Staying Home and Staying Cozy

My dear friends, it has been a minute! Actually, more than a few minutes. I took some time away from writing to work on other projects, and then COVID-19 happened. One month ago today, in fact, we started to shelter in place. Aside from daily social-distancing walks with the dog and the child, we really haven’t left the house. And like so many of you, I’m juggling school lessons with a spouse working from home and my own work projects, too.

It is a lot.

And let me tell you: if you aren’t ok, that is totally ok. This is a remarkable, historic time. It is scary and insane and strange and monumental all at once. And it is ok not to be ok.

But now that we are a month into this with no real end in sight, I have gathered a few ideas and resources which might help you make your own confinement a little easier.

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Quarantine Diary: Day 8 Yowza. Only day 8. But here we are. It is snowing like crazy on this first day of spring, and we are deep into the new experience if essentially homeschooling Bambino. I am sharing two tools with you in case you are in the same boat. First, our daily schedule. So far it is working fairly well. Steal and adapt if you need it! Second tool is a recommendation for a lesson planning book (scroll). I used to be a classroom teacher, and this was one of my favorite planners. It is about $15 on Amazon, and is an easy way to keep organized — even for multiple kids in different grades. DM me if you want the link! ❤️ How are you doing? Washing your hands a lot? 😷 . . . . . . . . . . #303life #303magazine #5280eats #5280life #5280lifestyle #apartmenttherapy #attachmentparenting #conciousparenting #denverblogger #dnvr #gentleparenting #gentleparenting_memes #iamcreative #igersdenver #mindfulmama #mindfulparents #myatomicranch #myfleamarketstyle #mymidcenturymix #parentingsupport #peepmypad #respectfulparenting #stayathome #staythefuckhome #thedelightofdecor #thegentleparent #washyourhands

A post shared by DIY | Vintage Home | Planners (@midmodernmama) on Mar 19, 2020 at 12:41pm PDT

DIY Face Masks

First, I have put together tutorials for making face masks in three different styles. I have made more than 30 masks, and I tried several different ways to make them. Finally I decided on three different masks that seemed to work best — and are easy to make. If you need to make masks for your family, I hope you’ll try these out. Let me know how it goes!

Face Masks

Learn how to sew three different styles of face mask.

Hygge Makes Everything Better

Early on I chose a word for this period knowing that a focus would make everything a little easier. My word is: hygge. What’s hygge? It is the Danish concept of coziness, happiness, and goodness — all rolled up together.

Focusing on hygge has allowed us to jump into our confinement with joy and love. My husband travels a lot for work, so having him home for an entire month has been amazing! We are cooking a lot, snuggling on the couch, reading even more, and I’ve taken up needlepoint which is a wonderful distraction.

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I am adding a little more color to my zinnias for this month’s #cozybluestitchclub . Tying all those blue knots was really therapeutic. ❤️

A post shared by DIY | Vintage Home | Planners (@midmodernmama) on Apr 11, 2020 at 7:28pm PDT

I have updated my What I’m Reading Now list — lots of good book suggestions!

I am also journaling — sometimes angrily, sometimes creatively, sometimes with great sadness. And we have become Zoom experts — along with the rest of the world — from class meetings to get-togethers with friends.

But I’m also doing a lot of sleeping — or at least reading in bed. And I have some tips for sleeping Scandinavian-style which is all about bringing the hygge into your bedroom. We love it!

Small Home Projects

We aren’t tackling anything big right now. The Spring One Room Challenge was supposed to start on April 1, but it has been postponed to May at the earliest. But we have been doing small projects around the house. Our kitchen, for example: we were supposed to remodel it this spring, but those plans have been put on hold. So we have taken on a few small projects — temporary fixes for a truly dysfunctional kitchen. Small projects like this can ease the daily stress of living in a house that doesn’t work well — even if they are temporary fixes.

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On March 13 — Friday the 13th — we had a new fridge delivered. Our old one broke a few months ago, and we had been using a mini fridge as we were supposed to be renovating our kitchen RIGHT NOW. By that Friday the 13th it became clear we were going to be sheltering in place for a long time, so... new fridge, same old kitchen. . To get the new, big fridge in, we had to remove TWO cabinets — an upper and a lower. If you have been around awhile, you know our kitchen is a HOT MESS — cheap cupboards from the 80s that are shallower and shorter than anything standard. We had to cut the granite countertop, take down cupboards — it was quite a little project! But I love my new fridge! And this weekend I made peace with the fact that we will not be renovating this kitchen for quite some time (thanks a lot, COVID-19). So we are in the midst of a few make-the-kitchen-tolerable-since-we-are-cooking-all-the-freaking-time projects. . First up: using that upper cabinet space above the fridge. I have been storing water bottles on this @ikeausa wine rack, but that takes up counter space. Fortunately, it is the perfect size to fill the hole above the fridge. Mounted to the wall: done! . Second solution: we still had that tiny cupboard, so we mounted it on the wall at the other end of the kitchen. I had already put the original contents of that cupboard into storage, so now it hold the blender and electric tea kettle. Two more things off the counters! . Someday I will have a dreamy kitchen, but this week, aside from making masks and homeschooling Bambino, I am making this kitchen work better, because it is going to be awhile before major renovation projects can happen again. And we are cooking like crazy confined people do. . What are you up to? Any ugly-but-practical projects happening at your house?

A post shared by DIY | Vintage Home | Planners (@midmodernmama) on Apr 7, 2020 at 9:29am PDT

Celebrating

I’ll be honest: I didn’t feel much like celebrating Easter. But as the day approached, I realized just how much we needed a celebration in the middle of it all. We have also celebrated two big birthdays for family — one with a Zoom-call party and another with a silly drive-by parade. Life goes on, and we can still celebrate milestones, even if we can’t do it in person as we would like.

And when I did hang the Easter eggs from our branch chandelier and put out the Easter decorations, the change was welcome, and we had a wonderful family celebration.

In the next few weeks I will share some of our favorite recipes and projects. It is almost time to get out into the garden again — despite the fresh snow today! And one day soon we will be back to something that approximates “normal” again.

But until then, stay safe! Wash your hands. Wear a mask. And stay home as much as is humanly possible.

XOXO
Angela

Thanksgiving Books and our Book Baskets

Thanksgiving is nearly here. Soon many of us will be baking and cooking and roasting — or traveling far and near to join family and friends. The air is crisp. The leaves are nearly gone. And we had a big snow on Sunday, though it is largely gone now. And the squirrels are enjoying the smorgasbord of pumpkins and gourds on our front porch.

I have a Thanksgiving treat for you today! This is our Book Basket…

Actually, we have two — one upstairs and one down. As the seasons change, I collect our seasonal books — Fall and Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Summer, etc. They go into the book baskets so they are easy to find for story time. This way we are sure to read them all at least once during the season. The Thanksgiving and Fall books are in the upstairs Book Basket right now, and yesterday I put the Christmas books downstairs. They will go upstairs after Thanksgiving.

But what is in our Book Basket right now? So glad you asked! I put together a list of our favorite Fall and Thanksgiving Books for your family to enjoy!

After Thanksgiving, I’ll give you a peek into our Christmas books, but I work really, really hard not to move from Halloween to Christmas. I love Autumn, and I’m luxuriating in these last few days.

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! Follow me on Instagram to see what we will be doing for Thanksgiving — it is going to be soooooo fun! I can’t wait!

Ciao!
Angela