Midweek Fishing

I love spring nights! They are not too hot and not too cold and the perfect time to go for an evening walk to the lake and do a bit of midweek fishing! 

Our Home

I thought it was about time I shared with you all our home here in the states. 

Obviously we have lived in another house but that was rented off a lovely couple who moved back to England for a few years. This house however is ours! We are the homeowners and everything inside and out is ours. We moved in back in December (about 10 days before Christmas!) and as the previous home was rented fully furnished we had literally no furniture whatsoever (apart from Calleigh's room). 

It was hard, especially at Christmas, but we tried to do it room by room and slowly it began to look more and more like home to us! 

I'll share a few photos of our house and then later on down the line more about our move and how we made this house into our home! 

The first two photos are of our main seating area. This is where we spend most of our nights watching TV. The fireplace is gorgeous but it is a work in progress, I really wanted to make use of it over winter but it doesn't have any glass or safety yet so it's pretty much just for decoration at the moment. 

This next photo is the entrance from the front door and the stairway. To the left is Calleigh's playroom and to the right the dining area (see below photo). The door you can see leads down to the finished basement.

Upstairs has four bedrooms. This photo is the master bedroom which has his and hers walk in closets and an en suite bathroom. 

This is another upstairs bedroom that we are using a Paul's office. This room connects to a bathroom that also connects to one of the other bedrooms as sort of a shared bathroom area between the two. It's pretty cool!

The third bedroom is Calleigh's. She has her own en suite bathroom too! The walls are adorned with My Little Pony and she is also really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles recently! 

The forth bedroom is our guest bedroom. It's kind of basic at the moment as we haven't had any guests yet but it's ready and waiting for any family that come to stay! It has a walk in closet and a bathroom too (that connects to the office). 

This is our master bathroom. I love the TV over the bath it has come in really useful!! 

Back downstairs and to the kitchen. This was one of the rooms that made me fall in love with the house. The kitchen is huge and I love the breakfast bar. Calleigh and I always have our breakfast and lunch sat there.

Another one of the reasons we liked this house was the finished basement. The property we rented previously didn't have this and it's such a big thing in America that we really, really wanted it. We haven't made use of all the rooms down there at the moment, there is still one room completely empty but it is a work in progress and we are happy with how it is at the moment. We have a pool room which we intend to install a bar at some point (hence the boozy pictures) and another room as the game room and finally another playroom for Calleigh. We try to keep Calleigh's toys confined to this room but it doesn't usually stay like that haha! 

There is also another bathroom downstairs with a shower as well so we may convert the empty room into another bedroom, we are not sure yet. 

There is obviously a backyard too but I haven't any photo's yet. Although now spring is here and the weather is a lot warmer we are spending much more time outside so there should be some photos soon! 

Home-Made Treasure Chest

One of the programmes Calleigh likes to watch on Disney Junior is Jake and the Neverland Pirates. We recently brought her a Jake Spyglass and she loves going around the house, following her map, searching for the treasure. Only problem was we didn't have any treasure to find. 

So whilst we were out in a craft store I picked up a wooden treasure chest, some paint and some star stencils and decided to make one for her. 

I was really simple to do. Just a couple of coats of paint, I used a light beige colour because I wanted the pink stars to stand out. Then use the stencils to either paint or spray on your chosen design. I wanted to keep it simple so just opted for a few stars.

I'm really impressed with it and now Calleigh has her very own treasure chest which she loves! She dances around it with Jake and crew when they count their gold doubloons. I did want to buy more gold doubloons for her but after the incident on the video below I decided I had enough to pick up off the floor. 

Calleigh's New Toddler Bed

Calleigh finally has her own little toddler bed. We knew hat once we got back from England we were giving her room a little makeover (more to come on that soon) and one of the things I was most excited about getting was a toddler bed. 

She had been in her crib since she was 6 months old and although she slept incredibly well in it, the time had come to move her on to a bed of her own. 

The bed itself is perfectly designed with toddler's in mind. It is just inches from the floor so if Calleigh happens to roll in the night the fall will not hurt. It's also really good because she can get herself in and out of bed when she pleases. This is more of a good/bad thing. 

It's good because it gives her a lot more freedom. When she wakes up she can get herself out of bed and come to the door and shout for us or she can play around with her toys for a bit first. It's only really bad at bedtime. Before it was easy to get her to sleep as she had no choice, she was in her cot with no way out of it. But now bedtime is a bit of a free for all. She goes to bed, she gets out and fetches a toy or a book and goes back to bed, she then gets out again to fetch something else and so on and so on. Before you know it you've been up there an hour, all her toys are out and Calleigh is still no closer to going to sleep. 

It' a work in progress, she is getting better. 

I am so happy that she is in her bed now, it really makes me feel like shes grown up. I've gone up after a nap to hear her playing in her room by herself and it really just makes you feel good! 

Calleigh loves it too! She loves running over to her bed, climbing under the covers and giving us a big yawn before pretending to go to sleep. It the cutest thing! 

Storage Ideas for a Tidy Toddler Room

Keeping things tidy when you have a toddler is near impossible. If its not all over the floor its usually just rammed out of sight somewhere. And all of those precious memories in a box or on a high shelf out of reach of wandering hands.

It doesn't have to be a nightmare to keep things tidy or to save those important items somewhere safe and secure. Below is two simple and cute storage ideas to keep your toddler room tidy and looking good at the same time.

Keeping Memories Safe

These gorgeous Fairy Tale storage books are a super cute way to keep those precious items safe. They look just like books so no one will know any different. You can find these on nextdirect.com These ones in particular are perfect for a little girls room but they also do a more neutral set which would look great in a boys room.

Keeping things tidy

Kids have so much stuff its hard to find places for everything. I am constantly struggling to find places for Calleigh's toys. The big ones are no problem but its the tons and tons of little toys she has. One neat way to keep them all in one place- Storage Baskets!

I got these plain white baskets and also added a personalised liner- that way I knew what was in which box and they added to the design of the room.