Accoutrements

harpers.store.org


 ∞

Jumping the Shark

S U M M E R.

 

We finally got around to making hula hoops. I've been wanting to do this for about, oh, four years, but the girl never really showed much interest. Now, along with many other crafty things
(see: GLUE GUNS), she is all about it.

 

They were super easy to make - poly pipe cut to 10', joined with a pipe coupler, and decorated
with tape. C'est tout! These are so much better than junky toy-store hoops which NEVER stay up. They have more heft, and a larger circumference. Best of all, these, I can actually manage to keep going! When my daughter said I have "kid hips" I took it to mean my hips bear the marks of carrying two children. (They do). She meant I could hula hoop like a kid. Sweet! :)

Saw this easy cardboard shark idea on pinterest to keep the boy occupied while we
taped and hula-hooped. I think he thought it was a dinosaur? Whichever. CHOMP.

 

It was one of those great summer evenings in which the TV didn't even get turned on.

Love that....

 

Moon Shade

I once read that every good design needs a touch of black, somewhere. Check. Got it. But what about navy? Only recently have I come to love black's dim blue cousin. I've been eager to paint the builder-oak orange cabinets in our kitchen, and was toying with a green, maybe a turquoise. I decided to give nautical navy a try. I love the choice. Here's a before and after of the island. (So far I've ONLY done the island. It was a huge time commitment -- two coats of primer, two coats of Moon Shade from Lowes.)

 

 

Knobs from Anthropologie, pulls from Target. They go well together, if I do say so myself.

 

I also sewed up some baskets on the cheap out of navy-striped pillowcase ticking. I made five of these for the price of one similar store-bought canvas basket. (It had rope pulls, which I may or may not add later.) I numbered them with a sharpie (in navy!) just for fun. My daughter thought I bought these, which is the ultimate compliment of any homemade project, n'est-ce pas?

 

More on the horizon!

Memories and Mess (Moon Sand)

I guess there are two types of people in the world -- those who look at this and see memories in the making (and learning and textural play and sibling bonding....) and those who simply see the "mess."

Moon Sand: 4 C flour + 1/2 C canola oil + little hands

Dreamy...

 

We made her a dream catcher, to ward off the bad dreams....

Growing...

Needed a growth chart for the kiddos - PRONTO - as they are growing by leaps and bounds. I saw the idea for a wood plank painted to look like a ruler (Pottery Barn, Pinterest), but why spend $89 or even $5 when I could make one for free on the side of our game room bookshelf?

 

The curtains hiding all the board games and craft supplies are from IKEA. The bookshelves, surprisingly, were not. I think those pre-date the Round Rock store and came from Office Depot or some such place.... 

Whole Wide World

My grandma always used to say, "I love you more than anything in the whole wide world." And I remember my tiny five-year-old brain trying to process that. More than ANYTHING? "What about W-- my cousin." She'd smile, "I love you both more than anything in the whole wide world." I was always a cynic I suppose....

I made these mixed media art pieces to hang on the wall outside the kids' bathroom (mixed media as in I used two canvases that my daughter painted on four years ago [shhhh...], a map from Wal-Mart, Mod Podge, repositionable posterboard letters, and spraypaint.) I like the idea of each of them entering the hallway after bath and reading that and thinking, she loves ME more anything in the whole world, even my sibling? :)