In the fall I purchased and fixed up this giant blue dollhouse! I found it on facebook marketplace from a woman who said that it had been custom built for her by her husband before he passed away.
When I first started working on it, the entire interior was bare wood. I added floors, wallpaper, bead board, wainscoting, and lots and lots of miniatures! For this project I created in depth videos and blogposts explaining how I did each step and where I found all of my miniatures. If you are interested in paying to subscribe you can gain access to the full archive here.
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We've always loved decorating, baking, and crafting together during the holidays, but this was our first year using an advent calendar to space them out and we are absolutely loving it! It takes a little planning ahead, but makes gathering supplies and spacing things out so much easier. Plus, the boys get so much joy from checking it each morning. Our advent calendar is mostly activities this year, with some gifts sprinkled in. We might do more gifts some years and more activities others, I love how our Goumi pocket advent calendar (similar) allows for making it whatever you want! I used some plain kraft paper cards to make our activity cards and my Golden Coil Planner to keep track of everything for myself. (I created an advent calendar gift guide on my instagram stories - find them in my "gifts" highlight on my instagram profile. I started by first planning out any family gatherings/events that had dates that were set in stone. Then I added activities to our weekends that I knew we'd want to do as an entire family (like watch movies, hang lights, make big breakfasts). Then I started adding in the rest of our activities loosely in this order; getting ourselves cozy, decorating the house, and then crafts and baking. I sprinkled in a few gifts and other activities to help space out some of the activities that take a little more planning (for sanity). Here is our 2021 Advent activity list with resources and inspiration (and I included a list of extra ideas below too!) 1. New Christmas Pajamas - We got ours from Plain Jane 2. Add New Ornaments to the tree - I pick out a special ornament every year for each kid. My favorite places to look are Craftspring, Love of Character, Anthropologie, and West Elm 3. Coffee Filter Snowflakes - Hang with tape on a sunny window for extra magic. Inspired by Amanda Pahls. Here is a nice tutorial. 4. Go see a Christmas Lights Display - We went to our local arboretum. 5. Hang up twinkle lights at home 6. Small Gift (Hotwheels Mario Cars) 7. Make Dried Orange Slice Garlands - We have been making ours for a few years, but Megan Alexandra just made a beautiful DIY blog post. The kids were in charge of stringing ours this year and I love them even more than previous years. 8. Make Sugar Cookie Dough - We use this recipe for the dough. 9. Decorate Sugar Cookies - We used these kits (here and here) this year and then made frosting by adding in a tiny bit of water at a time to a cup of powdered sugar + food coloring. 10. Read a New Christmas Book - We got Tiny Reindeer by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros this year. You can find my full list of Christmas Books Here. 11. Watch a Holiday Movie together and eat popcorn - We chose The Polar Express this year. 12. Christmas Pancakes - We modeled ours loosely after these this year. 13. Christmas Crafts Day 1 - We are making Baking Soda Clay Ornaments and Pine Cone Christmas Trees this year. We are using this recipe from Evermorelong for our ornaments and modeling our Pine Cone Christmas Trees after these. 14. Christmas Crafts Day 2 - Sometimes paint takes awhile to dry. We're allotting a second day to wrap things up if needed or I might pull from our extra activities. 15. Small gift (Puzzle) 16. Make Popcorn/Cranberry Garlands and Bird Seed Pine Cones for the birds - We'll read Wake up, dormouse, Santa Claus is here by Eleonore Schmid before creating and then we plan to pick a spot to hang them up in the yard. This book was a gift from David's mom that his Grandma had brought back from London. Its about a little dormouse who wants to stay up to meet Santa Claus. Santa visits the woodland animals and brings them food to eat each Christmas. It's super cute. 17. Make Christmas Cards - We plan to use their handprints this year and then have Emmet write some cute notes to family. 18. Clark Family Christmas - We will be out of town for a few days to be with family - That gets to be the advent activity for all three days. 19. Clark Family Christmas 20. Clark Family Christmas 21. Bundle up for a Christmas lights walk in the neighborhood - We'll pull the kids around in the wagon and then make hot cocoa after. 22. Small gift (lego guys) 23. Add Wishes to the Christmas Tree - This is a new tradition that we are starting. We'll read The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear and then tie little wishes to the tree. 24. Make Orange Cinnamon Rolls - My family always made orange pillsbury cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning growing up. I plan to make this recipe from Half Baked Harvest but swap out the lemon zest for orange zest. I've made her basic cinnamon roll recipe before and it was delicious, but I haven't tried orange cinnamon rolls on my own before. I'll report back. 25. Open Presents and spend the whole day together. Backup Activities:
-Pick a Christmas Tree - We get ours from our family's pasture. We got ours before December 1st or it would have made the list (Read - Pick a Pine Tree by Patricia Toht) -Decorate the Christmas Tree - This can be done the same day - but we are usually racing the sunset to get ours and need a second day for decorating. -Amanda Jane Jones Origami Ornaments - My kids are still a little bit too little, but we'll make these in the future. -The Mitten by Jan Brett - Read and reenact with wooden or plastic animals. We like schleich, holztiger, and ostheimer. -Paper Bag Snowflakes - A Beautiful Mess -Salt Dough Santas hands -Gingerbread Playdough -Visit Santa and/or a local nativity - Depending on how you celebrate Christmas, these could totally go on the list. -Pick out gifts for siblings/friends -Wrap Gifts together -Construction Site: Merry and Bright Inspired Sensory Bin - Read Construction Site: Merry and Bright by Sherri Duskey Rinker and then create a sensory bin for the kids to play with this sensory bin idea and adding sisal wreaths, bottle brush trees, mini Christmas light necklaces, jingle bells, etc. -Little Blue Truck Christmas Playscape - Read Little Blue Truck's Christmas by Alice Shertle and set out Farm Animals, a Blue Truck, and Bottle Brush Trees to play with. -Make Mason Jar Snowglobes - Read The Little Reindeer by Nicola Killen and then make Snowglobes inspired by these. Found Art Print - Beauchamping
Linen Duvet Set - Parachute* Waffle Robe - Parachute* Pajama Set - Shop Plain Jane Wool Blanket - The Tartan Blanket Co Knit Cardigan - Goumi Kids* Beeswax Pillar Candles - Homesong Farm House Pottery Laurel Crocks - Homesong Butter Crock - Homesong Wood Book Holder - Homesong Oil Pitcher - Schoolhouse Enamel Tea Kettle - Schoolhouse Daisy Wall - hand painted with Magnolia Paint from Ace Hardware She is Magic That One Banner - Imani collective Crib Sheet - Solly Baby Rainbow Pillow - Bla Bla Kids Geese Mobile - Bla Bla Kids Fox - Hazel Village Pink Floral Swaddle - Clementine Kids Apple Print - And So The Storey Begins Felt Mushrooms - Craftspring Sun Stacker - Your Little Dove A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead Frida - Little People Big Dreams Series Senger Goose - Wild Ones Shop Name Pennant - Eventide Pennant Co Unicorn - Hazel Village Bolga Baskets - Cardenas and Kinn Strawberry Art Print - Prints by Shelle Bonnets - Briar Baby Flower Crown - Fancy Free Finery This is My Happy Place - Imani Collective Blue Moccasin Boots - Minnetonka Moccasins Pink Dress.- Alice and Ames Wooden Swan - Shop Bitte Wooden Fox - Bella Luna Toys Pink Crown - Shop Flower Lane Rainbow Mat - Gathre Holdie Folk - Shop Bitte Pastel Rainbow Stacker - Raduga Grez Maileg Panda - Shop Bitte Wooden Unicorn - Bella Luna Toys Cow - Hazel Village Books: Love by Corinne Averiss Home by Carson Ellis The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood Harriet - Little People Big Dream Series Malala Yousafzai - Little People Big Dreams Series Love is by Diane Adams Flora the Flamingo by Molly Idle Eleanor's room might very well be my favorite room in our house. It started as probably the most plain room in the entire house, and now it is the nursery that I dreamed of designing for her. Our old house was about 800 sq ft and her space was crammed into a corner in our bedroom. It was cute, but I was so excited to finally have a full room to decorate for her!
Eleanor's room is on the corner of our house. It has a large window on the south wall with bushes, bright yellow canna lillies, and nesting house sparrows right outside. The east wall was a large blank white wall, without any windows. You can see it while standing in the living room and walking down the hallway. It needed to be an accent wall. I could feel it every time I walked down the hallway and each time I stood in her room. It needed some sort of wallpaper or painting, something to make such a large wall feel beautiful and purposeful. After searching for the perfect wallpaper, calculating prices and realizing I didn't really have much of a budget for her room, I decided to paint it myself! I started with a coat of Gold Moss paint from the Magnolia paint line at Ace Hardware and added shasta daisies. I plan to fill in all of the spaces with more flowers at some point, but for now I love it just the way it is! Her crib is an old Ikea one that both Emmet and Henry used. I actually found an old Jenny Lind style crib for free at a garage sale while we were stocking up for our new house. It is soo cute, but I got nervous about the old drop side that it had AND after I decided to paint her accent wall, I decided I needed something white and simple instead. Plus, I have a wild case of nostalgia and loved the idea of all three of my babies having used the same crib. I removed the bottom drawers and put a basket underneath to make it feel a little less "Ikea'y". Her vintage bentwood rocking chair came from her nana. It's the first time I've had the space for a full size rocking chair, and after nursing her sitting crouched in my bed for almost a year, my back is thanking me! I love cozying up with her in it with my feet up on this leather poof that I thrifted a few years ago. I found this old chifferobe wardrobe on marketplace a few weeks after we went under contract for our house. I had been searching for one like it for so long and was so excited to find it at just the right time! It had a few scratches and dents, so I gave it a fresh coat of paint (Emmie's Room from the Magnolia Paint line at Ace Hardware). It's the cutest place to store all of her little shoes and outfits. I keep a few of her favorite toys in her room in these baskets for her to play with. Someday I'd like to put a little low shelf under the windows for her to play at, but for now these baskets work great! She loves to sit in her room and dig through them. It's been so much fun to find the perfect pieces and put everything together. I'm excited to see her grow up here AND to see how her room evolves as she gets older! Eleanor turned one last week! We've enjoyed a full trip around the sun with our sweet sunshine girl. This weekend we got to celebrate her first birthday with our family and a few friends in our new home. I decided on a floral theme for her birthday. Bright, colorful, and cheery, just like our girl. My goal was to have as many flowers as I possibly could and a whole rainbow of colors. For decorations, I started with a Lucy Darling Garden Party in a box. They have a whole set of party supplies, cups, plates, cake toppers, cupcake liners and more, in one box! The rest of our party supplies were hand selected from my favorite local store, Love of Character. Mary has the CUTEST selection of party supplies. I always love looking there for inspiration, party supplies, and gifts. I highly recommend checking out her Wichita shops or her online shop if you don't live in the area! We selected cups, plates, napkins, balloons, and confetti that would compliment the rest of the supplies and oh my goodness did they add to the fun. I created a balloon garland with balloons from Love of Character. I had planned to incorporate some fresh eucalyptus, but our local grocery store was out of stock so I improvised with a few leaves and greenery from a Dinosaur banner from Henry's birthday! For refreshments I made cupcakes wrapped with the Lucy Darling Cupcake liners and topped them with the Meri Meri cupcake kit toppers and the cake topper from the Lucy Darling Box. I also made cherry hand pies and put out some strawberries too and I made a small 6 inch smash cake with blue icing and topped them with roses and gladiolus. Earlier in the week the Boys and I picked zinnias and other flowers from our plot at the local community garden. We mixed them with roses and gladiolus from the grocery store to create bouquets around the house. We had such a great time celebrating! Emmet loved sneaking licks of icing off the cupcakes and Henry, bites of strawberries from the bowl. They helped Eleanor blow out her candles and we all watched as Eleanor started slowly into her cake before quickly diving into the frosting. The kids all enjoyed opening the presents and playing together and Eleanor showed off her dance moves for everyone! I'm so glad we could celebrate our girl. Garden Party - Birthday Party in a Box - Lucy Darling
Balloons, Confetti, Large Pink Plates (Blush, Coral), Pink Rifle Paper Co Napkins, Cupcake toppers, Rifle Paper Co Paper Cups - Love of Character Flower Crown Headband - Fancy Free Finery Floral Dress (No longer available) - Alice and Ames Rainbow Baby Book - Lucy Darling |
mama of three
in the midwest creating a home that's full of magic Follow on Instagram
@leahfayegaeddert |