Thursday, December 5, 2013

Homemaking

 



                                                                 Shutters

Modern Country, shabby chic, vintage, upcycle; whatever you want to call it, I just love this style of home decorating. And it took me a little while to discover this style. Yes, I've been repainting furniture for many years now and I've rearranged rooms ever since I was a young tween. Yes, my mom let me use her house! But it is since maybe 2 years that I realize that it is this style where I feel most at home in. I've gotten married in 2006 and when we moved to America I became a homemaker. I like that word; homemaker. Because that's exactly what I was doing: “making a home” for us. And of course it is what I'm still doing. With 2 kids and a dog thrown in as well.

But you can say I had a lot of time to decorate the house to my (oops, our) liking. Back then I started off painting furniture in a multitude of colors. I had an orange side table but also a purple one. I had striped colorful curtains, a reddish rug, there was a blue display cabinet and the sofa had a reddish sofa cover on it. I hope that paints the picture for you. Thinking back of that time I can see I went a little bit overboard with the paint. I still love color but not like that anymore. I wanted to post pictures but unfortunately the pictures of that time are on a external hard drive and too much work to get too.

Over the next few posts I'll show you some pictures of my house as it is now. You will see lots of white furniture and new uses for old things.
Something else worth pointing out, except for the sofa, all the living room furniture you'll see are all free curbside goodies, Craigslist ad finds, thrift store treasures and even a coffee table made out of a futon base. Kudos for the husband on that last one :). It makes me very happy to know that I can turn an old dresser that no one wants anymore into a great piece for my house. Painting is a very rewarding hobby in which you'll get to enjoy the end product every day.


The table my husband made from an all wood futon base.


The table got a coat of blue paint and it was good to go all Summer long.


I like the natural distressed look but I wasn't too pleased with blue for a table inside.


So I painted it. Just like that. Now we got a mega big coffee table that fits all our drinks, books and toys.

It gives me great pleasure knowing that I'm not spending a ton of money on a piece of furniture, especially since I like to rearrange and change furniture all the time. An item will usually not stay in the same spot longer than 6 months. That's the beauty of decorating every room in the house in the same style, you can move furniture around with no problem. AND I'm keeping furniture out of the landfill. For me it's a win win.
 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Advent calendar filled with kid activities



Christmas time is here and it's not leaving anytime soon. And I'm glad it's not because I love Christmas. The cozy little lights and candles, the stylish and festive decorations, hot cocoa and whipped cream, a mountain of blankets to crawl under and most importantly; family time.

For me Christmas time is all about family time and to not loose track of that I made an Advent calendar with family and kid oriented activities. Every day we will be reminded of the fact to do something fun together and to create memories of this special time of year.

My husband went to the local hardware store for some items and brought me back 30 matchboxes on my request. In the meantime I had gathered Christmas themed color coordinated papers, a pencil, scissors, a ruler and double sided sticky tape. That's all it takes. Oh, and a lot of time.

Here's how you can make it too:

1: Trace the matchbox onto your paper, pretty side down. Trace all 4 sides of the matchbox onto the paper. Use your pencil to mark down a dot and use the ruler to get straight lines to get a rectangle shape. Once you have the first measurements you can outline more rectangles.
If you want to be very precise you can measure all sides of the matchbox and then measure this onto the paper. It's not how I work :)
2: Cut out all your rectangle shapes.
3: Cut double sided sticky tape into pieces and stick to a matchbox. Cover all four sides.
4: Stick your paper onto the matchbox.
5: Snip off any excess paper.
6: Start with the next one.
7: Decorate your little advent box any way you like. Use stickers, torn paper, let the kids put stickers on it, whatever you fancy. Don't forget your numbers 1 through 25! Use stickers and or stamps for this. Mix it up.

It will get an extra "pop of special" if you put the numbering on an extra layer of paper (I didn't do this because I wanted to be done with it) and then glue this on the box. Or use double sided sticky tape.

                             

The fun part will be to come up with activities to do with your children. If you need a little hand along the way, here is a link to some of the best ideas:
http://adrielbooker.com/family-advent-activities-christmas-countdown-fun/

                                      

One last tip:
Plan your activities wisely using your monthly planner. Make sure to do elaborate activities or crafts that need some prep on days you know you have the time.
Of course you can alternate between activities and a little chocolate treat too.

Time to open up the first box!!




Christmas is all about making time for family and don't forget to make it easy on yourself in the meantime!