Our Playroom

Hello!  It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted, but I’ve been pretty busy with preparing for the holidays.  We also have a birthday on New Year’s Day, so that makes things even more hectic.  I have been wanting to share the pictures of our playroom, but just haven’t gotten the chance to sit down and write.

We moved into our house a little over a year ago and I haven’t really decorated much other than the baby’s room (which I’ll share later) and our play area in the basement.  I was excited about this house, not only for the beautiful kitchen, hardwood floors and the four bedrooms, but for the great space in the basement for the kids to play.

I got my inspiration from this blog post I found on Pinterest: http://www.soyouthinkyourecrafty.com/pvc-challenge-season-16-week-8/  It’s a wonderful store/market set-up that she made using PVC pipe.  I thought it was adorable (and just the sort of thing I would have LOVED as a kid), so I wanted to recreate it for my kids.

I got the canopy at IKEA, along with the 2×2 Expedit book case and two of the floating shelves and brackets to put the cash register on.  I also bought a small lamp to put under the canopy, because it got quite dark.  I put our play kitchen behind the “counter,” so our kids could play restaurant.  I also made a chalk board (also with inspiration from Pinterest here: http://nicandkate09.blogspot.com/2011/08/alphabet-board.html).  Instead of just putting the pan up on the wall, I thought it would be cool to paint it with chalkboard paint.

I saw several posts on Pinterest that used these spice racks from IKEA as book shelves.  I thought it would be fun to include a little reading area in their playroom, but I didn’t want it to take up much space, so these worked perfectly.  They were about $3 each.  I also bought the unfinished wood letters from JoAnn’s.  They were about $.30 each, so this project was really inexpensive. I painted the letters to match the colors in the canopy. I attached them to the wall with command strips, just in case I decide to move them or want to put a different word up.  I was originally planning to just put “READ” up, but I saw the stars and swirls and thought they were fun and whimsical, so I grabbed a couple of those as well.

For other decorative elements in our playroom, I covered cork trivets from IKEA (love that place, as you can probably tell by now!) with batting and coordinating fabric. Another inspiration from Pinterest, but I added the batting, I thought it would look nicer.  I like how they turned out.  They were SO easy to do.  I also found some old magazine ads at an antique store and put them in frames for the other wall in the playroom.  I thought that would go nicely with the “store” theme.

I hope you like our play room!  I’m pretty proud of it and our son loves it.  I hope our daughter will too, when she’s bigger!

Pinterest Recipe Successes

 

I thought I would share some recipes that I have discovered through Pinterest that have been successful in our house.  Pinterest has become my main source of finding new recipes since I signed up.  I still use some of our tried and true recipes from before, but for the main part of the grocery list and meal plan, I head to my recipes board on Pinterest.  It really has been a very useful tool in finding easy and tasty recipes for my family.  

Even though I am home with the kids right now, and, in theory, have time for more complicated and involved recipes, I still really don’t like to cook.  I am always on the lookout for simple recipes that can be put together in 30 minutes or less.  My crockpot has been my very best friend lately.  I love that I can dump various ingredients into it in the morning and have a tasty supper later- almost as if by magic!

I haven’t created any of these recipes myself, so I will include links to the articles/blogs I found on Pinterest.

5 Successful Pinterest Recipes:

1. Cream Cheese Chicken Chili: This has been my absolute favorite so far.  It quite literally is a dump, stir, and go type of recipe.  You just put the chicken on the bottom and then dump on the rest of the ingredients, give it a quick stir, then let it cook all day. (Hopefully you aren’t like me and forget to plug the slow cooker in for half the day and don’t have to wait until midnight for it to be done…)  Now every time I make it, I double the recipe so there is plenty of leftovers.  It reheats really well and I imagine that it would freeze well, too.

http://www.plainchicken.com/2012/01/slow-cooker-cream-cheese-chicken-chili.html

2. Enchilada Stuffed Shells:  These are great.  This isn’t a slow cooker recipe, but it is still really easy.  It makes quite a lot, so some of it could be frozen if needed.  We usually end up needing the 9×13 AND the 8×8 pan to bake them all.  The last time we made it, I added an extra can of enchilada sauce, because it does reduce a bit as it bakes.  I also usually use more cheese than suggested, because, well, cheese is nummy and there’s not really such a thing as too much..

http://www.lifewiththecrustcutoff.com/enchilada-stuffed-shells/

3. Breakfast Grilled Cheese: This is such a wonderful, quick and easy meal- especially if you’ve forgotten to plan ahead for dinner.  It’s like breakfast for dinner, which I’m always a fan of.  It is basic grilled cheese with an egg and bacon added.  Cook up some extra bacon and have it as a side.  Fresh fruit or hash browns would be a tasty addition as well.

http://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/92916870/breakfast-grilled-cheese/

4. Stir Mein (Stir Fry/Lo Mein): We just made this last weekend.  It was really easy.  There are a few steps, but they were simple, so I can’t complain.  What took the longest was waiting for the water to boil for the entire box of noodles.  I did have to buy a few things that weren’t staples in our pantry, but we liked it enough that we’ll make it again to make sure those extras don’t go to waste.  The only thing I would change next time is halving the amount of ginger paste used.  I’m not a huge fan of ginger and it was quite potent in the finished product.  If you like spicy, like my husband, you can add extra sriracha in your bowl.

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/chicken/stir-mein-stir-fry-lo-mein.html#.T5YVi9MRVhA.pinterest

5. Simple Crockpot Chicken: This is simple, just as the name would suggest.  You cook the chicken in the slow cooker all day.  When you’re ready to eat, you use some of the broth and the gravy packets to make the gravy.  I used two forks to pull apart the chicken toward the end of cooking time, dumped the chicken in the gravy and served it over “fake” mashed potatoes.  It was just like the chicken and gravy lunches we had in school- I loved it and so did my husband and son. 

http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-crock-pot-chicken-167491

 

Craft Shows

My best friend and I participated in a craft show at a local school this last weekend.  There were quite a few vendors- at least 75 I would guess.  Many people had booked double booths, but every booth in the cafeteria and gym was full it seemed.  Traffic was pretty steady, but Lindsay and I found that our stuff was not selling.  This was my first craft show (as a vendor, I’ve shopped at many), and I’m wondering what we could have done better.  The general clientele was older ladies.  Some younger people were there, but most I noticed, had not purchased anything.  The people walking around holding bags were the older ones.  

I was trying to sell my handmade coffee cozies, baby blankets and infinity scarves.  I had a few sales and to generally younger people.  One mom bought her school-aged daughter two of my cozies with felt mustaches on them.  I’m wondering what sales around the Twin Cities would cater to a younger demographic.  It seems my stuff would sell better in that type of environment.  My friend and I are going to be vendors at the Hudson craft fair on December 7, so we will see if this show works better for us.  I sure hope so! 

I have been busy experimenting with new crochet projects since I haven’t been busy trying to build up inventory for last weekend’s craft show.  I’ve crocheted some wrist warmers/fingerless gloves.  They turned out pretty well.  Next, I’d like to try the pattern with multiple colors.  I also tried a new type of coffee cozy- the mug cozy. These turned out really well, so I plan to add them soon to my Etsy shop.

 

Here is an example of one of my scarves.  This is made out of two fabrics.  I call them Sundry Scarves.  I will be adding these to my Etsy shop soon as well.  I just need to figure out the best way to get great pictures of them.  I have this kind of scarf, and I also have one-pattern scarves, fleece, and flannel scarves.  All are infinity style.

Thanks for reading my ramblings! If you have any tips for selling at craft shows or on Etsy, I would welcome them! 

 

 

 

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  I am, at present, a stay-at-home mom and a crafter.  I am also a licensed secondary teacher.   I hope to explore and write about all of these aspects of my life in this blog.  I will share fun crafting ideas that I find and experiment with.  I will discuss my ideas about parenting my two children.  I also want to share teaching ideas and literature-related ideas (since I am an English teacher).  In other words, I want to write about a little bit of everything.  

I am a crafter and I like to try different mediums of crafting.  I love crochet and I am working right now on improving my crocheting skill.  I am also an amateur sewer and would love to try different sewing projects.  I do have a shop on Etsy where I sell handmade wreaths, crocheted items and will soon be adding scarves.  My best friend and I are doing our first craft show in a couple of weeks and I am excited to see how my crafts are received.  

I look forward to sharing my ideas and hope to share knowledge that I have.  I also would like to share with you items from other crafters on Etsy, because it is a wonderful site and there are so many talented sellers that deserve to have their wares shared with more people!