Cardbored? Not Us...

With the wedding, then Christmas, then an amazing sale at Nine West, we were starting to feel a little boxed in (sorry, I couldn't help myself) by cardboard boxes. It felt like a waste to get rid of them all, so I started looking for ideas to repurpose them.

First, I took the shoeboxes from the shoes I bought at a Nine West store-closing clearance sale ($80 for four pairs of shoes, a purse, and a wallet). I glued them together, covered them with white contact paper, added a few little details, and voila -- a new dollhouse for Ava! It didn't turn out quite as nice as I'd hoped, but I think she'll have fun with it for a little while.

I found a bunch of other ideas online that I'm hoping to try out soon, like this oven and this puppet theatre. And I'm also thinking about making a little bulletin board or two.

By the way, this is what Ava was doing while I was working on the dollhouse:

DwellStudio sale at Target

Not only does Target have an adorable new collection of baby goodies from DwellStudio, but they are all on sale this week. These are my favs.

Schoolbook Pillow on sale for $7.64
Farm Girl Curtains on sale for $12.74

Zebra Rug on sale for $152.99

the creative family

The intro for this book states: "When you learn to awaken your family's creativity, wonderful things will happen." What a great promise! And I truly believe being creative and imaginative are skills just as important as math or science. At 26 months (oops, she's 16 months), Ava already loves to use her imagination. Just last night she was having a tea party with some of her dolls. I try to be as encouraging as I can of imaginative play, because with so many options for kids today that don't require the use of creativity or imagination, these skills might be fading for a lot of kids. So, I encourage everyone to find something creative to do with your kids today. I have something in mind already that I'll post more about tomorrow. In the meantime, I think I might order this book.

wtf?!?!

Apparently high winds, plus rain, plus sub-zero wind chills lead to this. Oh the joys of homeownership. I just hope this doesn't mean we have to cancel our trip to Florida...