The Item Block

So, Ari walked into his room the other day to find an item block hovering in the air.

Naturally, he did what any red-blooded American boy would do when faced with the same situation.

He punched the bottom of it.  I mean, who wouldn't punch the bottom of it?  There could be so many amazing things inside.  Would it be a coin?  A super mushroom?  A 1-Up?  A star?  As it turns out, it wasn't any of those things, but he was quite pleased regardless.

It was our latest reward from Club Nintendo!  A figurine featuring Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Yoshi, Bowser, and a Goomba.  We registered enough games last year to reach platinum status with the club, which will probably never happen again since we registered four years worth of games to get there.  They sent this to us for free, and we didn't even have to use any of our reward "coins" to get it.  What a sweet deal, huh?  I can't think of a nicer reward, especially since Ari has it proudly displayed in his bedroom.

Super Mario Bedroom!

It took a while, but we finally finished Ari's room. All the final touches were made, and he really loves it. He and Emilie play in his room a lot more than they used to, and it brings a smile to my face every time I go in. I told Valerie that if he ever wants to change it, we could move into his room and we could redecorate our room for him. As I expected, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea. Nevertheless, I don't see this room changing any time soon. Enjoy the pictures!

Super Mario curtains

My mom is awesome. She not only helped me paint Ari's room, she gave me the idea to use iron-ons for the curtains I was making for him. I knew I wanted to do the brown blocks, but I didn't know what other Super Mario elements to incorporate into the curtains. I was explaining to her what I wanted to do, and she came up with the brilliant idea to print characters on the iron-on sheets and put them on a solid colored fabric. Needless to say, I loved the idea, and got to work on the last element of Ari's room.

I decided to use a total of five squares of fabric for each curtain and alternate between the brown blocks and the characters. For the blocks, I cut out the individual brown 'bricks' and then sewed them together with the black 'mortar' in between. The blocks turned out really well, and came out looking pretty authentic compared to their video game counterparts.

As for the character squares, I had four squares to use for characters; so the challenge was to decide which characters to use. I didn't want to use Mario, Luigi, Goombas, 0r Koopa Troopas, because they were already represented on his wall clings. I thought about using power up items like mushrooms or fire flowers, but that didn't seem too exciting to me. After some serious debate, and looking for high quality images on the internet, I decided to go with some 'bad guys'.

I ended up using pictures of a Hammer Brother, Lakitu, Bowser Jr., and a Bullet Bill for the character spaces on the curtains. After I ironed the images onto the fabric, I sewed all the squares together and added some tabs to the top for the curtain rod. I couldn't be happier with the way the curtains turned out. The character iron-ons really give them that authentic Super Mario look. I doubt any other kid has curtains like this, with item block curtain rods, too! They were the perfect finishing touch to Ari's room. Thanks again for the idea, Mom!

Super Mario curtain rods

I decided to make curtains for Ari's Mario room, and inspiration struck as I was looking at his curtain rods. Why not be a little inventive with those as well? The ends of his curtain rods just screwed off, so it got me thinking about what Super Mario item I could screw on. I thought of using the plastic figurines, but that could get expensive. Then, I remembered a little tin Super Mario star filled with candy that we put in Ari's stocking.

I retrieved the star and began examining it in order to determine how I could make it work on the curtain rod. I figured I could just drill a hole in the side of it and screw it on the curtain rod. I was quite pleased with the prospect. I consulted with Valerie and she gave me the go ahead to purchase more star tins to complete my project. Ari and I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond since that is where we purchased the star tin.

When we got to the store, we discovered they no longer had any of the star tins in stock. Bummer. However, they did have tin Super Mario item blocks filled with 'coin' candies. How clever. I realized that these would look even better than the stars, and promptly purchased five of the item block candy tins. I only needed four, but purchased a fifth just in case I ruined one. As Ari talked up the cashier regarding her Mario skills, I explained to her my project. Leaving that poor cashier confused and bewildered, we then headed home.

I took all the candy out of the tins, and headed to the basement to start drilling holes in them. To my surprise, the project was completed in no time and was actually much easier than I was anticipating. The end result was quite pleasing as well. I don't think they could have turned out any better, and I got the satisfaction of making them myself. It's fun where a little ingenuity can take you. The item block curtain rods were complete, now on to making the curtains...

Twirl-Whirl

The ceiling fan in Ari's room, complete with Propeller suit yellow Toad, and a propeller mushroom power up; or as Ari likes to call it, "twirl-whirl."

We thought it would be fitting to put these images on the ceiling fan blades to give them a flying effect.

Life in the Mushroom Kingdom

Ari had another Mario themed birthday party this year, and we stepped it up in the decoration department. We ordered some Super Mario Bros. wall clings to put on the wall for the party, with plans to then move them into his bedroom because he wants a Mario room. The clings are transferable, but we thought it would be better to only move them once, so Valerie granted me permission to leave them up in the living room until we get Ari's room painted; which we are planning to do this weekend. So, for the past couple of weeks, I like to think I have had a glimpse of what life would be like if I lived in the mushroom kingdom.

With koopa troopas walking across the end table.

Coins above my head.

An item block ready to be hit, and a one-up gliding across some blocks.

All the while being looked down on by the residents, with special guest, Donkey Kong.

If I look hard enough, there are some goombas also peeking out here and there, but they are notorious for not wanting their picture taken.

It's been a fun couple of weeks with our temporary decor, but I'm so excited about how Ari's room will look when we get everything set up in there. Stay tuned...