Weekend Makes

I've lined up a whole bunch of weekend makes that incorporate something I luuuurve: black + white geometric designs. It makes me feel happy. Like things are all in order. And in the midst of a hot mess of unpacking, I need that. I'm tired, I'm cranky. I'm tired of being cranky. So here's to getting things in order around this joint! 

1 / Perhaps my love of all things black + white geometric stem from these New York gems. My favorite. 

2 / The kids are very into decorating their rooms and bathrooms. We're in need of jazzing up some existing bathroom accessories and I love this DIY redux.

3 / These are technically to make an Advent Calendar, but my kiddos would love these Mr. Printables buildings. Free download!

4 / We need to make some wall art and I love this.

5 / Cam is very into jewelry making right now. I'd love to try making the beads ourselves sort of like these.

Project 52 -- Week 8

Winter! Oh, winter. In anticipation of more snow today, we took a hike in Rock Creek Park yesterday to check out the frozen scene. More on that next week. Until then, these two yahoos.

Chairish Color Challenge

As you might imagine, we've been in the throes of designing and decorating our new home for a few months now. And while we're still in the process of getting all of the furniture in (why, WHY does it take so long to make furniture?!), it's so fun seeing it all come together. Our new house finally has a real family room, but thus far we haven't really designated a kid-space in it. And there's the perfect nook for one. So I was super excited when Chairish asked if I'd be interested in participating in their Color Challenge and design a room full of color based on one of their rugs. It was the perfect opportunity to give some thought to what would be fun for the kids while fitting into the rest of our family room.

In case you aren't familiar with Chairish, it's a great online curated shop that features vintage furniture, decor, jewelry and accessories. We are big fans of mid-century modern design in our home, but it can be hard to swallow those prices when it comes to purchasing new furniture for our young kids who I know will thrash them. So vintage can be a good choice, including options that are inspired by classic designers (Chairish offers plenty of designer furniture as well!). Plus, no 16-week lead times! 

In any event, Chairish challenged me to create a styleboard around a vintage rug while making the room pop with color. Our family room already has several bright pieces of furniture, so I want to be careful about how I add more. Here's what I'm thinking for a kids nook that will tie in to the rest of our family room! 

1 / I actually picked a mid-century neutral colored rug to start. The shape fits our nook really well and since the rug in our family room is already really bright, I wanted to use other accessories to pop up the color in the kids section.  

2 / At the top of my list for the kids is a good arts/crafts table. I love Saarinen, but wouldn't throw that cash around for a table that's going to see the kind of use I'm anticipating. This Saarinen-inspired set fits the bill. 

3 / Our family room actually gets great natural light, but a floor lamp is a must during these long winter months when the kids are up early while it's still dark and the sun goes down before dinner. 

4 / I love this bright orange-striped, oversized box for holding art supplies. 

5 / In addition to hanging their own artwork, I'd love to add this vintage school map of Rome. My history-loving kids would go gaga for it.

6 / You can't get enough storage for kids and a lucite cube is the perfect way to keep even your storage neat and tidy. 

7 / Pillows are a great way to add color without a huge commitment. I love this combo of Turkish and Moroccan pillows. 

Interview with Bar Rucci of Art Bar Blog!

Our interview last month with Absolutely Mindy was such a big hit that I thought it would be super fun to expand on that idea and feature one person each month who inspires us! One of the things I value most about blogging is the community of people with whom we get to connect -- even if it's only via the inter webs. And I thought it would be great to expose the kids to that and have them get a sense of one bit of how and why we do all these nutty family activities we do. So I showed the kids one of my favorite kiddo art bloggers: Art Bar Blog! Art Bar Blog is written by Bar Rucci, a graphic designer, mom of three, and an art teacher who teaches in her lovely home. I'm constantly inspired by Bar's projects -- the beautiful colors, the simple techniques she uses that produce amazing results, the enthusiasm she has for working with kids. I could go on and on. Instead, I'll share our interview with Bar ....

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On the Move with Munchkin!

Does anyone else feel like we've been moving for about a hundred years? I know our kids do. It's been a long haul, but we're finally in the new house! Kane and Cam were actually total troopers. Moving has been painful, but I've been able to keep some perspective throughout -- knowing that at the end, we'd be in a bigger space with real green room to run, more light, and less noise. The kids were excited, but I could tell that it was hard for them to see much past the fact that I was again picking them up from school, explaining that we had to "run by the new house for just a few minutes," only to find themselves hungry and sitting on a floor covered with construction dust for an hour or so while I attended to whatever needed attending to there.

Weekend Makes

This weekend is all about making our family feel comfortable and happy in our new home. It doesn't take a lot, but we do like to be festive. Here's what's on my list for this weekend (although if someone else could please, pretty please, make us that rainbow cookie cake, we'd be thrilled).

1 / Nothing kicks off a weekend for our family more than pancakes from scratch, cooked with the kids. These yogurt pancakes with pomegranate are the perfect fit for my bunch.

2 / We love to make garlands together and this DIY from Oh Happy Day looks like such fun. Plus new walls need new art!

3 / Our family loves to be silly and our home is constantly filled with the tinkling sound of our kids' laughter (even when they're in trouble!). These DIY Mad Libs are technically for Valentine's Day, but they would be so much fun to do together.

4 / I've got several bottles of several things chilling in anticipation of the weekend. Our kids loved our sparkling pomegranate mocktails, plus we'll have poms in the house already.

5 / Italian rainbow cookies have become a family thing, so I can just imagine how huge this cake from My Name is Yeh would go over. But, I wasn't kidding. Can someone else please make this for us!?

Project 52 -- Week 7

The night before the big move. We had dinner at the new house and the kids wanted to shower there before heading back to our condo for one last night. You can see just how everyone feels at this point in the process. Onward!

A Day in the Life (February 2015)

February 12th was a pretty typical day this month. We finally move tomorrow (YAY!!!), so I spent a lot of the day at the new house overseeing (read: micromanaging within an inch of my sanity) the small amount of work we had done there while trying to get some actual work done. Please, if we ever should decide to move again and, say, build an entire house from scratch or gut an existing house, just punch me right in the face. You'd really be doing me a solid.

Don't forget to see what No Monsters in My Bed and Where the Watermelons Grow had going down last week!

6.59 am -- with almost everything else packed up, Kane spends his pre-breakfast time drawing plans for something or other.

Kiddo Oscar Party

It's almost Oscars time!!! This Sunday, the 87th Academy Awards will roll out that red carpet for one of Hollywood's biggest nights. I'm most looking forward to the fashion, particularly given that the last movie I saw in a theater was definitely a kiddo flick. Our kids also love to catch the red carpet and even though they don't get to stay up late enough to see who actually won (I don't even stay up for the whole thing), they are keenly aware of the animated feature film nominations. So I'm hoping to make the pre-show fun for them with a few special touches! In case you want to get caught up before this weekend, check out a full list of Oscar-nominated flicks for families right here.

1 / Studio DIY's annual ballot and fab packaging.

2 / A fun sparkly bar for the littles.

3 / We're definitely going to re-use our Meri Meri party props from New Years to get fancy. 

4 / Love a popcorn bar. 

5 / I would love for someone to make us these cookies! 

Weekend Makes

Yes, yes. I know it's Valentine's Day tomorrow. In case you haven't noticed, we have been in full-on valentines mode for weeks now. But, we also happen to have school off on Monday for another holiday: Presidents' Day. So if you're looking for something fun to do with the kiddos and are over hearts on Monday, here's a set of presidential weekend makes!

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Marbled Valentine Candies

Are you running around in a Valentine's Day panic trying to scrape together those class valentines? Stop. Find two ingredients in your home and make yourself some marbled valentine candies. You deserve some love, too. Head over to Honest to Nod for our super easy peasy recipe. You're welcome.

Project 52 - Week 6

I have to say, while having almost all of the kids' toys packed up has caused a little stress, it has also forced them to play together more and makes cleanup time incredibly quick. This was early a.m. this week -- they were both dressed and ready to go early (for once!) and so they got a little extra playtime in with the only unpacked set of legos.

Sensory Play Recipes

Sensory recipes are our go to afternoon activity during the winter months -- the kids love making them and will spend hours playing. They've been especially helpful these last few weeks as I've been packing up the house to move. But we're a little sick of our old standbys and are on the lookout for new recipes. Anyone tried these?! 

1 / DIY Aqua Sand from Growing a Jeweled Rose. 

2 / Love this bright Baking Soda Dough.

3 / My sister recently made this polka dot slime with her son's Kindergarten class. I heard it was a hit! 

4 / Conditioner + corn starch = playdough?! Who knew? 

5 / Ocean swirl glitter slime!

Weekend Makes

In anticipation of Valentine's Day, this Weekend Makes is all about conversation hearts. Whether you love 'em or can't stand the sweet chalky things, Valentine's Day isn't much the same without them. And since we bought a ginormous bag and ate just a few at our Sweet Little Valentine's Day Party, I'm looking for plenty of activities to use them up. And I threw in some conversation heart-inpsired makes for those of you who love the look, but won't be purchasing the candies this year. Make away!

1 / I actually like the taste of conversation hearts, but I'll take a macaron instead any day of the week. So pretty with the gold lettering, too!

2 / Make 'em play for their candy with this tic-tac-toe free printable.

3 / Just what happens to those little hearts once they go down the hatch? Try out some of these science experiments to see.

4 / Mini hearts in a GIANT piñata heart. We loved making little piñatas last summer, so I think we're up to this task.

5 / Make super sweet-smelling paint out of the hearts and whip up some art for your loves.

Project 52 - Week 5

Cam delays bath and bed by bothering Kane who is trying to explore his new "Zeus on the Loose" game (another attempt by me to get him interested in math).

A Sweet Little Valentine's Day Party

Not that my kiddos need inspiration to get valentine making (they LOVE it), but I thought it would be fun to have a little Valentine's Day Party to get things going. We partied and painted sweet valentines all morning long. Head over to Honest to Nod to check out our fun!

Disclosure: The Land of Nod provided us with party decorations, art supplies, and the canvas floor bin in exchange for this post. No other compensation was provided and all opinions herein are our own.

Daily Sketchbook Challenge

We have had very little time this year during the school week to just sit and create. And while we normally have more time to do that on the weekends, lately that time seems to be sucked up with the all-consuming moving process. So when I came across Tinkerlab's Daily Sketchbook Challenge, which provides a sketching idea prompt each day of February that will take as little as 5 minutes per day of creative time, I knew we had to do it. I'm really not much of a sketcher myself, but I love how Rachelle of Tinkerlab says that "Your creations don't have to be works of amazing art, and in fact they probably shouldn't be all that spectacular, especially if you're pushing yourself to try something new, experiment, and be bold." It's a great way to show your kids that you can think creatively without worrying about being perfect.