Sewing Project #2

I wanted to share with you all my latest attempt at sewing. I was getting tired of not having a way to push back Ethan's curtains in his room. Especially since it is a really heavy curtain to keep the light out. I absolutely love his room when the sun is shining through since it makes it a great place to play and hang out.

After scouring the web for a solution to this problem and not finding what I was looking for I decided to make my own curtain tie backs. I used a burnt yellow leaf pattern with brown felt on the back and mismatched buttons for the closure. It was a super quick project to do and was the perfect fit in his room if I do say so myself.

(Here is a close up of the curtain tie back.)

(Curtain tie backs in action.)

(I wanted to also include a picture of my new craft/sewing area chair. It is actually a kids chair but I absolutely loved it.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Jeff and Ethan surprised me at work with some candy and flowers that Ethan picked out himself. Best Valentine's gifts ever. XOXO



Just a Sunday Afternoon...

We woke up to beautiful weather in Seattle today so we headed down to the waterfront to visit the Seattle Aquarium. We had a fun time looking at all of the different fish and marine animals but Ethan just wanted to run through the museum to see what was coming up next. The joys of having a three year old with a tiny attention span.

After the aquarium we went next store to the Crab Pot for some tasty fish and chips. We had a lovely day and I hope your day was lovely as well.

Grown Up Purchase...

After three years Ethan's dresser/changing table in his room finally fell apart. Well, this was a work in progress for about a year since it was a pretty cheap piece of furniture to begin with and we had duct taped the bottom of the drawers several times. Plus, since he no longer wears diapers we don't need the changing table anymore. By the way, we have several pull-ups and overnight diapers if anybody needs some. ;)

We finally made the big "grown up" step in buying a high quality dresser for Ethan. One with actual solid wood drawers instead of particle board. We ended up getting it at Dania after several furniture store stops and they had the perfect one that fit his bedroom exactly. Ethan's new designed room is finally complete so I thought I would show his final bedroom pics below and his new grown up dresser.

Aloha!

Jeff, Ethan, and I recently took a family vacation to the big island of Hawaii. We stayed in the Waikaloa Village in a condo at The Fairway Villa's and boy oh boy did we have a great time.

We were lucky to have 80 degree weather almost every day on our trip and sunny skies. We pretty much let Ethan determine our schedule of events which included visits to the beach in the morning to build sand castles, followed by lunch, a nap, and afternoon time out by the pool. We mostly stayed on the Kona side of the island but did a trip over near Hilo one day to visit the Botanical Gardens where we had to find our way out of a maze. We were all a little sad when we had to fly back home but hope to go back next year.

Here are a few photos from our trip. Enjoy!

 (A-Bay Beach near our condo)

 (Building sand castles at A-Bay)

 (Ethan loved the sand and making pools)

 (Returning from sea with a bucket full of water)

 (Botanical Garden Maze)

 (More Botanical Garden Maze)

 (Ethan and I in the rain forest)

 (Our home away from home at the Fairway Villas)

(View from our balcony at the Fairway Villas E-21)

Robots and Rocket Ships...

Ethan's room is officially done. Well besides the rug that I am still waiting to come in the mail but the walls are complete. We transitioned his room from a baby nursery to a big boy room with robots and rocket ships, the theme chosen by Ethan and some of his favorite things. We went with decals on the walls this time instead of wallpaper to avoid the lovely water streaks down the wall and they are easy to take on and off. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself and Ethan likes it too.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope that 2011 is a fantastic year.

It started out great in the Kalles household. Ethan is finally using the potty which is HUGE. For a second there I thought we were going to have a kid that would never learn to use the potty but I figured he would get it down before college right? We decided to spend our holiday break working on toilet training and believe me, it was a little difficult at first with several accidents the first few days but I have to give thanks to Elmo's potty video. Without that I think Ethan would still not want to use the potty but if it is OK with Elmo, it's OK with Ethan. I just hope that he doesn't think from here on out every time he uses the toilet he gets a treat which usually results in a cupcake or car.

One other thing that we did during the winter vacation was turn Ethan's room into a big boy's room. He still had his nursery decor up and had stripped some of the wall trim off the wall so we decided it was time to change it up a bit. All the painting has been completed and we are just waiting on some finishing touches to show up in the mail. Once it is all complete I will be sure to post pictures so stay tuned.