Teenaged Girl's Bedroom in Scandinavian Design

It has been several months since we redesigned my teenaged daughter's bedroom for her birthday, but I wanted to share how lovely it turned out. It's difficult to get into her room and photograph these days, as she is now homeschooled and spends an enormous amount of time in her room, and more specifically on her bed! If you've been following me for any time now, you may remember that we re-did her bedroom a few years ago! She is now a full fledge teenager and has very specific design ideas and so for her 14th birthday, I told her we could redecorate her room. It has been FIVE years and she's a lot different at 14 then she was at 9 years old! Here is what her room looked like before:

Project: Surprise party!

I am a blessed girl! I wish everyone could have a mother and father in law {affectionately, FIL and MIL} that were as wonderful and dear as mine! Even better, I have a father in law that adores his wife. She is a gem to all of us.

So, for her 65th birthday - which, by the way, she seems SO much younger than that - my father in law wanted to throw her a big, surprise party! And big, it was! 

She was very surprised. There were about a hundred people and my father in law took care of getting all the tents and tables and chairs rented, as well as "The Taco Guy" to cater {that's what we call him}. 

Believe me, no one left hungry! The line went all the way out to the street, down our driveway! Everyone was happy to wait and get their yummy food!

Well, the details to the rest of the party? Yes....I was in charge of decorations so I want to share those with you!!

I LOVE paper lanterns right now. So, I decided to make several large paper lantern chandeliers to put in the large tent and some smaller ones for the other tents.

So, as you can see I got a LOT of paper lanterns. The good thing about them is that they are cheap and you can re-use them again and again {as long as you are careful with them}. They are also really easy to store, as they store flat! I bought mine at Luna Bazaar. 

To make the large and small chandeliers, I simply took curling ribbon {a large roll at the craft store is pretty cheap} and hung it on a hanger in the doorway. Then, I just started at the top with the large one and worked my way down,filling in the gaps with different sizes and colors. I added a couple of different types of colored ones - fluffy flower ones.

Hanging them that high in the large tent was tricky! But, my hubby did it pinata style by getting a long piece of twine around the middle bar and pulling the chandelier up to the top of the tent and then tying it off on the side so it wouldn't show - made it easy to get them down, too!

Other details? Of course! There was a bounce-house for all the kids who came. Grampy never forgets the kids! I made a cute card/gift area with some old shutters that were extra from re-doing our playhouse last year. I borrowed a friend's Cricut machine {oh, I love that thing} to make cute cut outs and labels and pennants. Then, I used my laminator on all of it so I can re-use everything over and over. {Did you know that a laminator isn't all that much money? I was surprised and bought one.}

I kept the table centerpieces SIMPLE! I bought Easter grass in pink and green at Target and some cute little buckets from the $1 section there, too. I put some snacks in them. The guests arrived at 11 AM and so they were sitting around for a little bit before the "guest of honor" showed up. So, I wanted something for them to munch on - plus, we have a little popcorn maker that we got out and had popcorn, too!

One of my favorite things I made for the party is my thrift store mirror. I will give you a step by step tutorial on how I made it in another post...but I turned it into a beautiful chalkboard. 

All in all, it was a beautiful party. With my sister in law, father in law, hubby, and I all doing our part to help it to run smoothly and show her how much we love her!

  

Girls' Birthday Party

I suppose it's Pinterest's fault. I was perfectly content having a party without much hoopla...but then again, I have been going to some pretty neat baby and wedding showers lately, too. I'm no "Hostess with the Mostess" but I wanted to make some fun and pretty things for my daughter's 8th birthday party without breaking the bank or spending weeks on end planning. I did most of this party in just a week - the majority of it a couple days before.

I threw my daughter a party in our backyard and got ALL of my ideas from Pinterest, seriously! She and I would sit and look together and it was so fun to come up with ideas. She wanted an American Girl Doll party, but I didn't want to buy all the stuff for it. 

Her party was held on a Friday night in January from 4:30-8 PM. It was really perfect. The girls showed up and I had three teenage girls {2 of them are my piano students} who came and painted all their fingernails and toe nails. I am not good at this and the teen girls were only there an hour {or less} and brought their own supplies. It was great because I could do stuff while they worked on that. We had about 8 little girls so most of them were occupied waiting for nails to dry or talking at the table.







After the nail painting, the pizza arrived. I kept it SUPER easy and ordered pizza to be delivered for everyone - a couple of the girls can't eat the sauce {acid reflux} so we ordered them a side of something else to have. They didn't seem to mind a bit. The girls had their American girl dolls {or they could bring any doll/stuffed toy} at their own little table.

They played for a little bit after dinner and then we had dessert! We found this idea from The Pioneer Woman and from eating at the real American Girl Cafe here in Los Angeles. They are flower pot desserts. I was not about to spend a fortune on real flower pots, so I found these at the 99 Cents Store - plus they are square and plastic, which was easier. I put brownies on the bottom {my daughter is not a fan of cake} then ice cream in the middle and crushed chocolate cookies on top {to look like dirt}. I stuck a straw in the middle and took fake flowers and stuck one in each straw {just before serving}. They loved the desserts - the boys who were there {her two cousins and brother} ate every last bite. 

I moved our outdoor couch to the driveway, where we had a "theater" set up for the girls to watch a movie {American Girl, Samantha}. Yes, I realize that most of you could NOT imagine even having a birthday party outside at night in JANUARY!! I take full advantage of living in Southern California and do as much outdoors as possible. We had several heaters and blankets for all the girls, as well as a candy "bar" and popcorn machine going for even more fun - and doing it outside keeps ALL that mess outside! All in all, it was very fun and my daughter said she had the best time ever. To check out more party ideas, go to my "Party Stuff" Pinterest Board and you'll get some more inspiration!










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Kids' room project

Here it is...my kids' did a SUPER job getting their rooms cleaned up and cleared out of the excess toys.

I bought some Ikea containers that don't have lids on them - let me say, that is CRUCIAL for organizing kids' stuff.  Before, you can see I bought some Ikea storage boxes but they had lids on them:

Rachel's closet about four years ago - right after putting in her closet organizer.

They were cheap, and looked great.  But, having the lids on them made it hard to get in and out. You can see that having the lids off makes it easy just to toss an item right back in without much effort!

I put simple labels on each bin. She's old enough now to read so I didn't do pictures for these. Her baskets were already labeled and working well, so we just scaled down the amount in each of them, but kept the labels.

Simply making her line up her shoes, neatly, helps her to realize what looks organized and neat - versus being lazy and throwing stuff in her closet.

On the other side of the closet, we've edited down some of her things from before and we've even got her Barbie Townhouse in there!  We've also given away many dresses - which she does cheerfully when she knows her younger friends will be getting them.

I made little clothes dividers from the left-over ones from the Ladies Boutique I organized last year in our home.

We have these great hooks on the shelf for her to pick out her outfit and set it out the night before.

We went through her tops and folded them in halves - remember how I showed you that?

Here are a couple of other ideas that we did in her closet to make it more efficient, including her {green} hamper next to the drawers, labeled drawers, and open containers for her things.

 

Here are the drawers UNDER the closet {these are fantastic, but you could do something similar under a bed}.  I took pictures of where each Barbie accessory needs to go, not only for her, but for her friends who come over to help them put things away.

We cleaned up her bookshelves:

And, last, here is Adam's small bit of clean up in his room!

Here are a few things to think about when working with your kids on cleaning out their toys:  

• Get them involved, don't be sneaky about it even if it's tempting to keep them from having a temper tantrum.  You are teaching them to GIVE to others and not be selfish and greedy.
• Even if they are YOUNG - I'm talking about 2+ - they can learn to get involved and help sort things by color or type.
• Stick to just 2-3 KINDS of toys. For instance, my daughter has Barbies, American Girls, and costumes - that's it! Anything else outside these kinds/categories of toys is not welcome {exception is trinkets, which we get rid of constantly}. If they have Legos, Barbies, Little People, Knex, American Girl, trains, matchbox cars, and 15 others that's too much.  When you limit them, trust me, they get MORE creative with the smaller amount of toys they have!
• Be firm, but understanding.  When I tell my kids they can keep only 4 out of 10 trinkets, that seems pretty strict.  But, in the end, they choose the ones they really love and really play with those.  
• Don't have a huge birthday party! If your kids get WAY too much at Christmas or birthday parties, consider figuring out an alternative.  Perhaps, asking for ONLY gift cards. Have a party with just two of their closest friends. Or, tell them to all bring a toy to give to charity. Or, have a gift exchange where they each bring a toy from their closet they don't need anymore and wrap up and have a game of exchanging toys.  Your child doesn't have to always have SO much.  
• Don't buy your kids toys.  My rule is I do NOT buy them toys - only for Christmas and birthdays and that's it!  If they want something really badly, they have to use their own money {and they do}.
• Grandparents....I love them, I do.  But, I know they want to buy the biggest and the best! Try and find something special in their "category" that they can take the kids to the store and get.  My kids aren't even allowed to have ANY more stuffed animals from grandparents {and tell them now}, but they can keep three special ones and get a new one if they give another away {some we give to the dog cause he loves those for toys}. Or ask the Grandparents to take them shopping for clothes for their birthday...think of an alternative that can satisfy you and them. My MIL took my daughter to American Girl for lunch with one friend and bought her a few AG items.  THAT is what she remembers and is special to her more than a big party!
• For more ideas, see the post I did last year about organizing toys, too.

Clean it up and clear it out: A summer challenge!

Our semi-annual tradition is to clear out toys in the kids' rooms!  We do it in June {for Adam's birthday} and January {for Rachel's birthday}.  

Adam's closet needed a little help, but it wasn't all that bad since getting his closet organizer!

We go through all their stuff and get rid of as much as we can! The idea is that if they don't get rid of stuff, they have no room for new stuff {you know, birthday presents?}.  But, I still make them go through it even if it's their siblings birthday - it's just every six months!

Adam surprised me by wanting to give up his magic set.

Adam is now old enough that he did virtually all of it by himself! I really was impressed - he got rid of a bunch of stuff that I didn't expect.

Rachel counting up one of her piles of books.

Rachel still needed help, but I limited my help and had her really do as much as she could alone.  I stayed in the room but out of the way, and would give her a task and then step out whenever I could.

Deciding which ones are most important to her.

For instance, she had way too many books so I had her count them.  If she had 30 books, she could keep her 15 favorites and that was it!

The magazines are great to give away for another child to use them.

I also had her sort and organize her own stuff.  It's so simple, but sometimes just teaching them basic stuff helps a lot.

Trinkets....bleh!<

Then, there is the trinkets...

Big brother helping out!

Yep, those are terrible too - I had her count the total and let her keep about 1/4 of what she had.

Her brother stepped in to help - which she was glad to have - putting all the CDs back in their cases.

Working together organizing...so sweet! This Momma is PROUD!!

In the end, they both got rid of a ton of stuff! We put it all out at Backyard Thursday that week and let them have first crack at all the kids' stuff then the leftovers went to charity.  My kids were SOOOO excited to give away all their old toys!

They did this all on their own - happily!

Here is your challenge: Before the end of THIS summer get your kids to go through ALL their toys - don't do all the work yourself - you must teach them.  It may take a short time for several days, or one really long day! Next week, I'm going to reveal how things are looking now in my kids' rooms! 

I am going to have a LINK PARTY {yes, finally} on August  12th, with a party button below, for everyone to link up their toy clean out! If you don't have a blog you can email me  pictures of YOUR kids' rooms.  I'll post a feature the following week {August 19th} of the BEST clean ups! Don't worry, if you don't have kids, there will be another challenge coming in the fall! AND, you can still clean up YOUR bedroom!

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