Checking In

Thank you all for your kind responses to my last post "Honestly" via Facebook, Blogspot and even text messages. I hope that you never get the wrong picture of my real life based on what I show on social media. I want to be as real on here as I am in real life. I have some things that I've been itching to show you, but have been waiting for an "unreal" moment of tidy shelves etc. If I wait for that to happen, I might not ever show you and so...

• David ingeniously created two work stations for us in our living area when we needed to re-claim our third room from an office/craft room back to a bedroom for Hannah. We have little space to work with and my main concern was how to keep our littles (mostly Micah right now), from wreaking havoc with the computer or my craft supplies. We loved the concept of all in one office cabinets, but we were not loving the price tag that came with them and so, with our limited budget, David came up with an amazing solution. I give you our version of the all-in-one office and the all-in-one craft station!

• The office is a generic pantry type cabinet with a keyboard tray installed and the shelving arranged in such a way as to accommodate the space needs of our computer. The cords are run through the back of the cupboard or behind the shelves. It works quite slick. I found all these cloth bins at the local dollar store and they work quite nicely for all the supplies we need handy.

• David ingeniously made them locking cabinets! My favourite feature! Have you seen these magnetic child locks? Well, by adding some washers to one door in order to interlock the doors and the child lock on the other, these are completely secure from the prying hands of my toddlers.

• My sewing station is mostly to hold and not to work out of, but it's organized in such a way that I know exactly where everything is and I can grab what I need and take it to the kitchen table to work.

• Here's how it looks in my living room. I wanted to clean up my bookshelves and the tops of the cupboards before I blogged about this, but in reality the clutter is pretty much constant these days and so here's my real life.

• I have a few small "stolen" moment sewing projects to share. I whipped up a camera strap and lens cover case for our camera. This was a project that I've been wanting to do since we got our camera (2 Christmases ago).

• I sewed an open wide zipper pouch for my make-up and it's been very handy. Tutorial here.

• I also whipped up this zipper pouch. I was mostly experimenting with the fancy vinyl. It's fun.

• I bought the vinyl for a bag pattern that I have to make. When time permits. David bought me fabric for Mother's day and I'm itching to cut into it. I didn't make my traditional new baby new bag and I think it's time for a new one. 
• I organized a little lunch station in my cupboard. I know that school is almost out for this year, but I'm sure I'll make some picnic lunches before fall when I have more than one box lunch to do a week.

This box has sprinkles, edible eyes, cookie cutters, sandwich cutter, silicone baking cups (I use those as food dividers), Pez dispensers (we're aware that candy is not encouraged, but our summer picnics will include Pez) and toothpicks with washi tape to make flag skewers. Most of these items have been collected over a long time from the dollar store and grocery stores.

The accessories box in the cupboard with the lunch boxes and lunch bag.  Bento inspired lunches do not work if you don't keep them upright, so I need to fix the lunch bag with a handle on top instead of the side. That will do it for now, but I will sew Abby a lunch bag for the fall that allows her to carry her lunch upright.

• Random story: We've been teaching Abigail about using words instead of physical force (i.e. ask your brother for the toy back, rather than grabbing it). Well, Abby misunderstood or misheard what I said, so now she says things like, "I'm sorry for using musical force, Mommy."
• Hairstyling has been fun these last few weeks. I do Abby's hair and sometimes she plays with mine. Well, we've put together a little hair dressing kit and in it is a small pair of scissors for cutting out her tiny hair elastics. You can imagine where this is going. Well, I'm sending an email at the computer, holding Hannah in one arm and Abby is doing my hair. Suddenly I hear that sickening sound of hair being cut right behind me. Thankfully is was only a tiny piece of my hair, but boy did she get an earful! It was not my best mommy moment for sure. What is it with children and scissors and hair?! Really, I should've know better.