Happy List: #193
Welcome to this week’s Happy List! I thought my kids would be starting their holiday break today, but NOPE! They have a few more days to attend next week too. *sigh* I really need to start looking at the school calendar more closely. Ha! This week I shared pictures of our newly organized under the stairs closet in the music room. Much to Handy Husband’s dismay, no closet is safe from my critical eye now. I also shared our festive holiday tradition of having Christmas trees in the kids’ bedrooms. As a side note, Christmas lights are the best night lights! Here’s the Happy List!LEAF ART My jaw is on the floor. Artist Kanat Nurtazin cuts…
Festive Tradition: Kids’ Christmas Trees
One of our favorite festive Christmas traditions is the kids’ Christmas trees that they have in their bedrooms this time of year. A Christmas tree in my bedroom is something that I always thought would be fun as a kid. Shoot, I think it would be fun to have a tree in my bedroom now! Maybe next year. I started this tradition when the kids were around five years old and gave them each a tiny tabletop tree. It didn’t take long for their ornament collection to outgrow the size of the tabletop trees and a couple of years ago I upgraded them to 4-ft trees. Another festive Christmas tradition we have is that I gift…
Under the Stairs Closet Shelves
We now have under the stairs closet shelves and I’m pretty darn happy about it. I’m also happy about “Clean Sheet Day,” a fresh jar of peanut butter, and no-show socks that don’t slip off my heel. I guess I’m an adult now. We have an under the stairs closet in our music room. When we moved into the Colonial Farmhouse, I found three fur coats hanging in this closet. So fancy…if moth hole chic is your sort of thing. That area looked like this when we moved in: Sorry. I forgot to warn you that picture was going to be a little harsh on the eyes. As a reminder, that wasn’t our stuff. It was all…
Happy List: #192
Hello, friends! Fancy meeting you here again for this week’s Happy List! Have you had snow yet? We had a dusting on Wednesday, but I don’t really count that. I am hoping for a white Christmas. This week on the blog I shared a non-Christmasy thing. I hope you don’t mind. I have another non-Christmasy thing for you next week too. But back to this week! I wrote about the Online Game Budget Form I set up for our kids. It’s been so helpful. Guess what my kids want for Christmas? Money for online game stuff. That’s not super fun to wrap, by the way. They also want books, but that’s about it. Makes…
Gold and Copper Christmas Tree
Every year I like to decorate my Christmas tree a little differently and my 2020 tree ended up being a Gold and Copper Christmas Tree. That wasn’t my intent when I lugged the Christmas boxes down from the attic, but that’s where the creative journey took me. The only goal I had for this tree, besides making it something I want to look at for a month, was to not buy anything new for this tree. Reusing, repurposing, and making over whatever I had on hand was fair game though. Handy Husband kept saying, “Why don’t you go buy blah, blah, blah.” To which I replied, “That would ruin my fun! Maybe next year I’ll…
Online Game Budget Form For Kids
We recently set up an online game budget form for our kids and it has helped reduce the amount of family drama around here so much. One of my kids always wanted to spend their money on in game purchases for online games like Fortnite, RoBlox, and Minecraft. To be fair, this child didn’t ask to spend mom and dad’s money. This child had money. However, this child was always asking to spend money. “Mom? Can I buy Robux?” “Mom? Can I buy V-bucks? Please, please, please?” “Mom? Can I buy them now? Now? How about now?” AGH! As a parent you know they would blow through their life savings (or yours) in a month on in…
Happy List: #191
Hi! Welcome back to the Happy List! Did you miss me while I was taking a break last week? I missed you all. I’m glad I can connect with you via Instagram and Facebook when I’m not here on the blog. This week on the blog I shared some updates to the kids’ bedrooms. I had to snap pictures while they were clean to commemorate the moment. I also shared the freaking amazing Copper Christmas Trees I made out of copper flashing. I’m doing a great job of keeping my humility in check aren’t I? Hahaha! I just love those Christmas trees and enjoyed the heck out of making them. Now here’s the main…
DIY Copper Christmas Tree From a Safety Cone
Tis the season to get crafty and today I have the most festive Copper Christmas Tree to show you. I had so much fun making this Copper Christmas Tree that I actually made not one, not two, but three of them! The crazy thing is these trees wouldn’t have even happened if I hadn’t procrastinated a little. I’m not encouraging procrastination. I’m just saying sometimes procrastination closes the easy creative doors and forces you to become extra resourceful. I’m making procrastination sound not so bad, aren’t I? The idea was in the back of my mind to use some copper flashing to make a Christmas tree this year. I wouldn’t have bought copper…
Small Updates in the Kids’ Bedrooms
I thought I’d razzle dazzle you with some small updates in the kids’ bedrooms today. Way to over sell it, huh? While the big stuff for home renovation is fun to watch and blog about, I think it is the small, meaningful updates that really make a house feel like a home. Yes, I really do believe this stuff I spout. Ha! We’ve lived so many places where we couldn’t renovate or even paint. Home is definitely what we made of it in that moment  – from the memories that we made there to the small touches that made that house feel like us. The kids’ bedrooms have always received priority when we move because…
Gratitude
Hi, friends! I’m taking time off the blog this week for Thanksgiving Break. Before I do, I want to thank each of you for all the kindness you’ve shown our family this year. Even though what I share here is but a small snippet of our lives, it is a little scary to release those words into the wild three times a week. So, thank you for all your kind thoughts. Thank you for those times when you bit your tongue. Thank you for your ideas. But most of all, thank you for the time you share with me each week. Before I go, here is a poem by Lucy…
