Finally, another Thing done!

If you think that my lack of posting means lack of progress on my 5Things list, well, you wouldn't be too far off... However, I just finished one of my Big Things and it turned out really well!


When I first decided to re-do my 4 year old's room, I had an alterior motive. I really, really want to install chair rail in my downstairs, but I have a really open floor plan so the rooms all sort of merge into each other, there are columns to go around in the dining room, a raised entry way, and some other little obstacles that have kept me from attempting it. I figured that Rachel's room (a nice, plain rectangle) would be the perfect place to try out my skills with chair rail and my miter saw. After some very careful deliberation, however, I realized that though chair rail was cute when she's 4, she'll probably hate it when she's 14 and, well, a mom can only sign up for so much!


Instead, I decided to paint her room in 2 shades of pink (her favorite color) to match bedding, curtains, throw pillows and accessories she already had. Of course, "standard" paint brands don't make the right two shades of pink, I could only find them in the Ralph Lauren brand. Perfect colors and great quality but of course, also twice the price. Let the fun begin...


When I told Rachel I was going to re-do her room, she begged me to do it in princesses. A normal request for a 4 year old, but in the 2 years she's been in the room, she's also begged for Elmo, Dora and Care Bears. I was firmly against a "character theme" that she was likely going to outgrow before the paint finished drying. However, when I (er, um, Santa) came across some princess bedding that happened to match perfectly to the two shades of pink paint I was already planning on, and realized that a comforter, sheet set, throw pillow and extra set of sheets (to make curtains) could all be purchased for under $100, well, I (er, Santa) had a change of heart. Luanne was right... the question was not "to Disney Princess or not to Disney Princess," it was actually "which Disney princess." We couldn't decide, so we did a bit of each.


It started with the paint, which I did as a surprise one day while Rachel was at school. Over the course of a few weekends, I then sanded down and painted white the bookcase and dresser that she already had. I purchased the matching desk with chair and bed (2 months on backorder, it just came in last week!) and painted them white as well. I bought a giant cork board and a few picture frames (all painted pink) and let Rachel pick some princess from a 2007 princess calendar to go in the frames. Of course, redhead that she is, she picked 2 pictures of Ariel and then 2 of Jasmine, go figure!

Here are some videos, a before and an after. The lighting is not great and I hope you don't get dizzy watching them. I still have a few more little things to do (like get her a box spring for the bed and add some more pictures to one frame). All in all, though, I'm calling Thing 7 DONE!

Before Video (warning, this room is messy!!)

After Video -- Thing 7, Done!

To add to the excitement, I have finally come up with a Thing 13, and also have a new Thing 14 to take the place of Thing 7:

New Thing 13: Pierce my belly button! Yes, I'm 32... mother of 2... executive at a Fortune 500 company. No, I have no idea why I think this is the next great Thing for my list, but I've made up my mind.... I think!

New Thing 14: Average 20 crunches/day for 30 days. Clearly, this goes hand in hand with New Thing 13 :-). I know I won't be able to do 20/day everyday, but if I can average 20/day over the course of a month, I'll be happy. Let's hope I'm not doing 600 crunches on Day 30....

Pictures & Videos: Things 5 & 7

As promised, here are pictures and video links to go with my updates on Thing 5 and Thing 7....

Thing 5: Donate my unused clothes to charity. I actually went through my closet and pulled out 102 items to donate back in October. This picture is from that mission. Four giant shopping bags, a big box and a few odds & ends later, my closet is a lot more organized and (hopefully) there are some people who have made good use of these clothes and accessories. I left the item on the list all this time because I still had to go through my dresser. Done!! Twenty-three more items later, I am finally ready to cross this one off my list. Woo hoo!


Thing 7: Install chair rail & paint daughter's room. Well, I changed this one a bit... decided to scrap the chair rail, but still paint the room pink. It was a very bland color called "Navajo White" (same color as the rest of the house). But, my 4-year-old princess deserves a princess room... so that she will get. So far I've painted the room pink, bought/painted a desk for the room, painted the old furniture white (to match the new desk) and severely reduced the clutter in her room, as can be seen on these videos of the Before and the During. I have it on good authority that Santa will be bringing pink Disney Princess bedding (comforter, sheets, throw pillow) and will be making matching curtains. I've also ordered a bed frame, which I will paint white to match the other furniture in the room. This Thing will stay on the list until Santa delivers the goods and the new bed is in place. (Apologies, by the way, for the poor video quality... it's the best I can do on my digital camera. Oh, and ignore the calls for "Moooooommmmyyyy!" on the During video... I left Hubby alone to give both girls a bath for 2 minutes!)

Thing 8: Be a non-smoker. Can't post an update on "other stuff" without mentioning this one... three months, 3 days, still going strong. I am Supergirl, hear me roar!!!

** NEW THING ** to replace Thing 5 is still TBD.... I think I want to do something a little more fun with this Thing... something more for me, and less "work." Hhhmmm.... I promise to think of something and post an update soon!

Official Ruling?

I've yet to see the Official 5 Things Rule Book, so I'm going to possibly bend (break?) a rule here... but I've decided that Thing 7 (Install chair rail & paint downstairs) is no longer on my immediate priority list. As is everything I do, it's complicated... I really, really want to get new kitchen countertops, and was planning to do it this Fall. But, I think I'm going to wait a while on that since I can't decide what kind I want anyway. Since my downstairs is so open and my dining room sort of wraps into my kitchen, I don't want to do the chair rail until after the countertops, so I can decide what height I want to put the chair rail. After all, I'd hate to have the chair rail be 1/2 inch higher than the countertops, right??

However, in the spirit of this same item, I'm going to replace OLD Thing 7 (Install chair rail & paint downstairs) with NEW Thing 7 - Install chair rail and paint daughter's room. Sounds more fun anyway, and a lot less complex in terms of cutting and angles and all that other good stuff. I'll master the art of the 45 degree angle on the chop saw, and then I'll venture to the downstairs. That's legal, right?