Recent projects

We've been very busy lately! We repainted the kitchen, had lots of visitors staying with us, and the baby and I left for 5 days. Traveling was so much fun and we saw lots of family, which was so great. The baby also cut his first tooth! I suspected something was going to happen, but he was such a trooper still :)

I have lots of projects on the go. Right now my main focus is the home daycare I plan on opening in the near future. I'm not sure when exactly. I have to get the house together and also collect more toys. I'm having lots of fun planning so far, though. I plan on doing an inspiration post soon.

Here are some pictures of my recent aquisitions. I am in the middle of completing them and will post the 'afters' when all is said and done.

Our (nearly) free swing

...Quickly while the baby is still napping...

Last month we hung a swing in a tree in our front yard. The swing itself was free. Last year my Step-MIL found it in a free pile in someone's driveway. She gave it to us, knowing I want to start an inhome day care(this was before we knew we were expecting!). It's been sitting in the garage ever since. Now that our son is big enough to sit in it, we hung it up!

First, I tried to clean the swing. But it was quite stained and even after some tough scrubbing, the stains persisted! Ah well. I know it is clean.


Then, we bought some hooks from the local hardware store. They were around $1 each.


My husband used the drill to drill holes into the tree branch:


While the baby watched on:


My husband got the hooks into the tree.


And tested it out to make sure it would hold.


I think it is a hit :)


And all for under $3!

He has been in it nearly every day since it was hung up. He loves it!

I'm joining Frugal Fridays.

Child's bench redo

It has been a busy busy busy past few days for us. To start, my parents were visiting us for four days. We love having them! We also had a garage sale on Saturday which was a great success!

I have lots of new projects on the go. I now officially have to stop myself from going bargain shopping! It's better to stay close to home for now, as it is just so hot out these days. Much too warm for the baby to be going from house to car to store to car to home again.

Some of our projects include: painting the kitchen, laying new floors in our bedroom, planning the design of our new bedroom, painting three dressers, painting the dining room, etc. Those are the big things, plus there are lots of little things in the works too!

So anyway, the other day a house down the street was piling things on the side of the road in a Free Pile. I stopped and chatted with the folks (their father had sadly passed away and they were preparing his home to be sold), and picked up a few great little things, including a child's bench.

I'm a bad blogger because I forgot to take a picture of the bench before I started painting it. But it was covered in an orangey coloured stain. Not really my style.

So here is a picture of the first coat of paint:



And after, set up in DS's room with some 123 baskets purchased from Ikea:



I love it, because it really adds something to his little room with white furniture :)

I am joining:

Southern Hospitality

Garage Salen

Creating a child friendly environment in an adult space

Last week my child bestowed a 2.5 hr nap upon me. I got lots of blog surfing done in that time!

Time well spent? Absolutely!

I am ECE trained, and have every intention of running my own home based daycare centre in the future. The problem I have right now is that I do not want to spend all day every day in our dark basement with the kids. So that means we will spend a lot of our indoor time upstairs in the main living areas. The problem with that is we don't have a ton of space, and I don't want my house to look like it was vomited on by a Toys R Us.

Diane, at In My Own Style, has created a wonderful storage solution, which I think if executed just right will solve my toy storage problem:

Photo courtesy of In My Own Style.

See her tutorial HERE.

My other dilema was book storage. I am a huge advocate of reading (really, who isn't?!) and I wanted our books to be accessible, but also organized and uncluttered. And since I don't want a huge bookcase taking up living space, I love love LOVE these book display shelves:


Photo courtesy of Frugal Home Designs.

I have seen these done on many blogs, in many different ways but Fawn at Frugal Home Designs has a great tutorial, which makes it all look so simple.

Some of you ladies are so crafty, I am just in awe of your talents!

Welcome me to the blogging world...

Ten things about me:

1. I am a wife, mother, daughter, friend.
2. My son will be four months old in three days.
3. Sleep is the ultimate goal in this house.
4. I enjoy creating things!
5. I LOVE a great deal!
6. I live for garage sales and second hand stores.
7. I aim to have a child friendly house.
8. I love to bake, but hate to clean.
9. I am a history buff; particularly family history.
10. I am quite indecisive.

My husband and I have been married for over a year. We have a beautiful infant son together. We own our little home, in our small town. We have been homeowners for nearly a year now, and are loving (almost) every minute of it!

So bear with me as I navigate through the blogging world.