Excuses, excuses

I always wonder why people have blogs when they don't ever update them. I guess I've turned into one of those people. Life has just been a lot of the same--carpooling, soccer practice, piano lessons, soccer practice, work, soccer games, scouts, soccer practice, laundry and soccer. But I have been working on a fun little project over the past month that I am now ready to "unveil." Nope, I'm not pregnant...

I decided to redecorate the girls' room! Their room was cute, but it has been the same since they were babies, and I was tired of it. Plus, we decided that bunk beds would give them a lot more room to spread out in since they have to share a room, so it was time for a complete overhaul. Here is the before, for those of you who don't remember...
That is right after we moved in, before we replaced the carpet (and door knobs, apparently), but it still gives a basic idea of the look.

I drew my inspiration from Pottery Barn Kids and Land of Nod. Unfortunately my budget wasn't quite large enough. Just for kicks I started adding bedding to my "cart" on the Land of Nod website and when I was done the total was over...gulp...$700.00. Just the bedding mind you--that doesn't include new furniture or accessories. But I think I did a pretty good job without spending nearly that much, if I do say so myself.

I liked the wall color and the chandelier in this room:
But I thought the bedding was a bit too childish. I loved the bunk beds and the names on the wall in this room:

And this is the massively expensive bedding I found that I loved from Land of Nod:
I liked that it mixed a variety of colors and patterns. Chloe is into purple and Audrey is into pink, so I wanted to incorporate both into the room and bedding. Here is what I came up with...

Of course it doesn't look nearly as good as those professional magazine shots, but oh well. It is really cute in person! I color-matched the paint color from the PBkids room, so it actually is the same color. The bunk beds were not the $1500 ones from PBkids, but a nice knock off from Walmart.com.

The bedding was one of my favorite finds. The quilt sets were perfect and a steal at $40 each from Home Goods. Audrey's is pink, Chloe's is purple. The polka dot sheets were from Target. Once I saw those birds on the throw pillows we decided to go with a nature inspired bird theme and I just love how it all turned out!
I re-painted the dresser and changed the hardware. I also found that perfect lamp--I don't know if you can tell it has a little bird on it. I found those cute little mini-bird houses at Michael's and painted them. I still want to put them in shadow boxes up on the walls. Then the vinyl birds and birdhouse came from online. I love them! My friend did the girls' names on the walls.
I also love the chandelier. I had seen one in the PBkids room that was flowery so I went into the store to see it. (It's the one in the first magazine picture.) I decided that I liked it enough I was willing to splurge and spend $90 on it. When they held it up for me in the store it was cute, but there was no light!! It was just a decoration. They wanted $90 for some ribbon and paper flowers! So I found my chandelier at trusty Walmart.com and added my own ribbon ($1.50) and flowers ($3). I think it turned out pretty cool. I tell the girls their room looks like twin fairies live in it.
Notice the real bird's nest on the shelf!! I still have a bit more to do (the shadow boxes, a rug, etc.) but I think it is a fun new look!