category: create



Nov 25
2011
 

reflections

my advent calendar in progress - post soon!

So lately I have spent my time and the end of the day on the sofa, with my family, working on some hand stitching. This comes in the form of a cross stitch project that is LONG overdue (like a year overdue), an advent calendar for the kids this year, among other things. What I have noticed with this is that although I am sitting in front of the television and doing the same thing I may have done before, having the added activity for my hands to do, has allowed my brain to slow down MORE. Which is not what I expected. But I think what I needed.

These moments recharge me, they allow me to find a little hands on creativity at the end of the day. They make me sit, quietly and enjoy the laughter and games that surround me. They calm me.

And for that I am thankful.

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Posted by Janet under create, happy list, life, musings
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Nov 13
2011
 

our house: girl’s bedroom update

So although I thought I had finished our daughter’s room, I was wrong. Since Little Man got new bedding that was more grown up, Little Miss wanted the same thing (after all she is FIVE now) ;) So after looking and looking we finally found something we both liked. Funnily enough it was from the same company Little Man’s was.

her new bedding (the flannel sheets she already had (from Pottery Barn) and happened to match perfectly

But now that she had new bedding, the existing drapes no longer matched so new drapes were in order, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. So I found some drapes at Giant Tiger that matched her wall colour exactly and were $12.99 a panel. Can’t beat that. But… they were only 84″ long and we have tall windows. We need 90″ inch drapes. So I needed to come up with a plan to extend the drapes and work with the new bedding.

Here is what I did.

my solution to extend her drapes

I cut the drapes 10 inch from the top and added a panel of white fabric, which was actually a flat sheet from when we had a double bed in the guest room (upsized to a Queen last year, but kept the sheets for fabric). On this I made stripes. I wanted one pink and one turquoise. The pale pink is actually a strip of fabric I cut off her existing cotton flat sheet she has for warm weather. I noticed that it was quite long and she isn’t, so she doesn’t need all that length. She won’t even miss the bit I cut off. The aqua and the darker pink (on top of the light) are ribbons I purchased on sale at the craft store.

Anyway, I love the new drapes and how they match the new bedding.

her bedding with the new drapes

BUT I am not sure how I feel about my baby girl growing up!

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, our house
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Oct 29
2011
 

our house: boy’s room – lego table

So I posted a while back a bunch of pictures of Little Man’s bedroom but didn’t show you the side of the room where he has his lego table. He LOVES lego and so last Christmas I wanted to make him a table and an area that allowed him to build and keep that stuff together.

I showed you the view towards the bed

view from the door

But never towards the corner

view of his lego table

Here is a closeup of the table. I made it with a Lack side table from Ikea (no longer showing on Cdn site and no longer in blue on their US site) and four large blue Lego bases glued down with Gorilla Glue.

lego table

I also found a storage bin that fit perfectly under the table on casters (again from Ikea) to house all his lego pieces.

lego storage bin

One tip when you are gluing down the bases: Make sure you use a lego piece to space them properly apart. I started to push them flush together before I wondered if the pieces would work across the seam. I am glad I did as there is a TINY gap required between the plates.

use lego for spacing

Now I have to say, I love lego. It is the one toy I am definitely willing to sit down and build and create alongside my kids. Yes, I did have something to do with these rainbow coloured houses. :)

my rainbow creation

And what I love even more is how my “houses” are suddenly taken over by Star Wars soldiers and command central.

command central

Awesome. :)

I am linking up to

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, organize, our house
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Oct 15
2011
 

under cover

I am enjoying this new “game” of trying to finish stuff up in the house without spending money. I have learned my ability to think outside the box, to be inventive and resourceful and to not assume the best answer is the one I have to go out and buy.

For example, since I moved my office to the basement, I also took my under desk cable organizer from Ikea with me. This one:

ikea signum cable organizer


And while it is a great solution and I love it for the basement, I didn’t like the loss of being able to hide my cables in the kitchen. I still use my desk area for my laptop and a lamp and now Little Man’s DS charger so I still needed a solution.

So I went shopping in my house. And I found these:

my supplies


This is a dollar store basket, a couple of extra spacers from our television wall mount (for the smaller sizes) and some screws.

And this is what I came up with.

my homemade cable organizer


I attached a power bar to the underside of my desk and right next to it I attached the basket using the spacers to keep it slightly lowered from the desktop for easy access. I cut some of the holes in the sides of the basket to make bigger spaces to wind the cords through.

So for $0, I was able to come up with a solution I like and NEVER have to look at. Here is what my desk looks like now:

organized desk

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Posted by Janet under create, organize, our house
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Oct 12
2011
 

habits: 3rd time’s the charm

This summer we were having problems with Little Man’s bathroom routine. He is a bright, inquisitive, 6 year old (almost 7) kid who HATES being left out or missing anything going on EVER!!! So the problem was that every time he went to the washroom, he would rush through his routine and skip a step here, a step there. Most times we would have to send him back to wash his hands or flush the toilet. Again and again.

We figured there HAD to be a better way. First we tried a chart for every day. If he made it through the whole day without us having to send him back, he would get a sticker that could lead to a reward at the end of a month. But he NEVER made it through a whole day without a reminder, and he got frustrated and we got frustrated. Then we (not brightly) tried negative reinforcement thinking if he didn’t want to earn something, if that was too abstract, how about taking something away. Again, utter failure and complete frustration all around.

So last, I decided he needed positive reinforcement MORE often and a reminder that would keep him on track. I knew the chart worked before but it had to be somewhere were he saw it EVERY time he went to the washroom. So, it had to be in the most used bathroom, which in our house is the powder room. Since he is older, I was conscious of not making the chart LOOK like a bathroom routine chart for guest who also used that washroom.

The chart on the wall of the Powder Room


So what I did was printed out a bunch of boxes on a 4X6 piece of paper, framed in a simple white frame and hung it on the wall next to the toilet. Then we put a dry erase marker up out of reach (so there was no temptation for extra marks) that we used to draw an ‘x’ every single time he followed through on his full routine without a reminder.

And it worked!

The chart (the circle was his halfway point)


We made the chart long because we wanted to ensure he created a habit. Plus, it was for him to earn something really valuable to him (in this case a Nintendo DS). We couldn’t believe the difference of how quickly this little chart made in our lives. He was constantly motivated, loved to share his success and worked REALLY hard to get to the end.

This week he got his DS and we are excited to have a kid who we NEVER have to remind to go wash his hands.

happy kid & happy parents

Soon the chart will be replaced with pink squares. I wonder what Little Miss will want to earn? :)

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Posted by Janet under create, life
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Sep 19
2011
 

my office: the cork board failure

Failure

Learned this lesson this weekend!

I gave myself a challenge this week to not spend ANY money on things except groceries. It is going well and has come quite easy and is inspiring me to get stuff done with the stuff I already own.

One example was that I had an old bulletin board that I was going to repaint white (ugly fake wood) for the office wall. I taped, primed, painted and sealed. Once dry I removed tape, which took paint along with it PLUS the fake wood paper cover and some of the cork! UGH! I was so frustrated.

And then I thought “well, now I guess I will have to buy a new bulletin board.” And then I remembered my challenge. And then I thought, do I want a cork board in my office SO much that I would buy a new one? The answer? Nope.

I don’t want a cork board OR a chalkboard in my office. Once I get things organized and put in place, I want the space to feel calm and inspiring. This means, no clippings, no scribblings, just pretty and fun framed pictures. I love the idea of a mood board but I also love the idea of calmness. A mood board may not be me. Is not me. I have mood scrapbooks that I love to work in and can put away at the end of the day.

I don’t think I would have realized this was actually what I wanted unless I had completely and utterly FAILED! So I am thankful for that green tape that just tore apart my idea of an “easy” project for the office.

Now on to the next thing.

What have you happily failed at lately?

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, life, musings, our house
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