Bianca's Winter One-derland First Birthday

Well it's official, Bianca is 1 year old! I don't think it has actually sunk in that she is now a toddler and not a baby. I no longer have a baby and a toddler, but a toddler and a preschooler. Ugh, I'm so old! haha

I decided on a winter one-derland theme because it was super cute, and I knew I could do it on the cheap! As soon as the Christmas decorations were out at Dollarama I was scouring the shelves for all the ornaments that were white, pink, silver and snowy. I found a ton of great things, and when I combined that with what I could make, the result was awesome. John hung a few lengths of fishing ling across the ceiling in the living room, then attached all the ornaments to those lines using more fishing line to make them look suspended. I also strung some cotton balls on lengths of fishing line to look like snow. I made the giant snowflakes with cardstock. I actually learnt how to make them in grade 3, but luckily Pinterest was kind enough to provide me with a refresher. Of course no first birthday is complete without all of the monthly photos that I meticulously took, displayer for everyone to see!

In the entry to the kitchen from the living room, John hung another length of fishing line and suspended some of our white Christmas bobbles on it along with some honey comb balls. In the kitchen, we hung bobbles, snowflakes, tissue puffs and honey comb balls from the light fixture to act as a centrepiece. You can find tissue puffs and honey comb balls at party supply stores, OR, you can save yourself a ton of cash and make them yourself! I make these same puffs for pretty much every party I ever have and they are super easy. This was the first time I made the honeycomb balls and it was actually super easy.

Onto the food table! Bianca's birthday was from 10am-12pm so we just had some snack items. Buns, cold cuts, cheese, pickles, veggies with dip, fruit pizza, iced tea and melted snowflake water. For some added fun I put together a hot chocolate bar complete with all the toppings you could want in your cocoa! Candy canes, caramels, mini marshmallows and freshly whipped cream! I also jazzed up the to-go cups with some corrugated paper and a "1" medallion. We had a good amount of food left over, but I'd rather have extra than not enough!

After the kids had some time to run around and play, and the adults had some time to visit, it was time to open presents. If you remember from Roman's 3rd birthday, I've started to go the "no gift" route with birthdays, but since it's Bianca's first I thought she should have the chance to open some gifts. Not that she really opened them anyway, but Roman was there to help with that part.

Of course after presents comes cake! This cake was an experiment of sorts. A new cake recipe, a new icing recipe that I used for filling and a new piping technique. A first birthday probably isn't the best time to test new recipes but it turned out delicious! This is a chocolate chip cookie dough cake, filled with brown sugar buttercream and decorated with vanilla buttercream. It was soooo delicious! If you've read the post about Bianca's smash cake then you'll recognize the flowers and the snowflakes from that cake. If you'd be interested in seeing a post, or maybe a video, on how I decorate some of the cakes I make, comment below and if there is enough interest I'll give it a shot!

Bianca LOVED the cake! I mean, she is my daughter after all so I'm not surprised. I was however a little surprised that she dove in head first. Again, not surprised by the giant mess she made. I have to give all the props to John for the highchair decorations. I totally left this to the last minute and didn't have anything planned, and he banged this out in no time flat!

Even after looking at all these pictures, I still can't believe my little girl is already 1. How did this happen?! We're so thankful to everyone that joined us in celebrating Bianca's special day. The best part of putting together parties like this is enjoying them with our friends and family. Happy Birthday Bianca, I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!

3 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids

Roman has always enjoyed crafting but he seems to go into overdrive during the holidays. I'm not sure if seeing his crafts from past years hanging on the tree makes him want to create more things, or if he just sees me working on different things and he wants in.

Our prime crafting time is first thing in the morning when Bianca has her morning nap. We only have about an hour at the most so I try to pick quick and easy crafts that we can finish in that time. If I can make them with supplies I have on hand or from the dollar store all the better!

Toilet Paper Roll Gingerbread Boy/Girl
Materials
Toilet Paper roll
Craft paper (brown, black & red)
Craft glue
Sequins
Scissors
Pinking scissors
Marker

So maybe this little guy doesn't look exactly the way I would have made him, but Roman really enjoyed creating him. First we cut his head from some scrap booking paper (construction paper would work just fine) and Roman drew him a lovely face. Then we cut his arms and legs from the same paper and folded them accordion style. Then we attached them to the toilet paper roll using craft glue. I cut out some hands and feet from black shoes and Roman glued them on. Using a pinking scissor, I cut a red strip to wrap around the middle of his body. To finish him off we attached the red paper as well as some sequin buttons using the craft glue.

For bedtime on this day we read The Gingerbread Man story for bedtime and Roman thought it was pretty cool that his gingerbread man ad a story written about him!

Laminated Ornaments
Material
Card stock
Tissue paper (any colors you like)
Scissors
Laminator and laminating pouches

Yet another use for this amazing little machine! John was at home the morning we made these and even he enjoyed it!

I printed off these ornament templates on card stock, cut them out, and cut out the centre as well. I placed the template in the middle of a laminating pouch. Then it was time for the fun part! Well, fun for Roman, face-palm moment for John and I; ripping the tissue paper. Once the tissue was sufficiently shredded, we arranged the pieces inside the ornament and ran it through the laminator. A quick trim around the outside and we have some beautiful, sun-catching decorations for the window!

Egg Carton Bell
Materials
Egg carton
Paint
Paintbrush
6" Pipe cleaner
2 bells jingle bells
Ribbon

I separated a single bump out of the carton and Roman gave it a good coat of yellow paint. Once it was dry I poked two tiny holes in the top of the bell. Roman strung the two bells on to the pipe cleaner and slid them into the centre. We fed the ends of the pipe cleaner through the holes from the bottom of the bell, and twisted them together  on the other side. To finish it off I tied a bow with the ribbon at the bottom of the look against the top of the bell.

Marshmallow Christmas Tree

When it comes to Christmas decorations I have a bit of an affinity for trees. I have quite the collection going on top of our entertainment stand where we have our Christmas village that my mom sewed for us. I've purchased a couple cute ones but I like the idea of making my own. Mostly because I like inexpensive Christmas decorations and partly because I like having decorations that not everyone has in their homes. A few years ago I made a set of foam trees. With being extremely pregnant last year (and exhausted) I took a hiatus from the trees, but Roman and I are back at it this year!

Roman loves making crafts and usually requests to do it while Bianca is taking her morning nap. You'd think by now I could prepare for this kind of thing but I haven't. I have these grand plans of having everything prepped and ready to go for a craft each week but it just doesn't happen. I remembered this marshmallow ornament I had made in grade 1 or 2. I was sure I had all the supplies, but alas, I did not. In this moment, the idea of this tree was born!

Materials
Styrofoam tree form
Mini marshmallows
Sequins
Craft glue

Run a line of glue around the base of the tree form and press on each marshmallow. Alternatively you can put the glue directly on to each marshmallow. I found that running the line of glue worked better when working with a 3 year old. You'll want to stagger the rows as you continue up the tree, just to make sure you cover all, or as much as possible, of the tree form.

We let our completed tree sit for a couple hours for the glue to completely dry before we started attaching the sequins. I dabbed a small amount of craft glue onto each marshmallow and Roman stuck a sequin on top of the glue. With Roman in charge of sequins some and right side up and some aren't, and sometimes there was ever 2-4 stuck together on top of the marshmallow. We also went for a random color pattern. Not that there is really an option when you're working with kids.

In the original ornament I made when I was little we used pins, beads and sequins to hold the marshmallows to a Styrofoam ball. If you're working with older kids or doing this on your own (you lucky devil), you could use the same method on the tree and it would be that much more secure. If you have that odd ball marshmallow that just won't stick, try a bit of hot glue. I gave it a go, and other than melting a small portion of one side of the marshmallow, it did the trick.

I'd love to see how your tree or ornament turns out! Post a picture in the comments of your creation!!

Home Preschool - November 2016

I don't know how it's possible, but I think October went by faster than summer did. I swear I just finished writing the October post and now I'm working on the November post. I'm so not ready for this! So not ready in fact that as I'm looking at the things to include it occurs to me that I have done zero prep for this month. None. Nadda. I really need to get my butt in gear! First, an update on how October's activities went!

I have to be honest and tell you that we didn't get to all the activities I had planned. Between all the activities Roman and Bianca do during the week, getting ready for Halloween, and starting to plan for Christmas and Christmas presents, we just didn't have the time. There were also days that Roman just wasn't interested in the activities, or wanted to continue on with an activity from the week before. A prime example of this was the moon dough. I swear Roman played with this stuff at least once a day for a week, and my poor white (now grey-ish) table can attest to that. The only advice I have for this dough is to only add a tiny amount of paint. The instructions say to add paint to the baking soda and then water. I wasn't sure how much to add so I gave it 3 big squirts. Bad idea. Roman was black, the table was/is black, and even the toys he used in it are stained black. Food coloring definitely would have made things worse so I am glad I used the paint. Overall a very successful activity that I highly recommend you try.

If you're looking for a quick activity to burn a few minutes, Roman really enjoyed the Apple Tree ABC. I printed out a few trees; upper case letters, lower case letter, and numbers. Roman loves stickers so this was right up his alley. Roman had a hard time a first when there were so many letters to choose from, but once he eliminated a few he really started to have fun. If I did this again I maybe wouldn't do then entire alphabet but choose a handful of letters and just repeat them.

We also made the pop up ghost craft, which Roman LOVED, and we started the Eyeball Topiary but didn't quite get it finished. The styrofoam balls I picked up from Dollarama didn't take the paint very well and will require a few coats to get them covered well. Roman quacking grew tired of painting the same balls several times, so we abandoned the project and I'll finish it up eventually. For now, it will sit in the "half finished" pile in my craft room.

So now for November! I'm a little overwhelmed just looking at my list of things that I planned on doing and thinking of when/how I'm going to get these things done. I think it's important to be flexible with your home preschool plan. In my case it isn't necessarily "preschool" more just a list of preschool type activities to entertain Roman on the days that we don't have other activities going. I think I get myself into a bind sometimes when I think to myself that these things "need" to get done. The reality is they don't and they are supposed to be fun!

1st-5th: Chicken dramatic play, Grow your own geodes
6th-12th: Cupcake liner poppy craft, Animal track painting
13th-19th: Muddy pigs, Ocean clip cards
20th-26th: Pumpkin spice latte playdough, Matching color wheel
27th-30th: Felt button chain busy bag

There are so many fun things planned! It's fun to look at these plans and see what's coming up. Because I planned it so long ago it's like a surprise even to me every month! I think Roman will love muddy pigs and I'm particularly excited for the pumpkin spice late playdough!

Bianca's Baptism

The time finally came to have our baby girl baptized! The baptism itself was a small ceremony for just our family. Bianca worse the same gown Roman did when he was baptized. If you haven't read that post, this gown is actually made from my wedding dress. Apparently back in the day it was tradition to use the mom's wedding dress to make the baptism gown for the kids, but I had never heard of it until my dad mentioned it to me. Bianca's headband is one that I made for her to match the flowers I used in the table centre piece for the after party. Is it called an after party?

As soon as the ceremony was over Roman started trying to blow out the "happy birthday candles" from the pews. The Father was nice enough to let Roman blow out the candles, which I'm pretty sure was the highlight of his morning.

I felt a little guilty that Bianca's party wasn't as elaborate, and didn't have as many guests as Roman's did, but I actually like the way it all came together. Who says a small family get together can't be pretty and special! I'm not sure what brought on the peony theme, but once I had my heart set on it I had to make it happen. I picked up some faux peonies, burlap ribbon and pearls from Gale's Wholesale to make the centre piece for the table. I painted one of the many mason jars I have floating around the house pink and wrapped it with the ribbon and then the pearls. I had some pink and white glittered tissue paper and twine on hand, so I decided to make some tissue paper garlands for the window and Bianca's highchair. I think I'm going to hang the longer window garland over Bianca's bed to make her room look a little more girly.

B thought her garland was delicious, but not quite as delicious as her lunch! We had a pretty basic lunch of meat, cheese, buns, pickles and veggies. I realized after we started setting the table that I forgot to run the dishwasher so I didn't have enough plates for everyone. Next problem, rounding up some paper plates. Turns out we did have some on hand. However, the were leftover from Roman's construction party *face palm*. So I thought it would be fun to post a picture of how I staged the table for the pictures and how it actually looked when we sat down to eat.

Of course, no party is complete without cake! Or cupcakes in this case! I knew I wanted to do something super girly and fun for Bianca's cupcakes because I haven't made a girly cake in forever! I'm well versed in the cool boy cakes but I really miss making pretty things. So I decided to give buttercream peonies a shot. I found this video on YouTube to brush up on how to do it, then headed into the basement to find my tools. Then when the kids when down for a nap one day, I sat down with my bowl of buttercream and started piping. The first few were pretty rough and went straight into my mouth, but then I got the hang of it. I also realized that I didn't have to eat the messed up flowers and could just scrap them back into the bowl. I'm super pleased with how they turned out!

Normally I save the first cupcake for the kids' birthday but we decided to make an exception for B. Well, turns out Bianca is my daughter in more way than one. She was slightly confused by the strangely shaped food at first, but after I touched it to her lips, it was game on. She grabbed on to that cupcake and devoured it like a champ. It's proud moments like this that make me tear up a bit *tear*

All in all it was a fantastic day celebrating our amazing little girl. Now just three more months to prepare for her first birthday!

Home Preschool - October 2016

We're are officially into fall, my favorite time of year!!! There isn't anything I don't love about this season; the temperature, the colors, the smells and the holidays. In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in the first part of October, which makes October a busy month. I struggled a bit when planning this month's activities because I want to do it all but there just isn't enough time!! There needs to be a solid month between holidays so we have time to do all the things!! Before I get into the plan for October, I want to touch on some of the activities Roman enjoyed the most from September.

By far Roman's favorite activities were the exploding paint bags and the dramatic play: spaghetti shop. The paint bag's didn't actually explode, more like popped and oozed, but Roman didn't mind at all. He jump on top of them to send the paint flying, which he thought was much more fun. The neighbors however probably were not thrilled since we were doing it outside at 8am on a Saturday morning. This is why I give them holiday gifts haha. I couldn't find powder tempera paint so I just squirted some regular craft paint into a sandwich bag of vinegar, added a big scoop of baking soda, seal it, and ran!

The spaghetti shop was a whole other can of worms. Roman LOVED it. In fact the spaghetti is still sitting in the fridge three days later because he keeps pulling it out to play with. I'll probably toss it tonight and if he wants to play again we can cook up some more. That's the great part of this activity; it's SO inexpensive! We haven't tried the activities from the last week of September yet, since it's only the 27th, but I have a feeling Roman is going to love them.

Now for October!

October 1st-8th - Chocolate dipped krispie treat turkey pops, Toilet paper roll turkey &
                             Apple tree ABC match
October 9th-15th - Halloween eyeball topiary & Moon Dough
October 16th-22nd - Fall pretend play, Baking soda & vinegar reactions & Peek-a-boo ghost
October 23rd-31st - Bubble science with pumpkins, Spider web fine motor activity &
                                 Simple scissor practice

I'm excited for all of these activities, but especially the krispie treats and the eyeball topiary. While I think Roman will enjoy those, I know for a fact he will love the baking soda reactions, moon dough, and bubble science with pumpkins. We were at Superstore the other day and they already have pumpkins out. I've never seen anyone so excited. He wanted a treat (as I feel all kids do), but this time he requested his treat be a pumpkin so he can cook it and eat it. Yup, he's my child!

Baby Food Jar Turkeys

I love Thanksgiving and all the food that comes with it, but it's often a holiday that has been overlooked as far as decorating and crafts in past years. Well, overlooked no longer! I was bound and determined to make some Thanksgiving crafts this year. How is that working out for me? Well, so far this is the only craft we've done and Thanksgiving is a week away. Oie, best laid plans right? In my defence I am getting ready for Thanksgiving and Bianca's upcoming baptism, while looking after two kids and running this blog. Don't make excuses, make a schedule! At least, that's what I tell myself....

I came across a picture of these cute little turkeys on Pinterest, and I knew I had a few baby food jars in the basement I'd been saving, so it was a perfect fit. It was also super quick and easy to do. In fact, we whipped these bad boys up in under an hour! Also, can we talk about why the plural version of turkey is turkeys and not turkies? Why do you taunt us English language, why!!!!!!!!

Baby Food Jar Turkeys
baby food jar
modge podge
foam paint brush
glitter (brown/orange/red/yellow)
googly eyes
construction paper (brown/orange/red/yellow)
hot glue/white glue

Apply a thin layer of modge podge to the inside of the baby food jar, making sure to cover the entire surface or you'll end up with a splotchy turkey. Pour a good amount of glitter into the jar and tightly seal the lid. Shake the jar so the glitter evenly covers the entire surface. Roman loved this part the most. If you have excess glitter inside the jar, you can pour it onto a creased piece of paper and pour it back into your glitter container.

For the turkey's tail feathers (shake your tail feather!), John traced Roman's hand onto three different colors of construction paper. You can have as many or as few handprints for your turkey's tail, but I think three is the minimum you'd want. Next, we cut them out and hot glued them onto the back of the turkey. **TIP- most jars will have a spot where glue from the label is stuck to the jar. Use this as the back of the jar as the handprints will cover it up. Lastly I cut out a beak and a gobble and hot glued them, along with the googly eyes, onto the front of the turkey. You could use white glue to attach the elements, but I don't have the patience to wait for it to dry.

Let the turkey sit with the lid of the jar off to allow the modge podge to completely dry, otherwise your turkey will forever have a white-cast, as though he applied a little too much sunscreen. If you aren't a fan of the color of your baby food jar's lid, you could totally give it a quick coat of paint to make it brown or red. I had planed on doing that, but the green didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

 

These little turkeys are definitely a Pinterest win! I would have loved to make one turkey with Bianca's handprints, but let's be real, getting her to sit that long with her hand flat would be nearly impossible; maybe next year. I think these will be decorations that we look forward to setting out each year and watching how the size of the hands change over time. Not to mention that fact that we finally have Thanksgiving decorations! Mom win!

Christmas Decorations 2014

John and I love Christmas and we love to decorate!  We put our decorations up right after Remembrance Day and they usually stay up until the middle of January, after Ukrainian Christmas.  Since it is the season of sharing I thought I'd take you for a tour of our decorations, along with the stories that go with them!

Let's start with my favorite, and probably the most important decoration, the tree!  I prefer an artificial tree because you can use it year after year and it doesn't shed needles.  Plus with 2 dogs, a cat and a toddler, I think a real tree might put me over the edge.  We picked up this amazing 9 foot, pre-lit tree from Superstore last year during their boxing week sale.  Would you believe we got this tree for only $14!!  If you are in the market for a tree I highly recommend looking later on in the boxing week sales, and checking out stores like Superstore that don't have to space to store the trees for the rest of the year.

At first I wasn't sold on the pre-lit tree, but now that we have one I love it.  This is the first year that divorce papers didn't need to be drawn up before we got the lights on the tree!  I also love that the lights are strung throughout the tree and not just on the edge of the branches.  I do kinda miss having multicolored lights but I guess you can't have everything.

I love having an eclectic mix of ornaments on a tree.  I've never been the kind of person that had a color scheme for the tree that the ornaments had to match.  Growing up Mom had all kinds of ornaments including ones that Selby and I had made.  Those are the ornaments that I think make a tree unique to the family and interesting.  A few of those ornaments have now made their way onto our tree.  Everyone has a "Baby's First" ornament, and I'm surprised mine hasn't disintegrated by now as old as it is.  The gold ornament was a gift from an aunt and Selby has one very similar to it. 

Roman's "Baby's First" ornament I picked up from a craft sale in town for his first Christmas.  I also made hand and foot impressions that year in salt dough.  It's a little crazy now to compare his hands and feet to these ornaments.  How did he get so big so fast?!  I'm sure it will just be a matter of time before our tree is full of paper snowflakes (like Grandma's) and marshmallow balls (like Mom's) and I really can't wait for that day!

Even the pets have made the tree!  I ordered these ornaments from Etsy over the years as our little fur family has grown.  When I ordered the ornament with Casper on it (our late puppy) I ordered one for each member of our family so we would all have Casper on our tree.  Casper was an amazing dog and he definitely deserves the honor of being placed on the tree.  Actually, Mom has two Casper ornaments!  Unfortunately the lady no longer makes the ornaments or I would have her make one of Roman.  I might have to send her a message and see if I can convince her!

Last year during the boxing week sales, Mom and I hit up a couple stores to find some good deals and I came home with a few things.  I don't normally shop at Pier1 because it can be very expensive, but boxing week is the perfect time to go!  I found a handful of beautiful ornaments for a fraction of the cost.  When I find unique items I like to pick up just one to give the tree some interest.  *TIP - when buying ornaments for a tree you want to buy 1 or in groups of 3.  This will give your tree a nice balance.

I came across these adorable clip on birds at Michael's during that same shopping trip last year.  My Mom made ornaments years and years ago from clothes pins and tiny bears and these birds reminded me of them.  The other day I came across these beautiful pine cones at Superstore when they were setting out the decorations so I just had to pick up three of them.  The rest of the ornaments were from a $25 bundle pack from Costco to help fill in the bare spots since we recently cleared out some of the more tattered/ugly ornaments that made their way onto our tree.

Onto the entertainment centre!  On the very top I have the beginning of what I hope will be a forest some day.  For now if consists of a few foam trees that I made this year and a silver tree I picked up on sale at Canadian Tire years ago.  This thing loses so much litter every year that I'm actually surprised there is any left on it.  I also have my little light up reindeer and penguin on the top shelf.  These guys are from an Avon catalogue years ago, and the only work sporadically, but they are cute none the less!

Now the nut family is actually out all year long but it does remind me of Christmas.  When Selby and I were younger we would play a game at our grandparent's house called hide the thimble.  Basically one of us would hide a thimble in the house and the other would have to find it.  You might think this would be an impossible game but it was actually extremely easy.  Why?  Because we ALWAYS hid the thimble on the walnut's hat!  We played this game all year round but something about my grandparent's makes me think of Christmas.

These three amigos used to live on the air conditioning unit in our apartment and would often get their butts frozen to the unit.  I bet they think they are flying high now!  The sparkle balls I made last year when I had all the time in the world because Roman napped three times a day and couldn't crawl.  Man those were the days!

Funny story about these angels.  I actually bought these angels two years apart at a craft sale in Regina.  I must have really liked the angel because I bought the same one twice.  What are the chances of that?  I wish I could remember the name of the booth at the sale to share with you because they always had amazing things there.  I actually picked up this moose there as well.

The elf and moose standing beside the TV were part of a boxing week bundle that we picked up at Canadian Tire years ago when John was working there.  Most or the bundle was ugly (that's where most of the ornaments that got tossed came from) but these two were worth the cost of the bundles.  We used to stand them up next to the Christmas tree but that just isn't going to work anymore with Roman running around.  Luckily he hasn't touched them once yet!

Lastly we have Pingoo and his Associates.  I'm pretty sure John is the one who named these bad boys that we found at Sears, if I remember correctly.  They light up and change colors but like most things in this house the batteries are dead and I never remember to buy more.  You would think with so many toys that take batteries we would have some somewhere.  Maybe I should ask for some for Christmas...

Hanging over each of our front windows is a giant piece of candy.  This was another project I completed last year while Roman was immobile.  They are super easy and inexpensive to make and I think they look great.  I bought a disk of Styrofoam and traced the pattern on a candy piece onto the disk.  Then I painted it, wrapped it in cellophane, twisted the ends and tied it up with some ribbon.  Viola, instant giant candies!  You could even make smaller versions for your tree!  We also have window clings on the front windows but they are a little hard to take photos of so you'll just have to trust me on that one.

The last of the indoor decorations are in the hallway.  Here I decided to flank our Christmas card holder with Roman's snowflake paintings.  The card holder was another project from last year (man alive I got a lot accomplished last year!) and it was super easy.  I found the board with Santa on it at Dollarama.  I painted it and hot glued three strips of ribbon onto the back.  At Michael's I fond some mini clothes pins that I use to pin the cards to the ribbon.

Out into the cold we go to check out the outdoor decorations!  Our display is significantly large than it was last year but we are nowhere near done growing.  We want to be the Griswolds of Moose Jaw!  John and I picked up the bow on the gate from Canadian Tire to hang from our balcony when we lived in our apartment.  We didn't really have a great place for it here so the gate is where it got stuck.  The tree silhouette was a boxing week find at Wal Mart last year.  It has a stand that allows it to sit anywhere but John didn't think it would stand up to our crazy Saskatchewan winds so we wired it to the fence to make sure we weren't retrieving it out of the neighbors yard every other day.

I actually found these cute little devils at a garage sale!  The snowman had never been taken out of the box and the penguin was only used inside.  At $5 for the pair, how do you go wrong?  The only downside is that because they are on the smaller side they tend to get stuck in the snow when the wind packs it on top of them.  Not a big deal though.  I just wanted out there and dig him out.  Roman usually gets a kick out of it.  We had the carousel last year and I was excited to see it again this year.  Unfortunately it stopped working half way through the winter last year.  I'm sure there is some way to fix it, I just haven't put that much effort into it yet.

You are seeing clearly.  We have a Christmas tree in our front yard!  This is actually the tree we used to have in our house, and the tree my Mom had for years before that.  This time we strung it with outdoor lights and zip tied the lights and ornaments to the tree.  John roped it down on two sides and it doesn't move an inch in the wind.  A house down the street from us had a tree in their yard last year so I can't take the credit for this idea.  What a great way to re-purpose an old tree!

I purchased the white wreath at a wholesale craft store last year and used twist ties to attach the ornaments and bow to it.  This year the bow broke, it was from Dollarama and I'm impressed it lasted one winter, so John just zip tied it on while he was hanging it.  The candy canes also came from the wholesale crafts store.  To stick them into the ground, John ground down some 12" spikes, heated them in the oven, and stuck them into the bottom of the candy canes.  Once the spikes were in the candy canes he just pushed them into the ground.  Not only do they tie the driveway into the rest of the yard but they make navigating the driveway in deep snow a piece of cake!

So that's the tour!  I hope you enjoyed seeing our Christmas decorations and maybe it will inspire your own display!  This is the time of year to spread kindness and cheer and restore our faith in humanity (at least it is for me).  John, Roman and myself would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy whatever you celebrate!

Craft Room Makeover

I have been waiting for this moment since we first bought our house over a year ago!  It's been sitting on the back burner since the upstairs and Roman's spaces obviously take priority over my creative lair.  Now that Roman is a little older and a lot more independent I decided it was time to get this party started!

This room has sat unused with piles of stuff everywhere since we moved in.  Once in awhile things get moved around when I need something, and the piles have slightly grown with added projects and supplies.  Roman loves doing crafts and I'd love to be able to find all of my supplies to come up with little projects for him instead of buying more stuff every time I come up with an idea.  I of course have to admit my selfishness in wanting a space where I can work on quilting, scrap booking (I'm still working on my class Europe trip from 2004), and any other fun projects I dream up,  Plus I think John has had enough of me hauling supplies onto the kitchen table.  I'm actually surprised he's lasted as many years with all my craft stuff as he has.

The room was pretty bare bones when we moved in.  The closet basically didn't exist and the color of the walls was an institutional grey - I swore I had a before photo of this room but it seems to have evaded me.  Like every other room in the house all the trim and baseboards are missing and that is a project we are going to tackle once we replace/install flooring throughout the house, or at least level by level. The carpet, while not something we would have chosen, is fairly new and in great shape, so the green monster is here to stay!

This is the one room in the house that I feel like I can stamp "GIRL!!" with a big rubber stamp so I knew I wanted a girly color for the walls.  I had originally tried to pick something that would pair nicely with the carpet, but with a house full of boys, blue, grey and green walls, I decided that just wasn't going to do.  I threw all design logic out the window and went with hot pink!  Anyone that knows me was probably a little shocked when they saw the color choice because I am not a pink girl, but I wanted a happy color that would inspire me.  Because the room is in the basement I decided to paint 3 walls white and use the pink as an accent wall.  Our basement is full of these little bulk heads that enclose the heating ducts, and while most people would be annoyed with them I actually love them!  To me they feel like beams and I knew that I wanted to accentuate the bulk head instead of trying to hide it.  What better way the accentuate it than slathering a coat of hot pink on it?  I used this same technique in our basement living room and loved the way it turned out so I just had to replicate it here.  This paint job took a whopping 4-5 months.  Not because the paint was horrible or we ran into problems, but solely because I got busy with Roman and this room was abandoned. 

Fast forward to present day and I need storage, and lots of it!  As you can tell from the piles all over the room, I have a lot of crafting and party supplies.  Probably way more than any one person needs, and I might be considered a hoarder to some, but I'm okay with it.  I decided to re-purpose a couple storage cubes that we already had in the house and turn them into a desk.  I found this idea on Pinterest, and as soon as I saw the pin I knew I could make it happen.  One cube was sitting in storage while the other was being used as a dresser of sorts for Roman.  Now that Roman has his own dresser that I revamped for him, I decided to nab his cube.  I purchased a table top from IKEA when we were visiting Trellyn and her family in Alberta (IKEA you NEED to come to Saskatchewan!!!).  John sunk a few screws into the table top and voila, a craft table for around $100.  It may seem like a lot but look at all the awesome storage!

 

On top of the desk I have two lazy susans, one for scissors and one for pens, glue and other random stuff.  I also have a basket that houses my one true love when it comes crafting, my glue gun.  There is nothing you cannot do with a glue gun in hand!  The wireless speaker from out kitchen has also made it's way onto the table right beside one of our wedding favor glasses filled with the pheasant feathers from my wedding bouquet.  One of these days I will find a project worthy of these feathers!  The Roman (the group of people, not the kid) looking vase was a score from Value Village that I plan on doing something to soon.  In the mean time I popped a few flowers in it.  The smaller ones are actually made from wire and almost a stocking material.  They are super cool and I love them, plus they are from my first trip to Toronto to visit John! Aww....

I positioned the table in the centre of the room because I've always wanted a desk in the centre of the room (I'm not sure where that strange desire comes from), and it will make cutting and moving fabric for quilting much easier.  Where ever you decide to place your table take into account where your light is coming from and where you will be sitting.  If the light is behind where you sit, you will always have a shadow where you are working which can be extremely frustrating.  The lighting isn't the best in this room, again because it's in the basement, so I knew I wanted to have a light on my work table to cut down on the shadows even more.  To avoid extension cords running across the floor for Roman to grab onto, I decided to run the cord up the wall and through the t-bar ceiling and then down onto my table.  Let's hope this keeps Roman from ripping the pretty lamp from Wal-Mart off the table.  I found this super comfy stool at Home Depot and I really like the way the black chair anchors the table.

The next adventure was the closet storage system.  I purchased this Closet Maid kit (plus a few extra pieces) from Lowes for $200 which was a great deal!  I compared prices at Home Depot, and to purchase a similar system piece by piece would have cost nearly $300!  I have never in my life installed something like this but I figured it couldn't be too hard.  Boy was I wrong.  Granted I think it was more the materials I was provided with that caused the problems and not my building competency.  Luckily John came to my rescue and solved all my problems.  The top rail is secured to the drywall with butterfly anchors and each vertical rail has two screws anchored into the drywall as well, making it nearly bomb proof or at least hopefully toddler proof!  I also picked up this neat hanging basket which adds more storage without needing to add more holes to the wall.  Plus I can move it around depending on where it will work best.  Most of the plastic storage stands I either already had or I inherited when Mom cleaned out her craft room.  Hey, if these are the things people are getting rid of I will gladly take them!

No makeover, or any project for that matter, would be complete in my house without something from the dollar store.  All of the bins, baskets and tubs are from Dollar Giant or Dollarama.  The super cute black tiles hanging on the wall are also from Dallarama.  Art for $6, why not?!  The paper lanterns I originally purchased second hand for our wedding.  I made sure to keep a few after the wedding because I knew I wanted to hang them in our house some day.  Now that I have my very own space, I can't wait to get down to business and create some amazing things!