Our First Pet and Our Bathroom Re-do

When we celebrated Christmas in Sanger, we had a surprise gift given to the kids. First of all, it was a little scary. GG and Molly announced this as the last gift and from the other room, brought it a box. A box with air holes poked on the side. I didn't know what to say. They tend to joke that they are going to get Atticus a pet. And while I want Atticus and Grace to have pets one day, we are not ready yet. We don't want dogs or cats or any animals living in the house with us while we are at this stage in our lives. We travel too much and don't have kids old enough to really take care of a pet themselves. So, this is not in our plans. And I just nobody would get us a plant by surprise, right? Well, thankfully, they were just joking and instead of a live pet, this box contained a fish tank and everything we would need, minus the fish. So, today, Vic came home from work with Atticus' fish. We happened to be in the front yard when Vic drove in from work and he stopped at the driveway and rolled down the window to tell us hi. The first thing Atticus said was "You got my fish, daddy?". He was so excited. Vic already had the tank ready to go and in they went to get the fish in their new tank. Atticus now loves feeding the fish twice a day. He is also a copycat and I caught him trying to open the lid and put the net back into the tank to "get the fish out and put them back in" as Vic did when he removed them from the pet store plastic bag and put them in the tank. He is just funny and loves those fish and will ask anyone who comes in the door these last couple of days: "I need to show you my fish!". So, this was a wonderful first pet! Thank you Molly and GG!

 

In addition to that, we finally decorated the kids bathroom. I guess, since we've lived in our house 4 1/2 years now, that it is time to decorate it. However, Vic and I are sticking to a small budget, so I had to be very careful about how I spent money to decorate. Months ago, I found my color scheme from a bunch of cute washcloths I found at Target - yellow, orange, bright blue, green, brown. Using that, here is what we did:

I printed pictures on my own printer and put them in $7.99 wall frames from Target. Then, we hung them above the kids towels. I bought one striped hand towel that matched the washcloths I bought for my color swatches. I also bought wooden letters to say "Splish" and "Splash" from Hobby Lobby and painted them with acrylic paint and a coat of decoupage to make them shiny. We hung them up using heavy duty foam tape.

I needed a couple of things to gather all of the items that usually end up spread out on the counter. So, I got lucky and found some 70% clearance items at Hobby Lobby to hold toiletries and toilet paper.

When Atticus was born, Mary gave us this adorable rubber ducky shower curtain and I've finally gotten to use it! I also bought two towels to match the colorful décor. We have plenty of towels for us and they are blue and green, so they would match ok. But, I decided for $4.99 apiece at Target, I would get these for the bathroom. Also, they are RE brand and we love them. A friend has made some hooded towels for the kids out of this brand and they are so soft.

I also picked up a wooden shelf at Hobby Lobby and had Vic paint it to display some more bath and bedtime pictures. Side note: We used white trim paint from other areas of the house that have been painted for this shelf. We have gotten so much use out of wall paints for things in the house - shelves, kid room décor that needed paint, etc. I used frames I owned and pictures printed from my own printer for the pictures on the shelf. I also typed up and printed my own sign that says "Wash your hands and say your prayers, because Jesus and germs are everywhere." I had seen that sign on Pinterest long ago and have always thought it was so cute. We also used an old frame we already owned.

Then, Vic smuggled in these old two fish. When he as a bachelor, he had them on a shelf in his condo. When we moved to this house, I may have given them the boot and they have been in the shed since then. Well, he brought them back in and since they are colorful and out of the way, I let him put them on the windowsill. He was so proud!

My toughest project was getting this basket-and-rod toy storage system setup. As always, I found this idea on Pinterest and thought it looked so easy! You just attach some baskets using curtain rod hangers to a spring rod and put it in the bathroom. Then, it's easy to put those toys away each night. They drip dry and are out of the way for when people also need to use the shower. Well - it was not quite as easy. First of all, finding  baskets was tough. I looked at Bed, Bath & Beyond; I looked at Target; I checked the Dollar Store. I even went to Walmart where I finally just bought baskets from the office section, the storage section, and then bathroom section and returned what we didn't use. It was hard to find baskets in the right depth with holes to let the water drip out of and that would attached easily to the rod. Then, we realized that curtain rod hangers were not good to use for this project. They were not tight enough and the baskets just hung down and the toys would fall out. Well, finally, using zip ties and baskets from the office section at walmart, we got our little storage system up and running. This picture is deceiving but they are hung so that they tilt enough to hold toys in but let water drip out. They are working great so far and we are hoping they last forever!

I also found this at Target a few weeks ago on 50% off. Target doesn't do great sales very often, so I was really excited! It goes great with our colorful fish and ducky filled bathroom.

 

 

So, my final project cost $89. Still a little on the high side, but totally less than I would have spent had I just bought all of the towels and accessories that went with that little group of washcloths in the kid section at Target, plus the picture frames and signs that I would have bought pre-made instead of making myself. And, it is now done. 4 1/2 years later. I love it!

 

2 Towels/1 handtowel: $21

Rug: $10

Wooden shelf: $6

Curtain Rod: $10

Baskets for tub: $5

Storage for countertops: $9

Wall frames: $16

Wooden letters/paint: $19 (had I waited, I might have been able to get the letters on 1/2 price, but my experience finding all the letters you need for a project when you need them is that you have to go back many times to get what you want. For example, when I went on a Friday to purchase letters, they did not have any "S"s. I asked the lady if they were getting any and she said they had 8 ready to be unloaded that afternoon. So, I go in the next morning to pick up the 4 that I needed and there were only 6 left. It drives me nuts! So, since they were only $1.50 apiece, I just bought what I needed and didn't worry about trying to get them half price on a random week and risk not getting what I wanted anyways.

 

So, our kids bathroom is complete!