Something New

There's been a new addition to Eme's gallery wall in her bedroom.  It was created yesterday by the little lady herself.  Caleb was painting yesterday morning and I figured it was time to introduce Emerson to the world of fine arts.  She actually did a pretty good job-- only tried to eat paint twice. 

She watched her big brother very carefully, studied his technique, and created her first masterpiece.  I decided that it needed to be displayed in her room-- it's the pink and blue number there at the bottom.

I just love that my kids love to paint and create.

And if you've been reading my blog for a while you will notice that the dresser is new in there too.

Previously, we had a white change table with open shelving... but Emerson was getting too long to lay down on it and the baskets/open shelves were becoming a nightmare to keep neat and tidy.  Plus-- Eme has A LOT of clothes.  I don't buy that many for her, but she gets quite a few hand-me-downs from some other stylish little girls.  Storage needed.

I searched for a used dresser that I could transform with paint but I kept running into two problems.  The first problem was the height of the dressers-- I still wanted to be able to use it as a change table (for Eme and any other future kids) and not just anything would work.  My husband is TALL (as in 6'7" tall) so a dresser that's too low wasn't going to cut it.  And secondly, most old dressers have drawers that do not glide in and out easily.  They are sticky and difficult to open.  One thing I love about the drawers in Caleb's room is the fact that he can easily open and close the drawers to find his own clothing and put away his folded laundry.  The drawer glides in Ikea's dressers make my life a whole lot easier-- so I decided to purchase an Ikea Hemnes dresser-- it's got the storage I need, it's the perfect change table height, and it is easy for the kids to use.  Perfect.  I love the white one, but with the white paneling in Eme's room I felt that I needed something else to break up all the white.  So I chose the gray-brown finish-- one day down the road I can always spray it another color-- but for now I'm loving the gray-brown.

Of course, it needed a little something special-- so I traded in the boring ikea knobs for some brass ring pulls from Lee Valley.  Emerson love her new dresser.

SIDENOTE-- yes, Emerson is wearing her boots-- indoors.  I have yet to find a child who loves footwear as much as this little lady.  She carries her boots and shoes around the house ALL day long begging for me put them on her feet.  I find her shoes hiding in every nook and cranny of the house-- and when I hide her shoes, she starts trying to wear mine!  Ah well, guess she takes after her mama-- boots, shoes, sandals-- I love em too :)

Probably because she loves to look at all her clothes and carry them around the house-- pajamas anyone?

Okay so for now-- easy drawer access is kinda working against me-- but one day, when Emerson is able to put away all her own laundry-- I'll be laughing.