Author: Carrie Spritzer

Little Girl Manicure

I’ve been on the lookout for non-toxic, smell-free, affordable nail polish for a while now. There are several good, expensive non-toxic polishes out there that I’ve tried in the past, but could we find a cheaper one?

I looked for less-toxic suggestions on Skin Deep, a database that lists and evaluates toxins in cosmetics, and found WaterColors by Honeybee Gardens, a water-based polish with no fumes. What I love best? You can remove it with rubbing alcohol or their less toxic nail polish remover. Perfect for using with kids!

At around five dollars a pop, they aren’t too pricey, plus they come in a variety of fun colors.

We bought two: Valentine, a bright bubble gum pink, and Tuscany, a metallic purple.

The perfect product for our daughter’s first manicure!

Talk about little girl heaven… plus, mama gave herself a pedicure! We’re both happy girls today.

A Surprise Find

We went into World Market looking for large stainless steel canisters for our organization project (no luck — everything was too small!) and somehow walked out with this adorable, two dollar mini strainer. It was just too cute to pass up. Look, it’s kid-sized!

The little miss picked this turquoise color.


I love all those reds and blue together. Delightful!

My daughter and I then arm wrestled over whether the strainer was destined for her play kitchen or my real kitchen.

I won with the condition that she could borrow it occasionally.

Nerdy ABC Poster

When I ordered this clever alphabet poster from Nerdy Babies I took a risk. The site didn’t list its dimensions and I rather foolishly thought, “how big can it be? I’ll just order it and it will be fine. I don’t have time to email the artist and wait for a response right now.”

Two days later it arrived. Enter the worlds largest poster that my daughter ADORES and won’t let me return.

It’s clever, creative, nerdy… and gigantic!

The space where I had originally planned to hang it (above the photo banner over the bed) was too small, so we decided to hang it above her desk instead.

She LOVES it!

I think I would love it more if it were smaller and framed, but she’s three years old and that clearly doesn’t matter to her, so I’m letting it go. We’re enjoying both its beauty and brilliance. Besides, it’s the perfect size for this space. The end.

The Reading Nook

David built this sturdy, double-sided bookcase for our daughter. For the past two years it’s been in our living room overflowing with books (the following photo might as well be the “before” shot from 2009 back when we had only that many books).

After boxing up and putting away many of our beloved board books, we moved it upstairs to our daughter’s new bedroom.

Here’s the shot from before we started the transformation from spare bedroom/office/junk closet to big girl bedroom:

Wow, does it look less cluttered now, though we have more work to do:

Remember this video of our daughter reciting her version of Eric Carle’s classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, from last week?

She’s reading in front of the bookcase in her new room!

One side of the bookcase has our before bedtime books and some picture book fiction,

the other side contains (mostly) a nonfiction collection:


I’m in the process of framing art from beloved children’s books to hang next to the bookcase, but in the meantime our daughter asked us to hang pictures from two of last years family calenders (one with pictures of her and the other featuring Eric Carle illustrations).

All that’s missing is a comfy cushion to snuggle up on and I have plans for that.

Group Shot

The little miss asked me to take this picture of her holding hands with her imaginary friends.

If only I could remember who else was in the picture. Was it Savannie, Faladdie or Natashe? I can’t quite recall.

Those imaginary friends are ever changing and always adorable. They visit us every day and for that I am truly thankful. When they’re here, I can get something done cause you-know-who is occupied!