Just Call Me an HGTV Star!

That is what I felt like the past couple of weeks. I took on a lot of big projects and crafts for the girls christmas presents. It was definitely the most crafts I have ever done for christmas presents, and definitely the most stressful I have been in quite a while. I am pretty sure I had a breakdown just about every day. I was literally working from 8:00AM to about 11:00PM every day last week on these things (one time I stayed up tim 3:00)! But all the stress and work was totally worth it.


My biggest project that took practically all of my time was redoing Kyra's room. This was a complete suprise for her and we had a lot of fun doing it, but we also ran into a lot of obstacles. Here are the before pictures.

This is during the demolition. My friend Whitney was so kind enough to help me for this big project! First, it took us two hours just to get all of the closet down. Then we realized that behind the closet wasn't dry walled. So we decided to run up to the dump to get rid of all the wood, then go to Home Depot. Well after the long drive to the dump we got to Home Depot and realized that our tire was completely flat! So we went up to Les Schwab and had to wait for and hour and a half for them to put on a new tire. After that we went back to Home Depot and back to the house and (I am VERY proud of this) put the dry wall up ALL BY OURSELVES! I thought it was pretty impressive. So that pretty much took all day long. I thought the first day we would get closet torn out and everything painted...totally wrong.

By the way, we just about died a thousand times from that old ladder and bad use of power tools.

All the junk from the one little closet.

Gross, huh?

Our beautiful dry wall work. By the way, this is what I looked like for the whole week of my christmas break. No makeup, no bra, no real clothes. Brett was probably wondering what happened to his wife.

And are you ready for the finished product?????

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I absolutely love this room and how it turned out. You can't really tell how dramatic is was until you are actually in the room. My favorite is all the tree and stem paintings we did around the room. We used an overhead projector and drew them on first, then painted. It took a VERY long time. But well worth it.

She absolutely loved the transformation. And if she didn't I was going to have to switch rooms with her, because I loved it so much! I am glad we did it, and I am SO glad it is over.

Now, all the crafts I made for christmas and things I made to go in Ky's room.

I made this reversible duvet cover and pillow case, I didn't get a picutre of the other side though, oops.

A picture board, for both Kyra and Makenna

This is my absolute favorite. I found it on a craft website. These are rose petals from the dollar store, and just some needle work rings. The whole thing cost me about $4.

Wall art from the dollar store. I also got this idea from another craft website. It is just some fake canvases that I painted and then modge podged paper onto. I did one for Makenna's room too.

Just a little bulletin board. I just used one of her cupboard doors from the closet we ripped down, and all the extra scraps of fabric from her bedspread.

She used to hang up all the cards I gave her, so I left this one up because her and Brett always make fun of me for putting THAKNS, instead of THANKS. I know, I am an idiot. But now it is an inside joke. Anytime we say thanks around this house, it is now pronounced (thank-ens).

This is on of my favorite things I made. Makenna is alway helping me in the kitchen, so I wanted to make her a little apron. She LOVED it and has been wearing it ever since she opened up the present.

A scripture bag for Makenna

Scripture covers. These were pretty easy and super cute. I got the idea from the church bookstore in Spokane. I saw one and thought I would attempt one myself. I want to make more now for Kyra. (Sorry, some of my pictures wouldn't turn the right way).

Curtains for Makennas room

I made this for Brett because him and his brother and dad we able to go the a game for the world series and it literally made their life. I think he was happier about that than our marriage! They are huge giants fans. I printed pictures off the internet and took some things that he got while he was there. He loved it.

I made 3 quiet/sunday books for Makenna. Thank you to latter day chatter for all the great ideas on this on. There is a book on the prothet and apostles, a book on just gospel principles, and a book that summarizes the Book of Mormon. She LOVED them. She loves anything that has to do with church.

And that is all. I don't want to go near a sewing maching for at least 6 months! But really, it is so much more fun to give a gift that you put time and effort into. I had fun making my own HGTV makeovers!