Since Tor has the rocket ship, and Bjørn got the tree, it was only fitting that Maggie, too, should get a painting by her bed. I tested it out, and I think this is going to be the best sight to wake up to every morning. From now on every day will be a sunny day :-)
As promised yesterday :-)
So now I know.
The next time I have an idea that I've let stew far too long in the corners of my imagination, and I want to make it a reality, all I need to do is blog it. Who knew?
After reading my post about the kids' room, Tomas got to sketching, and sketching (some doodles not at all appropriate for any child's room, btw). After Tor got up from his afternoon nap we bundled the troops into the car and headed to Home Depot where we picked up the brightest, and cheeriest Disney paints we could find (The red is called "Mickey's pants". That makes me laugh every time I think about it). We also bought a rake, and now have HUGE piles of leaves from last Fall that I'm really not sure what to do with other than jump in 'em, which I did. Hopefully, we won't have too much wind between now and the moment I figure out how to dispose of them.
Today we set to painting. My job is to get the supplies together, lay down the protective paper and tape, and clean up. Um... and keep Tor out of the paints.
Tomas and the kids did all the painting and I think this rocket ship over Tor's head-board is the start to a most magical room.
Next time I'll show you the tree they painted. Oh, my... and what a tree it is!
I am a huge fan of the Paumes series of books, and this year ordered several more for Christmas (again! sweet joy!). My only disappointment came on hearing that the edition on Children's rooms in Holland was out of stock, and out of print.
Now that we have a house to "make our own" as it were, I am desperate for design inspiration. I love design shows, and all things creative, but find myself at a complete loss when it comes to actually designing a space.
One thing we are thinking of is having Tomas paint a mural of sorts on the walls, or having vinyl decals made from his drawings. I especially like the bird pictured above from Children's Rooms "London" -- and love the idea of simple, but bold line drawings.
Here are a couple pictures of the kids' room as it is now -- what would you do to bring some punch and character it?
Having just come back to the East Coast from California, it's funny the small things that strike me as wonderous and different as I explore my garden. After nine years on the other coast, I'd completely forgotten how exciting (in a silly, deep-down-this-is-incredible way) it is to discover those first spring blooms. I'll admit to having been spoiled by the year-round flora over there.
Hope you, too, are enjoying a great start to the new season!
One of the fun perks I get with writing for Scholastic.com is that every once in a while I get tapped for kids' craft ideas. Last week it was a site called SheKnows. Head on over for my contribution to Kid-friendly crafts for Spring and Easter.
My friend Jeff alerted me to the fact that tomorrow is National Elephant Day in Thailand. To celebrate, the Asia Society in New York has posted an awesome photo gallery. Note that some of the pictures are quite heartbreaking, so please preview the slideshow before sharing with children.
Clair Robertson, the blogger-extraordinaire behind Kiddley, is back at it again on her personal blog Loobylu.
It's rather embarrassing how I perked up when I noticed new posts from her in my feed reader. I'm just sad I was mid-move when she started up again after a year-long hiatus :-)
Do go visit & welcome her back, her sites have been hugely inspiring to me.
Now that we're settling into the house (slooowly), I'm starting to get the itch to have some creative fun once again. This is especially a good thing since I've got a swap to ship out this weekend!!). It was so hard to even contemplate doing fun crafts with the kids when I was going through the move and working full-time, and packing, and mothering, and wifing...
I'm so glad that Bloesem Kids is around and chock-full of creative goodness for me to soak in. I'm especially tempted to try out some of Arounna Khounnoraj's craft projects which are beautifully photographed, and explained in a clear, straight-forward manner (no thinking required!).
If you have creative sites that inspire you, please share, I'm always on the lookout for new perspectives :-)
