The Hansen Family

It's been a while since I've posted. We've been busy getting three kids through High School and College. I thought this would be the perfect time to share some of the things that have worked for us over the years as we move our daughter into her first post-grad apartment. When my daughter started college, I did what most moms do: I scrolled through Pinterest, searched dorm room boards, and filled carts with everything from command hooks to mini ottomans. Some of it worked. Some of it just cluttered the room and never got used. Now that she’s living in her first apartment, there are a handful of things she's  still using,  and I honestly wish we’d just bought those from the start. Rolling Storage Cart Used daily as a food stand in the dorm. Now it lives in the bathroom with hair tools, skincare, and makeup. Cozy Blanket A girl can't have enough blankets, however, this one has stood the test of time and something that she uses.

Dance recital tips and gift ideas! The girls dance recital was last weekend and I enjoy them so much. But I didn’t always… It’s a bitter sweet weekend for us as our oldest wants to take a break from dance. And I get it, it can be a long season, and she should be able to choose. I don’t want to force her to keep taking classes if she isn’t into it. Our youngest now wants to take a break too. Hmmm? That is a decision mommy and daddy may have to make. The girls danced so well, and received so many compliments. However, there was a time when I used to dread dance recital weekend. It was so stressful and LooooooOOOOOooooooong. Especially for a child under 6 years old. I have some tips in a past blog on how to survive dance recital here . Our oldest daughter wanted to do pinwheels this year as a gift. I thought that was a great idea. I feel we overload on sweets, it has nothing to do about being healthy, and I know that I have been focused on health lately....

Well it only took a year and a half, but we found a lamp for the side table in our living room! Remember this post ? We were looking for candle holders and candles at Hobby Lobby and this literally was right in front of me. Everything happens for a reason, right? This lamp matches perfectly with some other baskets we have in the room! (sorry for the grainy photo) It sets off the right amount of light at night. And I really like the height of it in contrast to other items on the table. We also added a circle wall hanging in our den: Its amazing how long it takes to decorate a house. And it never ends. What have you been decorating lately?

We finally finished our basement around Christmas! We needed to get the guest room ready for family to stay overnight. We were able to get a bed, and well, that's about it. Now that we've had some more time. I have been able to decorate the room. It's not complete, but we're getting there. I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to make some art to hang. and this is what we came up with... We took blue, white, espresso and tan colored paints, put them on a paper plate and started mixing them together. Then we made a short stroke on the canvas and volia, we had art! The girls loved it and it took about 45 minutes. Now we need to hang it. It's only propped up with the pillows right now. But this was simple, easy, quick and cheap art that WE made! And now I feel like it needs more color. Maybe that side table will get a fresh coat of bright yellow paint? Hmmm? Hopefully our guests feel "right at home." Have you made any art lately? W...

It has been a really, really long time since I posted something on this lovely blog. Lots has happened since my last post on the 4th of July. I took a new job, our youngest started Preschool and rides the bus, we switched daycare because of said new job and preschool. Lots of changes this fall. I thought I would share this gift we made for our daycare provider who we had been with for eight years (if I'm doing my math correctly). It was so, so, SOOoooooo hard to leave and I knew that we wanted to give a personal gift. I enlarged a picture of the kids and bought a white frame with white mat and had the kids hand write things they liked about daycare and their daycare provider. I tried to match it to her home decor. I wrapped it with a bow and attached a card and gift card. She is an extension of our family and the kids called her "Grandma Jean." If your reading this Grandma Jean, we MISS YOU! Need more gift ideas? Head over to my projects page .

I have started on Sidney's room with her wall art featuring her wonderful drawings.  I'm sorry to drag you along in this process. And I don't have a full reveal today either, but we're getting there. To start we laid out paper on the floor and taped them together. We then tried many different options of frame compositions and the above was the winner. I can explain more of my process when it is all up and complete. How do you design your wall art collages?

Our youngest just "graduated" from Preschool this week.  It's hard to believe she is growing up so fast. It's hard to believe school is almost out, summer is here! This means it's time to start scrambling for the end of year teacher gifts.  I am doing a couple different ideas this year. Like usual, I get most of my ideas from Pinterest. However, the Preschool teacher gift, I came up with, by myself. It's a mixture of many ideas on Pinterest.  I really wanted to give Sweet Basil as a gift. I had no idea how hard it would be to find! When I got this idea, I was so excited. I wanted to have a cute little chalkboard sign and a Caprese Salad recipe attached.  As it turned out, I had to go to four stores to find sweet basil. FOUR stores! I ended up settling for a 4" pot of basil. That is all I could find.  It was a nice size for basil and I thought I would split it, since I needed two for two preschool teachers. I found the white square pots at Wa...

I am so excited to say that our Patio project has been posted on Pinterest numerous times.  But most recently Cassity from Remodelaholic put our project in her Top Ten! Wow! Now that the weather has FINALLY turned nice in Iowa, we are excited to enjoy our Patio. What outside projects are you working on?

I am excited to finally showcase what we did for our Pinterest Challenge, hosted by Bower Power and Young House Love . I have had this plan in the "works" for about six months. Creating "heart prints" for the MGMC Annual Benefit featuring the Kentucky Derby benefiting the William R. Bliss Cancer Center. Each heart represents someone who has been touched by cancer and each individual who attended the event filled out a heart.  We displayed it at the event with these heart strings. My original inspiration was here: (original source) We have had a very interesting May. Snow, kids sporting events cancelled, the MGMC Kentucky Derby event and soon Mother's Day. Today I am very excited to show you all how the Kentucky Derby event went.  Remember last year's event ? And remember the gift gathering party we threw here ? The event was this weekend and we raised more than $238,000 for our local Cancer Center . This is a fantastic group of peop...

Since the weather is finally nice and the temps are above 56 degrees. That means...I can spray paint! You all know I love a good project and the Spring Pinterest Challenge is "on like Donkey Kong." Sneak peek of two projects in one: The long wood boards are for the Heart Prints I talked about before . The frames are for Sidney's room for a kid art wall.  I hope to complete these projects this weekend. Stay tuned for project reveals! What projects are you working on now that the weather is nice?

The weather is FINALLY getting nice around here and we are anxious to start more landscaping to our yard. Last weekend we decided to plant some bushes. We planted ten forsynthia bushes. Apparently they are fast growing and look at all those beautiful yellow flowers. With our new patio , we wanted a little privacy in our back yard, and we thought these would be a nice addition. We will be planting more trees too! What have you been planting this Spring?