My Secret Stress Buster: Crafting with the Kids

I scored some beautiful Valentine’s Day-themed paper in the dollar section of my favorite store (Target, of course) and the girls and I got to work making decorations for the house.  One of the things I love about doing arts and crafts with my kids is that there are no rules – we make things up as we go along.  It’s very freeing, much more so than when I make things on my own.  I find I’m able to embrace the process, as they do, rather than the product.  And when it does come down to the results, they are surprisingly wonderful.  Creating with the girls is often better than a yoga class or a trip to the gym when it comes to relieving stress and finding my way back to the always elusive present moment.  Ohm!

Here are some of our Valentine’s creations:

     

Halloween DIY Decoration Gone Awry

Candy Corn Candle Holders

I know – they don’t look like much.  Now.  They worked well as a centerpiece until we used the candles and all the candy corns began to disappear.  That’s what happens to edible decor around here.  (And no, the kids are not to blame.)  I wonder if Martha Stewart has the same problem?

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I’m finally back to blogging after a crazy month in which I ran a half-marathon, traveled to Vegas  for a wedding, refinanced the house, and adjusted (kind of) to the kids’ new school and activities schedule.

I started this blog with the intent to ramble about all things related to home ownership and making a house a home, but  life lately seems to be less and less about doing things to the house, and more and more about accomplishing personal goals and spending time with friends and family.

That said, you may see more posts here in the coming weeks covering issues I encounter much more frequently than my paintbrush.  So, along with the occasional kitchen update and DIY project, I might write about why I find packing peanut-free lunches difficult.  Why I can’t get anywhere on time, even when I start an hour ahead.  Why I get lost on the way to the pediatric dentist, when it’s only been six months since our last visit.  Why I love Bon-Ami, fear fridge clean-outs, and adore my bread machine.  I hope you’ll stick around and enjoy the diversity!

Stirring it Up in the Kitchen

Paint, that is.  I finally have an update on our kitchen “transformation.”  Sadly, I do not have earth-shaking before and after photos.  I have no Ty Pennington on hand to “move that bus.”  But I do have insight into how renovations happen in real life.  Slowly.  Painfully.  With dust and splinters and lots of fighting.  Paint splatters and misplaced screws.  Ruined $15 paint brushes, last minute trips to Home Depot, agitation, frustration and similar states of being.  We sand a board, we have a bout of hand-foot-and-mouth disease.  We slap on a coat of paint, we have a lawn to mow.  We attach hardware to one cabinet, then it’s out for groceries or gymnastics.  I’d like to say the kitchen is a priority, but when I look back at the past two months, life really comes first.  I can see why people shell out the big bucks for turnkey renovations.

So here’s what’s new since my last update in April (APRIL!).

We’ve gone from this:

to this:

You can laugh now.  But it looks good, no?   By the time we finish, my hair will be the same color as my cabinets.

Solving Little Problems: The Long and Narrow Family Room

As time without the children is always at a premium around here, I am shelving the shoe rack project for now (ha ha).  I thought I’d tackle a smaller problem that’s been bugging me – the furniture arrangement in our family room.  Here’s what it currently looks like:

Now, there are a lot of things I don’t like about this room, and dozens more you could probably add to that list yourself.  The mess is one.  The television as focal point is two.  Three is the fact that the couch setup interferes with the way my husband and I prefer to watch movies – cuddling and seated together.  Not that it can’t be done right now, but someone inevitably ends up with a crick in the neck.

I can’t do anything about number one until the kids move out (and as you can see, it will be a while).  I can’t do anything about two because the previous owner put all of the outlets for electronics on that narrow wall and I don’t  have the time or expertise to move it to the long wall, where it should be.  So this mini-project involved solving problem three.

My goal was just to arrange the room so that we could be on the same couch and not interfere with the flow of traffic through the “bowling alley,” as so many websites referred to this dreadful layout (mine is about 11 x 17).  I was happy to learn I was not alone in finding such a room a decorating headache.

In the ten or so minutes of research my kids tolerated (both were much more interested in the furniture moving part), I made use of a room planner and found a few useful tips (best advice was from yourdecoratinghotline.com.)  I decided that by just moving the love seat I could solve my problem in about fifteen minutes.  Not so.  Midstream, I tried to change things up – the sofa in front of the window, the love seat under the TV, the love seat where the sofa is, etc.  Do you think I discovered any kind of magic arrangement?  Nope.  Just that my furniture is too big for this room.  Take that arm chair, for example.  It’s wide enough to have a room of its own.  Whatever were we thinking on the floor at Bob’s Discount Furniture?  I also should have just gone with my first instinct – to move the love seat at a right angle to the sofa.  ‘Cause that where it all ended up two hours later.

Here’s the big reveal:

Discouraging, really.  But it will serve it’s purpose.  Mission accomplished.  As rookie decorator and home owner, I welcome any and all suggestions to improve upon this, of course.