The Cupboard Under the Stairs

Maybe she'll grow up to be a wizard? What do you think?


Some of you may have noticed in my Simply Monday post that there was a playpen peeking out of the back of the closet. No - that's not just where it's stored. That's where it's used - if you look closely you can see Juliana's actually in there, sleeping (and no, that blanket isn't actually ON her face, she just really likes to snuggle). The closet in the kids room opens up to a small area that is under the stairs up to the loft. It used to be the kids' "clubhouse" where all their toys lived, but last month I decided I wanted to reclaim my side of the 'master' bedroom and move Juliana into the kid's room. However, there was no space....hm, you know, it looks like the playpen might just fit under these stairs.... oh look, it does! With a little space left for storage, too. It's actually quite perfect. So perfect in fact, that although I have a baby monitor, sometimes Abby wakes up before I do when Juliana's fussy, and she gets her out and brings her to me. OK, more like most of the time. Let's face it - she gets more sleep, so she doesn't sleep through as much noise as I can! And it's really only on Sat and Sun mornings that it happens and the occasional middle of the night. But it's so nice - it's almost as good as breakfast in bed. Well, for Juliana it is.
But her little cupboard is just perfect. And no, there's no spider on her socks under the bed.



Oh, one last thing. I've been wanting to share this for a while. We'll call it my craftiness for the month of January, since that's when I made it - but I couldn't show it off until I gave it to the person I made it for. It was a baby gift for a friend of mine who just a beautiful little girl, but I know that she reads my blog every now and then, so I didn't want to post it. But I finally gave it to her today, so here it is. I think she just turned out adorable and all my kids LOVE her. They all want one of their very own. Except, I might make Isaac's a boy....

Yes, she's a sock monkey - a real bona fide sock monkey. Made her myself, from a pair of socks. Too cute, huh? (She has cute eyelashes, too, but you can't see them in this pic.) And she was pretty simple to make. In fact she was so simple to make that I'm considering making a tutorial for anyone else who wants to make one. But first I have to get myself another pair of socks. This time I think I'm going to use a fun pair.... I don't know, we'll see. But until then, here's the link for the directions that I found. When you first read through them, they seem a little confusing, but trust me, it's pretty easy, you can figure it out....or you can wait for my tutorial.

PS - I took Cameron to see Twilight tonight (it was playing on campus for FREE) because he hadn't seen it yet (but he did read the books). I don't think I liked it as much this time. Maybe it was because last time it was a girls' night out. And while I was more than happy to be with hubby this time, we were also in a room with A LOT of single college coeds, just not the same groove- ya know. They laughed, they clapped, which I didn't mind, but..... I don't know. I still enjoyed it though. Well, I guess it could have also been the big room, small screen, not so great light situation that just didn't do it for me.