Creative Juice

Okay, so you all remember my room that needed decorating, well it's almost done. And, I have been doing pretty good at just using what I've got. I got some great ideas for the creative room decor from a great book I just read. It's not a decorating book. It's a book about how to help you and your wee ones be more creative. It's called The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. She has some great ideas, mostly geared toward children, but really some great things for everyone! I love that her ideas are simple and low-cost. Check it out:

One of the ideas in the book is a Nature Table. It's just a little place in the home where the kids can play with nature. She likes to center hers around the seasons, but really anything goes. At our nature table right now are a couple of seed packets-in a bucket so they can be dumped and played with-, some rocks Grace found, some books about Arizona wildflowers, a star-chart (we are taking a trip to the local planetarium next week), and The Very Hungry Caterpiller by Eric Carle. We also have this butterfly kit which has really been AMAZING and I could make an entire post just about it, but I won't. Anyway you get the idea...it can be so simple.

The Inspiration Wire. I LOVE this for me. You have all probably heard about inspiration boards, well this is the same idea-except it's a wire you can clip things to. You put things there that you find inspiring for whatever reason, to be used in later creative projects. I have totally used it to help me generate ideas for decorating my house. I really like how the wires look on the wall. Each of us (except Gibby) has a wire- Pretty!

Another of her suggestions that is so simple, but great, is to put a basket of fabric of all sorts shapes, sizes, patterns, textures where you kids have access to it. It's really fun to see what crazy things they come up with to do with the fabric: lay it out on the floor, cut it, tie it, throw it, draw on it...really fun!

She has some great suggestions for dress-ups. One of them was to have a mirror nearby-which makes complete sense, but I hadn't thought of it. My dress-ups were hanging up high completely out-of-reach. So, I moved them to the trunk shown above (which I painted ORANGE -a little crazy-not sure I really like it). And hung the mirror-which my sis made for me-thanks RicAnn!

And there's my red repurposed shelf.

Anyway, she's got a bazillion and one ideas. It's good stuff. Maybe you should check-it out.

A Little Sit

I find the idea of child-sized chairs around the house so charming. I can't really put my finger on why I'm obsessed. Maybe someone told me it was cool. I'm not sure. But, I have really been wanting some little chairs for my little people to sit in. I found the small chair in this picture on craigslist. I imagine my little ones finding themselves in this corner wondering through the pages of books. (Maybe after they're finished flooding the kitchen. :) )

I won?!?

Guess what!?! I won a magazine subscription to this great magazine on DesignMom! I can't believe I actually won something. Hooray! Thanks DesignMom!

So, I did it!

So, I did it. I actually went to the modern dance class yesterday. I was a little worried I was going to chicken out. But, I didn't. And it was fun. I mean, sure, my face was literally PURPLE, before the class was half over because I'm SO out of shape. And, I had to sit down for a couple of minutes toward the end because I thought I was going to be sick. (You have to give me some credit, the combination we had been doing involved MANY cartwheels-yes, cartwheels!) Anyway, it felt good. And I'm going to do it again. The class was small and the instructor was very encouraging, and I think it will be a great fit.

Oh man, speaking of dance. My friend, Tahna, sent me this link of an AMAZING performance. Seriously, AMAZING! (I would have posted it here, but I've yet to figure out how to post a video from YouTube.) You really should check it out.

Dance Dance Crazy Pants

Don't you just love to dance? Oh man! I love to dance. Really, I love all sorts: modern, ballet, ballroom, etc...And for the first 2/3 of my life, dance played a major role. I took all sorts of classes, performed and even taught classes. But, I'm sad to say in recent years there really has been no formal existence of dance in my life. Of course, I dance with my kids, and in the car while listening to the radio, (oh, c'mon you know you do to!) but, I haven't really done anything to develop my "dance talent" per say. I guess I've just been too busy.

For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the things I fill my time with: family, church service, design. But, I have been spending oodles of time lately on our house & yard, decorating etc...something I love, but when all is said and done I could be happy at the end of a life with house that is not picture perfect. However, I will be very sad if I don't get myself in gear and do something with this desire of mine to dance. So I have! I found a couple of classes for adults, a modern class & a ballet technique class, that are flexible and affordable and I'm totally pumped! I'm sure I'll be totally awkward at first, but who cares!?! I'm excited and going to class starting Tuesday.

As a side note: A couple of other things I really want to do in this life of mine are travel more and learn to play the guitar. (I've always thought it would be such a great thing to be a guitar-playing mommy. I have these funny visions of me playing fun songs while my kids fold laundry. I know it's a little silly, but I'm determined make it happen. :) )

This sweet pic was taken by one of Gracie's grandparents at her dance concert a couple of years ago. Can you tell which one she is?

Repurposing

Man, it's been a while hu? I've been in a small nothing-terribly-inspiring-to-post-about slump, I guess. Or maybe it's because I've been thinking, and I feel like I have so MUCH to say that it's just easier to say nothing. Shrug. Who knows. All I know is I have a fun idea. (And yes, the idea does involve these seemingly random pictures.)
Recently, I have found myself with a big room. Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite so easy as just "finding" it, it actually took quite a bit of effort to make this room in our home available, but now it is--and I'm loving it! I have big ideas for this room. It's going to be an art/play/office-ish room, a room everyone in the family can use, and I have some ideas for decorating it. One of the ideas involves a shelf already hanging in the room (see seemingly random pictures). I thought it would be a useful storage center for craft/art supplies. Initially, I was wanting to go to Ikea and buy all matching clear jars to contain the craft supplies. But Ikea is quite a distance from here and there are lots of other things I'd rather spend money on. So, I started rummaging through the house to see what I already had that I could use. I was pretty excited with what I found. What do you think of the final result?
Anyhoo. All of this put me in a mood--a sort of a money-saving, using-what-you've-got-to-make-it-work mood. And it helped spawn my fun idea, which I really am getting to. I'm going to redecorate this room using only things I currently have. It'll be a big project based solely on the idea of repurposing. Excluding money. That is, I can't use the money I have now. But, I will need some money. So the rule is that I can only use money I earn from selling things I already have. AND I've already got $25 from selling a child pack on craigslist this morning. Hooray! I'm off and running. Now, I sort want a name for this project of mine...

Daddy Fest!

Yesterday, Nate took the kids to the mountains for a few hours of quality Daddy time. (Leaving Mommy alone at home to get some things done around the house. :)) It was our first Daddy Fest! The kids had a blast. They climbed and jumped off rocks, had a picnic and splashed in the creek. Nate's so brave, he even took Gibby! Grace asked if we could have Daddy Fest every time Daddy doesn't have work.