Playroom Update: Floor Cushions and Play Kitchen

I've been hard at work putting together Jackson's playroom and I have a few recent additions I want to share. I have been eyeing some cute floor cushions from Land of Nod for a while, but I wasn't thrilled with their pastel colors and, of course, their price tag. I was then thrilled when I found a tutorial for floor cushions over at Living with Punks. With my beginner sewing skills, I was a bit nervous but the end result is pretty awesome, and Jackson even likes them too!

The first cushion was made exactly as the tutorial instructed. I liked the dimensions, but it was a bit too tall for Jackson right now, and I wanted to have another one be a little larger so they could stack. For the second cushion, I lowered the height by 2" and increased the diameter by 3". For both cushions I used an indoor/outdoor fabric since I figured these would get a lot of wear. Overall, I was able to complete the project over the course of 2 1/2 naps.


He loves it, and I like that it gives both of us something soft to lay on when we play together.

I've also been working on a fun play kitchen for Jackson. A few weeks ago Josh and I found this sweet little children's china cabinet at a flea market.

I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. I've seen a lot of DIY play kitchens on the internet that seemed to involve a little too much woodworking skills for my experience level, so it took me some time to figure out an easy way to do the project. In all honesty, Josh put everything together. I was the designer and he was my handyman, but once we started it only look him about an hour to complete (not including glue drying time).

Here is the finished product:

The stove burners were made from wooden plaques from the craft store. I painted them silver and then painted a free form swirl (not perfect, but charming). The sink is a plastic bowl from Target that was glued down. If that doesn't stay we will look into cutting out a hole and using a bowl with a lip. For now, its nice that drawer underneath still works. We also added a drawer pull on the side to use as a dishtowel rack and a hook for a future apron. The most difficult part was making the faucet. I looked for mini faucets at Home Depot and Lowes, but either they were too tall to fit under the shelf, or they involved cutting into the top of the cabinet.

My solution was from the craft store - I bought a wooden letter "J." We cut off the top of the letter, then fastened it back on perpendicularly.
We then attached replacement faucet knobs from Home Depot. Its the perfect size, and I love that the knobs turn. The only thing missing are knobs for the stove, but the ones I had purchased didn't look right. Over all, we spent no more than $50 on the kitchen, which I'm happy about. Jackson is having a blast with his kitchen, and of course had figured other was to play with it...

Mexico

To celebrate our 5th anniversary, Josh and I took a trip to Playa del Carmen. It was our first vacation with just us since our honeymoon. It was definitely hard leaving Jackson at home with his grandmother, but we survived, and he had fun too!

We stayed at The Royal Playa del Carmen, an all-inclusive adults only resort. Upon our arrival they had champagne, dessert and funny towel swans in our room.

We spent most of our time lounging by the pool...

Hanging out on the beach...And enjoying the scenery...

What a great vacation!

5 Years

This week Josh and I are celebrating our 5th anniversary. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed yet I also feel like we've been married for much longer than that. Our marriage has been and continues to be a wonderful journey and everyday I think we make each other better people. I'm looking forward to many many more anniversaries together!

We're going to do some serious celebrating this week that is much needed and deserved. I'm very excited!

Farm Box Wednesday

Last week our farm box was chock-full of goodies. We received:

1 bag of mixed greens
1 head of Romaine lettuce
1 bag of snow peas
1 bag of rhubarb
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch spinach
cilantro
parsley

I got right to work and made our dinner that night using the snow peas and green onions.

Later in the week I made cilantro pesto, which I served over pasta with some cherry tomatoes, and I made a strawberry rhubarb crisp(with some peaches thrown in too). The crisp looked so good going into the oven...

...that I could barely wait for it to cool down before I had to taste it.

Delicious!

Tomorrow our fruit share begins in addition to our veggie share and I expect to see some apricots and cherries. Yum!

Independance Day

We spent the long weekend enjoying our little family. The holiday started with a visit to the locale Children's Parade. We were a little late and missed the parade altogether, but still had fun. Jackson saw some mounted police officers and was able to pet their horses, he hung out with Uncle Sam and had a blast running around the park.

Our plans to spend the afternoon by the pool were spoiled by bad weather, but after Jackson went to bed, Josh and I watched fireworks with friends on the fairway at the Denver Country Club - now my favorite place to watch fireworks. At first, a little rain wasn't so bad, but as soon as the show was over the sky opened up and dumped rain on us so hard. Though we were soaking wet and freezing, it was a fun night and I enjoyed a little adventure.

Today, we finally made it to the pool for some afternoon swimming. Does this guy know how to relax or what?

We hope you had a fabulous 4th!