The Circus is Back in Town

I've been busy making curtains. The days are getting longer and as much as I love the sunshine, it really doesn't help little boys get the sleep they need. I made similar black-out curtains in their room in Washington, plus I still had all the circus stuff, so circus it is. And I think it's pretty fitting. Our house is usually a 3 ring circus. ( =

My handy husband built me these boxes for the big top valances. We used a pipe for the curtain rod--so much cheaper than the real thing, and it doesn't show so it doesn't matter.

I still had some of the stripe from the curtains in Seattle and I found this "seeing spots" print that I thought complimented it perfectly.

I used felt for the flags. Each boy got to choose his own color for his flag. Luke--yellow, Aaron--blue and Owen--green.

A good friend went to the circus with her boys and brought me back these cute clown hats. They came with cotton candy in them and she saved the hats for me. So thoughtful. They look great hanging by the door. It's hard to keep my clowns hands off them.

I found a poster online of these vintage circus posters for $3.99. I cut them out and framed them with cheap painted Walmart frames. The boys love to point out each animal. They especially like the sharp teeth and practicing their roars.

This needle point of giraffes hung in my bedroom when I was a little girl. My grandma made it for me. When she made it, it had hot pink spots on the giraffes and blue eye shadow too. I had to take it apart to make the giraffes look a little more natural and boy bedroom friendly. I think she'd be glad it was still loved and put to good use. I love homemade and original art in my house.

This circus clown ball toss was a Christmas present for Aaron and Owen from their social worker a couple years back. Again--perfect! And yes under their beds are the "dog trundles." This circus comes complete with live animals--friendly of coarse.

So here it is--the finished circus. This is what it looks like as you walk in the door. When there's toys and clothes all over the floor, it just looks like 3 little clowns or acrobats or even circus cats were here.

This is the quilt I made Luke when he first moved his big boy bed. It's monkeys and jungle leaves. He loves it so much the edges are starting to fray. I think it will work for a while longer and the colors match. It's a circus right?