Snow Day

We woke up this morning to 8-12 inches of snow. My son told me that snow days were the days you should make cookies, so we did. 

 

We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with coconut shreds instead of walnuts (yes Mom, oatmeal cookies can be good with chocolate chips).  Since they came out of the oven they have been the only thing I am surviving on today.

 

My daughter isn't a fan of playing in the snow so once we finally got her to take a nap (sweet relief) M and I made our way outside to clear the sidewalks, throw snow balls and plan how much hot chocolate we would drink once inside.

 

There is something about a snow day, even if your kids aren't in school, that makes you slow down and enjoy getting bundled up in blankets and eating warm cookies. 

Rocketship Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated my son's birthday with a rocketship/space theme. 

 We made these cute little alien masks.

 Tried to set off some rockets but it was so cold and muddy that once we set off the two big rockets with actual engines we opted for the Stomp rocket, which was a big hit Aunt Jeanette!

 

 I love his expression when he saw these little dart guns.

We had a great time and thank you to everyone that was able to be there to help us celebrate.

Side note: this party was mostly possible because of Pinterest. Make sure to check out Pin Do Review to see my reviews, but give me a day or two to recover from the party.

Big Girl Bed

My daughter moved into her big girl bed after she figured out how to jump out of the crib this past weekend. She had been asking for one for a while so the transition was really easy.

I scored the damask comforter at Ross for $10 and the hot pink sheets were $7. I am not a huge fan of pink but she loves them and for $17 we can afford to change our mind and not feel guilty.

While we were setting up the bed and taking down the crib my son asked when he was going to get a new baby sister for the crib. We asked him if he was sure he wanted another sister and not a brother and he was sure! So sweet, but I don't foresee that in your near future buddy.

 

The only hard part is now she has access to everything in their room and she sleeps with lots of books in her bed. Here are some ideas I thought might help.

Under the Mattress Book Holder

Source: holycool.net via Nicola on Pinterest

Ikea Spice Racks

Source: wonderfuljoyahead.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Fabric Book Shelves

Source: pennycarnival.typepad.com via Sarah on Pinterest

New Chairs

So they aren't exactly "new" but they are reupholstered and monogrammed by yours truly. Here is a before and after shot.

We received our table and chairs as an engagement gift from my in-laws and at the time white padded chairs seemed so grown up and practical. Once my son came along with his sticky fingers, dirty feet and generally sloppy eating habits I knew that something was eventually going to change. Fast forward three and a half years when we are now high-chair and booster seat free and it was high time to recover these bad boys.

 I found some very inexpensive dark denim at a wholesale home decor fabric place in Northern Colorado. I think it was about $8/yard, which for home decor fabric is practical free! It was really easy to get the staples out of the chair once I had the correct tool (offset pliers). I then measured the grimy fabric and cut the denim to fit (25 inches x 25 inches). I probably could have gone even smaller (21 inches x 21 inches) because the denim stretches a lot but it doesn't really matter unless you happen to be at my house and decide to look under my chairs and see all the access fabric.

Once they were all covered I printed out the first initial of our names in Cochin font and traced them on freezer paper. Ironing them on was a little hard since there is a slight curve in the chair but it worked. I know some of you might be thinking, "Gee - I have a Silhouette machine that does that, only better!" To which I would reply, "Suck it!" (unless of course you are Silhouette representative or a craft benefactor that would like to gift me a free machine!) 

Since my edges weren't as crisp as I wanted I took a black Sharpie marker and outlined each letter. Set the fabric paint with your iron and you are done. Oh, I did one more step - I broke down and bought theses bad boys to save me from having to do this process in the near future.

The Loot

Today I went to Denver to run a work errand with my husband and he surprised me by agreeing to go to Ikea when he was done. Originally I went to have about two hours of uninterrupted crocheting time while I worked on a new pattern, but when he said we were going there I felt like I had won the lottery.

The traffic and parking were pretty nuts which I guess is to be expected the first full weekend they were open. But we found parking pretty quickly and made our way to the store. The place was jam packed but not to the point to the point of claustrophobia. I was even able to run into a best friend.

Seeing as my husband is a carpenter, he isn't impressed with the furniture but even he admitted that the accessories were nice and even some of the furniture had improved since our last trip to an Ikea (10 years ago in New Jersey).

TITTA FOLK Finger puppets - $4.99 (for our upcoming airplane trip)

TITTA DJUR Finger puppets - $4.99

2 DIGNITET - Curtain wire, stainless steel - $12.99 (one is for a shower rod and the other is for a super awesome craft project for later) 

2 DIGNITET - Curtain ring with clip, stainless steel - $4.99 (to go with above) 

SKURAR Plant pot, off-white - $3.99

2 ORÄDD Plant pot, beige - $0.49 (fo' real)

2 Chocolate bars - one milk chocolate the other hazelnut. The hazelnut was to die for, wish I bought more of those suckers.

 Isn't this beautiful? A dear friend of mine gave me a basil plant that will soon live in here.

My original goal was to find cute photo props but with so many people in the store I had a hard time taking it all in and left with a couple things for around the house.

Here are the things I am thinking about getting, either for our house or to use as photo props.

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Source: ikea.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Seriously, did that just happen?

If you walked into my house right now you might think I was canning some tomato sauce because it smells great in here. The truth is much messier. While getting out a box of mac and cheese to make for lunch my blood pressure must have dropped and my eye sight blacked out when I had my hand raised above my head reaching for the box. While I was waiting the 5 seconds for my vision to come back, I managed to drop a glass of spagetti sauce on the floor and it shattered.

Am I the only one that sees a big mess and immediately thinks to grab my camera? Such a waste of organic tomato sauce that the dog can't even help me clean up because of the glass!

Luckily the whole jar didn't shatter but enough of it did to be a pain in the dupa. This must have been magic traveling glass because it ended up in three different rooms.

Some how the jar also managed to shatter on the way down because it cut my leg on the glass before I even started to clean this disaster up.

At least my house smells like I was cooking all morning.

Sock Bun Curls

Thanks to Pintrest I have recently been inspired to try new hair styles. I have found a bunch of cute styles that are fast and look like I made a bit of effort to be presentable.

Source: None via Sarah on Pinterest

Last night I attempted the sock curl. Basically you put your dry/damp hair in a high pony tail (kinda loose) and then using a sock you roll your hair up into one big curl. I tied the two ends of the sock together and went to bed.  When I woke up I just undid the whole thing and used a little shine spray to cut done on the frizz and we were done. Mine doesn't look as amazing as that chick but I am pleased with the results.

A little bit of effort and I am rewarded with feeling better about myself and think I have a better day. Next time I might try using thinner socks and adding one or two more to see what kind of curls that creates.

My son took these pictures and I think he did a pretty good job!

Butterfly Garden Excitement

Insect Lore's Butterfly Garden has been my go-to birthday gift for the past year. I love that the gift teaches and the excitement lasts longer than one day. I finally bought one for my kiddos and its arrival was pretty exciting!

 M saw the box and knew immediately what was in it!

It was like Christmas morning. I told M that it would take a little while before they turned into butterflies to which he responded, "Yeah, it will take about 9 minutes."

This week's library books are all about butterflies in anticipation of their arrival.

Love the serious expression!

Godzilla baby wasn't so gentle and lost holding rights pretty quickly.

We are keeping a journal of their transformation and hope we can even get the butterflies to lay more eggs for us. If anyone has tried other Insect Lore products I would love to hear about them.