The Apartment With The Gorgeous Light

*Edit: unplanned by anyone, COVID-19 has hit the world, and caused us to have to move significantly sooner than we had planned. I am so thankful, in retrospect that I took the time to take these photos and write this post, as it's the only closure I am getting at this time.

We are moving. This is an exciting time, but I'm sad to say goodbye to the place we've called home for the past 2 1/2 years. This apartment has been good to us. The light is just phenomenal, which makes every picture I take just that much better. One whole wall is windows, and even though we are in the city, our view is of a church and cemetery (I love cemeteries!).

Dan and I have very similar taste in style and design, which makes life a lot easier in that regard. We have a few "tricks" that we use to make our style affordable and yet unique. Today, I'm going to share some pictures of our space, and then share them with you.

Okay, now for the tips!

1. Inexpensive furniture - Okay, so most of our furniture is from IKEA. The table and benches are an exception, as well as the "coffee table" between the two mint colored chairs. Especially with kids, there is no reason to shell out a bunch of money on things that are more than likely going to get ruined.

2. Unique details - We get our furniture from IKEA, but then complement it all with more unique pieces. We find these pieces at antique markets, flea markets, boutiques, from local artists, online, on Etsy, Zara Home, Magnolia, etc. This makes it so that our home doesn't look like a page from an IKEA catalogue, that it doesn't look like everyone else's home, or so "sterile".

3. Neutral base palette - by keeping the color scheme in a neutral palette, this means that we can switch out pops of color with the seasons. Add some light-colored or floral throw pillows in the spring, those yellow billy ball flowers in summer, beautiful autumnal oranges and dark greens for Thanksgiving, and sparkly metallics and red and green for Christmas. I really love light teal, which lucky for me is actually in the neutrals, so that's great! Those chairs by the window are some of my favorite!

4. Consistent, running elements - another one of my favorites is lavender. I love the look of it, the color and especially the smell of it. So, I use it in our bathrooms, and in vases in the living room. I also love (specifically the Slovenian) mountains, so I have those sprinkled around the place. Same with driftwood. The reason these are great, is because I can move things around and rearrange them in different ways throughout the apartment. 

6 New Book Lover's Favorites

Our family loves books.

It almost seems to be written into our DNA. My Gran wrote books, my mom was a voracious reader, my brother studied journalism and has written a book of poetry, I... taught kids how to read? Lol. The point is - we love books! So today is for us. Today is National Book Lovers Day!

So here are some of my "new" favorite children's books! 

1. Home by Carson Ellis                                   

As a family for whom the concept of "home" can be a little fluid or even confusing at times, this book is a great reminder that homes look different for everyone. It is beautifully illustrated - so much so, that I actually have it displayed, rather than hiding on a shelf. It invokes a kind of thoughtfulness, which I appreciate. 

2. We Are The Gardeners by Joanna Gaines

Yes, I'm on the Joanna Gaines bandwagon, and I don't care! We love this book and how it sweetly follows a family's journey into the ups and downs of gardening. Since we read the book, my son has been on the lookout for worms, a.k.a. detectives of the soil. Again, this book has lovely illustrations in somewhat muted colors.

3. Island Boy by Barbara Cooney

This is the perfect book for those of you out there with boys who have sensitive souls. It paints a beautiful picture of a full and simple life lived by the ocean. I'm a sucker for illustrations, and once again the pictures are breathtaking. We have this book up on a (reachable) shelf in our son's room, and I often catch my eyes resting on the face of the sweet boy on the cover.

4. BabyLit Sense and Sensibility

We really love the BabyLit books! They are board book primers based on some of the classics - such as The Jungle Book, Sherlock Holmes, Emma, The Secret Garden, etc. Each one has a theme, such as "opposites" or "numbers". I honestly can't recommend these highly enough!

5. The Honeybee and the Robber by Eric Carle

I am a big fan of Eric Carle! When starting to plan our little girl's 1st birthday party, I knew I wanted it centered around one of his books, just like her big brother's. I'm on kind of a "honeybee" kick, so I was thrilled to find this interactive book! I don't think it's been printed many times, as I was only able to find used ones of it on Amazon. The copy I bought was in wonderful shape, looked as good as new!

6. She Persisted Around the World by Chelsea Clinton

I was so thrilled when my mom got this book for us! I loved the original She Persisted, and was eager to read the "Around the World" edition. I was very happy to see Malala Yousafzai, one of my personal heroes in it. This is a terrific book for both boys and girls, to see the kind of impact you can have when you won't take "no" for an answer.

So, there you have it. From one bibliophile to hopefully another - what are some of your favorite books you've recently discovered? 

Early literacy is so important. There are numerous studies that show that children who are exposed to books from a young age grow up to be stronger readers, more empathetic, have a healthy imagination, and enjoy reading into their adulthood.

Reading allows us, as well as our children to travel to places they couldn't otherwise. It teaches them to look at people and situations from a different point of view. It opens their minds to new possibilities - what a beautiful gift to give our children.

So, celebrate today by curling up with a new book, or an old favorite. You can't go wrong. 

Magnetic Puzzle Board

Happy New Year!

The first week of the new year has consisted of sickness, Netflix binging Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, subsequent tidying, organizing and playing.

As we were taking down our Christmas decorations and I was putting our normal decor back, I realized that I hadn't done a blog post about our magnet board in our living room/play room.

It's one of the things I had planned even before we moved, and I am super happy with how it turned out!

What you'll need:

- 1 jumbo puzzle (I LOVE Mudpuppy puzzles! They have different themes - dinosaurs, animals, maps - so you can totally make it fit the feel of your space!  They're really well made, a great size, and totally affordable.  I went with the world map one, because I love maps, and I wanted to be able to refer to it when talking to Aidan about our move, or when learning about animals, continents, talking about where family and friends live, etc.  You can find the one we got here.)

- Magnet paper - You can find it on Amazon.  It's just sheets of adhesive magnetic material

- 1 piece of sheet metal, OR two magnetic boards from IKEA

- Equipment to hang the boards (We used the Command Picture Hanging Strips, since we rent, and are trying to do the least amount of damage to the walls.)

Directions:

1. Order the jumbo puzzle you want.

2. Cut small (approx. 1x3 inch - changing sizes as you need) pieces of the magnetic paper, remove paper covering adhesive part, and stick them to the back of each puzzle piece, coving as much as possible.

3. Hang your magnetic boards or sheet metal in your desired spot.  Now, with the magnetic boards, obviously there is a seam.  You can decide if you want it horizontal or vertical.  Vertical lines bother me less than horizontal, but that's a personal preference.  If I knew exactly where to find a piece of metal like what I wanted here in Slovenia, that's what I would've done, but this worked out great, too!

4. Complete puzzle on board.

5. That's it!  You're done! 

I absolutely love having such a large map so accessible.  We like watching Wild Kratts, so whenever they are talking about an animal, and where their habitat is, it's a great tool to show Aidan where that animal lives.  It's also helpful when showing Aidan where his grandma, who lives in Ohio is.

Another great feature is that it can come down, and I could have another puzzle ready to go up.  I don't have another one as of yet, but plan on getting one. Aidan loves taking the pieces off, putting them together on the floor, and then back up on the board.  He's gotten really good at it! :)  

My next project is getting magnetic letters and spray painting them black, lol.  They're a fantastic tool when starting reading and spelling, which is where we're headed with Aidan.

Oh! It also worked as a great Christmas card display during the holidays.

And there you have it!  A cute and functional magnetic puzzle board!