Finn loves watching songs on Youtube Kids. When we came across this one, Alice the Camel, we both loved it. I'm particularly fond of Felix the Fox, and he likes Sally the Sloth.
If you have 2 minutes, the cute little animals will put a smile on your face. Happy Monday!
This soup is one of Dylan's favorites, and he requests it frequently. I am happy to oblige. It is pretty easy to put together, and it always tastes great. It is a convenient option to serve if you have friends over as well. Pick up a few loaves of crusty baguette bread, and maybe some salad supplies, and you have a great meal.
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 of an onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 sprig rosemary chopped
1 teaspoon salt
6 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
8 cups chicken stock
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
For Serving—shredded cheddar cheese, sliced green onions, and crumbled bacon.
Add butter to large pot on medium high heat and let it melt.
Add carrot, onion, celery, garlic, and rosemary. Sauté veggies until onions are soft, about 10 minutes.
Add potatoes and stock. Cook on medium-high until potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes. If the soup seems thin, let it boil for another 10 minutes or so.
Turn off heat, stir in sour cream and puree with immersion blender until creamy and smooth. Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine.
To serve, ladle into bowls and top with crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, and sliced green onions.
In many ways, the weekend can feel very similar to the weekdays for me as a stay-at-home mom. The main thing that marks the days as different is that my husband is home from work. I realized a few months ago that there are a few things we can try to do to make the days feel different/special/relaxing.
Go out to breakfast—I can be a creature of habit, and when it comes to breakfast, I definitely am. We tend to rotate between a handful of restaurants, and I have a favorite dish at each. I like Redstone for their Eggs Benedict and cheesy hash browns, Good Day Cafe for the Eggs Benedict and seasoned potatoes, and Blackbird for the Colleen O'Brien. The Original Pancake House has good pancakes, but it can have a long wait. The best part about going out to breakfast is that there are no dishes to clean up!
Steal some time away to read, do a project, run some errands—Uninterrupted time to do almost anything is a welcome change. I recently finished reading through the Harry Potter series. I had never read the 5th-7th books so it was fun to re-read the first few, and by the time I got to the 7th book, I could barely put it down.
Take a super, extra long shower—See previous item if you are wondering why this one is on the list. :)
Go for a walk
Plan a fun outing—like taking Finn to the zoo or wandering around a bookstore picking out books/magazines
Watch a movie during nap time
I'm curious to know, what do you do to make the weekends fun/special/relaxing?
A few weeks ago, I shared the inspiration for my son, Finn's room. We recently moved his room to a different spot in our house, and I used the opportunity to update the design. He is approaching his second birthday, so his room isn't quite a nursery but isn't quite a big kid's room either. I want the overall design to work when we do switch him over to a bed at some point in the coming year, which has definitely been tricky primarily for the layout of the room. It works for now, so that is all that matters, I suppose. Next up, I need to get the art up on his walls. I have all of the pieces printed and in frames. It is just a matter of laying them out to determine placement.
Here are a few shots of how it is looking these days.
I originally got the comforter and pillowcase set from my inspiration board, but I ended up returning it. While the fabric was soft, the pillowcase was very disappointing. For whatever reason, they put the envelope closure on the front of the pillowcase, so when you set the pillow down, it flopped open. I couldn't flip it over because it only had the pattern on one side. I ended up finding the blanket with the blue triangles (shown above) while browsing Target for other ideas. It is so soft, and it is a twin size so we can use it when he switches to a bed. The pillowcase is by Room Essentials, and the crib sheet is by Burt's Bees (available via Target or Amazon). It is a really high quality sheet and very soft.
The plush shark is from Ikea. Finn loves that thing so much! He says, "nark" every time I come get him in the morning or from his nap and wants to take it with him everywhere around the house. We leave it in the crib so it doesn't get chewed by our dog.
The dresser is from Craigslist a few years ago, and I gave it a new paint job. I like how the dark gray turned out.
The panda lamp is from Target, and I love it so much. It makes me smile every time I go in Finn's room. The books and piggy bank are from a thrift store. The blue tin was my grandmother's.
This is the wall to the right of the door. It has a nightstand that currently holds diapers and wipes but will end up next to Finn's bed when we convert him from the crib to a twin bed. The cart has books and a couple of toys on it for lack of a better storage place for them. To the right of this is a small closet, which primarily holds extra diapers and wipes, a few extra blankets, and his socks and shoes. Most of his clothes are in his dresser.
Finn loves to push the cart around the room as he pulls out books to look through. Not pictured is a large basket of beanie baby animals. Finn has a field day picking each one out, telling me what it is, and then throwing it around the room. He is usually helpful in picking them back up and returning them to their home in the basket.
Like I mentioned, his room is sort of a transitional space right now. I am sure that the layout will change when he moves to a twin bed, but since that may not be for quite a while, I wanted the room to feel fairly finished and complete. For now, it works and is cozy and comfortable, and it should be relatively simple to add the bed and shuffle things around a bit without changing too much.
As many of you know, Dylan and I recently moved to a new house. As much as I wanted to knock out the decorating for all of the rooms as quickly as I could, it didn't work out that way. That is totally for the best! As we have lived here for the past 3+ months, we have gained a much better feel for how we use the house and what is going to work best for our lifestyle. With that knowledge in mind, we have decided to move a few of the bedrooms around a bit. A little background on our new house—it is a 1.5 story with two bedrooms on the main floor, two bedrooms in the basement, and a finished attic. Currently, Dylan and I have our bedroom in the attic, one of the main floor rooms is an office, and our toddler son's room is in the basement. There is a small bathroom with a tub on the main floor and then a newly renovated bathroom in the basement with a nice shower and a lot of storage space.
The plan is to switch the rooms around so that Finn, our son, is on the main floor. Dylan and I will put our bedroom in the basement, and then the attic will become our office, library, craft room. This will allow Dylan and I easy access to the nice bathroom rather than having a few of our items on the main floor and then planning showers around Finn's sleeping schedule. Plus, the main floor bathroom works great for Finn's nightly bath so we won't have to be traipsing through the house with a wet toddler before bed. In general, the flow should work much better, and we still have the needed office for both of our desks and my craft supplies.
We are working to get Finn moved first. That is the hinge to the whole swaparoo. To help guide me in setting up his room, I pulled together a design plan. Here it is!
The walls will be white (Behr Polar Bear to be exact). I like that it will help the room feel bright and airy as well as serve as a neutral background for the other pieces in the room. From there, we will pull in deep blue and deep gray details with the curtains, his dresser, and the bedding. I was very inspired by the pairing of wide and thin stripes in this room, so I ordered a new crib sheet with thin blue stripes and a comforter with wide blue and green stripes.
The art will add a lot of color to the space! I purchased the "Be Brave" print from Minted to go with the "Be Bold" print I had gotten for Finn's room at our last house. The little boy with the sword is a fun pairing for the "Be Bold" and "Be Brave" prints, and it is perfect because Finn's name actually means "Little Warrior". I am most excited, though, to get the Animal Map of the World printed and hung. I have wanted it for a long time. I can't wait to see how it turns out! I am also going to print the images of the Lion and Cheetah because I like the simple style as well as the golden yellow color they will bring to the space. The sailboat mobile is from our last house and makes me think of my parents because they love sailing.
I haven't figured out exactly what we are going to do for book storage, but I like the simple style of the bookshelves pictured above. I also like these shelves from Ikea.
The panda lamp will be a fun addition. I have a nightstand from Dylan's parents that I am going to paint dark gray to match Finn's dresser, and I think a lamp will be a nice touch on it. I looked at a few different options but could not pass up the adorable panda. Finn loves animals, and pandas remind me of my sister. Win-win!
Well, there you have it—inspiration for our toddler boy's room. I will make sure to share photos once we get the room finalized. We will be moving him in this weekend, and then I'll hang the art once I have all the pieces (so I can set them out on the floor and play around with the layout before I hang them). And, in case you are interested, I've linked to all of the sources noted above as well as a few other items we use regularly for Finn.
Union 3-in-1 Convertible Crib (Ours is in Lagoon, but if I were buying it today, I would get it in gray.)
Rugby Stripe Comforter Set in Etched Green
Burt's Bees Crib Sheet in Blueberry
Keekaroo Changing Pad (We have had this changing pad since Finn was born, and I HIGHLY recommend it! It is so nice that you can wipe it off rather than having to run it through the washing machine when it inevitably gets wet/dirty.)
P.S. If you want to see what Finn's room looked like in our old house, you can check it out here—The Babe's Room.
I’m Cassie! Golden Flower Goods is my online journal, dedicated to the bits of beauty to be found in the seemingly mundane moments of life. It’s an ode to good food, good books, musings on life, and the occasional craft project.
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