Naomi's Dress-Up Center

For Naomi's 3rd birthday, I really wanted to get her dress up clothes.  I was going to buy one of those Disney dress-up trunks, but for $50, they didn't have very good reviews.  If it's going to cost me that much money, I wanted it to be decent quality and stuff that will last, and I wasn't going to find that in the Disney dress-up trunks.  So instead, I went thrift store shopping!  I shopped at Goodwill, a little local thrift store, and the Target dollar section, and I got some great stuff!  Here's my list of goodies:
2 necklaces
4 bracelets
2 purses
a headband
some fancy velvety skirts/tops (2 sets)
a costume/dress
2 Easter hats (love the Target dollar section!)
2 dressy scarves
1 tie (Well I only bought one, but then I added 3 or 4 more that Jacob was given but won't wear.  Naomi loves wearing Jacob's ties, but I am worried that she will ruin them, so now she will have some of her own!)
I also bought one real dress-up dress from Walmart for like 12 bucks, and Naomi wanted a Disney princess tiara at the craft store when I took her out on her birthday, and I let her get it since it was only $2.

I have been working like crazy over the past week on everything!  I had to alter the 2 skirts so they would fit Naomi, because they weren't at all her size (medium and extra large in girl's), and the costume/dress thing was actually an adult small, but it was so dang adorable that I had to have it.  So that needed some altering as well.  And I made her a tutu!  When I looked into buying one, they were 15 to 20 dollars, which was more than I wanted to spend.  So I found out that they're actually incredibly simple to make and I did that instead!  And it only cost me about 8 bucks.  I think it turned out pretty well!

The best part of her birthday present was the actual dress-up center.  I've been seeing a bunch of do-it-yourself dress-up centers online made from old, broken dressers, and I REALLY wanted to make her one, but I didn't have any old dressers, and we don't have any tools, and even if we had tools, I wouldn't know what to do with them.  But on Sunday, I got an idea!  We had a little white bookcase that I thought we could do without, and after calling my dad, we figured out a way to do what I wanted by using gorilla glue.  So I got a dowel rod and wooden holders from Lowes, painted them, and gorilla glued the holders into the bookcase.  I bought little wooden knob-things from Hobby Lobby, painted them, and glued them to one of the sides to hang jewelry on.  I found some really cute wrapping paper in the Target dollar bins and used mod podge to stick it inside the bookcase.  I was really excited about the wrapping paper--when I pictured the center in my head, I planned on using a bright print... something cute and fun and girly, in pink or something like that.  But when I saw the black wrapping paper in the dollar bins, I got really excited and changed my vision.  I love it, especially with the pink paint I chose for the rod!

Before...

After!

I also found the little bins for the top in the dollar section at Target.  I had wanted larger bins, but when I saw these in the dollar bins at Target, I loved them, especially with the black wrapping paper.  And I can always get some larger bins later if we need them!  But for now, the little ones work perfectly!

I am so excited about how it turned out!!  There is more that I want to do to it someday, like add a mirror, and add some hooks to hang the purses, and find a better way to hang the hats, and I really want to get her some dress-up shoes and some boas... but I went a little overboard already, so I will have to be done for now!  I'm super proud of myself... I am not crafty or creative, so this was a big undertaking for me and I was really nervous about how it would turn out.  But I love it!!!

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