DIY cardboard playhouses (that fold flat!)
It’s almost that time. And by “that time,” I don’t mean Christmas specifically — I mean the time when your entire living room is a mess of empty cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and those annoying styrofoam pieces.
Don’t despair, because I found a reeeeally fun use for cardboard boxes. The bigger, the better!
Hop over to my monthly DIY parenting column, This DIY House (which runs in Family Matters magazine, shameless plug, ahem) to see how to make COLLAPSIBLE cardboard box houses.
(The “collapsible” is key, because DEAR GOD NO ONE WANTS MORE LARGE TOYS IN THEIR HOME, amright?)
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| View the full tutorial |
’twas The Night Before Christmas: A Modern Tale Of Sticky, Frazzled Parenthood
’Twas the night before Christmas,
and parents were frazzled.
Preparing to make sure,
their children were dazzled.
With the Amazon boxes,
all piled by the door.
Free shipping was more tempting,
than the crowds at the store.
With snackies and sweats,
and some wine (just a twinge).
We had just settled in,
for a good Netflix binge.
I with my scissors,
and Dad with his tape.
Realized very quickly,
that we were in bad shape.
There were toys to assemble,
Triple-A batteries to find.
Boxes to be unfolded,
Tags to be signed!
Squinting at the German text,
of instructions disassembled.
How long can a fire station,
really take to assemble?
The pieces! There’s thousands!
My vision is swimming.
“We should have started this days ago!”
I cursed, my eyes brimming.
Continue reading the full poem in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …
Last-minute gift guide for DIYers
Modern console table makeover
There once was a low console table that lived in the front hall of my mom’s house. It had a woollen hat and mittens on the drawers and three kids sledding across the top along with a few whimsical snowdrifts. It became one of those fixtures that you stopped seeing after a while, but it really was nice … in a very kitschy country way.
It went into storage earlier this year and I asked my mom if I could take it and redo it. No way, she told me, it’s hand-painted! I couldn’t just slap white paint on it and call it a day! (I do paint a lot of things white, so that was fair.)
But no! I said I’d give the hat-and-mitten thingy a lovely new home and I wouldn’t just “slap some white paint on it.” I would make it really, really awesome and it would have a brand-new life living somewhere in our house. It would be appreciated … albeit without the hat and mittens, of course.
When I finally got permission, I whisked the table home and picked out the perfect shade of Fusion Mineral Paint — a deep charcoal-y shade called “Ash.” It went on beautifully over the varnished finish (no sanding or priming required, hallelujah!) and barely needed a second coat. Once it dried, I rubbed it with a bit of Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Wax to give it a light sheen — and to protect it from child-sized smudges.
Continue reading in my weekly DIY column, My Handmade Home …
Stuff I need to try: Screen-free Saturday
We are waaaaay guilty for overusing screens in the house (iPhones for me and Darling Husband — well, and computers — and the iPad for the kids). Seriously. So. Guilty.
Well, my brilliant friend, Lindsey (blogger extraordinare turned columnist and superstar editor) wrote about a new thing her family is doing: Screen-free Saturday.
When’s the last time you were completely screen free for 24 hours? No TV, no computer, no phone, no social media. For me, I think it’s been years. (How crazy is that?!)
That is, until last month when we launched screen-free Saturday in our home. That means from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, we abstain from all things digital.
The first time we did it, Husband and I were shocked, and frankly a little appalled, to realize how much time is commonly wasted on screens. There’s a time and a place, of course — we aren’t going to suddenly start foregoing Friday family movie nights or skip our favourite primetime shows.
In the end, we found that not only did we not miss the screen time, but it was actually a relief to go without for 24 hours, and we haven’t looked back.
Check out her full column here, including her family’s Top 5 activities during Screen-Free Saturday. This is something I REALLY want to try for us.
xo
As featured on …
Heather's Handmade Life 