What Ana Does

Here are a few of my favorite things this December! Bruce and His Bullymake Toy Bullymake - Bruce the puppy has been eating EVERYTHING in the house. We can't leave him for even a few minutes. He digs through garbage and jumps onto his hind legs and noses around on tables and the counters. He'll eat paper, cardboard, plastic bags, dish towels, it's NONSTOP. I went into the pet store to find more toys that will withstand his chewing, and keep him interested. The store guy suggested antlers (done) and this service called Bullymake . It's a subscription service that sends a box of indestructible toys and treats once a month. We even found a coupon code that gave us one month for free and a deal for the next three boxes. But they're generally the same price as a deer antler, so it seems worth it. SleepNumber Beds - After 10+ years we finally decided to ditch our old mattress. The mattress was bought on discount at an outlet and strapped to the top of our Subu...

Alice's bedroom in our house is a work in progress. Mainly due to her growing up so much in the last eight years of living here. She was a preschooler when we moved in, to now being almost a preteen. And her bedroom has grown up along with her. When we first moved in, I painted Alice's walls yellow and pink. ( 2012 post here .) Two colors she helped me pick out, though it was mostly me. She had two dressers, a play table and there were toys everywhere. We even had bunk beds in here for a while. At 3-years-old through 6, she spent a lot of time in there. She still does. Then, we decided to "grow up" a little and paint her room a lovely lavender. A color she wanted nothing to do with -- but I insisted because the walls looked dirty and needed a more tranquil palette. ( Here's that 2016 post. ) We found her a pretty white daybed on Wayfair ( similar bed ) and I DIY'ed a little canopy to hang above it. Her play table changed into a normal-sized Ikea desk fo...

In Paris, Alice got the smallest room. But it has the best view ... of the park and the Eiffel Tower (until Spring comes and trees obstruct her view). She also got a closet and an *on-suite shower/sink room.  It's a pretty sweet room! When we moved in, she took hours to set everything up perfectly. She had to arrange her photos, clothes and stuffed animals. And she badgered us until we hung up her dry-erase board and curtains. I recently "helped her" clean it, and took a picture to document the adorableness of this space. Alice's Bedroom in Pars * This apartment has two on-suite shower/sink rooms. What is that even called in real estate terms? Anyone know? 

Shopping for beds in a foreign land, when the only store I know is Ikea, has been a challenge. But the guest room needs a bed, so I've jumped in with both feet. Just for fun, here are a few of my options. Shop Name: La Redoute  They're currently having a big flash sale on mattresses, so the prices are not bad. I really like this mod-looking upholstered bed called Semeon, see it here . It's Not Chevron or Houndstooth -- Sorta Between Shop Name: Maisons Du Monde Then there's this pine bed that's also has a mod-feel with those great paperclip legs. And you gotta love the extra storage beneath. It's called the Cody, see it here. Eve Last, there's this British startup that sells a mattress-in-a-box, similar to those we have in America (Casper, I think is one) and all the ads I see for them -- I've always been very curious about them. I'm terribly drawn to the bright yellow color, especially with the grey bed frame you can add on, ...

And it continues! So these two boards held-up the mattress on the trundle part of Leah's bed . They're heavy but a very smooth white finish, so obviously I thought two blackboards. Here they are set up for painting. I made a white boarder by taping out around the edges. Step One: Paint Prep Next, I painted two coats of chalkboard paint. And YES! I used up the last of the chalkboard paint pint I bought several years ago. Step Two: Chalkboard Paint. Pro Tip: Paint Chalkboard Paint on Thick. And then they were done! I've got a few ideas where I'll place them. They're SUPER HEAVY so I'm opting NOT to hang them, and to just find strategic places to lean them against a wall. Finished Blackboards! The point is, more bed pieces that didn't get tossed out. And they're cute and useful. I've got two more projects to go until I've probably hit the end of what I can successfully up-cycle. Related posts: Leah's bed died, here...

The Bed, Right When We Moved In A few months ago, just as we were going to sleep, we jumped at the noise of Leah's bed cracking and splitting. It was pretty dramatic. The bed was about eight years old from Costco and wasn't made to be taken apart and put together as many times as we did it, so we knew the end was coming. I tried to salvage the headboard and footboard, but eventually we decided just to get her a boxspring and frame and figure out the pretty parts later. Sure, we were bummed about losing the bed, but OH GOLLY all that raw material for house projects. Cha-ching! Or Huzzah! Or whichever jubilation makes sense in this situation. Our reusable assets: there was a footboard and headboard, some long side rails, the slates that held up the mattress, and the trundle parts. I started with building a set of hooks from one of the slates that held up the mattress. Leah has been requesting a spot to display her soccer medals and you know I'm a sucker for ho...

Here's an update on Leah's bedroom. In this post , I was trying to figure out where to put the bed once Leah moves out of Alice's room. They'd been roommates since September ( see this post ) but now the almost-11-year-old wants to be in her own room again. The room is oddly laid out, and Leah requested the bed doesn't take up the middle of the room. So the solution we came up with is pushing it up against the built-in desk.  It's not perfect but it's kind of neat to sit in bed and work on art projects or on her school-issues Chrome book on the desk. And she's created a hiding place under the desk, too.  AFTER: Leah's Bedroom  Well, at least that's where it will stay for the time. We're always moving things around in this house.  Related Posts: When the girls became roommates and why Leah's bedroom layout

Today we added overhead lights to the girls' bedrooms. And by "we" I mean I called our handyman Rick (who can do just about everything) over to take care of it. Before we had little lamps that provided very poor light at night in the bedrooms. Not to mention they took up the limited space on dressers and shelves. Since we moved in I've wanted an overhead light to really brighten up the rooms. So, I bought these hot little numbers from Amazon  almost a year ago with a gift certificate. They looked least like the common overhead "boob" light I was trying to avoid. You know the ones ... they look like this . Don't be embarrassed, we all have them. Anyway, it's a "semi-flush" so if anything, it looks like a slightly dangly boob light. So there you have it. Here's the final photos of the (not clean) bedrooms. Before pictures seemed unnecessary, as there was just an empty ceiling before. Honestly, the lights look like they'v...

A few months ago, the girls became roommates and Leah's room got turned into a crazy-messy play room. It's pretty much been that way ever since. But lately, the girls have talked about NOT sharing a room anymore. Alice might want to sleep in a little later on a school day. And I don't blame her. But we've always had a challenge with arranging the furniture in Leah's room ... the bed specifically. There's really only ONE way to do it and that's with the bed running down the middle of the room. I made a quick drawing of the layout ... And here's a photo of the bed and the niche from when we moved in and decorated back in 2012 ... While the bed looks good in the middle of the room, it takes up a lot of valuable floorspace. And Leah has requested an alternative location for the bed when she moves back in. Where oh WHERE can I put it? Related Links: The 2012 post of Leah's room complete An idea of how to get rid of that nook that did...

For months, and maybe even since Christmas, the girls have been sleeping in the same room. They are going through that stage where they are afraid of just about everything. And I mean, everything that could possible go wrong in the world. (Eg. Leah watched a fire safety video at school and she's now convinced of a fire in our house.) And sleeping together makes them feel safer. When we had the bunk beds, this was convenient. But since we got the daybed, Leah's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor... Not awesome. So, this weekend it was time to make this sleeping arrangement permanent. It wasn't easy, because that bed was pretty tough to move, but after a day's work, Leah has a real bed. Hooray! And after a sleepover the night before, she was more than ready to use it. The Beds All Lined Up! It's too bad this room isn't a little larger -- when my sister I shared a room we had enough space to run the dressers down the middle. But, I guess at that...

Calling this the 1.0 version of the canopy in Alice's room. It needs a few more layers. And I think to be lowered a bit. The Canopy I didn't follow a set of instructions -- because others were much smarter than I and used two window curtains. In hindsight, that is GENIUS. I bought yards of purple tulle from Jo-Ann's and a hula-hoop for the hoop at the top. It didn't take long to sew all the layers together and hang it from the hook. The other thing is you really need to imagine the daybed below to complete the look. More updates to follow ... 

Two more updates to Alice's bedroom to discuss. The first is her new bed. Let's skip over the part about her current bed being MY childhood bed and all the history there ... and just say we would like her to have a new bed. Of course this was met with opposition, as Alice doesn't like change. But once we started showing her the options, she quickly got on board. Here are the top two choices: Jenny Lind Day Bed From Land of Nod . The Pricey Option The Dorel Living Vivienne Bed From Wayfair.com . The Risky Yet Inexpensive Option Given the large price difference, I think the choice is very clear. And the Wayfair bed is more along the lines of the style I was looking for. And it will transition to being a teenager's bed much better than the Jenny Lind bed, which looks tad juvenile. Because I can't see it and don't know the brand like I do Land of Nod, the Wayfair bed is also a bit of a risk. It's listed as "made of wood" but what if it...

So I guess I'm pretty persuasive because I talked her into painting the walls lavender. I even got her to agree to take down the shelves! Score for Mom! Before: The Yellow and Pink Walls Alice Said Looked Like the Sunset This was Saturday. By Sunday morning, the room looked like this:  After: The Soothing Lavender  Here's the long story about the color lavender: I'd been doing research on lavenders for months, picking up chips and looking through Pinterest. I was pretty sure I knew I wanted a very soft color that wasn't too purple or too pink. All the while, I didn't have her approval to paint anything. Little did she know I was planting the seeds of lavender in her little head (eg. "oh, Alice, look at this lavender bedroom in this catalog picture.") Last week she finally said, "hey, I think I want to paint my room." Green light GO!  On Saturday we picked up the fabric for the bed canopy (details coming soon) and walked into H...

I'm dying to redecorate Alice's room. She was three when we moved in and now at almost-8, I feel it needs a more sophisticated look. I also need to declutter the heck out of it. But she won't let me! "I love it the way it is!" she says. So I did a test. While she was out, I took down all the pictures from her walls -- including all her artwork. I thought that maybe this would kickstart the ideation process. "Yes, this does look better" she'd say. Not so much. In no uncertain terms she'd like it all put back the way it was. "Today, Mommy!" I liked it better when she was too small to care. In Her Room 2013! This might be a long campaign to update/clean-out this room. I'm prepared. Related: Here's what it looked like when we moved in . And  here's what it looked after I finished in 2012 .

An Instagram portrait of a 5-year-old on her bed. On Her Pretty Bed in Her Pink Room She looks like a teenager, on the phone, and annoyed that I would dare come by. Relate posts: More more and more Alice

Decorating the master bedroom is not my priority. But I had a problem. When we bought our lovely bedroom furniture five-ish years ago -- one of the biggest furniture investments at that time -- we skipped the bed-side tables. Oh man, was that a mistake! Ever since, we've been using random bits of furniture that don't match and are usually too small or just not functional. And it's a perpetual thorn in my side. Recently, given the amount of reading or laptop-typing I do in bed, I decided getting a wee writing desk with some drawers might be the right piece of furniture for the bed side. It could function as a little get-away writing spot. And the drawers would be great to hide away all the bed-side clutter. Plus, and this is my thinking a lot lately, it's a piece that can function in other rooms -- even the kid's room, if we needed it to relocate. The New Writing Desk So, I waited and watched writing desks scroll through my One Kings Lane shops until...

Pretty Pattern This is my second attempt on curtains in Alice's room. The first were pink, black-out curtains that I'd hoped would help her sleep in a little later (no such luck). They were inexpensive from Amazon and they just didn't do anything for her room. So when I replaced her curtain rod, I bought her new curtains as well. These ones are from Land of Nod and I just love the neat pattern on them. They're neutral but have a bit of a statement to make. And the pink matches the wall color -- Pink! Joy! And Alice likes them! I still may need to sew-in a blackout liner. I'd love it if Alice slept-in once in a while, so it's worth it to me to put the time in on making them darker. But I think that's a project for another day. After

Before In Leah's room, there are no curtain rods and the only windows are in the corner -- which was a challenge. But that corner was just screaming for some style -- that ISN'T beige blinds. It took me a few trips to Home Depot to get the right curtain rods but with Dave's help, we got them hung and the new curtains installed. The results are beautiful! I love how the green in the fabric plays off of the teal walls. My green-blue themed room just gives me giggles of delight. And here's the link to the curtains on the Land of Nod site .  Leah's Green Curtains - After! Memo to myself when I buy my next house: Pay close attention to curtain rods. So much better to buy a house with them installed. Adding them to this house has been such a production! And other than the master, none of the rooms had curtain rods. I will note that all the windows had these rather expensive looking blinds. That was certainly a plus.

Orla Kiely Bedding. I NEED it all. Most of you know my love and adoration for all things Orla Keily . You all probably remember when Target sold dish sets with cups and plates, and I dragged Dave and the kids to three Targets in the area, snapping up all that I found. So imagine my glee while walking through Bed, Bath and Beyond when I discovered they were selling her comforter sets, sheets, throw pillows and other bedding. OMG! I stood in front of this display and tried to think of a single bed in my house in need of a new comforter. Unfortunately, I came up empty. All the rooms and bed are currently spoken for, design-wise. (Though, I'm still considering it for my bed ... would Dave be comfortable under all that sweet original stem design?!) I did purchase a queen sheet set, using one of the many coupons they send in the mail. If you are in need of a comforter set, please consider either of these so I can live vicariously.

A Look into the Desk Nook Three days of work, with lots of planning, and we're all done! Leah requested BLUE and by golly she got it! It's blue! It's white! It's slightly green, too! All the art is up and toys are moved back in... though I'm doubting it will ever be this clean again. More stuff will wander in here, I'm sure. Leah slept in there last night and loved it. And, to be honest, I'm ridiculously proud of this room. It's dreamy! Sure, there are a few things left to do: A) There's a chalkboard by the door that needs a painted boarder and picture rail above. B) And I'm going to hang some twine with mini-clothespins to display her art. C) And there may be curtains in the future, though I haven't identified what or where -- but black-out curtains might trick her into sleeping in. But, for now, this is pretty much done. *Pat on back.* Next up, their bathroom is going bright green. Perhaps a "fresh cut green"...