Making a House a Home

About a week or so ago I was inspired by Compass, a technologically savvy real estate company based in NYC, from a new project they began entitled Starter Stories. 

The project is about bloggers sharing stories where they are/were starting out in a home, apartment, wherever, and how to make that place your own.

I wanted to participate, but didn't know where I would start or what I would share. I had lots of ideas floating around that were how-to's and DIY's, but one project from our past stuck out in my mind.

Since being married, my husband and I have moved 7 times so far.

Each place we have been in we have tried to make 'our own', but we weren't at most of those places long enough to do too much.

I'm so glad this project got me thinking though, because I started looking through old pictures and it brought back so many wonderful memories of our first home.

Here is a picture of our home on the left during building, and on the right was 5 years later when we put it up for sale.

We accomplished so many things in this home, and really made it our own, but one of our biggest accomplishments was this built-in entertainment center.

My husband and I had been married for about 9 months when we found this new community being developed.

No-Sew Quiet Book: Barn and Finger Puppets

We're making it through all of our quiet book pages.
After this one I will only have two more to post, so stay tuned!

I think this page one was my favorite one to make, I love the little animals hiding :) 

I had been thinking about making a 'barn page' for a while, I just didn't know what else I wanted to do with it.

I was originally going to make some animals and have a place for my son to velcro them on, but it somehow turned into finger puppets instead, and I am loving them!

Making the puppets is pretty easy, I have included some pictures below so you can kind of see how they came together.

DIY Magnet Board

Years ago I worked at a doctors office and in the waiting room there was an area for kids with a magnet board around the whole wall.

Ever since then I have wanted to make something like that for my kids.

Yes folks, this idea came before the days of Pinterest.

Gasp!  :)

As always, I've got lots of pictures for you on how this all came together!

(Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality, I used my phone for all of them. I know, I know...)

So here's a quick run-down of the supplies and where I got everything.

Quiet Book: Counting beads

I posted my Quiet book: Garden page a few days ago, and now I am back with another one!

Just so you know, I was originally going to combine all of the 'pages' together, but I think I like having each 'page' separate so my kids can play with different ones. 

Anyways, on to the tutorial!

(As with the previous page, this counting page is a no-sew version).

So as before, I used scrap pieces of felt that I already had in my stash.

Tested: Bathtub cleaner

Alright, I am going to show you a before and after picture, and I don't want any judging :)

We've all been there people.

 We moved into our new house about 6 months ago.

Everything was so new and clean.

I almost had anxiety from it, because I knew it wouldn't last long, but I wanted it to.

A few months after moving in we unexpectedly had the opportunity to put grass in our backyard.

It took us one very busy week to get everything finished, and at the end of the day we would be covered in dirt and mud and we were exhausted.

It was so hard trying to keep everything clean.

One thing that didn't survive well was our bathtub/shower.
I had some Clorox cleaner on hand that I have used plenty in the past, but this time it didn't do anything.
So I decided to turn to Pinterest.
It has all the answers :)
I found this blog post about cleaning a bath/shower and I already had everything on hand, so I figured I would give it a try.

You will need:

Quiet Book: Garden Page

Back when my oldest was younger I really wanted to make him a quiet book, but I somehow never got around to it.

Now that my second is a toddler I am getting my butt into gear and getting it done!
Slowly but surely :)
I'll be posting the 'pages' one-by-one with a step-by-step tutorial.
Also, I should mention that I made this a no-sew version, the whole thing is put together with a hot glue gun.
Here is the first page I made.
We'll call this one 'The Garden'

What I love most about this is that I was able to use felt scraps that I already had on hand!

Bathroom Scale Review

* I received the following product for free in exchange for an honest review on my blog. I DO NOT receive any compensation if you click any links in this post.

I have a review for you today!

Today we are talking bathroom scales.

Really? Yes, really.

I have never had a 'nice' scale before.

I've never really put much thought into purchasing a scale in the past, we have just purchased a cheap one on sale and been good to go.

For a little while.

Then the scale would get old and worn out and not really work well, and it would just sit there in our bathroom.

So I was really excited to get the change to review this COOSH CBS001B Precision Digital Scale

It looked sturdy and of high quality.

This is how it came in the mail.

Well packaged, and ready for use!

The scale comes with a lithium battery, which will obviously last a while, but I like that when that does die, you can remove it and there is a space for 2 AAA batteries as well.
Because those I have on hand :)