after school

It's an anticipated time.
After we've had our "quiet time."
(she plays, mama sleeps)
We start looking out the window for Bugg & Mia
to welcome them home from school.
With hugs & kisses & a snack
& "what happened at school today?"

Bugg likes to chill on his bed.
He'll often take a nap.
I love reading the notes that his teachers
write in his backpack.

apple donuts ~
just sprinkle cinnamon & sugar

Things can get pretty frazzling
after school.
The noise level rises.
The house gets tornadoed.
Throw in some whining.
But it's also a pretty sacred time.
To be there at the crossroads -
these tender times in my children's lives.
I'm so grateful that I get to stay at home and be with them.
And while it can seem pretty mundane -
homework, jobs, snuffing out squabbles.....
I know it's an important time, too.
And you know we throw in some crafting!

These lil' headbands were inspired
by Ella's favorite little Valentine book.

Just slip a felt heart onto a headband.....

and hot glue another one on top.

And PS:
we are all loving these headbands.

So easy, so functional, and so durn cute!

I can't quite figure out
how to give Bugg some heart lovin'
that is buggy-boyish.
This doesn't work.

I changed up the laundry job
a bit
by hiding chocolate kisses

in the pile.
I'm normally not that cool.

SoooooOOOoooo....
tomorrow starts FEBRUARY!
Let's get this countdown started
to the day of LoooOOooOoooove!

Whatcha' Wanna Know Wednesday: the play kitchen

Q: Will you share more about the little play kitchen
that your girls got for Christmas?
How did you make it?

A: Of course!
We had so much fun putting it together.
And we've all had a blast playing with it.
Can you believe it came from this old nightstand?!

I gave it some new paint.
With stripes on the sides!
Screwed in some thrifted shelves
for a bit more counter space.
I painted the shelves and mod podged scrap paper on the top.

The Hunk & his Dad rigged up the counter top.
A hole was cut to fit this thrifted bowl for the sink.
Which is great for washing your giraffes & elephants, apparently.
The faucet is an upside down wooden letter "J."
The knobs are all wooden and can spin.
They came from the craft store.
I painted them with metallic spray paint.

The burners are old scratched CDs.
Spray painted black.
Glued on with E6000.

Thrifted chalkboard.
Mod podged with scrap paper.
Glued with E6000.
That glue is the best!

I sewed simple curtains for the
top & bottom spaces.
My one splurge - cute fabric.
The top space is used for an oven.
The curtain is just stapled into the underside.

The oven racks are from the dollar store.
The tray & muffin tin are from DI.
The felt food is such fun to make!

Wanna burger?

The bottom curtain is secured with a tension rod.
All the dishes and stuff are thrifted/collected.

I got lots of ideas & help from Pinterest.
Looked at lots of different blogs for tips.
There are some crazy amazing play kitchen transformations out there!
I used these cupcake and cookie tutorials.
I can't believe Santa took all the credit for this!




~~Send me your questions for Whatcha' Wanna Know Wednesday!~~

today at 4pm......

She was doing this.
Her once-every-3-weeks-nap.

Bugg was zzzzzzz'n on our bed.
School really zonks him out.

She was doin' this.
And I was hanging this:

A countdown to Valentine's Day.

I got these lil' lovey images
in Germany......sorry!

inspired by this one

Super simple:
cut hearts from music pages
sew around the perimeter, leaving a small opening
stamp the date
hang on ribbon with clothespins.

So starting February 1st,
we'll rip open one each day
to find a small sweet somethin' or other.

4:00 was a ton of fun!

her inspiring announcement

One very recent morning,
Mia Darling walked into the kitchen and said,
"Today, we're making Red Velvet cupcakes."
I mean,
what am I gonna say to that?
Genius.
And inspiring to kick off the best holiday ever.

While she was at school,
Ella Rose & I made those cupcakes.
I was only 1/2 T. short of cocoa powder.
They still worked superb!
And we made some crayon hearts, too.

grate piles of colorful crayons onto wax paper

cover with another sheet of wax paper

slowly iron on low heat

cut out your hearts in different sizes,
use crappy scissors ~ they're going to get waxy

hang or tape in your sunniest window

Now,
about those cupcakes.
I made her work for it......

We all really like this frosting
for these cupcakes.
It compliments the Red Velvet
much better than cream cheese frosting.
It's different but so delicious.

Cheers to decorating your own love shacks!