I shall call him Squishy.

I saw this project at least a year ago, probably more. I fell. in. love. I knew, one day, it would be mine. Well, Thursday was that day!! I have been had my eye out for a gumball machine for all this time, and last week there it was, at Goodwill!

I squealed with glee! (Really, I did. Out loud.) It didn't matter if it was $30, I was gonna get it. But it was only $10. Scha-wing!!

So this weekend, we welcomed Squishy to our family: He's a little shy. (He didn't realize a crazed bloggy woman was taking him home.) If you want to try this -- all you'll need for this project is the gumball machine, aquarium sealant and a cut piece of glass.

To start, take all the innards out of the gumball machine. This takes about ten seconds. Next, take the globe to a glass cutter to get a piece cut the size of the bottom. Mine was $3 and it took them five minutes:
Take the sealant (from any pet store, less than $5) and put a thick, chunky bead of it around the edge of the circle of glass, on top. Place it onto the bottom of the globe. Don't push too hard, so that the sealant all squishes out. You want there to be some between the two pieces of glass:

I was trying to make the bottom look at neat and clean, and they realized we'll never see the bottom with the marbles, so I just left it messy. I also took my (gloved) finger and spread it around the seam inside as well, to make sure the sealant was everywhere.

This is the view from the side (the aqua-colored piece around the bottom is what I glued on):

It has to dry for 48 hours, and then you can test it to make sure there are no leaks. After that, just fill with the fun stuff!

I used two packets of blue and green glass for $1.99 each, an a plant for $4:

I always wanted a fish for our son, and knew this was the only way to do it. With three cats in this house, fishy-fishy needs to be covered. Betta fish are different and can survive with less oxygen, and they tend to jump out of their homes (?!) so a cover is recommended.

This weekend we watched Finding Nemo, and it had me feeling major mommy-fish guilt about keeping this guy in a bowl. (Sheesh.) But it's one of my favorite kiddo movies, and the Squishy part is freaking hilarious, so I shall call him Squishy:

And over a gallon of water is better than the cup they have them in in the store, right? I saved him, he's not in captivity. :)Adorable. The pictures just don't do this justice. And the machine is a pretty deep red, not blaring orange red like in these I-took-these-pictures-at-night-and-they-always-look-like-crap pictures.

I am so excited for the winners of giveaway!! The winner of Beki's necklace is Beth Kohne and the winner of Bob's print is Molly from All about a girl and two boys. (Picked by Random.org.) Please e-mail me with your information and I'll get it to Beki and Bob!

P.S. Countdown to the NKOTB concert is ON BABY!!! WOOOeeee!!!

A playroom for the kids (that works for adults too!)

I know I've been talking about this space for a while, and today I realized I hadn't shown it to you yet! The playroom is our loft, and used to be just an adult space for watching TV, but we rarely used it for a number of reasons -- I'm not sure what those reasons are, but I'm sure there are a number of them. :)

We used to have our son's toys in the downstairs office, but it was starting to give me the shakes. The room was too small for all the toys, and with the addition of Thomas the Train and his one meeeellion accessories, it was just not working.

So one day, I was at my girlfriend's house, sitting in her loft while the kids played and it hit me like a ton of "DOY!" bricks -- why not make our loft the play room?

Ummm...I'm not sure why I didn't do this before. I absolutely, positively LUUUUURVE it!! I managed to add some kid fun while keeping it a space we love to hang out in too.

The large photo wall was already there, and it's one of two projects in this room I still want to redo. I love the wall, I'm just going to add more pics to the shelves soon:

The wall vinyl was from Uppercase Living, and it will frame out the new flat screen perfectly. (I act like we have said flat screen...we haven't bought it yet, but oh yes, it will be mine... (Am I the only woman who HATES tube TVs now? I feel like a man with my love of flat screens.)

This room has exactly one wall that is workable for any major furniture. And it's about twenty feet tall (hence the wall o' photos). We got the recliners for our wedding (thanks Grandma!!) and although any real designer would throw up a little in their mouth at the sight of them, they are soooo comfortable and we love them:

The train table was an absolute STEAL at Goodwill. (I'll share that with you at the par-tay!) I had it lengthwise against the window but the poor Bub could barely move around it to work his trains. ARGH -- dangit! Function over form in this room, begrudgingly.
The wall color is hard to work with, and as you can see there is MUCH of it. I was trying to pull in some fun, whimsical colors without it screaming THERE IS A KID HERE. I found the caaa-utest scrapbook paper at Home Depot and used it everywhere. I matted a bunch of photos:

The little container I showed you here.
This photo tray was a gift, and I had the photos-of-people-I-don't-know that came with it in there for about a year. Instead of spending the time to find pics, I just added some of the paper in the slots and spray painted the mat. I added some whimsy to the lamp with fun trim from Hob Lob for about a dollar:
One of my favorite parts of the whole room are the letters above the window. I got this idea from Kate when she did it above her window. I got wooden letters, painted the sides and covered the front with the paper. It's the first thing you see when you walk up the stairs. Love it!:

I repurposed some items in the room too -- the TV cabinet I painted black a couple weeks ago. (GRRR...that's an upcoming post.)

The art pad I took from the Bub's room (I showed it to you here first) and recovered the top:
The mirror was an extra -- I asked the builder not to install it in the powder room. They left it for us anyway and it was sitting in the mud room closet for five years. I hung it up just for fun:

Reason No. 513 why you should declutter -- I bought the hardware to hang the mirror, and wanted the flat brackets, but they were too expensive for what I wanted to spend. So I got the cheap ones, and manipulated the molding over them to frame out the mirror. So it bulges out over the brackets:

Last week while decluttering the basement, I found the perfect, flat brackets the builder left for us. Double GRRR.

I used fabric to try to lighten up the space as well. I showed you the drapes here:

The massive Thomas pillow is a family fave:

I showed you that and the plaid pillows here.

Storage is super fun in this room -- the art caddy made from a tool box:

I looked for plain magazine holders EVERYWHERE. Finally just bought some on Ebay (they are Ikea and worked perfectly). I spray painted them, added the scrapbook paper to the sides and then made some more of my cutey most labels:

I use the space in the TV cabinet and labeled everything there:

I hear you -- "Where are the toys Sarah?!"

Chillax people, here you go -- the shelves are FULL:

Target bins hold a ton of toys under the train table:

The recliners are not only comfy, the hide an awful lot of stuff:

There you go! A playroom fun enough for the kiddo, but still sophisticated enough for us to hang as well. This is easily one of the most relaxing rooms in our house, even with the toys everywhere. We love this room.

The best part, even if every. single. toy is pulled out, it still takes less than twenty minutes to get the room looking like this again:

Ask me how I know.

Remember to join the Goodwill part next week! Yes, this includes any transformation you've created from an item from a thrift store, garage sale, anything that is "second hand."

OK, the moment you've been waiting for! The winners of my one year giveaway are:

Deb from Wise Old Owl -- please pick the three items you would like and e-mail me!

AND

Yanira, I will let you know which two items you'll win when I hear from Deb!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Holy crap people, 610 comments! That is so cool!

Four ca-ute projects under $5!

And three were under TWO BUCKS!!

Awwwww yeah...

And yes, some involved spray paint, of course.

Remember the little tool box from the previous post? I got it for $3.99 at Goodwill and about peed. my. pants. when I saw it. I have been looking for one forever! (OK, just a few weeks, but...whatever.)

I printed out my stencil:

After I spray painted the whole thing brown, I added the stencil to the front:

(The blurriness is me, not the stencil.)

Then took another trip to Goodwill (good thing there are three within 1.5 mile radius of our house, right??) and found five little glass cups that fit in perfect:

Totally and completely adorable, no?? I still have to find more art supplies that are scattered throughout the house, but I absolutely positively adore it:
Total cost was $4 for the box and $2.50 for the cups. Uhhh...wait...that's more than $5. OK, well...whatever.
The next two involved the following:

Basically 60 cents of paper, $1 wood tags and $1.50 knob from Hob Lob -- almost all half off!

I got this little container from my sweet stepmom last Christmas, (hello LA!) and loved it, but have been staring at it in my son's toy room thinking I needed to jazz it up with some ca-uteness:
Spray adhesive, scrapbook paper, spray paint and a knob later:
He loves it! I love it! Ahhh! Feel the love!!

More scrapbook paper and spray adhesive on the wood tags for this one. Add in some fun scissors (1.99 at Hob Lob -- I have a few and love them!), $1 ribbon, the printer and you get this:

(Again...blurriness is me. I swear I wasn't drunk.)

I drilled holes, ran the ribbon through and tied them to the baskets:

This box was a $1.99 Goodwill find. It's the perfect size for the itty bitty teeny tiny toys little boys love:

Adorable!! Less than $2 bucks for all four people!

And for my final trick of the evening, I give you 60 cent wood cuties you can find at any craft store:

Hot glued magnets to the back and you get new magnets for the Bub:

I did all of these in just a couple hours and they were F.U.N. I've got a couple more little projects to do to the toy room and then I can't wait to show you!

The Spray Paint Party has seriously been the most fun I've had! Keep linking below ladies!!

My most favorite room.

Our son's room is hands down my favorite room in our house. It was the only room in the house where I truly started from scratch -- every single thing was new. It turned out better than I could have ever dreamed -- and was truly a labor of love. We love it -- it is a bright, serene, classic space.

A few of you have asked about it here and there, and it is a gorgeous day today, the sun was shining in...so I took some pics of my most favorite room. It is so special to me to share this with you. Sniff. :) Be prepared -- picture overload people!!

I got the honkin' cardboard letters from Joann's to fill the wall space as you enter the room. Our son's nickname with our friends and family is "Eds" because of this:

This is the chair I showed you here. The stripes I did myself -- they are the cream of the walls, plus three shades of Apple green from Lowe's. I did various sizes -- two, three, four and five inches. The book thingy by the chair I showed you here and I still have not painted it (slacker) but it works perfectly. The chair was from Babies R Us:

I. LOVE. THIS. CRIB. It is Gorg! I ordered it from JCPenney's -- it converts to fit a full bed. Part of the reason I decided to share his room with you today is that we are going to convert it into the toddler bed in the very near future. He is ready. Double sniff.

His bedding is from Pottery Barn Kids -- a total spurge! It is called Twinkle Twinkle and I just sigh every time I see it:

I wanted to add a little whimsy to the room, so here and there throughout, I painted the lambs and bunnies from his bedding. Before ya'll go thinking I'm a painter...(NOT!)...I actually scanned his sheet into the computer, printed them out, then used them as stencils. Drew the little faces with a toothpick and they turned out great!:

I wanted a custom sign for above the crib, but everything I found was craaazy expensive. I took a canvas, painted some stripes in varying sizes, then used some little trim from the craft store and my own stencil to print out his name:

This project was very special to me -- I had always dreamed of having built ins in the room, and my Dad helped make it a reality. The two of us made the built ins, hung the crown molding and painted everything together. I love that he was so involved in making our son's room so special:

That space between the windows is the perfect spot for a window seat, but we may have to hire out for that. For now, the toy box works.

I painted the backs of the shelves and LOVE IT! Highly, highly recommend doing this. I got white frames on sale at Micheal's, and found poster board that matched his room exactly. I printed the pics off the computer and just taped them on top of the poster board -- no mats! Cheap!!:

The built ins are simply stock cabinets as the base, trim added around the bottom to raise them up, then pine boards as the shelving. Both units were less than $250 to make.
One of my favorite parts of the whole room is the blue ceiling. I love how it makes the crown pop!:

The dresser and pedestal table were unfinished and were NOT cheap -- it was an investment. (I had preggo brain and was not computing dollar signs at the time.) I painted them bright white and added the crystal knobs to the dresser:

Oh yeah, and no Diaper Genie here -- I got cheap towards the end. We use a stainless steel trash can for diapers and it works great. The laundry bag is also from PBK and is perfect -- I just lug it downstairs, dump the clothes in the washer, then put the folded clothes back in to take upstairs.

My best friend got me this Lang calendar for his first year. I love it so much, I keep it up and like to look back at it:

The shutters I found at my favorite antique store. They were $20 for all four! They are beat up -- some slats missing, dents everywhere...but I love them:

Here's another view of the stripes. It really, really was not hard to do. It takes time, but the effort is minimal. Someday I'll show you how I did it!

This guy I got free from Uppercase Living when I hosted a party. I bought canvas fabric and stuck him on there, so I can take it someday if we move. I still haven't added his measurements but plan to soon with a chocolate brown pen. I like the idea of adding small pics of him at each size as well...

The ideas for his big boy room are coming slowly but surely, but I keep hesitating because I will miss this room SO MUCH. I want to make the next room just as sweet, but in a big boy way...not sure that is possible? :)

For more of this room, go here for organization ideas, here for small projects I did to update the space and here for the window treatments (EASY!).

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I think I said "here" about 56 times.
P.P.S. I think I said "love" about 82 times.