{Corners of my Home}

Although I'm far from finished with all of the corners of this little house, I thought it would be nice to share a few of the cozy spots that are complete. {I'm hoping to share weekly, so if you want to show off your corners please join me and leave a comment with your post!} This is our mostly-finished family craft space. I say mostly because we will no doubt tweak a thing here or there as we really use it, but so far it is working wonderfully! The cabinet itself came to me from my grandmother...it was in her house as long as I can remember...and it always housed her many tea sets. We had many wonderful tea parties (after carefully choosing exactly which tea set we wanted to use!) when we were little, and it has always been a favorite piece of mine. When she offered it to me I was thrilled! My own special tea set now sits happily on the top shelf, out of reach of the smallest fingers, but easily accessible for frequent use.  

Below that is our paper shelf. I obviously have a monster stack of construction paper {from costco}...this will last us a while and will be well loved. We also have an assortment of tracing paper, drawing paper, printer paper and even some much loved marbled paper. My kids love to create special things ~ which makes sense with my constant project-ing ~ so it's important to our family that they have plenty of supplies that are easily accessible. I don't keep the water color paper there...it's pricey (even though I love using the 40% off coupons at Michael's and Hobby Lobby to get their big pads) and they just go through it too quickly if they have free reign. I just got the idea {in the comments of this great post} to half or quarter those sheets which makes perfect sense to me...my kids don't really use the entire page for one painting most of the time and that will really stretch it out! I also keep their letter writing basket there, I've just finished pulling together this basket, full of prefilled address labels to their favorite people, their own stationery and some of these stamps. I just need to add photos to help my non-readers more easily find which labels are for which people and then I'll share a better peek at that!

The bottom shelf holds our empty main lesson books {not for free reign either, but too large to fit anywhere else!}, and our table mat/drop cloth and art smocks (I can't wait to make some, but we were given some of the standard crayola ones that work quite well), and a basket with odds and end art supplies that don't fit well anywhere else. I know I have another box of art supplies *somewhere* so this shelf will likely get wiggled around a bit more once I find that...you know jingle bells, googly eyes, felt, etc.etc.etc. I have a few of these small blank books, and I can't say enough good things about them. They are just right to take outside when we need something more portable, and when Nomi noticed Jenny's main lesson book and expressed his interest {cough *tried to claim it for his own* cough} he was delighted beyond words when I gave him his very own tiny version. We also keep our play dough tray on the bottom shelf, {we like this recipe best, and I often add a few drops of lavender essential oils and/or a teaspoon of glitter} we keep it simple, I like to rotate out what other things they use so that we don't have to store a huge collection of things just for this purpose. A quick grab from my kitchen drawers keeps the game fresh. I try to not have more than one color at a time to avoid the inevitable mixing into tie-dye play dough...they don't seem to mind and it helps keep it nice for them longer. 

Although not visible in these pictures, I keep two baskets (keep an eye on them, they go on sale every now and then and are really lovely baskets that are probably worth the full price) on top to store "other things"...my kids don't really know what's up there so I'm able to keep surprises out of sight. They hold our large rolls of easel paper, and our larger puzzles (I label the back of each piece with a sharpie in a color to coordinate with the same mark on the board, then keep the pieces in a ziplock so I can store the puzzles standing up), as well as my super top secret stash of sticky notes and sharpies...my children wreak havoc with those two things but I am not quite ready to give them up for the sake of my children. *wink* I also keep my yarn swift and ball winder tucked up there for easy access whenever I have a moment! On the very bottom of the shelf I have two large felt baskets (also found at Target, but I can't find a link...I LOVE them, they're with the bathroom  vanity things, probably to hold towels or toilet paper?) that we use to house our duplo and wooden block collections. This keeps them handy for even Nomi and cleanup is a breeze...very win/win! Thank you for stopping by for a peek into our home! If you are interested in more on art supplies in particular, I would suggest you look at Ginny's wonderful post over at Rhythm of the Home on making art accessible to little ones!

Center Piece for Lent

Simple but so peaceful and lovely :) I covered the canning jars with tissue paper and slightly watered down elmer's glue. They're two of the ones we use for our Advent wreath. ;) The split peas idea is from another blog that I can't for the life of me find again...but they look so pretty in the bowl with the candle, don't they?

Nesting Meets Spring Cleaning

I did not get the classic nesting bug with the first two pregnancies. The closest I came was making a nest of pillows on the sofa and curling up in it...thus my homes were never submitted to the whims of pregnancy hormones, and I never got the satisfaction of knowing every square inch of "xyz" was *PRISTINE*. Until this time around...Almost every room in the house has been scrubbed, de-junked (we're talking 20+ large black trash bags and several good will runs), and shoved around. A bit odd considering that Baby will not know, notice, care or remember, but somehow it's still important!! I say "almost every room" not because I'm not doing certain rooms, but because I'm just not finished yet. What will I do if I finish before Baby arrives???

I thought I would share a few pictures of our living room which my sister (who has helped me with everything!!) helped me overhaul today... this is sort of a season table, fitting our season of life right now, more than a nature table that would be specifically geared towards the outdoors. It has our spring books, our new baby books, and a few Easter books underneath, next to a wooden bowl of river rocks. (The top photo shows a collection of a few of the birds we have been seeing return, Jenny's bunny toy, a beautifully illustrated book and a Montessori-esque tray with a folding icon and small- for little hands- crucifix.)

This is one CLEAN sofa...underneath and inside were completely vacuumed...I want to make some pillow covers for the throw pillows but I'm not sure what fabrics to use yet...a survey of the stash is in order once I finish a few baby related items! Above is the beginnings of our family art wall; Jenny's water color of a peacock is on the left, and Bobby's water color of "Daddy in him's bathrobe" is on the right ;)

Their play area~ I need to fix that handle on the "oven" this week! I'm also getting ready to rotate some toys, I think Bobby is really hitting a point where he would like blocks, instead of just throwing them like he was a few months ago!

I am SO proud of these two plants...I am notorious for killing plants. I decided last fall that I would give it one more try and asked my grandmother to start a few plants for me. I figured starting with something "un-killable" was a must, and these baby plants coming from a plant that has been alive about as long as I have couldn't hurt either. ;) I am very pleased to say that I got them in early October (I think) and they are still alive!! There were a few close calls, but they always spring back... once I remember to start watering them again...

Monday Christmas Corners

This afternoon Jenny and I set up our nativity set. The "cave" is just a cardboard box covered with one of our play silks, and the star is one from my ornament collection. We will put baby Jesus away until Christmas, and the three kings will wander around the house until Epiphany, but we wanted to see what it will look like all set up. :)

ps) Now that we are home I should be back to blogging as normal!