It all started when I saw these fabric tea bags on Pinterest and thought they’d be really fun for Clara’s play kitchen since she’s so into making food and pretending to eat it and have tea parties with her stuffed animals. And really, what’s a tea party without tea? So even though there weren’t any directions to be found, I thought I’d just wing it. What’s the worst that could happen? Wait, don’t answer that. You’ve seen my previous work…

First I cut a few little squares from ten of my favorite fabrics.

Then I grabbed some twine that I had in the gift closet for the string part (it’s leftover from a gift someone gave me a while back). I also brought in a few cotton balls from the bathroom because I figured the tea bags had to be stuffed with something. And then I just cut two tea bag shaped pieces of fabric from each swatch (so although you see 10 tea-bag-shaped swatches below, there are two in each stack, right on top of each other for a total of 20). I also cut a long rectangle from each fabric to make the tag on the top of the tea bag.

Then I sat down at the sewing machine, said a small please-don’t-make-me-throw-you-out-the-window prayer, and got sewing. Within about five minutes I had this mess, and had completely ruined my first tea bag. There might have been a few whispered obscenities. Nothing gets me heated like my sewing machine, guys. Nothing.

But I resisted the urge to Hulk Smash it and started in on my second attempt. This time I came up with the idea of putting both of the right sides of the tea bags together (with the bad ones facing out) while tucking the string between it like you see in the photo below. Then I sewed up all of the sides of it except for the bottom where the string sticks out. You can see how bad I am about following the edges of the tea-bag shape here. Better work on that.

Then I turned it right-side out. The good news? The string was securely sewn to the top of the bag. The bad news? It looked like a feminine hygiene product. I allllmost gave up for the second time. There were more mumbled obscenities.

But before I threw in the towel, I figured it might look better if I could tuck half a cotton ball in there, fold the bottom part up to seal it, and add a little stitching to hold it closed, thereby finishing the bag part. Thankfully things started to turn around at this point, because it actually got cute-ish (and less tampon-esque in shape). Hallelujah!

To attach the tag part at the top I just folded that piece of fabric in half and put a few stitches into it so it caught the string and stayed folded.

Then I put my head down, said a few more “please don’t make me pound you with a hammer” prayers to my sewing machine, and in about ten more minutes I had three more of these guys knocked out. Wahoo!

About half an hour later I was left with nine tea bag babies. They’re definitely not perfect, but that first attempt was my only casualty. And my sewing machine is still alive and well. So…. success!

Clara especially loves them because I have tea every night and most mornings. So she sees me with it and now has her own tea bags so she can sip with me.

So this is the project that almost wasn’t, but is! And I think we all learned a lesson today, guys. No matter how much something looks like a feminine hygiene product when it’s half done, at least try finishing it before flushing it down the toilet. Both literally or figuratively.

Anyone else sewing stuff? How’s your relationship with your sewing machine? I hear that so many people love to sew (and even that it calms them?!) but my experiences can best be described as tumultuous with a side of anxiety. So far in the end it has always been worth it though. And seeing Clara and her stuffed giraffe sitting down for a little tea party is pretty much the cutest thing ever.

They looked pretty fancy, but they just weren’t our style, so it was time to take them down and make a nice little donate pile for Habitat for Humanity. The funny thing is that when we got up on chairs and lifted them down, we discovered that these babies were pinned and even screwed right into the window at times! Cracked us up. I mean, we’re no strangers to using fabric remnants and wood braces screwed into windowsills, but seeing white pushpins sticking out of the blue molding was pretty unexpected. Gotta love those “make it work” DIY moments…

The most surprising part of Mission Remove Dem Curtains was… the time it took to remove dem! Thanks to the screws and pins (there were straight pins, safety pins, and even tacks and twine attaching them to windows, trim, and even themselves) it was a somewhat slow process full of “how is this thing still clinging to the window?!”

Finally, about an hour spent running around with the screwdriver and hammer (to be sure we popped out every last nail and screw so all the windows are ready for spackle and eventual paint) we were left with this pile:

And this pretty impressive collection of tacks, nails, screws, and pushpins:

And even though the curtains were riddled with tacks (and a fair amount of dust) I did this. Because I just can’t control myself.

My favorite touch was the curtain rod turned scepter. All hail Curtains McFlower.

Now that they’re down, more light is streaming in and each of those four rooms feel a little more like us. We’re dreaming of a nice swanky layered look for the curtains in our new house. Perhaps bamboo blinds with curtains hung high and wide over them? Sort of like this. Or this. Or this. Except not necessarily with plain white or cream curtains.

Oh happy day. It’s the little things. Playing dress up never hurts either…

Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.

Most Photogenic: Next Monday’s giveaway, which should make all of you fellow Instagram addicts pretty dang excited.

Most Foolish: Us, for kicking off the month with a faux rap video in honor of April Fool’s. A few of you even fell for it or wanted it to be longer (jiggawhat?!).

Most Delayed: Adding crown molding to the tops of our kitchen cabinets… finally. Something about being on a crown molding kick made us bite the bullet and polish those guys off.

Most Awesome: Finally getting our “Things That Are Awesome” print hung up in the guest bedroom as part of finishing off that side of the room (and adding a colorful little bookcase too).

Most Weirdly Amusing: In this updated video tour of our house, a towel falls off a hook at one point. I have no idea why that cracked us up so much…

Most Worldly: The map calendar that we cut apart to create a series of art for our hallway. It makes for a nice visual wish-list of places we’d like to go, since so far we’ve only been to one of the eight cities shown. So yeah, we should get on that.

Least Naked: The space above our TV which we finally dressed up with a simple DIY shelf and a few colorful objects. The award for “Most Naked” may go to the Games of Thrones episode that’s still on our DVR.

Smartest: All of the friends and family we tapped for advice on how they work smarter, not harder - including ideas for organizing your daily tasks, emailing efficiently, and even blogging better. Not to mention all of the tips you guys added in the comments!

Most Relieved: Sherry, when she learned that busting out the scallops on our porch was going to be much simpler than the last time she attempted it on our first house. It’s always nice when a project starts off easier than expected!

Most Proven Wrong: Me, I’ll admit. I told Sherry I wasn’t convinced that we should add window treatments to our office. But from the moment the bamboo shades went up in there I knew I was wrong. I’m still surprised at how much more finished they made the room feel. And the new house will definitely get a nice gaggle of bamboo blinds in cahoots with a boatload of curtains.

Beefiest: The new columns on our front porch, which we boxed out last month to give our house a bit more of a modern look. Just looking at this picture again is giving me flashbacks to all the caulking we did out there to make sure everything was sealed up to keep out moisture. But we love that the new columns are a lot more true to a ranch style home (many of our neighbors have squared off columns that used to make us green with envy).

Most Well-Traveled: Certainly not us, although we did clock a lot of travel as part of our book tour. So we shared ten things we learned along the way and in the comments you guys added a lot more great tips and advice.

Most Polished: The three additional spaces we added crown molding to, making all of the rooms in our house officially crownified (except bathrooms). This post also has a step-by-step video tutorial of the process for any future crown installers out there.

Craftiest: Clara, who got her first experience Mod Podging as part of this little box makeover which involved some washi tape and one of Clara’s paintings from school.

Most Tedious: Clipping off branches from a vine that was bad news for the tree off of our patio. It wasn’t the most exciting task, but the open feeling it brought to that side of the house was well worth it. Plus, I got to wear a construction helmet.

Most Neutralized: The guest bathroom, which we painted white (trim, walls, and ceiling) in preparation for a mini-makeover. It was a small change from the cream paint that was in there before, but was an important step in freshening it up a bit – and it made the yellow tile more charming when it wasn’t in a big off-white box.

Most Likely To Throw Shade: The bamboo blinds that we also hung in our sunroom to add a bit of privacy and warmth to the window-tastic room.

Most Talkative: Members of the new forums that we added for you guys to chat/exchange ideas/share project photos. Update: we’ve since given it a slight homepage makeover and expanded it with new categories for suggested topics like “Blogging” and “Outdoor & Garden” thanks to user feedback.

Most Old School: The yellow tile in our guest bathroom, which we were able to embrace thanks to new art, accessories, and a freshly painted mirror.

Most Helpful: The free pergola plan from Workbench magazine that we discovered online, which is what gave us the confidence to tackle the pergola project we had long dreamed about.

Most Improved: Our carport, after completing the pergola (aka “cargola”) that gave it some much needed architectural interest.

Most Commented: The announcement that we purchased a new home. It quickly became our most commented non-giveaway post at nearly 3,000 comments, surpassing the previous record holder (Clara’s Birth Story) by about 600. Your enthusiasm and excitement for our new place both humbles and hypes us up. Let’s do this!

What did you guys cross off the list in April? Can you even remember?

Somewhere between the Williamsburg Blue and the Muddy Mauve, our painting hands began to quiver with excitement. Or was that dread? Not sure.

We reasoned that while all of the carpet was up and before the new hardwoods went down, we should take advantage of the can-get-painted subfloor and go ahead and tackle the upstairs trim. Correction: trim and doors. Sixteen doors to be exact… which we removed and de-hardwared first for easy painting.

Attempting to quickly paint four bedrooms and closets worth of trim along with a long hallway plus nine windows (with tons o’ mullions) and the aforementioned sixteen doors seemed like a job that warranted a paint sprayer. So we decided it was finally time to get one. And thanks to a suggestion from the Bowers, we picked up this Graco TrueCoat II which was on sale for $180 at Lowe’s. We opted to buy one instead of renting it because there’s still plenty of stuff to paint in this house beyond just these things – so we’d like to have one that we can use a bunch of times as we move from room to room (did we mention there’s still a ton of blue trim downstairs?).

The sprayer is a lot simpler than I expected. It’s pretty much just a plastic cup attached to the gun, which just plugs in. So there wasn’t much in the means of set-up (although we definitely read the directions twice just to make sure we didn’t screw it up). Then we dove into our primer coat.

We’ve heard that the biggest pain of owning a paint sprayer is clean up, so we opted to use a provided bag in the paint cup to keep it clean and hopefully eliminate one step afterwards.

We don’t have a ton of pictures of the process because one of us was downstairs with Clara while the other sprayed. And also, the process was pretty darn fast. We could zip along the baseboards of one room in about 10 to 15 minutes, and the majority of that time was usually spent refilling the paint cup.

So I definitely agree with what everyone had told me about spraying: it’s MUCH faster, but you use a lot more paint. I could only get through about two door sides before having to refill my paint cup. But boy was it satisfying to watch that blue paint disappear with each swipe. And it’s not that you’re wasting paint, it’s just that you’re getting more coverage (spraying the front of a door once might take twice as much paint, but it’s akin to two coats applied with a brush).

Once we feel a bit more seasoned with the sprayer we’ll do a deeper post about using it, but for now I feel like we’re still getting the hang of it. Our biggest challenge is fighting the urge to go back and “touch up” a spot we missed because we found it’s very easy to apply too much paint and create drips.

But if you go slowly and resist the urge to double spray, the smooth factory-like finish is amazing.

We made the call to paint the windows by hand rather than attempt to get every nook and cranny of it sprayed (we pictured a ton of rogue drips and a bunch of overspray covering all of the glass panes). After the fact, we’re not so sure it was the right call since our hand technique will still require some glass scraping with a razor and all of the blue/mauve windows took one coat of primer plus 3 coats of paint each since we were doing them by hand. Woof.

So yeah, this has pretty much been keeping us busy for the last few days. Spraying only occupied two mornings (priming one, painting the next) but we’ve made several trips to hand paint the windows and other areas that we couldn’t spray easily. I’ve lost track of which trip these photos were taken, but you can see what a difference it’s making.

We didn’t bother to tape off the walls or floors or anything around the sprayed areas (except for some too-close-for-comfort outlets and vents). So it means the walls are in desperate need of painting now too, but that’s a project for another day.

Some rooms, like the guest room and our master, only had cream trim/doors so they didn’t require any primer. Which meant this whole paint job only took 2 gallons of primer. Not bad for four rooms, four closets, nine windows, sixteen doors, and a giant hallway (about 30% of those had cream paint).

But we needed 4.5 gallons of white paint. Had we been able to predict that we’d have bought one of those five gallon buckets at the start, rather than making the multiple trips to the store we’ve been making. Live and learn, right?

The paint we’re using is Benjamin Moore’s Ultra Spec in Simply White (in a semi-gloss finish) based on a few recommendations for that type of paint from you guys. It’s No-VOC contractor-grade paint that’s more affordable than BM’s Natura paint that we usually use and so far we’re really happy with it. Instead of being over $50 per gallon, it’s just $36 through our local paint store (I’m sure it varies by location, but it should be in that range), which has certainly made buying five gallons of it a little less painful.

Oh and as for choosing the color, we brought home about ten swatches of white and just picked the one that looked the best when we taped it up next to all of the others (some were too yellow, some were too blue, but Simply White looked clear and crisp without feeling too warm or too cool). Of course it’ll look a whole lot better after we paint those yellowed walls and ceilings…

Our total budget for four rooms and four closets worth of trim/baseboards plus nine windows, sixteen doors, and a giant hallway has been:

• Paint sprayer: $180
• Primer, 2 gallons: $36 (on sale)
• Paint, 5 gallons: $180 (we still have half a gallon leftover for a future project)
• TOTAL: $396
  

It’s certainly more than we envisioned spending, but because we’re on a time crunch to get the new floors in before we move, we’re counting our lucky stars that painting so many things went as quickly as it did. And now that we own the paint sprayer it’ll probably will work out to around ten cents per use by the time we’re done painting this house (so. much. blue. trim.).

Next step is to rehang all of the doors (after we replace some of the old pitted brass hardware) and then we can get to laying those hardwoods. We contemplated getting some other painting done while the subfloor is still exposed – walls, ceilings, closet interiors – but we’re starting to feel that move date creep up on us (T minus 2 weeks!). We figure we can move in with unpainted walls and ceilings more easily than moving in without completed floors – and thankfully we’re no strangers to painting walls and ceilings with hardwoods that are already in place.

So that’s what we’ve been up to. How about you?

Plus, dragons. I mean if that’s not a trump card for a party, I’m not sure what is. After she picked worms for her party last year I wasn’t sure it got more fun than that, but when she told us she wanted dragons this year, well, we laughed and jumped right in. She even told the doctor at her three year appointment that dragons were coming to her party and I’m pretty sure he was hedging for an invite after she name dropped winged-fire-breathing-creatures.

Look at this kid of mine, holding her cousin’s hand and dragging him into the sunroom for pizza. A second after I snapped this shot, she turned to Emanuel and said “be happy! there’s pizza!”

My favorite part of the whole day was this little painting of fire that I made on foam core and taped to the wall at kid-mouth-height. Everyone could be a dragon and we snapped lots of photos of all the kids having fun with it.

Burger even got in on the action…

Some adults posed for a few pretty hilarious photos too (turns out kid mouth height is adult bum height so you can guess where I’m going).

Here’s the sunroom all decked out. No balloons and streamers this year, just a few packs of paper lanterns from the dollar spot at Target (they sell them in sets of 2 & 3). The paper tablecloth is also from Target (is has some pretty dragon-ish consummate Vs) which is also where we grabbed the plates and napkins. Then we just ordered pizza, heated up some dragon-shaped chicken nuggets (aka: dragon nuggets), sliced up some vegetables, and tossed some chips and popcorn into a few bowls.

Oh and the table is the one from the deck. We just dragged it into the sunroom and wiped it down (dang rain!) and it was all good.

Who knew sliced peppers could look so fire-like, eh? John. John knew. Apparently guys + fire = besties. And of course we had the castles that Clara painted in the background with little rubber dragons on them (snagged at Michael’s in a few tubes of 8, so they also ended up in the kids’ favors). And those flame-like sunflowers were a few bucks at Kroger (that’s a local grocery store for the non-locals). How awesome are they?! They’re like fire on a stick.

We kept the food super simple. In fact, except for baking some cookies with the birthday girl herself, we didn’t cook a thing. We really just wanted this to be an easy and casual gathering, so we didn’t go crazy cooking or decorating. Plus it’s a fun challenge to look at “party food” like chips, jelly beans, and popcorn to see if we could somehow make it dragon-ish. Here’s what we came up with:

We also played up the hot/fire-breathing thing and had some Hot Tamales and FireBalls (clearly labeled so no kiddos accidentally ate them and blew smoke out of their ears). They were a big hit with the grown ups. Meanwhile the kids rocked out with the rock candy. I thought they were fire-ish so I grabbed them at the register at Michaels (hello impulse buy).

Gratuitous sunflower shot. I love them. I hope they last a good long time so I can soak them up through the move (I’m the girl who will hold this vase on her lap in the car on moving day so they make it to the new house).

Clara’s favorites were the lanterns. She thought they were balloons and even said “I’m sad they’re going to get small” and I said “Yay! They’re paper lanterns! We can use them for every birthday for ever and ever!” Cheered her right up.

On the other side of the sunroom we temporarily removed the bike art (it was John’s idea… I couldn’t believe it!) to make a little drink station out of the expedit bookcase with Clara’s monthly photos taped up on the wall between some fire-ish bursts of tissue paper.

That’s also where I stuck the favors, which are always my favorite thing to throw together. This year I found some red tins at the dollar store that I filled with tissue paper that I cut to look like fire.

They were each filled with a pair of dragon socks that I found at Target for 99 cents, a pack of crayons, a glowing bracelet, a dollar store pinwheel (they were 3/$1) and a few of the aforementioned plastic dragons from Michael’s that also graced Clara’s painted castles on the table.

In the drink tin we had red and yellow Izze bottles for the grown ups (along with bottled water, juice boxes, and a few other beverage choices in a cooler nearby).

As for how I made the tissue paper poofs on the wall, I just smooshed them up and used one staple to hold them together in the back. One loop of painter’s tape held each of them in place between the Clara pics on the wall.

I also used a sharpie to draw a bunch of dragons on card stock and set them out on the coffee table in the sunroom with a bowl full of crayons.

Oh and we dragged out Clara’s train board, which ended up being a fun little kid zone while the parents chatted each other up.

We had planned on an outdoor “dragon egg hunt” (with a bunch of on-clearance plastic eggs that we got at Target after Easter with a few jelly beans in each one) but since it was too wet outside we hid them all over the dining room and the office. It was pretty cute watching the kids run around and grab as many as they could – especially when they were in such strange spots like under the chair cushions, behind the curtains, and even on our favorite concrete pet’s head…

As for desserts, we ordered 10 dragon cookies from Snickety Snacks (they’re like works of art – and they taste amazing!) along with making some homemade white chocolate chip cookies with Clara (we stamped them with “dinosaur footprints” right after they came out of the oven).

The cupcakes are local favorites from the grocery store (Ukrops) and I made those spikes in about ten minutes by cutting up airheads (yes, those crazy candies that look like long flat tongues). I just used a knife to cut them down the center to make two skinny strips and then cut little triangles from each row and shoved four of them into each cupcake in a spiny little line.

This picture is a small miracle. How I got the cookie in focus and caught her looking up at me, I’ll never know. Oh beansie, this makes me want to cry. How’d you get so big?!

As is the tradition, we did our best to grab a family photo. This was the best we could do, but I’ll take it.

When three of us were walking around wearing similar striped shirts, we had to snap a shot of that too. We’re practically triplets.

We also made a little Clara video like we did last year and the year before – not to show at the party, just to have so we can look back on it (and watch it with Clara, since she loves dancing along to the other two that we’ve made). So here’s her last year in less than eight minutes. My favorite parts are when she says “daddy, can I have a wipe please?” and proceeds to change Gee’s imaginary diaper. And all of the dancing parts are pretty cute too…

So Clara’s three and her dragon party was a fire-breathing good time. I can’t wait to see what she picks next year. Chickens? Ninjas? A Burger theme? Time will tell…

Our lucky random winner is… RLR (who jokes her wardrobe could use some modernizing, but says “seriously, I would love to do some work on our master suite”). Congrats!

InStyle Modern sells modern furniture at prices that make it easier on your wallet to deck out your dining room with a full set of chairs or give your kitchen island an upgrade with a new trio of stools. And not only are they giving this week’s winner a $500 gift card, they’re offering up free ground shipping and a special 15% discount. Check out the details below…

• PRIZE: $500 to InStyle Modern
• TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “Modern Me” and tell us…
• BONUS QUESTION: … something in your life that could use some modernizing. Does your house need some updating to get it out of a decor timewarp? Could your wardrobe stand to catch up with the latest styles? Or would you love to get a new car with the latest technology?
• NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
• PRIZE SHIPS: We always beg every vendor to ship internationally but some companies are not legally able to vend things beyond specific areas (more on that here). This giveaway is open to the continental United States.
• GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, May 22nd or at 10,000 entries (whichever comes first)
• DISCOUNT: Get 15% off with the code YHL15OFF (good through June 5th) – and free ground shipping is standard in the continental US!
• USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winners will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday for the announcement of our winners. Good luck…
• ***COMMENT ISSUES? If you’re trying to enter but keep getting a “duplicate comment” warning, click here to see how to solve it!

Note: We aren’t paid or perked for hosting these giveaways, we just do ‘em to thank you awesome folks for stopping in. See our Giveaway FAQ page for more info. Pics courtesy of InStyle Modern.

These posts came about when people asked how we organize all the stuff we have on our to-do list. We explained that we basically have one long run-on document that we update as we go. Folks kept asking us to share it and it turned out to be a good time for us since public proclamations help keep our momentum up, and crossing things off gives me a nice mom-buzz. So here’s our first brain dump for the new house. Of course things tend to evolve as we go, so we’ll probably change our minds fifty times, but right now if you were to peel back our skulls and peek into our DIY-loving brains (you’re welcome for that delicious visual) this stuff would be banging around in there. #warningitslong

- The Front Yard (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Dig up all the quickly spreading ground cover
• Remove the trees that are dead/decaying/diseased beyond repair (our house inspector helped confirm which ones had to go)
• Aerate, level, and seed the yard
• Make planting beds up front and mulch and plant them
• Repaint all exterior siding and trim (there’s peeling paint, some rot, etc)
• Redo old cracked concrete walkway from the driveway to the front door (add curves and pretty planting beds on both sides)
• Add some pretty hardscaping around the front (we’re still inspired by this house’s awesome landscaping – so we’d love to add something raised stone beds)
• Plant a few green dwarf maples (it’s our favorite thing that we planted one at our current house – you can see it in this post under the window on the right)
• Add exterior up-lighting (some of the neighbors have it and it’s crazy charming at night)
• Add low curved brick borders on either side of the driveway wired with lights (some of the houses nearby have ‘em and we love them)
• Get the driveway paved

- The Portico (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Repaint the portico (peeling paint = everywhere)
• Arch the portico ceiling (it’s low and one house up the street has an arched ceiling with a gorgeous hanging lantern)
• Add a few planters, a new door mat, new porch lighting, etc
• Paint the front door (we’re leaning towards a rich emerald color but we’ve also always loved a glossy red door)

- The Garage (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Repaint garage doors and add some nice hardware to beef them up
• Add pergola over double garage doors with vines creeping over it
• Finish the interior of the garage with drywall to create a workshop on one side and storage around the perimeter (add pegboards, shelving for paint and tools, etc)
• Reuse kitchen cabinets in the garage if we can’t salvage them after the kitchen makeover (they’re dinged up and splintered in a bunch of spots, but would be great for the garage)
• Redo four steps that lead from garage to kitchen (remove old carpeting and paint them? rebuild them completely?)
• Build a box on casters for scrap wood storage in the garage (we need a system to keep it from being all over the place)
• Maybe we should get old lockers and paint them fun colors and remove some of the doors for storage? (love these!)
• Possibly add plumbing for a utility sink out there (we’ve always wanted one in our “workshop”)

- The Foyer (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove the old carpet from the wood stairs
• Paint blue trim in foyer, including stair balusters
• Remove wallpaper and repaint the walls
• Remove the doors that block the flow into the kitchen (and the pretty view out the back windows that will someday be french doors)
• Depending on how things go as we move in/live there, we might add gates to the stairs and maybe a stair runner (seagrass? a colorful Dash & Albert runner?)
• Replace the old foyer light (paint existing one? so torn!)
• Replace tile? (only if it’s un-salvageable – there are a few areas where it’s pretty beat up)
• Since there are two closets in the foyer and we only need one for coats, so we want to build a craft and toy closet in the deeper foyer closet with a bunch of shelves to store Claraphernalia

- The Half Bathroom (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove wallpaper
• Repaint all blue trim (and door)
• Upgrade door hardware & hinges
• Paint walls
• Replace vanity
• New mirror (something larger and higher – John can only see up to his shoulders now)
• Upgrade lighting
• Replace tile floor? (only if it’s un-salvageable)
• Here’s a shocker since this house is covered with old wallpaper, but we’re actually flirting with adding some cool new wallpaper since there’s no tub/shower in there (grass cloth? something charming like this or this?). Could be fun!

- The Dining Room (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Clean and re-poly the wood floors
• Upgrade built-ins (remove scrolly tops? build up to ceiling? paint white?)
• Paint all of the blue trim
• Remove the wallpaper and repaint the walls
• Upgrade lighting and curtains
• Add furniture, a rug (?) and art

- The Living Room (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Clean and re-poly the wood floors
• Prime and paint the bright pink walls
• Lose the curtains
• Prime and paint the thick woodwork that wraps around the bottom half of the room’s walls (we LOVE it, and think it’ll be gorgeous in white)
• Paint the brick fireplace wall in the first phase of lightening up the room (we always loved how our first house’s den looked after we cozied it up with paint)
• Retile fireplace (maybe something like this tile?) and get gas logs as phase two after we save up our bucks OR drywall fireplace wall and add a stone lip like this?
• Add more can lights to evenly light the room (there are just three near the fireplace)
• Turn the overhead beams into a coffered ceiling (like these)
• Build/find a nice big built-in-looking cabinet that holds the TV (across from the window, we think)? We’ll have to see where we end up on this one…

- The Office (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Lose the curtains
• Clean and re-poly the wood floors
• Paint walls and trim and ceiling
• Add double desk work area somewhere – perhaps coming out from the middle of the left wall (or the right wall between the windows)?
• Bring in storage (bookcase, file cabinet, etc) – possibly cool build-ins around the bay window
• Add curtains/window treatments
• Hang art & create a brainstorm-zone on the walls (bulletin board? chalkboard?)
• Add two large potted plants (lemon trees? fiddle leaf figs?) in front of the two front-facing windows

- The Kitchen (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove the wallpaper and paint the walls
• Lose the curtains
• Convert giant triple window into french doors leading onto deck
• Open wall between kitchen & living room then add built-ins on either side (sort of like the dining room built-ins in our current house)
• Prime and paint the woodwork that wraps around the bottom half of the room’s walls
• Full kitchen reno (replace the faux brick linoleum, damaged cabinets, laminate counters, bad lighting, old broken appliances, etc)
• Perhaps try our hand at heated floors under some fresh tile (that might spill into the foyer and hall bath if we can’t salvage that tile)
• Organize the pantry with pull out drawers and bins and containers (and paint the door a fun color or replace it with frosted glass?)
• Amp up the “command center” area across from the triple windows
• Paint the new kitchen french doors and door to the sunroom (black? charcoal? soft turquoise? white?)
• Get water filter for under the sink
• Add window treatment and pendant over the sink & a larger new light fixture over the eat-in area
• Figure out how to create a drop zone for coats, shoes, etc (maybe in the garage if not in here?)

- The Sunroom (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Rip up old stinky carpet and padding
• Seal in the smell somehow (so the concrete doesn’t leech odor forever)
• Stain or paint the concrete floor as part of Phase 1
• Permanently remove the broken base heater
• Eventually retile the floor with outdoor-safe stone to upgrade the old concrete floors (down the line for Phase 2)
• Convert sunroom to an open covered porch with new columns and no more sliders (many of the sliders are bad and the posts are rotten) – we’re envisioning something like this
• Build a brick outdoor fireplace off of the sunroom after we open it up? Kind of like this, but different…
• Add beadboard to the ceiling and paint it soft blue?

- The Master Bedroom (1% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove old carpeting and install hardwoods
• Repaint all of the cream trim and doors
• Repaint the off-white ceilings and walls
• Add built-ins along the entire window wall (with integrated window seats, hidden storage, and display shelves with thick molding)?
• Add a ceiling light fixture (there’s nothing in there)
• Maybe add some textured wallpaper like this to the ceiling, just to spice things up…
• Bring in art, curtains, etc.
• Add wood blinds to all windows (it gets crazy sunny in here in the afternoon!)

- The Master Bathroom (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Completely redo the master bath (the fun blue hex floor tile is in rough shape and we want to expand the footprint into the sink nook area so it’s all one space (soaker tub? tiled shower as well? double sink? should be fun!)
• Bring privacy to the window in there (frost it? window treatment?)

- The Master Closet (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Repaint all of the cream trim
• New light fixture
• Organize/build out/pimp the entire space (we’re envisioning cabinetry with drawers, shelves, rods at different heights, etc)

-Upstairs Hallway (1% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove old carpeting and install hardwoods
• Replace the old hallway lights (or paint existing ones? not sure)
• Repaint all of the blue trim and doors glossy white
• Get all new hinges and door knobs (they’re not only bright brass, many of them are rusted/corroded so they can’t just be sprayed)
• Convert hallway linen closet into built-in open shelves or cabinets with shelves over them (sort of like this?)
• Upgrade to a Nest thermostat (we hear nothing but great things about them, and John is drooling for one)
• Add crown molding
• Add thick wood wainscoting (like we have in the kitchen and living room) to the upstairs hallway to break up the long space?

- Clara’s Room (1% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove old carpeting and install hardwoods
• Repaint all of the blue trim and doors
• Make entire wall of built-ins somewhere? Maybe bookcases surrounding the windows?
• Build a bench seat in Clara’s deep sloped ceiling-ed closet nook with beadboard on the ceiling and wallpaper on the back wall
• Prime and paint Clara’s big girl dresser and attach leather pulls
• Add crown molding
• Add a ceiling light fixture (boo! there’s nothing in there!)
• Add window blinds, curtains, art, etc.

- Spare Room/Possible Someday Nursery (1% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove old carpeting and install hardwoods
• Repaint all of the mauve trim and doors
• Repaint the dingy ceilings
• We’re going to hold off on major decorating decisions until this room actually has a use (if/when baby #2 is on the way, we’d love for this to become a nursery)
• Repaint the walls
• Add crown molding
• Add a ceiling light fixture (boo! there’s nothing in there!)
• Add wood blinds (for light blocking) and curtains

- The Guest Bedroom / Craft Room (1% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove old carpeting and install hardwoods
• Repaint all of the cream trim and doors
• Bring in a bed and a dresser/desk that can accommodate my sewing machine/crafting so this room can multi-task (it has the prettiest view/light – I’d love to creep in there and sew/paint on Sunday afternoons)
• Organize and build out some craft/gift wrap shelving in closet (lots of shelves and bins, etc)
• Add crown molding
• Add a ceiling light fixture (nope, there’s nothing in there either!)

- The Hall Bathroom (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• A complete redo is in order (the old tile is stained/cracked, the tub and fixtures are crusty enough to make grown men cry, etc). Maybe we’ll do herringbone slate? Marble? Extra long rectangles of tile like this?

- Laundry Nook (1% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove old carpeting and install hardwoods (with washer in a water-safe metal tray on the floor for leak protection)
• Completely redo nook (new doors for noise control, updated energy star appliances, new counter, new cabinets – or more cabs if we re-use the existing ones)
• Add tile backsplash and some great art/lighting (I want to make it a fun little surprise jewel box in the back of the hallway)

- Unfinished Storage Room (o% Complete) -

To Do:

• This will serve as an awesomely large storage room for a while (we have no current need for additional finished rooms), but down the line we’d love to finish it – maybe as a movie room / bunk room for older kiddos? This’ll be waaay down the line, but we dream of:
  • Adding drywall
  • Getting flooring
  • Adding lighting
  • Building out the closets (so there’s still some storage under the eaves)
  • Furnishing the space with built in beds, a TV, a big sectional for lounging, etc – wahoo!

- General Whole House Ideas (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Slowly upgrade all lights in the house to LEDs to save energy
• Replace all of the gold/wallpapered/off-white switchplates and outlets in the house (there are about ten million of those to tend to)
• Upgrade to nicer frames, drapes, sheets, and curtain rods over time (they’re not cheap, but we’d love to be “grown ups” someday – even if it takes us 10 years or so to get there!)

- The Back Deck (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Power wash and stain/seal deck and replace rotten/ warped boards
• Remove the giant oak tree that’s practically growing into the house (the inspection indicated that the roots could severely damage the house’s foundation if we don’t get ‘er down – which is pretty sad since it’s cute but just way too close)
• Build a pergola for more architecture and shade off of the back of house where the future kitchen french doors will be (square to the sunroom)
• Build outdoor furniture like a table or lounge chairs for the deck

- The Backyard (0% Complete) -

To Do:

• Remove random slate paths from backyard and aerate and seed
• Transplant a few things for a better layout, like the pretty peony bushes in the middle of nowhere (not pictured)
• Plant holly bushes for privacy from the other houses that our wooded lot backs up to (Phase 1)
• Build a fun wooden playhouse tucked back into the woods for Clara
• Plant an edible garden
• Build a swing set
• Redo old cracked concrete walkway between garage and deck (not pictured) <– we’ll be whipping up an outdoor video tour for you guys soon, which should help show a lot more than a few pictures can
• Add more privacy plantings – tiered trees, bushes, and flowers (Phase 2)
• Build some raised planters and hardscaping
• Add a patio area somewhere around the deck
• Make a wooden teepee in the corner of the backyard with Clara and then plant some vines to grow up around it to make a cool little hideaway (like this)
• Build air conditioner cover with wood boards like this

In summary, we’ve got big plans for this baby. And thankfully we’ve learned that we’re hopelessly in love with the act of upgrading a house (we did this stuff for fun far before we did this as an actual job) and the journey is actually a lot more exciting than the destination is for us (more on that here). We’ve also learned just to take things one day/project/victory at a time to avoid getting too overwhelmed and sucking the joy right out of things. And seriously, is there anything more fun than crossing things off of a giant list called Listy McListerson? (NO. The answer is NO).

As for the method to our “project order,” we don’t really think there is one. We just do whatever we’re in the mood for (barring anything that needs to be moved to the top of the list for safety or other extreme-urgency reasons). And we jump around from room to room just to stay excited and to avoid feeling too forced into doing something that we might not be ready to deal with yet – like gutting a kitchen or bathroom (we like to live in a house for a while to see how we use those spaces before completely retooling them).

As of this very moment, we’re thinking that we’d love to tackle these before we move in a few weeks (might not get it all done, but it’s nice to dream…):

• repaint all of the trim and doors on the second floor (we hope to be done and share details by Wednesday)
• lay our new hardwood floors in the four bedrooms and hallway
• lose the floral curtains in the office, dining room, kitchen, and living room
• remove the extraneous flow-blocking doors on the first floor (between the foyer and kitchen, dining room and kitchen, and living room and kitchen)

So those are “on deck” for ya. How do you guys make your house to-do lists? Do you keep them on your phone? On post-its? How do you decide what to tackle next? Is there any method to your madness?

And just like we did for her two previous birthdays, we marked the end of another 12 months by customizing the fabric backdrop for her photo project. You might remember that this tradition started on her first birthday, when we used my handwriting to create a pattern that we printed on fabric using Spoonflower (here’s how we did that).

Spoonflower came to the rescue again last year, but we took advantage of Clara’s artistic abilities and converted one of her scribbles into the fabric that time (here’s how we did that).

Last year’s fabric turned out a bit fainter than we would’ve preferred, so this year we knew we wanted to (a) involve Clara again and (b) make sure it came out bold and colorful. So we decided to just unleash Clara on the fabric itself…

Since it promised to be a messy project (if all went as hoped!) we headed to the new house where there were lots of big, not-too-precious spaces (like the deck) and taped down a drop cloth. Then we taped the cotton fabric down right in the middle of it.

For the paints we went with these little pots of Crayola Kids’ Paint (from Target) because it’s what Clara’s used to and it’s washable and non-toxic. We contemplated using some sort of fabric paint so her masterpiece could be preserved, but ultimately these kid-friendly paints were better suited to the free reign we were able to give our budding 3-year-old.

She chose pink first and basically just went to town pouring it right out of the bottle and smearing it with a foam brush.

Here’s a quick video of our painter in action.

She even added some hand prints and footprints. They’re our favorite.

It took about 30 minutes or so for her to fill the whole two yards of fabric with paint splotches. Right as we were wrapping up we got the idea to let her paint her shirt, right where we typically would photoshop the circle with her age on it. We figured why not give into the theme, right?

So with the paint still wet and Clara still a mess, we dragged the whole drop cloth over to the side of the house where we could tape it up to create a spot to shoot her photo.

Despite being dangerously close to losing all light (and losing the patience of a girl who was so far doing a very good job listening) we managed to snag this shot at the start of a jump. Jumping is kind of her default motion these days, so it was perfect. You can read how we add the number to her shirt in photoshop here.

We also caught a bunch of pretty hilarious outtakes, which you can browse over on Young House Life today. Sherry calls this her Stomp The Yard pose.

And with that folks, we’re calling it a wrap on her monthly pictures. I know it would be fun to keep them going, but we think she has started to outgrow enjoying them (read: it’s becoming more challenging to convince her it’ll be more exciting than doing whatever else she’s doing). So rather than force it, we’ll use this as a natural stopping point – although we’d still love to break out a new fabric for each birthday – and maybe even for her half birthday – depending how she feels.

The 25 pictures above are the ones that we took between age 1 and age 3, and the 52 weekly photos that we snapped during her first year are below. You can see all 77 of them at full size over here.

Oh and speaking of photo traditions – Clara’s also lucky enough to have spent all of her birthdays (including her actual birth date) with three of her grandparents. Our favorite thing about studying those photos is noticing than each adult re-wears the same shirt at least once.

Is anyone else out there making their own fabric? Wrapping up a photo project? Letting your kid loose with little pots of paint? Happy weekend everyone!

As for where to get it, first we looked on craigslist to see if anyone had a large quantity of something in the right tone/amount (no dice) and then we headed to Lumber Liquidators, since we’ve had luck with them when it came to buying hardwood floors for half of our first house back in 2007 and it’s also where we got the cork flooring for our kitchen in 2011. They always have a ton of selection, and tend to have lots in stock along with all of the underlayment & tools in one place, so they’re pretty much a one stop shop for us now that it’s our third time to the flooring rodeo.

Clara walked right in and made herself comfortable (the girl’s right at home on wood flooring, what can I say?) and we had a look around.

She also had some fun on the tiny set of display stairs. According to the guys who work there every kid who enters the store does that as some sort of unspoken toddler rite of passage.

We ended up grabbing six different samples to hold up against the stairs to see which one would be the best match (we tackled this “sampling phase” right before ripping out all of that nasty upstairs carpeting). Since the sun was setting, we waited until the next morning to take them to the new house so we could judge them in natural light.

We decided to try stripping the carpet off of just the top stair so we could be sure the wood under there was still in good shape (if it was completely damaged we’d have to refinish them, which would mean that we could be less careful about picking a matching wood tone for the upstairs). Thankfully the floor under the runner was in great shape (after we pulled about a hundred staples out by hand) and we loved the medium brown tone (not too yellow, not too dark, not too light). Basically it’s the Goldilocks of hard wood.

For a bit more on why we love not-too-dark-not-too-light-not-too-yellow-not-too-red-toned oak, it’s probably 50% personal preference (some people love it redder or more golden) and 50% practical (if you go too dark with hardwoods we hear that every spec of dust and pet hair can be seen, and if you go too light we’ve heard that wear and tear is also easier to spot since it’s such a light surface). And since we had practically the same tone of oak hardwoods in our first house for years (and it worked well for us – we loved how it looked with our furniture, etc) that ended up swaying us.

Can you tell from this bad iPhone picture of all the samples (sorry!) which one works the best with the stairs?

Yup, it’s the bottom left guy. He was the only one in almost exactly the same color and with the same variety of grain (some dark grain and some light grain). It was also the same thickness (2 1/4″) as the hardwood downstairs. So although we loved some of the wider board options, it felt true to our house and nice and cohesive to go with the one that was the right color, had the right amount of wood grain, and was the same width as the rest of the wood flooring in the house.

It took everything in us not to keep going down each step with the crowbar and the pliers, stripping that stained old carpet as we went. But we knew we had a date with the carpeting upstairs (it’s more important to rip that out and lay the new hardwoods before we move than it is to get it off the stairs, which can be done at any time). In the bad news department, that top step took us about 20 minutes to wrestle free (which means we have about three hours worth of work in our future). But stair runner, you have been warned. We’ll be back.

So after judging those samples in the nice natural light of the morning, we returned to Lumber Liquidators a day after our first trip to officially put in our order. We were armed with the square footage for all of the areas we needed to do, so now that we had picked our Hardwood Bachelor (he accepted our rose and everything), it was pretty straightforward.

Here’s a close up of our winner winner chicken dinner. It’s called Lono Oak and it’s a solid wood floor (it’s not engineered, and it’s 3/4″ thick so it can be refinished many times) and it comes with a 25 year warranty. Most hardwood flooring is in the $4-7-ish range, but LL’s list price was $3.69 per square foot.

Here’s where I smiled sweetly and asked my favorite negotiating question, which is “what’s your best price?” Then you just stand there. Resist the urge to mumble “uh, not that I’m trying to be tough” or “I’m sorry, forget it” Just stand there in silence and wait to see what they say. If they can come down, they’ll tell you. And if they can’t they’ll say they can’t and you can smile and say “just had to ask.” John hates this step, so it’s always my job. And before I threw out my favorite line, I also mentioned how this was our third big order from them so we’re definitely loyal repeat customers.

Boom: 10% off our entire order for those two sentences. So that took the price per square foot down to $3.29 and also scored us 10% off other things we grabbed like a special type of underlayment to work with our subfloor (more on that when we get to the installation process). Speaking of installing it, we’re going to attempt to do it all ourselves, and we better get started soon if we hope to move in 2.5 weeks! Plus we want to paint all of the blue/mauve trim (and maybe even the doors?) while the carpet’s out but before the floor goes down. So… yeah. Tick tock, Petersiks.

Meanwhile Clara was busy spicing up their brochure displays…

We left feeling pretty excited about our big upstairs flooring overhaul. Especially since we asked how much it would cost to hire their guys to install all the flooring and they said it would be around four thousand bucks! So assuming we can do it (knock on hardwood) it’ll definitely add up to some serious money saved.

So our hardwoods are ordered and we have a whole mess of blue trim to paint. We’d like to buy a paint sprayer and try our hand at that, so we’ll keep you posted. Should be interesting…

• This “Splatter Stacks” print from Hoot Design Co. Because books make me happy.
• Shades of Light‘s dhurrie rugs, like this honeycomb guy that comes in five colors.
• Our pal Dusty’s DIY backsplash install as featured on The Tile Shop‘s homepage.
• This “Ava” bed frame from a Southwest inspired  Joss & Main sale.

• Kendra Scott‘s statement necklaces, like this Valora piece in matte green.
• Entryway monogram vinyl decals from WallQuotes. This one’s for Burger.
• This office-ready paper clip inspired key hook rail from Liberty Hardware.
• Jewelry for every occasion from Lisa Leonard, like this true friend necklace.

• Custom growth charts from Urban Tickle. I, of course, like the one with the bikes.
• Fish Window Cleaning services (clean windows = more spring sunshine).
• The feline reference on the Naked Binders website that literally made me LOL.
• Royal Design Studio‘s new Bonnie Christine stencils, like this herringbone one.

• Speaking of herringbone – Cozamia‘s Wild Herringbone print rocks our socks.
• This cool vintage postcard from Ruby Lane, featuring flowers framing the US Capitol.
• Freshline Illustration‘s cheeky nursery print that can be customized too.
• These stellar house notecards from 1 Canoe 2. I kinda wanna live in them.

• Smock Paper‘s earth friendly printing methods that produce pretty cards like this one.
• Keeping up with the charm-tastic inspiration on the Heart & Stone Jewelry blog.
• The crisp line drawings available at A Vintage Poster, like this brass trumpet.
• Mirror Mate‘s Pinterest page, especially the board of blogger bathroom makeovers.

• Audrey + Gem‘s colorful watercolor animals for nurseries (including a Clara worm!)
• Food & leftover minimizing meal planning for two from Couple Supper.
• This summer ready woven bag from Red Barn Mercantile. Bring on the beach…
• And a hint for Monday’s Giveaway, which will be $500 strong!

Here are the details on those DISCOUNTS:

• Shades of Light: 10% off with the code YHL0811
• WallQuotes.com: 15% off with the code YHL15
• The Tile Shop: 10% off when you use the code YHL10
• One Canoe Two: 10% off with code YHL10
• Heart & Stone Jewelry: 10% off with the code YHL10
• Royal Design Studio: 10% off stencils with code YHL10
• Freshline Illustration: 25% off with code YHL25
• Urban Tickle: 10% off with code YHOUSE10
• Audrey + Gem: 10% off with code YHL10
• Hoot Design Co: 10% off with code YHL

* None of the products or services shown above were provided to us for review or for free (check out our no-swag policy here).