Our Christmas - The Crafty

New Christmas Jammies. Super happy with how these turned out. The only disappointment was the lack of plain t-shirts in Sister's size. I finally, in a pinch, raided her onesie supply, only to realize after I'd added the applique that it was (much) too small. So, a little tight -but still very cute. That is the cutest Christmas fabric ever.

New flannel snuggly blanket for my husband. Threw my shoulder out making this one (I powered through the whole thing in like an hour) but it was so worth the surprise. He had no idea.

And, new coordinating blankets for the bunk beds. You can also see their new pillow-pets. Another thing that they super-love. (obviously not home-made though ; ) )

These were made last minute, with supplies I had laying around, but the Sister (who has a real passion for all things "blingy") thinks they're great.

And last but not least... The farmhouse doll bed. I have to let my husband share credit for this one, he did a lot of the work, but it was so much fun, and I think it is just adorable. Especially with the scrappy blanket I made to go with it. Of course the plans are Knock-off wood (ana-white.com) There is a link on my sidebar.

My crafting has been on hold for a couple of weeks now, but I have a few new ideas brewing, and hopefully will have more to share soon.

Hooked...

Yep, my sweet husband has caught the carpentry bug.  We were out in the garage the other day, and he started looking at the scrap pile that we have left from the bunk beds (as you can imagine, it's pretty big).  He decided he was going to build some chairs (from the scraps) to go with an end table that we picked up at IKEA for $7.99.  So, he fiddled around with some plans - one of the perks of being married to an engineer - and started cutting.

The kids were asleep, so we couldn't really do any "measuring" (of the behind variety) until the next morning.  The two chairs turned out to be just right for Beefy and Baby sister, but too small for Buggy. What else could he do but go back to the scrap pile and build a Buggy-sized bench.

Now we call it our "baby bistro set".  It is super cute!  Still needs one more coat of paint, but otherwise it is ready to be taken to the boys room and played with!

The best part - the total cost was $0. (Or you can count the $7.99 of the table that they will be sitting under, if you want to get picky.) They are made entirely out of scraps that we had, and leftover screws and paint.  It makes me happy.

(In case you are interested, we figured it out, and it would be less than $20 for supplies if you were wanting to build your own.)

Picnic Table

So, after the bunk beds, I just couldn't stop with the power tools.  On Memorial Day, my friend Amy and I built the "bigger kids picnic table".

Her's was stained, and looked really great (sorry I don't have pictures).  Mine is painted this fabulous shade of orange.  Unfortunately, after finishing it on Monday it took until Saturday to get a day that was nice enough to finally pull it out of the garage (stinky, rainy, Seattle weather).  As  you can see, they love it.

It definitely isn't perfect, but for an outdoor picnic table that my kids will get endless pleasure out of....It's good enough.

It's Done!

Not bad, eh?  The kids are loving it.

 I'm loving it too.

Their room was so ready for an update - though now I need to work on matching quilts.

 They think that these ledges are the best feature of the bed.  Perfect place for all their action figures.

The Bottom...

...Bunk, that is.

Here it is in all its glory.  The pictures speak for themselves.

An Update...

...Cause you know you want one.  And, because I'm in a huge blog rut right now.

Bed #1 (i.e. bottom bunk/Beefy's bed) is finished - assembly wise - and is currently being painted a fantastic shade of navy.  It looks so awesome (but pictures from my garage, late at night, do not).

The plan right now is to finish painting bed #1, and then get it all set up in the Boy's room, to make more room in the garage.  Bed # 2 is about 75% assembled, so once #1 is out of the way we can finish #2 and paint it then take it up and get them all put together. Yay!

I am very excited to see them finished.  I have to admit though, this project has been really, really fun.  Most of Saturday was spent on a trip to Lowe's for more screws/hardware and working on the beds.  I even built most of the foot board for #2 by myself (with a little gluing help from Buggy-he loved that he got to help make his bed).  I love using a drill.  So fun!

Anyway, that is about all for now.  Hopefully I'll be out of my blogging rut (and over this dang cough - it's persisted for a month now) very soon.

Our Newest Project

I just have to start out by saying that I am sooooo very excited about this project.  I almost get giddy whenever I think about it.

Have you ever heard of the knock-off wood blog?  If you haven't go there now, you will truly be amazed.  Anyway-I ran across this blog a while back, and while perusing it and drooling over some of the amazing stuff there, I ran across these plans, and got inspired. 

I have been thinking on bunk beds for a while now.  See, Buggy turns 6 soon, and I promised him ages ago that when he was 6 they could have bunk beds.  Now I have to make good on my promise.

I'm lucky that my husband is very handy when it comes to building stuff.  Also, that he likes to.  Also, that we have a garage full of tools just itching to be used. 

So, after a trip to Lowes last week, a whole bunch of wood and extras, a fully loaded car, and me giving up my spot in the garage, we had this:

After a couple of days with my husband spending his free time in the garage sanding, and cutting, and assembling, we had this:

A couple more days worth of free time, and we are already to this:

There is still a plenty big pile of wood left to go, but it is coming along nicely, and it is so much fun to build.  I've even been out there helping a lot.

We've modified the design a little, adding some bolts through the side rails to ease in assembly and dis-assembly.

Budget-wise, this project is fantastic for us.  Any of you who have looked at bunk beds know that they don't come cheap, not even a little bit.  We already own all of the tools we needed.  So far in wood and materials we have spent roughly $210.  We will still have to spend a little bit more for some more screws and paint, but my estimate is that we will come in under $250 for the whole project.  Remember this is $250 for the equivalent of this bed.  Not to shabby.

My goal is to be done in 3 more weeks (Beefy's birthday).  I will keep you updated on our progress between now and then though.