My first 3-D Jigsaw puzzle (a.k.a. our loft couch)

We got our new couch in the mail yesterday! I was upstairs folding laundry when my oldest came running upstairs, "Mom, we have a box! We have a box outside!" I wasn't expecting to get it for another day, but I was pretty excited to do something other than fold laundry.

Several years ago, I found this really neat online furniture store, Home Reserve that sold couches that you put together yourself. The couch comes in boxes and is seriously like putting together a 3-D jigsaw puzzle, only easier because they provide step-by-step instructions. I told hubby about it, but he wasn't impressed until recently when I pointed out that it would be much easier to get a couch upstairs if it came in a smallish box. Then, he was much more willing!

So, I went downstairs and my boys and I hauled our new couch upstairs. It came in two boxes and was really easy to put together, just time consuming.

Here's our cushions all fluffed back out.
I put the arms together first and my baby wanted to climb around inside.
Then my older boys wanted to play on it to...
We took a break after that for lunch and then I got busy. Here's the arms of our couch, all put together and waiting for the rest of it.Here's the couch frame, at about the halfway point.
Son #1 putting screws in the holes.
They were so excited to be able to sit on it!
Here it is complete! I had a friend come over to see my couch. I was almost finished so she helped me get the fabric on the arms and cushions and snapped a picture for me. All told, it took me about 4 1/2 hours to put it together, mostly by myself.
We LOVE our new couch! The cushions are a bit firm, but my boys are working hard on softening 'em up. I promised them that when our new couch came, they could climb and jump and do whatever they want on it, so they have been. I love the size of this couch, it's perfect for the loft/playroom. Home Reserve has TONS of fabric choices, so we ordered a bunch of samples before deciding on this dark blue one. My favorite part about this fabric? It's water-proof. No more worrying about my furniture when I'm potty-training. Oh, and the fabric comes off and is machine washable too. Love it!

After the boys went to bed last night, I sat down on our new couch and used it for the very reason we bought it - I folded laundry for the first time in 2 weeks! I realized soon after our move that I will only willingly fold laundry while sitting on a couch watching a movie. With our only couch downstairs and our laundry room upstairs, I wasn't very good about hauling laundry downstairs just to fold it, so my so-so laundry habits quickly went downhill. That's when my husband said I could buy a new couch. :) I'm hoping our new couch will help get me back into my much better laundry habits again soon!

So, with the addition of the couch, I'm almost done with our loft. Yeah! I'll show you the whole room (cleaned up) soon. I just have a couple more projects left to finish and then it will be complete. I'm getting so excited!

Toy box

A couple of weeks ago, I bought an Ikea bedroom set from my neighbor. I only wanted a couple of pieces, but she insisted on giving me the whole set. I originally had grand plans of painting all the solid pine furniture white and using them in various places in my home. My compressor being dead and in the shop for who knows how long has changed my mind - again. This afternoon, I sold the armoire I got on Craigslist. I got rid of the toddler bed that came with the set right away.

My original plan for this toy box was to paint it white and use it to store the stuffed animals my husband won't let me get rid of. I changed my mind about painting it (read: I want my garage emptied!), so I took it upstairs today and slapped a vinyl sign on it. What do you think?

I just recently got this fun blue vinyl and this is my first project with it. I may one day take the vinyl off, paint the chest and then put the vinyl back on, but for now, this is great. Plus, it's from the same line as my coffee table mentioned in this post, so it looks pretty good as is.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with the matching dresser yet. I broke a couple of drawer slides as I was taking it apart to tighten all the bolts, so I have to replace those before we can use/sell the thing.

Been busy

If anyone's wondered why you haven't seen any after pictures of painted furniture, it's because my air compressor died, literally right after this post about painting all that furniture. So, my garage is still full of furniture and it's driving me nuts! But the first two pieces of our computer desk are redone and we moved them into our library, which made rearranging necessary. We moved all our boardgames upstairs to our bedroom (so we can keep them behind a closed door and away from little "dumpers") and started rearranging our office/library. It's still a work in progress and will be until I get my compressor back from the shop and can paint the last piece of our desk.Here's my oldest (he's 4) helping dad carry the shelving unit upstairs for the boardgames.

We had a community yard sale 2 weekends ago and I loaded up the back of my van with everything I didn't sell and took it to Goodwill with the promise that I would not get out of the car. I came home with this:

I just couldn't go without going it to look at something and I figured the furniture section was least likely to have something I would want to buy. Guess I was wrong... It was $14.99 and we've been thinking about a bench for a table for a long while, so we're all really pleased.

This past weekend also kicked off my mad dash to the finish line for doing our loft/playroom. I headed up to Ikea and spent a wonderful Saturday shopping with my sister-in-laws in the Pheonix area. We had a blast and I came home with a car full of stuff for my loft and a couple of other projects I've got in the works. Monday, I put together this expedit bookcase and the leksvik coffee table and the boys loved coloring on their new art easel.

Tuesday, I picked up some more furniture for our loft from Walmart (gotta love Site-to-Store free shipping!) and Wednesday, I finally found the perfect fabric to making bins for my new coffee table and bookcase. I've got lots of projects in the works for my loft right now. I'm also hoping to get my air compressor back from the shop early next week so I can finally paint all that furniture in my garage and finish a room!

Homemade Air Freshener

A few years ago, my friend, Tanya had some homemade air freshener sitting on her kitchen counter. I asked for the recipe and I finally tried it on Tuesday. I'm a little slow sometimes...

This is really easy to make and pretty inexpensive too. I decided to make this, sort of, to commemorate the new Dollar Tree in my favorite shopping area. That and I'm working on some new crafts for future Craft Nights. Basically, you make jello, but out of liquid potpourri and salt instead of a flavor and sugar. I bought my potpourri at the Dollar Tree, but you can find other fragrances at Walmart with the incense stuff in the craft section. I chose Vanilla & Cream.

My husband picked up my last ingredient (gelatin) on his way home from a Cub Scout meeting Tuesday night, so we made it together after he got home.

Here's a picture of my ingredients and written instructions. Boil 1 cup water with 1 cup potpourri, add 2 pkgs flavorless gelatin and 1 tbsp salt (to keep it from molding). Stir until everything's dissolved and pour it into your container. I used a pint jar, but with the added gelatin and salt, it was a touch too small, so I threw away the rest.

Here it is after I poured it into my jar:
And here it is the next morning after I took it out of the fridge:
It slowly "goes away" kind of like those gel-like air fresheners you put in bathrooms. I've been thinking about ways to pretty it up, maybe with a clear cover with holes in it or putting a fake wick in to look like a scented candle. We'll see. I still have a bunch of potpourri left, so I might try out some different ways soon. This was really fun and only took a couple of minutes to make. I have it sitting on the kitchen counter, but I'm planning on making some for each bathroom soon too.

Nursery Frame

My nursery is coming along. Before anyone gets too excited though, let me just say I'm planning ahead.

I made this frame to match the curtains I made recently. Eventually, I plan on painting an accent wall green and this frame will go on that wall. I also plan on having another baby eventually, too, so the name will be changing.

I forgot to take a picture of it when the frame was all together, but I snapped one right before I primed it. So, here's my before picture:

And here's my cute after:
I just laid the backing of the frame on my freshly ironed fabric and cut around it. I put the vinyl on top of the plexiglass so I won't have to take it apart to change the name when baby #4 decides to come along. So, after spray painting and (sort of) letting it dry, I layered it all together and leaned it against the wall on top of the dresser in the nursery. I really like how it turned out and can't wait to see it with the whole room changed... eventually.

Plans for the nursery include: painting one accent wall green, replacing the current dresser with a vintage white dresser (after I fix and paint it), re-painting my piano bench and rocking chair white (they're currently ivory which looks odd with the yellow in the nursery) and getting a nice, new white crib, plus a couple more ideas knocking around in my head. But most of that won't happen until we've got #4 on the way and #3 is sleeping in a different room, so it'll be a while.