Archive for the ‘home’ Category
Does Your Home Reflect You?
Monday, April 29th, 2013
a peek at our newly painted hallway
So many things happening at the Cooper house lately. Dave and I have spent the past several weekends painting, putting in an herb/vegetable garden and spending more time at Home Depot than we thought possible.
We’ve been wanting to change things up for a while. We want to reflect where we are now in our lives and our tastes.
Plus, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how our environment influences us. Dave and I are such sponges—we soak up everything, good and bad. That goes for moods too. One bad mood = two bad moods. Yikes.
I can now say, we have successfully made it to the halfway mark. Half the painting projects are completed. The garden is nearly there too. Hooray! It feels good to make it this far. Typically, this is where I get exhausted or distracted by something else. I’m a true ENFP that way. “Look, a shiny nickle!” But these projects are worth seeing through.
We’re almost there and I can’t wait to show you when it’s all finished. Until then, tell me, does your home reflect you and your tastes or are there things you’d like to change?
Posted in home | 8 Comments »
Crafty Home | Pompom Bouquet
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Even as a crafter, I’m prone to decision making meltdowns in the glue stick aisle of the craft store. It’s true. So, I’ve decided that what really attracts me the most to a craft project is the simplicity. As a busy parent, the fewer materials needed to complete the project, the better. An added bonus is crafting something that is not time-sensitive. That way I can stop and start the project in between checking homework and flipping grilled cheese sandwiches, if necessary.
So today I’m sharing with you a project that requires only a few materials. This is an idea for making a fun Pom-Pom Arrangement. You can use this arrangement anywhere in your home. Think: children’s bedrooms, living room mantles or even as the table decor for a laid back dinner party.
Ready to get started? (more…)
Posted in Arts & Crafts, home | 2 Comments »
Super Simple + Fun Table Settings
Thursday, November 8th, 2012
This post is sponsored by Country Crock: Where food and family come together. Make Good Habits More Delicious. It’s part of a series celebrating mealtime together. Click here to watch part 1.
I like to keep things simple. But don’t be fooled, simple doesn’t mean dull. This love for keeping things simple, yet special, extends to mealtime.
Today, I’m sharing a few ridiculously simple table settings that anyone can pull off. They take next to no time at all and they won’t cost you a dime.
You don’t have to do them for every meal of course, but they’re great when you need to liven things up. Like say, at Thanksgiving or for birthday meal or a random Wednesday evening. You ready?
(more…)
Posted in home, mealtime | 6 Comments »
Video | The Importance of Mealtime
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
This post is sponsored by Country Crock: Where food and family come together. Make Good Habits More Delicious.
Ahhh! How did it get to be November already? I swear it was August just yesterday.
We have some fun things planned for this month. First off, to celebrate Thanksgiving, one of my all-time favorite holidays, I’m putting together a series of posts about mealtime. I’m really excited about it! We’re kicking it off with this video Dave, the kids and I made together about why mealtime is important to us.
Posted in home, mealtime, Parenting | 9 Comments »
Home | Hanging Family Photos
Thursday, September 27th, 2012
Dave taught you how to take better family pictures. Now, let’s chat about how to hang all those super awesome photos you’ve taken. Actually first, let’s talk about a little decorating we’ve been doing around chez Cooper.
Last year, we started a redecorating project to get the house reflecting more of who we are now at this moment in our lives. We painted over youthful colors. We sold pieces of furniture too big for our rooms to fund the purchases of new, smaller scale pieces. We de-cluttered and reclaimed. The change has been a breath of fresh air.
We still have a long way to go—there are still rooms to paint; our wood floors, which we were hoping to refinish 10 years ago, are still… well, as writer friend of mine recently said about her own floors, they have soul.
But the one thing that really made the rooms feel more “us” was finally hanging our family photos. A couple weekends ago, we finished the process. Want to see what we did?
Here are the three different ways we showcased family photos in our home: (more…)
Posted in home, Style | 5 Comments »
Toys Worth Buying | Tea Sets
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
What’s cuter than a kid sitting down with a few of his or her favorite friends (real, stuffed or imaginary) for a tea party? It’s classic imaginative play. Kids act out a scene, role play and gain independence by serving themselves. Here are a few sets that have recently caught my eye. How cute are they?!
clockwise from top left:
vintage orange tea set from etsy | DUKTIG set from Ikea | tin tea set from Magic Cabin | Barbapapa tea set from pomme | wooden set from plan toys
Posted in home, Toys Worth Buying | 3 Comments »
The Reading Nook | Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson + David Roberts
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
Do your littles have any books that you enjoy reading to them just as much as they enjoy hearing them? I do. Isn’t that such a pleasure for you and for them? Put aside your tv character readers and pick up one of my favorites – Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts. It’s the rhyming for me. I can read this one over and over and never tire of it.
Did you know that rhyming is one of the most important skills for reading readiness? Think about it – first a cat is a fuzzy animal to play with. Then, through rhyming, a cat becomes a sound to play with. Bat, rat, mat. Your littles begin to make the connection between the sound of a word and how it’s written. But that’s for you – all they will know is that it’s a fun book.
Here’s a taste of the delicious rhythm and rhyme:
Now across the rushy river, on a hill the other side,
Lived a mean Tyrannosaurus with his grim and grisly bride.
And they shouted, “Up with hunting!” and they shouted, “Up with war!”
And they shouted, “Up with bellyfuls of duckbill dinosaur!”
It’s dinosaur vs. dinosaur – toothy carnivores are up against the trumpet-mouthed vegetarians who hoot, “Up with bellyfuls of juicy water weeds!” Can you imagine what happens when the “grim and grisly” tyrannosaurus mommy hatches two tyrannosaurus babies plus a pond weed loving vegetarian dinosaur? Think a t-rex version of the Ugly Duckling.
Julia Donaldson is one of the UK’s most beloved children’s book authors (she also wrote The Gruffalo). She comes by her rhyming ability honestly as she and her husband Malcolm started out as buskers before they had kids. Busking led to a career in singing and songwriting for children’s television. Donaldson still performs and reads to kids as often as she can.
When you are a duck-billed dinosaur named Tyrannosaurus Drip, you have to be pretty clever to outwit a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It’s the ultimate underdog adventure and I won’t give away how he does it!
Posted in home, The Reading Nook | 1 Comment »
Welcome Gift Box for Kids
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
I’m super excited. My friend Joya is coming into town for a visit and she’s bringing the whole clan! So the kids and I put together a little welcome box for her three boys. We made sure it included items that are special to our area like the Oriole puppet which is our state bird. That might just be my favorite find!
What’s in the box? 1. City Walk with Kids: Washington DC edition 2. Old fashioned stick candy 3. Mad Libs for the long car ride home 4. Oriole finger puppet 5. Super cool Julia Rothman blank books the boys can use as travel journals 6. Baltimore made Goetze caramels
Do you have any visitors coming this summer? What sorts of goodies would go in your Welcome Gift Box?
Posted in home | 2 Comments »
