Parking Garage

Liam is interested in cars. Very interested in cars. I would estimate that on any given day we spend an average of about an hour driving cars around various places. The cars can't just drive up and down in lines though, they have to drive in things, down things, under things and on top of things. So when he started using the fisher price house and school as parking garages I knew we needed something for the guy and his cars.

I had my eye on this vintage playskool parking garage, but know that my chances of ever coming across it are very slim.


Thankfully it looks simple enough and with Jake's help, a DIY version was born.


I opted to not add the railing on top at this point, because it also doubles as a step stool in Liam's mind, and its really not all that bad when his car's "crash" off the roof of the garage.


I also opted not to paint it, as I really like the natural wood look. Other than a few parking spots it is still all the natural wood.

Now I am trying to come up with some complimentary pieces to add to Liam's city, because I have to admit, I had fun putting this one together! I can say that because I roped Jake into cutting the angles for the ramp, and attaching it. Not something I could have easily figured out, if at all...Thanks Jake!

Glider Makeover

Only 8 weeks left until we get to meet this little baby! Or more, Liam was a week late, so I am sort of counting on this one taking its time as well. I figure that way when the due date passes by I won't be quite as disappointed as I was last time. Nesting has kicked into full gear now though! I made myself wait until after the holidays were finished until I really got going on baby stuff, and since then I have been keeping pretty busy in the sewing room.

Jake and I have decided to keep the gender a secret so I won't be posting much baby things on here until he or she is born, but there are a few gender neutral things that I have been working on that I can share, one being the glider!

Here is what it looked like before, nice, but a little stained:

And here is what it looks like after two evenings of me sewing:


I am rather obsessed with gray these days, so I decided to do the glider that way. I do like the look of the cable knit, and no I didn't knit at all for this project, my oma tried teaching me many years ago and it was hopeless. I picked up a blanket from Superstore that I used, and the hardest part was working with the knit as it liked to stretch. This chair will be in our master bedroom for a while as that is where the baby will be, so I wanted it to fit in, and I think it does a pretty good job of that.

Liam's Teepee

Like most children, Liam loves to play hide and seek, and fit himself into small spaces in closets or behind curtains. So I FINALLY made him something that he is very excited about! He calls it his "tent" and likes to play cars in it, or just hide and have me "try" to find him.



I got the pattern here, but made mine smaller as I used some fabric I had from Ikea sitting around, and not a bed sheet like the pattern calls for.




The pattern was great, and easy to follow. It helps to have something long to measure with, as that was the trickiest part of the whole pattern.




The beautiful thing is that when the teepee is not in use it can fold up pretty small and be tucked away!



Pretty good, and this project in total only cost around $15, depending on what materials you end up using! Well worth it if you ask me.

Playroom

Another room finished! This one is an area in the basement leading to the third bedroom (in the process of becoming my sewing room/Jake's office) and the laundry area. We decided it would make a great playroom for Liam.

Originally I wanted to do it all white, floors included. I am in love with the European designed white rooms. It turned out to be a little tough to do white flooring, as we would have had to paint a wood floor, and in the end would have been a little more work that we were up for at the time. We ended up doing the same flooring as the upstairs, and I do like the effect.



I found these baskets at Zellers to hold some of the smaller toys, but they didn't have a liner in them. These wouldn't have been too bad to make had I not wanted to save fabric and do just the band with the coloured fabric. They turned out, just don't look too closely :)



I love all this fabric, but the "Jacob Loves You" pillow is my favorite. It actually was a shirt that was given to me years ago, and I always wanted to make a pillow out of it. This was the perfect place for it!



And my favorite part of the whole room:


The pallet bed inspiration came from here, and the alphabet wall from here.

Toddler Backpack

I've been wanting a toddler sized backpack for Liam, but was unable to find any the right size, for the right price; or at least ones that I also liked the look of. Until I came across this pattern here.

This project was definitely my most difficult sewing project I have done to this date, as I finally learned how to sew with piping! Prior to this I had a tendency of just writing off any patterns with piping as being too difficult. I'm not going to lie, there were a few tense moments, but in the end I am pretty happy with how it looks! The tutorial was great, with good pictures and lots of detail, just what I needed. The backpack is not perfect, but Liam really doesn't care. Actually he doesn't really care much about the backpack at all yet, but once he realizes that he can use it to bring some of his much loved cars and trucks with him places I am sure he will warm up to it. I hope.



He's not really into posing with things that I make for him these days, I never did get a good picture of him in his owl costume, but here are some pictures to show the size of the bag:

Memory

This project has been in the works for a while, not because its overly complicated, but because I have been working on it little by little. Its finally done!

I hate to admit it, but it was inspired by an iphone app. I have a few for Liam to play when were grocery shopping, or I need a few more minutes of sleep in the morning. One of his favorites is a memory game, so I took some pictures of a few of his favorite things, and put it together. He's not quite at the point where he keeps them in neat rows, but his new favoite thing is "counting" to two, so he really likes finding two of the same picture and putting them together. He's happy, and I am happy with how they turned out as well, considering how simple they were to make!

Family Room

There are so many talented people that I get countless ideas and inspiration from. I have a long list of blogs that I check on a pretty regular basis and they never cease to amaze me with their creative ideas and great photography. On the top of my list would have to be the incredibly talented Ashley Ann with her blog "Under the Sycamore Tree" I love what she did for her daughter's nursery, and pretty much everything else she has done. Not only is she very creative, but she has amazing ideas of things to do with your children, and unique ways of explaining concepts to them so that they understand. I won't go on and on, because I just cant do it justice, but go check out her blog if you are interested.

All that to say that my most recent project was inspired by one of hers, you'll have to check it out here: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/12/24/merry-christmas-our-cards/

And here is my version of the chalkboard frame:


Right now I have pictures of our summer memories on it, but it is so easy to switch up, and have new art in your family room. All you have to do is put up new pictures, and write whatever you want on the board with chalk. Mine is a little smaller than her's, and in my opinion not quite as awesome, but I am really happy with it! So with that project finished my Family Room is now complete.

Here is the before pictures:


Basically we did a facelift to the room. New flooring, paint, trim, lights (there were none before) and tile on the fireplace hearth. Here are the after shots:


The paint looks pretty blue in these shots, but in reality its a little more gray. My favorite feature is the fireplace. I love how it looks, we wanted to stay true to the style of the 60's rancher, but just make it a little more modern.