If you are subscribed to this site, or are still checking in for recent posts, you will need to click here and subscribe to the new blog MY LIFE AT PLAYTIME, there’s lots of fun stuff going on at the new site, so come on over!
Thanks so much for being patient with the unusually quiet blog space over here recently. But I have exciting and good news to share! It’s still a little bit of a work in progress but it’s far enough along that I can share with all of you. My Life at Playtime has officially moved. My new blog can be found now at www.mylifeatplaytime.com, pretty simple huh? All the archives of previous blog posts have been carried over, and there’s a search tab there that you can use if you have a keyword you’d like to search. I’m so excited I could burst! I have been thinking of doing this for a few years but the task seemed a little daunting. I took my time and learned most of it myself. The only thing I still have to figure out is subscribing to the blog. I have about 75 of you that like to receive an email every time I create a new post, and the RSS feed is set up but I have to add the option for subscribers. That’ll take me a bit longer. I also need to add some new photos to my ‘About’ page, but they’re on their way and should be completed by the weekend. But head on over and check it out! This space will now be quiet and no longer have new posts featured on it. It’s been fun, but I’m ready for some new fun, so I hope you all join me!
I’ve been meaning to put this post together for days and possibly a couple weeks. But we are still recovering in this house from life. No illnesses thank goodness. But I had gum surgery on Thursday and it’s not fun let me tell you. But I won’t sicken you with my gum surgery tale, I saved that for my Instagram followers.
On to Greta’s little wall makeover! I have been trying to talk her into letting go of her play kitchen for awhile now. The height of her kitchen food making playfulness was about 3 years old. So from 2-4 years of age it got some nice play time. But since then it has become more of a toy for other children when they come to visit. And it takes up a whole lot of space in her already packed room. Between her doll house, doll cradle, doll stroller, barbie collection, lalaloopsy collection, book case, nightstands, jewelry collection, dress up baskets. There’s a lot going on in this room of hers. So she gave me the okay a few weeks ago and while she was at a movie with her daddy I went right to work and moved the kitchen out. She didn’t blink an eye when she returned and we started plans of what would adorn the wall instead. She was on board.
I knew I wanted to spend close to no money on this since I feel like every few years we rearrange the kids room and change the room to fit their needs. I love love love me some pinterest so I went to my boards for inspiration. I kept coming back to shelving. Shelving out of common items you wouldn’t normally think to use.
I picked up this half hanging planter from my local nursery for around $12, and I knew I wanted to spray paint it with a green color, so I picked up a can in the right color for $5.
Next we had some of these wooden wine crates. Aaron has been saving them for me to use as a future planter project I have in mind for the backyard. But we can always get more, so he was fine with me taking two. We get them from our local wine/grocery store, for free. Yep, there’s always a few laying around where they are trying to get rid of them, so we happily take them off their hands. I had some white spray paint and then purchased a fun yellow can as well. Here’s the shelf before and then after a coat of white for the inside. (btw I use rustoleum for all my spray paint)
I’m going to try my best to explain how I did the spray paint different colors for the interior and exterior of the boxes. First I decided on my colors. I knew I wanted one box to be white on the inside with yellow on the outside, and then the other box I wanted opposite (yellow-inside, white-outside). Then I went to work on the inside, I made sure to do all the interior sides and the little lip on the exterior. I used maybe 1-2 coats and I wanted it a little rustic looking so I wasn’t very careful about coverage. Then I flipped the box over so it was laying face down, that way when I sprayed all the exterior sides it didn’t touch the interior color at all. Does this make sense? This was the easiest way for me to avoid using tape or having to go back to touch up the interior.
I also used a wire basket we already owned for the wall in addition to the planter and two wine boxes. So at this point we are at $12- planter, $5-spray paint can yellow, $5-spray paint can green, for a grand total of $22 plus tax. Everything on the inside we had or made ourselves, so this little wall was only $22.
Now for some details. The interior of the yellow crate has my most favorite item. I purchased a Time atlas book at a thrift store in Palm Springs last year and I was so happy to get to use one of the pages from it. I cut out the state of California because we all know how great this state is, and I traced the shape onto another sheet of paper. I handed that sheet to Gunnar and told him to please cut me a piece of wood to fit it. He has a little jigsaw that Aaron has taught him how to use. So he and Aaron got to work and a few minutes later voila, I had my wood piece. Next we just glued the map onto the wood for a perfect fit and then I used one of those picture hanging tabs to place it in the crate.
I also placed a pair of my baby shoes into this box and an Ikea vase with some fresh flowers, and this wooden bird that was residing in my room before, along with a gold spray painted wooden puzzle animal we bought at the hardware store. My kids go crazy for these wooden puzzles and they are like $2. I thought hey, let’s spray paint it gold since that’s another can I had lying around, and all of a sudden it got fancy!
I’ve said for years how much we as a family enjoying reading aloud at night. The boys have been read to for years and years. We introduced them to chapter books very early on and it’s the highlight to their day. A week or two ago we finished Treasure Island, the original version, and although it took quite a few stops and starts to explain some big nautical vocabulary words, the boys loved it.
We are big Gary Paulsen fans in this house and loved Hatchet. Now we are onto Brian’s Winter. It’s an alternate ending to Hatchet and picks up the story as if Brian was never rescued. Super great read, on the edge of your seat events. It’s about a boy’s survival after a crash in the wilderness.
Greta had to get in on the whole chapter book fun. She wasn’t too content listening to Treasure Island, but she has been a fan in the past of My Father’s Dragon(don’t let the 1949 publishing date deter you, great story). I decided to see how long her attention span would be, so we started off with Samantha from the American Girl series. I figured it was education and still historical fiction. She loved it. So next we checked out Ramona the Pest from the library. We are about halfway through and she just loves it. I catch her grinning from ear to ear in some parts. Her brothers often refer to Greta as Ramona so now she gets to find out the reasons why. If I can pass my love of reading down to all three of my kids I will be one of the happiest mamas around.
My girlfriends and I had another book swap recently so my nightstand is chalk full of new books. Cannot. Wait. I am currently reading my last book from the first swap we did. Can you believe in all my years that I never read To Kill a Mockingbird? Loving it. In fact, I found our future son’s name in the book. No, no impending baby news. In fact, there will be no future son, but IF we ever had a son in another lifetime, I have his name picked out thanks to this book. Just wish I had some time to dedicate to reading it. Our lives have been a blur in February. Literally the entire month passed me by. March will be full too I’m afraid. In fact I’m doubting that there will ever be a month where it’s just chill and no stress.
As I type this I am watching the clock for my next client to arrive. So I better sign off now. Have a good evening!
at least I document my life somewhere right? even if instagrams is all it is. here’s the last few weeks in review. no pressure for you to actually read through these, it’s more for my documentation than anything else.
1.library volunteer time 2.this is kim sober?RHBH 3.most uncomfortable waiting room bench ever 4.need this paper cutter in my house 5.crazy driver 6.skylander 7.focus group view 8.choosing books over tv 9.latte 10.bestie breakfast 11.zara kids 12.romeo on the kinder yard 13.first fire station field trip for the little man 14.listening, sort of 15.with zia 16.love me some spray paint 17. orthodontist 18.yogurtland for first time 18.still in bed 19.these two love each other 20.reading 21.facetime before romeo’s bedtime 22.reading ramona the pest 23.peek into greta’s new shelving 24.and another 25.garden prep work 26.work as a team 27.house chore 28.haircut 29.a little boy’s present to me 30.a yellow school bus 31.she has skillzzz 32.red 33.some peeks of our family photo shoot 34.fire pit 35.craft bookmarks at the book swap thanks to tanya 36.the most delicious caramel sauce
Sorry for the sporadic postings on the blog lately. February has flown by faster than I ever imagined possible. I don’t think there was a day that wasn’t filled. I think(and hope and pray) that March will be a breather for us. We spent the weekend prepping for house guests that are with us until next Monday, prepping our garden beds with fresh compost and soil, redecorating one of Greta’s walls(pics to come hopefully soon), along with all the normal cooking and cleaning and laundry, and throw in Aaron chopping wood and that is our weekend. I haven’t posted my Instagrams in 2 weeks, so I’ll have to catch up on that, maybe I’ll sneak on here one day and do that when the kids are in school. But other than that I don’t think I’ll be in this space much this week as we are entertaining friends from New York and keeping up with 9 people in one house is a full time job. Hope you all had a lovely long weekend!
I have been working on some colorful pieces for Greta’s room, one of her walls is getting a mini makeover. Nothing dramatic, but she’s outgrown some of her toys like her kitchen, and so we thought it was time to spruce up that area. One of the pieces was a simple Ikea vase. It was just plain white, but I plan to place it in something that is all white as well, so then you wouldn’t see it at all. So I just quickly put on some blue painter’s tape, got out a spray paint bottle we already had in Rustoleum’s Colonial Red (I use Rustoleum for all my spray painting) and voila. Simple. Nothing too fancy and the lines aren’t perfect, but it’ll be just the pop of color for the space.
