Twain walks up to me and tugs on my arm.
"Tum to my room and play chinter toys wiff me", he says.
My "to-do" for the day was growing longer by the minute, but I stopped what I was doing and followed my boy to his room, which his shares with Ollie.
Here is a peek into their little neck of the woods. Grab a cup of coffee and a good book and come "snoddle"(snuggle) up with us.
One year or 2 ago my poor little princes were living in squalor.I kid you not, their room resembled a bachelor pad at best: one lone mattress on the floor with John's old blue comforter, pinkish walls and a black crib strewn off to the side.
It was a depressing room. And as I've joked before, with those pink walls, no wonder Ollie has all these issues.
Bed time was not a fun experience for either mommy or daddy. Nobody wanted to read a bedtime story in that dismal room. Granted, it wasn't the worst--kids around the world suffer far more egregious living conditions, so I cannot complain, really.
However, with Ollie's increasing spd problems, John and I decided to make the little boys' room a bit more cheerful.
I dislike decorating bedrooms(strange, I know), so this was a tall order for me. But I found some inspiration from this dutch nursery. Ok, so my boys' room looks NOTHING like this, but it got me started. I decided to incorporate some Swedish touches. Because my boys are part Swedish. (John is a Swede and both sides of his family are Swedish. And I always loved the nick-nacks from his grandma's cabin).
Their room has an extremely awkward layout for 2 beds and so this was gonna be a huge prob. Twin beds didn't fit and bunks were out of the question for this mama.
By some miracle, John's brother ended up loaning us some mini beds from his cabin: bigger than a toddler beds, but small enough to squeeze into their tight quarters. And they said we could paint them!
I'm not sure how many grey spray cans we went through--so.much.work.
Found a big quilt at an antique store and cut it in half for their bedding. Kinda falling apart so one day I will replace them.
They love their beds and hide all their treasures on that little shelf part.
Their room came out a little more colorful than anticipated. I was hoping for more of an Amish-minimalist look. But that did not happen. I'm ok though. I will recover.
Libby teaching Twain his letters out of tinker toys. It's a "V".
Auntie Jessica bought Ollie this vintage duckie toy for his birthday last year.
The little dala horse was lent to us by John's mom. The shelf was from his grandparents cabin and I'm so thrilled to have a little piece of them in this room.
Bunting inspired by Miss Lorieloo's British bunting we made last year.
She also got my boys the Mark Twain and Oliver Twist book books on their book shelf.
Ok. Let us talk about Mr. Creeper for a minute, shall we?
This creeper toy is so hideous. I must have been desperate when I purchased it. And my boys HATE him. Every day they throw, kick and beat him out of the room. And every day I put him back on the books. Because it's part of our dysfunctional routine.
This dresser needed HELP.
I liked the cabinet seen in the dutch nursery, so I kind of painted the dresser likewise. SO easy. Just painted the top drawers blue and bottom one red. Threw on some cheap nobs from Lowe's.
This little soldier stole my heart. He looks amish, no?
The clown bank to the right of the solider belonged to John's dad when he was a boy. Makes my heart happy.
Auntie Lindsay bought the vintage horn for the boys from ebay(well I bought it and she paid me back, because that's how we operate).
The map is of Scandinavia.
This chair. I found it at the goodwill for $20.
Some lady and I were eyeing the price disdainfully. She was like "what a rip" and I was like "yah, I know". And then when she wasn't looking I went creeping up to the counter and tried to make a deal with the cashier. I offered her like $11.
She was all "heck no lady!" and was like "I'll take it!" as I slunk out of the store in disgrace. And I brought it home and we have lived happily ever after.
Calvin's wears this firefighter shirt all the time. It's part of his daily uniform. Grandma Betty bought it for him in Sweden.
Thanks for hanging out with us today.
"goodnight you princes of main, you kings of new england"
And now. We shall bid you "Hej da", which is goodbye in Swedish.
