What to Do with Your Kids Artwork...

If you are like me, you find it a little hard to part with your child's artwork. 
I wouldn't say I am a hoarder by any means, but when it comes to something that my kids create, it can be hard to let go...even if it is just a scribble on a piece of paper. (anyone else relate to that?) 
If they are excited about it, I want to keep it!

However, I do not keep all of their artwork...I have learned over the years to let go of some of it. The rest of it gets displayed around the house or placed in a folder. What I have recently started doing is organizing their artwork. I have a pre-school folder where a lot of it is kept, and then the remaining art has been placed in frames that I have had for a while and displayed all around the house in places like the playroom, the kitchen, and even the girl's bedroom.

We are fortunate enough to have a set of separate stairs leading to our kid's playroom and I thought that would be the perfect spot to display their art- gallery wall style.
Here are some photos of that:

My oldest did this "abstact" (if you will) black and orange art at school not too long ago and was so proud of it that we had to display it. :)

I also like to put the dates on the back of my kid's art projects just so they can keep a record of when they completed something. I figured they could look back on that in the future and have an idea of how old they were when they did something. Does anybody else do that?? Please tell me I'm not the only one. 

How do you display your child's arts/crafts? Do you have a hard time letting go of some of it?

Musical Mirrors

Ever since giving birth to our 3rd child, I haven't been able to do many projects around the house- obviously. It's really something I love to do and I recently got the itch to get back into it again. I figure if I start with small projects now, then in the future I can get back into the swing of things and take on larger projects. But for now, those big projects just aren't in the cards right now...which is ok with me, although I have to admit it does get hard to hold back from starting a project as soon as I think about something to do. But there are other things that must take priority right now.

Recently, I wanted to experiment moving some mirrors around in the house. I started with the entryway, living room, and downstairs bath. I began by moving around the mirrors to different parts of the house and took pictures to see which look made more sense stylistically.

This gold mirror was in the downstairs bath originally and so I moved it into the entryway. I liked it there, but wasn't sure it was the best fit for the space.

I also took the smallest mirror, the oval one, and put it in the living room. I think it looks good here too, but I'm thinking it might be too small for the space. Taking pictures of it helped me decide.

I actually liked having the large rectangular mirror in the bathroom and also moved it to the entryway and living room to test it out. If it stays in the entryway, it is going to get painted at some point- along with the entryway walls- but that is a project for another time. ;)
Also, I really liked how the white blended in with the white walls and trim in the bathroom, but I felt that this mirror wasn't proportionate to the sink area so I tried it in the entryway.

And lastly, I moved the gold long oval mirror into the bathroom and think it fits best here. Since we have gold fixtures on the sink and a gold picture hanging to the right (not pictured) it probably makes more sense to keep this one here.

And below are some more pictures of our spaces.

It is amazing how moving just a few items around in your home can change the look of a space.
Just for fun, I have made some before and after photos so you can see the difference- as if the post and pictures above aren't confusing enough. ;)

**Oh, and in the pictures below, the first picture in each collage shows the look I preferred.

Photo 1- Half bathroom

Photo 2- Living Room

Photo 3- Entryway

What do you think??
Do you prefer one look over the other?

No-Bake Cookie Dough Cups

No-Bake Cookie Dough Chocolate Cups

**Starred parts mean that I changed the recipe a little bit.

For us, this recipe makes about 30 cups!!!

Also, these are seriously DELICIOUS! A must try for anyone who loves cookie dough and/or chocolate.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• **2 teaspoons vanilla extract  (I omitted this because we did not have it on hand)
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 and ¼ cups white flour
• ¾ cup miniature chocolate chips
• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons milk chocolate chips
• ** ½ teaspoon coconut oil, separated (I used vegetable oil instead)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter (make sure it is at room temperature and not melted or you will need to chill the dough) and brown sugar for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the room temperature (again not melted at all) cream cheese and the white sugar. Beat until well combined.
2. Beat in the vanilla, baking soda, salt, and flour until a dough is formed. If it is too wet add in a little more flour until it pulls away from the sides when beating.
3. Stir in ¾ a cup of chocolate chips.
4. Roll the cookie dough into small balls and set aside.
5. Line a miniature muffin tin with miniature lining cups.
6. In a small microwave-safe bowl melt ½ cup chocolate chips with ¼ tsp. coconut oil. (I microwave for 30 seconds, stir for 30 seconds, microwave for 15 seconds, stir, and then its ready!)
7. Spoon an even amount of the melted chocolate mixture into the bottom of each of the muffin cups.
8. Place the balls (slightly flattened) of cookie dough on top of the melted chocolate mixture.
9. In the same bowl melt another ¼ cup + 2 tbsp, of chocolate and ¼ tsp. coconut oil.
10. Pour an even amount of chocolate over all of the cookie dough balls.
11. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
12. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.

Go here for original blog post and more pictures


Enjoy and happy weekend everyone!!