Surprise! Surprise!!

Last week, Lee and I shipped the older kids off to camp!  Thirty kids from River of Life went to Georgia and had a blast.  I don't think they had any down time at all.  I know I didn't!  Tropical Storm Debbie messed my plans up a good bit, but that's another post altogether.  

I had been shopping, planning, and sewing for several weeks prior to camp to surprise Zeb with a new room when he came home.  Last year, Michal came home to a new room- complete with a stage and vintage theater chairs.  You can read about it by clicking here.  

Zeb had been sharing an upstairs room with Hank the Tank and that was no fun whatsoever.  Their room was really big and REALLY messy.  HT made it his personal mission to keep it in a state of national disaster.  FEMA would have totally given me money.  It looked worse than the toy section of Goodwill after a half off sale.  

Sooo....  Lee and I decided to move Zeb into the bedroom-turned-TV room downstairs.  Hope you enjoy the little tour...

I love the quilt!!  Made it myself and I'm dying over the vintage feel of it.  It reminds me so much of an old man.  The bed is actually from a bunk bed and the rail is still attached to the side of the bed.  I tried to take it off, but think I stripped out the screws.  Oopsie!  Hopefully Lee will be able to fix...

I made the pillow cases as well and was shocked at how easy and fun they are to make!  I've pinned the  tutorial I used to Pinterest.  It's from a blog called Sew, Mama, Sew. The cases have French seams. Oui, s'il vous plaît!

The glass, vined basket holds his media controls.  It hangs from the curtain rod.

Not to toot my own horn, but this rug is pretty much the best thing ever.  It was a pain in the caboose to make and I almost quit a few times, but it turned out sooo nice.  All the seams are exposed and sewn with a  zig-zag stitch.  Under neath is a shag, pink rug that was once in Michal's room.  I've already washed it and the edges frayed nicely.  How awesome is it to be able to wash a rug this size?  Not sure why there's a bowling ball in the middle of it, but...  

I love galvanized steel so these curtain rods make me smile-- so manly and fun.  Thanks, Lee, for driving to the store at 9 pm and getting what we needed to make them!  And then coming home and installing...  not the quickest of projects.  

Galvanized steel is pretty pricey, so before you decide to build your own rod, get ready to pay out double or triple what a standard curtain rod would cost.  We get a pretty good discount at the local hardware store, so...

Lee had to take this couch- and the door- apart to get it into the room (when it was a tv room).  I was not about to ask him to take it out again, so I knew I had to incorporate it into the room.  At least it's a decent couch, right?  It's really practical since the kids like to watch tv together.  

The more I brought Zeb's stuff into the room, the more I liked it.  It was a little "mature" to begin with, but with toys, marbles, and a few stuffed animals, it really started to feel like Zeb.  

None of the kids keep clothes in their room.  We converted another downstairs bedroom into a Clothes Room.  You can sees pictures of that room by clicking here.  The closet is now a study nook with plenty of space for books, toys, nerf guns and ammo.  

Dontcha just love the old Risk board above the doors?  Another game board hangs by the entrance door...

Another great little touch is a barn-wood toy box at the end of his bed.  A good friend (who is 80 or so years young) built it for Zeb when he was a baby.  The wood came from one of my in-laws' barns in Kentucky.  It doesn't hold toys anymore, but there are plenty of footballs and soccer balls in there.  Not to mention baseballs, golfballs, and tennis balls.  Did I ever tell you that "ball" was Zeb's first word?

Zeb's first baseball glove hangs by a rope from his curtain rod.  Such a neat little reminder of how much he's grown...

Zeb is taken by his room!  He was sooo shocked and happy.  When he walked in the door from camp I told him he had a huge mess in the TV room to clean up and he was like, "I haven't even been here, mom..." I told him it was full of his stuff and he needed to take care of it.  He slugged and shrugged back to his new room, opened the door, and started smiling.  The exhaustion- mixed with the surprise and happiness- made him tear up a bit!  What a blessing!!

Later that night, he walked into my room and handed me this...

I will keep it forever.  

Zeb, you make my heart happy.