A red, yellow and blue striped shared boys bedroom!

One very tired mama later.......and the boys' bedroom is DONE!!!!

Finally!!

I was trying to redecorate the entire room on a budget, which didn't exactly make it "low effort". 

Sigh...

But it kept me going.....gave me something to do....y'know.....as if I didn't have enough going on already ;)

The best part is that it was all worth it to see that boys' faces when I showed them their new room!! 

They couldn't have been more excited. They literally spent hours sitting/playing/exploring in their new room....reading books even! On their own! wow.....why didn't I do this sooner? :)

Anyways....on to the room.....

It's a very busy, pattern-heavy, superhero-friendly room......I figured (since I really can't stand superhero *stuff*)....if you can't beat them, at least make sure that the superhero stuff that does get into the house is somewhat simple and not too garish!

So...I made the cushions (seriously...try finding a red "Flash" cushion...or a "lellow" Superman pillow. IMPOSSIBLE.   They were actually really easy to do.....I wanted them to look a little bit rough around the edges, so I just cut out the superhero symbols and appliquéd them on the cushion covers, leaving the raw edges showing. 

I also made a big navy blue euro sham with two arrows on it...one red, and one yellow.

(Read this post to find out why I had to have one side of the room RED and the other side "LELLOW" ) :)

***ps: Please excuse the bad semi-fuzzy pics in this post....the lighting was bad! They're bugging me, so I might retake them....but we'll see if I get a chance! ***

I painted the blue stripes on the wall (it was dark brown previously, so this made a BIG difference to the room).....using no VOC paint, of course ;)

I wanted some personalized wall art that the boys would recognize, so I edited two pictures of them riding their bikes at the skate park, and had them enlarged. 

This picture makes me smile every time I look at it :)  Two very happy little men!

The bunting was one I'd made for Toby's first birthday party, and as soon as I hung it up I knew it was "too much"......the room is busy enough already!! But I didn't quite get it down in time before two small boys ran into the room exclaiming about how much they loved it, and how it felt like a party....and how I was NOT going to be taking it down!!  whoops.   Oh well...Ir's their room, after all !

I very quickly painted some dollar store cork boards and added two little dollar store hats for fun. As you can see in the pictures above, the hats have been getting some use!

I felt like drawing one day last week, and decided to do a little caricature of the boys :) I just used a thin tip black marker and then used watercolour paints to add some colour. The boys loved this! They actually recognized themselves right away, which I thought was funny :)

Toby's RED nightstand.....complete with a padlock and hidden key.

Toby's new big boy Kindergarten backpack!! Yes...my little man is starting school next week! Eeek.

I made these initials with the leftover plywood from the headboard. My inspiration was from Anthropologie originally.....they had these up in their store as part of a display....but I found them on Pinterest (of course!) here. 

And Finn's "Lellow" nightstand! He was so absolutely chuffed to have his own spot to put his own special toys and "jewels" :) 

I really wanted a headboard to lean against while reading bedtime stories...so I decided to make one. It was actually pretty easy. I just had my local hardware store cut a piece of plywood to the right size, then glued some eggshell foam to the back and drilled holes for the button tufting. Then I stapled the fabric to the plywood and threaded the buttons on and it was done! 

I decided to use Toby's double bed as a day bed so that we wouldn't have to deal with either of them rolling off the bed (man do these boys ever move around in their sleep!). It worked out really well...and they still have lots of room to grow!

Well...there you have it. A busy room for two very busy boys :)

For anyone who cares....here's where I got everything:

Red/blue striped curtains: Pottery Barn Kids on sale

Navy star quilt: PB Kids

Cream Linen Euro Shams : IKEA

Red/white patterned pillow: Home Sense

All other pillows/cushions: DIY

Headboard: DIY

Blue pinstripe Duvet cover and shams: IKEA

Pictures frames : IKEA (yellow one was white originally, then painted yellow)

Red and Yellow nighstands: Thrifted and painted DIY

Shared Boys Bedroom Inpiration

So...I've been planning a new boys' bedroom.

If you can believe it, Finn has been sleeping in our bedroom since he was born (yes...almost 3 years), and I think it's time (new baby coming and all) for the boys to share a bedroom :)

Now.....the problem is that poor little Finny calls it "Toby's bedwoom" ....and I just feel like I need to give it a facelift in order for him to think of it as his "bedwoom" as well!

Easier said than done.

Seriously.

I made the mistake of asking them which colour they would like in their bedroom.....Toby said RED....Finny said "LELLOW!" 

Ok....so....ketchup and mustard. Awesome. 

So....I'm going to attempt to keep everyone happy and incorporate red and yellow, but keep the rest of the room mostly white, with a blue/white striped wall. Crazy?  Whatever. I like crazy.

Just a little "sneak peek" as requested by Michelle :)

Navy blue, Red and Yellow Shared Boys Bedroom by tracey-kofoed on Polyvore


(I'm not really actually using these products....more of a DIY deal going on around here....but just so you have a little idea of where I'm trying to go with this)



So...there you have it. My little "project" of the moment!

I kind of love projects.

My goal is to have this finished by next weekend. Think I can pull it off? ;)



Not quite sure where I'll get the energy from, but, if anything, it keeps my mind off feeling sick.

Gluten Free Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins (GAPS/Paleo/SCD Diet friendly)

These were a hit.

Plain and simple.

Since Toby will be starting Kindergarten in 3 weeks (EEEK!), I decided to start experimenting with coconut flour for baking instead of almond meal because the school is "nut free" (I honestly don't know how to survive because a lot of Toby's diet consists of nuts!). Toby's tummy troubles are explained here (if you're wondering why we have to go to such lengths with coconut flour and the like) ;)

But we had some success :)

And they were taste tested by not only my two "sugar-deprived" boys, but their friend Gavin, who ate 4 of them straight out of the oven! Didn't even wait for them to cool down! 

They told me that these little muffins were "more delicious than the cupcakes at the cupcake store"  ....what????    A GROSS exaggeration.......in my opinion. But hey....makes me relieved that I have a little treat that doesn't contain nuts, and can be sent to school (with many variations possible)!

I came up with this recipe by combining/tweaking a few that I found online...

It makes 24 mini muffins

1 ripe banana (mashed)

4 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup raw honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp organic raw cocoa powder

1/3 cup coconut flour

Handful of bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Combine all of the ingredients except for the last three (baking powder/cocoa/coconut flour)

Mix until well blended. Combine the last three ingredients in a separate bowl and then add gradually to the other ingredients. Mix well so that all lumps of coconut flour are blended in.

Pour into greased muffin tins, or parchment paper mini muffin liners (my favourite because they NEVER stick to the muffins, and save a lot of mess!)

Bake for approx. 10-12 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Once the muffins came out of the oven, I added two bittersweet chocolate chips to the top of each one.

Enjoy!! 

First blog post in 2 months......here's why....

Yes.....you're looking at a 12 week baby belly!  I've been a liiiiittle bit busy for the past couple of months making a human ;)

And pretty much sick as a dog. Well....I'd say operating at maybe 30%.....which is not a lot of energy. Thank goodness for my wonderful mom who has been keeping me afloat. Literally. She's been making suppers, looking after the boys so I can rest, doing my grocery shopping....and taking seriously good care of this mama :)  She is, without doubt, the best mom a girl could ever have :) 

I'm glad to say that in the past week, I've been feeling a little better and I'm hoping I'm over the worst of it!

My belly has grown much quicker this time around. I think I'm the same size I was at 20 weeks with the boys!! yikes.  I'm trying to keep my blood sugar in check (I'm hypoglycaemic and my blood sugar has been really low since being pregnant this time), so I'm eating very little sugar/processed carbs (they just make me feel really awful after I eat them, and surprisingly, I'm not craving sweets this time around!).....here's hoping the unintentional side effect of this might be an "under 10 pound" baby ;)  Finn was 10 lbs 6 oz, so I'm kind of hoping they don't get bigger every time! eek.  Although, I had an amazingly quick labour with Finny, despite his size!

Toby is super excited about the 'baby in mama's tummy" :) Finny wasn't exactly thrilled initially, but he's now hugging and kissing my belly and saying "I love you baby!" . 

Big hugs here from my little photographer. Photos courtesy of Toby ;)

Now that I have a teensy bit more energy to actually get up out of bed, I'm sort of doing a mini living room makeover. We bought a new sofa and I'm trying to figure out the best furniture layout for our room. Not the *easiest* thing to do when you're not allowed to move furniture around. sigh.

More to come on this....

xo