Playroom perfection.

Another reason I love Pinterest. I came across a pin of the most perfect playroom and clicked on it. We have been on the hunt for ideas of storage, toys and paint color but have had bad luck finding what we(I) wanted....until this pin.

(source)

Swoon.

The colors, the sensory boards, the discovery bottles, the art, those rings! Not to mention the girl is a cutie!

So I clicked the pin and it took me to this fantastic site - Fun at Home with Kids

Once I clicked on the pin and it brought me to the site, I was so excited to see the playroom was neat, organized(with toys!!!) and primary colors. The mom also posted where she got everything in the room. My Amazon wish list has to be roughly $6000(I even added some toys she posted)

I already had in mind to get a(or 2 or 3) Ikea Expedit shelf  to put on it's side for books and toys. Those colorful totes affirm my decision. Love it as a room divider too!

Since moving Madison's playroom table down to the kitchen for her to eat at, I'm not on the hunt for a nicer table. This one is exactly what I was looking for(but a bit more pricey). I love the clean lines and that she made it a lego table by adding the base for legos on the top.

She also loves totes as much as me! I love these colorful totes to hold blocks, legos and other small mass toys.

Go here to see a lot more pics, where she purchased things and even their rock wall. Yes, there's a rock wall in the play room. Her kids must be in Heaven :)

She is a former Science teacher and stay at home mom of 2 kids and also posts really great baby and toddler activities. RUN to her site if you are a mom, dad, grandparent or caregiver. Follow her blog, Facebook and Pinterest. She's SUPER nice(I've chatted a couple of times on Facebook). 

All photos are courtesy of Fun at Home with Kids and permission was granted to use for this post. 

This is not a sponsored post and I have no affiliation with this site other than I'm in love with her site and her playroom. :)

1.5 goal done!

4) Start back exercising. We have been talking about getting a treadmill or stair climber in the next couple of months. Since Alan stopped playing tennis regularly and when I got pregnant, neither of us has really done any real exercise. I haven't truly worked out in a gym in roughly 10 years! Before getting pregnant, I would run/walk the neighborhood.

We got this elliptical last weekend. After looking for a couple of weekends and not really knowing what to get, we finally decided on this one. After bringing it home and unpacking it and managing to get it upstairs, we were missing a screw. We called to get it sent out and waited. Alan decided Friday to put the handles together and found the missing screw clung to the handle. We both finally used it Saturday and it's a lot more of a workout than I thought it would be! I'm starting slow at 20 minutes with no incline, but Alan did a preset workout at 25 minutes with up and down inclines.

Also, the decorating part. I have yet to put up curtains in the bathrooms since we painted last April. 

I lucked up and found the ones for our bathroom on the clearance rack for $7 each at Target. I wasn't even really looking for curtains but they jumped out. I have been on the lookout for gray and brown patterned hand towels and a rug since the walls are gray and the tile is brown with specks of gray. The curtains are a mix between brown and gray and actually look pretty good in there, and they were the right length. Still looking for artwork for here too.

I have a love/hate relationship with our kitchen. I love our tile backsplash but I don't think the color of the kitchen matches it. I have been going back and forth whether or not to repaint it a neutral color. We were talking about adding curtains in there to warm it up, but after looking, I didn't like any of the options that the store had. Alan liked the khaki colored ones we decided to get. After hanging them, I think I like the kitchen color less and I'm not loving the color of the curtains but Alan likes both. I'm on the lookout for artwork to hopefully blend the color of the walls, curtains, cabinets and back splash. Hopefully artwork will be the answer.

I bought these balloon valance curtains for Madi's bathroom. I'm not loving them either, but Alan says he likes them. The window in there is really small so it's hard to find a curtain the width we need(27") in the color I wanted(pale pink). This curtain actually goes with her shower curtain and towels. After hanging them, I don't like how bunched it is. We will keep them for now. We are on the lookout for artwork to hang to the right of the window.

New Year, New Things!

I have been thinking a lot lately of some things I want to get accomplished and/or change this year. Here they are:

1) Be a better wife, mother, family member, friend and all around person. Since having Madison I tend to feel disconnected or even distant from a lot of people in my life. I need to get back to that person I was and I will find her soon! The things exhaustion does to your attitude is amazing. Even though Madison is doing decent at night, I go nonstop during the day and by the time Alan gets home, I am wiped out! This makes me be quiet and then I am ready for bed by 9! With Madison I want to be that mom she loves hanging out with. With everyone else I will try to call, email or text more to keep in touch.

2) I took some pictures of my niece and her fiance Saturday, who are expecting a son in February. I have no idea what I am doing, so I just point and shoot. This was the one of many things that has made me really look into taking classes or at least reading the book on how to use my camera. The local college has Photography classes that start in February. I am really nervous about the possibility of taking classes. I feel like it's my first day of school! This would also involve taking a Photoshop course and getting a new computer and Photoshop.

3) Get our house more organized and decorated. I know some people think I'm already super organized but my goal this year is to get more organized.

I want our pantry to look like this:

via Home Stories A to Z

Our pantry isn't that wide but the main goal is to get all dry ingredients into labeled jars and maybe snacks and/or like items in baskets like the ones shown here. I would also like to redo my spices. I have them all in little jars with what the spice is written on the top, in ABC order but I would like something different.

and my scarves like this(on shower hooks):

via From the Desk

This is an easy one if I can just remember to put shower rings on our grocery list..

Along with this goal comes a cleaning schedule. I hate cleaning the entire house in one day and with me not working, the last thing Alan needs to do is help clean on the weekend. I have made a daily cleaning schedule so its something I can do daily and by the weekend, all cleaning and laundry is done.

Also, the decorating part. I have yet to put up curtains in the bathrooms since we painted last April. We also need new towels and some artwork in there, our bedroom and the kitchen. Our bonus room needs a good cleaning and painting and maybe make the beginning of Madison's play room with this:

via Pinterest

Here's some other things floating on my Pinterest board..

via It's a Crafty Life
love this to hang by door for keys.

via Google
bookshelves flanking a couch.

via Chocolate Moments
such a cute way to remind someone what little things they do make you happy! A dry erase board so you can write different things everyday!

via All Things Homie
A cute way to dress up your thermostat!

via Bryn Alexandra
I really like having hooks in the room next to the door. For purses, coats, etc.

via minimoz
Maps of where you met, married and live. Love this!

If you aren't on Pinterest yet, you should be! Or maybe you shouldn't.. It has made me want to redo my entire house! It has really given me a lot of great ideas for our house(like all of the above!), ideas for things to do with Madison, great blogs to follow and yummy foods to try, which I have already!

4) Start back exercising. We have been talking about getting a treadmill or stair climber in the next couple of months. Since Alan stopped playing tennis regularly and when I got pregnant, neither of us has really done any real exercise. I haven't truly worked out in a gym in roughly 10 years! Before getting pregnant, I would run/walk the neighborhood.

5) Scrapbooking. I haven't scrapbooked in years but it's something I really enjoy doing. The only thing is it takes me a couple of hours to do a page usually and I just don't have that kind of free time anymore, other than when Madison goes to bed and by then I am trying to spend time with Alan, cook supper(this eating at 8pm thing is getting old fast!) and am ready for bed myself! I need to try to do a page a week.

6) Use coupons more. I cancelled my E-mealz suscription a couple of months ago. I talked about it here. It was great up until about 6 months ago. They started putting things like Hot Dogs and frozen pizza on the list. I mean I understand that we all want easy meals but I paid for this site and I can throw in a hot dog meal in the other 2 days it didn't give me recipes for. Plus every week there was a seafood meal and I don't eat seafood. So that was 1 out of 5 meals I wouldn't fix so I was having to come up with another meal to replace the seafood meal. So anyway... I try to cook different things every week. I hardly make the same thing twice and when I do, it's something like tacos or spaghetti or an easy meal. I try to base what I'm cooking on whats on sale which helps but here lately I haven't done a great job with my grocery budget. I would love to keep a stock of things that go on super sale that I have coupons for like shampoo, toothpaste and baby items.

I'm sure I have a ton of other goals spinning around in my head. we'll just leave it at this. Hopefully in the next couple of months I will have all of these marked off my list! We'll keep you updated!