Boy's Room Ideas and Inspiration

When I was pregnant with Lakshman our oldest Avinash was so excited to be involved with the baby.  He even offered to share a room with him and help take care of the baby at night.  It took a few days of thinking this through before he reneged on his offer. "What if the baby cries?  I can't change diapers." 

Too bad for him in this family a promise is a promise and we never forget a good one.  Now that the baby is a little older we totally jumped at the chance to move him out of our room and into Avinash's.  

Choose your words wisely son.  That is the lesson here. 

We are definitely not expert decorators as we tend to want to choose all the themes! Decorate with all the things! 

So we had to make one hard and fast rule for ourselves.  No nautical stuff.  I love nautical stuff, I think it's great.  I just have to keep the madness at bay somehow.  Maybe I should write a book.  The life changing magic of saying no to anchors and seashells?

We figured going with a space theme was pretty much the exact opposite.  When I saw this  Land of Nod space quilt that basically sealed the deal entirely.   That Pluto/retired pillow put the whole thing completely over the edge. 

Our stuff is a big mix of mostly Target and Ikea with a little bit of Land of Nod thrown in. Pillowfort is our new go to. The target gods have done it again.  So serious. 

The large canvas poster of monsters is also from Land of Nod.  (What? There are monsters in space.  Also, I probably could have thought that through a little better but it doesn't seem to disturb anyone's sleep so I pretty much nailed it!) 

The chalkboard stegosaurus and the green shelf are Land of Nod too.  The line up of monsters and animals up there is ever changing.  Love that it adds texture and dimension to the gallery wall of mostly flat stuff.   

The frames are Ikea.  Yes, I need to fill in some frames.  No I am not decisive. This is a problem.  We did get one filled in at least. The Shiva print is from a book of posters by Pixar animator Sanjay Patel, The Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities. The large A is a marquee letter thrifted from one of our visits to the antique fair in Round Top, Texas. 

My Dad made the headboard some *cough cough* few decades ago for me.  Love that Avinash and I have the same childhood bed.  Love that it is so meaningful because of his special connection with my dad too. 

I still have the chalkboard shelves from Target that I DIY'd, with a fossil box and robot collection on top.

The other half of the room is Lakshman's side.  He has an Ikea crib that was a hand me down from Nandini. 

In keeping with the theme I moved our rocket ship shelf into the room and strung up a star garland from Land of Nod.  I think it  is intended to be a holiday item, but I love it year round. 

The red stripe rug was also something we had previously that just matched perfectly with the red rocket ship.  I also love how the grey book cart contrasts with both. 

I also added a galvanized metal L (from Hobby Lobby) and a vintage Steelers pennant.  Love that it adds to the play on different shapes along with the circular Ikea mirror. The Krishna print is from the same Poster Book of Hindu Gods. 

The sunny pillow is also an Ikea find.  

Did I raid all of our bookshelves around the house to put this rainbow shelf together?  It's entirely possible.   

Rolling gray book cart is from Target.  I put some baskets of toys and stuffed animals underneath. 

So that is our space themed boys room! Hope you loved checking it out as much as we enjoyed setting it up.  And I promise you, this bed has never been so neatly made since. 

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December Daily | Handmade Holidays Day 1

Cheers to a new holiday season! I am so excited to be starting my December Daily album again.  I love all the inspiration from Ali Edwards and have been watching her old album videos and going through my old albums as well. 

I chose this grey album with gold scripted Merry Merry Merry,  along with the main Ali Edwards kit.  I also got the Pam Garrison mini kit. 

I made a pretty simple title page this year, but I did include this awesome chipboard piece I've been hoarding for years.  The five stockings were just too perfect for our family. 

I had to spruce up the inner cover a little too. 

The back is just a very quick and very short intentions page.  I've thinking about the joy and magic of this season a lot lately.  Going back to family time.  A break from school and the car and running around. I stacked the acetate shapes from the kit and journaled around them. 

We got our tree after Thanksgiving, so I already have a lot of moments I want to include in the album.  I added this star transparency in between these pages. 

I stitched some wooden stars with red string. Love that extra texture. 

The first spread I added was from an event back in November, but it was too special.  I have a lot of before December moments in here actually. 

Avinash had the role of Esteban the Magnificent from the Day the Crayons Quit.  I used a green crayon to make this little doodle and photographed it.  Then I typed my journaling on the image and printed it out. I added a little star and a stamp from the AE cheer kit. 

It is one of my most favorite hybrid pages I've ever created. 

I backed the journaling with rainbow hearts patterned paper from SC.  I added a big red chipboard A and a word strip about applause.  I took so many pictures of the play with my big camera, but somehow my phone picture turned out the best. 

Thanks for looking at my pages! 

XOXO, 

Niru 

ps. You can see all of my December Daily posts here.

Harry Potter Party| 10+ crafts and games to play with Free Party Printables

 

We are so excited for the new Harry Potter movie, Fantastic Beasts to finally be out.  We are going to see it tonight and I figured it was finally time to share the details of Avinash's Harry Potter Birthday Party (from last year, oops!).  

 I crafted my heart out for this party.  It was a true labor of love.  And, I never could have done any of it without, you guessed it...

Amazon! 

Seriously, it saved my life so many times while planning this party.  Like, for this super amazing carnival candy table cover.  

Here are my other projects I made and games we played. 

Hogwarts Invitation Scrolls // These were such a huge hit.  I made admission letters from Hogwarts for each child and a train ticket.  I also used red fimo clay to make the wax seals for the envelopes.  The paper was scorched a little too before going out.

Paper ties in house colors //  Red/gold for Gryffindor, green/silver for Slytherin, Blue/copper for Ravenclaw and yellow/black for Hufflepuff. I created a template for the ties which makes cutting them out quick.  I used colored cardstock to make these ties.  Download the template here for free!

Letters from Hogwarts over the fireplace // I printed these out and strung them up over the fireplace with simple sewing thread.  I added some brown paper boxes to add to the sense of packing for Hogwarts and shopping in Diagonalley. The birdcage was a lucky Goodwill find.

I created a Hogwarts letterhead and scripted envelope, which you can download here.  I printed these on cream cardstock and folded them over and glued the fimo wax seals on.

Potions Class // I used a variety of bottles and jars to make this set up.  The kids and i had fun combining different liquids and food coloring to make these bottles.  I also added feathers and rocks and borax crystals to the collection.  I also have a set of printables for these potion labels available here.  Free potion printable one and free potion printable two.

Magic Brick Wall // I made a 9 3/4 train station brick wall for the guests to run through when they entered the party.  I used a brick backdrop and cut it at a diagonal and taped it back together so it overlapped, then I cut another opening where the overlap was so it seemed to be one solid piece. The kids had such a blast running back and forth through this thing.

I designed a 9 3/4 Hogwarts Express to hang over the wall which you can download here (for free!).

Chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean // We bought a chocolate frog mold off of Amazon and made these ourselves.  Unless you are able to stock up at Universal Studios, these are really expensive on the secondary market but everyone wants to try one!

I printed out some boxes to look like the original bean boxes just because they are so festive and colorful.  I bought several of the real things on Amazon, but the packaging is just not as nice.

 

Harry Potter Book Cake // We simply brought a picture of this to our local grocery store and they were able to recreate it in frosting.  We added the golden snitch using a gumball with paper wings and real prop glasses.

Flying Lessons // This was a fun little station set up outside.  I had the kids hold the broom and took several jumping shots.  They love looking back at these pictures of themselves really flying! 

Floating Candles // Amazon to the rescue again.  I bought a big pack of electric tea lights.  The great thing about these is that they stay lit for a long long time, so you can even set them up the night before. I just taped a rolled up piece of copier paper around them and strung them up on white string again.  The effect was really magical.

Sorting Hat // Ryan played Dumbledore for all the kids and put on a little sorting hat show.  Everyone got sorted and got a corresponding tie.  We also had diadems for some of the Ravenclaw girls if they wanted them.  This was such a fun part of the day. 

 

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean // I bought a bulk case of these candies on Amazon.  This was such a fun party activity watching the looks on everyone's faces while they tried earthworm and earwax and vomit! Ha!

Pumpkin Juice // Much like the OG pumpkin spice latte, there is no actual pumpkin in this.  All for the better I say.  Mostly apple cider and cinnamon.  It was good!

Wizard & Witchcrafts // I bought crafting kits from Oriental Trading Company and Target for the kids to do.  They mostly couldn't sit still long enough, so people just brought these home with them.  It's easy to find around Halloween.

 Butterbeer Floats //  I used my own recipe and served these at the party as well.  They were a big hit.  The secret is lots of good caramel. 

Thanks so much for taking a look at our fun Harry Potter Party.