TrainTableTop

As I promised in yesterdays Birthday Stuff post - here's the gift I "built" my son last week :)

When my son turned two we got him a train table for his Birthday.
It was a huge hit.
But he was definitely too little to set up the tracks himself, and I didn't want to be doing it for him every 5 minutes...
So we took a cue from the toy store and screwed the pieces on to the table.
It worked out perfectly...except he just turned 4, and now he wants the freedom to move the tracks around. Plus, it would be nice if he could use the table for other things as well - like legos or race cars.

The old table top has screw holes in it now, though. Plus the wear and tear on it was pretty significant.
So I decided to replace the top :)

I picked up a very thin piece of plywood - a 4x4 piece of flooring underlayment, actually.
I cut it down myself with a circular saw. I'd never done that before. In the past, my handy-dandy, oh-so-helpful husband has always done it for me. But he was at work, and I'm impatient, and I decided to do it myself. It's a lot harder than it looks.
But I managed!

Then I gave it a coat of apple green spray paint.

When that was dry I started the detail work.
I'm no artist, but I figured my 4 year old wasn't going to be critiquing my work. I gave it a couple of bodies of water, a bunch of rocks, some trees/bushes and a road, of course.

After the detailing was finished I gave it a clear top coat to keep the paint from wearing away too quickly.

For his Birthday this year, we gave Ash a bunch of Hot Wheels race tracks that interconnect. The new train table is the perfect place to set them up! It's wonderful being able to use the table for more than just trains. Here are my kiddos, in their jammies, playing on the new table :)

GOAL!!!

My daughter, Tessa, played Spring Soccer for the first time this year.
She loved it, and was actually very good!
We had a lot of fun with it as a family and went to the park a few times to practice...
But practicing soccer is tough without a goal.

I checked out a mini collapsible goal at Wal Mart, but it was cheesy looking and so light that I figured (staked or not) it would fly across the yard if anyone managed to score a goal! Plus, it was $35.
I checked online and found a plethora of options - none for less than $40, plus shipping.

At this point I (of course) started to wonder about building my own goal...
I figured there HAD to be plans out there to build one out of PVC pipe. We have a large pile of PVC in the garage, left over from our sprinkling system.

Sure enough, I found several plans online.  This one, from This Old House, was my favorite.

I modified it a tiny bit and managed to build a goal for about $6!
Since my garage was full of PVC pipe, I didn't have to buy any of that. I bought a bunch of PVC joints (about $3) and 2 fishing nets from the dollar store.

The nets were the hardest part. The ones from the dollar store are NOT perfectly square. Actually, they're not any particular shape at all. They're sort of amoeba-ish.  So I started by tyeing one net on to the goal in as many spots as I could stretch it to on one end, then I did the same on the opposite side. In the middle I trimmed the nets where it needed it and tied the two of them together. I cut and tied for about 30 minutes and it was tedious - but the money saved was well worth it! $2 was WAY cheaper than I would have been able to buy any other net for.

 

Tessa will be playing soccer again in the fall, and this season her little brother will get to play, too!

We're all very excited - especially for practice at home :)

 

Sandbox

School is out. My run as PTA president is officially finished!!!
Spring soccer is over.
Girl Scouts is on hiatus.

I'm ready to start blogging again! It's time to regain some of those followers that I lost during my unofficial break.
I miss you, followers! I'm sorry I disappointed you...
(no worries. I might have un-followed me, too!)

Luckily, I HAVE been crafting while I was away! I always make time for that :)
So I have plenty to catch up on. I promise lots of posts this Summer!

Last year my husband and I built this swingset for our children.

At the time, I wanted to put a sandbox in the bottom portion of the tower, but the husband talked me out of it.  He had valid points...it's messy and cats may pee in it, namely.
But now I have a little boy who's almost 4.
There's a world of difference between 2.5 and almost 4. kwim?
The little boy LOVES dirt. LOVES it. He's digging in whatever he can find at this point. I'm already dealing with dirt. And as far as cat pee goes...I don't see very many kitties around here. We're really more of a dog neighborhood.
Mostly, though, I just WANT him to have a sandbox.

So I built one.

I started by cutting out the grass that was growing in the base.

Once all the grass was pulled up I measured the box and cut my lumber.  I used 2x6's and screwed them all together before fitting it into the existing box.

Then I screwed the two boxes together.

After the box was in place I used weed plastic and staples to make sure nothing will grow up through the sandbox.

Then we started filling it.

Our sandbox is pretty small. We used 7 50lb bags of sand in it - 350 pounds! That filled it pretty well, but there are 2 more bags in the garage to be added when we need them.

My last step was to cap off the tops of the boards with 1x4's, to give it a little more of a "finished" look, and to give the kids a spot to sit while they play.

It's a hit! The boy loves it - so does the neighbor girl :)

Linking up all over blogland!
The Girl Creative
Today's Creative Blog
Sugar Bee

Kids Bathroom Redo

When we moved into our home (just over 3 years ago) I didn't want the hall bathroom - the one the kids use - to be a "kid" bathroom.

I love those kid bathrooms - but only when they are actually dedicated kid spaces.

Mine was a hall bathroom - the bathroom guests would be using.  I felt like it needed to be "adult" in it's decor.

Fast forward to now - things have changed. I no longer work outside the home, my life revolves around my kids.  And I no longer care if my (childless adult) guests giggle a little at my hall bathroom.  Two children use it every day and I want it to be bright and happy for them - not the boring neutral that it's been for way too long.

Before:

Model Home-ish, wouldn't you say? Except a Model Home would have had something nice hanging above the toilet. I always meant to hang something there, but never could find anything I liked.

To start, I decided to install beadboard.
I've had a beadboard obsession for longer than I can remember - yet I've NEVER installed it in a room.  The bathroom is small, so I figured it was a perfect place to start - nice and easy :)
Once I knew beadboard was going in, I chose a paint color.  I wanted something bright, and lately I'm having a thing for green.  I chose a Behr color called Grape Leaves.

Here are the After picture -

I purchased this adorable shower curtain at Target.

I already had a stack of brightly colored towels that matched the colors in the curtain perfectly.  I sewed little ribbon loops onto them to hang them on the new towel hook I installed to replace the old towel bar with.

 

The shutter is actually an interior shutter that I found for CHEAP on KSL.com (our local - better traveled -version of Craigslist.)  I painted it with an oops paint in the most gorgeous shade of turquoise and distressed it.

The sign hanging on the front is made from a scrap of beadboard and hand painted by me.  I'm not sure I LOVE it.  It might be replaced in the future.  We'll see.

The shelf is another project that I'll share in the future.  The accessories on it I already had.

I framed out the mirror with molding and corner pieces.  Love the way it turned out!

The whole re-do was SO cheap!
I bought a gallon of paint for $25 (only used half)
2 sheets of beadboard for $33 (I got one for 50% off because it was damaged at one end)
The molding, liquid nails and silicon for less than $30
The shower curtain was $20
The new towel hook was $3
The shutter was $1.25
The shelf was about $4
Total was about $100!

The counter top flower arrangement thing is made from stuff I already had.  I'm not sure I love it.  Thoughts?

Is it good, bad or ugly?

Linking up to The Room a Month party at Shades of Pink
and to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
and to It's So Very Cheri's It's So Very Creative party!

Step Stool

I have a 7 year old and a 3 year old - both of whom are too short to reach the sink in the bathroom without climbing.
I also have a couple of ugly old barstools.
So I decided to build a solution :)

First, I cut the legs off a stool, just under the first set of crossbars, making the stool a little less than a foot tall.

Then I put it in the kids bathroom and let them try it out for...well, WAY longer than I originally planned.  When I finally got back on track, I gave the stool a light sanding to prepare it for painting.

I wanted it to say something cute, and considered "step" "reach" and a few others, but eventually decided on "up"
I chose Book Antiqua for the font (classic, but a little more decorative than regular old Times New Roman) and printed it out with the font set to 350.
When I apply a stencil to wood I use a glue stick - it holds it in place nicely but comes off super easy.

After "up" was glued down, I gave the stool one coat of primer and two coats of white semi-gloss spray paint.

Then I did some selective sanding to give it a "shabby" look, removed the stencil and rubbed some stain over the top to darken the wood tone of the word.

Last thing was a coat of clear acrylic spray to protect it from too much more "distressing" at the hands of my children :)

P.S.
Ignore all the stuff in the background of the first picture...those are eventual projects :)

I'll be linking up to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land!
and Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch!