Monday, February 27, 2012

Biker Babe

In the Powell house, when you turn 5, you go through a very important rite of passage...

Daddy removes your training wheels.


Last month, the day before her 5th birthday, Melody learned how to ride a two-wheeler.

 
This is about 5 minutes after she learned.

And this is her just a few weeks later!

She's definitely growing up.


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Glasses

As if it wasn't hard enough on my sappy heart when she turned 5...

she had to go and get glasses and look even older!

Melody picked out her glasses herself.  She chose the ones with the Princess Jasmine charm on them.  Shocker, I know.  The glasses case is fashioned like a purse with a little jewel clasp. She is in full glasses-heaven.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Extreme Closet Makeover

Anyone who knows me, knows I can be a little obsessive when it comes to cleanliness and organizing.  (Alright, Lauren, I see you rolling your eyes. Ok, fine. A lot obsessive.)

Lately, I've been having issues with my boys' closets staying organized and just all around neat looking.

So, I decided to do a closet makeover...

Both their closets have sliding doors and essentially take up a whole wall in their not-too-large-rooms.
Here is a "before" shot of Charlie's closet.  Clothes, toys, random stuff up on the shelves, etc.


I decided to remove the doors and utilize the closet space as a play/reading area.  It worked great and added substancial space to their bedrooms.

This is what Charlie's room looked like after I took the doors off (which was surprisingly easy) and took everything out of the closet.


The "after" shot:
It's a little hard to tell, but I painted both closets the same color as the walls.  Both boys have a light blue in their room (SW Icicle).  With the doors removed, there's not only space to play in the closet, but all the space the open doors used to take up.
I used canvas bins on the top self to hold out-of-season or not-yet-grown-into clothes and any other miscellaneous items.
Charlie's room theme is airplanes.  I decided the carry a "sky" theme into the closet and got some glow-in-the-dark space wallies to compliment the airplane theme.  (You can see them if you look closely.)  Charlie LOVED how his room "glowed" last night when he went to bed.


Jacks' room is pretty much the same layout as Charlie's room.  I was too lazy to walk downstairs to get my camera to take a "before" shot.
In Jack's room, I used half the closet to hold his dresser and hang his clothes. The other half, I designed as a reading nook (his bookcase is right outside the closet).  Jack asked for Transformer (his latest obsession) wallies and decorated the inside of the closet himself.



I am so happy I did this! I think it turned out great.  The boys have more room in their bedrooms now and I feel like their closets are better organized and have more functionality.  All in all it was an easy and super-cheap project.  It only took a few hours (including drying time between coats) to paint.  Since I painted the closet the same color as their rooms, I used paint I already had.  So, the only expense I really incurred was the storage bins.

I did initially consider painting the closets a different shade of blue or another color all together.  However, since one of my goals was to make the room seem larger, I opted to streamline and use the same color.  Since this color is so light to, needing to repaint in the event of a move, etc, there's really no need to repaint.

And, yes, now Melody wants her closet done as well.  Of course.  Her room is quite large and so is her closet, so I think that's going to have to wait for now!






Thursday, February 2, 2012

If tanning beds existed...

back in Sleeping Beauty's day, this is what she would look like:


Yes, Princess Aurora came to Melody's birthday party.  Melody was almost as speechless as she was the first time she met Aurora but was able to regain her composure and had a blast at her Princess Pajama Party!

They painted faces...compelete with pixie dust, a special gift from Tinkerbell




They had cupcakes




and played games.  Not to mention that Princess Aurora did an AMAZING job of asnwering endless questions about all the other princesses.  She ovbiously knows them well.


and every party-goer left with a pillow-pet to snuggle with!  (The little brother stayed.)


What more could a princess ask for!