Starry starry wall.

The playroom is progressing more and more. It's such a nice peaceful room to lie in with Henry and, because of the veranda around the outside of the room, it stays constantly cool despite the temperatures rising to 37 degrees already...and it's still Spring here. I loving having a space to put all the little toys and baby bits collected in the last few months. It feels nice to be able to put your feet up at the end of a long day and not have a lounge room cluttered with baby toys.  It's a nice orderly room that will be able to evolve with each passing year.  But for now, let's talk about the star wall.

There are two windows in the playroom and also bi-fold doors that open up into the main hallway. The walls are white and freshly painted but I wanted to just make them a little more exciting - in a simple and not over the top way. Although I adore wallpaper it's just a bit too pricey and permanent so I thought I'd opt for good old wall stickers. I look through many wall decal websites but I always keep getting drawn back to 'walls need love' for their simple and good quality wall decals. They also have the best prices but shipping is a bit of a pain...ah, you lucky readers who live in the US. Through using a discount coupon I managed to get a set of star decals to me for $16 which was pleasing to the pocket.

Then it was only a matter of sticking them on the wall... perfectly! Yes, this process took it's sweet time and involved the help of my handy Dad but I feel like getting the spacing and direction of the stars in order has made a fun new wall in the playroom that I am most happy with.

My tip would be to spend the time roughly positioning the stars with blue tac until you know the layout you want. Then we used a spirit level and string to make the lines straight and piece of wood with markings on it (of the measurements we had chosen) to make sure the spacing was even. For a more detailed explanation of the process, check out this post about adding gold spot wall decals in the half bathroom.

This is a project that requires some patience but I think it's worth it for the end result. I can't wait to show you the finished room soon.

Lisa x

and almost two months later...

Life looks so different now compared to three months ago- I've spent many hours cuddling, kissing, rocking and feeding the little baby attached to those adorable feet. I've let my little corner of the web go for a short time but now I am finally settling into a bit of a routine and getting chances to do a few new projects while Henry naps. As soon as Spring started (here in Australia) and I felt I little bit of warmth, I wanted to clear the excess stuff that had been building up in our home and reassess the way we've set out our house now that I am a stay at home mum for the time being. There is just something soothing about waking up in a clean organised house and not having any junk or useless objects around cluttering up space- the more excess stuff the more cleaning needed.

After searching the web for ideas to motivate me to declutter, I stumbled across the 40 bags in 40 days. While this challenge was a few months back, I've taken it on myself and so far I'm 7 bags and 7 days in. I've also been purposely seeking charities and donation places to take these goods and doing a bit of tossing as well. Our home already feels much cleaner and organised.

Although my last post was about setting up the guest room, we had my sister in law and her bub stay for just under two weeks and after that I realised the space would be better used as a play space (joining on with the lounge room). I then moved the guest room to another room- combining it with my craft/office room which is really just a space to hold everything I have quite worked out what to do with. Let's be honest, kid's spaces are super fun and since we spend lots of time reading (already, I know, I'm a teacher), listening to music, lying under the play gym, practising tummy time and sitting in the swing- I like having a dedicated space to keep all these things organised and house the toys that Henry will grow into in the future. Being a Junior Primary teacher for the last four years has meant I have many toys that Henry won't be using for years.
I've attempted a mood board below of a few things I'd like to incorporate into the space that can remain as constants while the toys evolve.

 1 / 2 / 3  / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

For storage an expedit (know known as kallax in Ikea) is great as it allows toys to be on show and accessible or grouped together in boxes. I already have one I purchased second hand last year which is perfect. After looking around I've become a bit smitten with the Skip Hop range of storage boxes as they're just so cute and a bit more fun that a plain box. It's always good to have some soft surfaces to play on and a sheepskin rug is perfect for that as well as Skip Hop play spots. I recently got a free faux sheepskin rug from a deceased estate and my sister in law gave their old set of play spots which are perfect for the space. The walls need a bit of excitement as I'm leaving them white. I love these star decals from walls need love and a search of Etsy led me to these cute artworks. I'm also hoping to do some DIY projects in the room.

Here's a little sneak peek of how it's coming together...

Time to go fill another bag for today- 8 days down :-)

Lisa x