Saturday, September 10, 2011

Where the wild things are

I couldn’t indulge in an entire room of pink for our baby girl since she shares a space with her big brother. But injecting a little girlyness into the boy’s room turned kids’ room was only fair. I also rearranged the furnishings to fit each of their essentials in its modest 10x10 dimensions. How sweet it is when they fall asleep in their room together. Usually though, their time together is a little more wild.

I’d hoped to find time to snap a few more kid room pics, but as you can imagine, the room is usually in use during my spare moments! So rather than wait for all the stars to align and more photos to be taken, I thought I’d go ahead and post what I have from a few months back. These pics show the mostly-completed space only Luke managed to rumple a few things in between my final straightening and Erik’s photo-taking! (:

This is the view from one corner, with Ella-belle’s crib and a peek of Luke’s bed. I love the denim-like curtains that my mom found for me.

Here’s the Ella-girl’s bed in full view. I think the simple white crib skirt and bumpers were just the ticket here. They aren’t too busy for a little room and are easy to liven up with a printed sheet.

My favorite thing though is the gorgeous quilt at the foot of her crib. What a treasure!

The picture above her bed was an easy little project. I just punched heart-shaped holes in white paper, taped colored paper behind the hearts, and popped it in a frame.

You may remember Ellie’s dresser from way back here. For $15, it came to us like this (with the other drawers).

After a coat or two of white paint and new hardware it was Ella-ready!

And here’s a zoomed-out shot of the room’s feminine side. Beside the dresser is a clip like the ones in our hallway for Luke’s artwork. In here it holds a ribbon of girly-girl hair bows.

Now let’s check out Luke’s side of the room. I chose this Craig’s List toddler bed because it’s a similar wood tone to the crib, which traveled to Albuquerque tied on top of our station wagon. Can you believe that giant Uncle Jack and Uncle Sam slept in that crib at one time?

The bookcase, also from Craig’s List, mirrors the tall narrow shape of Eleanor’s dresser. The two boxes on top are to archive Luke and Eleanor’s artwork after it comes down from display in the hall. No, Eleanor hasn’t made any wall-worthy art yet, I’m just thinking ahead. (:

And finally, between the closet door and the entry door, we have another dresser and another Babar print. The print’s hot air balloons tie into Albuquerque’s renowned fiesta. The other Babar print’s airplane is appropriate too, since many planes pass overhead coming and going from the ABQ Sunport. The dresser came from JCPenney clearance online since I wanted to find one with deep drawers that matched the wall width well.

There you have it, our compact little nursery for two. I’ll leave you with the sleepiest picture I could find of the two of them. A flashback to January!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Backtrack to Denver

Only in dire circumstances do I drive on steep, windy, narrow mountian roads. So of course I saved a trip up the Mount Evans Scenic Byway for Erik’s day off from his Denver conference. He grew up in the mountains and is unfazed by a dizzying drop inches from our vehicle’s wheels. Unfortunately, Luke is neither a sure-steerer or a seat-gripper. He throws up on windy roads. But the DVD player seems to help.

After just one emergency stop, we made it to Summit Lake and piled out. This cascade of turquoise lakes was just a short walk from the parking lot. We tried to catch up to a mountain goat that we’d spied ahead but missed him. Those mountain goats know how to pick their real estate don’t they?

Then we walked back to Summit Lake and peered in its clear snowmelt waters.

Don’t fall in Luke! (of course he did)

We didn’t make it to the tip-top of the Byway. But Summit Lake, at nearly 13,000 feet high, is a destination in its own right. It was hard to believe that the pristine wilderness and chilly temps here were just an hour and a half drive from Denver!

We enjoyed a nice dinner in quaint Idaho Springs, at the base of the road up to Mount Evans. Luke admired their antique mining cars.

And he was smitten by their old steam locomotive.

He would have worked on revving it back up all night if the bedtime enforcers hadn’t torn him away.

Of course Ella-belle wanted to get out and show him how to drive it. But I kept her warm instead.

What a happy train-lover boy!