Entries from February 1, 2008 - March 1, 2008
Renee & Jeremy - It's A Big World
Via the useful and fun Junior Society Report, Renee & Jeremy’s collection of lullabys works on two levels - it puts babies and parents to sleep - in a good way! I swear! I listened to a few cuts off their new CD and I have to admit, even I of the coffe and nail biting nervous energy almost went looking for a chamomile tea and fuzzy slippers. Try it, you’ll like it*.
*This CD highly NOT recommended for in-car listening.
christi
in under five, music, gifts, baby, new parents, shower gifts, birthdays
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Dressed Pets
The Animal Rescue League is putting on a fashion show with pets:
Saturday, March 8th from 4–6 pm at the Hy-Vee Conference Center. Human models will show off clothing from Ann Taylor/Ann Taylor LOFT with hair and make-up by La’James school. They’ll escort ARL adoptable pets modeling the latest high-fashion collars and leashes from the ARL’s retail store, Animal House, Three Dog Bakery and Iowa Pet Foods & Seascapes.
Tickets are $25 in advance (available for purchase online at www.arl-iowa.org or by calling Julie at 262-9503 x119) or $30 at the door.
The ARL also has horses for adoption (!) and in honor of National Horse Protection Day, have a pretty cool horse program coming up on March 1st. Click above for more info.
Painting Kids Rooms
Back when I answered reader mail for a major shelter mag, the majority of mail concerned painting - what color, how, and quite often, what to do for kids. Over the years, I came up with some good ideas and I thought I’d share them with you guys. I hope it helps.
If it does and/or if you use my tips, please send photos. We love to see your style and creativity. In fact, please send photos of anything you do. Nothing inspires people more than seeing what other everyday people accomplish. It’s awesome to see the real experts at work, but it’s sometimes more helpful to see those rooms, designs, ideas that we can all accomplish. Thanks!
- Number one idea: If you need ideas for decorating a kid’s room, ask the kid. If your child can talk, they probably have ideas about what they like - what color, what interests them, etc. I had a perplexed mom ask what to do for a boy’s room - she just didn’t know where to start. I told her to ask her son. An hour later, she wrote back saying that her son told her he was really interested in plants - problem solved. They went to the home store, got some plants and some paint, and were well on their way to decorating his room.
- Use magnetic paint under your top coat. This is one of the best ideas for kids’ rooms. They like to hang up stuff, they’re fickle and soon their room looks like a BB gun exploded in it. Magnetic walls allow even the shortest toddler to hang up art. You can even use the wall’s magnetic attribute to create wall games like a face with movable parts, trees with numbered fruit - be creative.
- Use chalkboard paint to create a message board or creativity center. Check out this example from Real Simple or make your own. Older kids might like this by their door to jot down reminders.
- Don’t be afraid to paint in quieter colors - especially for babies. Martha Stewart is great about using quieter palettes - even yellow for boys. We painted our nursery like this one. It was back when MS paints were at KMart, and the colors were Lamb’s Ear and some cream dream, the name of which I don’t recall. She has all kinds of examples on her site, so poke around if you’re in the market for nursery decor.
- Use the web. Sites like Flickr offer up photos on just about anything you can think up - nurseries and kids rooms abound. Sort by most recent if you’ve looked around a lot or by most interesting to see the most visited photos. Apartment Therapy offers ohdeedoh, now. Go there to see what trouble they’ve managed to stir up. Resist the urge to bookmark this page to avoid the trouble you’ll stir up at work if you do.
christi
