Front Porch Refresh
Our front porch definitely needed a refresh. The concrete was turning green and the wood swing I built the first year we lived here was coming apart with mushrooms growing out of it. The whole thing wasn’t a good look so I decided to overhaul the entire space.
Making Over My Son's Room Part 1: The Closet
There's so many things I want to with this room to better utilize space, make it a fun area for both kids and build a custom bed for my son. To start this process I need to utilize the space in the closet.
Navigating the Special Education System Part 4: IEP vs ISP
Welcome to back to my series about navigating the special education system. Today I want to talk about the difference between IEPs and ISPs. I've previously touched on what an IEP is, so head back to that post first if you need a refresher if you need it, but I wanted to go more into depth on what an ISP is and the difference between the two.
Life Skills Download: Taking a Shower
When we lived in Argentina last year, one of the things that I started doing was a life skills to help my autistic daughter with activities of daily living. I did "taking a bath", but also made a "taking a shower" version of it as well because they require different steps. When we were in Argentina, I put it up on the wall in the bathroom so that she knew exactly what she needed to do with pictures and a checklist. In the time that we've been back she's stopped baths altogether and has struggled a little bit with the steps in the shower. So, I decided to pull the "taking a shower" download back out to help her.
Summertime Unpredictability Downloads
Today I want to talk about the things that we do in our house to help get us through the unpredictability of summer. If you're new here, I have ADHD. I thrive on just waking up in the morning and decided then what we're going to do for the day. However, my daughter is autistic, and she does so much better on a schedule. She thrives on the structure and schedule of the school year and we even do the summer school program that our county offers because she loves the structure so much. So, I have a few free downloads that help her with the unpredictability of summer that could maybe help your little too!
Adding Storage Cubbies
As most of you know, I have been gradually adding storage all over our house because it's always lacked in the storage department. Well, the day has finally come for me to share the storage cubbies that I made in my daughters room! I've shown you how I made the chair for her, how I organized all of her toys for this space, and I'm now finally done with the cubbies.
Organizing My Autistic Daughter’s Toys
I'm currently building wall to wall built-ins in my daughter’s room. She is autistic and one of her special interest is toys. She has SO many little figurines she collects and knows and plays with each of them. I'm building this so she has a place to keep all of them and we can still stay organized. I want to go over how exactly I'm organizing all the stuff to best fit her needs, so today we are going to sort, label and dejunk her room.
DIY Custom Desk Chair
I recently started on a big project in my daughter's room: adding more cubbies. If you've been around for a little bit, you might remember that I added shelves and a play area to her bedroom a few years ago and painted them pink to match her bathroom. It's been great thus far, but over the years she's acquired a lot more stuff. She's autistic and collects things, particularly toys. So we needed more space to put her stuff. Since her room has almost zero storage I needed to come up with a solution. My mom suggested wall to wall cubbies with a desk in the middle. I'm in the process of working on that, but in the meantime I built a custom desk and chair to go with it.
Spring and Summer Tile Mat Designs
I'm back with some more spring and summer tile mat designs! If you've been here for a while you know that I love my Letterfolk tile mat and I love making designs. I've been doing it for a few years now and love that I'm able to express my creativity through the mat.
Navigating the Special Education System Part 3: How to Start Advocating
Lets get back into navigating the special education system. I've talked about my personal experience as a kid, then my experience as a parent. Now I want to start getting into the nitty gritty and give information about HOW exactly to advocate. First I want to give a couple of caveats. 1) I am not an educator or a professional, I'm a parent. There are so many other creators out there that are IEP advocates, teachers, and professionals in these fields that you should seek out, as well and do your own research. 2) I live in the United States. I have zero experience with any other country other than the United States. Along with that many things vary from sate to state and I only have experience with states that I have lived in. With that, I've done a lot of research myself so lets get started.
DIY Corner Cabinet Drawers
Today I'm finally doing something that I've always wanted to do in our house: adding shelves to the weird corner cabinet in our kitchen. It's kind of a like an "L " shape except there is no actual "L" because there is no corner just a really weird angle. I've really been wanting to better utilize this space so I don't have to take everything out in order to reach something. I've looked at different corner cabinet devices that you can buy online, but they're like $600 for a basic one, which is insane! Instead, I saw someone that I follow that build a corner cabinet that was exactly like mine with custom drawers and realized that I can probably simulate the same thing with drawers from Amazon. It's an easy addition that makes a really big impact.
DIY Flower Mirror
Today I'm sharing a fairly simple DIY project that I've been wanting to do for a really long time. When we moved into our house, I immediately started personalizing and updating our spaces. One of the places I started was my daughter's bathroom. I added vertical shiplap next to her bathtub so I could hang hooks because anyone that has kids knows that hooks are far superior to towel rods. After that, I painted and changed out the hardware on her vanity and sink. It's pink and girly and very her. The one thing I didn't address at the time, though, was her mirror.