Giveaway Winner!

First things first... thank you all for your fabulous ideas for embellishing the stool!  I'll hang on to those and maybe you'll see your idea pop up on a future project if I didn't choose it this time.  There were 25 valid entries (including the entries from when I originally posted the giveaway... who earned 3 entries each) and the random number thingie picked:

So yea for Kelli of Red Marionette you won the beach towel beach bag!  I'll contact you soon.

Now onto the stool.  It's the kidcraft step and store stool and I love it! A quality stool is an absolute necessity in a house with kiddos & this one in particular fits the bill perfectly. It's pretty light weight and has handles on the sides so Elle can carry it around easily all by herself. It's sturdy too and has already stood up to lots of climbing, sitting, standing, sliding, dragging & wiggling. The only thing it needed was just a bit of embellishment. I'm totally envious of people who have smooth walls because they get to use the product that has revolutionized home decorating... vinyl wall decals.  Our house is about a million years old, so we have bumpy plaster walls.  I really love the concept of decals though, so easy, so quick, and they can give a room, or an item a complete transformation.   I decided decals were the perfect simple embellishment to add just a bit of something special to the stool.  What do you think?

I've only used decals once before, so I don't know if all decals are this easy to apply & nice looking, but I definitely recommend these from Uppercase Living. UL is a direct selling company who pays demonstrators to market and sell their huge selection of vinyl decals.  You can host a party at your house and have a demonstrator come with all kinds of great ideas for decorating your space... neat huh?!  But you don't have to have a party to make a purchase, I purchased these (and another one that you'll get a peak at in a future post) from Gina's website: http://ginac.uppercaseliving.net  You  should definitely take a minute to check out her site, there are some really amazing ideas there!

I think my favorite feature of this stool is the hinged step the opens up for storage! Space is at an absolute premium in our little house (did you notice the rolling under the bed storage boxes in the picture? I try to utilize every little bit of space!). I thought I'd show you what's inside the stool... Elle's hair stuff (minus the bows which are handing on a bow holder in her closet).  I love that little rag bowl that holds her hair ties!  Oh and do you see my secret weapon for getting perfect parts in long locks?  It's up there by the brush... a chopstick!