It's a Christmas Miracle: The Playroom is Finished!

If you remember, we've been working on turning our cold, dirty, wasted space of a basement into a playroom for our Bug. 

Here's what it looked like before. 

Well, it took months of literal blood, sweat and tears, and we didn't go to bed until well after midnight last night, but we managed to finish in time (by the skin of our teeth, mind you). It's finally, FINALLY done! 

We needed all new flooring to make the space comfortable and usable, and we bought a few other items, but mostly we begged, borrowed and recycled things we already had. 

The yellow bookshelf and sailboat are from my parents' house. In fact, my dad built the boat from scratch several years ago, and we offered to store it in the off season if he let us fill it with pillows and use it as a reading nook. Win-win.

The oars also came from my parents' old house, and I painted some cheap craft store letters to hang around the walls. 

As much as I love the way the room turned out, I have to admit it's missing a few finishing touches. It's around 900 square feet (roughly the size of our first apartment), and comes complete with LOADS of empty wall space. It definitely needs a little something more, and someday I might get around to tackling it. Right after I get around to cleaning our guest bathroom and folding the constantly expanding pile of mystery laundry in the middle of our bedroom floor (Is it clean? Is it dirty? Does it even belong to us?). So, basically, never. 

Poor, sad little "PLAY" wall. Womp-womp...

The little art table was once our coffee table in our first apartment, and before that it belonged to Justin's dad and step-mom. Justin added casters, and I painted and waxed it. Now Buggy can use it for art, play-doh, puzzles, plotting new ways to keep his poor, exhausted parents from sleeping ever again, etc. 

It's also  a cast-off hand-me-down, so when he inevitably draws on it with a permanent marker his momma absentmindedly left lying around, there's no harm done. 

At some point I'd also like to decorate the bulletin board and use it to display the Bug's art. Right now it's more sad, empty void than gallery wall, but it'll get there. 

I'm kind of in love with our storage system, though. We've already stashed tons of junk in there, and we've barely touched those little fabric cubes. We debated on getting something smaller, but I definitely think we made the right call. Bring on the plastic crap; we've got a place for it!

We added a fun little creation station with a magnetic chalkboard, felt board, and pegboard for hanging art supplies out of reach of little hands. I still need to get some little baskets to hang up there. 

Well, that's it! It wasn't easy, but it was totally worth it to see Buggy Boy's face when he came downstairs this morning and saw a real live boat sitting in his basement. He loves his new room, and so do we. Best. Project. Ever!

Happy holidays, everyone!

20 Minute, $0 Party Decorations

You guys, my sweet boy turned two this week. I can't even believe it!

He is constantly growing and learning, and I can't believe how much he's changed in the last year... And he's not the only thing.

Fellow parents can attest, there's a pretty huge difference between the first birthday party and literally every single birthday thereafter. 

For Buggy's first birthday, we invited over 40 people, and I decorated the entire first floor of our house. Every room was resplendent with all things Buggy. 

Every. Single. Room. 

I decorated an entire wall sized chalkboard as an homage to Buggy's first year, hand drawing 12 chalk picture frames, one for each of his monthly pictures. Because yes, I also took the obligatory cutesy monthly pictures during his first year. 

I had matching plates, napkins, cups, and silverware. Paper fans and a chalkboard garland spelling out Happy 1st Birthday graced my mantel. 

We made a brunch buffet that took up our entire kitchen and spilled over onto the hutch in the eat-in. It came complete with caprese salad and fruit skewers jabbed into styrofoam filled vintage soda crates, three kinds of mini quiche, and enough hand crafted mini-doughnuts and cupcakes to feed a small army. (As you can image, we waaaay over-ordered and the vast majority of those doughnuts died a slow death in the lounge at work.)

But, because I certainly wouldn't feed my perfectly un-sugared one year old just any old cupcake, my dad made him his own mini carrot cake from scratch. 

Poor Buggy was a trooper as he sat there in his highchair and watched 40+ strangers stare, sing and clap at him while he poked at his cake a couple times and then asked to get down. It was just as magical and memorable as I'd always hoped it would be for him. 

Cut to two weeks later when the house was still a mess and generally Buggy themed, and I was feeding my now very well sugared one year and two week old bites of my frozen buttercream cupcake frosting stash every time he caught me standing with my face hidden in the freezer. 

For his second birthday, however, I did things a little differently.  

Rather than throw a huge expensive party for our friends and family, we decided to do something the Bug might actually enjoy. So we packed it up and headed to the transportation museum for the day. The kid had the time of his life. 

Afterward, we had my parents over for a casual dinner of all Buggy's favorite foods. 

And I slapped some decorations together in the 20 minutes between when we got home and they came over. 

The one thing I did want was for Buggy to have fun. So I figured what's more fun (and cheap) than decorating with his favorite things: toy trucks and tractors. 

I pulled out the cheap black tablecloth I only use at Halloween, some black chargers and my everyday white dishes. 

I used strips of white correction tape to create a road down the middle of the table, and lined it with Buggy's collection of small Tonka trucks. 

I topped each place setting off with a wooden truck. I had some leftover photo paper, so I printed a picture of each guest with Buggy and tucked them into the wheels. 

        

Apparently at our house no party is complete without chalkboard art, so I thew this one together quickly, and then set up the gifts underneath with every construction truck I could find. 

I placed a few other random trucks throughout the room and called it a day. 

Buggy Boy loved playing with his trucks through dinner. And the best part about these decorations is I could pretty much take my arm and sweep them all back onto the floor and the house looks exactly as it did before I started. Win!

The only thing missing from this party is two week old frozen buttercream. C'est la vie!

DIY Patio Herb Garden

Welcome back!

We're still in the throes of our patio makeover, but I thought I'd take a break to show you the compact herb garden I threw together for our patio table. 

But first, a story.

This past weekend, Justin volunteered to take Buggy Boy for an entire day so my mom and I could attend an antique festival without the pressure of nap time and toddler-boredom-destruction mode.

It was supposed to rain later in the day, so we hightailed it out of here at 7:30 in the morning headed east, high on caffein and freedom.

While there, I spotted this little piece of rusted gorgeousness for $12, and the completely unjustified wave of I-love-it-so-everyone-else-must-love-it-I-gotta-get-it-first panic crashed over me (You know the feeling). I sent my mom out to hunt down the man who owned the booth so I could snag it before anyone else. I stood guard, staring squinty-eyed at anyone who came suspiciously close to my precious.

Fortunately, I was not the only crazy person there. Another woman stood next to me guarding a set of square washtubs while her poor, desperate husband searched for the very same absent booth owner (He's lucky we're so honest, by the way).

After a few short minutes, she declared her husband a failure and waved him and their young son over to take up her post.

Eventually, the booth owner was located, several yards away on the other side of the street. While his mother waited in line to speak with the vendor, the boy next to me looked up at his father with utter disgust and let out a loud, "Ewwww!"

Then he bellowed to his mother across the street, "MOM, DAD MADE A STENCH!"

Just about everyone in a seven mile radius heard, and much like myself, stared politely at the ground trying not to laugh while the boy's father turned twelve shades of red and clamped his hand over his son's mouth. 

I personally counted my blessings that I have my own goofy, unpredictable boy to love. And even better, that he was at home.

This vintage chicken feeder is the perfect size for my patio table (which is in the process of being stained). I just loaded it up with some gravel for good drainage, a little vegetable garden potting soil, and a mess of my favorite herbs. 

It smells heavenly, which may be useful if if you happen to have an overly-observant boy on your hands...