Harper Gets a Doll of his Own, and So Does a Child in Need

My daughter Trixie loves to take care of her special rag dolls.  Her favorite is her Wee Wonderfuls doll my mom got her for Christmas a couple of years ago from The Land of Nod.  She gets the whole bed to herself.

image girls bedroom yellow pink bed

They are tall, soft, and lovable.  The girls pictured below are Clara and Agnes and are available at The Land of Nod.

image wee wonderful doll Clara, Land of Nodimage of Wee wonderful doll Agnes, Land of Nod

Sometimes Trixie lets Harper play with her special girls, which is lovely when it happens.  He usually gets pretty frustrated that he doesn’t have his own doll.  It doesn’t matter how many rag dolls we find him in our stash, Harper wants a boy doll.  I decided that I would find him a boy doll for Christmas that is equally as fabulous as the Wee Wonderfuls are.

I spent hours searching online whenever I had a spare moment during the pre-holiday madness, and finally, after days of looking, I found it!

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Bookcase for the Mudroom – Before & After

Our former house had a small breezeway/entrance that was created when the back porch was removed to allow for a rear deck.  I knew right away that it was the perfect size for a mini-mudroom.  The previous owner had covered the walls with sheets of “wood” bead board.  Some paint cheered it right up!

I was excited to use some cool vintage hooks I had, but needed some shoe storage.  A quick trip to my mom’s basement brought me to a very dirty old book shelf that had been used to store paint.  It wasn’t pretty – yet!

image unpainted bookshelf

All it needed was a sanding, a coat of primer and a few coats of glossy red.  I really love what a little paint will do to brighten up your world.

image red painted bookcase mudroom

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Valentine’s Day

image crayon hearts

Being out of grade school for so many years, I forgot what an important holiday Valentine’s Day is for school kids.
image homemade valentinesIn 2010, when Trixie was in Pre-Kindergarten, I wanted to find something easy for her to do that was creative and fun for both of us.  I had her paint on watercolor paper and fill the whole page.  After the page dried I cut out large heart shapes.  Then we attached the hearts to pieces of patterned scrap paper I had lying around, added some drips of Elmer’s glue, and dusted the glue with glitter.  The glitter kept flaking off, so I made simple envelopes out of tracing paper and closed them up with a sticker. They were so cute!image homemade valentines

After school that day, we looked through her valentines and I was surprised that they were all store-bought character cards or candies.

What had I missed in the 25 years I had been out of the valentine game?

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