Storage hidden in plain view and giveaway news

I'm a realist when it comes to decorating. Form & function every time win out. But I also don't believe I need to wait until my 14 month old is all grown up before I have the home of my dreams. I just have to be a little more creative.

A lot of people now a days have playrooms. Which is pretty fabulous for the kids, we have an extra bedroom that could easily become a playroom, but the thing is, I don't want to hang out in a playroom all day. I want to hang out in the heart of our home, which for us is the living room & dining room.

Does this look like a room that our daughter spends almost her entire day in? Well it is. The key is storage.

This is our "coffee table". We cant put our cup or glasses down right now anyway due to my daughter, but when shes asleep we have coasters that make setting a drink down easy peasy.

This is where I keep her bigger toys. And all the toys that light up, and sing and dance and tell stories all by themselves. We only have a handful of these types of toys, and I like only one to be played with at a time, otherwise I think it gets a little overwhelming for any baby, and not at all educational. Did I mention just plain annoying?

Do you see those dark brown baskets under the window seat?

Those are filled with toys.

We organize them so its easier to play with things. I don't worry too much about things getting out of order though. But I will say its much easier to put things away when we need to, and its a lot more fun when things are together.

And about once a week we go through and put things back where they belong. It takes about 3 minutes because its an easy system. And when I ask her if she wants to play with the blocks, she knows where to find them. I don't worry about things being perfect, but I think its a good lesson to teach children at a young age how to organize and take care of their belongings.

This old crate holds more than just a blanket.

That holds her musical instruments, she absolutely loves this toy. And I love that I can cover it up if my head hurts from all the rattling and noise it makes.

This is a big toy, but she really likes it. We keep it hiding beside the couch. If we had company I could put it away. Because its tucked away theres more room to play with all the other toys, and we can pull it out whenever.

I don't usually show the tv, because tvs are pretty ugly. But our tv cabinet has tons of storage.

When buying storage think a little about the future. We haven't even started using this yet, but I know we'll need it as she gets older, or if we have more kids. I'm thinking this would be a great place to put coloring books and crayons and all sorts of arts and supplies. Each cubby could have different things in it, so its easy to find things.

And this is our dining room, its open to the living room, and gets just as much action during the day. My daughter is often playing underneath the table, because its fun and shes a baby.

The last 6 cubbies are filled with her stuff.

Books, and stuffed animals, bibs and wipes

And of course her food basket. And then when I find a random mushroom lying on the floor I know where to put it.

Kids stuff is really cute, but I find it makes me feel a little anxious seeing it all over the place all the time. I want our daughter to be at home and have plenty to do so shes learning and having a great time. I also don't want to look like I'm living in a toy store, so that's why I use kids storage.


And we have a winner!

And the winner is Ashley from Black Point Chic

Thanks for visiting!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Recap

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas, we had a great time, just a quick recap of what happened around here.

I broke my camera lens on Friday...the lens all of a sudden wouldn't retract. I was SUPER bummed

1. because I felt like it just stopped working, and I hadn't broken it

2. We were going to be celebrating my husbands birthday

3. Christmas morning...and no camera..BOO!

Anyway my dad is like a huge tech nerd thank god, and fixed it.

Friday night...Christmas Eve

We celebrated my husbands birthday by going out just the two of us to NYC. My parents watched Kennedy, and they were all too thrilled to tuck her in on Christmas Eve

I thought a bow in my hair was all too appropriate for this time of year.

We went to Bar Americain which is one of Bobby Flays restaurants in the city. My husband is a huge Bobby fan. I of course didn't take any pictures while we were there, because I was enjoying myself and just forgot.

           

If you are curious about the restaurant or the menu here is the link

Bar Americain

We had a great time, and my husband really enjoyed his steak

I "tried" to take a couple of pictures from the car to show you how pretty the city is at Christmas time

Because they do it BIG in the BIG apple. Is that the biggest candy cane you've ever seen, or what?

The top of this whole building is covered in lights...so pretty!

And I thought these Candy lollipops were really cute...And I think they could be easily re-created for a little girls sweets party. Idea for my daughters 2nd bday party??

And many people don't think of trees in the city, but most of them have twinkling lights this time of year, and its kind of beautiful and magical. But I'm sort of a sucker for white lights. I think they should be in every restaurant all year round, they give me the warm and fuzzies.

And then Christmas was a blast. These were all of her presents. And all combined they were less than $30. A book from target, 4 puzzles bought on sale, some plastic flashcards for the bath, 3 cute hand puppets. Next year will be bigger, because she's only 1, and she doesn't really get it.

I want her to always have great memories. But I also think kids have way too much, more than they need, and that can make them ungrateful, and spoiled, and often easily bored.

So we talked about how we would try to always keep the presents simple. And how if we fill a room with presents we'll feel the need to fill them at least as high the next year, if not higher

We talked about how we want the toys to stimulate creativity and learning, and how its not our job to give her everything she wants, and how its good to want something and not get it.

Shes still too young to understand, but it was nice to talk about what our family is going to value. So we can be ready for next year, so we can be ready for when she can voice what she wants.

Then we all got dressed and went to my parents for lunch, and his parents for dinner. They only live 10 minutes away from each other, so it means more time with family and less time traveling which is always nice.

How was your Christmas?

Did you do anything special on Christmas Eve?