A room for the boy

This past spring we fixed up a new room for Tigerlily's 9th birthday surprise; before that she and Lyric shared a tiny, sad little room with a loft.  When she moved into her new space Lyric was left with the sad little room, and I was determined to fix it up just for him someday soon.  Well, the little guy's sixth birthday is coming up this weekend and that time is now! 

Mini door banner--I'll be selling these in the shop soon!

The big picture.  I wish I had more time to make/purchase some things for the walls.  And a cozy beanbag chair for that corner!

The all-important lego space.  We found a vintage tv cart at the junk shop for $5 and spruced it up with some spray paint.  Perfect!

Child-sized chairs are pretty hard to come by at a reasonable price so we made our own!  Skye used some pieces of plywood to slap together fitted tops for two milk crates and I stretched them with batting and pieces of old t-shirts (one of my favorite materials!).  Voila! Seating AND storage.

The loft.  I made the "Love you more" pillow for him because whenever I say, "I love you, kiddo," he says, "I love you more!" and I reply with "No, I love you more!" and it goes on from there.  He's my favorite boy in the whole world ♥

And here he is, the boy in his very own room!!

Man, I love that kid :)

Tune in next week for details of Lyric's amazing science birthday party!!  I had thought I had lost my party planning mojo but this one is shaping up to be my best kid birthday party yet!

Moving on

No need to dwell on the several months this blog has been neglected, right?  It's just a testament to how busy I've been!


I have tons and tons and TONS of work to share, but also tons and tons of photo editing before that happens.  For now I'll share a little home improvement we finished recently: a new room for my newly-turned-nine-year-old girl!

 I had such a great time creating this room for my girl and fulfilling my preteen dream of being an interior decorator! Almost everything in the room is handmade or secondhand.  I only bought the duvet cover and the lamp on the dresser retail, plus a few prints from Etsy--the bike and two others yet to come.  The chandelier was bought at our local Habitat Re-Store and painted green, the bed was free from a neighbor, the dresser was found on Craigslist, the little red doll dresser and the record player were thrifted, and I bought the rug at a church rummage sale for $1.50 (!).  The desk was mine at Tigerlily's age and my Father's before me.  I made all of the pillows, the curtain and the name banner on the door. 

 

Success ;) 

 We also had a nature themed birthday party for Tigerlily at a favorite local park, complete with a short hike and lots of stream exploring.  I was far too caught up in the festivities to really get any good shots but I can show you the invitations!

Add party planning to my list of missed callings!

The Annual Birthday Mix

Can't believe my girl is NINE!

366 Photos: Week Three

Time just keeps flying by...
This week I (finally!) finished and mailed out all of my Kickstarter rewards, launched the Cloth Book of the Month program, started work on a series of printed alphabet books, gave my girl bangs (adorable), relived my 80's summer vacations with some spirographing, fell in love with my new Silhouette Cameo, and chilled with my favorite people.

366 Photos: Week Two

It's the second week of the year and halfway through January and it looks like winter may have finally arrived, but still no snow. Boo.This week was filled with lots of sewing, a new haircut for the girl, painting rocks with friends, lots of hot beverages, kids crafting, and weekend shopping (tractor not included). Living the life!

366 Photos: Week One

The days, weeks and months seem to go by so fast I can hardly remember what filled all of the moments that constitute a year. I'm hoping to capture one of those moments each day this year, 366 (a leap year!) little moments to make up a picture of 2012. Here we go, week one!

This week we found a live dandelion, reorganized and restocked for the work ahead, convalesced after a bout of pneumonia, cultivated a family-wide obsession with Tintin, resumed our homeschooling with some research into ocean animals, made and gifted some things for the cousins and visited with the extended family. A good start to the best year ever!

Happy Halloween!

♥ Alice & Harry

The rain in Maine

Our little family took a much needed vacation last week to the coast of Maine.

We stayed in the most amazing house in one of the most beautiful places in the world.


It rained a bit but that didn't even matter.


We escaped the world and embraced it at the same time.


It was magic.

Already dreaming of a return visit!

Get off your ath let's do some math!

Today was Tigerlily's official first day of homeschooling! We're starting with a half day per week (with T.L. at the Free School for the remainder of the week) but may add another afternoon because it's so much fun. Today we did some math, geography, art, writing, and played UNO.

We're having a ridiculous amount of fun playing school ;)

Tomorrow is the first day of "real" school, so it's a big week. I can't wait to learn and do lots more with my best girl this year, it's going to be amazing!

Businesskids

As a last hoorah of summer Tigerlily got it in her head that she MUST have a bake/lemonade sale. Her determination won us over and plans were made. She decided on her menu (which we whittled waaay down), made a shopping list, figured out what everything cost (with some help; math is not her strong suit), made signs and decorations, and of course led the effort to make everything. She and a few friends had a blast selling all of the treats and in the end made $31.65! I was impressed. She's still not decided what exactly she'll do with the money though she has promised at least half to help with some local flood relief efforts.


I love that this whole experience was such a great homemade learning experience, the perfect way to segue from summer into the start of school next week! And we're extra excited this year because, in addition to attending the Albany Free School, Tigerlily will be doing some home learning with me one morning (and maybe one afternoon) each week! I have lots to share about this exciting new adventure in the next few weeks.