doorstops & bookends

A couple of weeks ago I was finally fed up with my laundry room door not staying open.  It would slowly creep forward, getting in the way of laundry baskets that were overflowing with clean clothes and the like.  Ideally, I would love to have one of those cool vintage iron doorstops to place in my laundry room. Since none were readily at my fingertips, I needed to figure out something else to hold it open.  Problems, I tell you.

After a quick think-through, I realized that one of the bigger sized river rocks in our backyard would be perfect.  But, a little ugly...and hard.

With a little hot glue and yarn - ta da!  A doorstop!  I love the texture and design that the yarn adds.  Now my laundry room door stays open perfectly.

Perfectly enough for me to see all the laundry that needs to be folded and put away.

 {Working it's magic on my laundry room floor.}

Another area that I've been working on is organizing the girls' room trying to combine the interests, toys and books of a seven year old and a two year old.  Not an easy task, I tell you.  One of the spots we needed some help with was the big bookshelf that holds loads of books.  It is open-sided, so the books had a tendency to fall off and onto the ground.  We needed some bookends.

Taking the same idea from the yarn doorstop, I decided to cover up more rocks and turn them into bookends.  Perfect!

{Holding together some favorite books.}

I love quick and easy projects that use supplies I already have on hand.  

Rock. 

Yarn.  

Hot glue. 

Done. 

Fall Spruce Up

When the air gets crisp in the morning and the leaves begin to hint at changing colors, I always want to dig in and get things straightened up and squared away for the fast approaching fall and winter season.  One of the biggest spaces that needs some TLC in our home is my wee studio.

I love that it has a glass door that I can close to  keep the clutter at bay.  However, it is desperately time to sort, clean, and organize.  For me, a clean space is much-needed in order to design and create.  If I've got a mess in front of me, it zaps and overwhelms any creativity. I have so many ideas bopping around in my head, that I definitely need this space to be cleaned so I can get started!

I am so thankful for my space, but it is teeny-tiny.  So, I always have my eye out for sweet studio spaces to be inspired by.

{I love this studio from Little Pincushion Studio}

{Great backyard studio!  From The Adventures of Tartanscot}

{Look at that organization and color.  Amazing!  From Everything Etsy}

{I envy the light in this painting studio.  My studio is void of windows, and I daily think about adding skylights...something, anything for natural light!  Image from via Pinterest}

{The amazing Anna Maria Horner's studio space. Perfect.}

Alright, I'm inspired.  Is there a studio space that you desire?  Where do you create?  Kitchen table, closet, garage?  

egg paint

 One of my summer goals to do with my kids are art projects.  I hope to expose them to a variety of mediums and allow them the freedom to create their own masterpieces.  My original intent is to do two projects a week with my big kids (ages seven and five) while their little sister takes a nap.  So far, during this first week of summer, I've managed to do one.  Time to step it up!

This first one was a lot of fun.  They got to learn a little about the Italian artist, Giotto, and the process that many artists had to go through to create their own paint.  We talked about how easy it is for us today to go to the store and pick out what kind of paint and what color of paint we want.  Artists in the past had to use berries, minerals and even bugs (my 5 year old son especially liked this fact) to create their paints.

We collected our colored sidewalk chalk and went to work making our own paint.  They used rocks to pound and grind down the chalk into a fine powder.  Through this they realized how hard it was to create paint and how precious it was back then.  

After the chalk was ground into a powder, we separated out an egg yolk, mixed it with a little water and then stirred a few drops of the egg mixture into each color of powdered chalk.

They got straight away to working on their masterpieces.  I loved seeing how each of them went about it.  My five year old immediately dipped his brush in and began on a truck.  My seven year old daughter on the other hand, had to think about it for a bit, and then got a pencil and sketched her work first before she began painting.

The end result!  One of the fun facts they learned about painting with egg tempura is that Giotto's works have lasted over 700 years - maybe Q.'s truck will be around that long.

there is a fairy for that

Did you know there is such a thing as a Binky Fairy?  Neither did I until my clever neighbor told me.  We have a certain two and a half year old who lives in our house that still enjoys a nighttime binky.  Or paci, Nuk, sucky, - whatever slang you feel like using.

So after lots of days of talking about giving all the binkies to the babies who need them, we gathered up all of the binkies and put them in a box.  Little two and a half year old, P., and big seven year old sis D. then wrapped the box up to leave by the front door for the Binky Fairy.

And, what do you know?  This morning in the same spot the Binky Fairy left a present.  Just for P.  Amazing.

I wonder if there is a Bad Behavior Fairy?  Gather up all our bad behavior and put it into a box...in the morning...*poof!*....we all act good as gold.  Wishful thinking, I guess.

Suds

With all the hand washing that I find myself doing as a mom, my dry-skin-prone hands really take a beating.  I'm trying to do a better job of using high quality soaps and slathering my hands with super moisturizing lotions during the day.  I found these great soaps a while back, and absolutely love them.  Their soft, sudsy lather makes my endless hand-washing more bearable.  

And, their great scents don't hurt either.

{Paintbox Soapworks}

Don't you love these little paint box inspired packaging?  The mini soaps make great gifts, and the larger sized soaps last for months.    

anticipating berries

I'm so happy that the weather by us has finally started to warm up and treat us like it actually likes us.  We were starting to wonder.  The past couple of days the flowers have begun to bloom more freely, the leaves are growing rapidly on the trees, and the kids have dug down deep in their drawers to find any shorts that still fit (not very successfully, I'm afraid).  Ahh, Spring.  A little late, but we'll definitely take it.

"Strawberries are the angels of the earth, innocent and sweet with green leafy wings reaching heavenward."  Terri Guillemets

I'm determined to grow a bigger and better garden this year.  That is not saying much, compared to years past, but nonetheless - it's a goal!  These little berries are doing fine and we even have some little growing berries tucked underneath the leaves now.  Yay!

cool like that. in iceland.

I can't get enough of this song.  

It gets played over and over on my runs.  I play it loudly in the kitchen when I'm making dinner (mainly to drown out the kids yelling - it works!). I listen to it on repeat in my tiny little studio.  

Heart, heart.  Love, love.

Don't you just adore it?  Happiness should now be oozing through your fingertips - hey!

I'm off to toss some clothes in a bag for a sweet little weekend away with some old, dear friends....right after I listen to this song.  Again.