Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Extreme Room Makeover: Declan edition.

So one of my backburner projects finally got off the ground this past week- redecorating Declan's room. I never did a nursery for him, as we were in a rental house and perpetually on the brink of moving when Declan was born. Then, when we moved into our own house, he was too old for a nursery, and too young for a big boy room. So I waited. I'm good at that. Here is the sorry state of his room as of last week:


This isn't shabby chic, it is Romanian orphanage chic.




The crib is especially impressive, no? The only thing missing is the railcar. A couple of years ago, this crib was banned because it is a drop -side crib, so we remedied the danger by just ripping off the drop side and thereby converting it to a toddler bed, ghetto-style. Based on the looks of his room, it's hard to tell we love him.

So over the last few months I started to collect some things to redecorate, picking out bedding and artwork in a rocketship/outerspace theme. I got a little stalled, so I asked my friend Kricia Palmer to help me put the room together. She is a talented interior designer, who is a delight to work with.  Kricia blogs some great design ideas and tips at Palmer Home.  Kricia helped find the missing furniture pieces and figured out how to lay out everything.   I think it turned out darling, and Declan was tickled pink to come home to a brand new room. 

The clocks are all on different time zones- one for Vancouver, one for Little Rock, one for Copenhagen, which is our next big holiday destination.

This is a spot on the wall to hang Declan's art.  The brightly coloured painting on canvas is one that Declan did at school, that was sold at an Access fundraiser that I was unable to attend, and an "anonymous benefactor" bought Declan's painting for me.  Come forward, Anonymous Benefactor!  I hate not knowing!
I love these retro posters.


Declan's favourite part is the rocketship model!  He loves everything about his new room, 
but don't take my word for it, here's a long video with Declan's reactions to his new digs. 

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Declan Busts a Move

So yesterday before swimming lessons I decided to put Declan into the Kids' Zumba class at the Athletic Club, on account of it being free and all.  Not realizing of course that by "Kids" they mean "11 year olds" and  by "11 year olds" I mean "girls".  But Declan didn't seem pay any mind, and gamely made it through the whole class.  Here they are doing the Cupid Shuffle. If you have trouble picking him out, he's the short confused one in the yellow shirt.