How a tee-pee grew into surprise new bedrooms.

It started as a question to a mother. 

"Would it be okay if I made the girls a tee-pee for Christmas? I've seen one on Pinterest and really want to make one."

Then, as we huddled over my iPad mini ooohing and aaahing over tee pees, it morphed into how the mother would love for the girls to have beautiful bedrooms AND how they were holidaying in the snow soon  AND, then I was saying, "Well, I could come up and do the bedrooms while you're away.  The girls could arrive home to surprise new rooms.??."
"They need more storage and, can you please do something about their rock collections!?!" came from an exasperated mother.

So, you've read about the trip to the further-FNQ-bedrooms in my previous post. Now, it's time for the bedroom make over story ... times two. Two beautiful girls, two about-to-be-beautiful rooms.

In my excitement to get started I forgot to take before photos, but I have some I've-just-started-moving-things-around photos.

Admittedly, the rooms did not look quite as cyclonic when I started, but there was a lot of "stuff" that had nowhere to live.  I had a week, so I had to be realistic about what I could achieve ... on my own ... using only my muscle ... or, if I was desperate, asking  for help from my older-and-wiser sister, her partner or my niece, all of whom reside in further-FNQ.  But I was the one who had volunteered for this, not them.  "Miss Independence!"  my lovely partner, MLP, would say.

Great-niece 1 likes pink and lime green and David Attenborough.  Great-niece 2 likes aqua and pink AND has told her mother she would like to be Asian. Don't you love the mind of a child? Simple, uncomplicated, ignorant of racism ... the essence of purity and innocence.

Both girls have rock collections, soft toys, drawing goodies, books ... all of which need a place.

So, I hit the shops with my stash of mother-left-money. Target, Sam's Warehouse, Overflow, A Mart, Spotlight, Rugs A Million, Bunnings.  Slowly, the rooms begin to emerge ...

The partially curated rock collections find a home in tea boxes from Overflow.

I hope this aspect of the mother's needs have been met.

I set up my trusted sewing machine and over locker which have come with me in the PT Cruiser.  Many hours later, mosquito nets with fancy trim adorn the beds and the quilt from bedroom 1 has a lime green extension to fit the vintage king single bed.

I build flat pack furniture.  Oh, don't you love the Allen key!  I know my thumb doesn't; it's still recovering. Bookcases and industrial style bedside tables from Target come together ... not without some frustration and a trip to Bunnings.  Eventually, they house pretty boxes in pink, aqua and lime green from Target and Overflow ...  places for soft toys, drawing goodies and books ... labelled, of course. I am a Virgo, remember!  Some boxes even remain empty for who-knows-what.

I recycle a number of existing items. A bookcase previously vertical is now horizontal and topped with the previous-but-too-small bedside tables.

New rugs from Rugs A Million and Sam's Warehouse give a place to play ... lime green and aqua.

Pretty cup cake papers become flowers which are slipped onto the fairy lights that climb the bed posts. An idea I gleaned from Pinterest.  Oh, how I looovve Pinterest!!

Timers ensure twinkling lights and flowers every night.

The walls were bare, bar one framed photo in each room, so a gallery wall develops in each room: family photos, nature canvases, framed quotes and a framed doily embroidered and edge-crocheted by their Great-Grand mother, my Mother Duck, their "Jam Jar", when she was much younger and her mind much clearer ... Hopefully, a piece they will treasure in the future.

A few final items complete the rooms: bedside lights, lime green and pink, of course, from Bunnings; a desk chair, swivel and HOT pink, of course, from A Mart; notice boards (made by their aunt, my niece ... Thanks Joey!), pink, purple, aqua plus tassels and button topped thumb tacks; and vignettes of Asian trinkets, medals and trophies, books.

And ... ahhhh ... the new surprise rooms are complete ...

and I am more than a little tired.

But, thanks to the lack of availability of a hire car, I now have one more day.  So, what to do?

The mother has left some fabric she had intended to make into cushions for the lounge.  Yet, I think she's more in need of a table cloth for the huge silky oak dining table.  No regular cloth will fit; it must be custom made.  So, sorry mother, no cushions, a table cloth instead.

Then, some left over fabric becomes a new peg apron to replace the very sad old one.

And, now, my fun has ended.  I slide into my hire car and drive south to less-FNQ, stopping at Cardwell for coffee and crab sangas ... of course.  In a week, the girls and their parents will return home.  I hope they are surprised and happy.

I need a few days rest! And the tee pee?? It's still in the pipeline. Hopefully to be ready to go north with me on my next drive to Miss Betty.

You might also like to take a look at Rain on a tin roof. I'm joining the link party today.

Thanks for reading my blog post. I'd love it if you left a comment below for me to read.