Thursday Favs is the weekly favorite over on Instagram. here’s what I found that I loved this week!
White Quarter Zip Sweatshirt: It’s a thinner sweatshirt material, perfect for warm spring evenings or cool summer nights. I love the rose gold detail on the zipper and paired with my favorite Amazon shorts, it’s a winner!
My Favorite Amazon Denim Shorts: These are my favorite summer shorts! I wear them all summer long because they are stretchy and comfy. They run short but I personally love the length. Check them out for other colors too!
Lululemon Dupe Fanny Pack: Gah, I need to stop buying fanny packs, but I can’t. I LOVEEE this one. The color is perfect and it reminds me of the Lululemon bag, but obviously not the price tag! Grab it today!
Lululemon Dupe Shorts: Speaking of Lululemon dupes, these shorts are a dead ringer. The amazon brand, are stretchier but look almost identical on! Grab these for a fun dupe.
Silicone Bowl Covers:These have recently become a favorite of mine. These silicone food bowl covers come in a pack of 14 to fit every size container you may have. Best part is, they are microwave and dishwasher safe so no more plastic wrap needed!
Air Fryer Liners: GAME CHANGER! Stop what you are doing and order these! Your life will literally be changed forever. These are soo good and save you from having to wash your air fryer out with every use.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you choose to purchase through links I provide (at no extra cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
These days can be long and leave your kids asking you “what’s next!” I made you a great guide of boredom busters so you never have to hear “I’m bored” again! Tip: Rotate new and old toys in and out of your playroom to help beat boredom before it starts!
Sensory play
We have tried many different kinds of play snow. We’ve ordered the kind you make on your own (do not recommend—-way messy!) and other that eventually falls apart. We got this particular brand before Christmas time and love it! It’s such a fun texture, super light and it’s really fun. It can get messy inside, but it’s really easy to vacuum up so I never mind letting them play it in the play room or at the kitchen table. This kit comes with molds, which is fun, because the snow holds it’s shape well.
Speaking of play snow, we’ve also tried making it at home. My kids have also had fun playing with our homemade snow. I will be honest, I don’t love the texture, it kind of gives me goosebumps, but it smells good and is fun for multiple play sessions. We happened to have some miniature trees leftover from Christmas, so we threw those in there with a couple construction vehicles. Here’s what you need to make it:
3 cups baking soda (I have a big bag that I keep on hand for projects and cleaning) Tried to link it for you but it’s out of stock on Amazon currently?
1/2 cup hair conditioner-we just have a cheap bottle ordered from Amazon-like this: https://amzn.to/3cXQo2Q
Mix together until you have the right consistency and enjoy.
Fine Motor
These get played with so often in my house! I like them because they are a good fine motor tasks but easy enough for my three year old to do it on her own. https://amzn.to/2LPdD3n
We seem to get some sort of magentic tiles for a gift every birthday, which I am NOT complaining about. My kids mix and match the name brand with the other brands and other magnetic toys we have. Linking some sets below: https://amzn.to/36jSRT3
https://amzn.to/3eZ8Mdp– These are another fun fine motor toy that is fun for my 5 year old and 3 year old.
Gross Motor
Set up an indoor obstacle course
We have a Nugget Comfort couch which adds to the variety of obstacles we set up. We also have a kids balance beam, stepping stones and little orange cones that we use to create indoor space to run and jump!
Kids cones, we purchased these for a construction themed birthday party , but continue to use them daily https://amzn.to/2KKljU9
The ultimate energy burner
A bounce house. I never thought I’d have one in my house, and here I am, living the dream. My kids LOVE when we get the bounce out. If you have the space, you won’t regret your decision to make this purchase.
These days can be long and leave your kids asking you “what’s next!” I made you a great guide of boredom busters so you never have to hear “I’m bored” again! Tip: Rotate new and old toys in and out of your playroom to help beat boredom before it starts!
Sensory play
We have tried many different kinds of play snow. We’ve ordered the kind you make on your own (do not recommend—-way messy!) and other that eventually falls apart. We got this particular brand before Christmas time and love it! It’s such a fun texture, super light and it’s really fun. It can get messy inside, but it’s really easy to vacuum up so I never mind letting them play it in the play room or at the kitchen table. This kit comes with molds, which is fun, because the snow holds it’s shape well.
Speaking of play snow, we’ve also tried making it at home. My kids have also had fun playing with our homemade snow. I will be honest, I don’t love the texture, it kind of gives me goosebumps, but it smells good and is fun for multiple play sessions. We happened to have some miniature trees leftover from Christmas, so we threw those in there with a couple construction vehicles. Here’s what you need to make it:
3 cups baking soda (I have a big bag that I keep on hand for projects and cleaning) Tried to link it for you but it’s out of stock on Amazon currently?
1/2 cup hair conditioner-we just have a cheap bottle ordered from Amazon-like this: https://amzn.to/3cXQo2Q
Mix together until you have the right consistency and enjoy.
Fine Motor
These get played with so often in my house! I like them because they are a good fine motor tasks but easy enough for my three year old to do it on her own. https://amzn.to/2LPdD3n
We seem to get some sort of magentic tiles for a gift every birthday, which I am NOT complaining about. My kids mix and match the name brand with the other brands and other magnetic toys we have. Linking some sets below: https://amzn.to/36jSRT3
https://amzn.to/3eZ8Mdp– These are another fun fine motor toy that is fun for my 5 year old and 3 year old.
Gross Motor
Set up an indoor obstacle course
We have a Nugget Comfort couch which adds to the variety of obstacles we set up. We also have a kids balance beam, stepping stones and little orange cones that we use to create indoor space to run and jump!
Kids cones, we purchased these for a construction themed birthday party , but continue to use them daily https://amzn.to/2KKljU9
The ultimate energy burner
A bounce house. I never thought I’d have one in my house, and here I am, living the dream. My kids LOVE when we get the bounce out. If you have the space, you won’t regret your decision to make this purchase.
If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you’ll know that we follow a budget which means I’m always trying to stretch a buck. I recently discovered these joggers on Amazon and immediately knew they were a find. I have blogged about them before because they are the most comfortable, perfect fitting joggers I’ve tried on, and I’ve tried on ALOT! These are from Amazon and fit true to size. I’m wearing a large in these, normally as size 10. Joggers linked here: https://amzn.to/2WzQOa3
These days can be long and leave your kids asking you “what’s next!” I made you a great guide of boredom busters so you never have to hear “I’m bored” again! Tip: Rotate new and old toys in and out of your playroom to help beat boredom before it starts!
Sensory play
We have tried many different kinds of play snow. We’ve ordered the kind you make on your own (do not recommend—-way messy!) and other that eventually falls apart. We got this particular brand before Christmas time and love it! It’s such a fun texture, super light and it’s really fun. It can get messy inside, but it’s really easy to vacuum up so I never mind letting them play it in the play room or at the kitchen table. This kit comes with molds, which is fun, because the snow holds it’s shape well.
Speaking of play snow, we’ve also tried making it at home. My kids have also had fun playing with our homemade snow. I will be honest, I don’t love the texture, it kind of gives me goosebumps, but it smells good and is fun for multiple play sessions. We happened to have some miniature trees leftover from Christmas, so we threw those in there with a couple construction vehicles. Here’s what you need to make it:
3 cups baking soda (I have a big bag that I keep on hand for projects and cleaning) Tried to link it for you but it’s out of stock on Amazon currently?
1/2 cup hair conditioner-we just have a cheap bottle ordered from Amazon-like this: https://amzn.to/3cXQo2Q
Mix together until you have the right consistency and enjoy.
Fine Motor
These get played with so often in my house! I like them because they are a good fine motor tasks but easy enough for my three year old to do it on her own.
We seem to get some sort of magentic tiles for a gift every birthday, which I am NOT complaining about. My kids mix and match the name brand with the other brands and other magnetic toys we have. Linking some sets below:
https://amzn.to/3eZ8Mdp– These are another fun fine motor toy that is fun for my 5 year old and 3 year old.
Gross Motor
Set up an indoor obstacle course
We have a Nugget Comfort couch which adds to the variety of obstacles we set up. We also have a kids balance beam, stepping stones and little orange cones that we use to create indoor space to run and jump!
Kids cones, we purchased these for a construction themed birthday party , but continue to use them daily https://amzn.to/2KKljU9
The ultimate energy burner
A bounce house. I never thought I’d have one in my house, and here I am, living the dream. My kids LOVE when we get the bounce out. If you have the space, you won’t regret your decision to make this purchase.
Our laundry room was disgusting. I have no other words. Most of our house had been updated at least once since it’s origination in the 1970s, ,but I don’t think the laundry room had been. It was painted a horrible tan color with matching linoleum floors that look like they’d never been cleaned. The day we moved in, we removed the 1970s cabinetry, which had clearly been painted around and didn’t help the case with it’s beauty. My husband had NO interest in spending money to update a room that was nicknamed “mud room” cause it’s off our garage and according to him, “no one will ever see it”. Well I do. I do laundry about 23412 times a day and I enjoy a beautiful space. So, I promised him it would be budget friendly (cons of living with a CPA) and he agreed. My mission, laundry room makeover for under $200. Right now, if I’m adding correctly, I’m well under $200 and closer to the $150 range!
First, I painted the walls. My initial inspiration was a picture found online, which featured dark walls, natural wood, and patterned tile. Somehow, that inspiration turned into pink walls, and I can’t even explain why :-). Whenever I start a project, I get a nickname in my mind and design around that. What kept coming to my mind during this makeover was “easy glam”. I wanted it to be casual enough to be an appropriate laundry room to a family in the suburbs, but beautiful enough that it made you enjoy laundry even more. The color of the walls is First Light 2102-70 by Benjamin Moore. It’s pink, and at first, I was like “oh, my gosh, I just painted my laundry room pink” but it’s a subtle pink that looks beautiful when it’s dry! Painting is always so relaxing to me, and a room this size only took me a few hours so this was definitely my favorite part. It seems lately, I’ve been making drastic paint changes in this house (i.e., going from dark green to silver and bright red to charcoal) so this was a more subtle change for me.
My original plan was to paint the floors and stencil a design, but once I started looking into this process, it seem labor intensive and actually quite a bit more expensive. Several months ago, I had found peel and stick tile on sale from Amazon. I ordered a bunch and wasn’t exactly sure how I’d use it, but this obviously seemed like the best spot.
Once the paint was done, I could start the floors. This was a process that I would NOT skip. First, I got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the floors using a gentle floor cleaner. Once this step was completed, I used TSP to prep the floors. My husband didn’t want to remove the washer and dryer from the room, so I had to work around these, while they remained hooked up, which honestly, wasn’t that big of a deal. Once the TSP was dry, I gave it a quick once over with the steam mop and I was ready to go! I read many tutorials on how to do this and decided to follow the instructions suggested by the manufacturer. I worked from the center of the room and moved in the block pattern.
I read several reviews about these tiles before purchasing and the reviews were 50/50 on using as is or applying a adhesive such as Liquid Nails. I went ahead and purchased Liquid Nails as a back up but haven’t yet used it.
Cutting the tiles was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I wish I had a laminate floor cutter but I don’t and because of the current “stay-at-home” orders, I did not run out to by one. So I used what I had which was scissors, a box cutter (similar to what I have linked here https://amzn.to/2yruc27) and/or a craft knife (similar one linked here https://amzn.to/3ew8Sc6). I used the craft knife the most but none of them were great options. Overall, I’m not completely happy with the outcome of the edges, they aren’t perfect but they are “good enough” for now. I may end up replacing the edges that are visible, if I decide to keep the tiles. I have only had a couple corners peel, which I may add Liquid Nails to if I want to keep the floors. I was able to remove the trim from a small portion of the room and replace easily. This was great because I didn’t have to worry about how straight my cuts were.
Again, because of the current stay-at-home orders, we choose not to run out to the hardware store and use only items we had available, so we made the coat hooks and shelf, from items we had in the garage.
A few weeks ago, I picked up tons of scrap wood, for FREE! So we had several pieces of plywood, 2 x 4s and other pieces of wood sitting in the garage. We decided to use a piece of plywood for the shelf but I couldn’t stand it looking like plywood, so we build a small ledge out of trim on 3 sides of shelf. My initial design included staining and putting coat of poly on the coat hook and shelf. However, this ended up not happening. I had a few stains in my stack at home so I tried a natural oak color first but it was way too yellow but I didn’t have a good color to mix it with so I sanded it off and just put a coat of poly over the wood. But I ran into another snag, when I realized my poly had yellowed. Ugh, so I sanded that off and decided I would add this at a later time. I did a final sand with 220 grit sand paper to smooth the corners and edges and my husband installed it.
The coat hook was a made from a scrap piece of 4 x 1 sanded well to let out it’s natural wood beauty. I had these lovely black hooks already, so I spaced them well, attached to the wood and attached to the wall.
The shoe organizer was in that room before we started the makeover, but it got a makeover of it’s own. It was originally a cherry/mahogany wood color. It’s cheap and is definitely not a piece of furniture I plan to keep long term, but honestly, it’s working for now. I primed it and painted it white, added black and white bins (from Walmart) and called it a day for now.
Oh, I almost forgot, my beautiful light fixture! The light fixture in this room was likely original to the house and did not give off good light. Despite having a window in the room, I felt that the room was way too dark and it NEEDED a chandelier. I had bought this chandelier over a year ago off the swap. I had tried to put it in my playroom but it didn’t work in there so I was excited when I realized it would find the perfect home in the laundry room. This was the exact “thing” the room needed to go from drab to fab!
Because this chandelier was a Marketplace find, I can’t link the exact one. But here’s some that are similar.
Another small change I made was added updated hardware to the closet doors, again, using what I had. The hardware I used was left over from my kitchen. It’s amazing how something so little, like a change in closet door hardware, can add to a room.
This project was hard work! I do think that some of the hard parts were related to having to be creative and use what we had on hand. So we ended up spending a lot of time searching for screws or the right piece of wood, etc. If we would have had the ability to run to the hardware store, we would’ve been able to complete this project much quicker. I have had my peel and stick tiles down for over two weeks and I’ve only had a couple peeling pieces so far. I will give an update once we’ve had some time to live with it a bit.
I really know nothing about composting but I know I want to try it. I have been asking around for the best compost bins as well as doing my own research so I thought I’d share with you what I end up buying and then give you a little review.
My husband is not really into composting (sorry babe for calling you out) so this is a solo project over here! My kids’ school has taught them a lot about composting so my five year old has filled me in.
Composting pros:
Reduce waste, both landfill waste and recycle. I’m hoping to see a savings in our trash bag usage
Free, organic, nutrient rich soil for our garden
Relatively easy
Composting cons:
Extra work involved by bringing waste to compost bin
Compost pile/bin can smell
Not the most attractive lawn ornament
Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try! So here’s how I am getting started.
After researching different options, I decided a compost bin was the best for our family/lifestyle. This allows us to collect the waste, keep the animals out, reduce the smell and keep it more sightly than just throwing it in a heap in the backyard. We live in a wooded neighborhood so we have to try to keep the animals out!
I’m not sure about you, but I am so glad that Amazon is still making deliveries to my front door. I order everything, I mean everything, from Amazon and their shipping times have improved in the past week or so, so I assume that means their warehouses are not as backed up as they were at the beginning of this crisis.
I recently shared my favorite kids/toys items that we’ve picked up during this quarantine. But I wanted to share some of my favorites for mom. I’ve gotten several DM’s wanting to know about some of my clothing items, so I’ll share those first.
I recently spotted these cute headbands at a boutique and had fun trying them on, figuring out how to wear them without looking like a 12 year old :-). Since I couldn’t decide on what color I wanted from the boutique, I decided to get these instead so I could have a variety of options! Go get them! https://amzn.to/2KaBppR
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the cozy popcorn cardigans I’ve been wearing in all my stories. First of all, I do have other clothes but these are so cozy, soft and have pockets, that I never choose anything else. I have purchased similar sweaters from online boutiques and these seem to be the same, so I linked them for easy shopping! https://amzn.to/2KaBppR
I officially found the most comfortable pants in the world. Not only are they buttery soft, but they fit amazingly. I have tried SO many, read 50 pairs, of joggers and can never get them to work for me. They are either too tight in the legs or the crotch is too saggy or they just make me look like a MC Hammer look alike, none of which work for me. So I ordered these, expecting to have to return them, but to my surprise, they fit perfectly! I have them in black (2 pairs) but the color options are fun as well. I also think they run true to size, so don’t be afraid to order your typical pant size. https://amzn.to/3ez9HBc
This includes pieces to make a marble run
