Moving Furniture Beats the Winter Blahs!

When I was a kid, it was completely normal to come home from school to find my mom had rearranged the furniture.  It never seemed like a strange thing to do.  I think I've talked about this before, how I know people that have had their furniture in the same place for like 30 years??  Insane.  Anyway, I had moved stuff around this summer and was pretty pleased with it.  But that was like months ago, so of course I got sick of it!  And the toys, ugh, the toys.  I thought with my Ikea shelves I had that problem covered, but then the toys exploded from their nice shelves into the dining room, where there just wasn't really room. 

 

So.  Today I took everything out of the living room, tried a few different places for the couch, hated all of them, talked to my mom on the phone for a bit, trying to brainstorm.  In the end, I came up with a wonky solution, but one that seems to work.  For now.  I angled the couch and made room for a play area behind the couch.  We now have a little play space in the living room, but it's kind of hidden so you don't really have to see all the junk.  Yay!

 Otis really loved it as soon as I was done.  He got out a book and sat himself right down.  Because he had room!  Success!

What I really want to do is move our cable to another space, which would really make things easier.  But until that happens, we'll live with this.  Which is fine.

 

**And can I just say how much I LOVE Ikea Expedit shelves??  Oh my god, just go to Pinterest and search for expedit and there are tons of great ideas!  I loved this one so much!  Such a good idea!**

New Pals

More of the same summery goodness lately, made even better because we have made friends with the neighbors across the street.  They have a little boy six mo. younger than Ingrid and one just a couple months younger than Otis.  It's been instant BFFs around here! 

Today after nap time we had them over to play.  I'd made this paint I saw on Pinterest, which did not really turn out like paint so much.  It's simply flour, water, and food coloring, but all I had on hand was whole wheat flour, next time I'd try regular flour and hope for a better consistency.  But all in all it was a nice messy project for the kids on a hot day.

We had a pool of cold water ready to wash them up, and of course, popsicles.

The other day we stayed inside for the hot weather, and the AC must have been cool enough because we baked cookies.  I'd gotten some cookie cutters from Ikea that Ingrid desperately wanted to use, so we made moose sugar cookies.  They were delish.

Ikea

A friend and I went to Ikea on Wednesday.  I love and hate Ikea.  I can sit and daydream with a catalogue in hand, imagining a comfortable sofa, tons of clever storage, bright colors, and a happy family.  And then I get in the store and find what I thought was cute is actually really cheaply made (thus the $30 price tag) or it's not the color I thought it would be or there's no way it will fit in my car. 

However, I had a specific list of things I knew I wanted, so the trip was pretty fast and fun.  Having no kids along was an added bonus--I saw all the other moms with screeching kids yelling "stop touching that!  Just keep your hands off!" and I sighed a contented sigh and went back to  my leisurely browsing.  Suckers.

I got some Expedit shelves for our dining room.  They look so much better than the cheap Target bookcases we had before!  I got some baskets for the top, too, that have cleaning supplies I had nowhere else to put.  Now the top of my refrigerator is bare!  It's amazing.

You'll notice my trim is still not painted.  I intend to remedy that this weekend.

If I can find a dining room set I even kind of sort of like I will get it and then the dining room will be done.  I have not found a thing I like though.  Boo.

Other fun items purchased at Ikea were curtains for Ingrid's room, measuring cups, wooden spoons, and food storage containers.  I am so old and out of it that it is a happy day indeed when I have new wooden spoons!