We spent most of Labor Day weekend painting the girls’ rooms. We only expected to spend a day painting, but because the previous color of the walls were such a strong blue, it took more coats than expected and the process ended up taking up our whole three-day weekend! We were pretty happy with the results, though. Check out the before and after…
Mio’s Room: Before (furniture pushed to the middle in preparation for painting)
Mirei’s Room: Before
The previous owner had sons, so the walls were all this shade of blue.
For Mio’s room, we painted the whole room in an ivory with a very subtle hint of pink, and we chose a light coral with which to paint a striped accent wall. We loved how it turned out, and so did Mio!
Here’s a video of her waking up to the reveal…
Afterwards, we mounted these alphabet hooks that we repainted gold. Thank you hubs! You know he’s the one when he says, “I tried my best to kern them.”
For Mirei’s room, we chose a very delicate and sophisticated shade of pink. I love that it is not too garish or childish, and will be a timeless wall color that she won’t outgrow too quickly.
Mio received a birdhouse kit from her friends as one of her birthday presents, and so we decided to put it together this week! She first built it by assembling the pieces with Daddy, and then painted it with me on Thursday.
Mio was pretty particular and wanted to paint each panel/surface a different color.
Leaning back to admire her creation!
The completed birdhouse!
A collaborative creation between Mio, Daddy, and Mama.
Thanks for the great gift, Kosei, Avonlea, and Smith family! 🙂
Dan and I are both artists who have turned our creative passions into careers, so we’ve always talked about how we wanted to expose Mio to arts and crafts at an early age, in hopes that she’d enjoy being creative, too! We recently bought some painting supplies for her so that we could introduce her to the fun world of painting.
My concern was, of course, the paint. Mio is still in the phase where she puts most things she can get her hands on into her mouth… and I knew with absolute certainty that she’d try to eat the paint that we gave her, too. Thankfully, there are some options for natural, non-toxic, edible paints specifically made for toddlers like Mio. The one I chose was an organic, vegetable-based finger paint set from the company We Can Too. (Apparently it’s gluten-free and dairy-free, too, which wasn’t as huge of a concern to me… but probably even more of a plus for some parents out there!) The paints are a bit pricier than regular finger paints, but they come in powder form which you mix with water, and a little goes a long way! I only used a little bit this time and it was enough, so I think it’ll take us a while to go through all of the paint that came in the set.
The only disadvantage of this paint is that it is slightly grainy because it’s food-based, and is not as highly pigmented and smooth as regular paint. I think it’s a small trade-off if it means ensuring that your child doesn’t accidentally ingest harmful substances, though.
Mixing water into the powder to create the paints.
We took all the supplies outside, and I laid down some plastic and set up an area for her to paint freely, to her heart’s content.
She got the hang of painting immediately, grabbing the handle of the brush and dabbing the paper with paint.
Mio creating her first work of art. Look at her double-fisting the paintbrushes... that's a true artist!
And, as expected, she brings it to her mouth for a taste...
I was impressed by how well she held the paintbrush!
Surprisingly, she knew to put each brush back into the right color. (Most of the time.)
I unscrewed the lids of the paint cups so that Mio could stick her hand in them and finger paint (since the paints are “finger paints,” after all), she mistook it as her cue for her to try eating them.
Literally trying to drink the paint...
She was determined to taste-test each color.
This is precisely why I got these edible veggie paints, because I knew this was going to happen. So I just let her go to town with it and lick the paint all she wanted — fun, uninhibited exploration for Mio, and stress-free supervision for me.
Eventually, after she had taste-tested all four paint colors, she actually came around and started using her hands and fingers to paint. 🙂
Finger painting fun!
"Look at you!" At the end of the painting session, Mio was quite a mess...
...but it was all worth it to see her light up with a smile!
Yay for a fun afternoon of painting!
Clean-up was pretty quick and easy, as we’d been painting outdoors and Mio had been wearing her smock… just had to take the smock off, wash and clean off her face and hands, and bring the supplies inside to wash out. I think it only took about five minutes! We will definitely have to have more art days for our little budding artist… 😀
