We Had A Flu Christmas...

Our little family is just getting back into the swing of things after a horrible week of the flu. We didn't take too many pictures of our Christmas, although I am sure it will be one to remember. We ended up taking Sienna to urgent care on Christmas Eve after her fever spiked to 105 degrees and fever reducers wouldn't bring it down. A trip to her regular doctor's office on the day after Christmas showed us she also had a middle ear infection.  And, a trip for Mama to urgent care the Saturday before, with a positive swab for the flu let us know just what our little family would be facing. Little Forest was the last to come down with it and he is still getting better.

Santa brought them each a rocking horse ...

 Sienna on Christmas morning.

Forest on Christmas morning. 

On the little rocking horse. 

On the big rocking horse.

And, on the Friday before Christmas, we had a day of snow before our flu-filled week.

Snow angel.

Sienna and Nana's snow girl. 

We hope everyone had a beautiful Christmas!

The Garden Apartment: In the Kitchen

So, this is our smallish kitchen. It's nothing special, but it is where all the magic meals happen! From David's chow mein to my weekly baked bread and our Sunday pancakes. Someday, we will have a beautiful kitchen with a window over the sink and sweet little drawers and built in nooks and crannies.

I decided I had to share it, since after all I like to do things all the way through and I started this little series. So, now I have to finish it! 

These pictures are from yesterday, when I was baking our weekly bread.

Our coffee makers. Mine is going bye-bye since I've given up coffee and am now just drinking tea. Mostly Chai tea!

Cooking oils on our counter next to the stove, since they don't fit into a cabinet. 

Our spice rack and baking rack, ready for bread! 

Clutter next to the sink! I prefer to do our dishes by hand, so this is what it looks like more often than not. 

Our magnets on the fridge! 

If Forest isn't in his Ergo when I'm baking, then he's here watching me and smiling. 

 Blurry! But, I caught him waving to me.

The Garden Apartment: Sienna's Bedroom

Welcome to Sienna's bedroom! 

Sienna loves all things feminine and fairy tale like. She loves castles and princesses, but also fairies and enchanted forests.

The first thing you see when you come to her bedroom is her dance bag hanging on her door. Her ballet slippers, tap shoes and a silky tutu are inside of it. 

Then you see her sweet, pine bed fit for a little princess and her creamy white dresser. The pink quilt my Grandma Ann made for me is on her bed. 

At the foot of her bed is her dollhouse from Santa Claus, a rocking chair, and two pink toy buckets.

On the opposite wall are her barn and fairy house. I love her wood toys! Can you guess what the Easter Bunny will bring to the wee ones?

Above them is her magnetic bulletin board.

Next to that, is a small, white bookshelf.

On the other side is a sweet fairy peg shelf with her handmade by Daddy fairy house below. The fairy house is sitting on a little, pine heart-shaped table.

Lastly, we have her closet. (She only uses half of it.) Her dresses and coats are above. The shelf holds board games, puzzles, coloring books, a few china tea sets, headbands and hair clips.

I hope that you enjoyed sharing a peek into Sienna's bedroom. Don't worry, it's not always so organized! I just noticed how orderly it was this morning and skipped over our (messy) kitchen to share it with you.

The Garden Apartment: A Cozy Dining Nook

Well, hello friends! I am quickly writing this blog in the midst of doing more Valentine's Day creating with Sienna. (I will share all of our crafting goodness later.) 

Last time, I shared with you our living room and if you haven't already noticed I like our home to feel like our little family's own private sanctuary. We are home bodies and want our space to reflect the things we love and do.

In our dining nook, we have a pine table and chairs that were craigslist finds. My uncle, Mike, the mouse (as Sienna started calling him one day) refinished the table for us and stained it. When I was a little girl, I always envisioned having a pine harvest table for my own little family to sit around one day. Is that strange? I also wanted to have between 4-6 little ones. Hmmm...

Under the kitchen bar, we created a little play space for Sienna and one day Forest, if we are still living in this apartment. On the other side of the baby doll swing, there is a small broom, mop, and ironing board. Just in case a little one wants to help Mama with the chores.

To the right of the baker's rack, we have a chalkboard that I change monthly. I write the month and draw a little seasonal picture to surprise Sienna.

On one side of the bar is Mama's little mini office with my calendar, pens, and stapler. I love my Nikki McClure calendar that Aunt Jenn gave me for Christmas from my Amazon wish list. By the way, to those who do look at my wish list, I have been adding a ton of books on it, just to remember the titles of books I want to read with Sienna and Forest. I don't really want that many more books in my cozy garden apartment. ...Or do I? I do love books!

On the other side is guess what! Books! This is some of our cookbooks and a handmade wooden bowl that we keep our fruit in. 

On the top of our baker's rack we have Mama's recipe box that Daddy gave her for Christmas when we were living in the little house. I love the gifts he gives me ... when we have extra money to splurge on each other. On the top of the recipe box is my Sunflower Mama from Mountain Hearth Handcrafts on Etsy. I bought her with some birthday money from my Dad. I love the wall hangings she makes! I love the needle felted wall hangings, too. This is a craft I would love to try one day!

You may have noticed the little heart baskets hanging on our chairs in the first picture. These are for our Valentine's Day cards. Nana made them with Sienna on Sunday when she came over. Sienna and I put the handles on them and she decided to write our names on them and hang them from the chairs we usually sit at around the table.

This is our homeschool shelf. On the top is the nature table that I showed you a few weeks ago. On the lower shelves are various art supplies for creating. Above the bookshelf, I am planning to hang Sienna's alphabet cards since this is where we do our homeschooling. I already had them taped up, but they all fell down. So, next I am going to try some string and clothespins.

Lastly, we have two projects that Nana and I are working on. When my uncle refinished the table the original knobs broke off the drawers. So, Nana will be drilling holes in the drawers and putting on the knobs that I chose from Cost Plus. 

The other upcoming project we have planned is to recover the chair cushions on our dining chairs. They are quite comfy chairs, but are in need of a new fabric that goes more with our style. I can't wait to show you how it turns out!

Next time, I will take you to our kitchen! There might even be something baking to share with you...

The Garden Apartment: A Cozy Living Room

Well, friends. We've lived in our apartment for quite a few months now and I've been wanting to share our home. I've been trying to think of a clever name for our new abode, but I haven't been able to come up with a name ... until today. Since I've started this blog, we've lived at the little house, the little townhouse and lastly, the little cottage.

So, welcome to our new home ... the garden apartment. No, we don't have a garden at our door step, but we do have our own little plot of land in our apartment's pea patch. We reserved our own little gardening space and will be doing some planting very soon!

I thought I'd take you on a little tour, as you walk into our apartment from the front door. To the left is the wee one's bookshelf ... full of seasonal books and picture books. Hidden in our armoire is our t.v. and videos. The basket to the right is full of Forest's toys. He loves pulling his toys out of it.

 

(To the left of the armoire)

This little lamp is from (the flea market) The Mercantile in Anacortes. I love the way stained glass looks when it is lit up!

(To the right of the armoire)

One of the things I don't really like about this apartment is this built-in bookshelf. It serves a purpose though I guess. We have our board games, picture albums, baby books, cd collection and some of Sienna's art supplies stored here. 

When you turn around from the armoire, we have our sofa, dvd collection, bookshelf with some of Mama's and Daddy's books and rocking chair. And yes, that is Forest looking at himself in the mirror of the push toy.

A closer look of the bookshelf. My belly cast from Forest is on top. I wish I would have done one with Sienna, too! There is also a handprint flower that Sienna made me for Mama's Day at preschool last year.

On the other side of the sofa, is a cabinet filled with all of our children's movies and dvd's. 

Some of my favorite art work is also displayed in our cozy living room. I love these prints from the 1980's that I found for $20 at a shop in Mount Vernon. 

This one is called "Stephanie's Dream Bunny" by Barbara Bourgeau-Richards.

This one is called "Helen Kathryn and Mama's Goose" by Barbara Bourgeau-Richards.  

This one is called "Frolic in the Forest" and I found it in the Taproot magazine, which I received the first issue of for free. If we had extra money, I would love to subscribe to this magazine.

This was a gift from Aunt Jenn when she traveled to Australia. It's so sweet! I like to joke that it is Sienna and Forest.

And there you have our cozy living room ... at least until we move again!