Life on a Gravel Road: January 2015

Well, Winter has settled in here in Morgantown, WV. I can't stand Winter. I would be perfectly fine with one snow for Christmas and then straight into Spring. Nope. Usually we don't get a white Christmas, the snow starts in January and doesn't stop until March. Ugh.

Right now this is what our front yard looks like.

Yeah, I had to sneak a few pictures of the fam in there. :) Snow does make for some cute pictures.

The snow is a lot of fun when you get to stay home and go out and play, when it's not so much fun is when you have to drive to work in it.

This year, I'm even more concerned than usual because of the bun in my oven, it's not just me braving those roads. We live in WV and there are still spots with patchy cell service. I started thinking about what would happen if I slid off the road in a snow storm and didn't have cell service. What if I had to spend the night in my car? I decided it was high time to throw together an emergency kit to keep in my car.

Here's a list of what I included:

Blanket
Socks
Gloves
Hat
Hand warmers
Flashlight
Flasher/ glow stick/ whistle (all in one- shown below with the pink handle)
Peanut butter & spoons
Beef jerky
Bottled water

I put it all in a plastic container and keep it in the trunk of my car.

I also keep snow boots and a car charger for my cell phone in my car. I don't wanna be caught walking a mile in the snow with high-heeled boots on.... not fun!

Hopefully I'll never have to use anything in this kit, but it is nice to know that it's there in case I do need it. Any snow where you guys are yet?

-Brooke

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. Our's was amazing. Khloe is at the perfect Christmas age right now- she loves lights, presents, snow, Santa.... pretty much anything that has to do with Christmas. I hope this stage lasts a long time. Nothing is better than viewing Christmas through the eyes of an excited child.

It's back to work for us and I'm having a really hard time getting out of holiday mode. I had the opportunity to stay home with Khloe the entire week of Christmas this year. We made crafts, baked cookies, watched Christmas movies, played dolls... everything that I could think of. Anyways, it's hard to come down off a week like that and go back normal everyday responsibilities. But, I'm trying.

We started a Christmas tradition last year of making Khloe a homemade gift. I love the idea of putting a lot of effort into something for my child. Last year we made her play kitchen. You can read about that by clicking the link below.

Khloe's Play Kitchen

I spent a lot of time this year on Pinterest trying to find the perfect gift to make. Khloe loves drawing, coloring, stickers and crafts, so I decided to make her an art center. Plus that would give me a way of organizing all those coloring books! 2 birds- 1 stone.

I started out with this little table my dad had given me. He's always looking for stuff I can use :)

The leaves on the table made me a bit nervous- didn't want any pinched little fingers- and the decorative side panels weren't really my thing. A few screws later and they were gone.

I painted the table white using the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations that I had leftover from painting my cabinets (Kitchen Re-do In Progress). Same as always with this stuff, it took about 4 coats.

Sorry for the lack of in-progress pictures, it was the week of Christmas and I was struggling to get everything done.

I then painted pink stripes on the table. Just measured it out and put down some painters tape. I wanted to match up the pink paint to the little Ikea stools that I bought, so I took a leg of one of the stools to Lowe's and matched it up. I ended up going with Olympic Panama Rose in semi-gloss. It matched up perfectly.

For the legs, I wanted to add a little pizzazz and since it was an art table, dripped paint legs seemed like a smart bet. Fair warning- this is NOT a 1 person job.

First I wrapped the top of the table in wrapping paper to protect it. Then I poured pink paint into 4 styrofoam cups. I put the cups to the left of each leg so we could pick up the entire table and move it over to go down in the cups. After dipping the legs, Chris lifted the table and I quickly removed the cups. We then quickly turned the table over to let the paint drip down the legs and dry. It was nerve- wracking, especially since we had to do it inside due to the cold. I had drop cloths everywhere! I absolutely love the finished legs. I think it's so cool to have paint dripping down an art table.

We set up the table on Christmas Eve night in her room after she went to bed and showed it to her in the morning. I said "Khloe, now you can color whenever you want!" Her response was, "And eat pizza!" She's always making us laugh. This picture was Christmas morning. She sat down and started coloring right away.

To finish off the desk, we put 2 spice racks above it to hold her coloring books, 2 Ikea stools (so she can have friends over), and three buckets on top to hold her crayons, markers and colored pencils.

Here is a link to the stools- MAMMUT stools. They're only $7.99 each and they are crazy sturdy (my husband and I both sit on them regularly to color).

Here is a link to the spice racks- BEKVAM spice rack

The little buckets were from Target's dollar spot this summer.