Thursday, October 30, 2014

The transformation of a girl's bedroom

When we moved into this house in 2007, Ann-Marie was 4 years old.  Her Pap paints houses, interior and exterior, for a living.  So, he offered to paint the kids' rooms when we moved in.  Ann-Marie chose her wall color - a bright, Pepto Bismal pink.  I intensely disliked this color (yes, I hated it), but it made a certain little girl very happy.  It was so bright that at night, her room made the street outside glow pink!  My sister-in-law, Maura, gave us my niece's bedroom set....a beautiful white canopy bed (we never did turn it into a canopy) and a dresser, nightstand and desk - gold hardware, perfect little girl bedroom.  Add a couple of Ikea curtains, a couple of princess wall hangings and we were done!


Until Ann-Marie turned 10 that is.  And she started not liking pink and was growing out of her little girl pink phase.  Little did I know that she was scheming with Pap again.  Surprise...her 10th birthday present was another painting of her room by Pap!

Now, I will tell you....I do NOT like decorating.  It is NOT a talent of mine, I do not change decorations, or furniture, or wall colors very often (we're talking decades.)  In fact, in the past, I was satisfied with moving every 7 years - that's my level of decorating.  Give me a good cabinet to organize, schedule to overhaul, curriculum to make work.  Just don't give me a room I have to decorate!

So Ann-Marie's room - now a lovely shade of blue (I do LOVE this color) stayed pretty much the same.  I never did take a picture of it......think blue walls with the Ikea curtains and pink bedspread.  So, for her 11th birthday, she asked for a room makeover.  

Her birthday was in April......we just (almost) finished the room.....it is the end of October.  Things move fast at the Jerome household!

Her birthday present.....the bedspread.  With her birthday money, she bought the lime green/white striped curtains at Wal-mart.  The blue lamp was bought at Target.  And she was promised an update to her dresser, nightstand and desk.  We weren't prepared to buy any furniture new and we liked how the white looked against the bold, blue walls.  So we searched Pinterest, and came up with the idea of painting the drawers of the dresser, nightstand, and desk.  With a trip to Home Depot, we found a perfect shade of lime green spray paint and began the (long) process of pulling out her drawers, painting them, and returning them.  We LOVED the new look to the furniture, but we didn't LOVE the gold hardware.  There were 4 flower pulls, which we liked the look, but not the color of.  So with silver spray paint, that I already had, we covered them and loved the look of silver against the lime green.  The 6 other pulls were antique-looking, which we didn't love.....so we went to Home Depot and found some silver pulls that were a similar color to the flowers.  
 Some of her new wall hangings are a character sketch a local artist did of her at a friend's birthday party, a framed picture of her life verse (Proverbs 3:5-6), and a string of lime green lights hanging off her bed.
 Right after her 10th birthday, we did pull the wooden doors off her closet, much to Darrell's displeasure as they will be very hard to put back on if we want to sell this place some day.  We found a curtain and created an art/writing center in her closet.  So half of her closet is a closet for clothes, the other half is an art/writing center with a very small desk.

What is not done yet.....the tops of the dresser, nightstand, and desk need to be repainted white, as they are pretty scratched up and marked up.  We might do some painting of her bed, but we're still thinking about what we will do.  Otherwise, we are very pleased with how the room turned out!

Next up - the boys' room.  The concept - changing it from a dinosaur themed room to a Steelers football themed room.  Paint has been chosen and bought.  Goal - complete before Evan is a Senior in High School!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

New School Year 2014-2015

 We officially started school last Monday.  Evan is an 8th grader - last year in Middle School.  He is taking three High School classes to transition him into High School next year.  It is hard to believe we have a child that old now.
 Ann-Marie is officially a new Middle School student - a sixth grader.  She moved up into youth group, which she was very excited about.
Alec is an upper elementary student - 3rd grade!  He was the only one who would take a "tradition school picture."

We hope your school year has started off smoothly!

Relaxing at Lake Erie

 We were able to take a day trip to Lake Erie before school started....just one day to relax and enjoy each other.  Lake Erie is the closest thing to the ocean that we have here....just beautiful!







A visit from Aunt Sue and Uncle Lyle

 We were so blessed to have my Aunt Sue and Uncle Lyle from the Chicago area visit us this summer.  We were able to show them our local sites.  The first day we took them into Pittsburgh....we walked around, ate at Market Square, splashed at the PPG place fountain, rode up the incline and took in the view from Mt. Washington.




 The second day we took them around the local area....discovered the history of Beaver, PA and drove them around the different areas of our county.

 The third day, we took a picnic to Point State Park, walked around the Strip District, drove out to McConnell's Mills and took a hike.








We are so thankful that we were able to explore so much of our local area with them while they were here.  Thanks for visiting us, Uncle Lyle and Aunt Sue!!!! We enjoyed you so much!

Summer sports activities

 Soccer for Alec ended....
 Ann-Marie and gym friends helped break a world record in Pittsburgh...
 And a mother-daughter date to Go Ape!



Summer - Memorial Day weekend trip

 We took a trip to visit some of the battlefields of Pennsylvania over the Memorial Day holiday.  Gettysburg was our first stop.




 Harper's Ferry was next....it was more fun with friends!






 And last was Antietam.....probably the most powerful and moving of the three sites visited.