A Little Princess and her Handsome Knight

This handsome knight decided he needed someone to save from the evil bad guys.  With his light saber in hand he went forth looking for a damsel in distress.  

He came upon a beautiful maiden whom he adorned with beautiful jewels and named her a princess.

She clapped for joy when her handsome knight rescued her from a fate most tragic, nap time! :)

An Update on the Backyard

So here's the scoop on our backyard!  Here is what the yard looked like last year.  

HUGE GIANT HILL = No useable space!

Another pic of the massive hill.  

Here is a pic of the start of the first wall.  This part took the longest!  

Here is one of the pics of the kids standing on the most resent piles of dirt.  Since the start of this project I think we have had 10 dump trucks full of dirt delivered.  I think thats about 130 yards of dirt.  My hubby will correct me if I am wrong! :)

This last weekend we extended the patio.  A huge thanks must be said for those that helped last weekend.  You know who you are! :)  We were able to get more done in just a few short hours than me and my hubby could have done by ourselves in weeks!

Another pic of the patio.

 See how much better that looks!!!  A flat useable space!

 Here is the bottom level.  My hubby's dad came and helped us get started on the bottom wall and compared to the first wall went up a lot faster.  

 Look at that!  Two useable flat areas!  

 Here is a look from below.  We are going to be putting up a picket fence along the upper wall so kids don't fall off.  Babe and Porkchop have already tried to ride their bikes off of it so a fence is a must have!  I am sure they would learn pretty quick not to do it again, but I don't want the liability of some other kid falling off. :)

 Another pic of the bottom level.  We plan on putting a fire pit on the far end, garden in the middle and our new trampoline on other end.

So there you go.  Still not done, but SOOOOO much closer.  Fence, sprinklers, and grass.   HOORAY!!!

The Bunkbed

I have had a few people ask for pictures of the bunkbed I just made for the two older girls, so here they are!!!  I think they turned out pretty good.  And I love that they can be separated and made into individual beds if that needs to happen down the road.  

I got the plans from . . . you guessed it . . . the infamous knockoff wood blog.  I did change the ladder though.  Her plan had a ladder that came out away from the bed and I didn't want anything that was going to take up any more room in the space so I came up with this alternative.  I just used some left over 2x4's that I had lying around in the garage and measured what I thought would be an appropriate ladder and started cutting. 

The girls LOVE it!!! I would have got a picture of them in their new bed, but they were actually in the car waiting for me to go out to dinner with dad when I decided to snap a few quick pics.  While we were out at dinner they both kept asking if it was time for bed yet because they were so excited to sleep in their new beds.  Maybe I should make them new beds more often!!!

One concern I had when I decided to make bunkbeds for the girls was what to do with their books at night when they were done reading, especially for whoever was on the top bunk.  Here was my solution.  I know these aren't anything knew, but they are new to us and work PERFECTLY!   They work even better than the nightstands they had before when they had their own separate beds.  I would always come in to check on them at night and find them cuddling with their books.  Now they put them away in their "special" shelf. 

I also wanted them to have a way to read at night with some light without disturbing each other, especially since my oldest has really gotten into chapter books and stays awake a bit later than the younger.  I found these little silver clip on lights at Lowes for about $6 a piece and they work great!  So for those who were interested . . . there are the bunkbeds!

Before and Afters

I got this antique dresser and vanity off of freecycle.   Yes, freecycle.  So yes . . . it was FREEEEEE!!!!! But look how AWESOME the paint job is that the previous owner did.  And sadly they were SUPER proud of it.  The previous owner I believe called it a "trendy gold color."  Unfortunately, this "trendy gold color" was not going to work in my house!

This is the matching vanity.  Again FREEEEE!!!!!  But sooooo not going to work with awesome gold color and orange plastic handles.  

So I bought a heavy duty paint stripper and went to town!  

Here is the dresser, mid process.

This is what your house might look like when it is too cold to paint outside.  And yes that is Porkchop touching the vanity's fresh coat of paint right after I told him not to.

And this is the finished product.  I painted it a soft white and used an antique glaze over the top of that.

Ignore the figure in the mirror!!!  I might not have showered that day and finished sanding and assembling a bunk bed when I took this picture.  Slightly disgusting!  But this is the vanity.  AAHHH!!! So much better . . . at least in my opinion!!!

This is just a better look of the antique glaze that I did.

And aren't the knobs cute?  I found them at Hobby Lobby.  I think they are the perfect finishing touch!