Space Saving DIY Toy Stove and Art Easel {Chalkboard Contact Paper}

We have a small home, and I am more than content with that. However, my two and a half year old daughter is getting to an age where a toy kitchen would be an ideal toy for her, but there simply is not room.

My daughter "Peanut", being the creative and imaginative girl that she is, found a solution for that!

We have a small bed side stand type cabinet in her room that I once used for her books (which are now on a book shelf). One day Peanut started opening the door and putting her toy cupcakes in the cabinet to "bake" them, pretending that it was a stove.

I looked at the little cabinet and thought, "I can paint four burners on top and paint the front black so that it looks like the window into a stove!"

Since I have very little experience painting, and very little time right now, I thought it would be a long time before I would get around to such a project.

That was until I discovered Chalkboard Contact Paper.  The little stove is the first thing that came to mind. How easy it would be to just cut out four little circles and stick them on, as well as the front "window" of the stove?

I ordered a roll of the contact paper for less than eight dollars, and as soon as possible after the contact paper arrived, I did just that. It took about 15 minutes, and that because I was doing other things at the same time.

I also ordered a little cooking set, and now my daughter has a little stove to cook on without adding a mite of furniture to our home!

Another toy that I have thought would be ideal for my daughter if there were sufficient space is a toddler art easel. We have a little toddler table for tea parties and artwork, so for both reasons of space and the fact that we really don't need another place for her to draw and color, I had let the idea go completely.

But alas, we have an exposed side to our large old refrigerator in the kitchen and it occurred to me that I could made it into a little chalkboard! Since it's magnetic, we can also use magnets to secure paper there for her to write, color, or paint on too. There you go! The primary functions of an art easel only without a tray for supplies. I am thinking of ways to attach something to hold chalk and markers to the fridge, but for now I prefer to not have them laying about freely anyway.

 The possibilities of this amazing contact paper are endless! I have a few other things I can't wait to do with it!

Super cheap. Super easy. Super fun!

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Linking up with: Growing Home, Raising Homemakers, Frugal Friday @Life as Mom and

Fresh Herbs for the Thoughtless Gardener

Contributed by Anna of Not Knowing Where

Have you ever noticed that many "healthy" recipes look just like your grandmother's recipe, except they call for things like fat-free cheese or egg substitute? When people tell me eating healthy is too expensive, I wonder if it's because they're reading recipes that call for specialty versions of high calorie food - like fat free butter or sugar-free honey.

When I was in college, my grandmother gave me a cookbook that has been a mainstay on my shelf for 15 years. It's a health food book with virtually no substitutes, just good healthy food plus herbs and spices. It taught me that the secret to great cooking is not more butter or mayonnaise, but more guiltless, honest flavor. 

Eight years ago, I started an herb garden outside my front door. Over the course of a few years, I planted just about everything I liked to cook with, just to see what happened. Freshly picked herbs are incredible!

But here's the thing - I'm a horrible gardener. Maybe half my sprouts survived a season. Very few took hold in the long run. So anything that survived did so despite me, and certainly not because of me. In a strange way, that makes me feel uniquely qualified to make herb garden suggestions. I am here to tell you what herbs to grow that are insanely delicious, and yet have great resilience to the thoughtless gardener.

The ones that make the cut here survived multiple years under my care (or lack thereof). I asked my husband, the gifted gardener, to proof this post and make suggestions. In addition to some careful corrections, he made multiple suggestions of herbs to add. To which I mostly responded, "Nope, I killed that... Can't do that one; I killed it twice... etc." This is not a comprehensive list of herbs that gifted gardeners consider to be easy, but only the humble opinion of one who struggles. Sometimes I feel like too many bloggers only talk about what they are insanely good at. However I'm silly enough to post about my weaknesses, on this, my first contribution to The Cheap and Choosy. Am I crazy? Probably. But here goes!

Mediterranean spices: Rosemary and Culinary Sage

The Mediterranean climate has a rainy season and a dry season. In other words, you can be like me and totally forget to water your sage, then follow this neglect with a period of avidly watering it every day, and then go back to forgetting about it completely. Rosemary, once established, almost never needs to be watered if you live somewhere that experiences periodic rain. The culinary sage gets periodically stressed, but so far has always bounced back. The sage's only problem is bugs. Our rosemary (that I planted!) is large enough to take over the world. Rosemary and sage are both perennials in many zones.

Italian Spices: Oregano and Basil

Oregano will die off to a pile of twigs in the winter, but then generate new growth the next spring. Be warned, there are many varieties of oregano, and they don't all taste awesome. Make sure you know what you're getting, because you will have it forever. Basil is not a perennial in most zones, however it is prolific while it grows. I once decided to hack off the entire plant at its base in June because I was going to travel, and there was no one to water it. When I returned from my trip, it had started growing back. This trick seems to only work in the early summer. If you wait too long, then it will take the hint and die. 

Garlic

I find garlic to be particularly miraculous. In October, go to the store and buy a few bulbs of garlic from the produce section. Divide it into cloves, and bury each one outside. Water it periodically until the weather starts to freeze. Then do nothing until the following spring. If you like spring garlic, then you can pull some up early to eat. In this case, you eat the entire spring garlic plant. If you want full, mature bulbs, then you wait through the summer until the stalk is almost completely dead. Dig up the bulbs, and you have a year's supply of garlic. Store them in a dry place.

Now is a great time to start planting herbs in your yard! Transplants are often best, as many herbs propagate better from cuttings than from seed. Potted herbs can be tempting because there is less weeding involved. However my experience has been that there is no substitute for the plant being in fertile ground. Potted plants dry out faster and do not over winter well for the thoughtless garden. 

The gardening husband insists that there are many more easy-to-grow herbs. Please share your experience if you have a favorite, hearty herb or spice in your yard. The Cheap and Choosy would love to hear your story. 

The Boba Carrier - At Home and Abroad {A Review}

I was blessed with the opportunity to review the Classic Boba Carrier in Breeze during our recent trip to Brazil.

The Boba Carrier is a soft structured carrier, ideal for wearing babies from 15 to 45 pounds. It is an attractive and extremely comfortable carrier. The wide shoulder and waist straps are sturdy and comfortable made with high density foam. The military grade waist buckle is easy to snap and extremely easy to adjust. My husband and I found it very easy to adjust the waist back and forth when we took turns wearing Lydia. All you have to do is snap and pull on one strap and it tightens easy and centers itself on your waist.

One of the the things that make this soft structured carrier stand out among all the others is that it has removable foot straps. The foot straps have given me so much peace of mind. We have worn Lydia for very long periods of time and I did not have to worry about the carrier cutting into her dangling legs because I could easily slip her feet into the straps.

The other outstanding characteristic of the Boba is that the back is designed to be a bit higher than others. This is another key to making the Boba the absolute best carrier available. Even when Lydia tried to lean back, I did not feel the pull uncomfortably in my back AT ALL. I had briefly tried using another soft structured carrier that a friend let me borrow before I received the Boba, and I had found it a bit uncomfortable because Lydia was leaning back and it was pulling on my shoulders. With the Boba I have not felt that even once. It is so perfectly comfortable for myself and my baby! Actually, the whole reason the Boba came into being was because the creators were experiencing this problem with other popular carriers, along with leg discomfort for their baby and therefore the Boba was invented with a higher back to prevent the "leaning back" feeling, and foot straps, to prevent the problem of leg discomfort for toddlers and larger babies. You can read the story here.


I am busting at the seams with wonderful things to tell you about my experience with this product! Whether at home or traveling abroad I have come to see the Boba as an absolute essential, and you know me...I love finding things that I don't need to keep it simple. THIS, however will simplify your life in the having of it. I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to test and review the Boba for this trip. It was priceless.

Even before our trip to Brazil the week before we left I started using the Boba. It made getting ready for our trip so much easier. I had to make so many quick trips in and out of stores for last minute things. It would have been a pain to have to get the stroller in and out and in and out and in addition to that to not have my hands free in the process. Using the Boba made it go so much more smoothly. I quickly discovered that Lydia LOVED being on my back and that I loved having her there. Learning to get Lydia on and off of my back went a lot more quickly and smoothly than I thought it would. I found these videos very helpful!

As we embarked on this trip I was a little nervous because I have a history of back and hip problems that is usually aggravated by travel. I was hoping that carrying a toddler would not make that problem worse. I am here to tell you that I had almost none of the hip or back pain that I've had on previous trips and I wore Lydia a whole whole lot. We carried her everywhere in the Boba. We didn't even take a stroller with us. It was AMAZING how easy it was to get around this way.

The verdict is that traveling with a toddler is easy IF you have a Boba Carrier. I cannot imagine our trip without it. I seriously don't think it would have been possible. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. When we weren't walking, we were in and out of taxis, combis, buses, metros, trains, etc. We developed a system where we would wear her on the front for metros and buses and such forms of transportation so that we could protect her as those can get pretty crowded. We could also sit down while wearing her on the front. Invariably whichever of us was wearing Lydia would be offered someone's seat! Then, when we were walking long distances, we'd put her on our backs as this seemed overall more comfortable with a toddler. Our friends' baby is 10 months old and a good bit smaller, so she is more comfortable on the front all of the time.

In Brazil we spent two weeks in Belo Horizonte with our friends who are missionaries working with the children in that city's largest slum at a place called The Lighthouse. We also took a few days with our friends to go to Rio de Janeiro. While in Belo, at the Lighthouse, we were trying to help out as much as we could with the ministry there. Even there we wore her a lot to help us be able to do more things and because she just loved it!

 

I mostly took care of Lydia but was able to help out with one group of girls a couple of times and to do a little work in the kitchen. How was that possible? The Boba! Here's a picture of me kneading bread for well over 20 people with Lydia on my back! Honest truth: It did not hurt!

 I had to take various trips to the store for food, milk, etc. and I always went walking with Lydia on my back. It was such an adventure. It's a very hilly place too so it was a great workout.

In Belo Horizonte on the weekend we visited a local park to see the monkeys. We took a bus most of the way and walked the rest. Lydia napped in the Boba for a good part of the time but she woke up in time to see the monkeys!
 

 Also while in Belo Horizonte, we went out for Acai, as it is served very deliciously at a little shop near the Lighthouse. There we discovered a FABULOUS use of the Boba that ended up being a LIFE SAVER throughout the whole trip, especially when we went to Rio. In spite of the fact that Brazil is incredibly baby friendly, there are many small stores and shops that do not have baby chairs, and if they do, they do not have straps. They are just a smaller, higher chair. We discovered, however, that we could keep Lydia perfectly secure by strapping her into any chair with the waist buckle of the Boba. Here's Lydia enjoying acai this way. More pics of this to come...

 Then came the trip to Rio. As I've said, I don't think it would have been possible without the Boba. We required a good deal of luggage as we were carrying a pac n' play. How we would have managed with all that at the bus station and to and from if we'd been using a stroller or our arms, I have no idea! Then while in Rio, of course we were walking an incredible amount, out and about seeing the sights, and eating out of course since we were away from our "home away from home." Here are some pics of Lydia at the famous Christ the Redeemer statue of Rio de Janeiro!

Under the Christ the Redeemer Statue.

Here we have the hood attached and hanging because Lydia had just been napping. Normally we kept it attached and neatly rolled up. I love how easy it is to do!

Just a little happy! ;)

This typical high chair at a nice restaurant did not have straps. Never fear...

The Boba kept her nice and secure!

 

Sleeping baby ready to leave Rio. This hood snaps on and off and if you want to leave it on it has attached bands that make it easy to roll up.

The verdict after a very thorough trial of the Boba is that of all the baby equipment available today, I think it is the most practical and the most worth investing in. It's right up there with the crib and changing table in my opinion, especially if you plan to do any traveling. Even here in the States, there are so many places where a stroller is cumbersome to use. I find that Lydia is much happier in the Boba than in a stroller as well. 

I recommend the Boba over other popular soft structured carriers. My friends in Brazil have another brand, and they tried the Boba and found it to be more comfortable and simple to put on. As I mentioned before, I had tried another kind of carrier briefly and felt a bit uncomfortable with Lydia leaning back. I also find the waist much easier to attach with the Boba. The buckle is mega quality and easy. And again, no other carrier as adjustable detachable foot straps!

Back at the Lighthouse in Belo Horizonte when Lydia and I were resting in our room, she started whining and I asked her what she wanted. We had the Boba laying on top of a suitcase. She walked over to the suitcase, picked up the Boba, walked over to me with it and lifted it up to me with a grunt. When I didn't immediately do anything about it because I was trying to find the camera to catch the adorable moment in a picture (at which I was unsuccessful), she sat down and started trying to put it on herself!

Please take a moment to go to Boba's website and learn more about this product! If you're trying to decide what kind of carrier to get, I recommend you stop your search here! If you are not sure about investing in a carrier, I encourage you to do it. It will be money well spent!