Meet Charlie

Charlie - our Lab/Boxer/Shepherd mix puppy

1st Day of School, Class Picture

Tilt your head sideways to take a proper look. I don't know why blogger won't pick up the right view of this one. I took this picture on the first day of school and it is my work laptop background - the kids love seeing it every time I turn the smartboard on.
 

I've been away from blogging because I've been busy teaching

The last few months I've been so impressed with myself. I've been a regular blogger - like I was when I first started blogging during my mat leave, and then my other subsequent mat leaves. And I thought, Wow - look at that, regular posts and everything. Not only that, I've been getting projects done in the house too!
Then the last week of August hit - oh right, that work thing! Totally interferes with my projects and blog life. I really do love my job. This year marks the first year since my 8 year old was in the womb that I have my own classroom. I've been spending the bulk of my teaching time since then teaching k-8 music at multiple schools - a very busy life indeed, but one that afforded me a little more time at home. The need for a class of my own was rising up last year and it has worked out that (for this year at least) I'm on loan from the fine arts department of our school district and teaching grade 3. I have the sweetest little class (my own son is one of my students). I'm still keeping my hand in music teaching as I cover the school's music and teach a course of science 8 too. My teaching partner is very sweet and we get along great - it helps that we are both pretty easy going. Here's a few shots of my room set up before the kids arrived.

 

DIY Play Kitchen - Furniture Makeover

Before - old TV/Entertainment Unit

After - cute play kitchen for my little girl :)

I've seen these play kitchens floating around Pinterest and I just fell in love with the idea.  But we didn't have an old TV unit to use.  I found this one for free on Kijiji and bribed a friend of mine with dinner to pick it up in her truck and bring it over.   Here's how the transformation went.
1st - we waited until the nice weather to do the makeover.  I originally got all the materials back in January as it was to be my daughter's birthday present - it's a good thing she's 2 and really won't remember that her present ended up being 7 months late :)
We brought the unit outside, took off the glass doors and shelves and started sanding it down to rough it up a bit.

I then started painting.  Because I used a darker, funky colour, it took a few coats to get it just right.  I used a smaller can of paint - a semi gloss.

Painting more coats to get the colour just right.

I then started adding on to make it more 'kitchen-y'.  I used a very small can of black semi-gloss to paint on the stovetop burners and oven glass.
I used a jig saw (yes, me using power tools!) to cut the hole for the sink.
The sink is a small mixing bowl I picked up at the dollar store.  I found a hook to become the tap (not seen in the picture below).  My husband was so kind to help me out with the drilling to fit everything on properly.  (He even drilled a hole into the metal hook so I could attach it to the kitchen.)
The stove top knobs are inexpensive drawer knobs - as are the handles for the stove and under-sink cupboard.
I found cafe rods for hanging up the curtains.  The curtains, I made with a metre of fabric from the local quilting store.

I am really pleased with the way it turned out.  My kids love it too.  The first day we had it ready (along with some kitchen toys) friends of ours were over with their 3 kids.  That made a total of 6 kids ranging in age from 2-12 playing restaurant together and loving it.

My daughter with her new kitchen up in her room, making me a pizza and a cup of tea.