A Princess Bed and NO MORE BINKIES!

Here is Olivia's room makeover! She loves her new "princess bed" and reading corner. The bed is the Kura reversible bed from IKEA. I covered the bright blue panels in a green patterned fabric using a spray adhesive. I hung a shower curtain (haven't ironed or hemmed it yet as you can see) from a shower curtain rod. Olivia loves the privacy it gives her, she has already spent hours playing with her princesses and reading in there. Originally I was hoping to use it as a loft bed and create a little fort underneath with her favorite toys, but she's just too young yet - maybe in another couple years. Aaron did an amazing job putting it together for me, and did it even while he was sick! Such a handy man. I love the pink and green everywhere, it really is "Olivia". 

Even before her princess bed, these items always have to be on her bed (her crib turned toddler bed was getting quite crowded): pillows, Dumbo, Big Bear, Pooh, Kanga, Roo and baby Dumbo - who has recently gotten lost! We've been on the search for days now. Olivia picked out her new bedding from Target - she was torn between the owl bedding and the bug bedding at first, but after some quick deliberation she chose bugs. Fitting since she's our little Bug.

Here's a closeup of the letters and panels. I am amazed how perfectly they work in this little space. Livi's Nana Erickson and her Erickson aunties made them for her - darling!!! I just can't decide how to mount them (yeah, they are just sitting there, not secured at all). I'm thinking glue dots or foam adhesive tape? We'll be flipping her bed over (to make it a loft bed) in a couple years, and when we do, I'll have to move the letters...trying not to pull up the fabric underneath. Dilemma. 

This is the wall in her doorway. The temple photo is an idea I borrowed from Deseret Book - it's of the LA Temple. The  subway art below I created on PicMonkey, mod podged to a white spray painted wood plaque and then hung! I also made another one with Livi's birth stats the same way.

This is the wall to the left as you enter her room. I have a darling coat stand we've been using, but I needed to free up the entry floor space. I found the cute flip flops coat rack at Ross for $3, score. I had planned to make a bulletin board similar to the one hanging above it, but found this one at Target for $6 and couldn't resist the timesaver it was (plus I probably would have spent more to make one). Because baby boy will be joining us in May, the crib is staying in the room. 

Livi's reading corner. I had imagined a big corner full of fluffy pillows and tons of books - but given her smaller room, giant slide (that she plays on EVERY day or I'd take it out), and the fact her room will soon house 2,  I opted for a smaller corner. This is just right for her. The racks are the spice racks from IKEA. I bought them months ago planning to paint them and possibly add a fabric front...well, you can see how on top of things I've been. Nothing's happened to them. They've sat in a corner collecting dust; so I opted to just put them up and get some use out of them! Someday I'll paint them...when they need a face lift after years of book use.

Here's the little shelf I hung (also from IKEA, notice a theme?). I took this picture not because of my stellar decorating job on it (I'm still going to be moving things around) but so you can see the other subway art I created for Livi. I can't wait to create one for our little guy in May!

This was going to be the big reading corner, but it is the "big toys" corner: slide, rocking horse, toy box, blocks, kitchen and dollhouse. Olivia plays with almost every toy everyday, so it's easiest to just keep them all out and accessible, even if it isn't "pretty". When baby boy arrives, I'll look into decorating his wall with some cute boy vinyl decals or something. White blank walls are pretty lame.

So here's the second half to this post: NO MORE BINKY!!! Yes, I've known for months that it was time to give it up, but the thought of the withdrawal process just made me ill. I was dealing with being sick during my first trimester, and then there was a trip to Livermore for Thanksgiving and another trip to Utah for Christmas...so I kept putting it off. I decided I wanted to enjoy my holidays. But the holidays have come and gone, it was time to get down to business. Wow. I have been amazed how simple it's been with the "fun princess" changes in her room and an amazing gift from Lala and Papa Phelps (a Christmas gift that I set aside just for this occasion). We've been talking about how binkies are for babies and how Livi is such a big girl for a few days now. I told her that when her princess bed was all done, we were going to have a "happy to you" (her way of saying party and present) to say goodbye to her binkies. Tonight was the night. Only with Aaron's help did I get the spice racks hung for her reading corner - the last touch for now in her room. She loves her new room, so after playing in it for awhile I brought in her gift and we had another mini "no more binkies" talk and then put her binkies in a box for Mommy to put away. She didn't even seem sad; she was far too focused on her big gift I think. The photo above is when she saw what was inside the bag, she gasped with excitement and then said "WOW!".  We pretended we were princesses for the balance of the evening, and there wasn't another word said about binkies.
Enjoy the video...

I said "smile like a princess!" and this was the cheeseball face I got instead. Silly girl. You'll notice that after opening her gift she had to put on her princess skirt over her jammies and wear her princess crown.

Can she get any cuter? Seriously?! I love this little princess, and I love that she's all girl.

She loves twirling in front of the mirror while singing "I know..." (the song from Sleeping Beauty, except the only words she knows are "I know", so she just sings them over and over again). 

She is one silly girl. She wanted me to take her picture with her crown this way but refused to smile.

And here's my little princess. 2 years old and 3 months - binky free and all princess'd out!

Who knew toilets could vomit?

Excuse the crude title, but it is the best way to describe our morning.

It started out like any normal morning - we got up, got Livi, opened all the windows and used the restroom.

But it was not going to be a normal toilet flushing - oh no. As soon as I released the flusher, I knew there was a problem, the water level was rising rather than falling! Seconds later we had water spewing out everywhere. Seriously, within seconds our bathroom floor was flooded! I had no clue what to do but freak out and try to grab as many towels as possible from around the house (you'd think we'd have a plunger - um, no). Thankfully Aaron is a little smarter than I am - he came to the rescue and I think turned the water off. All I know, it finally stopped. But the damage had been done. 10 towels. It took 10 huge bath towels to semi-contain the flooding. We did save the carpet, thank heavens. Our manager and maintenance man came to our rescue, and we learned that our toilet takes the brunt of all the flushing since we're on the bottom floor. Poor toilet - it was ill, who can blame it for vomiting? :)

Needless to say, I knew what I'd be doing during Liv's nap. Scrubbing!

Deck the Halls

I'll start with this disclaimer - photos are taken with my phone because I can't find our battery charger for our camera, and even if I did - the focus on our camera isn't working. Lovely. 

I absolutely love the holidays. And I love decorating for Christmas - creating that atmosphere of the Christmas spirit. I found it a little more challenging this year in a smaller apartment, but nevertheless our home has been "Christmasified". :) In addition to what you'll see in photos...I have a beautiful wreath on my front door compliments of Costco (too dark to take a photo now), several candy dishes, a cookie jar, and windows that I have yet to decorate with lights and garland. 


I've also included a couple photos of my more recent projects for our apartment too.

I also have this garland hanging on our patio. At night it's quite pretty all lit up with white lights. Tried taking a photo at night, but it doesn't turn out with my phone.

I'm teaching Livi how to be "nice" to the tree and ornaments. This is her kissing the ornament. I suppose that constitutes as "nice."

This mirror I've had a for a few years...it used to have a brown frame, I painted it white.

My friend DeEtte had this clock in her home. I fell in love with it. From CB2. The pendulum comes red, I painted it blue to go with my accent colors in the room.

Now that I think of it, probably should have opened the doors so you could see better! This is my hutch (that one day I'll paint and distress). Cute little nativity, Christmas dishes and boxes.

This is the Santa that my mom gave to my Grandma Helen, and now it's been passed on to me. Darling. The snowmen  hold candles and spell "JOY", they are my Lisa reminder (she gave them to me a couple years ago).

The hutch.

My bookcase: Shelves are lined with Christmas books - I didn't realize how many I have! I read them to Livi. The little tree is "Livi's tree", she redecorates it every hour. We originally had the backing on this Target bookcase, but it looked too heavy on the wall, so we (well, "we" meaning Aaron) took it off again.

These fill one of my entry walls. I love IKEA frames  and I love these portraits of Olivia. I also love my husband who measured and hung them perfectly for me.

These little shelves are in a nook in my entryway. 19 days and counting.

                                  

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. :) Here's our little Christmas corner. I love that we have a fireplace to hang our stockings from this year. I can't wait to put presents under the tree ... although I may wait until Christmas Eve to avoid Liv unwrapping them early. :)

Still unpacking...

This is a venting post.
Yes, I know that we've only been here a month and a half...but feeling still
half unpacked is driving me crazy. I have "decked the halls" so to speak,
with the exception of our Christmas tree that we'll put up tomorrow - and
so thankfully, we do feel the Christmas spirit. That being said, today we
decided to take advantage of a day at home with Aaron by going through
some of the "stuff" in our bedroom. We worked through Livi's nap and
even 2 hours afterwards, and we STILL have more to do! There are now
piles of this and that around the house. And I have no energy at the end
of a long day (and a long grocery run late tonight) to make it all pretty
again for Sunday. Sigh. We are super excited to have the Utah Ericksons
come visit the 26th - and that gives me a deadline to get things done. I'm
thinking I may need to send Liv to work with Aaron one of these days
so I can get it all done in a day. Wouldn't that be nice? :)

Home Sweet Home-to-be!

We finally signed our lease for our apartment this last week!

This is the apartment Livi and I flew down to LA to see. I absolutely loved the complex, the managers, and the floorplan. I didn't get to see the actual apartment we'll be moving into as the current tenant is still there. However, the landlord is revamping the entire unit because the tenant has lived there for 15 years. I even get to pick out the carpet, linoleum and wall color!

It's a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment, washer and dryer in the unit, fireplace, balcony, good sized bedrooms (the master bedroom has a cool hallway with linen closet, closet, and bathroom), and gas stove. :) It hits all of my wishlist items, with the exception of being beach view property...lol. The complex itself is well protected (gated parking and keypad entry). There are other young couples with kids just like us, so the culture is a great fit. The managers are awesome (our age) and are in our ward.

We feel so blessed. After much prayer, we know that Heavenly Father is watching out for us.

Here are a couple photos of an apartment with the same layout. We move in October 15th!!! Can't wait...my decorative juices are already flowing...

Here is our complex! 

This is the living/family room...yes, complete with fireplace and balcony.

Here is the view from the kitchen looking into the apartment.

This is the courtyard in the middle of the complex.

Here's the nifty water feature...too bad it's not for swimming. :)