A Few Changes

I love looking at pictures from when I was a kid.  From the clothes we wore, the places we went, the houses we lived in, parties we attended and everything in between, I love to see what life was like "then".  Who knows, maybe my kids won't give a rip about the same stuff (especially since they're all boys) but just in case, I thought I'd share a few projects we took on this summer.

Project #1

The backyard project:  

OMG!  There are no words to describe my hatred for our backyard... at least how it used to be.  And..  I hate to admit that we've actually paid to have it re-landscaped once.  Yes, we paid to have it look that bad.  My exact words to "that" company was that if it could be picked up, thrown, kicked, or eaten, I didn't want it in the yard.  And this is what we got.  

Thorny rose bushes that are totally out of control, metal edging that sticks up about 4 inches, grass that is basically not even grass, and decomposed granite between those big flagstone rocks you see in front of the roses that never quuuiiiiiite packed down like they said it would.  So basically, nothing I asked for.  But, we've been dealing with it for the past year and were trying to come up with solutions.  

Again, a before pic... look at all those TINY rocks.  They were constantly e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e!!  As a bonus.. you get a picture of Jack at about 21 months ;)

 I realize it's hard to tell much of a difference, but here's the new and improved backyard!!  No thorny rose bushes, no huge holes, no stack of firewood behind the fireplace, no horrible metal edging...  much better.  

The pirate ship you see in the back along the fence is really a sand box without sand, but it now has a home off the porch.  Yea!!  

In the yard overhaul we also had 6 trees removed.  I'm never one to cut a tree down, but there were 19 in our backyard when we moved in!!!  There were just way too many for any of them to thrive.  

The thousands upon thousands of rocks have been replaced with mondo grass.  

Project #2

The playroom:  

When we moved in:  Drab.  Boring. Blah.   

more before pics

And AFTER!

I've always wanted a house full of built-ins :)

This was the picture from Pinterest I showed Lisa (the painter) so she'd have an idea of what we wanted on the wall opposite the stars.  

and this is what she painted... complete with 3D propeller!!  She is crazy talented!

Project #3

Jack's room:  

By the end of July, we were busy bees getting Jack's BIG BOY room put together.  Oh my goodness.  I've never had such fun researching ideas and pulling together such a fun project.  And, the theme was totally Jack's idea.  As I've mentioned before, he has a really strong love for Superman ;)

showing off his bare room with a few accessories I found

And then Lisa got busy with the mural!  She is amazing!!

See Lois Lane hanging from the helicopter in the picture below?  That was one of the details Jack wanted ;)

That dresser is actually what started it all....  I was going to paint it blue until Jack started calling it his Superman dresser.  I didn't really know what he meant by that and at the time I didn't even have a theme set for his new room.  But he already had a major fascination with Superman so my crazy mind starting spinning and this is what happened.  I do love that dresser ;)

Here are a few pictures of the painting process... 

I knew that "old school" classroom projector would come in handy one of these days!!

 

this cube system (repurposed from the playroom) holds his stash of big boy toys.

the Daily Planet... another of Jack's requests

 and we had to have the telephone booth painted on the closet door!!

I have to admit these mini pillows I found on Etsy are to die for, don't ya think?

I have a red coat hook-thingy to hang just below the metal Superman signs and then it'll be complete.

Ok.. this isn't really a project, but something new.  

We finally found a massive piece of furniture to go on this wall in the living room.  I always pictured some sort of gallery wall of art on that wall, but this is way better.  Plus, I have tons of diapers, wipes, shoes, toys, etc. stored in the bottom of that thing!  It's perfect since it's not far from the back door.  

Did I mention how BIG it is though??  Seriously... it's taller than the doorway arches ;/  Oops... who cares though.  I still dig it!

It was nearly impossible for me to get a good picture of this collage without the glare, but I'm totally digging it.  This was actually an idea given to me by Mary Carol Garrity, one of my favorite decorators of all time.  I called her store one day to ask a question and got to speak to her directly :D  We then scheduled a few follow-up design calls and this was one of her ideas.  These are huge 8x10 pictures in 11x14 frames... so it's a really big statement.