Tackle It Tuesday #17 - Matching Metals

I love my display of family photos. I wanted to unify them a little more without going through the expense of replacing all the frames. Enter my new BFF . . .


In no time, I have a new look for my photo display. Now if only I could spray paint the walls!

See what others are tackling today!

Show & Tell Friday - Framed Wedding Invitation

Recently Buzzings of a Queen Bee wrote a post about giving a unique wedding gift: a framed wedding invitation. She inspired me to do a little unpacking and find mine.


My cousin, Nancy, gave this to us as a wedding gift. I love that she embellished it with a beautiful drawing. It's a perfect addition to a few of my little mirrors.


If you look closely, you can see some moving boxes in the reflection still waiting to be unpacked and some fabric swatches on the chair.

Thrifty Green Thursday - No Gift Birthday Idea

Green Baby Guide hosts a weekly carnival called Thrifty Green Thursday. I've been reading the ideas for weeks and decided it was time to participate.
We get to go to a birthday party this evening. The host has requested "no gifts", which I love as a concept, but I always feel a little strange showing up without something. I really like the idea of recycled presents or "shopping" your house.

Today I recycled a picture frame to give to the birthday girl. I found an extra picture frame we had packed up and used some left over materials from this project.


I spray painted the frame and hot glued some fabric to the matting. In a matter of minutes, I had a cute updated picture frame fit for a little girl on her third birthday. I also included a picture of the birthday girl with her little friend, Meg.

Another good idea for "shopping" your house, is to encourage your child to pick out one of their toys to give as a present. Have you ever noticed how much fun your kids having playing with other kids' toys!

Tackle It Tuesday #16 - Our Coat Closet All Grown Up

We weren't taking advantage of all the space in our coat closet. We don't have a mudroom, so I wanted to create a space that would allow us to do more than just hang our coats. Here's pictures of the before:

And the after. Just like Kale's changing station closet, I used things from around the house we already had on hand.

I created a "landing" place for the mail, keys and cell phones. The bulletin board holds the items with deadlines or due dates. The baskets up top house baseball hats, phone books and a few manuals (my dear husband can often be found reading his VW car manual).

Bob and I each get a drawer in the dresser for papers and things. There's a drawer for things I routinely put in the diaper bag and my shoes are in the bottom drawer.

The kids have a place for their shoes and socks (a little tip I learned awhile back from a fellow blogger is to have a couple pair of socks where the shoes are kept). Of course, Meg's is the pink one! Their school tote bags are easy for them to grab on the way out the door. I'd still like to put a little bulletin board above the bench for them to display their school work.

I posted the kids' school calenders on the side of the dresser so we can see what they'll be learning about that day. There's also a container in between the dresser and bench to put paper in for recycling. I might tweak it a little more, but overall I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Check out some more great tackles over at 5 minutes for mom.

Wordle

This is so cool. Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words appearing more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

I took the text from my "Living Green" post and pasted it into the Wordle program. Don't ya love how "Eliminating" is the most prominent word!

Let's think of ways we can use these:

• design one for each of your kids using words that describe them
• create a motivational "word wall"
• use words from your favorite song, poem or quote
• if your family has a mission statement, copy and paste it into the program
• use words from your wedding vows

you could

• frame it
• create stationary
• make stickers
• make t-shirts

What are your ideas?

I Miss My Girls

There are still things that catch me off guard. I've gotten very savvy with my grief. I'm pretty good at putting my pain on hold; attending to it when I can't ignore it anymore. Grieving is exhausting . . . but entirely necessary and healing.

Tonight I unpacked a container of clothes. As I was putting them away I saw my shoes. The shoes I wore on the day of Ellie and Kate's funeral. I haven't seen them since that day. I put them on and tended to my broken heart.

I desperately try to imagine Ellie and Kate in my mind as they would be today. I imagine how their voices would sound. I try to picture how they would hold a pencil as they do their homework. Simple things I only have my imagination to give me.

There's a chill in the air - the first of many reminders of that day. Sometimes I need to write - to open up a wound I know will never completely heal. I need my girls to hear my words and see my tears and know they make me proud. They make me strong.

I am blessed. I now get to put away my shoes and tuck in three beautiful children. I also get to talk to Ellie and Kate in my prayers and see them in my dreams. Good night.

Tackle It Tuesday #15 - The Playroom

The baby woke up especially early this morning and was being a little loud. Instead of taking the chance of waking up every one else, we went down to the basement. This is what I found . . .

In our last house the playroom was right beside the family room so it was easier to see when it was a disaster. In our new house, the playroom is out of sight in the basement.


I thought this was the perfect motivation and opportunity to start back with Tackle It Tuesday. I have big plans for this room, but for now a good picking up is in order. The baby cooperatively played on the floor while I put things away.


I didn't have time to hang pictures, and there's still some organizing and purging to do, but it's a good start. Now I know I should check in on this room a little more often. Have a great Tuesday.