folding fiends

i should have taken a "before" shot of the messy shelves, but alas, you'll have to trust me that it looked significantly different before we spent some serious quality time folding yesterday. 

someday we will find a better solution for our clothes storage (the closet to the left is small and weirdly shallow, and the shelving is awkwardly spaced - although we do use that as well). we have talked about getting some wardrobes like these, or installing a fancy elfa system along that wall someday when we can afford it.

for now, we'll just try to stay on top of the folding...

Outer Space

I love this painting - made by a 1st grader in art club... 

"This is in outer space and the space ship is passing the meteor and it's close to it but it doesn't hit it".

Art Inspiration: faces in the trash

 Check out the amazing work made from recycled toilet paper tubes - by artist Junior Frit Jaquet

it's nice to feel tall

Yesterday some boys in after school made it their mission to make a super tall tower that was "as tall as even Liz is"! And then they made it happen, as you can see by this picture.

let there be (more attractive) light!

Our dining room has gotten an update! This is the fixture that was there when we moved in:

It was fairly basic - not the most terrible fixture in the grand scheme of fixtures, but also just not my style. So when we were at Ikea and saw simple fixtures for 25-35 bucks, we went for it. 

First we (er, Eli) had to take off the old fixture. Here is Eli investigating the old wiring...

 When we finally took down the old fixture we were really surprised at how heavy it was. The new Ikea one is just a simple globe and is very lightweight:

Ta da!

dot journals

I spent some quality time with the paper cutter making a stack of pre-cut "pages" for this project in After School.  I showed the kids how to use pencil erasers as a "dot" stamps, and they created beautiful journal covers on cardstock, which we then assembled into little handmade books...

watching the cars go by

this is where darby likes to sit and keep an eye on the neighborhood.

for pet people

another pretty kitchen

i love it - and it was quite the makeover! check out the unrecognizable "before" photo:

via design sponge

space up above

I found this tour of a renovated attic space and since I continue to be obsessed with the idea of (someday) renovating ours, I'm posting tit here for future reference.

via apartment therapy

bowl show and tell

Here are the finished paper mache bowls the Art Club kiddos made - I love how each one has it's own personality...

if you want to make your own, check out my tutorial over here.

forty faces

I'm in love with this painting (from here)

Magic Snowflakes and Paper Bowls

I showed kids in after school how to make snowflakes out of coffee filters...

They turned out so pretty and delicate. Can you spot the four "sharks" in this one?

Also, today in art club we worked on the paper mache bowls we started last week. They are looking awesome. 

Finished product photos to follow!