Decorating...

The downstairs bathroom is hard to photograph because it's so tiny.. so I took a lot of pictures. It took me a few hours to finish it the way I wanted to.
Looking down at the sink.... and then look up above the mirror and tada! Loveliness... I had most of this stuff.. just bought a new soap pump for 6 bucks on sale to complete the look... There's a trash can with a pop-up lid that is on my "wish list" that matches the soap pump perfectly. :]
What took so long to do was clean my collection of sand and put that little shelf up. I hot glued the cording stuff along the edge because I was tired of being worried that the bottles would slip off (and tired of taping some or something.. the taping is silly because they have where they are from on the bottom of the bottles.. so if they are attached down than no one can see where they came from.)
Youssef took me grocery shopping this evening and I got a new kleenex box and potty seat for Renna (who will be learning in a month or so!) and it's Tinkerbell and matches my purple theme! How perfect is that? Plus.. I found a little purple stool for her as well (it's shaped like a hippo, but you can't tell..)
The kitchen is all done now! It's also pretty tiny, but I kind of enjoy not having to move very far to put something away.. so the size doesn't bother me at all. I like the microwave.. I've never had one and have to make so many things from scratch that it's nice to have something quick. The kitchen really wasn't made for someone that does real cooking.. while the microwave is super nice and new the stove is a little tricky.. from what I can tell the stove top has a high setting and a warm... it's REALLY hard to find those in between places! Barely move the nob and it will stop boiling altogether and then turn it up a bit and it boils over. But.. I'll get used to it. ;] The fridge is really large and it has a nice pantry area. When I was organizing the kitchen I was getting down to the final stuff to put away and running out of room to put the stuff and then realized that I'd completely forgotten about two large drawers.. suddenly I had more than enough room... and that included a whole cupboard full of my new fancy glasses from the dollar store. :] I forgot to take a picture of them.. they look like martini glasses but the stems are green and a little waved. Goes good with my new dishes. I'm really liking this plan to spend less on moving stuff and use what we saved to get new stuff to replace the stuff I got rid of to move us down. :]
I can't seem to lose my thrifty/ingenuity bent though as I look for things and get stuff... The shelves pictured below were a 15 dollar purchase from Target and I love how they look.. they are super versatile as well. I looked at a lot of end table type things and priced stuff out and perhaps with a LOT of shopping (and wasted gas money driving everywhere) I could have found something better for the same price? Well... I liked this option. Anyway, Youssef wanted drawers for his and I *thought* the drawers they had with the cube-things would fit into the shelves.. nope.. they were a few inches too tall for these. SO! I cut them down and then seam ripped the casing on the part that I cut off and hot glued it onto the new edge. Now they fit perfectly. :]
Loving the "his and her" closets as well.. and the new laundry organizer. I left all my laundry baskets behind and this is so much nicer and space efficient.
My "dresser" pictured below... again.. using the shelve idea because it's so versatile and this one actually fit the drawer things perfectly. I actually like having some spaces for just shelves and then some with drawers. I can organize it better for some reason... I put the hook up for my robe and jammies and the door on the right is the bathroom upstairs and the door on the left goes into the hall and then into the girls room... the stairs are to the left of the left door.
The stairs with Milo's scratching post and toy and teddy bear that Renna keeps swiping. ;] I got rid of my two large teddy bears for the move (we downsized a lot and got rid of a LOT) and this little bear is just like the large one that Milo used to love.
I took this picture standing a few steps up on the stairs. I got a few flowers and plants to put in one of my outside pots... haven't had time to plant them yet, but they are waiting... I also found some veggie seeds to plant out there too.. lettuce and carrots and things that *should* be okay for a while.. I'll try it anyway. :]
Oh, and the upstairs bathroom... I already posted some pictures of it, but I added a few things.
I'm going with the whole ladybug theme and got these cute little showercurtain hooks. The girls had so much fun helping me put them up and exclaiming about them the whole time.

Again with the ingenuity thing... I kept envisioning a soap pump that was green with ladybugs.. do you think I could find one like that ANYWHERE on the internet? It doesn't exist.. until now. I bought a green soap pump at Target and got some scrapbooking stickers for a dollar and put them on just so. TADA! Exactly what I was wanting.
The girls room upstairs is pretty tiny and has a half wall which makes noise at sleepy times a bit of a problem, BUT it's kind of nice to be able to hear them really well wherever I am in the house. They aren't used to being together ALL the time and we've had some issues to deal with.. but it's good to deal with them now.
Renna has a new little toddler bed and netting/canopy that I'd had for a while and hadn't used in a long time. The girls have fun in their "tents" ... the kitty quilt was made by my grandma for Lily and it just matched so well with the quilt that Lily picked for her bed that I had to use it. Renna LOVES it too.. and her new bed in general. She can't go to sleep without her panda pillow pet (which is why it's not on her bed.. she was sleeping in my room with it when I took these pictures.)
I took this next picture standing in the closet so that you could see the whole room. Lily put up all her art already and arranged her toys. I got under-the-bed-organizers for their clothes since there wasn't room for a dresser. The butterfly curtains on Lily's bed close.. I just put them up with wire so they are super easy to open and close.. she likes them closed the best... they make me a little claustrophobic like that since the room is already so small.
Okay, now.. speaking of ingenuity again. You know how you never actually RUN OUT of the fingernail polish before it goes all gummy? Well.. there ARE other uses for fingernail polish.. let me give an example.
I had this red lamp shade that I loved and the lamp that I used to have for it broke... well.. I got a cheap WHITE lamp at target (without a shade) and used all those colors above (of fingernail polish) to paint it!
Lily had tons of fun helping me. It was super easy and fun to do. If you want to try this some time just start with the colors that are the most opaque and make dashes and blots wherever.. leaving some white space in between.. move onto the next color and the next always filling in the white spaces a bit more. Use the translucent polishes at the end and blot over wherever and give it that "finished" look. It has a cool texture now as well as a neat look. :]

Really, so much better than just plain white. ;]

I'll post more pictures when the other areas of the place are ready. :}