Upgrades!

I found the baskets at Shopko for $7.99 each.  I thought that was a great price (though 6 at once does add up, even if they are on clearance...).  The big white bins on the bottom two shelves used to be in my bathroom closet.  The basket on the top left used to be like wood color.  Hello, spray paint! :)  It's lined with a pillow sham cover for my bed set and filled with yarn.

I used empty mason jars to make my ribbon pretty.  I heart it.  ;)  The basket to the left holds all my most used sewing supplies.

I saved Matthew's baby food jars, boiled them to get the labels off (and to you know, get 'em really clean) and then I spray painted the lids and put all my buttons in them.  The basket to the left has my works in progress: the quiet book pages I've still yet to assemble, the advent calendar from Christmas that I still need to decorate and some bits & bobs I've been saving to scrapbook.

the shelf below the button jars is all my scrap book paper and two books I'm currently (never) working on.  Below that is another basket of my fabric stash and the supplies for the baby book club crafts.  the bottom big basket is misc crap - embroidery hoops, empty wreath forms and just random junk.

those red baskets in the hutch were from the dollar store!  all my hot glue sticks are in the white vase on top and extra glass jars hold some clothes pins.  the baskets have some felt and then just some miscellaneous stuff I don't know what to do with ;)

the shelf below that is the boys baby books, 3 boxes of photos that I'm currently (never) scrapping and my (never used anymore) Cricut.  The drawers underneath hold my cartridges, stamps, Cricut mats, paper scraps, and more kid craft supplies in the bottom drawer (finger paints, puffy sticker letters, foam sheets, fake gem thingies).

I made the beach sign!  double heart!!  ;)

the red photo boxes below are actually spray painted.  they used to have floral prints - one was hot pink & multicolored flowers and the other was purple flowers.  photo albums and extra books are in the bins on the top shelf and shelf below.  the baskets below those two shelves are all full of Ben's toys - legos, Thomas trains & tracks & stuffed animals.

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Random Friday.

Ben starts preschool on Monday and I'm so excited for him to go!  It's a little on the spendy side for an optional thing, so I hope we can keep affording to send him.  They bill weekly but I went ahead and paid for the rest of September.  I chose the preschool he's attending simply for these reasons:

• I know where it was & I know the owner (sort of)
• When I called, they were friendly, spoke good English (I tried a daycare with in walking distance of our house to see about just a few days a week, a few hours a day and the lady who answered didn't understand what I was asking and gave me an answer that made absolutely no sense) and had the flexibility in the hours I wanted
• They're reasonably priced

He'll go 3 days a week for a few hours a day - his schedule is Monday, Wednesday & Friday.  I can drop him off any time after 7 am (but class curriculum starts at 9, so he needs to be there no later than 9) and have to pick him up no later than 12:15.  They'll serve him a snack and lunch - he'll get to play, to learn and to grow.  I'm so excited even if I feel a little silly sending him.  It's not a "needs" to go thing - I'm a stay at home mom and am completely able of helping him with all the things he'll learn at preschool - it's the experience I think he needs, rather than the actual learning, if you get what I'm saying.

This means no more Tumble Time, which bums me out.  He really loved going to Tumble Time and I liked taking him.  He's been in some sort of gymnastics program (either at the Little Gym or TT) since he was 5 months old.  It feels odd not to go each week and I'll miss our friends there.  I considered moving him from his Wednesday class to either Tuesday or Thursday but my pocketbook just doesn't stretch that far.

Toddler Fashion: flap cap & rain boots

In other Ben news, I fear he is giving up his naps.  He didn't nap at all yesterday (even though he was in his crib for a good 3 & 1/2 hours) and hasn't yet fallen asleep today.  I told him today he didn't have to nap if he didn't want to (read that as: I wish you would nap, but I cannot force you to sleep) but he did have to stay in his crib until I said it was time to get out and at least rest.  I guess if he gives up the nap, there's no reason to keep the crib.  If he can just have quiet time in his room for a few hours, we can convert him to a toddler bed sooner rather than later (and talk about making the move from diapers at sleep time to completely diaper free).

***

I've never shared pictures of Matthew's room because it's still not done (picture me shooting darts at Nick with my eyes right now), but here's a small sneak peek with a project I did last night.  I followed (sort of) a tutorial I found at one of my most favorite blogs ever, A Pretty Cool Life, and made some corresponding buntings for his room.  It looks a little plain/silly now because I still need to get some more pictures & art work up to fill up the space (and maybe make another bunting - I cut way more flags but ran out of binding).

Please ignore the trim that still needs painted...

Here's how my process differed than the one Cheryl provided: my flags aren't double sided, since mine was just going to be hung on the wall & I used store bought bias tape rather than twine.

***
I've been giving a lot of thought to opening up an Etsy store but I'm not sure.  I have some ideas for some hand crafted Cricut goodies I could sell but I'm not sure how successful I'd be and I'm terrified of failure (plus, this would be failure I'd have to PAY for...) so I don't know.  There's a completely random thought for you.  Ha!

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That's all.  Happy Friday!

Gallery Wall.

Last weekend I revamped the one big wall in our living room/great room.  For the longest time ever, three things graced this wall: a stick broom thingie, a big picture of Ben & a brown barn star.

That.  Was.  It.

Since the arrival of Matthew, we had some beautiful photos done by Kim Valadez Photography and then I bought a great canvas deal from Canvas People through Plum District.  Once that bad boy showed up, I got busy redoing that wall.

I laid everything out on the floor in a nice, tidy, square pattern and made Nick hang it up.  I immediately hated it.  It didn't look good at all.  After he & Ben left for the evening, I start playing around with the arrangement.  I didn't think to take a picture of the wall before or during, so I search through a zillion photos on my computer and this is the best "before" I could come up with:

So, in addition to the boring, mostly bare wall, we had a lovely toddler sized kitchen to deal with + a toy box.  A few days prior to the gallery wall change up, I moved the kitchen out to our front room (it's gradually coming together as a play/craft space for the boys & I to share). 

With out further ado, the new wall:

Awhile back, I pinned this idea from 365 Days of Pinterest Creations (original idea found here) where she showed a simple art project using important dates in your family.  I recreated that for our wall to balance out the light colored sign on the left:

 

I love our new gallery wall.  It makes me smile every time I see it.  :)