Looking for some fun Easter activities this week to keep your kids busy for a few "extra" minutes?! I know I am! Thanks to Melissa & Doug, one of our favorite vendors, they sent out these free activity page printables.
Feel free to download them and get your children started on these coloring activities, you might just get to drink your coffee while it's still warm!
Have a very blessed Easter!
Click Here for FREE Easter Printable Activity Pages!
XOXO, Nicole
On Thursday, October 22nd the Osceola Chamber of Commerce welcomed The Sleepy Thicket, a new children’s boutique in downtown Osceola, with an outdoor Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. The Sleepy Thicket and the Chamber both streamed the ribbon cutting live on their Facebook pages for the public to be able to watch remotely.
“We are so excited to be a part of this town I love and grew up in!” said Sleepy Thicket owner, Nicole Bartley. “I absolutely love helping people find that “just right thing” for the little ones in their lives. And though times have certainly changed for retail businesses, we are doing our best to help customers feel safe and enjoy their shopping experience whether online or in store.”
Nicole started this business online in 2019 when she and husband Brett Bartley found out they were expecting their third child in 3 years. The Sleepy Thicket was brought to life over countless late night brainstorming sessions and Nicole’s passion and previous retail experience coupled with Brett’s marketing background. One short year later in February of 2020, Bartley was able to rent a commercial space on Main Street.
The Bartley’s took 3 short weeks to transform the space and opened the doors of The Sleepy Thicket for the first time on Saturday, March 7th 2020. Little did they know that 10 short days later the global pandemic that is COVID-19 would cause all non-essential businesses to shut their doors to the public. Thanks to the support of an amazing customer base and fellow downtown businesses, The Sleepy Thicket has, so far, been resilient throughout the pandemic and were recently awarded the 2020 Reader’s Choice Best of the Valley Award for Best Gift Shop. They are set-up and continue to sell online and showcase their offerings via their social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook.
“We hope that as time goes on we can continue to welcome more people into our shop and grow this business here on a Main Street I love so much. To help other stores and our Main Street grow the downtown Osceola experience, I have also taken on a role within the Osceola Chamber of Commerce, leading their Retail & Dining Committee. Osceola is the Valley’s best kept secret and I hope more people will get the opportunity to frequent our streets again.” –Nicole
The Sleepy Thicket carries an array of children’s gift items including clothing for ages infant – 12 years old, toys, books, blankets, and gear for Mom. In-store and online, shoppers can find an array of brands from Melissa & Doug, Tea Collection, Milkbarn, Little Unicorn, Itzy Ritzy, Mary Meyer, to WubbaNub.
You can find The Sleepy Thicket on Main Street at 114 N. Cascade Street or online at www.sleepythicket.com as well as social media pages Facebook/Instagram @sleepythicket
You can view the article on page 2 in it's entirety here: https://issuu.com/thesun9/docs/the_20sun_2010.28.2020
During our time of social distancing/self isolation I did a lot of scrolling through Pinterest in hopes to find some inspiration for a creative project that could keep me busy and feeling productive and less like someone on house arrest. I was served several pins that were geared towards organization and general toddler crafts. Those looked expensive or messy, neither of which were top of mind for me.
Then I came across these images and knew I needed to start hunting for a used plastic playhouse.
However, I didn't need to look far... I forgot, my mom had purchased a used one almost a year ago that she let us transform. Here she is in all her original glory.
Now to begin the deconstruction and renovation of this little gem. Here are the steps we took from start to finish with some progress photos and as many links as I could find on the products we used to make this cottage shine!
*Please note before you start if the house has been unused or sparsely used you should check the inside roof and eaves of the roof inside and outside to be sure there aren't any bee hives. Ours actually had a very small bee hive starting in one of the eaves! Grandpa to the rescue!
We took the door, shutters, roof, and accessory pieces off and then separated the walls out one-by-one. Accessory pieces with this house included clock dials, door knob, phone holder, fold down stove with dials.
We then gave her a good spray down with the pressure washer and let her dry for 24 hours before we began any painting. We used Rust-oleum 2x Spray Paint, make sure you are purchasing the kind that is states it's suitable to adhere to plastic! Most areas got 2 coats of spray paint for good measure, high traffic or high touch points got 4 coats (i.e. the shutters, door, threshold, fold down stove top). We then sealed those high traffic/high touch spots with a Rust-oleum 2x Matte Sealant Spray (again making sure we purchased the one suitable for plastic).
We purchased our Spray Paint from the Bill's Ace Hardware our local Osceola hardware store. Now it the time to support small, local businesses if you can. The colors we used were:
Body: Blossom White https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/spray-paint/hobby/1396076
Roof: Granite https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/spray-paint/hobby/1514017
Shutters: Black https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/spray-paint/hobby/1396084
Door: French Lilac https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/spray-paint/hobby/1514025
Sealant: https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/spray-paint/hobby/1395839
Here are some in progress photos we took. It was cold and windy the day we decided to start painting so we utilized my parents enclosed pole barn to do our painting. We laid our pieces down on large scraps of cardboard to keep them from getting dirty again from the dirt floor in this area of the shed. Make sure you keep your area ventilated when spray painting, we kept the large garage door open. You can see we did in fact take each wall down and spray them separately...
Once we had everything painted with multiple coats and sealed in the areas we deemed were high traffic / high touch we were able to pop all the pieces back into place. Then came the fun part.... decorating / accessorizing.
I do not get any kickbacks or rewards for sharing these products / links I'm just happy to share what worked for us and our playhouse renovation. That being said, here are a few links for the items I purchased to "spruce" up the playhouse. See the final results in the photo at the end!
We added fire numbers to the front of the house, these were found at the dollar spot at Target a couple months ago. We were able to buy them as a single number but I found them online as a pack of 10: https://www.target.com/p/10pc-metal-numbers-bullseye-39-s-playground-8482/-/A-76612509
I added a faux leaf garland under the front eave of the house: https://www.target.com/p/greenery-garland-spritz-8482/-/A-77332722
We also added a faux tulip wreath on the door (secured with a command hook): https://www.target.com/p/12-34-artificial-mini-tulip-wreath-pink-green-threshold-8482/-/A-76548128
A small faux fig plant added a nice touch to the front of the house as well, though Scarlett continues to carry it in and out to make sure it gets the proper sunlight: https://www.target.com/p/14-5-x-10-artificial-fiddle-leaf-fig-in-ceramic-pot-green-white-threshold-8482/-/A-54159949
I layered a black and white gingham indoor/outdoor rug under the entire house (ours is the 5' x 6' 7" size, but they offer other sizes), found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TPS5C48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Along with a small doormat found again at Target: https://www.target.com/p/1-39-6-34-x-2-39-6-34-half-cirlce-door-mat-floral-green-opalhouse-8482/-/A-76387282
This playhouse was never equip with a doorbell of any kind and it's something the kids love doing when they visit their Grandma so we found a wireless one we were able to mount on the front near the door and the bell mounts to the inside of the playhouse: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1ASTE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I did not see this being the hit it was with Scarlett... I didn't want our current kitchen set/food taken outside to get ruined so I found this all plastic set on Amazon to leave outside in a plastic storage tote when not in use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SR92JFS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The original playhouse had a cracked / broken plastic skylight in the roof so my husband removed that and he built a faux chimney and bolted it into the roof with a piece of plastic covering the opening so it doesn't rain in on them.
Without further ado here are the final photos! We hope this helped spur your own playhouse renovation ideas. Feel free to ask any questions and we'd love to see your playhouse renovations that you tackle! We even bought a second used plastic house to redo and bring to the other Grandma's house, so we'll share more photos of that one once we "break ground" on it!
I have had huge dreams for this business and one of those dreams and goals felt so completely unachievable. I wanted to open a physical, retail, brick & mortar store. I wanted to feel my brand come to life in a space that I created and made. I wanted to create a space for moms to feel welcome and shop unique styles not found everywhere.
It all seemed completely unachievable until BAM! I was driving downtown Osceola and saw a "For Rent" sign in the window of Pitch Blue Studio. I pulled over and called on it immediately. Bernie, owner of Pitch Blue Studio, has been so amazingly helpful while I try to make this dream a reality.
We signed a lease this past weekend. It's really happening! Like what the what?! I am opening an actual store!! We will keep you informed of future updates as we get into the space later this month and start making it OUR home. We are SO looking forward to inviting everyone in to see what we create!
The future home of The Sleepy Thicket will be located at:
114 N. Cascade Street - Osceola, WI 54020
*Hours of operation yet to be determined.
XOXO, Nicole
For the past 5-ish weeks we've been quieter on our social accounts because we've been busy transitioning from a family of four to our new family of five! Miss Violet Orra was born and we've been trying to balance and spread the love between all the kids so no one feels left out or any less loved. While adding a third child has been such a huge blessing, that we are so thankful to have, it has also shown us new challenges...
Challenges like:
These are just a few of the daily challenges we encounter. But the love that we have for these children is unreal. I'm doing my best to soak in every second with Violet and remember every coo she makes and lock her newborn smell to memory. And I want to make sure Scarlett & Bo are being loved just as fiercely and feel that love during this season of change.
Thank you for your patience as we adjust and I'm sure you'll be seeing much more of our growing family.
XOXO Nicole
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