outside play area

Since I am already sad to be away from my wonderful hubby and beautiful daughter tomorrow I am posting about our fabulous day last Saturday. I not only a mother, wife, teacher, and beginning crafter, sewer, diyer.. I am also a graduate student! I am finishing up my first year of graduate school which includes one weekend a month devoted to graduate class. I leave home at 7 am and arrive home around 5 pm each night. Boo! But.. moving on as to not dwell... last Saturday was wonderful!

Ella was up early, the weather was BEAUTIFUL here in southern Minnesota so we were off for the community wide yard sale! Yep, hubby went with which is usually best because then I don't go overboard and he also gives me the confidence that I can do something great to someone else's junk. 

Not such a successful morning of yard sales, but it was fun to be together as a family. We came home with:

2 grocery cart toys for Ella (1 for outside, 1 for inside-she loves them!), a nice gray book for a future project, the hubby got a weird movie, a glass canister (not pictured) and a few bags of sand picked up at Lowes. 

We are building our outside toy collection for Ella. She LOVES being outside so we predict a lot of outside time this summer. We don't want to spend a lot of money on these toys.. so yard sales and craigslist are our new friends. We recently bought a small climber with slide from craigslist and someone from hubby's school gave.. yes GAVE us a sandbox.. LOVE FREE STUFF!

We now needed the right spot for the sand box. In the shade, in a easily viewed area, and preferably not on the grass. Well.. this led to a quick project.. we have an awkward area behind our dining room window (which is also awkward) that has pavers down that run across most of the back of the house. We decided to use some large pavers we had left over from a project last year to extend this awkward area and make it a play area for Ella. Hopefully we will get a little picnic table soon and that can also go in this area. 

Here is the process in photos:

Hubby getting ready to start digging

Notice view of pavers already there and the odd dining room window

More digging!

And where are Wojo and Ella during this?

And then it was nap time.. which means I also had to dig and get dirty.. no pictures of this since Ella was napping, Wojo has no hands, and the hubby and I were both dirty and digging. 

We dug down 6 inches, laid the weed/grass killing paper, then spread some dirt down, leveled it off, laid pavers.. filled in with dirt.. topped with sand box and then filled sand box with sand.. and now we have a much better looking area and a great place for Ella's free sandbox. I really like the way this free project turned out. As soon as we get a picnic table it too can go on the pavers. Also, we now have an idea of where a garden could go if we decide to grow one. We are traveling a lot in the summer so I am not sure when we can commit to this..but at least we have a place now! 

Garden idea: in between adult patio and playtime patio

The playtime patio

I am hoping that grass grows back quickly...

 

Well, she sure likes it!

So, a GREAT Saturday! A new play area for my love bug, time spent with the hubby on a project, a few good deals at the yard sales, beautiful weather, and yummy coffee along the way. I am sad to be away from my family tomorrow, but at least I can log on and read this again to brighten my day tomorrow! I know Ella will be playing on her new playtime patio! :)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mather's Day to all of the mothers, mommas, moms, and mommies out there! 

I am so lucky to be celebrating my second Mother's day tomorrow! I love my little Ella more than I ever knew was possible! A little over 15 months ago my life was forever changed, in the best way possible. I thank her for making me a better person and making me want to be a better person! I love each day watching her grow and change. Each stage is my favorite!

Mommy's Girl!

My Sweet Girl!

BEFORE I WAS A MOM

Before I was a Mom;
I made and ate hot meals,
I had unstained clothing,
I brushed my hair every day,
I had quiet conversations on the phone,
I slept as late as I wanted and I slept all night long.

Before I was a Mom;
I cleaned my house each day,
I never tripped over toys or forgot lullabies,
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous,
I had never been puked on, pooped on, spit on, chewed on, peed on, or
pinched by tiny fingers.

Before I was a Mom;
I never thought about immunizations,
I never held a screaming child so the doctors could give shots,
I never looked into teary eyes and cried,
I never felt my heart break into pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt,
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

Before I was a Mom;
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down,
I never sat up late hours of the night watching a baby sleep,
I never got up in the middle of the night to make sure everything was okay,
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

Before I was a Mom;
I had complete control of my mind, my thoughts and my body,
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside of my body,
I didn't know that having something so small could make me feel so
important,
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache,
the wonderment, or the satisfaction of being a mom.

Before I was a Mom;
I never knew that something so small could effect my life so much,
I never knew that I could love someone so much,
I never knew I would love being a Mom,
I didn't know the bond between a Mother and her child,
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much.

~author unknown

Newest Chalkboard Ideas

Does anyone out there love chalkboard accents as much as I do? I don't know, I love them! :) Maybe its because I'm a teacher; I grew up wanting to be a teacher, dreaming of writing on a chalkboard one day. Too bad for me (or maybe not) all chalkboards have been replaced with dry erase boards and now SMART boards. Oh well, more chalkboard love for my house!

My two newest chalkboard accessories are below:

Individual Chalkboards for Baskets: creating using small thin pieces of scrap wood, painted with 4 coats of chalkboard paint. They are connected with thin twine hot glued to the back and tied through the basket. I love them on my porch!

Don't mind the mess underneath of the baskets!

Next are my new chalkboard canister labels!

Did you know there is Chalkboard Contact Paper?!?! Yes, there is! I was VERY excited to find that out! I read about it on a blog somewhere, some day (can't remember either) and found it at Micheal's. I believe it was $4.00? or about that.  I had thought about painting my canisters with the liquid chalkboard paint I already had, but I didn't want to commit to it forever; even though they are inexpensive Ikea canisters, I just wasn't sure I would love the idea as much as I thought I would. I used my Creative Memories scrap booking cutting circles to pick the shape and size, cut them out and stuck them on! 

Before

Cutting the circles

Sizing it up

All Done

In the cabinet in their actual home

And, I realized I have one more recent Chalkboard item. I painted a galvanized Ikea planter with a chalkboard rectangle. We use the planter on our porch to hold flip flops since we have a TON! 

Notice my Vera Bradly diaper bag behind, which I love!

There you go, three ideas for Chalkboard paint! I am sure I will come up more! I just love this stuff! I have read about this "Chalk Ink" pens, I need to find those! I want a much neater look to the chalk writing.

Happy Mother's Day Tomorrow!

First Diaper Cake

We are throwing a baby shower for a colleague. She is having a boy and this is her first child. We wanted to make this shower very special for her. She deserves it, she has helped with lots of other work showers over the years. 

 I decided to try my hand at a diaper cake! I am very happy with the result! 

I started with a pack of Size 1 Pampers Swaddlers (the best diaper in my opinion for newborns). I used Goody clear hair bands to hold the rolled diaper in the tube shape. At one of my baby showers someone used tape and that was NOT fun to deal with! So, these clear hair bands worked MUCH better. I used an old paper towel tube down the middle to keep some structure. I also used sporty headbands to hold the bottom two layers together around the paper towel roll. This was a last minute idea, I had a few new headbands for another project so they were perfect. 

Created the bottom two layers. Then folded flannel recieving blankets ($7.99 Gerber) into long rectangular pieces and wrapped those around the bottom two layers of the cake. I didn't center the blankets, but had them along the bottom of the layers. For the top layer I was stumped but finally decided to wrap one of the other recieving blankets around the rest of the paper towel tube. I had thought about tieing the 4 little hand rattles around the top layer as well. I like the blanket better. The diaper cream at the top was actually an good accident by the hubby. He was watching me do this and just stuck it in there playing around and I thought it worked. So I left it :)

I found spots for the four hand rattles (awesome deal-Garanimals $1.00 each at Wal-mart). I also strung two pacifiers in the middle section of each layer. Overall, for less than $30.00  and my first attempt, I think it looks GREAT! Check it out!

Diapers wrapped with clear bands

Best view of the head band hold each layers together

Hanging pacifiers

Garanimals $1.00 hand rattles

Diaper Cream Cake Topper

Pacifiers

Side view of cake

Finished Cake

So Cute!

Again, very happy with the final result! A little different shopping for baby boy items with my sweet princess at home. Hopefully it puts a smile on the mom's face :)

 Linked Up To:

Tatertots and Jello

30 Minute Living Room Make-over

After Ella's afternoon nap it looked like May outside but didn't feel like May so we were stuck inside for the rest of the day. With the sun shining in, it was giving me a little spring fever! We have been talking about rearranging our living room for a while now. We know we need a new paint color on the walls and have been saying for 2 years we were going to start looking for a leather sofa for the room, but still haven't. 

What we could do in an afternoon.. rearrange furniture! So, we did! 

Take a look at the before and after and let me know what you think! 

Before: View from kitchen

Before: View from dining room

Before: View from hallway

Before: From hallway facing north wall/front door

Before

After: sofa moved to old TV wall

After

After: north wall

After: doorway/window

After: south wall from doorway

After: view from kitchen

After

 

So, what do you think? Yes, I know we have A LOT of toys! We have a basement of toys too, but what do you do when you have a 15 month old?  I think its a BIG improvement that cost $0.00, can't beat that! After doing all of the moving, I realized, WOW I HAVE A LOT OF BROWN STUFF! Brown furniture, brown shelves, brown loveseat, brown chair, brown picture frames, brown brown, brown! At dinner Hubby said, "Yes, I've been joking about this for years, you didn't realize it until now?" So, its time to start looking for some different accents for the room. In a quick internet shopping spree I found the following. 

Possible Pillow Fabric-Amy Butler Fabric

We WILL be getting a new sofa similar to this one, but not with the hefty Pottery Barn price tag

Another Pillow Fabric option - Amy Butler

More Pillow Fabric-Amy Butler

More Pillow Fabric- Amy Butler

Possible accent chair-IKEA

Throw Blanket-Target

Another Throw Blanket option-Target

Paint color for lamp

Wall Paint

We have a wonderful slip-covered sectional sofa that was in this room when we moved in. Once we remodeled our basement, we felt it was better suited for that area. So we bought the love seat from a friend to use until we were ready to buy a leather sofa. The paint color was already on the wall when we moved in. We can't wait to paint it a lighter tan shade and add beautiful white trim! We are painting the trim one room at time, 2 down and 5 more to go??? I think the throw for the sofa and the painting of the lamp can happen this week! The throw pillows could happen soon too! I am already searching out the sofa! Give me a few weeks for a better After! :)