A Garden Fit For a Toddler

In our (fenced!) backyard, we’ve got three pretty amazing garden boxes from the previous tenants. The other couple that live in the same apartment as us said that they were put in specifically for the person who used to occupy our unit and they have absolutely no intention of using the garden boxes for themselves. So, since September, I’ve been dreaming about the day when I could get my hands a little dirty and start planting some “crops”.

Unfortunately, my only real experience gardening has been the shopping trip my mom and I took every year to get plants for her garden. A garden I had every intention of helping out with when we went and bought those beautiful plants, but forgot about once summer got into full swing. The result? I’ve never really had the opportunity to cultivate any kind of green thumb. Except for this experiment which I hardly think counts. I have tried countless times to plant an indoor herb garden… but that always ends up in tragedy and waster dollars and cents.

I really want to try my hand at growing some of our own food though, so I’ve been planning, pinning and plotting different strategies for having your own garden and one of the things that they suggest, is setting up a garden for little ones too so that they can participate in the gardening process. Of course, I was like, “Genius!” The issue we have is that we have rabbits. Tons and tons of little bunnies are constantly ruining any time of vegetation growth in our yard and we even heard that the people who had the garden previous to us, lost all their vegetable crops to those pesky little monsters.

So my idea was set up a fun garden for the girls with minimally delicious-for-rabbits stuff but with maximum toddler coolness factor and then use the rest of the boxes to plant vegetables and the like and fence it in with chicken wire. This is my great strategy. Get the girls involved with garden. Don’t lose all my vegetables to the bunnies.

So far? It’s a hit!

I had no idea what I want in their garden but I went down to a local green house and got some great help from the owner. He picked out textured plants, beautiful bright-colored flowers, smelly plants and even put our name down for when they get a new plant in that smells like buttered popcorn! He said I couldn’t have a kid’s garden without it. I quite agree.

I’m really excited for this weekend to do some “legit” planting and get all our vegetables in the ground! For now though, the girls are really enjoying their little plot of greenery!

How about you guys? Any planting happening at your house? Are you an experienced gardener? If you have any tips and tricks for rabbits do share!

Psst- Sophie’s birthday was last weekend! We will share her party details next week!

Psssst- The Craftstravaganza was awesome! I got absolutely no photos but it was a ton of fun and we had a great time!

 

The Final Countdown…

That’s all very dramatic for a post title, but if you ask Sophie, there is some serious bid-ness at work in our house right now. Can you guess what it is? Don’t get it wrong because (here’s a hint) you’ll have a raging almost-three-year-old flying at you with paintbrushes yelling, “It’s my birthday today! No! It’s tomorrow! No! It’s so so soooooon.”

End quote.

But seriously, Sophie is turning three in less than a month!

I’m not sure where the last three years have gone, but our little baby is all grown up! Well, ok. She’s not all grown up but sometimes it feels like we’ll blink and she’ll be heading off to college and Tim and I will be all, “Wa happened?” The fun part about this year is that she really understands that whole “birthday party” concept and has been a flood of all kinds of ideas for her party. This year we’re even separating the celebration into two parties.

 For the first time ever, we’re having one birthday party for her and all her little friends and a second for family members. It’s going to be a lot of work (and we’re crossing our fingers for good weather both days since our apartment is a little bit too small for such gatherings) but we’re excited to see if we can pull it off. Next week we’re planning on going “birthday party essentials” shopping, to quote Sophie. Want to know what’s on her list of must-haves?

Here’s the list I’ve received, so far:

1. A pink cake, with a Barbie in the middle.
2. Some balloons. “Preferably pink, but I’ll be okay with blue.”
3. Lots of friends.
4. Maybe some hot dogs.
5. “I think we should have a yellow dog.”
6. A birthday party hat.
7. “Charlotte should come too. Then I can go to her birthday later.”

This is what I’ve gotten so far. But I’m sure there will be more later. As far as what we’re actually planning? We have no idea.

This is the picture we’re using for her birthday invitations… and that’s about as far as I’ve gotten in the whole planning process. I found this cool little chalkboard at JoAnn’s for $1.50 with coupon. I bought two of them for the girls to use for arts and crafts and a little pack of colorful crayons. Sophie was so excited to hold her little sign that she kept crawling onto my lap while I was trying to get my artsy on. I think it probably took my half an hour to write that sign because my elbows kept getting bumped. But we’re happy with the results so it’s a win. Plus, now the girls have chalkboards to use on a daily basis. Then just color, wipe the chalk off and start again. No paper wasting necessary

We’ll keep you posted with what actually unfolds for birthday party plans!

What did you all do for your kids’ third birthday? How many birthday parties of yours can you remember? For one of my parties we went horse riding. I felt pretty legit a top a saddle.

Cheers!

 

 

 

Three Things To Do With A Glue Gun When You Should Be Cleaning

Yes.

I’m going to come clean with you (pun not intended completely deliberate)… today, my living room looks like this:

But don’t you ever have days where you look at the mess in your house and just want to say, “Screw you, Mess! I didn’t invite you here! Like a mature adult, I’m just going to ignore you until you go away!”

Inevitably, of course, you discover that Mess has way more staying power than you have patience and thus Mess wins (or loses?) when you get out the broom and dusting supplies.

For now, however, Mess can just hang out and be annoying, because I’ve developed a sure-fire way, using a glue gun, to do three other things other than tending to Mess. Here we go.

#1 Go All taxidermy On Its A$$

I’ve been pinning all these fun crafts to do with chopped off animal  heads (weird) and with Mess as my motivator, I finally got around to doing a cool craft on my own. Total cost? $1.20 for the piece of wood.

This will go in the girls’ room once they wake up. I love it. I think it’s super cute and fun. And fear not, no real animals were hurt in the producing of this picture. The glue gun was used to attach the severed heads onto the wood board. The wood and animals I painted using standard crafting paint, and the plastic animals we’ve had lying around for a long time. We’ve still got about a gazillion more so the girls won’t miss them.

#2 Fix Something

My mom has these really cute wood figurines in her bedroom, and the other day, Sophie was napping over at Nana’s and instead of sleeping, she broke one of the wooden figurines. Nothing a little hot glue couldn’t take care of though.

Observe how the whole feeling of the figurine has changed. In the first picture, the little girl is all, “Nooooooo!” But in the second picture, they’re all “I love you.” I fixed it. Something productive done while I could have been doing something else productive. But Mess didn’t deserve the attention this mother and daughter duo deserved. Priorities.

#3 Revamp a Mason Jar

Today is the day for transformation. But not for Mess. Today I revamped one of the many lidless mason jars we have lying around (where have all the lids gone?) into a pretty stellar vase/random objects holder. Observe:

Look at how lovely it looks sitting next to the clearance Target lampshade I’m contemplating keeping/returning. I love the texture the jar has. It’s so cute with the $2.00 daffodils I bought at Trader Joe’s today. So I guess the total cost of this project was two buckaroos. All I did to change the jar was make a ring under the lip of the jar with the hot glue, then slowly encircled the jar with twine while adding more glue to the jar so the twine stuck. It took me about five minutes (and a few burnt fingers) and I had a new decor item. Love it.

In conclusion… if Mess is staring you in the face with a cocktail in his right hand and bunny slippers on his feet, looking like he’s going to be around for a while, just go grab your glue gun and do something else. He’ll still be there to chat later (unfortunately).

Cheers!

Psst- If you haven’t already done so, make sure you enter to win the awesome bibs from Peaches and Bean Boutique! Happy Wednesday!

Good News!

Ok, so my posting has been less than satisfactory lately (last post was in October!), but I’m here today to tell you some really exciting news! So, Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Come May 11th, Peaches and Bean Boutique (the new name for The Bean House Shop) will be appearing at the 8th annual Saint Paul Craftstravaganza in the Minnesota Fair Grounds!

The St. Paul Craftstravaganza is an annual urban craft fair. It is a place to find unique handmade art, meet the artists who make it, and learn new crafty skills to start your own projects!

There will also be many other fun and inspiring shops that’ll make you wish you could buy everything! Plus, they do all kinds of fun workshops throughout the day, AND if you’re one of the first 100 people through the door, you get a pretty amazing little gift before entering!

Sorry about all the exclamation points, I’m just really excited (!). So mark you calendars, May 11th. Come out with your moms (since Mother’s Day is on the twelfth… oh and Sophie’s birthday is also on the 12th), I know mine will be with me! Tell your friends, tell your friend’s friends. Oh just come alone and stop by so we can say hello! We’ll keep you posted (hopefully in a more effective way than how we’ve  been doing the last couple months… whop whop) with all the updates. Cheers!

 

The Double Stroller Diaries

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She had two beautiful children, but one unfortunate problem. She didn’t have a stroller to accommodate her two little wiggly worms. So she searched online for one that was affordable and allowed her to exercise, as well as stroll with her bambinos. The pool of double jogging strollers was large, but finally she found one that she thought would suit her needs well. Was it her dream stroller? No. But it was practical, and affordable. So she ordered it, and then waited for its impending arrival. Sadly, tragedies abounded from the get-go.

Anybody excited to hear what really happened?

If not, go somewhere else. For those who can’t get enough banter about double stroller options, read on.

Here’s the deal, for the first few months after Charlotte was born, I’d been operating under a stroller and carrier system when it came to going out in public. And actually, I use this carrier as well. I would recommend either, for those who are interested. Anyway, I soon realized that this system couldn’t last. I loved being able to carry Charlotte around (and she loved it too) while still having my hands free to deal with Sophie, but as Charlotte got bigger, I realized that eventually Charlotte wasn’t going to want to stay in a carrier. Babies grow, they want to explore and most of all, they want to be just like the bigger siblings. On top of all of this, with Husband working full-time, and myself staying at home with the girls, working my part-time job and starting Peaches and Bean Baby Boutique (then The Bean House Shop) I had absolutely no time to exercise, and this was fast becoming a problem. Two children may = running around all the time… but it’s not enough running to get your heart rate going the necessary amount for the necessary time, plus the “running around” more often consists of “driving around” aka doesn’t count.

I watched some of the women in my neighborhood walking to yoga with their perfect swinging ponytails and yoga mats in their bags, ready for an hour of awesome, synchronized sun salutations and then glimpsed at my sweatshirt-wearing, baby-wrestling, haven’t-showered-in-four-days self and found myself aching with jealousy. But honestly, in a normal week, I don’t have the time (nor the babysitter) for the kinds of exercise that those ponytail deities have.

Solution? Double stroller must also be a jogging stroller!

At the time, I wasn’t a big runner, but I’d tried to become one several times before (see my “Run-On” posts) to become one but to no avail since it either got too cold to continue outside, or I got pregnant and had to stop. Basically, life happened.

Enter the original stroller we ordered, In-Step’s Grand Safari Double Jogging Stroller. We had scoured the internet looking for jogging strollers within a reasonable price range, and having worked at a baby supply store before, I was pretty aware of what was out there and how they all performed. Unfortunately, our budget was really tight and most of the high-end joggers are $500 on the “cheap” end.

So enter our first stroller:

I had heard good things about it, and on the price scale it wasn’t so cheap that I was afraid it was going to fall apart at any minute, and wasn’t so expensive that I felt like I was giving away my life savings just to jog. After about two weeks worth of searching this is the guy we bought (through Amazon) and then… I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The truth? Amazon changed the estimated delivery time for our stroller three (three!) times. After the second time, I called their help line to ask what the dealy-o was. The person on the phone explained that it was in stock and going to be shipping soon… so imagine my bafflement when I got the email a third time that the shipping was being pushed back again.

Fail Amazon. Fail.

So, I cancelled my order and bought it from Target instead (online) and I had it within a week.

So fast forward about a month and a half from my original purchase, and I was pleased to finally have the stroller arrive on our door step. I opened it like it was Christmas (I think it was actually May-ish or sometime around there) and put the whole thing together in about 10 minutes. I was so excited until I noticed that the plastic part on the top of the front wheel (the big plastic part where the kids feet are supposed to rest) didn’t attach to the stroller. Nope, there was no *click* down or anything, meaning every time we hit a bump, the thing came flying off. I also wasn’t too pleased that I couldn’t get the thing out the front door. I know that some of you might be like, “Duh, it’s a double stroller, those don’t fit through doors.” Wrong. They do. Why would I want to buy a stroller that I couldn’t push through a door? Answer… I wouldn’t.

So my frustration level went to annoyance to mommy-rage in about two minutes.

I know that there are a lot of moms out there that have a Grand Safari and love it, so don’t let this one experience with an item that was obviously just a manufacturer’s error dissuade you from still considering this stroller as an option. Again, I had heard good things about it.

The item couldn’t be returned to a store (per the big “Don’t Return This To A Store” sign on the box) so we had to ship it back to Target.

So there I was. Still no stroller, and still watching those bloody ponytailed women walking all smirky to yoga class like they had something to prove or something (kidding, they didn’t but it sure felt that way!).

So Tim and I sat down and had “the talk”. No, not that awkward sex talk you dread as a middle schooler, the maybe-it-would-be-worth-t0-shell-out-some-extra-beans-for-a-good-quality-stroller talk.

Enter the BOB Revolution Duallie:

This is the stroller I had originally wanted. We see them all the time in the cities, they work great for any kind of surface, gravel, dirt, paved, whatever. So after being disappointed with our first purchase, we started searching for this guy on Craigslist.

The problem? Even two-year old BOBs on Craigslist were over $400 and I never seemed to stalk the List hard enough. These babies get snatched up in a jiffy.

Then, REI was having a 25% off anniversary deal and it was almost too good to be true, still a grit-your-teeth-and-do-it price, but after seeing the resale value on other BOBs and knowing this was one of the best strollers you could get, we finally decided that it was “the one”. It was still an expensive purchase, but it is so worth the money. Diagnosis? We love it, and are so happy with it. It’s such a smooth ride for the girls, it’s really easy for me to push, both for running as well as walking (even through doors!) and Tim has even decided that he thinks it was worth it… something that is hard for a cheapskate er thrifty superman to admit to. Plus, as an extra bonus, it’s easy to fold up and store, it even fits in the back of my Ford Focus. Talk about a hard-working stroller.

We’ve now had the stroller for almost six months, I’m happy to say, I’ve now begun training for a half-marathon and most of the time I’m training while pushing the girls! Take that yoga ladies! Just kidding… yoga is cool too.

After all that, for those looking for a stroller for two, here’s my advice to you:

1) Know what you want.

Is it just to use on shopping outings? Do you want to be able to exercise?Do you care if it’s a side-by-side or would you prefer seats that are front-to-back? Do you care if it folds easily? Do you have a small or a big car? Answer all these questions before setting out on your stroller mission, it’ll make narrowing the field much easier.

2) Name your price, name your quality.

If you have strict budget (Tim wanted cheap, I wanted go-the-distance quality, I won out it then end), maybe instead of going brand new, you should stalk craigslist, or wait for strollers to go on sale at the end of the year (right before they bring out the new models for the new year, most strollers go on super sale to get the inventory out to make room for the new ones).

3) Know that often times with strollers, you get what you pay for.

But again, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to buy full price all the time. Craigslist. Online. Coupons. Selling your old one to help pay for the new one. There are lots of ways to reduce cost.

4) Enjoy your stroller.

Once you have one, use it. My girls are so happy in their stroller, but not because of the type (though it makes me really happy) but because they get to be outside (or inside at a mall) doing something different other than play with their same old toys, in their same old house, doing the same old things. Charlotte would probably be just as content still be carried in the carrier so long as it meant a change of pace and scenery, it was me who wanted the change. So either way, just enjoy the time you get to spend with your munchkins.

We are really lucky to have been able to get such an amazing stroller, it’s been wonderful to have such a great mode of bringing the kids places, especially since we walk everywhere in our neighborhood and it’s given me the great opportunity of being able to get back into shape after two back-to-back pregnancies. After such a long delay, I am happy to say that the stroller hunt is concluded for us.

Signing out,

Jen

Mommy’s Little Girl: Shirt Refashion Part II

Anybody else have a really muggy forecast ahead this weekend? We do, and it kind of makes me want to cry since we have yet to install our window air conditioning unit. But fear not, because this sudden heat wave has inspired me to make some easy-breezy clothes for our little ones, which means a new post!

I’ve had this shirt for a long time. It didn’t fit me when I bought, it doesn’t fit me now. Not sure why I waisted my money on it. It’s too wide and too short, all of which are big no-no’s for me. It doesn’t even work with the too wide/too short fashion that’s happening now. It’s just awkward. But I really love the color!

It’s reading kind of weird on my computer but it’s a really bold purple stripe with soft white and pink stripes between. Maybe that’s why I bought it? Maybe I thought the color would make up for the poor cut? Who knows…

Anyways, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use its wonderful color and airy fabric to make a dress for Sophie. So I chopped the bottom off under the armpits. Cut strips from the arms removed the pocket (and I didn’t sew it back on! Le sigh. Sometimes pockets just aren’t necessary) and added a few extra buttons, some elastic and voila! I had a completely new dress!

 Sophie is all into speaking in third person right now, I quote ” Ooo, the Sophie like.” What a goofball.

I had a stash of buttons that I used for the front two, and then to close the back completely, I cut one of those extra buttons on the bottom of the shirt. So really, this was a free dress. Win!

I criss crossed the back so that the straps didn’t fall off her shoulders, and all the bottons from the front are now in the back. I took me about an hour to sew this because again, all the seams were already sewn for me. Refashioning is probably some of the easiest sewing you can do.

Happy Friday everyone! Cheers!

Waiting for the Double Stroller…

Yep, that’s what I am doing. And until it makes its appearance… that’s probably all you’re going to hear about. Is how I’m waiting. Waiting for a double stroller. It’s not here yet, so I’m waiting.

But… in order to keep life sort of interesting… I found this site:

Hunger Names

Anybody else out there completely in.love. with the Hunger Games? I know you’re out there. Well, a friend of mine found this website and so I had to try it. In case you’re wondering, I’m Pip Thistlewood. I had the honor of representing District 11 in the 44th Hunger Games.

I was killed by unfortunate timing.

Ironic? Meant to be? Yes. I think so. So cheers friends!

… and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Happy Easter

We here at the Bean House hope that you all had a wonderful Easter holiday! We had a wonderful time collecting eggs that the Easter bunny hid for us (seriously, why does the Easter bunny hide eggs? Shouldn’t it be carrots or something?) and eating a lot of wonderfully, unhealthy, delicious food, and visiting with all of our friends and family. Sophie had a great time eating all the chocolate, candy, and rainbow-colored goldfish that the Easter bunny dished out for her. Plus, she couldn’t even handle herself when it came to egg hunting. The girl loves a good egg-hunt. No joke.

But first things first. Here’s what our little Beanette’s wore to celebrate!

And if some of you are wondering, “That’s it? That’s the best photo you could get?” The answer is yes, yes it is. Sometimes (read: always) the girls don’t cooperate when it comes to taking pictures. Although, if I can state an opinion, at least they weren’t nearly as bad as the Thanksgiving fail this year. At least Charlotte looks happy!

So, in our family, we separate family holiday’s like such… Christmas Eve is with Tim’s parents, Christmas day is with my family, Thanksgiving is with Tim’s family and Easter is with my family. All the other holidays we just kind of bounce around because they are what we consider, minor holidays. But Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving tend to be pretty big deals in both our family’s, so we knew even before we got married, that we would have to have a game plan for how to split them up so that we could make the rounds sufficiently. And although things don’t always go according to plan, we try to stick to this schedule as best we can. Wondering why you never got a Christmas post? Well, that’s one of those “didn’t go according to plan” moments that we just decided to use as a teachable moment for us. We’ve got a whole new game plan for next year. But I digress…

So this year for Easter we were at my Mom’s house. Actually, we were able to do a pre-Easter celebration with Tim’s family on Saturday. Sophia, Charlotte, Tim and I went down to Tim’s parent’s house for brunch. Then, on Sunday we were at my mother’s. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon there, hanging out with my mother’s side of the family. When my family gets together, it’s a major lounge-fest. We don’t really do anything but talk, vedge, eat and have a good time. It’s probably not the most thrilling of traditions, but nothing feels more like home to me.

Once everyone else had gone home, Tim, myself, Charlotte, Sophie, my mom, sister and Tom all rode our bike to Lake Calhoun and did a little Easter egg hunt there. Charlotte slept the whole time, but Sophie was pretty thrilled:

She had so much fun that she didn’t believe us when we told her she had found all of them. She kept wondering around saying, “Go get some more!” Oh, and if you’re wondering why the eggs are such a funny color, the reason is that we tried the whole natural-egg-dying thing this year… but we did it with out really reading anything about it before hand. So in the end all of our eggs ended up coming out some off-shade of vomit. Except the ones that were in the cabbage! Those ones turned out a really pretty blue. All the others were weird shades of brown and yellow. Guess we know now that we should probably do our research before just diving head-first into something new.

Whelp, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! I’ll be posting pictures later of Charlotte’s maiden voyage on the burley. The two girls look pretty funny all smooshed into the burley, covered in blankets and hats. We’re really happy we got it though, it’s been wonderful taking them for bike rides now that the weather is nice!

Cheers friends!

Jen

Pinterest + Insperation = Pin-speration

Not to be confused with persperation. Although a little bit of that goes into anything too!

Like I said yesterday, my sewing machine is being happily used right now because it is finally able to be out! Thus, some of those wonderful pins on Pinterest are finally being replicated! So for all of you who say nobody actually does anything with the plethora of pins they do on Pinterest… in your face!

Inspiration pictures #1 from here:

And here’s my version!

This is going to be Sophie’s Easter outfit this year! Now all I have to do is find a cute top… and suspenders… oh man. Getting excited!

Here’s inspiration #2 from here:

And here’s my take on it:

This is actually a project I did for a friend. Her little munchkin is going to be wearing this little yellow number for her Easter outfit! So there you go. Pinterest is actually useful. Cheers!

Daddy’s Little Girl: Shirt Refashion

Anybody else L.O.V.I.N.G. the weather out right now? It’s so beautiful! We’ve even got our sun room open and back in business! You know what that means? I’ll give you a hint:

Ok… so maybe that’s really just me telling you what I’ve been up to. But the fact is that as soon as the temperatures got to be 60s and above, the sewing machine found its home again in our sunroom and I’ve been able to get cracken at some pretty awesome projects! For those wondering where my clean-up post went… Sophie is sleeping and so I can’t take pictures of the girls’ clean room right now (but don’t you worry, it’s clean!). A post about the awesome 30 minute sewing project I did will have to do. Here’s how it went. First, due to the whole spring-cleaning-fever that seems to be running rampant in our apartment, we’ve been donating/selling/getting rid of a lot of stuff. One of them being clothing. However, when I saw Tim putting this sucker in the donate pile:

I decided to repurpose it instead. I love the color of the stripes and knew it would be a really fun little outfit for Sophie. So, I got out my sewing scissors (which were nicely stored in my sweet-awesome sewing desk drawer which I can now use again) and went to work. The only thing about this project that was surprisingly difficult was removing that darn pocket. I had another home for it and it needed removing. Took me a good five minutes to get that sucker off! But after 30 minutes of re-doing, re-sewing, and re-imagining… this is what it came out as:

Isn’t it darling?? And I’m so serious when I say it only took me 30 minutes to do! Almost all the seams were already done for me… I just had to reconstruct it!

I love the fact that this dress has buttons… but I didn’t have to sew them on or make the button holes. Confession: I hate sewing on buttons and making button holes. True story. But this one has two lovely ones that work great.

Sophie especially loved putting this necklace (from a bachelorette party I recently attended) in the pocket, and then taking it out again. The girl loves pockets. Any time I make anything for her now, it has to have a pocket. Picky. Picky.

What do you guys think? I am glad she has a dress she can run around in and I don’t have to worry about her getting it dirty. As we move into spring, I kind of noticed that all our clothes for both girls are winter clothes (Sophie was Charlotte’s age in the middle of fall). Lots of new clothes are needed. Plus, this dress cost me zero dollars and zero cents. Win!

I hope you all had an amazing weekend! I’ll share the nursery clean-up project a little later this week! Cheers!