Ikea Kura Hack: Our New Apple Tower

My 3 year old is obsessed with apples. She has a pair of 12 month Carter's pajamas that she still wears around the house even though they are skin tight because she must have her "apple jammies".  When we found apple fabric a Joann's a few months ago we had to get some. I had originally decided to make her a jumper with it so she might retire those jamies but alas I ran out of time and just hadn't done it.

In the search for a new couch she was sitting on my lap while I browsed Ikea's website and saw a Kura loft bed. She was instantly in love with the bed but alas I wasn't in love with the $199 price tag. I searched on Craigslist and found one that was an hour away from our house and only $50.  The kicker? We had to take it apart.  After an hour and a half taking it apart we went home. It took me all evening to completely put it back together but it is now the perfect apple tower!

What  I ended up doing was covering all the blue/white panels with fabric.

1. Before sliding panels lay the panel on top of fabric and cut fabric leaving 1/2 to an inch of fabric overhand.

2. Put double sided tape (any kind) on the side of the panel you do not wish covered. We put the tape on the white side so the blue panel was completely covered.

3. After the entire panel is covered, slide into place and continue assembling the bed as directed.

I had a little help from the princess who wanted to "measure" to make sure it all fit.

Note: I stopped each time a panel was to be slid into place to wrap the panel in fabric and then continue. We still have some fabric left so we aren't sure if a small curtain for the bottom is to be made or if we'll just make her an extra pillow for on top of the bed.

This can easily be undone if you take the bed apart and switch out with different fabric.

For now, the apple princess can use her apple tower any way she pleases. It took us a day to teach her how to go up and down the ladder and now she's a pro.

My Daughter's Ode to Billy Idol: an Exploded Bedroom

I have two lovely daughters who are my world. I love them completely and utterly but sometimes my husband and I just shake our heads and walk away. This time, we grabbed the camera before ushering the child out of her room and just shutting the door for the night.

We both had papers to grade and just didn't have the time to force her to clean it up on a Sunday night.  I see that Billy Idol music video where he is trashing the room every time I think about these lovely little pictures.

Doesn't she just look so happy with herself? If she only knew how I felt.

A Snow Day, the Death of a Dell, Diy Continued, a Little Girl's Closet and Crayon?

The title says it all! I've had one of those days. If you haven't noticed the Dell died.  It actually kicked the bucket last night but I was in denial until this morning. The hard drive is currently at our local computer repair shop so they can rip some important files off of it but the rest of it is toast. Adobe wanted to update last night so my husband let it reboot except it didn't. The fan came on but it just wouldn't start. We left it alone all night and came back in the morning to try again (after our snow day was called, YEAH!) and it was still dead. So my brother took out our hard drive and my husband and brother took it to the shop.

Thank God we had our $1,000 emergency fund (we are following Dave Ramsey) so we took some of it out and purchased a new CPU. We got a Emachines for $339 after tax at Best Buy. I didn't think that was too bad.

Then my brother wanted some furniture I was getting rid of so he decided to work on some DIY projects for me. When we redid the kitchen we never finished fixing the soffit since I changed the layout of the cabinets. It was missing drywall in a few spots. My brother started in the corner and worked his way around.  Out of the 3 spots, one is ready to sand and prime, one is still 2x4's, and one is still being debated.

Yes the top picture has a cobweb. We are keeping it real.

I forgot to take a picture of this drywalled and mudded. I'll have to do that when we finish the 2nd box later this week. Sorry.

Next came Emma's closet which lets just say is a disaster upon itself. Here is her closet makeover (still currently in progress)  These are the BEFORE pictures. Dear Lord you can't even open the door!

I took everything out and made a huge pile. The cat just stared at me. I think she is mocking me.

That's not all of it either. I took pity on you and didn't show you what was still on the top of the closet or on the shelves. You might see part of those later.

I moved in her dresser/ changing table from when she was a baby. It fit perfectly! Here is what went inside of that.

Shoes inside the cabinet.

Top shelf: sneakers
Middle shelf: dress shoes
Bottom shelf: sandals and etc.

I brought the two important things into the closet clean/organize situation. My water in my reusable 24 oz. cup and my Basic H2 all purpose cleaner. Those drawers were just gross!

Any money found in the closet redo was put into Emma's Save envelope from her Financial Peace Jr. kit.

Here is her top drawer. It holds t-shirts.  It is now labeled.

The middle drawer holds long sleeve shirts. It is also labeled :o)

The next drawer has shorts and jeans. It is also labeled.

The bottom drawer has long pants.

Now that the dresser was finished I had to tackle the mound of dresses, sweaters, jumpers and skirts on the bed.

I had to tear out two shelves that the builder put in in order to hang her long clothes. She still has one shelf at the bottom for her doll babies and her horses and stable went underneath the shelf on the floor.

 Emma still has some things to go through on top of the dresser but we put her craft kits and extra toys neatly in their boxes and stacked on top of the closet until we can decide what to do. We are 95% finished with the closet.

So while I was working in the closet I left Chris to watch the girls. I come back out to find THIS on the kitchen table!

Yes that is CRAYON on my kitchen table. So... I grabbed my Shaklee Basic H2 (degreaser formula) and sprayed.

The flash went off so bright it looks like the crayon is already gone. I promise you I am no magician it was still there. I used my microfiber cloth and just rubbed it away.

Okay so NOW it is gone. Too bad it couldn't take care of those scratches...ewwww.

So that was my Tuesday. Nuts right?



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Our Messy House: What it looks like when we DIY

My husband and I have been in full DIY / organization mode lately. We de-cluttered our cleaning supplies and Shaklee-ized our home with our new Shaklee Business. That really got us going!

We knew our house needed some TLC and that we had a project finish list a mile long.

We began working on the living room last month with picture molding HERE and since finishing that area we began to move it straight through to our kitchen. That isn't finished and we have a few things in the kitchen we started and didn't finish.

Plus... our carpets need replacing badly as you can tell from our House Goals 2011 post HERE.

We started shampooing carpets yesterday and moved EVERYTHING but the computer desk and our bed out of the bedroom. We put it all in our hallway and the one table is still there. We have been going through all the stuff that accumulates in our bedroom during a DIY project (ie... every day).  We like to keep the appearance of a neat and tidy home, as does everyone else. So... when we are hosting a get together we move whatever didn't get put away into our room. That is also where laundry goes while we sort and fold.

Luckily, for now, only my pajamas are left on the bed with a few hangers. See the lamp with no shade? My husband broke the lamp so now it barely works. The wall color I love (it looks like caramel icing) but we have no headboard and haven't decided what else to do with our room yet.

BEWARE: the pictures you are about to see were taken on a holiday for 2 public school teachers with 2 small children. :o)

This is first walking into our bedroom. My husband threw his shirt and socks from last night on the chair on top of the box of "stuff" I have yet to go through from last night's shampooing adventure.

Our computer desk isn't normally this messy and looks much better while I sit typing this but again we threw things to organize on top of it. The purple basket holds small things I need to go through while there are random cords we found in the room on top of the desk.

The girls are getting ready to watch Netflix on our Wii. The fire is going and they have toys and blankets EVERYWHERE. For some reason blankets are the toys the girls play with the most.

Here is what the couch looked like from the other angle. See all the blankets? I count at least 6 plus the monkey pillow, a stuffed cheetah, Eryn's coat and the Haba push car.

The kitchen island is the catch all for things we pulled out of our bedroom last night and trash. We have a trash closet near the garage door but we always hang plastic bags and gather all of that up first. So strange.

This is our 6 year old's room. For some reason she can't just get something to wear in the morning but she must try on at least 4 outfits first and then they get thrown on the floor. She has pajamas and a housecoat on the floor followed by a pile of toys and her church shoes from yesterday. The paint cans are mine. We just purchased paint to do the top 1/2 of her room. She is getting faux board and batten at the bottom.

Here is the 3 year old's room complete with 3 year old. She got this tent from my mother and father-in-law for Christmas (Emma has one too) and she loves to play in it. Yup, it's huge and it goes anywhere from her room to the living room. What you don't see? Toys and clothes laying on the larger rocking chair (you can see her small one in the picture).  She also likes to wear certain clothes and will strip in her room and change them herself. She has broken so many hangers it is ridiculous.





Well, there you have it! What our poor house looks like right now.


Will it look this bad tomorrow when we go back to school? Nope!

The plans for today include:

shampooing the carpets in the girls rooms, putting away toys and clothes in both rooms. Putting the tools in the kitchen away in the garage and doing about 4 loads of laundry. The blankets will get folded up and put away.


What will still look like this tomorrow:

The tent will still be up in Eryn's room. The paint will still be sitting in Emma's room (somewhere)



Otherwise the majority of it will be done today. That's my list anyway




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