a little switcharoo

A couple of weekends ago, we did a bit of rearranging in our home.  When it comes to home layout, I have a really hard time thinking outside of the box.  I think - this room is next to the kitchen, so it must be the dining room.  It's hard for me to visualize things in several different ways.  However, my friend, Kelsey, blew my mind a few weeks ago.  She suggested that I swap two rooms in my house - the music room and the dining room.  After thinking through the function of it, I realized how much better it would be.

THE MUSIC ROOM

Before:  We have lots of music stuff, but not enough to fill up this huge space.  I use this room for teaching piano lessons and sometimes writing at the desk.  The unused space in the middle of the room is what bothered me.

 

After:  This is not complete as we are still figuring out the perfect storage for sound equipment and planning on removing the low-hanging chandelier which is perfectly placed at head-level.  But I like that this is a more closed-off space for teaching.  I only teach a few hours each week and any practicing or songwriting that happens beyond that would maybe be an additional couple of hours.  The music room is used the least so it makes sense for it to be smaller.

 THE DINING ROOM

Before:  This seems like an ideal space for your dining room table because it's right next to the kitchen.  The downside?  You can't really see into the other rooms.  It's hard to feel like you're "a part" of the evening if you're in there.  If we have company over and the moms are feeding babies in there, we are completely separate from whatever else is going on just because of the way the walls are in that room.  My personal preference is to have a little division.  I don't love completely open floor plans.  However, using this room for the dining room seemed a little too divided.

After:  Again, this is not a completely finished product.  There are holes on the walls that need to be filled/repainted, woodwork that needs to be white, and wall space that we'd like to fill with family photos.  I would also love to eventually have a small sofa, accent chair, and coffee table on the rug.  By using this bigger room as a dining room and sitting area, we can actually use the space.  Our friends can eat at the table, messy babies can be fed, kids can play on the floor, and people can sit in the chairs, all while being engaged in the same conversation.  With the rooms this way, we are using our two living areas as two living areas!

Everything makes so much more sense this way.  I love that we can sit at our dining table and look out our backyard windows.  I love that I can be in the kitchen doing dishes and look over at my kids "having Cheerio time" in the mornings.  I love that there is more room for more people in our home.

If you're in need of a fresh change in your home, try rearranging some furniture.  Maybe even swap some rooms like we did.  It's such a fun way to welcome in the spring!

BFBN: how we purpose our home layout

When we bought our house back in the fall of 2010, we had no idea what we were doing.  It was definitely our favorite house we'd seen and we fell in love with the space when we walked in, but there were hidden gems about this house that we didn't discover until having children!

While there are a few features in our home that aren't extremely functional, most things are.  Our home layout works great for a family with 2 small children.

Today is the Babywise Friendly Blog Network's Pinterest Day.   (If you haven't followed us on Pinterest yet, you should!)  Our topic is intentionality and purpose in home layout and function.  Here's a broad look at some aspects/rules of our home that are purposeful and make our lives easier.

ROOMS ARE SEPARATE FROM LIVING SPACES

Our home is long rather than deep.  The dining room, kitchen, and living room are all on one side, music room is in the middle, and the bedrooms and guest bathroom are down the hall.  It's so great to put the kids down for naps or bed knowing that the noise/talking/TV watching in the other part of the house won't wake them.  If/When we move later on in life, this will definitely be something I look for.

MASTER BEDROOM NEAR KIDS' BEDROOMS

I really like having all of the rooms together and next to each other.  It's nice to know that if our kids ever do need us in the night, we can hear them without needing a monitor. 

TIME OUTS

As far as layout goes for discipline in our home, we have 2 designated time out spots.  One is in the entry way by the front door and the other is in our kitchen by the door leading to the garage.  Both spots are pretty much out of sight from the living room so there's no feeling of still being "in on the fun" when you're in time out. 

TOYS

Once upon a time, all of our toys were in a small bucket in our living room.  That bucket grew into 2 buckets.  Then it turned into 2 buckets and a shelf on our bookshelf.  And so on.  Before Nova came, we decided all of the toys needed to stay in Duke's room and he could bring whatever he wanted to play with at that time into the living room.  Thus, the "one bin" rule was born.  The "one bin" is always the same bin these days - cars, airplanes, and trains.  That bin basically lives in our living room.  But the point is that all of the toys stay in his room so the living room only sees a fraction of toys each day.

If there are specific purposes and intentions in your home layout/rules, I'd love to hear them!

****Also, congrats to Rebekah Lewis!  You won a copy of our lullaby album from the giveaway on Emily's blog!  Please email me at thenightnights(at)gmail.com to claim your prize!

nova's room

I'm finally getting around to sharing photos of Nova's nursery.  Like Duke's nursery, I had a "theme," but I didn't want it to be overpowering.  With Nova, we went for Alice in Wonderland + light + whimsical.  Most things were reused - only bought the changing table, rocking chair, rug, and curtains.  And, as usual, a huge thanks to Makenzie for taking these lovely photos!

 

 

All photos taken by Photographed by Makenzie.

weekend review - memorial half marathon 2014, the arts festival, and finishing the nursery

Because this weekend consisted of Colt's half marathon, a wedding, and my students' piano recital, Duke stayed in Stillwater.  It was going to be way easier than finding a million babysitters.  Plus, Duke loves being out there and I knew he'd enjoy some time with people he loves.  (Thanks, Mimi and Pappaw, for letting him visit!)

 

 (This kid loves riding horses with Mimi!)

(Duke chillin' at the "coppee shop.")

This meant Colt and I got a little stay-cation babymoon (even though we technically already had our babymoon).  Getting the nursery ready for Nova was our main concern.  I wanted to feel at rest knowing that it was all put together.  I know we are perfectly capable of bringing home a baby at any time, but I knew it would be that much more relaxing to have her room ready to go.  I'll share more on her nursery later, but for now, here's a little glimpse.

My next concern was going to the OKC Arts Festival and, boy, am I glad we went.  It was absolutely one of the yummiest nights of this entire pregnancy.  Colt totally went with all of my food desires and it was amazing.  We started off with the Chicken & Waffles, which was actually the one thing I didn't want.  Which is silly because I've never even had it.  But I was just kind of tired of hearing people rave about it.  Turns out, it seemed to be the thing that sounded the best, so we gave it a shot.  Oh my gosh.  I talked about it the rest of the night.  Next, we each had a serving of Frito Chili Pie followed by some Dippin Dots.  I could hardly walk by the end of the night and I'm not exaggerating. 

Although the food was delicious, the best part of the night was this guy, no doubt.  Funny how I thought having a kid (or kids) would somehow mess up what we have.  It's actually made our relationship even richer.  I just love him.

 

Another fun thing we got to do was meet up with our sweet friends from Stillwater who were in town for the marathon.  We got to spend a couple of hours talking with them over some tasty drinks at Coffee Slingers.  It's pretty much been our tradition the past few years to get together on marathon weekend and we look forward to it so much.  They're those kinds of friends that you pick up right where you left off, whether you talked 1 month ago or 1 year ago.

As you can probably assume, I did not participate in the Memorial marathon.  I know some pregnant women of 37 weeks totally would, but not this one.  Cleaning up all of Duke's trains at the end of the day is enough of a workout for me.

Sara was my watching buddy and helped me capture Colt and Evan in the half marathon.  We got some gas station breakfast and coffee and then parked in our spot around mile 7.  Thanks to Twitter and the ability to watch live news on our phones, we were kept up to date with the status of the race.  Because of the weather (lightning being the issue), the race didn't start until 2 hours after the original start time.

This was kind of awful - mainly because runners plan things out based on a certain start time.  We plan our food intake (what and when) and our bathroom time (like whether or not we plan on pooping before the race).  For most, a 2 hour delay messed a lot of that up.  I don't know of anyone who achieved a PR on Sunday.  BUT - everyone that I knew was running pushed through and finished the race.  That's what really counts in a scenario like this.

I've run this half marathon 3 years (2010, 2012, and 2013).  I skipped 2011 due to being pregnant with Duke, but mostly due to a foot injury that I just couldn't shake.  It was definitely the Lord's protection since the weather ended up being absolutely terrible (freezing rain!).  People got hypothermia, passed out, etc.  It wasn't a good day for running long distances.  And this year - the rain and 2 hour delay weren't awesome.  So if you want to know whether or not the weather is going to be favorable, just ask me if I'm running.  If I run = good weather.  If I don't run = bad weather.  (We'll see if this theory holds up next year ...)

(Evan at mile 7.)

 (Colt at mile 7.)

Colt wasn't incredibly pleased with his time - it wasn't his best, but it wasn't his worst.  I'm just proud of him for sticking it out and finishing!  He and Evan did a great job.  Congrats to all of the runners who participated this year!

BFBN: garage sales are my spring cleaning

Today, our Babywise Network is talking about spring cleaning.  (If you're just now tuning in - every month we pick a topic, write about it, and pin the "tips and tricks" to our Pinterest board.  We'd love for you to follow us!)

I've never been a huge "spring cleaning" person.  I mean, I definitely get the itch to clean when spring arrives, but it's not like I wipe down every baseboard in the house.  For me, spring cleaning has always been more of a spring de-cluttering.  I want my house to feel lighter.  And what better way to get rid of things than have a garage sale?

Several weeks ago, I hosted one with some of my friends.  This was the easiest garage sale I've ever put on.  I think I've figured out some pretty efficient ways to do things so setting up, running it, and tearing down are all smooth processes.  So for those of you that desire more of a de-cluttering kind of cleaning this spring season, here are a few tips on how to put on a no-stress garage sale.

GET A PERMIT

I'm a rule follower so this is naturally the first bullet point.  I have no idea how it works in other states, but here in OKC, you need a garage sale permit.  It's easy - just go to this website and pay $7 for the permit.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Any money you earn is money you didn't have before.  Don't feel bad if you wanted $500 and ended up with $200.  That's still something!  A couple of weeks ago, I threw some small things in another friend's garage sale that were taking up space in our home.  Want to know how much I made?  $4.75.  That's $4.75 more in our snow cone fund and that is worth it.

FORGET ABOUT THE PRICE TAG

In other words, don't individually price each item.  It really is such a waste of time.  Sneaky people will move stickers around and a lot of people will ask to pay less than what you have written anyway.  Just avoid the mess and come up with some general prices for the majority of the items that you have.  Worry about individually pricing bigger items like TVs, tables, refrigerators, lamps, etc.  This is how we priced things for our most recent garage sale:

Prices (unless otherwise marked or specified)

baby clothes/items .50

tanks/camis $1

t-shirts $1

tops $2

shorts/skirts $2

pants/jeans $3

jackets/coats/dresses $3

shoes $2

dishes .50

frames .50

books $1

Just stick several signs up with your prices and you're good to go.  (I know it may seem silly to put "unless otherwise marked or specified," but that gives you the freedom to change your mind.  There are some weirdies out there, so you gotta cover your bases.)

I SEE YOUR TRUE COLORS

If you happen to be combining with other friends for your garage sale, you'll need to have a way of separating what items belong to each person.  It's easiest to do this with colored stickers.  Everyone is assigned a color and every item's color dictates who gets the money.  But remember, don't individually price.  Just slap the colored stickers on your items.

NICKELS AND DIMES, YOURS AND MINE, DID YOU CASH IN ALL YOUR DREAMS?

This is very important and will make your life so much easier.  Do everything in increments of .25 cents.  In other words, everything needs to be divisible by .25.  In other words, don't price things at a .05 or .10 cents.  That's just silly and creates extra work for you.

DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE A PLASTIC BAG?

You need a place to keep your monies and as you could probably guess, a plastic bag is a terrible idea.  I recommend a small bag that zips up before using a cash box simply because you may need to be up and walking around at some point.

WE COULD ALL USE A LITTLE CHANGE

In my experience, if you get $200 out to start with in these specific bills, you'll have more than enough.  You can break it down this way:

10 $10s
12 $5s
20 $1s
2 rolls of .25

I SAW THE SIGN

If you're expecting to have people magically show up to your driveway on the morning of your garage sale without any signs, you're probably going to fail.  Invest in some signs and keep them around for future sales.  Stick them at major entrances to your neighborhood (put your address on those) and then lead people to your house (put arrows on those). 

I'M GONNA GET IN TROUBLE, I WANNA START A FIGHT

What's your goal here?  Are you trying to make millions or are you trying to get rid of stuff and make a little money along the way?  Probably the latter.  And if it's the former, you may need to reevaluate if a garage sale is the avenue you want to take.  It's okay to have a few items that you really want to make $XX.XX on, but for most everything else, be chill and let the people talk you down a bit. 

GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY NOW

After the garage sale is over, have a plan.  What are you going to do with your stuff?  You could box it up and take it to Goodwill or somewhere else that accepts donations.  Or you could box it up and arrange for someone to immediately come and take it away.  Either way, I say - get rid of it.  Storing it so you can pull it out for your next garage sale isn't efficient or beneficial for anyone involved. 

I hope this was helpful for some of you newbie garage sale folks.  And if not, I hope you enjoyed guessing all of the songs that the lyrics belong to.  Did anyone get all of them?

Any other garage sale fanatics out there with some helpful tips?

kitchen - gray walls and white trim

Even though our kitchen can get pretty cramped when more than 3 people are in it, I still kind of love it.  It's in the shape of an 'L' and there's something cozy about it.  In spite of it feeling too small at times, it has pretty adequate counter space and cabinets.  But while it has been a functional kitchen, it has not necessarily looked the way I've wanted it to look.

I had dreams of a breezy, clean-looking kitchen.  After getting one step closer to that feel in our living room with our wall color, I decided to do the same thing in the kitchen.

Here's what we started with:

This is how it all went down:
1.  Textured all the walls and the ceiling
2.  Finished the process of fixing the space above our fridge (It was previously a cabinet, but had to be knocked out when my parents gave us their old ((new to us!)) fridge.)
3.  Painted the walls gray (a match to the Harbor Gray we used in the living room)
4.  Painted the rest of the wood trim white

Here's what it looked like in the process:

Here's what we ended with:

We love how easily the kitchen and living room flow together now.  Also, the room really does feel larger with a lighter color.  There are still several things left to do, but it feels like a great start!

"After" photos taken by Makenzie