Happy Easter

My mom took the kids for a slumber party!! I am enjoying an adult beverage, a thin crusted pizza, and the contents of Joshua's (too young to notice or care) Easter basket!  I am also beginning detailed comparisons of all the various options for Lydia's education.  We have three options fr Kindergarden (she got into the honors magnet school :), could stay at the private school where she is currently, or go to the neighborhood school) Each of these schools leads to a different possibility for middle and then high school, so I am comparing ALL of the schools in question because we were just told that we need a decision for the magnet school by FRIDAY!!!!! Ugh!  I was hoping to have more time.  While I stare at numbers an test scores, you can stare at the Easter pictures of the kids. Enjoy! 

Happy Easter!

March 17

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from my red headed little leprechauns! Today's weather has been amazing(yeah!) but my spring break is ending(boo). 10 more weeks until my next big vacation from work, but its a big one and definitely worth the wait!

Sleeping Space in the Sunroom

Last summer I posted about making a new bed spread for the day bed in our vintage circus themed nursery. As a reminder, below is the daybed before the makeover and after.

It was a big improvement, but the daybed was hidden away in Joshua's nursery. This made it helpful as an extra bed if the baby was fussy or when more than one member of our family was sick and the only healthy grown up needed a germ free bed. However, the daybed is our ONLY extra bed, so it is also our default guest bed making its location in Joshua's room less than ideal.

I had always wanted a guest sleeping area in our new sunroom, but wasn't sure how it would all come together. I was open to anything and searching Craigslist for all manner of couches, sleeper sofas and wicker sets.

When I found a matched set of SEVEN really nice wicker pieces in my price range I jumped at the deal. They have the relaxed feeling I was after and, after a lifetime of piecing together thrifted furniture, I really like that this is a set.

I also cane to appreciate how light weight the wicker is, as I couldn't seem to find an arrangement that I liked. Every time I sat down to relax, I ended up completely rearranging the entire room!

With so many wicker pieces filling the new room, I had resigned myself to the idea that the sunroom just wouldn't hold a piece of furniture to sleep on. And yet, I couldn't quite find an arrangement that worked. On a whim, and with the understanding that I might have to reverse course and put everything back, I took apart the big wooden daybed and hailed the pieces downstairs.

After struggling to disassemble, move, and reassemble the big heavy bed (by myself) I was happy to leave it in the sunroom, and not just because I don't want to do all that work again! I LOVE having something larger than a couch in this room.

Routinely, both kids and myself end up on the daybed while lounging around or playing games.

Should we choose to watch TV, it is nice to stretch out on something a lot more comfy than a wicker love seat.

And, should we have guests, they will have a place to sleep that doesn't include a crying baby in the nursery. Of course the rest if us are enjoying hanging out in the sunroom so much, we might cry a little to have to leave it should a guest visit!

Adding Easter Dress DIY Details

Like many of my own wardrobe choices, the decision of what Lydia should wear for Easter this year began with a pair of shoes.  I actually bought this beautiful embroidered grey pair of shoe when Lydia was a BABY! (I know, I'm not normal, but these are some pretty GREAT shoes!) 

I had them stashed away in a closet and had forgotten all about them (its only been 4 years!) when Lydia found them and noticed that they were her size!  She was in love with the shoes and wanted to wear them right away.  I asked her to wait and promised we would find an Easter dress that matched them. 

I had been looking, unsuccessfully, for a few weeks when I saw this pale pink poofy dress at Target.  It is a very pretty dress and I knew that Lydia would LOVE it, but it was a little plain for my taste.  I was hoping to find a dress with some hints of pink, grey, and green similar to the shoes.  Since I couldn't find a dress with the embellishment that I wanted, I decided to buy the plain dress and add my own.

I had big ideas for making a sash and adding flowers and lace, but in the end (and thanks to my dawning realization that 2 kids leaves me very little time for crafting) the simplest solution proved to be the best.  I found some stunning silver lace and simply sewed it to the existing waist band on the dress. 

 I am SO happy with the added detail and the way that the lace makes the flower details on the front of the dress stand out.  Lydia loves EVERYTHING about the outfit. (She also loves making silly faces and the pose above was all her idea!)

She feels like a princess in this dress and the silver lace is the icing on this pink poofy cake!

A Tricky Tie Picture Problem

I scheduled the kid's Easter pictures for this Saturday, not thinking about the fact that this is a really busy week OR that I usually want to make hair bows and gather props for pictures. I certainly wasn't thinking about how two kids means twice the picture prep!

I found Joshua's outfit months ago at a consignment sale, so I also wasn't considering that it might not fit him. (It doesn't) I also hadn't bought Lydia's dress yet, so I had the opportunity to buy her something that matched his outfit (but I didn't). So, I had some work to do!

Lydia's dress is pink, so it coordinated with the tan color of Joshua's pants and vest, but I wanted a little more matching. I decided his tie needed to have some pink, but couldn't find one and didn't have time to make one.

I did, however, have some pink and tan striped ribbon and fabric glue.

In the end the look from far away was pretty good. There were some ends that needed more glue, which wasn't a big deal. However, up close it felt really stiff and the texture of the ribbon was different from the texture if the tie.

So I peeled off the ribbon and tried a different approach, I painted it!

I figured I could always glue ribbon on top if the paint if I didn't like it. Here you can see the comparison between one painted stripe and one ribbon stripe. I really like the paint and just wish I had done that first so that I wasn't also painting over old dried glue.

Here is the finished tie in its new color scheme.... Picture Perfect!

Progress in the Sunroom

Easter is just around the corner, and that means its time to finish a few projects around the house before the family comes over for Easter dinner and possibly a wheel barrow race!

The sunroom is now a bit sunnier thanks to some yellow paint and a extra sweet paint helper.

The floors are getting covered in a laminate version of cork flooring. It is a good match to the color of the wood floors in the rest of the house, without actually having to match the flooring completely.

The pieces snap together so easily, it didn't take much time to get a lot covered.

We're not quite done yet, but it is so close, we are enjoying it already. I found some wicker furniture on Craigslist and couldn't resist setting up a few pieces on the finished side of the room.

Joshua wasn't about to sit, though! He celebrated the new floor by showing off his new ability to stand on his own! He is SO proud of himself! He cant pull himself up to a stand and he cant go anywhere or do anything once he is there, but he sure is enjoying the new view!

He also seems to have a tiny tooth that has broken the surface and I am determined to work with him next week (my spring break) to sleep longer in his own bed. (Fingers crossed that recent sleep issues might just be the side effect of teething!)

There are also new curtains to hang, Easter outfits to finish, cushions to cover, and new wicker furniture to re-arrange, and with that sleep training issue, there will probably be a few well timed naps on my schedule! I'll keep you posted, if I'm not too exhausted!

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down?

Almost two weeks ago, Lydia complained that her toe hurt. When I looked at it, the toe was swollen to the point that I wondered if she could have broken it without us noticing the injury.

Then I noticed a small puncture in the center of the swollen area and decided we were probably dealing with some sort of insect bite. After a quick call to my sister, the nurse, I had a list of symptoms to watch for overnight.

By morning the toe was still swollen and there was a faint area of redness spreading up her foot. Everything was sore and she was walking funny to avoid pressure on the toe. Add in that she complained of a stomach ache and we were headed to the pediatrician.

Within a week, we had been to the pediatrician 3 times (Tuesday, Friday, and Monday) and then made an unplanned visit to Children's Hospital ER on Sunday.

She has had her toe drained (an excruciating ordeal), she has had to lie still and soak it, she has missed school, and she has been on a lot of different antibiotics. We think that we finally have the right one, but it tastes AWEFUL!

Her first dose took a lot of coaxing to get down and then on the last sip, she gagged on the vile stuff and it came back up again.... And then we had to get her to take a new dose all over again! I asked my Facebook friends for ideas and, in Mary Poppins fashion, the best suggestion was a spoonful of.... Peanut butter!

The peanut butter coats the mouth prior to taking the medicine. Lydia then uses a syringe style medicine measure device to shoot the antibiotic as far to the back of her mouth as possible. She usually has a glass if water nearby in case there is a bad taste that needs to be washed away. Even without the syringe, she has managed to take her medicine without any problems. I wouldn't say the medicine goes down in the most delightful way, but it does go down without a fight. Hopefully, as a result, the swelling and infection in Lydia's toe will also go down. That would be delightful!