Ikea hack

I love a good Ikea hack. I love how cheap and easy it can be to take something so generic, something that probably a million other people have in their homes, but tweak it a little bit to make it your own.

Remember a long, long time ago when I decided to change up our master bedroom? Well when we changed our room around, putting our large king size bed against the longest wall of the room, I suddenly had room on both sides of our bed for side tables. Good thing too because I love having a lamp right beside the bed. I knew right away that I wanted to do an Ikea rast hack.

Introducing the Rast dresser (they call it a dresser, but in my opinion it's a tad bit small to be called that). This basic little dresser has had MANY hacks done to it. Probably because its so cheap, and since its not stained or painted, it's basically an empty canvas for you to do whatever you want to it.

My inspiration for the hack came from This dresser. Why spend $200 on a dresser, when I can get almost the same thing for $40? Plus I wanted one on both sides of the bed, so the Novyll dresser was just not possible.

I was pregnant when I started this project. Like first trimester pregnant. Since I didn't want to play with chemicals, I got my sister to do the staining for me. She did an awesome job. The stain only cost $6.00 and we didn't even use half of it. Then I did one thin coat of white paint (that I already had) over each of the drawers. I wanted a thin coat to give it a white washed look. Then, finally in November, I added the hardware. I suppose you could paint and use the hardware that comes with it, but I wanted something a little nicer.

Here's the end result!















And now my bedroom make-over is ALMOST complete! What do you think!? What's your favourite Ikea hack?

Activity Bags

A few days ago I spent the afternoon making activity bags for Coral. The idea is to have a few bags of crafts or activities ready to go in a bag, so when mama needs a free moment, she can have one without always turning on cartoons. I can't take full credit for these ideas. Some I came up with on my own, some were friends ideas, and others I got from the Internet.

I ended up getting all my supplies at Dollar Tree. Ever heard of it? I hadn't either, but a new one just got built right by my house, so the kiddos and I walked there to check it out. They basically have all the same stuff as Dollarama, only everything is $1.50....no sneaky $2.00 or $3.00 items. Wonderful!




On this particular day, Coral decided against having a nap, or quiet time, so she became my little helper. She had a blast. It took me two full hours to put everything together. I basically just spread all the supplies out on the table and went to town. Here's what we ended up with.




Look out grandparents...noodle necklaces coming your way! So all it is, is a roll of yarn, and some dyed noodles. Coral and I dyed the noodles together, which she thought was amazing. You just take some noodles, place them in a bag, add a few drops of rubbing alcohol, few drops of food colouring and shake shake shake. Let them dry completely before letting your toddler play with them.




Beads and pipe cleaners. Let your toddler get creative. Coral will spend SO much time putting the beads on the pipe cleaners, making necklaces and bracelets. You can also work on patterns with your toddler. Coral knows how to do basic patterns (green, yellow, green, yellow).




Alphabet match. These letters are magnets, so Coral likes to place the sheet on the fridge and do the alphabet match there.




For this one I took a bunch of plastic eggs, put a number on each one, and Coral has to match the number of Pom Poms with the number on the egg.




Colour match. I went into the paint store, grabbed a bunch of samples (get double of every one you grab) and hot glued one of each of the samples onto a close line pin. I made sure to get some that were very similar in colour to try and trick Coral (greens that are very similar shades, but just slightly different).




Measuring. I cut pipe cleaners, yarn and straws, all the width of each thing on the page. Coral has to measure to find out where each one belongs.




Straws, Pom Poms, painters tape. Place painters tape all over your floor and your child has to blow the Pom Pom with the straw along the tape.




Counting lizards. Your toddler has to match the number of lizards with the number on the paper.




Learn to spell your name. Corals a little old for this one, she has known how to spell her name for a long long time already, but she still likes to match and gets excited when she spells her name. If your child doesn't know how to spell their name yet, this is a great way to teach them.




Shape match. Cut out doubles of every shape, and place one on top of the other. Your toddler has to match the shapes, colours, and in the right order.




These are little plastic links that we sort according to colour, then shape, and then make patterns out of them.




Basically the same as beads and pipe cleaners. They are little foam shapes with holes in the middle. Again you can work on patterns with these.




Another way to work on counting and numbers. Match the number on the clothes pin to the number of stars on the wheel.




Sorting and matching. Have your toddler sort through all the foam shapes, and match them in the egg carton. If you know Coral, you know this girl loves to sort and match.

And that's it! Coral gets so excited when I bust out an activity bag. Of course the first time I bring out a new bag, I have to sit down and help her with it, but once I show her how to do it, she's free to learn by herself, and I'm free to get done whatever I need to get done.

Mama of Two!

Hey y'all! Its been a while eh! Let me update you with whats been going on in the Hodgson home since the last time I posted.

So, last time I blogged, I was still pregnant, ready to pop. A few days later, Andrew and I welcomed another little princess, Poppy Ruth, into our lives. We couldn't have been more thrilled.

The transition from one child to two has been very smooth for us. Maybe thats because Poppy is a MUCH different baby then Coral (making her seem like a breeze to take care of).

 I had a much different labor with Poppy. My water didn't break this time, I just slowly laboured all day long at home (and at the park...yes we decided to do a maternity photo shoot just hours before giving birth...talk about procrastination). We got to the hospital, got my epidural (at 10 cm...had I known that I was already fully dilated I wouldn't have gotten it), and then just seven minutes before midnight on October 5th, our Poppy girl was born.

Recovery was also much easier this time around. With Coral I was out of it for WEEKS. With Poppy, we left the hospital just two hours after having her (practically skipping with excitement), took her on her first official outing not even 24 hours after having her, and haven't slowed down since.

Again, Poppy is a MUCH different baby then Coral. Remember she had colic? I still shutter thinking about those long four months of constantly holding a screaming baby, not having time for a quick shower, or eating, staying up till 2 in the morning then getting up every single hour in the night to feed her because she was to busy with crying during the day to eat. Ahhh! Heres the great news though, Poppy hardly ever cries. Yes, she will let out a good scream if her needs aren't being met, but for the most part she is SO content.

Coral has also adjusted really well into her new roll as a big sister. In fact I would prefer if she didn't take her role quite so seriously. She wants to help out with everything. Bath time, changing, you name it. She always wants to be around Poppy. Which is wonderful, except she smothers her. No really, she literally smothers her. When she talks to Poppy, she has to have her face pressed right up against hers. She likes to squeeze her (one time Andrew literally had a tug of war with Coral over Poppy). But, this being our second time around, we have learnt that babies, while tiny, can actually handle quite a bit.

And now lets talk about sleep. Sweet, glorious sleep. Oh how I LOVE my sleep. Poppy definitely had her days and nights mixed up for a while there. It sucked, but was totally to be expected with a newborn. Truthfully, I could handle the sleepless nights, it was keeping up with my toddler the next day that I struggled with (her favourite game is tag....understand what Im sayin). Eventually though, she stopped wanting to eat at night, except one feeding that would occur anywhere from 4:30 am-5:30 am. Not so bad, except she was still getting up at 2am to hang out. She wasn't interested in eating, just wanted to stay awake and chill with me. Not cool Poppy girl, not cool at all. So, I took the advice from my good pal Rachel (she's a mama of four, so she knows what shes talking about) and decided to let Poppy cry it out at night. Crying it out wasn't a new thing for me, I did it with Coral too...she was just a lot older when I did it with her. But since Poppy was only eating once in the night, and it was so close to morning, I knew she could handle it. So, the first night, I fed her at 10pm, burped and changed her, kissed her goodnight and didn't get her until 6am. I felt awful doing it, but when I got her in the morning she was all smiles and giggles, so I knew I didn't traumatize her. Now I still put her down at 10pm, but don't get her till 7am (which she is always still sleeping and I have to wake her up to feed her).

And so thats that. I have a very happy, content little baby that sleeps through the night. And me? Well I haven't felt this good in a LONG time. I think part of the reason why I felt so good so quick after I had Poppy is because I felt SOO awful my whole pregnancy with her. I am fully enjoying not feeling sick all day and night, not having heart burn constantly, and not being totally uncomfortable all the time :) Life is good and we feel beyond blessed.