Naomi's Room

I have a habit of starting a project and then never finishing it. I start out feeling all excited about it and working really hard, but if I'm not able to finish the project quickly, I lose my motivation and it never gets done. For example, when we moved into our second apartment in Provo and Naomi started sleeping in her own room, I got SO excited to decorate her nursery. I ordered lots of photo prints from Walmart of our family photos & Naomi's baby photos, I found cheap frames, my mom helped me figure out the best way to arrange all of her furniture, my mom helped me figure out a way to hang her crib comforter behind the crib, and I bought & painted wooden letters to spell her name on her wall. But we ended up moving to Missouri just 2 months after we moved into that apartment, so other than arranging her furniture and hanging just a few of the pictures, I never finished her room. After 6 months of living with Jacob's family, we moved into our own place in Columbia, but I never finished Naomi's room or made it look pretty. Considering we lived there for a year, I really should have done it, but I could never figure out the best set-up or the best way to hang the photos and wall decorations, and Jacob is no help in that department, so I basically just gave up.

When we moved into the place we are in now, I got all excited again about decorating and making our house pretty, but it has still been slow-going. I was especially excited about Naomi's room... she started sleeping in a twin bed shortly after we moved, so I got to buy a bedding set for her. I wanted something cute and girly with bright colors, and it had to be cheap. I ended up finding her bedding set on the Target website. It was PERFECT. It was exactly what I wanted, and it was on clearance for 30 bucks. And it gave me a cute theme for her room: butterflies! (The picture is old--it's the same one I posted a couple months ago when we first got her bedding.)In all of our moves, we somehow lost a few of Naomi's wall letters, so I had to buy new ones. I painted them bright pink & yellow, 2 of the colors in her comforter, and hung them above her bed. I love it!!! It's my favorite part of her room. The only thing I wish I could change is that I had to hang them pretty high, and I wish I could have hung them a little lower. But I can't have them in Naomi's reach, because she will rip them off the wall and ruin it.
I think some of the letters are a little crooked, so don't pay attention to that! I will fix it tomorrow. But other than that, it's cute, huh?? The letters cost me 99 cents each, the paint was about 2 dollars, and I splurged on the butterflies, which cost me $2.99. I got everything from Hobby Lobby... can I just say how much I love that place?

My second project was to tackle the problem of Naomi having no dresser, which means all of her clothes have been in piles & in boxes all over our bedroom & Aleta's bedroom, which has prevented me from being able to finish organizing either room. I've been trying to find a cute white dresser on craigslist, but I haven't been able to find anything that will work out. I was just about to give in and buy the only dresser we could afford, which was this hideous piece of junk from Walmart, but at the last second I backed out and decided there had to be something else I could do. The dresser would have cost us 65 bucks, which was way too much for something so ugly. So instead, I bought a 15 dollar white bookcase and 4 cube storage drawers to put her clothes in. It's not perfect, but it will hold her clothes, it was way less than the cost of the dresser, and it looks way cuter. I'm not finished with the bookcase, yet... I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of the space on the shelves, but that will have to wait a little while.
Also, the colors look better in person... the picture makes the green look darker & uglier, and the other two drawers are purple... the picture makes them look a little blue-ish. And, I would like to add that I put the bookshelf together on my own! I got really frustrated partway through and wanted Jacob to take over, but when I got tired of waiting for him to finish it, I just finished it myself.

Next, I wanted something to hang on the wall above the head of her bed. All I really have to hang on her walls are picture frames, but I don't want anything heavy, especially something with glass, hanging above her head. So I googled and spent a couple hours browsing the internet for ideas! Then today, I went to Goodwill and found the perfect frame for my project!

Here is the before picture... ugly, I know, but it was only a dollar at Goodwill:And this is what I ended up with:

I'm not a creative or crafty person, so I was very pleased with my end result! The frame is incredibly lightweight, there is no glass in the front, and it cost me a total of $2.42 to make! The frame was a dollar, the white paint was on sale for 70 cents, I bought the background scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby on sale for 36 cents, and the butterflies were cut out of another piece of scrapbook paper, which was also 36 cents. And I can still use the rest of the butterfly paper for another project if I want! Here's a close-up of the little saying (which I found on a few websites online):Also, I found this little guy at Hobby Lobby in their spring garden decorations, and I just couldn't pass him up since he was 40% off... he is definitely worth the $2.40 I paid for him! I think you're supposed to stick it in your garden, but I'm planning on just breaking the stick off and putting him somewhere in Naomi's room... just not sure where yet!