Car - Bus - Truck Themed Bedroom

Just before Sammy turned two, I was busy painting and decorating a new "big boy bedroom" for him.  He got a space-slash-robot bedroom, which left the bug room vacant for baby #2 to move in. Well, it's hard to believe my baby boy is now two already!  And, now that we know just how much he loves cars, trucks, buses, and anything with wheels, we decided to give him his own themed room.

I found an image of an old VW bus online and projected it on the wall to draw the outline, then painted it with acrylics:

I went over the whole thing with some clear poly to protect it.  To an adult the perspective is a little funny since it's not full scale, but from Toby's height it's perfect!

Of course I couldn't stop at just the bus...

I added a street sign on the opposite wall with his name which was really fun.  I also got him a really cool flashing street light that I mounted on the wall.

Here are a couple fun thrift store finds that I added to the room...

Memo board, $2.99 at Goodwill!

Target clock, brand new in the package at Goodwill for $5

We had a really nice wool rug in his room but it was all bug theme.  So, we swapped it out for these cool foam tiles.  Some time when he's older we'll probably get another carpet, but this was a really great and economical floor covering for the time being.  We used two sets to make a large area....

 

The first couple days Toby had a blast disassembling all the circles that Mommy had so diligently coordinated.  But, luckily that didn't last long.  I'm just glad he didn't start biting chunks out of them!  We'll see how long they last!

Final Fun Friday Finds for 2011

It's been way too long, and I realize the Friday is almost over, but here are a few final fun Friday finds for 2011!

Spinach Chips from Michele Made Me .... now on my to-try list!

Stegosaurus sox tutorial from Happy Together - definitely gotta try making these!

Squid dogs - found these on Pinterest and I finally tried them the other week...totally void of any nutrition but fun for the kids!

Super hero shoes...sold out on Etsy but what a fun idea if you can make them yourself!

Okay, I want to post more but it's getting late!  Have a fabulous last day of 2011, everyone!  See you next year!

Fun Friday Finds

Wow, it's been a while since I've done this, hasn't it?!  This tells me I need to slow down and spend a little more "me" time exposing myself to cool, inspirational stuff, which is how I come across my Fun Friday Finds.  So, here are a few for this week!

One of my designer friends who always has her finger on the pulse of the design world recently shared this cool product on Facebook...a vertical, self-watering garden.  Wouldn't it make a cool room divider?

Here's a kid related product design...Cap-Sack Kids! Sortof a fanny pack for your head, although these have replaced the function of making your butt look big with the much more useful function of keeping the sun out of your eyes. (Via Cool Hunting)

Well now, these little sushi memo pads are just cute, aren't they? (without the threat of salmonella of course) (via Josh Spear)

Love these 1950's style ads for 21st century technology created by agency "Moma São Paulo." (via ReubenMiller)

That's all for this week folks...have yourselves a wonderful weekend!!

The Fort

As a kid, the house itself, albeit overrun by toys, is a grown-up thing.  The shiniest stuff is always breakable and out of reach. The sink requires a step stool to reach.  The corners of the counters and tables are right at head-banging level.  The doorknobs can lock, but Mom and Dad have a secret key to get any of them open.  So, your only escape from the world of adults is your bedroom...UNLESS, of course, you have a super awesome, secret fort!!

We recently moved, and within a few days of moving in my husband and I noticed that the bottom shelf of one of the built-in shelf units downstairs had a curtain in the back instead of wood.  Upon further investigation, we discovered that this was the entrance to a super-secret fort.  With a spiral staircase, we didn't think to look for a closet underneath like you might with regular stairs.

We waited about a week or so before we unveiled the fort to Sammy, our 3 year old.  I wanted to get in there and clean it up, paint it, and make it incredibly awesome for him...or at least give him a jumping-off point to give it his own awesome touch.

It was all pretty brown and dingy, so I took some colorful paint left-over from various home painting projects to brighten it up.  This included the underside of the steps too, of course, and stripes on the vertical ribbed paneling.

 

 I ran some rope lights around the inside, and plugged them into a little dimmer switch controller, so Sammy could easily turn them on and off. I also hung a couple battery powered push lights on the walls.

 During a trip to the fabric store I came across a package of wall "stickers"...little trucks, airplanes, and trains with wallpaper paste on the back.  I scattered these around the inside as well.

 

 You can see above that I left a rectangle of the wood un-painted on one step.  This spot holds the history of the fort, hand-written with pencil by the kids who came before us.  Here you can find out who originally built the fort, who added decorations, who "was here" on various dates, who painted their toenails in the fort, and even a record of who farted in the fort.  Now how could I have painted over that? We'll add our own history to this little record!

 I wanted to reveal the fort to Sammy through a game of hide-and-seek, one of his favorite games that we play almost daily.  He counted with Daddy while Mommy hid, in the fort of course.  Let's just say he was pretty excited to find Mommy in this hiding spot of all hiding spots!

Not long after the reveal of the fort, we took a trip to one of Sammy's favorite stores, Choo Choo Bob's Train Store.  They had a wall of posters for $1.50 so I let him pick one to hang on his fort wall.  Without hesitation he chose this one (above), of "Engineer Emily" from the Choo Choo Bob Show.  As his mom, I'm pretty happy with his choice for his first girl poster.

This fort also has a secret 2nd entrance, under the steps in the corner...it's open but you'd never think to look there if you were coming down the stairs.

Toby LOVES to play in the fort as well.  For a little guy who isn't quite walking yet, it's pretty exciting to have something so cool that is accessible by crawling!

I'd still like to make a new curtain that blends in more with the shelf to make it even more secret, and maybe add a shelf or two inside for toys.  But, this industrial designer Mommy will try her hardest to refrain from doing too much, so that my boys can do what THEY want with the fort as they get older! (As long as they don't take girlfriends in there!)

Fun Magnetic Frig Toys!

Recently I've come across some really fun frig toys and thought I'd share some links, as they'd make some great Christmas gifts for your little ones!

These "Frigits" toys offer a series of rails, chutes, buckets, and wheels that attach to your frig with magnets, allowing your child to set up a fun path for the marble to follow.  I think if I get this for Sammy, I just might end up playing with it just as much myself!



There are also some pretty fun looking gear sets out there that can be arranged on the fridge via magnets as well.



We have the little Leap Frog farm magnet set which is a lot of fun too.  I picked this one up at a garage sale for $4, complete with all of the letters.  The idea is to match the front and back of each animal, and then when you push them in it plays a song about that animal.  The most fun part though, I think anyway, is to make mixed animals and hear the song sing about a "cow-horse," etc! ;-)

Leap Frog also has other fun frig sets to learn letters, build words, etc...


I picked up one of these little Zero-Gravity frig rover cars on our trip up north this past fall for Sammy's stocking...it's basically like a wind-up toy with a magnet on it, so when you wind it up, it drives up the frig door!  I think I'll probably test it on the side of our fridge first though, just to be sure that it doesn't leave any kind of scratched path behind it!


I like having a couple fun frig toys to rotate and keep my kids' interest.  They always love to hang out with Mommy while I'm trying to make a meal, and this helps keep them occupied and away from the temptation of hot stoves and sharp knives!!