Hallowe'en 2012 and the "I Love You" Painted Stepstool

Thankfully Sandy had blown through by the time the festivities for Hallowe'en 2012 began.  There was a slight drizzle and the temperatures were near freezing, but neither could damper the spirits of my energetic whooligans.  

I tried not to get too worked up about photos this year.  I snapped a few as the kids ate their  gourmet cupcakes and pizza and took a  few more as the kids were heading out the door.  No stress to get the perfect picture in the costumes this year.....

'Cause this year I planned ahead!!

Two weekends ago, when the sun shone brightly and the colourful leaves were still on the trees, I drove the kids out to a secluded side road, bribed them with candy and spent 1/2 an hour taking multiple pictures of each of them in their costumes.  

And I must say...I LOVE how they turned out!!

Bryn  as Darth Maul

Afton - my Tudor Princess

and Camden - my ferocious Dragon.  

I am SO doing this again next year and every year after.  I wonder why I hadn't thought of this sooner???

Thanks for indulging my mommy-side and looking at these countless pics of my babies. Let's move on to the decor now, shall we...???

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My kids' bathroom has been an obsession lately.  I stenciled the walls, I changed to red towels and bath mats and created some mosaic art.  This past weekend I began a makeover on the shower curtain and have I have some new accessories almost ready. But this is my favourite part so far: 

This step stool has been part of our  life since our oldest son (who is almost 8) began to walk and needed to be able to reach the sink to wash his own hands.  It has been blue, green and most recently, orange.  But for this bath makeover, it received a slick coat of red.  

To add some details and some text, I began by cutting a swirl from thick cardstock using my Cricut.  I  decided where I wanted to locate this accent then traced it carefully and gently with a sharp pencil.

After I completed the tracing, I removed the paper cut-out and began filling the pencil lines in with white craft paint.  This called for a VERY steady hand!!

Here is the swirl after 1 coat of paint:

And here it is after two coats and the addition of a pink heart (by request of my daughter!)

To add the text to the top of the stool, I followed the same procedure - I cut cardstock letters, traced them and  filled them in-- this time with black paint.  

I can't believe I stayed in the lines!!

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And here it is - letters and swirls complete.  I topped the whole thing with 2 layers of clear varnish to give it a tough seal, ready  for being roughed up in the bathroom on a daily basis!

The kids' bath is slowly filling up with pretty things.  I grabbed this canvas recently at a discount decor store.  Love this song, love this sentiment.  

I changed the boring "builder" knobs out for this polka dot ball-knobs.  Just a tad of cute....

It's getting there.  Hubby has changed the light fixtures now and the room nears completion.  Hopefully I'll be able to share the whole space in a week or two!!

Please leave a comment.  I'd love to hear what you think.....

And please, BECOME A FOLLOWER.....  :)