Old News

Same decor, different room...it's definitely missing half the charm of the nursery in our Charming Craftsman, but this is Retro House, and "charm" is not the first word that comes to mind, which is alright by me--work with it, right?

Honey's Room, Before:

After:

I was telling Daddy Mock that I actually play with the children more at Retro Rental. That's because our home in the Wind Tunnel was mostly hardwood floors, which again, was charming, but not conducive to rolling around, crawling, or doing airplanes on the floor.

This is the view from her glider. When I nurse her I can hear the kids playing and see all the trees in our backyard. With her afternoon nap, some sun comes through the window straight into the crib. I love walking in seeing her crib lit up with sun.

Baby girl has a slider in her room just like in the Charming Craftsman! The slider opens up to the patio and I love being able to nurse her in the glider and hear my kids eating their snacks or talk with friends while we're bbqing.

So yes, there's definitely "rental carpet", single pane windows, and cardboard doors, but we're slowly falling in love with Retro Rental, even with it's lack of charm.

Running Out Of Steam

The engine has been working away on projects while caring for three small children, and I have to say, it's running out of steam. There are quite a few to-do's left on the list, but nothing of necessity (well, except for curtains that are being made that buys us some privacy being that all the walkers at night can see directly into our windows), so I think I'm going to take a break from it all for a while...or maybe not.

Anyway, this is one of my latest VERY easy projects:

I wanted some sort of mobile for the kids' "creative corner"... they have a small table that will soon boast some of their nature findings and will be useful for art projects and the like, it's the perfect corner for a friendly mobile. The boys (including Next Door #2) painted the branches all by themselves. They were very proud to be using "adult paint"(no, not that kind of paint, but don't be surprised if my grandma will sneak some in your stocking at Christmas, it has been done). The leaves were found at this etsy store. Very inexpensive. I should mention that Kid helped pick out and cut the branches as well...this ended up being a very hands-on project for them, which suits their corner, don't you think?

What was the largest source of steam attainment? This table and chairs set. I got it off of Craig's List for $80! I have held out all these years for a kids table/chair set because I never have really fancied any of them, until I saw these chairs...perfect! When buying them, though, I was aware of how much work I would have to put into them, since they were Pottery Barn, they were of high quality and would be quite the project to paint over.
The Before:

There was a lot of sanding, priming, painting (three coats to be exact). All very time-consuming and tedious... not my favorite type of project, but one of my favorite results!

The boys in their "creative corner".

After: