DIY Play Scape

Hey friends, last week I made this play scape for Florence's animals and a few of you asked me to put it up on the blog so you could be inspired to make your own. One of my favorites of all of Flori's toys are her sets of animal figurines. Out of desperation, I bought a little pail of these mini ones at the airport a few weeks ago on our way back from Utah! We recently went to the zoo with my sister and nieces and seeing the animals there got me thinking I want to make a little "zoo" for Flori's animals. 

So I went digging through my craft supplies to see what I could conjure up. I just used a flat piece of card board (an insert from something) and cut pieces of felt out for the "terrain". I also had some of these green grassy balls and craft moss (you can get at Hobby Lobby or Michaels). I found some craft pebbles too, which are Florence's favorite thing to try and pull off. 

Arrange all your pieces to make your own play scape and then use a hot glue gun to secure it all in place. It's a fun and cheap little project to play with! Share pics with me on IG of how yours turns out!

happy zoo building :)

When the Sun is Out

Florence and I just got back from spending a week with my sister in Utah. She has three amazing girls. And, though I don't get to see them more than once a year, I still love the connections I have to each of them. It's been quite special to see them grow and change. They're a fuller version of themselves each time I see them again.

The best part of being an aunt is that you're not the parent, and therefore, you can just be a grown up kid. During the week with my nieces, we spent time making music videos with that app, Musically. It's a favorite past time of mine now, if you've never played with it, you probably should. We jumped on the trampoline and drove their big family four-wheeler around the neighborhood. We watched Frozen (my first time, wow) and ate ice cream. We painted nails and read books and talked about boys. I love their individualities, as sisters and as girls. It reminds me of how each child comes in to the world with a different lens, it's beautiful to nurture to their unique beings.

This is a photoshoot I did with my 12 yr old niece, one of the last days of our visit. She was my first niece, and I lived with her for a short time when she was 2. I remember wondering what kind of person she would grow up to be, as I played with her, a barely walking human then. At 12, she's bright and witty and loves basketball. She draws and writes stories. She's incredibly caring and her sisters look up to her with both eyes. I'm so excited to see where her heart is led as she continues to grow. You're a sun, my girl, I'll always see your place in the sky.  

Atlanta, the peach of my eye

The spring time in Atlanta, with its budding trees and warm sidewalks, is the time of year when I go back to that first impression I had of this place, one year ago. You see, this week marks our one year anniversary in Atlanta, when we made that first big decision as two young parents, to move. Here. 

The red lights are longer. Sidewalks are often broken into crumbs where tree roots have won. My car stereo has 6 different stations of hip hop programmed into it. And, regrettably, left turn lanes have become a luxury (something you only treasure in their absence). When we first moved here all these things stuck out to me, all the small revelations that are enough to remind you've come from some place else. Until inevitably, they fade, absorbed into the carpet of the places we've been and will go.

It was easy to jump into thinking that this last year has gone by with little else to focus on then the raising of our girl, this has been her first year, and we have absolutely felt our biggest transformations because it of. But for the stride we've made as a family, we owe credit to Atlanta. Going into our move here my approach was like, "I'll pretty much be house bound for a good year with this little baby, so it doesn't really matter where we live". I was so wrong. Atlanta mattered. Atlanta is where I (we) needed to be this whole house bound year.

Why? We needed Atlanta because we needed to start something together. We needed a risk. And distractions. We needed to be the three of us standing on our own.  We needed to wake up and see a skyline with unknowns. We needed discussions provoked by a big city, in the South. And grocery store lines that have different stories to tell. We needed grace in the form of something that was uncertain. We needed to muster trust like no other. And really go with it. We needed to see that community can happen suddenly, sometimes. And it makes a new place feel so unexpectedly like home.

Now my skin is [even] thinner. I've acclimated to winters that dip only to the 30s. For a few short days. I sing along with the radio and its hip hoppin' beats.  Florence knows the streets we walk to get to the park from our house, she points and pushes me to keep going until we can hear the kids playing at last. There are a lot of things we left when we decided to move here a year ago, and I know both Alex and I still feel a tug, now and then, from the life we left in Texas. But Atlanta was written into our geographies for a reason. And that reason has only felt like one big blessing. One big peachy, Southern blessing. 

I'm putting together a list of some of our favorite Atlanta things, so keep an eye out for it!

xo