At the Cabin!

We are at the cabin this week as Dallas is on holidays and I am on perpetual holidays right now.  Yay!
All the usual suspects are away (Granny and Grandpa on cruise to Alaska and Av visiting Oma and Opa in BC) so it's just Dallas and Jack and I.  Very quiet and nice.  It's great when there are lots of people but this not having to work around other people's schedule thing is great too!

Allo!  Me in our cabin which I've obviously decorated with pin up girls and pictures of Johnny Depp. (shirt: thrifted but originally Warehouse One, bracelet: arm band from the Ex)

Our bedroom! I needed a clothing rack...duh!  Next posts: what I pack/wear at the lake. :)

Celfie!

Dallas' new truck and our cabin tucked away in the back.  The one you can see is really Charlene and Roger's cabin and the one we reside it is attached by a deck and you can kinda see it's roof in the background there. 

The water level is rising like crazy at our lake (Lake Manitou) and it's totally encroaching on the park (and the road, and a hotel and...).  I am a firm believer in kids NOT dressing "cool"...as you can see with Jack here.

Some park equipment under water. Lake Manitou is a salt-water lake. Also dubbed the "dead sea of Canada."  It's waters are said to have healing properties because of the high levels of magnesium, sodium and other minerals.  

Spiderboy, Spiderboy...

Peace yo! (look at that water!!!)

Our cabin is at the top right of this hill.  It's great being so close to the park! Soon the kids will be able to wander down on their own.

To get an idea,  this is the view from the road in front of our cabin looking down to the park/lake.

Jack made us get this toy at the Bargain shop in Watrous (closest neighbouring town-5 mins up the road-has amazing video store and bakery).  It's a dinosaur with removable flesh so you can see bones...?

Our neighbours lawn figurine.  It gets us every time! :)

Some more of the lake/rising waters.

Me and Jackie Magee

So, yeah.  That's our cabin! We have so much fun and spend so much time here in the summer that I thought I would share it with you.
Stay tuned for my "what I pack" beauty and fashion editions for the cabin coming up soon!

xoxo
Roxanne

Sprucing Up

Hey ya'll!  My daycare, Ladybug Club, is on it's second to last day.  Sad but true!
To make myself feel a bit better I've decided to focus on the positives a change like this brings.  One of the hugest "pluses" is that I get my house back.  And I can decorate it a little less "kid-friendly."
Of course, I still have a 6 and 3 year old so things get a little hectic but it's not like I have a herd of finger-painters stampeding through my living room as much anymore.

 A little vignette from our bathroom.  The mirrored picture frame is from Dollarama, the vintage print is from a garage sale, and the little ceramic candle holder and Mexican lady are from Puerto Vallarta.  (Which is where we are getting married in a few months, in case I let you forget).

 Our side table that just used to have a hand-me-down lamp, kleenex and the phone: now way cuter.  Big candle & lampshade from Target.  Vase from Value Village.  Flowers c/o my daycare family.  Books: Derek Blasberg, "Classy," and Amy Sedaris, "Simple Times."  Picked not only because I love them, but also because they go with colour scheme:

 A little wicker basket sits below (you can see it in corner left) so that I can put all my magazines and notebooks that I always have lying around in there and they don't clog up the table and the aesthetic.

 The couch! This baby is a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down and normally not a colour I would pick. But, because our living room has no over-head lighting and is painted a little darker, I think it adds a nice punch.  Turquoise pillows from Target and polka dots from Ikea.

This used to be "kid corner" with a whole big shelving unit of books and toys and toys all over the ground, and buckets of toys and just...toys.  I wanted to eliminate all kids stuff from ground floor but it just doesn't look like it's happening right now.  So...we have this green bucket that gets toys swapped around from upstairs bedrooms and the downstairs rec room, and this hamper with dress-up clothes and masks.

Bucket and fox hamper from Superstore.

It's coming along! 

More home stuff as we go, let me know!

xoxo

Roxanne

Homemade Playdough

Because it's fun and you just gotta!
This recipe is from mommyfootprint and it's as good as any.

Play Dough Recipe:
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoon cream of tartar (find it in the spice section)
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food coloring

Mix first 4 ingredients in a pan.

 

Add water and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 – 5 minutes.

 

Dough will become difficult to stir and form a “clump”.  Remove from stove and knead for 5 minutes.

Add food coloring during kneading process. I added mine seperately in bowls because we wanted to have some variety. Here we are getting ready to make green, pink, and blue.

 Kneed it up.

 

 Play dough will keep for a long time stored in a covered plastic container or plastic sandwich bag.  Here's mine in some colourful tupperware.  Yay!

 Kids like to play with cookie cutters, plastic cutlery and even little plastic (washable) toys when they dig into their dough.

Have fun and be creative!

RW

Roxanne's On Her Soap Box Again

I just went to one of my favorite sites to visit today (Cup of Jo) and she posted about taking her son to the beach and not having a swimsuit and therefore letting him go nude (he's 2).  People whispered and some were uncomfortable so she felt better putting his diaper back on and letting him play in that.
She then asked her readers if this is a do or a don't?
This is what I posted:

Our society is so weird in North America! This would never be an issue in Europe or South America!! It's a baby! It's a naked body! Hello, how beautiful! And normal! And guess what, everyone's naked under their clothes!
It's totally ok for tweens to have push up bras and wear stamped-sized shorts and skirts but a naked baby at the beach? Shocker!
I think it's awesome for children to see other children naked and see that they have the same things going on or that the opposite sex has other things going on and it's no big deal.
This is part of the reason why we have unprepared people getting pregnant or having difficult/scary sexual altercations: no one has a clue what's going on underneath and it's because of the lack of something as simple as casual nakedness in childhood.
As for people worried about pedophiles: they are out there no matter what and you have to look after your kids no matter what. Them being clothed or naked is not stopping or spurning on these sick people.

I encourage you to read the post and then the responses from other people.  Some are very educated and thought-provoking.
What do you think?

xoxo
RW

Ava's Forever 21 Haul!

My daughter Ava is 5 (going on 35) and she keeps seeing packages roll in for me and her Granny and she wanted to get in on the action.  So I went onto my favorite fast fashion site Forever 21 (cheap clothes/free shipping...hello!) and got her a few items from the Girls Sale section.  Here they are:

 A purple sequin skirt! Very cute.

 This mint green sequin hoodie had to be worn right away.  Finally something that isn't pink and at $12.99 it was the priciest item on this list and will probably be worn the most (I'm thinking it will be the go-to hoodie for summer).  Total no brainer.

 Not a great pic but this is a black tulle "tutu" with a sequin waistband.  Sensing a trend?  Sparkles, sparkles and more sparkles!  And Ava is all about a tutu...and every skirt is a tutu to her.

 

A pink princess dress with tulle underlay.  HELLO!

 Ava lives in stretch pants/tights.  We usually get her the little lace bottom ones from Old Navy but I thought these jazzed-up ones were cute for a change.  The pink ones have sequins down the side and the black ones are covered in little "diamonds"...what's not to love?

 This skirt is so beautiful.  It's a thick jaquard over fine tulle in this delcious creamy vanilla colour.  Very high class! It won't fit her until next year but when it does...oh my!

And of course the obligatory Paris shirt (it seems that all little girl clothes makers are obsessed with the Parisian theme right now) but 'round here we always worship the Eiffel Tower and the fact that the text is in French (Ava is in French Immersion) is parfait!

xoxo

RW

Organizing Kids Crap--The Cheap Way

Ava has so much stuff! She is into dress up/babies/arts and crafts and all that stuff needs it's own space in her room instead of all rolling around on her floor in a crazy strata of crappola.
I have bought her nice hatboxes from Winners and the kids have used them as step stools and folded in the tops.  I have bought cheapy boxes from the dollar store but they are never  big enough and the lids get lost.
So, after Christmas I was in our basement, looking at all the cardboard boxes we had (and thinking about all the new toys/crafts we got) and decided to take matters into my own hands.

 

So I brought up all the boxes and picked a whole bunch of different sizes for the various toys/games/dolls, etc. that they were to house.

 

 Then I cut the top flaps off the boxes as I didn't need them and knew they would get in the way of little hands.

 Then I picked a whole bunch of after-Christmas discounted foil wrapping paper that I thought was not so much Christmassy but fun.  This is what we were going to wrap around boxes.  I let Ava pick her favorites.

Next I used Elmer's glue sticks and rubbed them all over the cardboard where I wanted the paper to be, wrapped the paper around that area and cut off excess. Voila!

 

Here's what the "guest" bed in Ava's room looks like now with all her special little boxes filled with all her special little things.

 

Pro tip: fold excess over the top of box and inside so that it looks a little more finished and pretty.

Cute right?

Happy crafting! Tonight I am going to a friend's house to make Valentine's wreaths.  I'll keep you posted!

RW