Mixed Nuts: Arlington's room make over

Quotes

"There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark." - Helen Keller
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck
You may never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.- Unknown
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow' ~Helen Keller
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."- Dr. Seuss
"Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it."
"God doesn't give children with disabilities to strong people: He gives them to ordinary, everyday people, then He helps the parents to grow stronger through the journey. Raising a child with special needs doesn't TAKE a special family, it MAKES a special family."Author Unknown
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go – Abraham Lincoln
Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~ Benjamin Franklin
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein
The journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step
Sometimes in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives you a fairy tale
Where there is great love, there are always miracles - Willa Cather
The Difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.
Be the change you want to see in the world
Don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big Your God is..........
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it
Fall down seven times - get up eight - unknown
Despite our differences, we sink or swim together
Life may not be the party we expected, but while we are here, we might as well dance
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." -Confucius

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Arlington's room make over

I know I have dropped the ball on Making Meals Mondays. Problem is - Mat is in a funky travel schedule right now and hasn't been home for dinner in over 2 weeks. It is driving us all crazy, but I have not made fancy meals without him here to eat them. (they make too much food for just me and the kids). So - .......moving on.

For Arlington's 10th birthday, she got her ears pierced, but she also wanted to redo her room. IT took her 9 LOOOOOOOONG months to come up with the right paint color and pick her bedding so that we could get started on the transformation. She is 99% Mat. She can never.ever.make.decisions.

So - a few weeks ago I told her that soon she will be 11, and if she doesn't decide soon, we were either going to forget it, or I was going to choose. So - within a matter of days, she chose her wall color (purple) and her bedding (purple dots). We got things in order, and I went forward with transforming the room completely.

It is now a completely different space. Besides the carpet (which, until she stops spilling stuff is going to remain) everything is different. We didn't spend a lot - we just refurbished a lot of what we had. We added some new touches, and just changed the arrangement of her furniture, and wala! A new space.

It took me a week of every day, all day being up on the third floor. I watched more documentaries during that week than I have all year. But now it is done, and Arlington is in her new space.

So - here are the pictures of her new room. The room before - the walls were yellow and the space dull. Now it is a pre-teen room all the way.

The finished product. This picture makes her room look small, but it isn't. i was trying to get everything in the picture! That is the new bedding is courtesy of her Grammy and Papa:

The art on the wall is new, and the jewelry box was her great grandmothers:

The picture on the right is an Etsy find. IT is famous women scientist. We had the frame and the matting, and so we got it all set. The Owl I downloaded from the internet, printed and framed:

This is the top of the dresser. I added some inexpensive fun duct tape to it because it was scratched from age.

The pictures on the wall are prints that Mat framed and matted. Two super heroes, and her favorite Disney ride - Splash mountain. The lamp SHADE is new (the old one cracked) and I added some washi tape to it for some bling. The base I spray painted to made it purple. I added some fun, inexpensive duct tape to her bedside table because it was scratched. Now it is so her.

This is her largest window area in her room. The white piece above the window was there, but plain. It houses some lights. So I painted on some colorful, sparkly dots (using Martha stewart sparkle paint).

I loved this painting I found on Etsy. It is a picture of a Goldendoodle sitting under a tree with a tennis ball. It is SO Scooby, our Goldendoodle. We even have a tree just like this outside our house and he always has a tennis ball at paw:

Two art prints. One of Arlington's favorite Disney movies is Lilo and Stitch. We found a print that says "Leave me Alone to Die" which is her whole pre-teen attitude right now. The other painting is from Etsy and is a painting of a goldendoodle with his head on the table. Another Scooby move.

The painting on the left was designed by an art student from Connellsville. It is a character - Vanelope - from the movie "Wreck it Ralph" that Arlington really likes. It is the same art student that designed our very first Finley's Fighters logo. The print on the right Arlington picked up at Comic Con New York of Merida from "Brave".

I love these vinyl quotes I am finding for the kid's rooms. This one is right above her dresser, so that every day she sees it when she gets dressed. I get the vinyl quotes from Amazon, and they are very inexpensive. On top of her dresser is her girl "succession of years" that her Gramma and Pappy buy her each year from her bithday.

Her desk in her reading nook. We had the white desk, and we gave it some bling. I used washi tape on the top and then coated it to protect it with sealer.

Loved this quote as well:

A closer look at the top of her desk. This took me a few hours because each strip is an individual tape. But it was so fun.

A close up of the bottom of the desk. I used purple duct tape to outline the drawers. Then I used Martha Stewarts glitter paint for the drawer pulls. I spray painted the chair purple, and then added duct tape to the chair legs.

Desk top.

Her book case. This book case was given to us by a family friend and it is the perfect fit for Arlington's room. It had a bit of a rough top, so we added some fun duct tape to make it a little more girly.

I saw this on Pinterest - it was harder to do than it looked. I glued buttons on a canvas with a hot glue gun and 2 hours later I had an "A".

The top of the bookcase:

The reading nook. She picked out the little stool with some of her birthday money:

We bought her a new celing fan. Hers didn't have a light and in the evenings, her room is not well lit.

Of course - we couldn't leave it boring white. I added some washi tape to the blades.

Wala

Mat built these little boxes that we hung on the walls to hold her trinkets.

I found this license plate on Ebay. It was perfect because Arlington was born in California in February 2003. Great find.

Arlington loves owls, so we added some of her great grandmother's owls to her room:

This is the box right next to her bed. She made the little scientist with a kit Mat gave her. And we are keeping the books she is working on right next to her bed.