My Mom and Stepdad recently brought me an old piece of furniture from my childhood bedroom for my daughter to have. The piece was actually my Mom's first piece of not hand-me-down furniture that she actually picked out as a young girl. When she gave it to me she painted it in an antique style with rose detailing but, for my daughter I wanted to bring it back to the original white. It had lost a couple pieces of hardware over the years so I also planned on replacing the knobs and pulls. I decided to spray paint it because, honestly, I'm lazy and just didn't want to use a brush. However, I wish I had just done it with a brush, it would have looked better and I'm not sure the spray paint saved me much time. I also have the classic crampy hand from spraying too. 

After wiping it down, removing the old hardware, taping the glass doors and painting it white, I headed out for some knobs and pulls. I went to Home Depot and found absolutely nothing worthwhile. (I didn't think I would, but I hated not to give it a chance.) Then, I remembered seeing vintage styled knobs at T.J. Maxx for super cheap the week before. I popped over there and found some that would be perfect. The piece, however, used pulls and knobs and there were no pulls. I knew this was a problem but after a quick consultation with my sister-in-law to get her opinion, we agreed that putting knobs in each of the two holes meant for a pull would look great. T.J. Maxx didn't have enough of any one knob for the whole piece though so, I chose two complimentary but different knobs and decided to strategically mix them. 

I feel like it looks just the right amount of whimsical and purposeful. My daughter is excited to have it and it really helped with her room organization.

It was a quick and easy project that my daughter and I are both excited about. I'll update later to let you know how everything goes.

My daughter started expressing interest in earning money for doing things around the house so, before I jumped into the idea I decided to read up on the suggestions from people who might know a little more than me. I checked out my local library and grabbed a few titles that seemed helpful. After reading a bit of each, I decided that I would introduce a guaranteed weekly allowance that was not dependent on chores. That being said, she still has to finish the chores she has always done as a requirement for being a member of the family. I decided to give her $6 per week. The books I read suggested the number of dollars equal the age of the child with a raise each birthday. I also created three jars for her allowance: spend, save and give. She can choose how much to put into each jar but she must put some in each every week. The idea is that they learn the value of saving for something big and helping others while still having a little spending money on the regular. 

When I decided to make the jars I didn't want them to be breakable. My three year old son enjoys messing with everything that belongs to his big sister and I didn't want to run the risk of broken glass everywhere. So, I found a package of three food storage containers at the Dollar Tree. I cut a hole in the top of each and lined the jagged plastic with colorful washi tape. Then I taped colorful paper on the inside of each container and, using my Silhouette Cameo, I created vinyl letter labels.

Last weekend we celebrated my son's third birthday with a  "Where the Wild Things Are" themed party. I created a few things inspired by Pinterest to make it extra fun and we all had a great time. Check out my party!

I created monster claws for all of our guests using craft foam, hot glue and elastic bands. They were simple, cheap and a big hit. Guests also left with bubbles from the dollar store that I applied a custom label to as well as diy monster masks that they were able to color.

For activities I had the coloring masks as well as coloring sheets, a play dough station with wild things themed play dough mats, pin the tail on Max and we also set up a bouncy house in the garage. I also created a Photo Booth area with a boat. For the backdrop I sketched a sea scene on two pieces of butcher paper taped together. I also created a few signs with Arthur's face on Max's for extra fun.

For food we made sandwiches with the intent of making them crown shaped which didn't happen. But, I did manage to make a boat out of watermelon, bake a cake with a fondant crown and create a veggie plate with carrot and pepper trees as well as make some chocolate and pretzel covered marshmallows on a stick (with help from my family). We also had punch and chips. There was almost no food leftover which is always a good sign. I also added a few tissue poms and sketched a backdrop to look similar to the forest from the book.

It was a fun time and I was really happy with how everything turned out. I hope you found some inspiration! Thanks for visiting!