Gearhead Mom

Kukunest Bedding On Sale

Ooh! Kukunest is having a sale. We’ve had these comforters and sheets for two years and they still look brand new! And I wash them in hot every week! LOVE.

Recovering Your Seat - Toddler Style

[Ed. Note: Thanks to GHM contributor Shauna for writing up this review!]

How did Gearhead Mom know that my sad, stained dining room chairs were making me absolutely bonkers?  Well, somehow she did and was kind enough to let me review the SmartSeat Chair Protectors.  My husband brought a beautiful dining room table with upholstered chairs to our marriage.  These seemed so lovely until my first child started eating solids.  And then they were not.  They were a mess.  Somehow everything from her booster seat got onto the upholstery and it got even worse once she stopped using the booster and half of what was meant for her mouth went instead onto the chair.  Now every chair is grim looking and I always feel a little chagrined to ask anyone outside of our immediate family to sit in them.

So I needed a solution that did not involve me buying new dining room chairs.  And so the SmartSeat covers to the rescue.  These were, no surprise, invented by a mom who must have had messy little ones just like I do. (Aren’t mom’s just the most clever and industrious people that you’ve ever come across?  Yay, Moms!)  They come in khaki and navy and will fit nearly any upholstered dining chair.  They attach to the seat using velcro straps that after one false start were on my chair and looking snappy.  The fit is very good, although not perfect, at least not on my chair, but is a huge improvement over how it had looked.  And the cover is machine washable so that if it ever starts looking sloppy, which it hasn’t yet, I can throw it in the wash and it will be back to new in no time.

Remodelista Roundup

I love Remodelista’s roundup of awesome kids’ rooms.

GHM Gift List: Nola Noodle Bamboo Fiber Toddler Pillows

How cute are these eco-friendly toddler pillows?

Nola Noodle pillows are made of sustainably grown, naturally anti-bacterial bamboo fiber. Pillowcases are 100% cotton. These are just the right size for a child’s first pillow and are great travel pillows for adults, too. They are also perfect to send to daycare/preschool for naptime.  Pillows are 12” x 16”.

If you have a Little at home that is graduating into a big kid bed, this would be a great gift. Sy was so thrilled to have her own bedding when she moved into her first big girl bed. Super cute patterns, too.

Pillows should only be used by children two years and older. If you are curious about the recommended bedding guidelines for kiddos under one, check ‘em out here.

Buttercream

We were busy painting our master bedroom yesterday. We took it from depressing greige to delightful buttercream. I used the color from Restoration Hardware. I’m not a huge fan of the RH paint quality, so I just had it color-matched. My goodness, it’s such a cheery color. Subtle enough to look, well, buttery, but enough color to remind you of a sandy beach.

S and G’s Play Nook

I’m thinking about sending some pictures of Sy and G’s play nook over to the color contest at Ohdeedoh. This room used to be G’s nursery (it’s the official dressing room off of our room), but now that the kiddos share a room, we just moved the Ikea shelving unit in there and it’s a sweet little play nook. We still have G’s dresser/changing table in there, too. It’s one of my favorite places to be. So cheery!

Designer’s Guild: Pond Street Rug

Check out the newest kid’s line from Designer’s Guild. Love that Pond Street Rug.

Non-Plastic Crib Rail Bumpers = Brilliant

File under: Why oh why didn’t I find this product six months ago??

Baby G chews on everything. It’s actually pretty gross if I stop to think about just how many crayon tips that boy has ingested. He sees me coming, smiles a purple grin and swallows as fast as he can. As soon as he started cutting bottom teeth, he went after his crib rails with a vengeance. He has a big ol’ sleigh crib (his sister’s hand-me-down) and the plastic crib rails don’t fit, which is fine by me since I think it’s a toss up - chewing paint off the wood vs. chewing on some questionably toxic plastic rail.

Enter Leachco Easy Teether cotton crib rail covers. And bonus! They even make XL ones for sleigh (also called convertible) cribs. Because they are such a nice, simple solution, they cost an arm and a leg. Around $13.99 for the main rail (not so bad), but almost $35.00 for the side rails. Highway robbery!

That Is One Ugly Fairy

I don’t mean to throw the poor designer of this abomination under the bus or anything, but really. I’m shocked that Pottery Barn even deemed it reasonable to put it that “fairy canopy” in their catolog. They don’t even list it online, so perhaps they’ve come to their senses? Is it just me or does it remind you of the old school Barbie-wearing-crocheted-hoop-skirt-to-cover-up-a-roll-of-toilet-paper? The hanging fairy is benign enough (in a completely creepy sort of benign way), but man sakes alive, that is one ticky-tacky bunch of netting. Yikes.

They only semi-redeemed themselves by having an R2D2 hybrid chair. Pottery Barn also has a new Barbie bedding line. I am thankful that Baby G shredded the catalog before Sy got her mitts on it. She is one Barbie FREAK.

I also see that PB Kids has lowered the price of the Catalina bed to $399.00 (lowered by $200.00). I guess the purveyors must feel the need to drastically slash prices after losing so many customers due to the Unfortunate Fairy Canopy Incident.

High Chair Suggestions?

One of our Twitter followers, @lynhuffman, asked me what my favorite, affordable high chair is. In all honesty, I loathe high chairs. We don’t use one. We just use one of those little attachable chairs that fit over an existing dining room chair. $19.99, easy to clean, easy to take with us to Grandma’s (although she has one, too). We actually have two since we so often have other kiddos over for dinner. Love them.

So anyway, what are your thoughts, fabulous readers? Any favorite high chairs to suggest to Lyn?

Thanks!

Vikare Guard Rail

Why didn’t I see these $10.00 guard rails when I was looking at beds a couple of years ago? What a bargain! Why Ikea doesn’t sell these online is beyond me. Anyone have one? Are they sturdy enough? I’d love to use one with the next bed transition (that seems soooo far away).

Pretty Things

I was just checking out design*sponge and spied these J Hill Design animal alphabet prints and man sakes alive, they are just so very lovely. I would love some of those even if I didn’t have little critters running around. I think E for Elephant is my favorite, too bad no one in my family has that as a first initial! $25.00 is definitely worth if if you ask me. $50.00 for a framed version.

I don’t know how Grace from design*sponge finds all the beautiful things she does every day, week after week. I do know that her blog makes each of my days a little prettier.

Ikea Inspiration

I was inspired by this post the other day over at Ohdeedoh. Ohdeedoh reader Patricia had redone her daughter’s art area a while back using the Trofast shelving unit from Ikea (it’s her picture above, not mine!). I decided that our shambly garage sale bookshelf shoved in the corner of the oddly shaped kitchen nook had to go. I took both kids to Ikea (what was I thinking?!) and scooped up the Trofast . It luckily wasn’t that heavy! In a shocking turn of events, it only sat in my entry hall in its box for a week before I put it together. I decided to tackle the project the other day while my kids were playing outside with grandma. It took less than an hour and I didn’t even break anything. That, my friends, is a feat in itself. Sy’s art supplies look sooo much better, even she thinks so. But then, she is way tidier than I’ll EVER be.

Land of Nod Teen

Have you noticed that Land of Nod is featuring more tween-to-teen bedding? Competing with PB Kids, no doubt. The comforter is about $100.00 for a full/queen. As Jenny’s dad would say, it is “not without the stigma of low cost.”

Serena and Lily for Big Kids Now, Too

I was reading Design Mom yesterday and she has a fabulous Serena and Lily giveaway. You should enter. Really.

Serena and Lily have expanded their lines to include us big kids, too. I’ve been hoping they’d do that. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for it. College account for the kids or new bedding for me? It’s a tough debate.