American Girl Doll Closet

There was a time when my life only knew boys. I had two sons and we didn't find out what we were having with baby number 3. We were going to be done after 3 no matter if we had a girl or a boy and while I was secretly thinking I was having a girl I told everyone I thought I was having a boy. I think I was trying to convince myself I was having a boy so that when I had another boy, I was mentally prepared.

I wasn't sure if a girl was in my future. But luckily that day I had Summer my life changed for the good. There are so many fun things I get to do with Summer, like painting our nails, doing fun hair styles and playing with dolls.

For Christmas, Reese joined our family. Summer was so excited to get Reese and plays with her every single day. She has lots of clothes for her, but that hasn't stopped me from buying more fabric than I need to make matching outfits for Summer and Reese.



It has also opened up so many opportunities to make fun things like this doll closet.

It couldn't have been easier. I bought one of these crates for $10, a rod for .29 and the plank for $2. And I also just used some paint that I already had from DecoArt and some hot glue!

Because it was a little rough I did use a piece of sand paper to sand down my box a little, but it only took a few minutes.



These were Summer's paint choices! Bubblegum and Purple Cow!



She wanted the inside to be pink, so that is just what we did!



Then the outside was purple! And I used a glossy clear coat to give it a shine!



I cut a couple pieces of the peg off and painted them pink, and one longer piece purple. Then, using the hot glue I put the "rod" in to hang the hangers on, and the smaller pegs I used to prop up the board on the side for a shelf.



I'm thinking of grabbing another piece of wood to put up above the rod because that might be a better place for the shoes to go. What do you think?



Look how happy this girl is to have Reese's closet finished? She was so in love!





I also grabbed this mirror from the dollar store. It has the suction cups on the back, but I just filled them with hot glue and stuck it on!





I have so many more projects that I want to do for Reese and Summer. What would you like to see me make?

Give Extra, Get Extra

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.  #GIVEEXTRAGETEXTRA #Walgreens #CollectiveBias

Who likes to get things? I do! I love when a friend sees something that reminds them of me, or something we've done and grabs it for me. But you know what I love even more than that? Giving!

I love finding little things that remind me of a friend of family member and grabbing it for them. Maybe it is something simple like a Daryl Dixon t-shirt for my sister, or making coffee mugs for my friends, I am always on the lookout for something fun to give.

So I decided that I wanted to Give Extra, Get Extra!



I ran down to Walgreens and got some gum for me and one to giveaway. I grabbed two kinds:

• Extra® Gum Spearmint


• Extra® Gum Polar Ice®

Both are kinds I already love and are classics, so I know my giveaway winner will feel the same! And I grabbed Extra because of the new Extra® 35-Stick pack. Who doesn't love a bigger pack of gum? Another thing is that it now comes in a super durable recycled package which makes it easier to carry and share with a friend, keep in the car, or in your desk at work.

I also wanted to make something that my winner will love too!



So I ran to the fabric store and grabbed a couple of fat quarters. I felt like I had this genius idea to make a carrying case for my gum.



I started out grabbing some lining and cutting my fabric to fit the lining.



And make sure the "good sides" of your fabric are facing each other. So you are looking at both of the "outsides" of the material.



Then I pinned some ribbon on the inside that will make a handle on the outside. Does that even make sense?



Then I sewed a line all the way around the edge of my material/liner.



Make sure you leave a small space to push the material through so it is right facing.



Then I folded up the bottom to make a pocket. I pinned it and then again sewed all the way around the edge to hold it together.



Now it is all together!



Give it a nice little iron to straighten it all out. I also used a piece of iron on Velcro to give it a way to latch together.



And Voila! You have yourself a fun little gum holder that can slide right on to the strap of your purse, or your gym bag, or your summer tote!

The possibilities are endless what you can do with your Extra® Gum Spearmint! So who are you going to share yours with?

Summer's big girl bedroom

True story: I thought I shared this weeks ago. Like, right after I shared THIS post about making Summer's banner and THIS one about her curtains. Oops. I was going through the many drafts I have and spotted it. I thought, "that can't be right, I posted that weeks ago". So I double checked and sure enough, I never posted it. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. Actually, I do know. It's called LIFE!



I have known for the longest time that I would do purple and grey in Summer's bedroom. But when we already had a crib bed set, right down to curtains and a matching lamp, I just stuck with what we had. It seems so silly to buy another set when our little set with deer and squirrels was so cute!

But now, I have a big girl and I wanted to go all girly on her bedroom.

Ever since I made Summer's quilt I sort of knew what I wanted to do in her room. I wanted polka dots on the wall, a cute little net above the bed, banner on the wall. And you'll also notice that her crib is still in there. We switched her to a "toddler bed" over the summer, and she has done super good with it. I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but I guess it was just the right time for her.

And one thing that isn't pictured is that we have a pool noodle under her sheet to keep her from rolling off. I bought it, totally having doubts that it would actually stop her from rolling off, but she never has since we started using it. (And she had rolled off a couple of times before using it).

Polka dots make everything cute, right?



My father in law made her name letters for me and then I just painted them up.



The super easy to make banner that I shared in THIS post.



I love her little crib bed and the cute little purple chevron sheet. And I'm actually a little sad because we just bought her a new big girl bed set a month or so ago and finally found a bed that I loved, so I just ordered it a few days ago. I am excited to get her moved into her even bigger big girl bed, but there is that moment when you realize that this is the last time we'll have a crib in here, and she really is becoming a big girl, and that is a little bittersweet.



Her quilt that I shared in THIS post. Also, this chair. My dad bought this rocking chair for my mom when she was pregnant with me. So it is a special chair. They put new fabric on the cushion that matched the letters that I put up on the wall when Tyler was born, so this is a very special rocker to me. I hope one day one of my kids will want it to rock their own kids to sleep in.



Love this sweet little sign that I found at Hobby Lobby. It was on clearance and I just couldn't pass it up!



One night for a girlfriends birthday a group of us went to one of those "paint n sip" places and this was the picture we made. It was perfect and I decided that if it turned out half way ok then I would put it up in Summer's new purple room. Not too shabby, right? Considering I am not a painter, I was pretty pleased with myself!



Another cute sign on clearance at Hobby Lobby.



One time when I was getting the room ready for Tyler I was asking my mom if they had any shelves that they weren't using and she brought me this. I forget what color it was but then I painted it a light green to go with the old bedroom theme and then gave it a fresh white coat for the new room.

Also, headband holder I shared HERE, the angel my father in law gave me after my mom passed away and the bumble bee teddy bear that my sweet friend Karri gave to Summer for her Bumble bee 1st birthday party.





I Love Summer's big girl bedroom and I look forward to adding her new bed and bed set soon for a great room for my girl to grow into.

How to make your own curtains

I have had so much fun working on Summer's updated bedroom. And I'll admit, I don't really have a designers mind. I'm not good with piecing items together and as you can see by where my curtain rod is hanging that I hung them pre-Pinterest (but I wasn't about to take them down and put another hole in the wall.)

But I make the most with what sense I do have and I feel like Summer's room is really coming together. In fact, it is pretty much done and hopefully I'll be sharing the entire room soon. And lets just pretend that the blinds are clean, okay?



I found this fabric a while back at Joann's and it was majorly on sale and I had a coupon so I bought 3 yards even though I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it. Finally I settled on curtains and I thought they would be super cute in Summer's room.

I started out by measuring my window. I wanted the curtains to touch the ground and I added on a couple of extra inches for the top to be folded over where the rod would go through and have a little extra to make a ruffle on top.

Next I cut two pieces to the correct length. I left them at the width they already were when I bought them and just sewed up each side to give it a finished look.



Then I sewed up the bottom to give it a finished look as well.



Then I started pinning the top in two spots. One for the very top that will make the ruffle (about 1/4" down) and the second one (about another 2" down) making sure that there was enough space for the rod to slide through.









Then I double sewed up the bottom to give it a finished look as well.



Summer's room is hard to take pictures of because the light just isn't good. But you get the idea, right?





One more step done to take this little room from a nursery to a girlie girl room. What do you think?

Pennant Banner: How to create one of your own.

Happy Monday! It's the first week of Summer Vacation and I'm ready to enjoy the sun and outdoors with my kiddos! I'm glad that I managed to get a lot of indoor projects done over the winter and spring so that I'm not working on decorating bedrooms while it is so nice outside!

I have spotted some really cute little girl rooms on pinterest and since Summer was born I've been pinning ideas for the day that I redid her bedroom! I started with making her quilt last year, after finding the fabric that I knew would be perfect for her room. I was really wanting purples and greys and I loved it. After I made the quilt I was super sad that I hadn't bought a second bundle of this same fabric for another project and I didn't even have the name of it to look it up. After a couple of months I got lucky and spotted my fabric in a bigger bundle at another fabric store and I snatched it up, not even knowing what I was going to do with it! So it has just been sitting in my draw for the past few months and I finally decided I wanted to make a banner with it.

I'm not going to lie. I thought this banner was going to be a tricky project. I thought it was going to be quite a bit of work, but it was actually super easy and I made it, start to finish in less than two hours!



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I started with measuring my room and because I knew I was going to have two strands, I doubled it. I planned the tops of my triangle to be 6 inches and the 2 sides to be 9 inches and I started cutting out my triangles. Now, because I am terrible at math I accidently cut twice as many as I needed and I thought for a second about making them double sided but I decided not to, because really, I would just be making more work for myself.

Then I placed them on the floor in the order I wanted them.



Then I took this extra wide double fold bias tape and pinned it onto the tops of my triangles.



I got my sewing machine all threaded and went to town sewing the pieces of my banner together.









And just a short time later I had it pinned up on the wall!



Summer loves it and tells me almost daily how pretty it is. Sweet girl. She is such a girlie girl and I'm glad I can have fun decorating her room all sassy!

What do you think of my super easy banner?