"...what little boy doesn't love airplanes?"

I can truly call Branflake's room complete! I'm so excited! I'm also very pleased with how everything came together. Although there was very little planning behind it, the colors worked out perfectly.

A BEFORE photo taken from the real estate listing. Notice the lovely 

Razorbacks logo consuming the entire wall. That was fun to paint over.

And now, the reveal...

You can see my most recent Pinterest Project outside of his bedroom door.

 

We love his ceiling fan, which was a gift from some friends. It's a P-40 Tiger 

Shark. His little area rug is so fun and I foresee him playing with toy cars on it in the future.

 

I found these wonderful, free vintage alphabet printables and couldn't resist 

adding them to the wall.

 

The colors in the war bird curtains coordinate so well with the wall and 

valance and tie the ceiling fan into the room - what little boy doesn't love airplanes? 

  The valance is a wood box the previous owner attached above the window. 

We used it as a shelf to display special things such as my old stuffed bunny, 

PB's blankie, and a jar of marbles my dad played with as a boy.

The dresser was mine when I was a little girl. It used to be white and girly, 

but I painted it with chalkboard paint and changed the pulls. 

Now, it's perfect for my little boy.

 PB built the bookshelves for Branflake's little library and I painted them to 
match the valance. The box holds his toys; I put my favorites on display.

 The moment I discovered "Wookiee the Chew" I couldn't resist using it as an 
opportunity to pay homage to our Star Wars love. Yes, R2-D2 is a fish tank.

 

The changing table is tucked inside Branflake's huge closet. I like it in 

there for stacking and hiding things and will probably insist that PB 

install shelves once the changing table is outgrown.

Branflake loves crawling around in his new room and exploring everything.  He has so much fun.

Paint:

Wall color is Olympic Honey Beige D15-2
Valance and bookshelf color is Olympic Abracadabra D51-2

Pinterest Project

Every so often I'm going to take a stab at copying a project I found on Pinterest. I'll link to the original and show off my own, along with any notes or observations regarding my experience with the project.

Today's project:

Ruler Growth Chart: Pottery Barn Knock-off

My board is a bit darker than the "original" knock-off. It instantly soaked up the walnut stain and there was not much to wipe off. If I had the chance to do this over I would have gotten the board damp first so it wouldn't have soaked up the stain so rapidly and would have been easier to wipe off.

I sanded and rounded the edges and corners. The board is a cheap wood and it chipped in a few places, but that just added to the aged appearance.

The wood took to a Sharpie just fine and I had no problem with bleeding. I tested it on the back of the board first, just to be sure.

Like MJ over at 517 Creations, I adjusted the placement of the numbers so I could hang it six inches off the floor. Because I chose to put it in a high-traffic area, PB screwed it directly into a stud as a permanent fixture we'll use to document Branflake's growth each year.

When I first showed it to PB, he was convinced that I'd purchased it for a small fortune and couldn't believe it when I said that I'd made it. Yes, honey, I am that good.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the project and how it turned out. It was a lot of fun to craft and now it's even more fun to show off.

::EDIT:: I shared this on Young House Love's Pinterest Challenge.

"...sitting in the fruit bowl collecting freckles."

I had a couple of bananas that were about to go bad that I'd originally purchased to mash up for Branflake. Alas, the little booger has recently decided that he isn't interested in bananas so they've been sitting in the fruit bowl collecting freckles. Hating the idea of just throwing them into the compost bin I decided to take action.

I started off with this recipe, but modified it based on what the reviews said. It's pretty perfect.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  
• 2 mashed, overripe bananas
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two loaf pans or prepare as muffins (muffins will have reduced bake time).
2. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter or margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in the bananas, eggs, and walnuts until well blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, and stir just until blended. Divide the batter evenly between the two loaf pans or muffin pan.
3. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean. Let the loaves cool in the pans for at least 5 minutes. Eat warm if you like (I do), but it's also great chilled in the fridge.  Use saran wrap to keep in the moisture.

Voila!

I made one loaf and 16 muffins with this recipe. The loaf has been a good breakfast for me over the last week and the muffins were shared with my parents and accompanied us on a couple of day trips.

"Does anyone know what to do with this stuff?"

In a mad rush to get the Bird House ready for *cue dramatic music* the in-laws I've been avoiding the internet and all its procrastination power. Oh! How I've missed being able to plop down at my desk, catch up on facebook drama, and write for a little while. 

The last couple of weeks have not been easy. Branflake has gone into ultra-super-clingy mode, just in time for moving and settling in, of course. Much of my day is spent entertaining him and trying to keep him from crying and driving me ballistic. Because I'm spending my days with the babe, I've had to spend my nights catching up on housework and unpacking.

I got the house pretty well situated for visiting family, spent the holiday weekend entertaining and wondering what the fuck I can feed my mother-in-law, who decided to go on a "gluten free" diet. We had to take her to a health food store to get her own special bread and organic vegetables because the meals I'd planned and bought for at Wal*Mart didn't fit into her diet. 

Have I mentioned PB's folks hate Wal*Mart and get all Judgey McSide Eye whenever we say we bought something there?

Now I have a bag of gluten free oatmeal sitting in my pantry.

Does anyone know what to do with this stuff?

Despite my complaints, we had a great holiday weekend complete with tubing down the Buffalo River, shopping the sales at the outlet mall (two Banana Republic dresses for $16 - I rule), a trip to Eureka Springs...

...a new pool for Branflake...

...PB burning burgers and bratwurst on his new grill...

...blue-cherry pie...

...and, of course...

...fireworks.

More to come later, Grumpzilla is awake.

"...five blissful hours of baby-free time..."

Here I sit.

I'm in my little corner of the Bird House - a space that takes up about half of the sun room where I placed my desk, some Sterilite tubs of craft goodies, a bookcase, and a chair. It's cozy. 

The other half of the sun room will be dedicated to yoga, my winter seedlings, and *hopefully* to orchids. I have a nice view of the backyard and the field beyond it. I can watch Sawyer run stupidly around the yard for hours and then Branflake as well when he gets older. It's a good spot to call my own.

Needless to say, we did close on the house. We closed on time, which surprised my pessimist husband. 

Closing was a boring process, no different from any of the times we've signed a lease on an apartment. The only difference this time was the number of digits on the check we handed over, and, of course, this home is ours to do with what we want.

The last two weeks have been a flurry of boxes, moving trucks, furniture delivery, painting, cable set-up, and a crying baby.

As hard as we tried, poor Branflake's schedule was disrupted and it's been an ordeal to get him back on it. Later today I'm going to drop him off at a local church...nope, not getting rid of him, they offer a "Mother's Day Out" program. I give them twelve dollars and they give me five blissful hours of baby-free time to do whatever I need to do. I might take a nap.

Although I'm a little nervous about leaving him, I know he needs the time to socialize. He's almost eight months old and still thinks he's the only baby in the world. PB says it's high time "King Tut" began to realize otherwise. I tend to agree.

All in all, our last move for several years (at the very least) was fairly smooth, but I'm not done and have to get back to it.

"I hate packing."

We're still slated to close on Friday. Our realtor has told us twice that the repairs have been done to the Bird House so we've gone to the house to check the repairs only to see that they haven't been done. Being that our realtor has always seemed to have her shit together and the homeowner's realtor has been a bit of a scatter brain, I blame the seller's realtor for our wasted trips to the house.

P.B. is doubtful about closing on Friday because the title company we're working with apparently only has two people in their office and one of them has been at an open house of some sort all day and is the only one that can handle our paperwork. This wouldn't be so much of a concern if the seller hadn't already moved out of state. Because of this the paperwork has to be overnighted to her to sign and then she's supposed to overnight it back to the title company. But. The. Paperwork. Is. Just. Sitting. There.

Bank of America has been nothing but a pain in the ass. They have several people "handling" our file. No one communicates with anyone else. No one returns phone calls. Their loan progress tracker on their web site is the ultimate piece of shit and is never updated. It's absofuckinglutely ridiculous. Maybe next time P.B. will listen to me when I tell him that BoA is shitty to work with.

The property management company that we're renting the Orchard House from is bringing someone by on Thursday to look at the house. Hopefully they will want to rent it and we'll be off the hook for the early termination fees. *fingers crossed*

I've been packing. I hate packing.

After going through all of the rooms and picking out what we wouldn't need for the next couple of weeks and mentally organizing our belongings I gently packed up all of our good dishes, all the breakable glass, odds and ends...

Have I mentioned that I hate packing? Well, I do.

I've gotten to the point where I just want to start throwing things in boxes and be done. I hate packing.

Hate.

"If you give a kid a pancake..."

 

If you give a kid a pancake...

 

He'll want to give some to the dog...