P is for Projects.

Spring always means projects around the Sprik house…  and it feels like we’ve been super-busy this past month getting a lot accomplished!

1.  Slowly working on the master bedroom re-do.  Our new furniture has begun to arrive, and so it was time to bust out some new accessories for the room.  The room will be very simple in design, fewer tsotchkes than before, and I thought a pop of color might be nice.  I’m not a huge fan of silk flowers, but darn it if those blue hydrangeas don’t make me smile every single morning since I finished arranging them.

2.  So the new dresser finally arrived in April (still waiting for the bed and nightstands)… we’re going from 2, down to 1 shared dresser.  This meant pulling items for donation, and reorganizing everything.  All of Brian’s socks are in a row, and he’s a happy guy.

3.  Strawberry freezer jam… 12 jars.  Yum!

4.   Besides lacking appropriate master bedroom closet space, this house doesn’t have a mud room.  Which is a real pain during Chicago winters.  So, we’ve set aside space in our junk room dining room for a mini mud room, and we just finished pulling it all together – coat rack, mirror, bench, baskets… {sigh}.

5.  The master bedroom closet was already small – it’s a walk-in, but it’s awkwardly shaped, and lacking in so many ways.  With the dresser depletion, we needed a space to store our too many t-shirts… by adding a row of shelving and losing some hanging space, we’ve actually made the closet seem bigger.  We have room for all of the t-shirts (& then some) AND you can turn round in a circle without your shoulders hitting anything.  It’s a Christmas miracle!

6.  I’ve been wanting a whiteboard in my kitchen for quite some time, and while my mom was in town, I pulled it off… and I love it!  Using ideas from this post and this post, all I did was buy a large frame at Michael’s that coordinated with my home, buy a length of fabric to fit the frame size, frame the fabric, and hang it on the wall.  To secure the fabric on the inside, all we did was stretch and tape it to the included frame’s cardboard.  This way, I can change it out as desired, without anything permanent.  The frame’s glass serves as the whiteboard surface… it’s perfect!

7.  Connor’s toys were threatening to take over the family room, so we had to do something about it.  I really wanted something we could build upon, as our needs change/increase for toy storage.  We went with the Storagepalooza from Land of Nod – and it’s awesome.  When the time comes, we can purchase another unit to stack on top.  So great to have his little play area better organized, plus it’s stable enough that we catch him practicing his PT moves (pulling to stand) on it a few times a day. 

8.  This is just a close-up of the fabric I used in the whiteboard (#6).  Apple green, with a bit of texture.  I wanted to use a solid-colored fabric, not too dark, so it wouldn’t compete with lettering on the glass… what’s the point, if I can’t read the whiteboard, right?

9.  Another blanket for Connor… this one is one of my favorites, and I’m of the opinion that you just can’t have enough blankets.  Grandma Rogers whipped this up in a little over an hour (it took us longer to cut the fabric out and pin it together, than it did to sew it).  Chocolate minky with a basic cotton print on the other side. 

10.  My husband gets the new-car-itch more often than he should.  But, this time it paid off… we were able to cancel our old lease at the same time as the buyout equaled the value of the car, and jump into a new car purchase with a great deal… his timing was impeccable.  After a stressful week or so of haggling with car salesmen and the lies-they-tell-you-to-try-to-get-you-to-buy-the-car-you-didn’t-really-want-to-buy-in-the-first-place, we walked away with the exact vehicle we were planning on all along – happy, relieved, and feeling fortunate.

Coming up, we’re going to attempt this wall art project for the master bedroom… if it turns out, I’ll post it.