our little life: Our week off...

This week has been nice and relaxing. Not a lot of blogging. Tried to stay "unplugged" for a week. What did we do? Well, the kids did lots of playing, drawing, cutting, glueing, painting, pretending and dancing. We even went to 2 movies! Pretty fun.

I didn't take as many pictures as I should have. Oops. I DID do a lot of cooking, cleaning, organizing, laundry and LOTS of playing with the kiddos.

Made to order breakfast for these two. Spoiled. Seri's choice is usually what she calls "egg toast" and Jett loves pancakes...with a chocolate chip smile, of course.

Did I mention I adore my turquoise plates?

One of Jett's Christmas presents was the Crayola Magic Wonder Painter. He loves it and there is NO MESS! The colors are pretty muted, but he can get it out and paint independently. We have a whole window full of paintings. Notice the tp roll on the table? My boy wants to use EVERYTHING for art. I have to throw things away when he isn't looking.

About Thursday, I got the urge to finally redecorate our basement. Our basement houses the laundry room, a bathroom, a large living area with fireplace and the kid's playroom. We don't use it much, mostly because it doesn't tend to be as "homey" as I would like. I am much more comfortable upstairs. It has a commercial white/gray checkerboard floor that is FREEZING in the winter and is in not so good condition, with lots of black marks and scratches. Sooo....thanks go Home Depot, I found an 12x14 carpet remnant for little money to cover the living area. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Of course I didn't take any before pictures. We now feel at home downstairs and have spent most of our time down there the last few days. Someday, I will have all the downstairs floors redone in laminate and/or carpet, but for now this works.

We love our new space.

My to do list for downstairs included:

New handles for built-in drawers (have been without handles for over a year.)
New handles for the bathroom

Toilet paper roll finally up in the bathroom
Curtains on three windows. Decided to do full drapes, even though they are basement windows. It makes it feel more like a living room and not a basement. My WONDERFUL sister gave me a pair of white drapes she had (0.00), made a pair of drapes from the part I cut off the bottom (0.00) and had to buy one pair of drapes for 17.99. Pretty good for 3 windows. I am the "hot glue princess". My sister is the queen. I am not the best at sewing, so I resorted to good old hot glue. Magic. I used it on so much stuff. Crazy, I know.

Covered the laundry window with blue and white striped curtains I got from Goodwill.
New rug in front of the downstairs door. We have actually been coming in that way from the garage. We kindof like it, except for the huge steep basement stairs we have to come down and up. Good exercise, right?
Paint. I bought paint to touch up some drawers in the bathroom. I ended up touching up all the white furniture (sofa table, bookcase, bench, plant stand) as well as painting a small bookcase to house the kids toys and art supplies.
New art/play area. Moved their white table out from the playroom. Bought new markers and crayons. They have spent most of their time sitting at that table creating the last few days. I am working on an art gallery above the bookcase to exhibit their work. I am also looking for a HUGE bulletin board where Jett and Seri can put their masterpieces up themselves and I can also add pics of my favorite things. (I saw one at our local RESTORE habitat for humanity for $5.00. I hope it is still there.)
Need to still fix the one rectangle of broken glass in the fireplace screen. I am not quite sure how to do it. A very cold breeze comes blowing through it. I have it covered with pillows right now, which isn't my favorite, but I am trying my best to ignore it until I can figure out what to do. Ideas anyone?