Julie's Haunted Mansion

 C'mon Emma, I'm not afraid.

AAAHHH!!! 

It's not real Emma.

 Ick I hate spiders!

It's not real Emma!

 AAAHHH!

AAHH  bats!!

Hehe, that was pretty good!

 The rest of the girls are on their way.

Just go by small groups, OK?

 AAAHHH!

BATS!!

 Hehe, I kind of expected more...

Me too, bats.

 AAHHH!!

BATS!!!

 Great haunted house Julie!

Thanks for coming everyone!

 

 Yum cookies.

 Let's dance!

OK!

Which of you is Elle and which is Beth?

 Have some treats everyone!

 Jess & Emma

Grace

 Martin

 

Jose & Grace

Nellie

Molly

Frank

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Bake Sale

 Hi Emma!  I got the table set up

 Hi Martin, I brought the drinks.

 I hope we sale a lot today!

 Oooh, a bake sale!

Hi Grace!

Hey, I'll go get some of the girls so they can buy something too!

Great!  Thanks!

Grace told me to come see your bake sale 

so I'm here! I'll take 3 cupcakes please.

We heard you were having a bake sale.

Yes we want to raise money for camp.

 Who is this Jess?

Oh, this is my little cousin, Abby.

 Very nice to meet you, Abby, would you like a cookie?

 Yes please.

 Hi, I'm Julie.

Hello Julie nice to met you.

She is SO CUTE!!

Yes, Abby is staying with me for the day. 

After this we are going to the park to play.

Hey, that sounds like fun!  Let's all go!

Oh well, at least we sold 3 cupcakes.
SIGH

DIY Metal Bunkbed tutorial!!

This is one of my favorite projects to date!

Martin, our boy doll wanted bunkbeds like this one below.

These were made by American Girl.

 I have searched on ebay and they go for around $50 to $100!

SO, as usual, I began thinking about how to make something similar on the cheap.

I was meandering around our garage and saw this length of metal shelving...hhhmmm.

 This is a 12 x 6 foot length of shelving with the front edge.

 I used bolt cutters, small tie wraps & shelf end covers. 

Each crosswire of these shelves is about 1 inch, so I counted out 20 spaces and cut as close as I could to the small cross wire.  

 I counted out another 20 spaces and (or about 20") and cut again.

 File and round smooth all the ends not being covered by the little white caps BEFORE assembling.  This took some time and elbow grease but was worth it. Note all the places I put tie wraps in the picture here.

Smooth rounded ends after filing.

So, I have two 20" lengths of shelf.  The remaining length of shelving I just cut into 2 equal length pieces for the bunk sides.  So you should have 4 pieces of shelving after cutting:

2 pieces x 20 inches   and   2 pieces x 14 inches.  

 I put the white end covers on all the bottom feet of the bed.  

2 spaces from bottom attach the bottom bunk.  

2 spaces from the top attach the top bunk.

 AS you can see in this picture I used the tie wraps to hold the bed pieces together, but wire would work just as well.  I left the turned edge of the shelf to create a natural barrier around the back and sides.  The more tie wraps or wire twists the more stable the bunks will be.

 After I had everything tightly held together with the tie wraps I trimmed off the long ends of the tie wraps.  I used yellow spray paint designed for metal & plastic all over the bunks and the tie wraps just blended in.

 AND HERE IS THE END RESULTS!

 

SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON!

American Girl Version $50 - $100 on ebay.       Homemade version approx $10!

Most importantly Martin is VERY happy with his new bunks!

AND the final version with race car spreads.

To see Martin's room all finished click here!