Aug 11
2011
 

our house: dining room

My dining room has secrets.

from front door

china cabinet

The first one has to do with the drapes. These are super long drapes from Ikea but even so, they were not long enough for the room (tall windows & ceilings). So I left them unhemmed for months thinking I would have to figure out a way to add fabric to the bottom. The other day I decided to do something about it and looked at the two that happened to sit only an inch off the floor and the two that sit an inch too long. And decided that no one should be looking SO close at my hems that I couldn’t just serge the end of all the drapes to match the shortest one and then be done with it. And I did! (I even hemmed them while they were still hanging on the wall). Done!

serged hem

The second secret has to do with how I am using my china cabinet. I don’t have a whole lot of serving dishes and one of the things I like to do in my dining room is sew. So… I decided to take over 2 of the drawers and 2 of the bottom cabinets to house all my sewing stuff. Simple. Love it!

my sewing supplies

And there are also a couple secrets IN my display cabinet. I have a tea cup collection that I show off there (with space to grow!) and originally the back of the hutch had mirror panels. It felt very busy when you looked in there, so I simply cut black bristol board and used double sided tape to cover it up. The other secret is that in my house of rambunctious kids who love to run, I have used double sided foam tape to attach the tea cups to each other and rubber feet on the bottom so that I don’t hear that “clink clink” noise when they come barrelling through the dining room on their way to the kitchen.

my tea cups

And lastly, the last secret is the little area tucked to the side of my china cabinet. Here is where I hide my apron and my hand vaccuum. I don’t have space to store these things easily in the kitchen (open concept – lack of walls) but find here I can grab them just as easily without them being out in the open (it helps that my apron is pretty, thanks Mom!).

pretty apron

There you have it. My dining room has secrets.

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Posted by Janet under decorate, organize, our house
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Aug 07
2011
 

our house: boy’s bedroom

So in the midst of everything that is taking my focus these days, I have been able to finish some small projects I had on hold around the house. Especially in little man’s room.

boy's room

boy's room

He recently picked out a more mature, big kid comforter and since I have been planning to lengthen his drapes, I added a stripe of fabric that matched this new look.

We also added more art to his gallery wall (he still needs art above his bureau).

his gallery wall

his gallery wall

Sources:
1. collaborative art piece
2. junk a doodle art from Holli Conger
3. painting by his cousin
4. robot painting by me
5. comic strip art
6. painting by his other cousin
7. photograph taken by one aunt of a favourite baby toy given to him by another aunt

And we changed up the bins in his bookshelf to bring in more colour and create a library in his room. Both kids are loving having their books by their bed and I am enjoying the idea of moving a bulk of the toys/books out of the living room.

books and toys

books and toys

I labelled the bins just 1 & 2 for interest. I always think about labelling them more specifically but honestly it is easier for the kids to clean up when things can just be put in bins. If I expect MORE than that, then the sorting would end up on MY to do list. And I have enough to do. :)

I have some ideas for art on his other wall and he has requested a chair for reading in the corner, so pictures of that to follow as well.

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate, organize, our house

Aug 05
2011
 

laundry room/mud room

Here is our completed laundry room/mudroom:

laundry room/mudroom

laundry room/mudroom

This room in our house has been a little bit of a problem spot. It is the place you come into through the garage and therefore needed some storage as well as still remain workable for a laundry room.

When we designed the house, there was supposed to be a row of cabinets going across the wall above the washer dryer. Now, these cabinets would have looked lovely and clean but I realized (at the very last minute) they would not function well for us. I knew we had purchased pedestals for our washer and dryer and would have storage under those units, but I also knew I needed space for my laundry baskets. The one constant I have had in our laundry rooms has been a wall of baskets to separate laundry before it ever gets put into the washer.

So quickly I told the builder to uninstall the wall of cabinets (which are getting reused in a new location which will be shown in the future) and instead I installed two rows of utility shelving. Now they aren’t as pretty but function exactly as I need them too.

But to pretty up the space, I made pretty labels for all my baskets and bins and added a nice rug.

basket label

basket label

I hung my mop/brooms where they aren’t as visible. The end result is something that I love, that I can function in and that I can easily tidy up for when people need to use the space as a walk through.

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Posted by Janet under decorate, our house
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Aug 04
2011
 

musing – what matters

It has been one of those weeks. When my mind is somewhere else and I struggle to deal with the everyday issues of dishes, laundry and even important things like work. But I forgive myself because I remember this:

things that matter most

things that matter most

[source: aliedwards.com via janet on Pinterest]

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Posted by Janet under musings

Aug 01
2011
 

Fun New Artwork

So we are working on making Little Man’s room more of a big kid room. We have changed the bedding and are in the process of adding more artwork to his walls. I was trying to find something cute and fun yet totally appropriate for his wall and came across this great tutorial on how to make a comic strip style photo.

So I took this fun photo we took last month at an ice cream shop:

before comic book styling

before comic book styling

And created this:

after comic book styling

after comic book styling

I’ve put it in a frame and it’s ready to hang. So fun!

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Posted by Janet under create, decorate
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Jul 23
2011
 

today my kids surprised me & inspired me

morning run

lessons learned while running with my kids

Today after a long respite (really only pure laziness on my part – respite just sounds better!) I decided to start running again. As I was lacing up my sneakers, my son came out and asked if he could go too.

My first reaction was no, (having planned to go farther than he could handle – he is only 6) but I also knew that after watching his uncle run his first race, he has been motivated and talking about training to run a race of his own. So I decided to change my plans and said yes. We would run to the end of the block and back.

So off we went. And surprising to me, my little man was a LOT stronger then I thought. He handled that stretch of road with ease and enjoyment, keeping me busy with his chatter and conversation the whole way. I tried to keep him focused on the goal, to look at the end of the road. But he enjoyed checking out the grasshoppers jumping wildly in the ditch instead of worrying about how much farther, how much farther. And in this was my 1st lesson of the day:

“Enjoy of the journey ~ don’t stress about getting to the destination”

Now, when we made it back home, my daughter (who is 5) was waiting patiently for HER turn to do the same run. So once more, off we went.

She started with a skip and a jump and even at times appeared to be dancing along. Again, enjoying the journey. But she definitely had a harder time than her brother at the distance and we had to stop short of our goal of the end of the street. She started to deflate and tell me she was tired and couldn’t do it. I felt bad and worried that maybe it was too much and gave her the opportunity to turn around and head back. That this was good enough. And this is where she surprised me by insisting we keep going to get to the end. Even if we had to stop a couple times, her goal was set, nothing else would do. Here I found my 2nd lesson of the day:

“Don’t give up”

So today I learned something new about each of my kids and I was inspired by what I saw. To take these simple rules and follow their example with the things I want to accomplish.

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Posted by Janet under life
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