Maybe I'm crazy, but do you think a nautical wallpaper border could be mounted above the mirror to cover the unpainted part? You could run it all the way around the room, and then trim it top and bottom with a painted piece of half-round molding to really make it look deliberate. Then mount a new light fixture in place of the hollywood bar (you're right -- that absolutely has to go) and make sure you position the border so the light makes sense on the pattern (am I getting too technical here?) I mounted a huge border in my son's bedroom so that the bottom edge lined up with the bottom of the window moldings and ran it all the way around the room. My wall were a similar blue, with alternating light blue stripes. The half-round was painted a rich cranberry red and I coordinated with a box pleated red valance with tiny blue stripes. It looked really sharp. I like the vanity as is. Good luck!!

The past three years my nephews were all given money for Christmas. The first year, I glued a stack of 50 brand new crisp $1 bills together to create a book out of them, just like what was mention above. The second year, I did the 2-liter bottle thing. I pit a slit in the plastic, crumpled up the money loosley then applied a new, personalized label when the original label would be to cover up the slit I made. To make it more difficult for them to open the bottle, I glued the cap on. Because the money was loosely crumpled, it took them a bit of thinking before they found out how I got the money in there in the first place. Now that I think of it, I should have done some sort of origami folding of the money so they would have really been scratching their heads. I finished off the bottle with curling ribbon around the neck Last year, my mom rolled the money up in toilet paper (still on the roll of course) then wrapped it in various boxes from around the house (Mac n' cheese, pop tarts, etc.) This year, I plan to do something different; different than I've done in the past and different for each nephew (5 of them). In the past, since they all got the cash in the same way, once one of them opened the gift containing the money, the rest of them were not as surprised. I have to say that the money pad was by far the biggest hit. My son didn't want to spend which I was happy he was saving it but on the other hand he didn't want to put it in the bank either. Oh well, at least he didn't spend it foolishly, right. Lastly, if you are going to gift money, plan ahead so you can get brand new crisp bills. If the bank does not have any/enough, I'm sure if you ask them to "order" you some they will do it. New, crisp bills makes for a better gift! For this year I am for sure going to do the cold hard cash and the umbrella ideas....now I just need to find 3 more and I'll be set!

Other than the sheer injustice of the one girl having twice as many chores as Max, it's a cute idea. And I know from experience that washing the dishes is a much messier and longer chore than setting or clearing the table. (I'm guessing poor Hannah is the oldest child and that's why she has to work twice as hard.) I also think this mom is super organized, which is a good thing to teach the kids. We had much the same chores when I was a kid. You washed dishes for a week, set the table for a week, cleared the table for a week, and swept the kitchen floor and emptied the trash cans for a week.

Stacie, they can be attached to either. For this one I pulled Anna's hair up and used a scunci no slip grip to hold her hair, then I tied the ribbon over that. When I made one for my DGD years ago I tied hers in a bow over her ponytail rubber band, but for the purpose of taking this picture I didn't take the time to make a bow. Linda