Sock Monkey Towel Hooks

I realize that I have not yet posted photos of full rooms, only glimpses of our bedroom here and here and our entry/mudroom - which those photos are terribly outdated...

One day, I am making that promise now... Please hold me to it!

I guess the point that I am trying to make is simply that you've never seen Preston's room, but the theme is traditional sock monkeys...

We wanted to run with that theme for the kids' bathroom as well, only make it more fun with more modern sock monkeys in brighter colors.

This was the only room that we hadn't painted and it was a very cold blue that made me feel not so warm and cozy.

Here is the before photo:

The photo actually makes the bathroom look better than it really is :P

I painted the wall straight ahead a color called Exotic Isle and made some hooks for the wall for the kids to hang their towels. Oh I as so tired of towels hanging over the banister, over chairs, balled up in corners and on door knobs.

Remember my birds on a wire coat hooks?

I decided to make something similar only square and with fabric! 

This Sock Monkey fabric is by Moda

In use! 3 kids' and the dog's towels hanging up = one happy mom!

Up close and probably the truest green to the color on the wall:

Washing the towels, the hooks look lonely but still adorable!

Paint

modpodge

fabric cut to size

modpodge on top of fabric

rustoleum enamel in gloss on top 2x

hooks screwed into the blocks and studs or anchors 

And here's what we get!

I'm loving this sock monkey bathroom. It needs a little more TLC and paint :) 

but nothing is ever quite done!

Tell me where you could use some hooks in your life?

Burlap Covered Diaper Boxes

**There are tons of photos in this post, consider yourself warned!**

We cloth diaper, except at night and on days where we are really lazy- about one day a month.

With that said, we have bought maybe 6 boxes of diapers total. Why? Well, they are expensive and toxic. If you don't know the details on how awful disposable diapers are you should look them up. 

I am not here to rant and rave, I am here to tell you about how I am reusing my disposable diaper boxes since the diapers themselves are so wasteful.

If you look here and here you will see the inspiration for my girls' room. This is another low cost project to promote their organization while they live with us full time over the summer! They also helped make them :)

What you will need:

Cardboard (diaper) box

burlap

spray paint

cheap wooden picture frame from Craft store

thin wood to cut (or cardboard might even work!)

E6000 (the best craft glue ever!)

scissors

spray glue

chalkboard spray paint

I primed my boxes.

Here is where I would do it differently if I did it again...

I would spray paint my boxes brown first, since the primer and Luvs label showed through after I adhered the burlap. Which I ended up "fixing" by spray painting the whole box and burlap a nutmeg brown after they were covered...

Awful photo above, sorry, but it was the only one I had of the process :)

Cut your burlap to cover the box and spray the whole box with spray adhesive outside! That stuff is a sticky mess, but it works. I wore gloves, that stuff is sooooo hard to get off of your hands.

Once my box was covered, I spray painted them nutmeg color- and I don't have a photo of this step.

I spray painted a $1 wooden frame blue. 

Happy Hubby used the cardboard insert of this cheap Michaels wooden frame as a template to cut out this thin wood to fit in the frame. I primed it with spray primer and then 2 coats of chalkboard paint.

I glued the frame in with this:

Then glued the frames onto the burlap covered boxes with the same glue and put them face down with heavy books inside of the box to make sure the frames stuck.

Happy Hubby added eyelets to the sides which I intend to add braided jute handles to.

And they fit perfectly on our shelves in the girls' room.

All that is left is to write in chalk what we keep in the boxes and add handles!

Great way to up cycle! 

Crock Pot "baby food"- apples and sweet potatoes

This is a favorite in our home. All three kids will mow through a batch of this in no time, and it's so simple. I got tired of making a huge pot on the stove so now we crock pot it.

What you'll need:

Apples

Sweet Potatoes

Lemon or lemon juice

Cinnamon

Peel and cut up sweet potatoes and apples. 

Place sweet potatoes on the bottom of your crock then apples on top- since apples make a lot of their own water.

Add water to the crock. I added just enough to cover half of my apples and sweet potatoes.

Cook for 4-6 hours on low. 

Sweet potatoes should be tender, but not mushy. 

It should look about like this:

Toss apples, sweet potatoes, and water from the crock in the blender (or food processor, but blender holds more). 

Add a squeeze of lemon juice- it's about 1/4 medium lemon's juice for 1/2 a crock's worth. Make sense?

Add a few dashes of cinnamon and blend away! I never really measure anything...

It'll look like this:

And there you have it.

I have a feeling my children will be eating this all the way through college. 

Seriously, they like it that much.

The babes will snack on just the apple flavored sweet potatoes from the crock pot.

In this post I wrote about baby carrots in the crock as snacks. 

You can do carrots in this recipe as well instead of sweet potatoes. In which case I like to add a little ginger.

The other cool thing about this mixture is that it makes a great addition to pancakes or baked oatmeal!

That'll have to be a whole other blog though!

Happy Crock Potting!

Wine bottle to vase! A quick project tutorial

I am going to tell you how to turn a wine bottle into a vase!

Remember this post? 

There was really just a smattering of color in the form of fabric and fake flowers that were inspiring me for A & B's bedroom. Whimsical really.

I could not pass up these huge daisies at Michaels at 50% off a couple of weeks ago, but we needed a vase and I really did not want to buy anything. I already hadn't purchased enough fabric with my coupon stash and had to go back to buy more for a measly 10% off. 

I do not like buying things that are not on sale. I think I inherited that from my father...

Ok, on to the tut.

So simple:

1. Raid your recycling (or someone else's!) and select a bottle.

2. Soak it in hot water to scrape curse peel the label off.

3. To get the excess gunk off from the label you can use goo gone, vegetable oil,

 or rubbing alcohol and some salt is a great little abrasive.

4. Wash the bottle very well with dish soap. 

5. Let your bottle dry all the way. 

I waited a whole day, and I lived to tell about it ;) 

6. Spray primer! 

Cover the whole bottle.

7. After your primer has dried (usually about 20 mins or so), 

spray paint your bottle your chosen color. 

In our case it is white.

8. This is the most important part: 

Put your bottle someplace safe and relatively warm and let the paint cure for at least a week. 

This will keep your paint from chipping, peeling or cracking.

**If you choose to add huge whimsical flowers, set them up in varying heights, as seen in the photo, and trim the stems with burley wire cutters. You may have to twist them slightly to get them into the bottle.

PaPaBAW!! (pom pom balls) toddler activity!

PaPaBAW!! (pom pom balls) Mr. P yells this every time that I get the pom pom balls out. I keep them in a jar and let him stick his hand into the full jar (sensory!) and pull them out. 

Keeping Mr. P in the high chair for this activity helps to contain the balls and maintain his focus. 

I love this activity, because it lasts awhile, it is educational, it's super cheap, and it doesn't have to be directly supervised if you need to buy some chore time!

As you see here, we get out multiple kitchen containers for lil man to practice sorting and use his imagination!

We are teaching him to sort by color in the silicone ice cube tray.

Just look at this concentration caught on camera!

he really loves this activity. It is fun to watch him make up different things to do, sometimes we inspire him and other times we leave him alone to create.

We purchased this pack of primary color pom poms at the Dollar store! We also got a pack of pastels to mix it up. 

Eventually we can start talking about comparisons and what colors combine to create other colors!

And sometimes the measuring cup just becomes a telephone!

**Please note that if you toddler likes to stick things in their mouth this may not be the best activity for them unless highly supervised. Mr P is not big on putting everything in his mouth, but he just had to try it once. We watched very closely as he tested one in his mouth and spit it back out- quickly! It only took one time!

If you think of any other pom pom games/activities, please let me know! These things are so versatile!

i.n.s.p.i.r.a.t.i.o.n.

My bonus daughters are here for spring break! 

We have been so excited for them to finally be here for longer for a weekend :) This allows us to have some quality time with them. This extended time also helps us prepare for the summer with them, since they are here for 9 weeks straight!

I'm sure y'all have noticed, but I have decorating A.D.D. I just can not focus on one space at a time, and those of you who can truly inspire and amaze me!

We started working on the girls' room last Christmas, they got a red wall, a new bed and a chandelier! We also installed some shelves and a desk. Now I'm back at it...

I am determined to have it finished before they are here full time for the summer!

Here is my inspiration:

I can not wait to get the ball rolling in their room again!

Like the rest of our home, their room is pretty small and we have to maximize as much space as possible for play, slumber and study. Wish me luck!! 

Do you have any tips or tricks for small bedroom storage/organization?

If so please, please inspire me!

xo

Gluten Free Playdough Time & A Winner!!

Mr. P is almost 18 months old! He is now into playing more specific things now, even if only for a few minutes. Happy Hubby is not so into play dough, so we have never really had it around for the girls, plus store bought playdoh is not gluten free!

I searched over the internet to find a recipe for Gluten Free homemade play dough and found a recipe here at the Parents magazine website!

Cut and Paste from here...

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 cup water 1 teaspoon cooking oil
• Food coloring, if desired

Directions:

Mix ingredients. Cook and stir on low heat for 3 minutes or until it forms a ball. Cool completely before storing in a sealable plastic bag.

Just a warning, it does not take long for the dough to get thick!! It gets very hard to stir, my arm was getting tired and Happy Hubby had to hop into the kitchen to help out! lol

Busy hands squeezing play dough!

Cheesy grin hidden behind play dough :)

Now that is one satisfied, sensory stimulated *almost* 18 month old!

Any other homemade gluten free goops or other sensory stimulating items I should make for Mr. P to play with?

**Congrats to Kristi Marriott who won the My Memories Suite!**

Tough night as a step mom...

I'm not too emotional on the internet. Really, I allow many things to roll off of my back. But tonight is a tough night and I need to vent. I chose to do it on my blog for two reasons, first off, I don't even know if anyone even reads what I post or even cares about what I post and second if anyone is reading, I'd like to know that there is someone out there who can either relate or mutter some words (that I'll later repeat to myself) that could guide me through future tough nights like this. The truth is, they happen about once a month.

You see, my bonus daughters come stay with us every third weekend, then we have them for 9 consecutive weeks during the summer. They live in Bend, Oregon. It's 3.5 hours to drive there and 3.5 hours to drive back from there; over the big mountain (Hood) and through the snow Dec-March/April. My amazing husband makes this drive on every third Friday after working a full day at work; he drives all the way down and brings them all the way back. They usually get home around 9:30 pm, which is pretty late for a 4 and 6 year old. We feel it is important to be a family and for them to know that we are family. So we do it. I spend most of my day on the friday that he leaves cleaning the house and preparing meals for the weekend so that we can spend most of our time together having fun. I also spend a lot of time worrying about David being in the car in those weather conditions.

Every time he picks them up the little one always throws a total fit. And his heartbreak starts all over again. They both break their daddy's heart. I hate standing by to see that. It's the same things every time that we talk to the little one about what's wrong and why she doesn't want to come to her Portland home. "You never buy us anything." And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! All of the things that I have come to despise about our modern American culture is being instilled in these two little girls who happen to (also) call me mom. They get every little thing that they ask for.

What ever happened:
To discipline?
To working for what you have?
To taking care of the things that you own?
To using your imagination to entertain yourself?

I could seriously cry. And maybe I have. a little. or maybe a lot.

We have rules in our house and we will stick to them. No matter what.

Although they are not here all the time during the year, they are here for the majority of the summer. They have a little brother who adores them. I don't want them to infuse him with the ideals that have been set by the woman they spend most of their time with. Period.

Don't get me wrong, I love them. It is very hard sometimes, and I struggle with the guilt of "do I love them enough?" But honestly, during the summer when they are at their Portland home, they have manners, they use their muscles, they do chores, dress in modest clothing, listen to actual kids' music and turn into absolutely delightful little girls.

Now, please, if you have read this rant of mine, say something. Anything that I can repeat as a mantra to get me through the next tough Friday night. It'll be here in about 3 weeks.

And if you have stuck around to read all of this, thank you. It is raw and real.

xo
Lauren