How about a stream of consciousness?
I haven't done one of these in a while...where I just sit here and type whatever pops into my brain. It's like a miscellany post, except even more miscellaneous.
I'm still really loving being done with my major painting projects for now. It's really quite amazing what I can get done when we're not doing school AND I'm not painting. Life is significantly less challenging that way.
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(photo by Sonia. You can see the varying shades of blue on the wall behind me...it took three tries to find the right color!)
I do still have a little something to spray paint and hang up on Lisey's walls. That something might be a Goodwill find that's been stashed away in my laundry room for a year or two.
Better late than never, I say.
I also need to figure out what else we're going to hang on Lisey's walls. The big wall over the bed used to have a bunch of photos of my babies, but that's obviously not the direction Lisey wants to go (despite how devastatingly adorable my babies were). 🙂
So, we need to put our heads together and figure out what would blow her hair back.
All of the frames in there before were black (see the picture below), and I'm trying to decide if that's still going to look right. Hopefully it will, because I would really like to be able to just use the frames as-is.
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Oh, and I'm going to try to spray paint her jewelry box (which you can see in the picture below). Right now it's a very elementary mix of pink and blue, and an unfortunate incident with glitter body spray made a bunch of the paint turn yellow. We thought about buying a new one, but first, we're going to try to salvage this one because it IS a nice size and the lines of it are just fine (it's not shaped like a princess crown or anything!)
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There's been a big pile of frames/wall hanging stuff in my hall, all of which came off of the walls in Lisey's room before I painted. I did use a few of them yesterday, but there's still a big pile waiting to be dealt with.
Also in my hall are several big stacks of books. What to do with all of our beloved board books?
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No one reads them anymore, but I can't really stand the thought of getting rid of all of them. I have such good memories of nightly before-bed reading sessions with all four of my kids. I can recite many of those without even looking at the book.
Maybe I could give away the ones that I'm not super attached to and save the rest.
For grandkids, you know.
Because it's not like that's at least 10-15 years down the road or anything.
I just remembered another important thing I need to do in Lisey's room. When we replaced the old shade with white faux wood blinds last year, we had to take down the curtain rods, and I am slightly embarrassed to tell you that we never put them back up again (same for the other girls' bedroom) I have no idea why we didn't, because it is not a difficult job.
In fact, I might just tackle it today, because this is kind of ridiculous.
I really want to show you Lisey's room with her lovely blue paint, but I'd kind of like to get some things up on the walls first. Hopefully by next week!
You may remember that redoing the kids' chore lists was on my summer bucket list, and I'm pleased to say I got that done yesterday. Not only are everyone's jobs updated, the new lists are much more spiffy looking than the old ones.
Piles of schoolbooks are arriving in the mail these days. Zoe, resident school-lover, has excitedly separated all of hers out into a pile in her room. Joshua isn't exactly looking forward to school starting, but the arrival of his biology book was a thrilling event for him.
Ok, that's probably enough brain dump for the moment. And besides, I have curtain rods to hang! And things to paint! And books to....um, do something with!
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Joshua's 365 post: Drip, Drop
I spy "Barnyard Dance" on that shelf. It was a family favorite at our house for years! I too kept a selection of children's books for the ....long awaited...grandkids . In the mean time every toddler that visits our home gets a treat of my kids reading their favorite childhood books to them.
We have many of the same board books and I'm also planning to keep them for grandchildren. In my case, that's 15-20 years down the road since my oldest is five. I can't stand the idea of getting rid of all of them.
I still have a lot of the board books that I grew up with (and even some my mom grew up with). I use to take them with me when I was babysitting. One of the first things that the kids would do is dive into my bag to see what I had brought. Now I'm training to to be a foster parent and I still have all my favourite kid books that I can't wait to share.
I still have a box of my own childhood books that I'm saving for my kids. I even brought them along when I moved states 🙂
Our board books are too beat up to save for grandkids, but I saved my favorites for nieces and nephew visits 🙂
I'd love to see your revised chore charts. That is on my todo list this week, and I could use some inspiration!
Ha! I *just* wrote on my to-do list: Photograph chore lists.
Woohoo! Great minds... 🙂
I was just going to say the same thing!
I would say save your favorites, and give away the rest. (i have been pairing down ours, keeping the ones I like, goodnight moon for one!) The book shelf is getting over run again, time for a clean out!
My mom just took out all our golden books from when my sister and I were younger for the kids to enjoy!
I second what Ellen says. Our kids have outgrown them, too, but sometimes people bring their little ones to visit and it's nice to have a few things to entertain them with.
I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't get seemingly minor jobs done (like curtain rods ... ) for years. Sometimes doing them feels like the straw that broke the camel's back.
The list of 5 minute chores I've been doing on my small staycation is stunning. And many of them really did take 5 minutes from collecting tools to cleaning up after.
Don't get rid of the board books!! You'll regret it!! They'll look great on a shelf somewhere.
They're SO colorful. Could you take an artsy photograph of them, and then frame them? This will clear up a ton of space on a shelf..and when you look at them those same memories will come flooding back. Maybe keep one or two of your favorites?
Perhaps the kiddos can choose 2 of their most treasured board books (for you to save) and you can donate the rest to your church nursery? or local preschool? or library children's reading program?
Love your brain dump days! Have a lovely day!
Keep those board books! Those 10-15 years will be gone before you know it! The grandkids will love that they are reading mom or dad's book!
I gotta weigh in on the board books. Granted, my kids are a bit further apart than yours and the books stayed on someone's shelf for 15 years, but yes, I kept the board books. I now have a grandchild and I'm so glad I did! ( I also have a 13 year old, so my grandson has a really cool aunt to read him the books!) They're a bit worn, and of course, he doesn't prefer the ones that his father did at his age, but, still. So glad I kept them.
I will tell you my mom kept all my baby books and books throughout growing up that I collected and handed it to me when I had my first daughter and its amazing having an already established library for my littles. Without that I don't think I would have had nearly as many books for my kids between all the old favorites and the newer books I buy for them plus the library are house is running over with books all the time but its a good problem to have. So definitely keep for the grandbabies no matter how far into the future that might be!
I would use the same picture frames in the exact same places just change the photos inside!
I vote for keeping the books. My grandparents kept all of my mother's books, and it was so special to go to their house and read the very same books that Mom read as a child. Sometimes when we brought a book to grandma or grandpa, it would trigger a story about our parents. Some of the stories from the era (50s-60s) are just priceless and the illustrations are beautiful (and rather reflective of the era), and I'm sure that your grandchildren might think the same of the stories from the past 10-15 years.
Ohhhh! I love the board books. 🙂 My mom kept so many of our books and looking back at them is such a treasure- the memories! And, to see my kids reading them now is priceless. <3
Kristen - I LOVE what you've done with your kitchen cabinets and Lisey's room. I've not been nearly as productive with my painting projects this summer (I'm looking at you, kitchen chairs!) This is just a suggestion (and yes, it does involve paint)...but what about painting the frames to match the colors in her quilt? So two could be the darker blue, two gray, two aqua, two bright green, and so on? Spray paint would get expensive for such a small project, but you could use those little $1 bottles of craft paint - and even have her help. Maybe then you could fill them with a mixture of artwork and photos and then hang them randomly in a gallery wall style above her bed. Just a thought. Now off to work on those chairs...
What about getting some wall stickers for the picture frames? You could put them on the glass and on the inside have a piece of stiff paper that was decorated. Like one I did: I have the word WELCOME on the glass and have colors of paper that match the decor in my house and added little embellishments like ribbon, brads, little wall stickers, anything pretty much. Be creative. This way you can change the background if colors change in a room.
A great place to check for ideas is stampinup.com
Have fun!!
Just an idea I came across and am thinking of doing for my children's bedrooms once they go into separate rooms. The website shows you a set of three frames hanging in vertical fashion. Its a nice way to personalize photos. You could tweek the photos and styles in anyway you like. Thought it was a cute idea...
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2013/03/top-craffts-to-tackle-over-weekend.html?m=1
ummm my girls love board books ..hint hint ...ahem 🙂
Can't wait to see Lisey's room.
Aauw might be a nice place to donate books. I dont know if there is a sale in your area but here in central pa, its always mothers day weekend. I love to go because there is such a huge selection and the books are so cheap. Board books cost about 25 or 50 cents. Then there is always half price day and bag of books day.
I'd like a chore list post! If you have any advice for toddler chores, that would be awesome with it
I have tons of books too that I can´t seem to separate from. Most of them were just so wonderful and inspiring stories, it feels like I´d be letting them down if I got rid of them all. Of course, I am a total literature geek, and would love to read every book out there if possible; so I do have to go trough certain selections each year, in order to make room for new ones;-)
Keep the books! I snagged all of my childhood storybooks from my parents' basement before we had our kids and LOVE that they'll have fond memories of the same childhood books that I do. (My son even gets to ride on the same shiny red tricycle that I grew up on. I loved seeing it tucked away in a corner of the basement as a teenager, knowing that my parents were saving it for someday-grandkids, and it's fun to see him enjoy it now. Totally worth the twenty years of storage. :))
I am also not a saver but I do have 8 children and you can't just pitch every momento! I have one ladybug dress that all 4 of my girls wore, a Winnie the Poo lightswitch cover, etc. Not a lot but still enough to need a place.
I bought a Lane hope chest off Craigslist and it sits at the end of my bed and that is where I store all those little things I can't get rid off. My promise to myself is I'm not allowed to outgrow that chest. Sometimes, after a few years, things don't mean much and you can clear it out some. But this method of saving works really well for me.
I, too, saved the kids' board books (and children's books, and YA books...), and have always appreciated having a selection for visiting kids, students etc. Now my oldest son and his partner are expecting in December. You can guess what my grandson will get to do when he visits Grandma! 😀 (And believe me, it comes faster than you would have thought possible!)