the girls' sparkling room reveal

Well, the rest of the house is most definitely a work in progress but we're SO excited to have one room mostly checked off the, "finished" list ...

... the girls' bedroom! I've been holding onto these cool BeatSync LED lights since before our move knowing they would be perfect for the kids' rooms and all of the upcoming birthday celebrations. We've been taking the, "a little bit of work on each room at a time" approach but honed in on the girls' room this last week and now I'm dying to fully finish each room since it's so nice to walk into a room that is fully painted with art on the walls and all!

If Julia had her way we would've painted the room neon pink but she's pleased with the light pink paint along with the addition of the BeatSync lights that helped ease any lingering neon-less disappointment. The room had formerly been a pretty dark brown so lightening it up with a less stark paint color + the addition of the twinkles both made an enormous difference.

I love how subtle the lights are and that when turned off - they are all but invisible to the naked eye ...

(lights turned off)

Aside from painting the room - I painted their bunkbeds and dresser super dark green (almost bordering on black - but I like the contrast) and added touches of gold with the switch plates, mirror, and drawer pulls.

The mirror used to be Simon's grandparents and having met his sweet grandpa I think he'd get a kick out of the additional sparkles surrounding it at the moment.

I used art we had hanging in our Tampa house aside from one girl bandit addition (pictured above) and used a basket to cover the tiny protruding pipe in the fireplace.

They get the coveted giant calendar (for now!) ...

decorated with BeatSync lights.

The boys have called dibs on the multicolored strings of BeatSync LED lights that are ready and waiting for their room to be painted and put together ...

... I told them maybe we could save them for Christmas decorations and they looked at me like I had 5 heads so I think I might let them win this battle.

The cool thing about the Beatsync LED lights is that they are battery powered and can be easily put anywhere. The wire bends easily and can be hung on almost any wall and the most fun part? They have a built in microphone and can blink along with the beat of any music you play which the girls absolutely love. Their exclusive sound technology puts on a different light show each and every time. At night I let them keep a string or two on (the no blink setting) since it's so much less bright than their lamp or a nightlight. They come in both 50 ($5.98) and 100 ($7.97) light strings, can be purchased at Walmart and would be so fun and easy to use for any celebration.


Overall, I wanted the girls to have the girly room they wanted and I was hoping for something light + bright and I think we achieved all of our goals! They had a little playdate yesterday and they stayed playing in there the entire time (the novelty! it will wear off!) and I love how much they love it.

Thank you to BeatSync for motivating us to get our productivity in gear and for sponsoring this post!!

updates, updates, updates

{photo unrelated, as always}

1. To the tune of, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" ... because these updates are not noteworthy and yet! Here I am. The little engine that will throw it at allll your way whether you like it or not. I scoffed a few years ago when someone suggested (a person? an article? I forget) that Instagram would replace blogs but I have to admit that it kind of has and I kind of hate it. But, that's okay. I'll forever be trying to post more often here while simultaneously posting over there too. Eating my scoffs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

2. SPEAKING OF ... If you've been following along on stories (bless you, if so) you'll know that I decided to paint and stencil the kids bathroom floor. It took about three weeks longer than I anticipated (lol - why I should never switch over from realist to optimist land, ever!) because I had to paint the door and trim and heater cover (technical term) and then scrub off the adhesive stubbornly coating the perimeter of the floor (I suspect someone glued a different floor over the original floor and while I don't blame them I most certainly cursed them for leaving such awful glue-y remnants). I need to find a vanity fixture (thinking this?) and then I'm going to subject Mollie to some picture taking so I can properly share the final results. They're underwhelming at best but I like the floor better than before so still! A victory - albeit minor.

3. Because I spent MANY a late night stenciling and painting (and painting over my many mistakes) - my reading has been on the pathetic side but I did start listening to Matchmaking for Beginners and so far ... so decent. I'm also reading An American Childhood for my Well-Read Mom book club but it's been slow going and I need to kick that into serious gear.

4. I can't remember if I addressed the Colton Bachelor announcement (probably) and while I was initially almost appalled I've decided that all my hope now lies with the ladies. Hopefully he's got some good ones and hopefully he's (all together now) in it for the right reasons. Bachelor in Paradise lullabied me right to sleep every time I put it on but I'm a big Astrid + Kevin and Joe + Kendall fan. May the Bachelor odds be ever in their successful relationship favor.

5. Phoebe is a few weeks into preschool and is loving it all around. She's had a few shy drop offs but overall she seems to be thriving from what I glean from the bits she reports and the tiny bit of spying I can do while she's on the playground (what? you'd do it too). The other kids seemed to have adapted to their new classrooms just fine although the boys are not a fan of the monthly jeans days because they don't like wearing jeans. I keep hearing that these are extra soft but I'm not going to force jeans on them if they are so staunchly opposed. Uniform it up, boys.

6. I'm sure this isn't a new thing but only that I just noticed that Old Navy now has a whole tab dedicated to Tall sizes (I think it's just now more prominently displayed on the app). I'm not excited because I'm particularly tall (I'm not) but because I love buying longer non-maternity shirts to wear as maternity and then postpartum and nopartum wear. They've also made great strides in the perfect t-shirt department. Bravo, Old Navy.

7. a. I've never been a HUGE Crocs person but I have to tell you that I bought these for Sebastian over the summer and was so pleasantly surprised. He has a wider foot and tears through shoes (pricey and not) but these held up really well and he may or may not have gotten away with wearing them to church on a few occasions because they look relatively dressy-ish. Tis not the season for those types of shoes but ... stick that in your back e-pocket for next summer. I'll remind you too ;).

b. After lamenting that A Pea in the Pod never goes on sale in my last post, Hannah kindly pointed out that Macy's often carries their inventory and it actually does go ON SALE. I found exactly what I'd been eying at a fraction of the price and had to share the good word with anyone else in the market.

Alright, have a wonderful weekend!!