Fashionista on a Budget

Ok, so I'm not exactly a "fashionista." I have never been one who can walk into a thrift store (or any sotre for that matter, honestly) and just put together a fabulous outfit. Unless it's already on the mannequin. Then I am all over that! But I do love fashion and I do love to decorate. A lot. Which is hard when you have nigh unto zero monies. I felt like I did an OK job with what I had when we moved into the apartment, but now we're moving into a bigger home. That means more walls, more rooms and a lot more money. Especially since we'll be replacing the Leopard print carpet immediately. Carpet and flooring aren't cheap, ya' know. 

So, I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest, looking for cheap ideas that look really nice. And since I'm pregnant and won't exactly be able to do a lot of painting or scaling the walls, I need to make it simple, or I'm going to freak out the hubby. I have never been so thankful for Pinterest than when I started looking at my decorating budget and everything that needed to be done. 

I thought I would share some of my "finds" on here for those of you in a similar predicament as myself. You can also find everything I've found and loved on my Pinterest board "Decorating on a Budget." Please note, I haven't tried these ideas yet, but plan to in the next couple of weeks. I'll update on which ones work well and which ones were a flop. (To see my post on "Productive Pinteresting" click here.) Another note, not all of these had working links on Pinterest, so I tried to add my own directions. We'll see how that goes lol.

What ideas from Pitnerest have you used to spruce up your home on a budget? Which ones were a bust? Which ones would you recommend? Would LOVE to hear feedback on any of these ideas that you've tried. 

I have posted this idea before and can't
wait to try it. She has a great tut on it so
so click here :)

This one didn't have a link or tut
attached, but the pin said it was simply
a piece of wood, padding, pretty fabric
and 4 chair legs you can get at Lowe's for
about $5 each. Sounds easy enough, right?

I'm so in love with this idea, and plan
to do it in our new living room.
Great tut here.

I'm hoping I can use the same concept
from the above large canvas idea
for this sheet music art to put above my piano.

Ikea lamp + sheet music = brilliance.

How to turn outdated laminate
counter tops into a chic granite alternative.
Step by step tut here.

More Decorating for Aria and Her Big Girl Room

It's been a few days since I've blogged, and it's because of all the insanity going on here. We're hopefully and FINALLY! moving this weekend, so I've been busy boxing up things and distracting Aria from the fact that her toys are mysteriously disappearing into boxes which she's not allowed to open. But today, my mom took Aria up to the water park by their house and I have the whole day to myself. I've been Pinteresting and lounging around all day. I know I should be doing laundry or packing up more stuff, but it's so nice to have a little alone time. Anyways, all that to say, I can find time to blog today :)

For Aria's birthday, I wanted to get her something she would actually use and not be just another cast-off toy. She has a lot of those, and I didn't feel like wasting my money on a 5 minute diversion. So when I saw this adorable chair at HomeGoods, I couldn't resist.

Aria's new chair. How cute, right?
And yes, it's a rocker!!

There are fewer things that Aria loves more than sitting in a chair, reading books and rocking. Oh, how she loves to rock. And this chair fits her perfectly, and it's just too cute. I got a good price on it, and knew she would fall in love with it - and she did. How could she not?!

Wall paint idea

But now, I had to rethink my original plans for her room. I posted a couple months ago some inspiration pictures for her "big girl room" and I still really love those. But the lime green didn't really fit in with the teal and pink I had planned. At first, I just decided to switch the color scheme; teal and hot pink are easy to turn to lime green and hot pink, right? Well, after that, a few other ideas started morphing, and now I'm thinking of going an entirely different direction. I have to be really careful, because the room she'll be staying in is quite small, and I don't want to over power it with too much color, or too much going on on her walls. I decided to stick to color on just one accent wall, and it will be a punch of color. What do you think?

Because that wall is quite saturated in color, I'm probably just going to paint her furniture white, although I've been toying with the idea of painting the drawers a different color than the base... maybe a white base with lime green drawer fronts? Still thinking. I'm also going to redo her lamp. It's a pretty lamp and worked perfectly in her nursery, but it will need a face-lift if it's going to fit into her big girl bed.

How cute is this print? It's a bed sheet,
but I'm sure I could turn it into a
lamp shade cover....

You can see the lamp in the background of this picture of her current nursery. >>

The lamp base is going to get a coat of lime green and I'm going to re-cover the lamp shade with some fun pattern in hot pink. Maybe a damask or chevron? We'll see what I can find for cheap :)

Lastly, I'm going to remove the backing of Aria's current white bookcase and Mod Podge some brightly colored scrapbook paper on the back to make it fun and add some more color to the room without overtaking it. I also really want to do a cute and fun window treatment, but since it's been a couple months since we've actually been in the house, I can't completely remember the size/shape of the window in there, so I'm going to wait to make a decision about that until we move in.

I'm thinking about adding some funky Parisian touches as well. 

Hobby Lobby's hot pink
Eiffel Tower. Love the airiness
and fun of it.

How cute would a spray-painted metal Eiffel Tower be sitting on a white dresser? Something like this from Hobby Lobby? >>

I may also put some mirrors on her closet doors to make the room lighter and feel a bit bigger. 

How do you make your kid's smaller rooms feel bigger while still fitting their personality? I still want her room to be fun for her and place she likes to be, even though it's small.

Mommy/Daughter Dates

The farther I get into this pregnancy, the more I get worried about having a new baby in the house. How will Aria react to a new little one? Am I ready of TWO of these tiny humans? Will I be able to spend time with both of them the way I want to?

Aria chilling at the pool like mommy :)

I've heard these worries are perfectly normal, and I sure hope it is. One of the big things that will change is obviously how much time I'll be able to spend with Aria. While I know that I will LOVE having a new infant to snuggle with, there's still a little bit of sadness that I won't get to spend as much one-on-one time with my baby girl.

In order to ease my guilt about this matter, I've purposefully been trying to do things just with her, or even just spend more time with her during the day. She really does prefer to play by herself when it comes down to it, but if I make an effort, she will eventually include me in whatever she's doing. I especially like sitting in her big rocking chair with her, reading book after book. ("Book after book" is far better than the alternative, same book 137 x's in a row, which also occasionally happens.)

Aria enjoying her monster cookie
from Starbucks

One day earlier this summer, we had one of our special mommy/daughter dates. We had to go somewhere mundane - honestly, I  don't remember exactly where - but I decided to make it special, and took a detour to Starbuck's on our way home. They have these huge oatmeal raisin cookies that Aria just thinks are the bomb. For the duration of this pregnancy, I'm not really allowed to drunk much coffee, so Chai was on the menu for me - another one of Aria's favorites, courtesy of Mimi's spoilings. It was so nice outside, we sat at their picnic tables with our cookies and my Chai, and "talked." It was great. I can't wait till she's older, and we can chat for real. She was so adorable trying to get the chai up the straw and the cookie was bigger than her face.

I plan on taking her to the Detroit Zoo before the summer is up, and we've been taking lots of trips to the pool, just the two of us. Sometimes, I'll take her outside to play with bubbles and run around, and even a trip to Meijer can be a huge event for her, thanks to Sandy the Horse still only costing a penny to ride. It's these little memories that she may never remember, but I'll always have them to cherish. And soon, we'll have double the memories to make :)

The Toddler Wars: Episode 2 - Respectful Rebellion

I've always known that how you talk to your kids when they're learning to speak is how they will communicate with you. Thus, whenever we talked to Aria, we would use "yes, ma'am," "no,ma'am," "please," and "thank you." We're also really conscious about saying "you're welcome" and "excuse me" very clearly to Aria, so that she will learn how and when to use these as well. She's finally reached the age where this is really starting to pay off, and it's been really adorable to hear her say "tank ooh" and "geesey" (excuse me) in their proper contexts.

However, it wasn't until this past week where the "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" really entered her vocabulary. And it entered with a bang. As I have blogged before, Aria is at that stage where she now understands the concept of disobeying. When she was younger, the thought never really occurred to her to disobey. This was  a lovely time, and she was a perfect child. Ok, not really, but it was nice. Now, she's two. And she thinks it's cute to disobey. I have no clue where she got that idea from.

Aria's epic "sad face"

 Anyways... all that to say, last week, I asked her to stop jumping on the couch. A rather reasonable request, I thought. Apparently, not to Aria. She was enjoying herself far too much to be deterred from her jumping. I asked again more forcefully; "Aria, sit on your bottom right now." The response I got? "NO MA'AM!"

It took all my self-control to not burst out laughing at this rather respectful rebellion. I mean, wasn't this what I had wanted by talking to her that way since birth? It just didn't go down quite like I had imagined. (She still got a time out, despite the cuteness, by the way.) 

Although I was glad that all that effort had finally (sort of) paid off, it reminded me once again how closely my little booger is listening to the words I use, and how I talk to her. "Oh by careful, little mouth what you say" because your toddler will shortly be repeating it, and it may not always be quite so cute.