My Valentines.

This year was a fun Valentine's Day because Ingrid was in school, which meant making cards.  Luckily her teacher sent us an email asking parents not to go overboard, no candy or toys, just simple cards the kids made themselves.  I am totally fine with that!  We cut some printer paper in half, folded them into cards, and Ingrid sat and drew with markers and put heart stickers on them.  It took a few days of her doing this little by little, and in the end we had a nice stack for the class. 

 I also helped out at her school the other day.  We made these heart guy bags for them to put their cards in.  It was so funny to help out a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds!  And they all think you're a teacher because you happen to be an adult, so kids came up to me asking me permission to do things.

Of course some parents went crazy anyway and made some Pinterest inspired cards that obviously were not made by the kids themselves.  I do like the paint chip bookmarks, but I was not about to sit and make 32 of them for my kid.  I love that she wanted to sit and draw and create her own cards! 

 

We got her glasses a couple days ago, so now she is wearing them full time.  She is adorable, there is just no getting around it.  And she looks about ten years older when she wears them...

 If you've noticed my square pictures, you can see I have finally joined the Instagram party.  I'm not so much into the sharing part, but oh my god, I love the square pictures!  I love the borders and filters!  Even pictures that aren't completely in focus look better because they look like they were taken with some 70s camera and developed at one of those Fox places, right??

And now it's the weekend and we are going to shop for a stove and a refrigerator.  Possibly paint Ingrid's dresser.  Definitely bathe the dirty children.  And maybe go buy a cake for my birthday tomorrow?  I love cake.  It's a fun filled weekend, woohoo!

Pinterest and My Make Believe Mud Room.

I know some people don't like Pinterest because it makes them feel inadequate, but I am a realist.  I know I will  not do the ten million crafts I have pinned for the kids, I know I will probably not make half the recipes I see on there.  I know for sure I will never get a slide staircase, even though I would LOVE one!  But I love to sit and waste my time after the kids go to bed and daydream about what we can do with our house.  Since it's our house and we can do whatever we want!

 

Lately I have been daydreaming about putting on a tiny addition to the side of our house, where the side door is.  I would love to someday add just enough space to have a little mud-room/laundry room combo.  It would free up some more space down in the basement, and give us a space to put our coats and shoes, which really pile up quickly...

 

Tonight I found these two pins that made me really want to do this!  The first is the exact idea I had--a small addition, just large enough for some storage of coats, mittens, boots.  A little bench.  Also a washer and dryer in there somewhere, too, so I don't have to go to the basement.  How cute is this?  It really doesn't look that huge, either, which is great.  We don't have a ton of space between houses, but we'd have enough for this.

 And this one shows the absolute cuteness I could bring to a muddy room with good fabric choices!  And flooring.  And maybe some cool vintage things scattered about on little shelves.  My mind is filling with ideas!  Now we just have to see how do-able something like this would even be...