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Bower Power

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He’s Got the Whole World In His Room

OUR 2nd HOUSE

To be quite honest, I felt overwhelmingly grateful to y’all yesterday. 

You are so encouraging. 

After starting my teepee at 5pm on Monday evening, I stayed up till 4:30am to sew the darn thing and draft the post.  I actually constructed it in the morning while Will was eating breakfast, threw the globes up and prayed that my camera had enough juice to get a decent shot (did anyone notice the terrible photography?  Consider my hand raised emphatically!)  

Right after uploading the ‘after photos’, I had to muster the energy for music class/playgroup and I seriously thought that the teepee would be a complete and utter flop.  Literally and figuratively.  I thought it might flop over at any moment (probably because my boyfriend wasn’t around for the Jeremy-Bower-Sturdy-test — he’s got me brainwashed).   And also in the other sense…I thought most of you would roll your eyes and guffaw at the thought of me making a small hut outta sticks and a dropcloth while others are working their booties off making real furniture and awe-inspiring artwork. 

But it seems like not only is it a popular thing to tackle (high five to my other teepee-constructing-sistahs!) but you all were just so darn nice about it.  You fiercely love.  And I love you for that.  So from this sleep deprived mom of 1 and a half….thanks.

and here are some better pics…   

Open & Closed 🙂 (old photo on left and better photo on right)

 

A couple people noted the stuffed zebra.  Long story short, we were in Pier 1 and Will had a RingPop….ten minutes later I was purchasing a $25 (!!!!) stuffed zebra that had a newly adorned red gotee.  I was so upset that I decided to use the new friend to my advantage….for paci-extraction-operation-zero.  I simply removed the paci from our lives and whenever Will asked for it, I would say “oh it’s all gone!  Here’s Zehbah”  (he can’t say zebra…so it sounds like Zehbah)…no crying, no fuss….it was actually the best thing ever and totally worth the twenty five bones. 

Some folks asked about the sturdiness of the construction.  I don’t know if it’s like the sturdiest thing ever…I mean, I wouldn’t ask him to climb to the top of the poles or anything…it’s not a jungle gym…but since I put it in the corner of the room, the legs mostly hit stuff…so it’s not like he can knock it over or anything like that.   The poles are also two heavy for him to lift so he can’t shift them on the carpet easily or move them by picking up.  So I would definitely say it’s safe for him. 

I also covered the Haven string with a little more decorative rope I found later. 

And yes, Will is seeming to enjoy it.  He and I played pirate inside the teepee this afternoon.  And if you don’t know…playing pirate means putting make-believe telescopes up to our eyes and saying ARGH! alot. 

 

I don’t know if anyone noticed (it would be hard to seeing as how this wasn’t photographed) but I switched out the artwork in the lowest frame.  I added the placemat that I got with Sherry while Goodwill shopping.  It’s very manlyesque to me….I love the vibe.

Last but not least is the globes.  Yes, I hung them up.  It was just simply a matter of unscrewing the bases and using a bit of twine and a hook.

Pretty simple. 

I always look for globes at thrift stores and yard sales…I don’t think I paid more than $10 for any one.  I know for a fact I got one of them for $1…they aren’t anything fancy but I love them together in mass.

So all that is what I didn’t talk about yesterday during the Pinterest Challenge…probably due to the sleep deprivation.  Speaking of sleeping…we decided to transition Will to a toddler bed situation this week.  He started climbing out and he’s FAST.  So Jer and I figured it’s time.  We are still talking methods to get him to develop that unconcious sense of bed-edge awareness….pray.  pray hard.

and thanks again.  if I haven’t told you lately – you are awesome. but I think you already know that 🙂

p.s.  I posted the cut list for the outdoor table at the end of the varnish post…happy building!!

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Comments

  1. Love the tee-pee and totally impressed! I have been stalking you guys to see if you are going to post a gender reveal soon…do you have a secret you aren’t sharing?? Praying this pregnancy has been good to you! Number two arrives for us around Aug 23rd and having a 22 month year old to chase around this time round is kicking me in the butt!

  2. I am in LOVE with the hanging globes! They look so great and I love the ring around them. The Tee Pee is super cute as well! I bet he has and will have a blast in that thing 🙂

  3. I absolutely adore those globes! I think I’ll have to be on the lookout for some at thrift stores, now 🙂

  4. Katie,
    Try this for the toddler bed: cut a fun noodle (one of those swimming noodle things) to the length of the bed and put it under the fitted sheet on the open edges of the bed. 🙂 Saw it on pinterest and it worked for my little sweet pea!

  5. So I just started faithfully reading your blog last week and I am smitten. Consequently I didn’t realize that the Globes were new, but yesterday I was all like, “I love the Globes hanging in the corner, such a cool idea.”

    Also, random the picture to the left of the new placemat picture used to hang in my parents house at one of the landings for the stairs and my Grandmother had it hanging in her house as well. I love it! Somebody once told me it creeped them out, but I think it is so mysterious. I always wanted to be friends with the girl as a kid.

    The tepee is great! Will should be glad to have a mama that is so cool!

  6. hey Katie, Im Katie too 😉 and I love your blog! Love the teepee.. I am also the mother of a very busy 2 year old (March 13th) and this is totally unrelated but have you guys potty trained yet? We are totally dragging our feet. Oh and we just transitioned to a toddler bed a few months ago, but after one fallout, we still put pillows on the floor beside his bed! thanks!

  7. So in addition to the fact that I LOVE this teepee, I am also really loving the globes. They make such a statement all hanging together. Oh, and that placemat as a picture frame mat – genius. Nicely done, Bower. Nicely done.

  8. That is such an adorable idea! Now Clara and Will can play together in that teepee! In the future when we have children, that is on my to do list for sure. I remember as a kid we always tried to make a teepee but then again we ALWAYS #failed.

  9. Love the teepee! We used those foam pool noodles to help out with edge of bed issues. Just stick it under the fitted sheet, and wa-lah. A bump that has enough friction to stay put and keeps lil people from rolling out.

  10. Hahaha, your secret would have been safe for sure. That tee pee is the bomb! And your bad photography is most of our photo success stories!! And I heart the globes. I wonder how many of them say USSR? 🙂

  11. I absolutely adore the teepee and the globes!! The globes especially caught me by surprise to see them displayed so creatively. If and when I ever have a little boy, I will totally be using Will’s room as inspiration- I love how it has evolved so easily from nursery to toddler room and before you know it little boy’s room!

  14. I don’t have any advice for not falling out of the toddler bed, but for keeping them in the bed in the morning, I am eternally in debt to the “Ok to Wake” clock. You can set the clock for a “Wake Up time” and beginning at that time for 30, 1 hr or 2 hrs (you set it) the clock glows a nice soft green, letting your kiddo know its ok to get out of bed. It took just a couple of mornings for my little monster to “get it.” He’d come into my bedroom and I’d ask if his clock was green yet, he’s say no and head back to bed to watch it turn green. He now never leaves the room until he sees “Green Means Go!”, and I’ve been sleeping until at least 7AM every morning. (Often later because if he wakes earlier and the clock isn’t green, he goes back to bed and often sleeps well past 7AM.) Its a life changer- especially for this preggo mama who needs every minute of sleep she can get. I figured you could use the same. Just thought I’d pass along my recommendation, totally worth every penny in my book!

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RNKOM2/ref=asc_df_B002RNKOM22091290?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B002RNKOM2&hvpos=1o2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=171993031900371362&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RNKOM2/ref=asc_df_B002RNKOM22091290?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B002RNKOM2&hvpos=1o2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=171993031900371362&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=

  15. Katie… the globes, oh the globes! Love ’em almost as much as the teepee. My hubby needs to prepare himself for my newfound globe obsession.

  16. Katie,

    Seriously, those globes are stupid cute… really… utterly adorable.

    My husband and I are still at least a year away for trying for kids, but I pretty much have the nursery already done in my mind with all the awesome ideas from YOUR brain (of course, when my in-laws come over, I will claim all those ideas as “mine”… HA!)

    If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times: you rock!

    Now get some sleep!
    P.S- do you know yet if the little one is a B or a G?

  18. One thing on Pinterest I saw was putting a pool noodle under the sheet as the edge. I have a friend who says it’s working for her kiddo.

  22. We use bedrails. Our two year old & five years olds all use them. Not pretty, but even the five year olds are often pinned against the mesh when I check on them at night.

  23. I love the globes and the tee-pee!

    For the bed, try a pool noodle under the sheet near the edge! It works great and is a cheap alternative to bed rails. Plus once they are potty trained it is a quicker exit for the bathroom!

  28. My husband and I made this a year ago for our niece – almost exactly a year ago, actually!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanbarbato/sets/72157627165314180/
    and
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/meghanbarbato/5923970169/in/set-72157627165314180

    Our teepee isn’t even nearly as fancy as yours, though I’ve heard that it’s been very popular as a backdrop in dance shows and plays that O and her brother put on.

    It’s super extra fancy. And by that I mean I spent $20 on a pink-with-very-fine-silver-pinstripes curtain at Target, $15 or $20 on the wood at Lowe’s, and then my husband put her initial and the crown on each side of the curtain.

    I love your teepee! Stop guilting yourself out, momma. You’re growing a human. And that’s pretty dang crafty in my book.

  30. You’re funny. I thought the pictures yesterday were just fine! His room sure is turning out super cute~ keep up the good work!

  31. JUST WAIT… Its not that long til the due date, right?! BEST surprise ever.. I promise!

    On another note, I love the globes! Such a cute idea and it goes wits his manly/wordly room!

  32. I read the other day on hellobee.com that you could try a pool noodle (or rolled up towel) under the fitted sheet to keep toddlers from falling out. It sounds like it’d be worth a shot!

    btw, I think your tee-pee is awesome!

  33. When my daughter was a toddler getting used to her new “big girl bed”, she once, after being put back in bed for the millionth time, yelled at us while shaking her fist: YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!! She’s almost 21 now and we’ve being paying for a long, long time 🙂

    Love the teepee. It was a great idea, because kids love tents and forts of any material.

  34. I enjoy reading your blog. re: the bed-edge awareness, I just saw an idea yesterday that might work for you. I have no idea where this came from, but you can probably do an image search for it…stuff a pool noodle under the fitted sheet on the edge of the bed. It is supposed to keep him from rolling off the edge. Best wishes!

  35. I love it! I made one for my son when he was two, so 16 years ago and he lived in that thing for about 2 years, he loved it, slept in it, camped out in it! So funny!
    Love the zebra too!

  36. Tipi’s are way cool :)) I am sure Wills will have many a fun moment in his.

    I STILL have the one my dad bought my twinsies when they were two-some lady at a craft fair was selling them like hotcakes!

    The kids loved them with a capital L… ours was made with PVC pipe and bright blue canvas.
    It has a lil “window” on the back, and it ties shut with grosgrain ribbon.

    It held up forever and then I stashed it away for future grandbabies.

    And yeah, lotsa people are waiting for that Giuliana and Bill gender reveal moment-I think you should have a giveaway involved, LOL.

  37. Katie Bower, you are amazing! The teepee looked great and so did the pictures the first time around. I do empathize with the whole exhaustion mommy thing as well as the being hard on yourself thing. Take it easy, you do great work. Treat yourself to something fun like ice cream, a pedicure, or well in your case, you’d probably just be happy with some bacon. 🙂

  40. It looks great, although I loved it the first post too. Don’t be so hard on yourself 🙂 Also, I transitioned my son at 18 months into a toddler bed because he was climbing… if it makes you feel better he never once fell out… he actually didn’t even know he could GET out on his own for a couple months. It was a hard 2-3 nights when we switched because he was scared and cried, and I sat outside his room in the hallway and cried… after that it was smooth sailing. Good luck!

  41. Growing up my family had (and still has) a very nice set of World Book Encyclopedia’s from 1965. I’m sure my brothers and I had bad geography skills because of it. Though most people probably thought it was because we were Homeschooled!

  42. The teepee projects are totally my faves from this round of the Pinterest Challenge! I am totally thinking about making one for my own home and I don’t even have any kids!

  43. I was just going to suggest the pool noodle idea. It has worked wonders for our son. Way better than a bed rail.

  45. I am so ordering this for my daughter. Thank you!!! She has a habit of waking up at the glorious hour of 5:30 and is then cranky all morning.

  46. For your readers who are sewers, Butterick has a pattern for a TeePee. It calls for PVC pipe for the poles and the poles are enclosed in a casing that is part of the construction of the TeePee. I made one for my 18 month old grandson. I used mesh for the front panels so his mom could see what he was up to when he was in it and to allow light inside. I used fabric from IKEA…never thought to use dropcloths…what a good idea! It might be a bit of a challenge for a beginning seamstress. Took me 3 days to make and about $80 for the supplies. My grandson loves it.

  47. Hi Katie,

    I don’t comment that much anymore….but I have to say (seriously) that your blog is my favorite!!

    Your Pinterest challenge yesterday was AWESOME!! It looks SO good with the rope on top now.

    ….speaking of Pinterest I remember seeing someting for kids on Pinterest regarding falling out of bed. Someones solution is unsing one of the plastic pool noodles….I can’t explain it very well so I added the link, to where I found it on Pinterest….just an idea for Will 🙂 Gotta luv Pinterest! 🙂

    Melissa.

    http://pinterest.com/pin/265219865525994995/

  48. These photos look heaps better! I was thinking it looked like a bit of a rush job but in the end your creative skills got you through and it looks fantastic 🙂 I would have loved this when I was a kid! I love the rope touch on the top and reckon some red embellishments such as pom pom ribbon would finish it off really nicely!

  50. Hi Katie! I love that tee-pee!! Will is a lucky little boy!

    BUT…what I wanted to tell you is that I miss miss miss you photography blog posts!!! I just adore them. You are such an inspiration to me! I am actually shooting my first wedding this weekend…………

  51. I love the globes. I did notice them yesterday too. Sorry I didn’t post. Too cool. Wish my ds was younger, he is 23! Love the teepee too, he would have totally loved that. Maybe I should hold out for a grandson, in 10’years or so!

  52. Love the TeePee! When my girls transitioned to a toddler bed, I rolled up a small afgan that their Great Grandmother had made & stuck it under the fitted sheet – same concept as the noodle but I was able to use something we already had on hand. It worked perfectly. I was also concerned about them wandering out of their room at night so I put a baby gate in their doorway. It would stop them from leaving their room during the night but yet I could still hear them & get to them quickly if necessary. I put the gate on the inside of the door stop trim piece that’s in the door jam so that if they leaned on the gate, it only pushed against the trim piece & couldn’t fall down into the hallway. Again, it worked perfectly to keep them in their room during the night & also at nap time.

  54. The globes are ridiculously awesome! I wish I had a place to hang some!
    We just use a store bought rail I don’t like it but I was worried that he’d roll over a lump at the edge… Probably not though!
    The one awesome thing that was suggested to us (I’m sure most people think of this on their own) was to baby gate the door. Then if they get up in the middle of the night they can’t get farther then that without waking you up. It was a worry for me since the front door is not far from his bedroom. It’s worked out awesome he will actually play by himself most mornings until he hears one of us up… Which is great since we need the extra sleep with our newborn!

  55. Awesome as usual! Are those screw in hooks with the globes? You might want to try the anchored hooks. I’ve had those screw in ones fall right out of the ceiling!

  56. Katie,
    I just love how you keep things so real and so transparent. I don’t think I’m alone when I tell you that it is such a relief sometimes to hear of your long nights, your weaknesses, when you have a tough day, etc. It’s like a “ohthankgodsheisnormalandiloveher” kind of thought….. anyone with me?? It makes you so relatable and lovable.
    Rock on, Katie Bower!!!
    🙂

  57. The teepee is too cute, & the globes look great also. But without a shadow of a doubt, the star in all of the photos is Will. He’s so adorable & his short hair-cut makes him even more handsome!! I also like the pic in YHL’s Life photo today, where Clara moves close to Will & even puts her foot on his & he is not interested. But in previous pics, when Will was affectionate toward her, she was aloof. Some things never change in girl/boy relationships. Or should I say Venus vs. Mars?

  58. I wanted to comment yesterday, but couldn’t get out of Reader at work. So here I am today to tell you that I looked at your project then all the other girls’ projects and thought, “Katie’s is my favorite…hands down.” The teepee is seriously my favorite out of all the projects. Now, even better than yesterday’s post is today’s. I’m currently working full-time and going to school full-time and I had a horrible night in class so I immediately hit up Blogger so I could wind down before going to bed. This post popped up in my feed so I clicked over and am laughing/crying about Zebra’s encounter with the Ring Pop. Too funny! Glad you were able to use it to your advantage!

  59. I did the screw in hooks but I’ll definitely look into the anchored ones if I decide to keep em up there. Thanks for the recommendation!
    xo – kb

  60. Absolutely love the teepee! I will be tackling one when my little man is a bit older, cant wait!

    And the hanging globes are fantastic! Such a great idea!

  61. I thought of adding some red zigzags but I’m kinda waiting to see where the teepee ends up before I make any changes. I hear ya though on the small embellishments!
    xo – kb

  64. I love the teepee you made for Will!! I’m sure he’s going to have so much fun in there! 🙂

    And the hanging globes are TOTALLY awesome! What a cool idea! You’re so creative!

  65. When we transitioned our kiddos to big kid beds, we did not use rails or anything and neither one ever fell out or escaped. I read something in a Dr. Sears book once that said we have a natural sense of the edge of the bed. I put both of their beds up against a wall, and both of them slept (sleep) cuddled up against the wall. We got my son Logan a full-sized bed, and it has been wonderful. He has night terrors and nightmares, so if he needs comforting, either my husband or I can climb in bed with him and snooze with him a little bit to help him calm down.

    As far as escaping, we had one night with each kid where we had to keep putting them back in bed (Super Nanny-like, no talking or communicating, just put you back in bed, cover you up, and leave), and after that night, neither one gets up unless they have wet the bed, vomited, or had a nightmare. My rule is that unless there is mucus, vomit, blood, or a horrendous dream, you have to stay in bed :-). Good luck. We put Logan in a big boy bed early and it was one of our best parenting decisions. He sleeps so much better with more space.

  69. Each of my 3 girls fell out of bed one time. That is all it took for their little kinds to grasp the concept of those bed boundaries. I wouldn’t fret too much about it. That have to figure it out sometime.

  71. I’m sure you’ve seen the idea on Pinterest before, but in case you haven’t…Have you thought about using a pool noodle instead of a bedrail on Will’s bed (those rails sure do make it hard to make a decent looking bed in the morning when they are not sleeping in it)…anyway, put a pool noodle on top of the mattress, but under the sheet (that’s how it stays in place) as kind of a “speed bump” if you will. If they roll over in the night, chances are they’ll wake up when they hit the noodle before they actually fall off the bed and the plus is that you can actually make the bed too. When Sarah Kate started sleeping in a twin sized bed, we put a pool noodle on both sides of her and it worked like a charm…never fell out and she’s not a “stay in one spot” kind of sleeper either. Once she got used to the bed, we took one of the noodles out and she just used one for a while. Good luck!

    Lorie

  72. I LOVE that placemat in the frame idea! So great! And the globes hung up look amazing also. Good work! Thanks for sharing.

  74. My almost 3 year old (at the time) rolled out of her bed when we moved her to a big girl bed and we woke up to a blood curdling scream at 4:00 in the morning. Falling out of bed might have been okay without a metal bed rail in the way. She hit it just right and ended up with 7 stitches above her left eye. Actually, now that I look at the date it was 3 years ago from tomorrow. Anyway, my point, just make sure there are no metal bed rails exposed. Ours was only covered by the bed skirt. If I would have known I would have wrapped those suckers with something. I was nervous to move her and wish I had invested in a second bed rail, but I thought she’d snuggle up and favor the side that had one. Wrong guess. Her stitches did heal up okay and it is mainly only noticable in one part of her eyebrow. Scary though and a toddler bed is a lot closer to the ground than a regular twin bed like we tried b/c she was almost 3.

  75. I have not read the other comments yet, so sorry if this is a repeat. But have you tried putting a noodle (the ones for the pool) under the mattress cover to help with him not going over the edge of the bed. I saw it on pinterest.

    I love the teepee. I love the hanging globes. Come decorate my son’s bedroom, please and thank you!

  77. I second the “back to bed with no communication” technique!
    My husband and I (although he ended up staying up a few hours longer!) both did this one night with our. I bet we took him back to bed 1984376382946934 times that night. Each time, picked him up, took him back to bed, said “night night” and left the room. We did this every 10-30 seconds or so that night…fun times! Not. But it did work. We were also firm believers in the cry-it-out method when our kids were babies. We caught quite a bit of slack for that from friends and family; but interestingly, no one gave us any slack about having babies that slept through the night at 7 and 8 weeks respectively. Parenting is so subjective; but I do think that there are a few training techniques that are pretty universal. Cry it out and back to bed over and over until the point is made, are two of those techniques.

    Good luck with the toddler bed situation, Katie!

  78. You did a great job on the teeeeee-peeee. So cute. Love the giraffe idea and the paci!! Love the globes also 🙂

  80. You did an awesome job so cuddos are well deserved. 🙂 My little man’s room looks like a toy bomb went off in it…..desperately need to reorganize before I can even dream of adding a TeePee….who am I kidding, already secreatly dreaming about it! 😉

  81. I didn’t read anyone else’s comments, so forgive me if anyone else has said this. I saw some brilliance on Pinterest that suggested putting one of those foam roller thingys that you use in the water under the sheets on the toddler bed to try and keep the kiddo from rolling out. Brilliant!

  83. HIIII Katie! I’m new to your fan base (just learned about you from Young House Love), but not to worry, I’ve done my fair share of backtracking your archives OBSESSED with your blog. Seriously might have a girl crush on you. Although I have a wonderful partner and son, I kid. (but not really). I absolutely love what you’ve done as far as decorating and DIY work, but I’m more in love with your “life” posts. I find it so refreshing and exciting to read about another mom who loves to joke and kid (almost over the line but not quite) but still be a great wife, mother, and woman of God. Did I mention I’m obsessed? Anyways, you’ve found a true fan in me and I’ll stick by your side through crooked teepees and more! Great work Katie. You rock!

  87. We transitioned our 2 year old to a toddler bed at Christmas (yes, he was only 18 months old then, but he HATED his crib with a passion and kept on ending up in our bed…which meant I ended up on the couch).

    The first time he slept in it was for his afternoon nap. He had no problems. Then when we went to put him to bed that night he insisted on his big boy bed. So I took the mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor. About 3 hours later I heard a thump and he was on the mattress on the floor, but still asleep. So I just covered him up and left him. Then about 2 hours after that I checked on him and he’d rolled off the mattress onto the floor. I left him and just shifted his blanket. When I checked on him the next morning, he was asleep in his bed (!!) with his blanket. Go figure.

    We haven’t used the mattress on the floor since and we haven’t had any more problems with him rolling out. We bought the Kritter bed from Ikea as it’s longer than a toddler sized bed that uses a crib mattress.

  88. Agreed! I LOVE the “life” posts.

    I’ve been DYING for another pregnancy update, actually! As I’m sure many others are as well. I’m not a big comment reader, but I bet you get a pretty regular flow of “Pregnancy update please!” comments!

    Of course, I adore all of your other posts, too. But I’ve gotta say – those ones are my fave. 🙂

  90. When we transitioned our little guy to the toddler bed, he fell out every night because he liked to sleep pressed up against the bumpers in his crib. So I just transferred his crib bumper over to the toddler bed since it’s the same size, and it definitely helped. He would climb over it once he was awake, and no more falling out!

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