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Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts

May 10, 2013

Nursery Reveal



 
I am so excited to finally reveal my baby's nursery today! As soon as we knew this baby was going to be a permanent part of our family, I got busy working on the room remodel and some crafty accents to go with it.  I had been creating a Pinterest board of all my ideas and color schemes in the months leading up to the adoption.

I wanted to rip out the cheap tan carpet and paint the floors white. I wanted to paint the boring tan walls a paler color with bright accent colors. I also wanted an eclectic look with a gallery wall full of whimsical and vintage art.

Here are a few shots of what the room looked like before: 




I am a fan of nice hardwood floors, but these floors were in bad shape after 90 years!  The cheaper way to go was to paint the floors. My husband helped with that part and already had some practice from painting the floors for our older Boys' Bedroom Makeover  the summer before.


After painting the walls Whetstone Gray by Martha Stewart, I wanted to add some bright stripes to the entry wall. I used Frog Tape and this technique, since my walls are textured, for perfectly straight lines. 


I love how the bright orange and green stripes add pops of color to the room-I chose stripes because I think it's a look that will blend into big boy decor when he's older.




I painted the doors and table in the room the same green as the stripes-Lily Pad, also by Martha Stewart. I painted chalkboard paint on the crib panel so I can write fun messages on it for him-and in his toddler years I'm sure he'll have fun scribbling with chalk.  The tree art is was made for me by a local artist friend, Dani Herrera, who makes amazing things with reclaimed denim, zippers and more.


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I've had this table for a while and this is now the third color it's been. After painting it, I distressed it with a sanding sponge to reveal hints of white and added new knobs for a brand new look. The thrift store magazine rack is where books are held, next to the comfy chair for bedtime stories.


I made this artwork with a printout given to me by a friend. I traced the elephant onto dictionary paper, cut it out and Mod Podged the whole thing to pallet planks. The curtains and fabric shades are both from IKEA. We have been replacing all of the wooden blinds in the house with ones without cords for safety.


I made this mobile by stenciling airplanes and clouds onto cardstock, cutting out, hole punching and attaching twine. I used an embroidery hoop for the top of the mobile.

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I moved this IKEA shelving into the baby's room for clothing and the boys' got a bigger dresser to share. The accordian style wall hook fixture was a thrift store find. It also makes a fun display for finger puppets.



Here's the gallery wall-a combination of baby and family photos and some crafty things I made. I loved the idea of hot air balloons combined with Dr. Seuss' "Oh, The Places You'll Go" phrase, so I made this artwork by painting and stenciling a canvas, then cutting out a 3-D hot air balloon out of card stock and gluing to the canvas. I  repurposed an IKEA night light  by cutting out cloud shapes onto navy blue paper and attaching to the light fixture. I Mod Podged an old frame with sheet music, adding a photo of baby's newborn toes.









 It was so much fun redoing this room and I think baby boy loves it too. He squeals with delight when he gets to play there. It was created on a budget and most accessories were either handmade, thrift store finds or things I already had in the house that I repurposed and used for his room. There's so much for him to look at and play with and it was a really great way to celebrate him becoming "finally forever". We love having him be a part of our family!

Thanks for visiting ReMadeSimple!



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April 18, 2013

Family Update: Finally Forever!

This year has been full of excitement for our family and it seems like forever since I've posted on the blog, but for a very good reason. On March 28th, we finalized our much-awaited adoption of our third child- the 13 month old baby boy we've had with us since birth! It was a happy, happy day for our family, baby "L" is so sweet and brings a lot of joy to our lives. 

I am thankful that his little life was rescued and humbled that we get the privilege of raising him. This makes us officially a house full of three wild boys, never a dull moment for sure, but we are blessed.(If you're just tuning in, you can read all about how our adventure of this unexpected gift started here).
 So, we've done a lot of celebrating around here, last weekend was busy with open houses and family parties, including his first birthday party. Of course, I was busy making some homemade decorations for the events. This garland was made by folding half circles of paper and taking a glue stick to seal them together and attached them to a line of string. 


This was our happy adoption day! Here I am with the handsome men in my life. It meant a lot to us to be surrounded by friends and family there to support us.


Here is the adorable birthday boy! I made him this hat (of course) from a repurposing a cereal box covered in felt, pom poms and craft foam. He enjoyed the game of ripping it off of his head every time I tried to keep it on him. 





It's been a fun season of celebrating and welcoming in our baby! I am amazed at the story God wrote and how he built our family-each adoption has been an amazing journey-a labor of the heart. I am still winding down from all the hard work it takes to throw a great party, but I can't wait to show you our nursery I worked on a few weeks before we adopted.

I was able to turn a bland room into something so inviting and fresh, complete with homemade artwork and painted floors, walls and doors. Here is a little sneak peek into the room: I think baby boy loves his room as much as I do, he squealed every time we took someone in for a room tour.


Stay tuned for my entire nursery reveal! I can't wait to show it to you....and thanks for visiting ReMadeSimple!


Kristina

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January 30, 2013

My Simple Valentine's Day Decor



I finished putting up my Valentine's decorations this week-I used a lot of simple whites and tans with just a hint of pinks and purples and my favorite aquas and yellows too. I admit I never used to decorate for Valentine's Day, rebelling against the whole marketing scheme to get us all to overspend, but it has become special to our whole family ever since we adopted our middle son almost two years ago on Feb. 14th! So, from now on it is "happy gotcha day" here at our house and I plan on overdoing it for my sweeties with chocolate and treats and sweets (oh, my!)  

I made the XOXO pennant as a photo prop for a wedding my husband photographed this summer thought it would be nice for love day too, so I draped it over my chicken wire frame. I painted the backing of an old frame with chalkboard paint and wrote the "be mine" message to hang next to my pennant. 


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I still love these felt and lace heart dangles hanging in my windows. I made last year using starch and Mod Podge-it was an experiment that turned out nicely.


The paper hearts that hang on my key hooks were made from watercolor art my kids made, and then I cut out the shapes and used a hole punch to hang them. The chalkboard "LOVE" message was made by painting the backs of the frames with chalkboard paint, so I can change out the messages whenever I want to=the interchangeable chalkboard frame. 




The subtle "LOVE" garland that hangs on my fireplace was made from cut out circles from the translucent plastic from milk jugs. I then drew my design with a permanent white marker.



Looking forward to our big love day celebration and wishing you a happy Valentine's Day too! Next, I'll be sharing some reveal pictures of my kitchen and bathroom projects. Hope you stop by again to see what I'm up to and check out the rest of my tutorials! 


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January 11, 2013

A New Year: The Fun We Had and Sneak Peek Kitchen Remodel

 
Happy 2013! I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures from our Christmas and New Year's adventures. It was for the most part a really relaxing and fun holiday season filled with blessings and God's goodness. Above is our short, fat tree with presents packed underneath, ready to get ripped open by three sets of tiny hands.
 

Here they go! My older two sons were so excited on Christmas morning. Their favorite toys were Rescue Bots. I loved how cute they were in their footie p.j's running around the house.


Here's our youngest child-it was baby boy's first Christmas! Back in February, I wrote a post about our Unexpected Gift-this perfectly sweet, little newborn that arrived into our lives and I can't believe is about to turn one! And we are very, very close to adopting him-just another month or two before he's our forever child! I am so thankful that we made room in our home and hearts for this little blessing. He is truly a joy and I'm so glad I'll get to be his forever mom.

On Christmas morning, I made these amazing strawberry and whipped cream filled crepes, with a light dusting of powdered sugar. Of course, they were devoured by all and gave us the energy to go on a nice walk through the woods at our favorite metropark.


Our boys loved exploring the woods and suspension bridge on our walk while baby boy was content on daddy's backpack.


I was really happy we got snow for Christmas! Right up until Christmas, we had warm temperatures and not a hint of snow. Here's our house and yard in the winter wonderland that finally came:



On New Year's Eve, we went to an event at our zoo for kids called "Noon Year's Eve". The ball goes up at noon and everyone cheers and drinks apple juice while the confetti flies everywhere. It was cute to see the excitement on my boys' faces and that they got to have some fun because there was no way I was letting them stay up until midnight. I actually wasn't even able to stay up that late myself...


I don't really do "New Year's Resolutions" but if I did, getting organized would be on there.( I'm proud to say I did work hard on getting rid of some clutter in my crafting space)It seems like e
very January I usually get the itch to do some kind of remodeling or repainting project. No surprise, right?
So, what we're working on now is a very inexpensive project to create open shelving in our kitchen. All I had to buy was a $13 can of special primer that goes on over laminate. I am so glad I discovered this stuff-it is so easy to work with and I was able to paint right over it in the color I wanted.  
I'll go ahead and show you a sneak peak of what we're working on:

First, we removed these plain laminate cupboard doors...


Then, after a light sanding, I primed the edges with the amazing Zinnser BIN primer. The stuff goes on so smooth over the shiny laminate, dries really fast and actually doesn't have as strong of an odor as the can says. Still, I cracked a window and had a fan going so I would still have brain cells left over. In the morning, I painted the primed edges a soft gray I had saved from my living room called Sharkey Gray.

 I'm still not done finding where to put everything so it looks nice and organized, but I love this arrangement so much better. It visually opens up my narrow galley kitchen and shows off pretty colors and baskets and is a lot easier to just grab a plate or cup. I love my organized spice rack that sits conveniently above my stove too. I'm glad we chose this cheaper option instead of paying for all new cupboards.

We do plan on hiring a contractor at some point to open up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, install concrete countertops and move the sink over so more of a back window can be seen. Until then, we will try doing what we can to transform the rest of the plain laminate into something that blends with the more traditional style of the rest of the house. We shall see what we can come up with on the cheap...


Thanks for visiting ReMadeSimple! I can't wait to share my adoption pictures with you as well as kitchen progress, my final bathroom redo from last fall and some furniture projects I worked on last summer. I hope you'll come back for more!

 
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February 14, 2012

My Love Day: An Adoption Story


Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

I wanted to share a little personal story about why this day is special to us in our family!
 Last year on Feb 14th, we adopted our youngest son and each year we will celebrate
"gotcha day"-the day each of our sons became legally, officially ours!
(and it might sound cheesy, but I really did know the moment I met them both
that they were going to be mine forever...)

As you can imagine, it was a day filled with happiness and relief--we had waited
a year for this finalization (which is really quick, by the way) and it meant
a lot to be surrounded by the friends and family that were rooting for us all along.

We had entered this courtroom only 10 months before to adopt his brother on
April 12th, 2010, when baby boy was only 2 months old.
 I couldn't help but smile at God's little arrangement of dates:

4/12 and 2/14 were our adoption dates assigned to us.
Same numbers, different arrangement.
And there are so many other dates and timings
that just point out that these boys were supposed to be ours.
I'll write a little more about that on our next "gotcha day"...

Hope you enjoy a little photo stream of our happy, happy love day last year:

Jeff signing adoption papers

sweet baby boy! 


so tired-it was his nap time! 

my oldest son, so sleepy too! 

aunt and nephew

grandma and grandson

grandma and grandson

big brother

the Judge who helped make our day so happy! 


the courthouse
So, today we are celebrating "gotcha day" as a family by taking the boys to a huge bounce house place. I'm pretty sure they will love it!

 My youngest son was appropriately adopted on Valentine's Day-he has always been 
really sweet and cuddly and 
I hope he lets me kiss his soft chubby cheeks forever! 

I really like this quote that expresses a lot of what it felt like for me to adopt:

“It has been said that adoption is more like a marriage than 


a birth: two (or more) 


individuals, each 


with their own unique mix of needs, patterns, and genetic 


history, coming together 


with love, hope, 




and commitment for a joint future. You become a family 


not because you share the 


same genes, but 


because you share love for each other.” ~Joan McNamara




Until next time,