The Happy Hut

I am learning how to use Pinterest. For a long time I would just save pictures of ideas I liked. What I love about Pinterest is when you pin something. You can go back and see the website you pinned it from. That way you can revisit tutorials. I am just learning, I am sure there are lots of fun ways to use Pinterest that I haven't discovered. Maybe you can share how what you like about Pinterest if you use it.

This year Hope's first grade class was having a Chinese New Year parade and party. I wanted to do something special for her so I made her something special. I cut up a dress that never fit me well and remade it into a little dragon skirt for her.


I cut the bottom off the dress.


On the bottom of the skirt I embroidered one of the little dragons to make him standout. I put a simple waistband with one inch elastic.



I also made her some cute little doodads for her hair using to simple chopsticks, stretchy trim and a simple little lantern.


She had so much fun.

Hi there... It has been so long since I have written a post, years have actually passed. I have wanted to blog, but there was always so much sickness and heartache at our house. I didn't know where to start. It always seemed like I was surviving and there was not really any thing happy to blog about. Then lives changed forever.

Four months ago our hearts were broken with the unexpected death of our beautiful newborn daughter Lily-Mae Grace. Early in my pregnancy we knew Lily had Jacobsen Syndrome. Which was a tiny deletion of part of her 11th chromosome. This caused her to have Hyperplastic Left Heart Syndrome. A serious heart defect. We did all we could to plan for her arrival. I stayed in the bay area so she could be born at Stanford Hospital and have the best heart surgeons.

On the day she was born there was a little accident during surgery and Lily unexpectedly passed away. It was a complete shock to us all. I have never felt such pain in my entire life. Even though we knew death was a very real risk. I never thought it would happen. At first it was hard to know what to do next... I had planned my life around how I would help make her life better. I felt lost and heartbroken.

Now the pain is still there, but now I want to make our home happy again. Like it was a few years ago. We have a lot to be grateful for. We have so many lovely friends and family. I have missed my blog family. I can't wait to visit with all of you again.
Shelly~

The Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
I checked this book out at the library this week and I have had a hard time putting it down. It is a book about 30 families all around the world and what they eat in a week. It is amazing how different we all are. The other thing that has struck me is how some have so much and some have so little.

I think about my own kitchen and feel guilty over the waste that sometimes happens. Especially when I think about how some people on the planet have to struggle for every drop of water and every morsel of food.

I wonder how much reading this book will change the way I look at the food we have and if it will help me and my family take care of the resources we are so fortunate to have.

I am asking myself how I can make a difference...

I encourage you to try to find this book at your library. It is a lovely book and my children have poured over the pictures.

When Hope was ready to move into a room of her own, there wasn't a spot for her with the other kids, so I decided to make her a room in my walk-in closet. My neighbor had given me the idea when she made a little nursery for her newborn... It was a big job to remove all the things that had accumulated in there... Somehow, there was way more then just clothes in there :)~

Then I took off the door and hung curtains on pressure rods so that I could close them when she is sleeping.


I used a toddler bed with her old crib mattress. Because there is an angled wall in the closet, the bed had to be built in place.


I made her bedding by cutting a twin quilt in half and binding it with blanket binding. She wanted a princess bed so I hung a set of pink curtains from the rod that used to hold my clothing. They can be closed for a little hideout effect if she is in the mood for a fort. A little step stool also doubles as a night stand for her to put things on.


I hung a floor cloth on the wall, that I had painted a long time ago, above the bed.


A bug nightlight from IKEA has a nice glow in the middle of the night...


I used a pressure shower rod to hang her clothing from above the shelving along the top of the closet.


I used bins with their lids removed for extra clothing storage...


The built-in shelving made a nice place to store toys and books...


Including her tea tray with her tea set... which is always in use :)

This has been a wonderful way to give Hope her own space and it is very easy to keep clean.