we make a good team! (a year later)

For Christmas, Karl and I made the kiddos at wooden play kitchen. I've had my eye on a particular kitchen for years, since it is made in the US, is gender neutral, and appears to be quite sturdy (a must in this house!), but it just wasn't in the budget. So, last LAST Christmas. That's right... 2010 I drew out a plan on paper, we purchased all the supplies, and then failed to find the time to make this. This year we were determined. Karl was up until 2am on December 23rd (true to this family's procrastinating ways) sanding, drilling, and assembling this sweet kitchen. It turned out perfect! The kids love it, I love it, and so far it has already baked 137 pizzas and made 322 pots of wooden vegetable soup. LOVE! And a bonus? Since we made this ourselves, we were able to make it a pretty good height for our taller-than-average children. Hoping this will be played with for years to come.

The kitchen's current home is in our dining room. Some homes I go into I noticed that all the kids' toys are tucked away into bedrooms and the living room/dining room/kitchen all appears to be "adult" space. That's lovely for some families, but I really want to create a home atmosphere that is child friendly in every room. Though they do have toys in their rooms too, I don't want my children to feel like they have to be isolated in bedrooms to play, and my husband and I like to be involved in their play. So keeping some of the shared toys in common areas of our home is a good solution. I'm just trying to figure out how to keep it looking neat.

Oh, and that stick above it? That's where we hung the stockings. I'm not sure what to do with it now that the stockings are gone though. It's such a cool looking branch I kinda want to leave it there, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Hang a cute heart garland on it for Valentine's day? Make a cute felted bird's nest to tuck into one of the curves of it? Put it back outside where I tell Max everyday is where sticks belong? Hmmm... Any suggestions?

right now...

With the nearing of Little No. 3's arrival, I'm realizing the nesting bug definitely has yet to strike. My house is kind of a disaster, and to avoid further housework I am currently:

*using this tutorial to sew up some cloth nursing pads--won't my husband be happy to not receive panic-stricken phone calls at work from me begging him to stop at the store on his way home for another box of nursing pads?!

*snuggling sniffly artists on the couch

*and getting ready to enjoy the amazingly delicious caramel popcorn my hubby is currently whipping up in the kitchen. 

ahh... it seems my weekend is already off to the perfect start! 

:)

this moment.

inspired by SouleMama.

Not a resolution.

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions simply for the fact that usually they are things like losing weight or working out more and honestly, for most people they only last for the first few weeks of the new year. That is why this year, I'm making a lifestyle change. There is a fact that this change is based on, and here it is: when there are three people at home all day, everyday, messes and clutter are unavoidable. Lately, I've spending so much time cleaning up after these little people that I've found myself trying to think of things to just keep them busy so I can clean. The problem with this is that the second I get one mess cleaned up, I am constantly following them to the next. At the end of the day I am completely exhausted and the kiddos are left feeling like I've been ignoring them all day, which is partially true. Then, my wonderful husband gets home to find me zoning out on the couch because I've given up on trying to keep the clutter at bay, and hinging on going insane because I feel bad that he comes home to a messy house and I've been ignoring the kids all day, and NOTHING has actually been accomplished. Then I run to the kitchen to make dinner, while he actually plays with our attention-starved kiddies. We put the kids to bed and are so exhausted that we say to ourselves, 'tomorrow is another day, we'll start fresh and I'll clean the house in the morning.' Then I wake up the next morning (grumpily) to a messy house and the whole cycle starts again. Ok, so maybe that's not everyday (thank goodness!), but I can't say that it is an uncommon occurrence in our home. This also usually leaves our home in a terrible state for when someone pops over--many family members live withing a 3-mile radius of us, so this is not not uncommon. It also leaves Madelynn asking who's coming over when Karl and I do get the gumption for a 20 minute after dinner cleaning spree.

Enter, my new lifestyle change: Send the kids away to boarding school and enjoy a clean home from now on.

Just kidding!

Enter, my lifestyle change: Hire a nanny and a maid service.

Ok, just kidding again. It is actually to continue to make the Daily 7 (am I the last person on Earth to read about that?) a part of my  routine. And also, to continue to use the 20 minute after dinner cleaning spree (self-explanatory), which gets shorter when I actually make good use of the Daily 7. This little list totally streamlines cleaning tasks for me and helps me to not get overwhelmed. Of course, there are still the little kiddie messes throughout the day, but Madelynn actually has been really good about learning by example and cleaning up after herself when she sees me doing chores. Also, when I don't feel so overwhelmed at the end of the day because I've gotten more accomplished, helping the kids pick up their toys and activities before bedtime isn't such a big deal.

cooking soup.

I'm not exactly sure why I didn't think of this FOREVER ago. Lately Mad has been super in to cooking. She wants to help with everything, which is nice. However, I usually like to keep the cooking to myself. I feel terrible about it sometimes, but honestly, when Karl gets home he usually plays with the kiddies while I go into the kitchen by myself and try to just relax. I usually just tune everyone out and bask in the fact that I can make all the decisions while I'm cooking. It's the one thing I do where I don't have to try to negotiate with unruly kiddos, and (luckily) everyone usually eats whatever I make without complaining. However, lately I've been trying to let go and be more carefree when the kiddies want to help or get involved (notice the photo in my last post!). So when Mad came to me donning her apron and asking if she could cook the other day I said, "sure" and then I proceeded to give her a mixing bowl with water, a spoon, and few small shakers with inexpensive spices inside--the 'back up' salt and pepper shakers, and some candy sprinkle containers I filled with Italian seasoning and garlic powder, which I usually buy in bulk. She was busy "cooking" in the middle of the kitchen floor for hours. Maxi even got involved for quite awhile. It was the perfect quiet activity that day. A few days later she got the urge to 'cook' again, this time making 'unicorn soup' using up the rest of our cake sprinkles. After carefully measuring out the correct amounts of rainbows, moons and stars, she put it out on the porch, occasionally going out to check whether or not the local unicorns were stopping by for meals. What an imagination! I think my letting go is paying off.

:)

measure up.

I recently made myself a measuring board for my kiddos. I've been wanting to do this pretty much since Madelynn could stand, but have been bouncing different ideas and designs around in my head. I wanted to buy one, but didn't want it to be paper (the kiddies would tear it up!), I definitely didn't want to just mark on the wall--what happens when we move away or decide on a new paint color?! Sometimes I'm not sure why I put so much energy into thinking about this, because it seems like just a small detail. But I'm sentimental about things. I envision having a place where all the kids' measurements are drawn up all over something, and someday we'll look at it and realize it started so long ago and we'll see our kids' names, cousins, friends, maybe someday grandkids, and we'll all talk about the memories over a fresh apple pie and homemade hot cocoa (I'm sure I'll have mastered those recipes by then). See? These are the things I think about.

Anyway, after two years of different designs in my head, this is what finally came out. It couldn't be more simple (some of my ideas were terribly elaborate and very decorative), it is basically just a 1x4 board covered in white paint with little marks and numbers to sort of look like a giant ruler.

After it dried in the garage, two weeks of nagging little Maximus finally paid off and he hung it for me.

:)

christmas in october?!

I have some neat sewing projects finally in the works! I haven't sewn much since my old machine finally bit the dust. My mom let me borrow hers (oh, the advantages of living next door to your mother!) in order to finish what I was working on, but she decided she wants hers back, and you'll never guess what she did! Ok, you'll probably guess. But even if you don't, I'll tell you. She replaced it!! She (in a team effort with Grandpa Jack, I'm told) got me a Janome Magnolia 7318. It's pretty basic--not computerized, and doesn't have a ton of bells and whistles, which is precisely what I wanted in a machine! Basically, I didn't want a machine that has a bunch of stuff that can go wrong, and the way I see it, anything a sewing machine doesn't do, I can (and enjoy) do by hand. Oh, and it's WAY more quiet than my last machine, which means I can finally sew while the babes are sleeping!

Thank you Mom and Grandpa Jack!!!

:)

fun with face paint!

 a few weeks ago i bought some face paint crayons at joann. i bought them partly because they were 50% off, partly because halloween is coming up, and partly because i wanted to help satisfy madelynn's current obsession with makeup in a away that didn't actually have her wearing makeup. well, not "real" makeup anyway. you see, i'd rather her running around looking like a tiger or butterfly, than have her running around looking like she belongs on toddlers and tiaras. that show is hideous and just the thought of it makes me shudder. and cringe. i'm still hoping that even though it's classified as reality television, it's not real. anyway, i had completely forgotten about the face paint, which i had placed on top of the fridge, until just last week when our national geographic for kids magazine came and had a tutorial on tiger face paint. to my pleasant surprise, once i got it out, it kept us entertained for  hours, days even.

 madee the tiger.

 max getting facepaint on the go.

 artist hard at work.

and something about the combination of tears and face paint cracks me up. am i terrible? i'm positive that looking like a butterfly makes tantrums easier for mama to deal with.

:)

thanks again, grandma!!

grandma ione sent us some sweet toys recently, and i can assure you they are being well played with. the set of tiny unicorns has been everywhere with us for the last few weeks, and the blocks have been transformed into everything from multiple car garages to miniature dinosaur caves. thank you!!

 :)

gifts for the birthday girl (and a whole lot of slackin').

i made madelynn a doll cradle and quilt for her birthday. i decided that since it was such a small quilting project, i would make up a super technical design for practice and then do it all wrong because i don't actually take the time to look up how-to's. it's terribly messy--so don't look too closely--but i was actually pleasantly surprised by the result. i didn't actually quilt it though. once i finished piecing together the top and making the binding (for the first time, woo-hoo!!), i decided to forgo the quilting part, fearing i would ruin all my hard work. plus, i don't know how to do it and didn't want to look it up. ;)

the cradle was so amazingly simple once i worked out my design, which there isn't much to. because my head nearly exploded every time i bent over (we suffered a major sinus bug around here for about a week!), my parents graciously helped with the power tools this time (my hubs would have helped, but he's been super busy with things like being a rock star and growing out his 'stache).

 i wanted it to look very natural and kinda vintage, so i didn't paint it. plus, i wasn't sure which kinds of paints/stains are best for children's toys and the environment and didn't have the time to look it up.

i ended up ordering some of this beeswax polish to finish the cradle. and i'm in love.

so are my wooden spoons. 

(only the top spoon is polished in the photo).

:)

children's artwork inspiration.

my nephew has been coming over nearly every day this summer, and it didn't take long for me to realize that when there is no inspiration behind making art, kiddos can go pretty quickly through an entire stack of paper with nothing but a few rushed scribble marks on each one. being drained of ideas and inspiration, myself, it was hard to think of new crafts. then i realized that kiddos are still very much interested in things that many adults don't think twice about. so last week i decided that we would simply trace our hands and feet and go from there. to my surprise, the kids were pretty fascinated with this simple task, and stayed entertained long enough for me to make lunch plus some. i thought the results were cool.

i thought it was funny that my very orderly nephew took his time to make both feet as similar possible, while my abstract thinking daughter turned her feet into some sort of monster. 

and here's a look at the green "cloud" i painted in our playroom to be our "art wall".

easily distracted.

recently, i came to an important realization. it had to do with how easily distracted i am. karl and i were on a quest to clean every room in our house, and once i made it to the closet, i found the paint cans...

...and this is what happened. when i was finished, the kitchen was clean, but my husband was confused. i have a thing for birds. i also, am pretty inspired by wall stickers.

a haircut and a water hose.

i was having some serious trouble keeping maxi's hair out of his eyes. so the day has come...

my tiny boy is growing so fast!! this last picture is good for me. he was so independent while we were playing, that i was a little glad he finally had a moment of breaking down and crying like a little baby. after all, he is only 1.

:)

the lesson i learned...

today i learned an important lesson in quilting.

here, i have just finished my quilt top and am pinning it all together with the batting and backing. beautiful.

here, i am quilting it with the amazing thread i found that matches beautifully. exciting.

here, i am binding the quilt with what appears to be two different colors of binding. yikes!

why didn't i notice?!?!

and here is what i learned. it is MUCH easier to bind a quilt, than to un-bind it!!

but for the record, i'm not so careless that i bought two different colors. they are SUPPOSED to be the same. i'm just apparently oblivious to the manufacturer's mistake (/in denial because i just. wanted. to finish!!).

equation of the week.

magnetic primer + chalkboard paint = creative fun for everyone!!

maximus is helping me with the alphabet.

and here is our special message to daddy.
you might notice on the map that we've been keeping track of his travels.

:)

what we've been up to...

madelynn and i are learning to embroider.

i learned to use power tools and built a bookcase for my bedroom.

i painted the wall above our bed, inspired by some wall stickers i saw a long time ago.
i used my new-found skills to also make a toy-shelf-unit for the playroom.
my favorite part is the puzzle section.
oh, and check out the sweet ball i made from anna maria horner's book. instead of filling it with fiberfill, i left a hole in the cover so a balloon can be slipped inside and then inflated. it makes for an indoors-safe bouncy ball.
i put some stylish organization in my life.
karl helped me set up my sewing corner...

...which inspired me to get my paintings out.
i did the black and white one before we were married.
it has a ladybug on it.

this one was inspired by madelynn being in my belly.
hope all is well elsewhere!!
:)