10 March Featured Space: Kids - Babysitter Buddy

My kids are my whole world.  My everything!  And that is why when I head out for a rare but necessary date night with my amazing husband, and we have a babysitter come to play with our precious 3 P's, I have a little trick up my sleeve to ensure the babysitter is ultra prepared for the night ahead of them.
 
You see, I know better than anyone that my gruesome threesome is no easy task for any one person to handle.  But with a little direction, they aren't so bad... so I created a babysitter note sheet!  Haha, of course I did right?! {click to enlarge}:

I pre-fill out all of the typical information, such as our contact info and notes... and then I print out a few and toss them in our kitchen "In" box:

Then, right before a sitter comes to care for our love muffins, I grab one from the bin, fill out the rest of the pertinent information {like where we will be, when we will be home} and hang it on the fridge:

Yep, that's it!  And I know that my favorite little men will be in good hands, and prepared hands, while we are away!  And it's so much easier, less time consuming and a far less chance I will forget important information, than trying to write a bunch of miscellaneous mumble jumble down on a scratch piece of notebook paper...

Anyone excited for a hot night out on the town this weekend?  Leavin' the kids and going out to act like a kid yourself?  Parent's don't get to do it enough, so make sure to treat yourself because you are an amazing momma/papa and you deserve it!

7 March Featured Space: Kids - Color Your World

Crayons - check.  Markers - check.  Color Pencils - check.  IHeart them.  I truly do.  Two easy peasy reasons why.  1.  They encourage kids to be creative through art!  2.  They make fantabulous room accessories, on the cheap.  Gotta love when a room accessory actually doubles as something productively useful!

When I posted information about our playroom, I focused in on some cheapo crayon storage, in the form of $1 white Ikea planters:

It got me thinking, I have crayons and markers in all of my kiddos spaces, organized in adorable matching decor.

For example, my youngest son, little P age 3, doesn't get big kid coloring objects, but he does have a bucket of Crayola Color Wonder markers:

Color Wonder markers are so funtastic because my wonderful little man can "accidentally" color on his walls, floor, furniture or self with one of the markers, and it WILL NOT SHOW UP!  Every mom's dream right?  Making them perfect candidates to be displayed in his room, in this super fantastic red bucket with a star shape cutout.  Little P and I snagged this bucket-o-love from Goodwill for a buck.  And it matches his color scheme and decor to a giant T:

And finally to our Middle P and Master P's room.  They are 5 and 8, and completely capable of making good decisions and staying in the lines when they color, so they have markers, crayons and color pencils at their disposal.

I wanted to give them an inexpensive way to keep their supplies handy, while also matching their room decor, so I did a little quick and easy art supply DIY project...

I started out with some empty quart sized paint cans that I got for little to nothing at a local home improvement store {it was a while ago now, sorry I don't remember the exact amount of clams I shelled out}.  I also had a glue gun, $1 wooden letters, craft paint, paint brush and scrapbook paper:

Using some hot glue, I covered the empty paint canisters in the decorative scrapbook paper:

Already cute, and I could have stopped there.  But I always have to take things a bit further...  I busted out the wooden letters, which not so coincidentally spelled out the word, "ART", and I painted them orange with some craft paint:

I went back to my trusted hot glue gun to attach each letter to the front of the scrapbook covered canister:

Of course, the project wasn't complete until they were placed into the boys space!  They looked pretty incredible in their new home!

And my boys are constantly encouraged to snag their workbooks or drawing pads and let loose... which IHeart!

Of course, we have LOADS of other kid's craft supplies, however, I keep those tucked away in spare bedroom craft closet, which I will reveal at a later time, so stay tuned!

Maybe it's the fact that next to math, my favorite subject was art in school, making me a tad crazy when it comes to encouraging my kiddos to heart art as well!  Not sure, but whatever the reason, we couldn't be happier having it be a part of all of their personal zones.

Any of you have amazing booming artists out there?  What fun and creative ways do you encourage your little ones to let their imaginations run wild in the form of art?  How about quick and easy DIY craft storage we can inspire from?

147 March Featured Space: Kids - Perfect Play Haven

I have been getting some requests inquiring about our "fun" zone, a.k.a. our playroom.   And consider me massive yippee skippy excited about sharing this space in our home.  I think IHeart it as much as the kids do, maybe even more!

That's right!  We have a pretty amazing play space for our dear little men.  And it's so swell that I had to share some of the secrets behind it for this month's blog featured space: Kid's Spaces.  I am going to condense this down to 5 really easy must haves for the absolute perfect play place for the ones we love most. 

1.  Book Storage!

Play room's don't have to be all play and no work!  In fact, many of my musts for a play room, aren't just for play, but also for reading, learning and being creative!  To tuck away the massive loads of books, yet make them super accessible whenever the kiddos are looking for some eye candy, I find that large canvas bins work pretty perfectly:

I found the brown flower canvas one there are Target awhile back, which they no longer stock, but now they have a stunning collection of Liberty Collection Canvas Bins that would look pretty fantastic in any play space!

I also heart using bookends for taking care of the little munchkin's reads.  These alphabet ones from Crate & Barrel are totally fitting for our play space, but are mod and cool enough for any adult space as well!!
 

I typically place the hard cover books or our absolute favorites up on a shelf with bookends, and the flimsier soft covers in the canvas bin.

2.  Workspace!

Having a good workspace is a great way to help the kiddos learn through creative art or educational play!  These Ikea tables couldn't be more suitable for crafty kid's zones, they are durable,  perfectly sized and cute to boot!

We also decided to add a small desk to house a computer that the handy tech hub created just for the boys.  It's an old hand-me-down pc that was wiped clean and is just used for educational gaming:

Above the computer station, we store the drawing supplies, high up away from little fingers so that mom and dad can monitor the craft use:

$1 planters from Ikea double as crayon, marker and color pencil storage, and add charm to the space!

And don't forget to look in odd places for canisters and containers from other rooms to corral awkward play things.  For example, this kitchen canister is quite perfect for magnetic alphabet letters:

3.  Toy Storage!

Now for the really good stuff.  What the playroom is all about.  TOYS!  Toy storage can be a crazy chaotic conundrum, but not in this space.  And do I ever have a chore when I walk into this room?  Nopers!  My fantastic threesome couldn't be better at keeping this space neat and tidy all on their own, because I made it easy for them to do so.

First I took the time to compile ALL of the toys in the house.  Sorting is so importantly key here.  I paired all "types" of toys together in piles: cars, blocks, train tracks, etc... some even down to very specific types of blocks and toys.  I then took inventory from there, to determine how many bins were needed to keep all toy types separated.  Yep, now singing, "You gotta keep 'em separated!"

It was a crazy overwhelming moment, I am not going to lie.  Our kids toys were taking over our home.  And we weren't to blame, it was our amazingly generous friends and family, that would joyfully gift during birthdays and holidays.  And when you have three little men receiving toys by the tons, it can add up in a quick blink.

Since organizing the playroom, I learned two important things.  A: When family and friends are inquiring on gift ideas, I ask that they expand upon current play sets that the kiddos already enjoy vs receiving a ton of random things that may or may not get touched.  B:  We must clean out our toy bins and areas every single birthday party and Christmas holiday, and donate old toys when replacing with new.  Sometimes it's hard for the kids to understand or let go, but they are learning some very valuable life lessons.  It also ensures that we don't need to build an addition onto our home just for toys, because that is just crazy talk.

So, once I had an inventory, it was time to create storage.  We chose to go with an open shelving system with the option of adding pull out bins:

 We also went with two additional toy storage shelving units with pull out bins, that we bridged together with some shelving and crown molding, which gave the two single pieces a more unified look:

The open shelving is great for easy peasy take out and put back type stuff and they are also wonderful options for storing odd shaped toys and goods:

  And the pull out bins hold way more than I originally imagined they could, and are even better because they come in three bin sizes based on your toy storage needs.

Now, with all the storage in place, it was time to get some labels going.  Again, when it comes to kid's spaces, labels are like little magic wands.  It's like playing a matching game.  Take a toy, match it to the label!  Fun stuff right?!

To make the labels, I just did a Google Image search to find a picture of the toy concealed within in the bins:

Of course I matted and laminated, and then I used an industrial strength Velcro to adhere the labels to the bins.  Potato Head on the outside, Potato Head on the inside:
 

I repeated for all of the slide out bins:

We also added bins to the bottom level of the open storage unit.  These bins hold the REALLY big toy collections, such as Dinosaurs, Duplo Blocks, Little People and Wooden Train Tracks.  They hold the REALLY big collections because the bins are REALLY big!  No joke:

And again, I totally added matching labels to the fronts.  But aside from that, I wasn't too keen on the toys shining through the clear bins because it added too much eye clutter, so I covered the fronts with a piece of scrapbook paper, a 12 x 12 sheet fits like a perfect glove in the front panel of the bin:

Plus, you can pick any color paper to match your space, making the bins totally customizable!  I should mention, the bins were purchased at Ikea also, where the shelving unit is from:

Doesn't even look like the same bin right?!  Gotta heart it! 

4.  Wall Art!

Every playroom deserves a little whimsical lovin'.  It says to the cute kids, "Get your creative juices flowing and have some fun!"  I do admit, I have some additional plans on adding some more color and art display for my clan, but for now, they have this great quote spread above their toy storage shelves:

It expresses EXACTLY what the space is used for!

And art doesn't have to cost anything in a funtastic play space!  Have your munchkins spend an afternoon whipping up some of their own masterpieces to display, hang a memo board full of pics of them in action or display their hand made sculptures on shelving!  Opportunities are endless really!  Another fantastic place to look for inexpensive art is on AllPosters.com, in which very inexpensive poster prints can be snagged and framed!  Whatever is clever, this space is definitely deserving!

We also hung photos of our little buddies above their workspace:

 

5.  Sitting Zone!

Last but definitely not least, creating a cozy sitting area in a playroom, is a for sure must!  And it can be as easy as tossing some pillows in a corner!  It gives your little ones a place to snuggle up with a good book, or to take some quiet down time.  They will appreciate it as much as you will!  The biggest benefit is that it encourages them to pick up a book, which circles us back to easy peasy step number 1.

Our sitting zone is in the form of a cozy chair.  Proud Mom Alert: Here is my little P showing off it's fantastic functionally:

You see how much he Hearts hanging out in this cozy space?  The room just wouldn't be the same or as great without the chair, or him!!

So there you have it!!  Ton's of super easy and simple ways to create the ultimate play zone!  And it can totally be done on any budget with a little creative energy!  And do you see why IHeart labels oh so very much?  I mean, they save EVERYONE so much time and keep the space so super tidy, it's barely a believable story!

So, I give my kid's eye candy in the form of books and art, where is my eye candy?  Any of you willing to share photo's of your play zones for me to drool over?  Come on, as I preach to my kiddos on a daily basis, "We Share Because We Care"!

2 BFF Bedroom Redo - Part 2: Shopping Day!

Remember when I introduced you to my bestest all time friend, Erin?  Well, her and I were in shopping day heaven two Sunday's ago now, when we went and loaded up the carts to get moving along on her Master Bedroom makeover!

We started the day equipped with a print out of the room Style Tile, room measurements and a pillow case from her new bedding set {click to enlarge}.

The Style Tile was all we needed as our list for the day, we knew exactly the stops we wanted to make!  However, lesson learned number one, shopping on a Sunday means much more time restraints.  We had to be back by a specific time, so we headed out early, but shops didn't open early.  So that meant some time was wasted which put us in a more rushed position the remainder of the trip. Some more things to take into consideration, is that Erin and I live an hour apart, and I live another hour from the "big shopping city", which is the reason for trying to jam all of this crazyness into one day!

Our first stop was Ikea.  We had quite a few items on the old Style Tile to obtain, so we zoomed through the showroom for some last minute inspiration, and stopped at the CD case that was picked out for the room.  We took a quick measurement to make sure the door we picked out would actually fit:

Yeppers, we would be good to go.  It was here that we also realized that we could save $10 by going with the white option over the espresso brown one listed online.  Score!  Especially because white would be perfect with all of the other white we are bringing into the space.  So we wrote down the isle and bin numbers and kept on walking.

As we walked, we stumbled across this pretty lady:

We decided not to pass up the opportunity to snag one of these beauties, for a couple of reasons.  We had originally thought of doing a DIY option, but we were getting more limited on time for scouring thrift stores.  And we had seen some options online and on eBay for similar types, but they were up in the $60-$70 range.  This one was coming in at $40 smackaroos, so again, we were sold on checking this off on the list.

The cart was filling itself up nicely, until we stumbled across a little snafoo in the mirror section, when the one we wanted to grab for $8 to update with some pretty molding and vases, was nowhere to be found.  Nope, they were O U T.  Which isn't music to our ears considering we are rarely in the vicinity of an Ikea!  With any makeover, there are bumps in the road, and at least this one wasn't going to be too costly.  Target and Walmart often sell wardrobe mirrors on the cheap, and they are super accessible, so fingers are crossed that we can come across another option.

Here is my princess with our cart-o-goodness!

With all of our items in tow, it was time to find out the overall damage!  And yep, it was a little steep, but, we did get just about every single thing on the list, with the exception of some minor accessories, so we were pretty satisfied with the total cost:

Yep, that price includes a new light fixture {$30 under planned}, throw pillow {$10 under planned!}, a pair of curtain panels, two bedside lamps, a double stock of light bulbs for all of the new fixtures, some plant pots for our grass project and a CD cabinet with glass door {$10 under planned}. Could we have done better?  Maybe... Are we happy though?  Absolutely!  Pretty good trip, saved 50 bucks!  Here is a visual of all the goods we snagged for the price {click to enlarge}:

 After Ikea, we ran over to one of my fav home stores, Crate & Barrel, and snagged Erin the cutest little bowls to store her rings and hair ties in at her bedside: 

I also was reminded of what I have learned multiple times before, things online appear different than in real life.  The absolutely perfect vase that I had seen online, was completely the wrong color when we got to the store.  Good thing we were all about checking things out in person!  Which is why we went with the now absolutely perfect bowl vs the originally white floral bowls I had originally selected.  Now we can still inject some more of the bedding color throughout the room, since there will already be plenty of white.

Once time was up at Crate & Barrel, we headed to my happy place, The Container Store.  As you may recall, I pre-ordered a kid's clothes folding board ahead of time and went there to pick it up, amongst a few other amazing finds!  But this isn't about me or my fetishes, it's about getting Erin's room done!  And it was there that we scored some amazing wrapping paper, on clearance, for the tops of the nightstands!  Another score! 

Do I look at home?  Because I felt like I was!

Our last stop was Target, where we didn't get anything but a drink decanter on clearance, for the nightstand {since she is a big water drinker at night}  Then our time was up, like, the buzzer went off and we had to drop everything and be done.

Was it a successful day?  I would say yes!  We saved some moola on quite a few things, which is always reason to sing a little song!  We had a typical fantastic time, since we were together!  Lessons Learned?  I would say I wish we would have hit up some thrift stores first, before going new all the way.  That would have been possible if we would have chosen to go on a Saturday when shops open earlier, which in turn would have given us much more browsing time.  We also didn't get to hit all the shops we had in mind, which may call for another shopping day, but what girly girl would ever complain about that?!

We have also set a day to get started on the fun DIY stuff, which is the first weekend in April, so stay tuned for the REALLY fun posts coming up in the near future!

6 March Featured Space: Kids - "Time" for some Inspiration

Do you ever see something in a catalog and say, "I just gotta have that?!"  Well, the same can hold true to a whole space, or part of a space vs just a single object!

I was browsing through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog one fabulous day, and stumbled across this adorable space:

And I thought, what a great little study space for some great little kids!  And then I also thought, I could totally recreate something like that!!

Take a look at our boys shared bedroom, it already had a great wall with a map, so I was halfway there!

Yep, it happened again folks:

 Scary right?!

And this year I am all about finding inspiration, and recreating the look at home for much less.

So, I already had the space, but what was it missing that the inspiration room had?  Why clocks of course!  So, once again, thank you very much Target for coming through for me.  You always seem to be there for me, and that is something that makes us long life partners!  With some adorable wall clocks in stock, in a perfect green color to match my boy's space, I was one happy camper!  The clocks I found were $3 each, which must be too cheapo for Target to even list on the web...

Next I created some labels {I know, weird right?} for four major cities in different time zones across the good ol' U.S. of A.  Of course, one included our very own small town!

After they were done, my honey pie hung up the clocks on the wall, and underneath each one, went a label:

And the finished product?

Not bad what a little inspiration can create right?

How about a side by side before and after?

What a fun little flair added to their space!  And now they will be really great at learning to read time, in four different time zones!

And a quick side by side of the inspiration and actual?  Why of course!

I say YAY to quick and easy updates!  And for twelve clams, it was a little bang for a little buck.  The boys think it's pretty rad though, which is what it's all about!

Anyone have a similar story to tell?  Any fun side by sides of an inspiration space and your space?  We would heart to see 'em so send 'em on over!