I danced my way out of the bedroom to greet her.  Getting up at 7:47am in our house is sleeping in.  I got to sleep in both days this weekend! (Bill did sleep past 10:30am on Sunday, so don't feel too bad for him:))

Breakfast:

Home baked (out of the package:)) cinnamon rolls and coffee.  Yummy way to start the day!

Artwork:

We were very crafty with the kids this weekend.  We did noodle art, watercoloring, and construction paper with tape projects. 

Walgreens:

It's hard to see in this picture, but Walgreens is awesome this week!  Follow the list from this post at Hip2Save for an easy shopping trip.

Items include: 3 hair care products, 2 Right Guard Deo, 2 packages of Cottonelle toilet paper, 5 packs of razors, 2 packs of Tylenol heat patches (like Thermacare), 4 packs of flossers and lots of Scotch Tape.

Total paid out of pocket: $19.41

Mail In Rebate earned for Renpure shampoo: $5.99
Total Register Rewards Earned that I still have for next week: $13

Total Savings Including Rebate: $105.64

Children's Museum:

Project #2:

Sunday Night Dessert: 

One mouth full of whip cream per kid.

What a perfect weekend!

U. S. A.

I'll never forget returning from a jog on the morning of September 11, 2001.  My roommate at UW-Madison told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC.  I called my parents back in Neenah to tell them to turn on the tv and then watched my television in shock before heading off to pharmacy school with a heavy heart. 

I was near tears last night when I called my parents to tell them to turn on the tv to catch the news if they hadn't heard about Bin Laden's demise already.  Finally, after 10 years, justice is serviced.  God Bless those brave soldiers and our entire military!