thomas jefferson education

Two of my sisters-in-law homeschool their kids, and this book outlines a large portion of their curriculum. I've looked for it at the library, but wasn't able to find it, but as luck would have it, my father-in-law had two copies, so I brought one home for myself.

I recommend reading it, and then supplementing your kids public school education by reading and then having them read the books listed.

A Thomas Jefferson Education

I don't homeschool, but I've decided to implement this at home, nonetheless. The purpose is to teach our kids to be great thinkers and leaders. A lot of the time, the things they learn at school are just facts that are memorized and then regurgitated for a test. Or, they are trained how to do a job, but not how to think and form opinions.

So, I've started reading the books suggested, and I've had the girls read them too, in addition to their regular homework. They both love to read, so I've just asked them to alternate one of these books with a book of their choice in their recreational reading. We don't have formal discussions, but we talk about the books as we are driving in the car, etc. I've also started reading some of the books for younger kids to my boys, and they love it.

Erin's room

Ahh, if only it was this clean everyday.....

Annie's room

While my girl's were away at YW camp this summer, I finished up a few projects and fixed up their rooms. Here's Annie's.

The pinboard that I made way back when.

I think she needs a full length mirror on that bit of wall.

This wall art is another easy project that I've been meaning to show. Maybe later.

Dresser from IKEA.

And remember our super easy paint idea?

Cute tissue paper lantern. We just cut out circles of tissue paper and glued them onto an IKEA light fixture.

I love this room! I hope she does, too!

lampshade slipcover

i found these really cool lamps at Home Goods, but i really don't like the shades at all. they are cheapo faux silk, and the shiny pearly color doesn't do much for me, either.

so, i remembered reading about how Chris over at Just Beachy had made a slipcover for a lampshade, and decided to try it out!

i used the burlap from Erin's trek bag. it was the perfect color and texture.

i love the contrast between the rough burlap and the mercury glass lamp.

it brings some of the darker wood tone from the piano into that side of the room. (burlap is very stretchy and ravelly, by the way, i think next time i might use linen.)

Disaster strikes . . .

I took some pictures of my very clean house a few months ago when I thought we might be moving. I am using these pictures now as a reference so you can see what my office once looked like.

The perfect craft room solution - shallow drawers and cute cabinets on top, with cute IKEA fabric in the windows to hide the messy shelves. It only took me over a year to find these.

My "office" made out of a closet. Originally I was planning to "paper" the inside of this closet with the IKEA fabric featured above.

My desk/worktable. I love it pushed up against the window so that I can see outside while I'm working.

This is what my office looks like now. I went to put away a few things left out from my week's projects, and I found that a gallon jug of distilled water (for ironing) had sprung a leak and soaked everything on that shelf and below. (This is not the first time distilled water has leaked in my house - last year I found a jug that had seeped on a shelf in my pantry, only that one wasn't discovered for months.)

Books, magazines, etc. from the shelf above.

Around here, you have to dry stuff out really well, or it will grow mold. The water seeped into the bottom shelf where it had puddled. I hope I can dry it out so it doesn't warp.

I save my fave magazine articles with pictures of pretty houses. These were not put away the last time I looked through them, or they would have been in the other cabinet and been fine. They are spread out all over the room drying separately so they don't stick together.

I'm trying to salvage the fabric that was inside on the back of the cabinet. I didn't see it when I was at IKEA today, which makes me think they don't sell it anymore, and I really like it.

This isn't really what I wanted to do with my evening, I was going to finish up some projects for the girls' rooms (pictures coming soon!) and clean the house before my sweetie gets home. Oh well, I'm just glad I found it today instead of in a few weeks.

easy project

i found these great pinboards at the Pottery Barn Outlet (they're from West Elm) for only about $15 each and turned them into ......

.....THESE!

amy butler fabric, but of course

the plan is to get them hung and the girls' rooms picture perfect before they get home from camp tomorrow.

pretty in pink

i had several rooms in the house painted last week. bob did a great job, for a great price. a and i had talked about how we could make the space more neutral, but still keep a little bit of the salmon pink colored texture on the walls. this is what we came up with:

i cut flower shapes out of contact paper in varying sizes with my Cricut. then, i peeled off the back and put them randomly on the pink walls.

i had to hurry because bob was ready to paint.

i made sure the edges were all smoothed down with no air bubbles for paint to seep in.

then bob painted 2 coats over the top of the contact paper flowers.

and i went upstairs and peeled the stickers off of the walls.

i love that you can still see the dragged texture.

it looks so much better! a loves it! it was the easiest painting project i've ever not done!

(pictures of the finished room coming soon!)