My favorite project so far...

Tyler and I recently did something a little crazy, at least some of our family thought so. We sold our 3 year old Nebraska Furniture Mart bedroom set to redo our room. We bought the set when we lived in a larger duplex in Lawrence and it fit well there but was just a little too big for the bedroom in our house.   It fit but made the room seem small. So we sold it...for dirt cheap.

We then set out to find our new bedroom. The almost finished product is just what we wanted, fits our style perfectly and cost less then just the bed in our old set. Here's some pics of the almost finished product.

Please note that we still have some cosmetic stuff to do like new curtains and stuff on the walls. 

We found our dressers first. Which was a relief because we were sleeping with our mattress on the floor and our clothes all over it as well because we sold our set so fast. Sparks flea market, which I've told you about before had some fantastic options. 

Tyler's dresser had the "manly" touch he wanted. He's always said that our bedroom was sort of my thing. He helps me with pretty much all decorating but our bedroom is just a little more girly then other rooms. This dresser was a whole $65 and we just stripped it and added a coat of wax. 

My dresser was $45 and is actually a buffet. We pulled the color from our duvet and is a little more pink then I think Tyler thought it would be but it's perfect. And it's mine so that's all that matters. 

Got the idea off of pinterest of course. Paintable wallpaper (this does exist). This dresser took a nap and evening to finish. 

Next was a side table for me. I really wanted to stack suitcases so I went searching in the west bottoms one weekend and found them all. I need to get one more, probably red, to finish it off. Once we got rails for the bed it was just a tad too short. 

Now we just needed to find our perfect bed. We looked at Sparks and found plenty of iron ones we liked but they were all full beds and Tyler and I did that for our first year of marriage and refuse to go back to sleeping butt to butt. So then we thought we'd look for a mantle. We found one in the West Bottoms that was absolutely perfect and only $115. Pulling another idea from pinterest, we decided to mount it on the wall and make a tufted piece for the opening. Here was the process...

First, I painted the mantle white and put an antique glaze on top of that. Didn't get pictures of that process, sorry. Next we started the tufted part. This was a bit intimidating as neither of us have done a whole lot of upholstery and never tufted anything. We started using peg board so we wouldn't have to drill holes into the back. I then mapped out the pattern I wanted for the buttons.

The button kit I got was horrible and I had to modify how I did those but oh well, I've learned from this experience.

I cut the same pattern out of 2 inch foam. This was probably one of the more expensive parts of the project. Foam is pricey and I don't know why but we got ours at Joann's for 50% off. Score. 

Now we just had to attach the foam to the board and start tufting. I used a blog to help with this part. 

Once that was finished we just attached the tufted portion to the mantle and hung it on the wall...

So, at first glance, I was kinda worried. I thought it might have been just a bit too big but it's growing on me. It looks large but sits flat against the wall so it's not taking up any room. Our room still feels bigger after getting rid of our old bed. 

It's just what we wanted. I'll make sure to take a picture when the whole room is finished!!

What I do at the splash park...

Today I had my first experience "correcting" a child for the way that she was treating Adelaide. I'm pretty sure it hurt me more then it hurt the little girl I was correcting. Tyler and I have been talking a lot about dealing with these different experiences  a lot lately mostly because we've been having them so often. Usually good teaching experiences...just little kids asking questions which I absolutely love. I like when kids are bold enough to ask and not just stare or run away. We've been at the pool/splash park tons this summer and so we are around small children all the time. I'm getting used to that part, it doesn't really bother me anymore.

But today was more like alienation then curiosity. This little girl said she didn't want Adelaide around her after I had already explained to her and several other children why she was the way she was and that she was no different from them. It startled me at first. Adelaide has become a very social child. She loves to go where the kids are and play which you think would be a good thing, and it is sometimes and will probably be more so when she's older but right now, when she can't speak for herself, she goes up to kids and some of them run away. I kindly told the little girl that it wasn't a nice thing to say and it makes Adelaide sad when she's treated differently then other children. She is not different then her. She continues to play but I see it. I know that someday this will become easier too but these first experiences are really hard to swallow. It truly hurts to see your child treated like they have some kind of disease that might catch and is one of the hardest things I've had to deal with so far. I know that Adelaide might someday feel the way I do when I see kids act this way and it makes it all the harder. Even as I write this those feelings come back and just make me weep for those experiences that are to come. 

I pray for grace with these kids. Especially the ones that are old enough to know better. And also with their parents because I know that someday I'm going to have to ask a parent to correct their own child for harsh comments. You would be amazed at the some of the things we've watched that parents have done nothing to teach or correct (including a child that was definitely old enough to know better pointing right in front of Adelaide and yelling at his mother clear across the park to look at her. I was not near her at the time)  We get lots of advice that is very helpful to remember when going through things like this but I truly believe it's just going to take time and more trials to really be able to deal with them appropriately and have them not effect me so deeply. I need to thicken my skin so that I can help Adelaide thicken hers. I thank God that she is young and innocent for that very reason. 

This is a daily struggle for me and Tyler and will soon be one for Adelaide and I know that our constant prayer for grace towards others and a just plain good manners will be needed to get through it.  We have to admit, there are many times we'd just like to yell at some people or stare right back to give them a taste of their own medicine (adults included) but we'll refrain. I also pray for the friends that Adelaide will one day make, they will surely be incredible people.

 Moral of the story: teach your kids acceptance early so I don't have to. 

New family pic!