Birdie big-girl room...

We have officially transitioned Claire to her toddler bed, and into her new birdie-inspired big girl room. I'm VERY lucky to have a little girl who is so easygoing, making the transition easy as pie. It took two days of going back in a couple of times per nap or night before she had her new routine down perfectly! She stays in her bed all night, then cries "Mommy, mommy!" when she wakes up, and waits for me to come get her before she gets out. Man, am I in trouble for baby #2, or what?! Check out her new digs:

A dollhouse built by her daddy will replace the rocker for Birthday #2!! That project and her "Rise and Shine" birthday plans, coming soon...

Bathroom Reveal

The master bathroom project is complete (and has been for a few weeks, but I'm just getting around to uploading pics)! I have to say, my DIY husband has outdone himself on this one...check it out!

Remember the boring, dark and almondy "before"?

Welcome to our "after"...light, airy and much more functional.

Not to continue bragging, but just so you know, SJ built the vanity (complete with inset shaker-style doors and soft-closing drawers) and the built-ins over the bathtub. We did all of the travertine tiling ourselves, and the tub surround is wrapped in a quartz stack-stone tile (so easy to apply, btw!) that we found on Craigslist.  I will take credit for a small amount of demolition, decision-making and decorating, but other than that (and only ONE plumber visit!), this was all SJ. Here are some of my favorite features:

Didn't realize how little storage we had until we added built-ins. I found this idea on Pinterest and it fit perfectly into our cozy bathroom (with no linen closet!). The hair dryer, straightener, products, bath toys, etc. are all hidden away in baskets, and I love that there is now some space for displayiing personal decor, frames, towels, and toiletries.

We went with a more modern, streamlined soaker tub...it's super deep and takes up much less space than our old gigantic (and almond-colored) garden tub. Don't you love the stack-stone?

We used travertine for all of the tiling, since it's such a small bathroom and we both really wanted subway-style. To save money, we bought 18 X 18 inch tiles, and cut each one to 9 X 18- this did involve a weekend rental of a heavy-duty tile saw, but well worth the time for the money we saved. I really love how much bigger the shower seems, the rainfall showerhead, and the mosaic floor. The built-in niche was a major headache for SJ, but it's perfect for shampoo storage in such a small shower. Notice the frameless glass shower door?! It was our splurge for the project but since we installed it ourselves (please don't try this at home!), it was justified, and makes it look very high-end!

Hooks instead of a towel bar (another Pinterest idea!)...found these at Kohl's for $8 each. Bonus!

My accessories were inspired by the quilt I have for our master bedroom (that project reveal coming soon!), and I adore the gray, chocolate, tan, and golden-yellow accents. My friend Christine gave me the glass jewelry jar for my birthday, then I found a few more mercury glass accessories at Target to coordinate. The hand-towel is an Anthropologie find....typically I would never spend more than $10 on a hand towel, but I couldn't pass this beauty up. The granite countertop was an all-in-one deal from Menards. The undermount sinks and backsplash came with it and I think we spent under $300 on the whole thing. What a find! All of our fixtures (including pivot mirrors, hardware and faucets) are from online retailers...ebay, csnstores.com and amazon.com are our go-to places for great deals!

Not sure we'll tackle a job this big again, but the result of this project are pretty impressive if you ask me. Now it's time to enjoy it....but I can guarantee that it won't be long before another Kruse project comes along! Claire's big-girl room and the loft playroom transformation coming soon...

DIY crib mobile

I made this mobile a few weeks ago for our good friends Dan and Katie...they had the most precious little baby boy, Sam, and since they were surprised with the gender (love that!), they still needed some nursery decor. I was glad I could contribute!

Materials:

Embroidery Hoop, painted red

Ribbon

Scrapbook Paper

Grommets

Buttons

Hot Glue

Maybe Sam will be into older women?!

Upcycle

Golden oak TV stand turned play kitchen! This was actually CE's Christmas gift from mommy and daddy, but I just now have gotten around to the finishing touches...pretty darn adorable, if you ask me.

Paint: free (we had the blue from our living room, the chalkboard from A & R's wedding!)

Hardware: free (from our old kitchen and bathrooms)

Wooden "J" Faucet: $2 at Michael's

Fabric and pom-poms: $5 at JoAnn

Mailbox "microwave" numbers: $2 from Menards

Metal mixing bowl sink: $4 from Target

Total: $13

Not too shabby!

Bathroom progress

I've had some requests on how our master re-do is coming along so thought I'd post a small update...slowly but surely, it's starting to look as wonderful as we had envisioned!

Travertine shower...all of our travertine was cut into 9 X 18's (by SJ himself!) and is set into a "subway" style

Tub filler with quartz stack-stone surround

New WHITE Kohler soaker tub

Travertine subway floor, meet stack stone surround

Wondering why we didn't finish the back section?? SJ is building built-ins for extra storage that will be integrated into the tub surround....a little like this:

Photo from Pinterest, via houzz.com (great site if you love anything "home", btw!)

What We're Seasoning

With some Pinterest inspiration, I decided that I wanted to start making my own "packet" seasonings...I use dry onion soup mix, ranch and italian dressing mix and taco seasoning A LOT, especially in the winter with crock-pot recipes. Once I started reading about some of the ingredients chemicals that are in those packets, I was all for it. Starting with four canning jars (with lids), here are the recipes:

Onion Soup Mix
2/3 cup dried, minched or chopped onion
3 tsp. parsley flakes
2 tsp. onion
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp celery salt
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground black pepper


Ranch Dressing
5 Tbsp dried minced onions
7 tsp parsley flakes
4 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

Italian Dressing

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 

1 Tbsp onion powder

2 Tbsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp ground thyme

1/2 tsp celery seed

Taco Seasoning
1/2 cup chili powder
1/4 cup onion powder
1/8 cup ground cumin
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp sea salt
**This is for a "mild" seasoning, so to make it "hot" add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper**

Put all ingredients into each jar and give them a good shake!
2 Tbsp seasoning = one packet

It's gonna be a big one...

Renovation, that is. The biggest we've tackled, thus far. We've successfully DE-structed the master bathroom, and now begins the process of putting it all back together. Here are a few "before" and "blank slate" photos to get us started.

Here's a {crappy} photo of before the "before," during our final walk-through before purchasing the house. We've done a few cosmetic updates (painting, hardware, framing the mirror and a light-fixture) since then...

Actually doesn't look half-bad from this shot....why did we do this again??

Oh, that's right....the infamous shell-shaped sink and almond-colored bathtub.

And the tiny, stinky, white-grout-turns-orange-when-it's-wet shower.

Let the destruction  begin....

I have to say, I was pretty handy with a hammer and chisel. I pretty much tore out all of the bathtub and shower tile myself...SJ was left to the plumbing, carrying down loads of debris, and tearing out floor tiles that took much more man (and brain) power!

Wow, that's a little scary, right? I think we might need a keg to go in that bucket after all of this is finished...

Fabric freak

I'm super pumped to get started on my next sewing project...especially since I bought the most adorable (and sophisticated) designer fabrics a few weeks ago. A combo of Amy Butler, Alexander Henry and Anna Griffin prints will hopefully be transformed into something like this:

 ...from this adorable etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/people/blumoondesign?ref=ls_profile

and/or this:

 from this etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DressReHERSal?ref=seller_info

I've practiced the ruffle pants for Claire's birthday outfit, but have some adjustments to make for attempt #2.

Wish me luck!