Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Nursery Update

I added a print to Scarlett's nursery and wanted to share it here, so I took a couple of other pictures of the room as well. Check out this label to see other posts about the nursery. I know I still haven't shared the tree that I painted BUT it is painted and the white flowers are painted on as well. I didn't end up using a stencil bc that was just too time consuming/didn't turn out well, looks wise. I need to paint on the magenta flowers and I also plan on putting some 3-d elements on as well (depending on how they look when a couple are put up).

I saw this pin on pinterest and yes, it's taken me a while but I finally got around to designing my own. It incorporates Scarlett's room colors and mini theme of butterflies. I really like it, and this actually is the third draft. :)
Tad disappointed that my paper is whiter than the frame but oh well!
There are a couple other pieces I have in mind for this wall.
My awesome consignment find! And handmade mobile.
Trinket shelf. The black bear is from the Smoky Mtns, and the tea set is from Alex's cousin Rachel (and her husband Ewan) from Scotland. The tiny beach themed box contains a tiny bracelet from my mom from a cruise, I believe.
Made that thingy from paper towel, toilet paper rolls.
 Next project coming up is creating an alphabet book for Scarlett with her favorite things! Al la this pin!

If anyone is interested in a print like the one above for their own babe, I'd love to make you one. It's not hard and you could pick the colors too. :)

Friday, December 16, 2011

10 Things :: Link Up :: Volume 2

I might just have to make this link up thing a regular gig. I mean, why not?

In no certain order:

1 :: An apology (to myself and anyone who reads)

I'm sorry that I have been slacking in the blogging area as of late. These past two weeks have been uber busy and I haven't had much lunch time free at work to write a post or two. I will do my best to write more. Pinky promise.

2 :: Finally, a pediatrician

We have chosen one and it feels so good to have that out of the way. Interesting tid bit though, they don't require you to have any paperwork or anything done prior to your child's birth. All I have to do is tell the hospital "Lancaster Pediatrics is my pediatrician" and they send someone over and then I'm guessing that's when you schedule the next appointment and fill out paperwork. To be honest (and we might be bad parents for this) we didn't go and meet them prior to deciding. We're pretty laid back people and we had lots of good ped doc recommendations that we figured if someone else likes them so will we. Also, we can change ped doc's if this one doesn't pan out.

3 :: Holiday Dinners // Parties

This week is filled with holiday dinners with friends and family. Boy do I love going out to eat, and well, just eating, so sharing these activities with people we love is just icing on the cake.

Monday we dined at Iron Hill with the Hix's and Herr's. We're all pregnant (or we were all pregnant until last night, one of us is no longer pregnant, congrats Matt and Britt! I know you're reading this even though you just had a baby, haha yeah right!) Anyway, dinner was filled with chit chat about pregnancy/baby stuff with a little bit of guy cabin talk splashed in. Those men are crazy. We also effectively shut down their effort to go next door for a crappy beer, only to leave us at the table with the checks. Silly husbands.

Last night, Thursday, we had the Van Wyen clan over for dinner as well as the rest of Alex's family. We cooked our free turkey that I got with my bonus points from Giant (thanks, mom! -we're on the same bonus plan so her points are my points and vice versa). It was a Shady Brook and it was already in a brine in the bag. This is the way to go, people! No work in brining what-so-ever! It might've been the juiciest turk-a-lurk we've ever had. No gravy necessary (but of course we had some). It was so nice to catch up with them, and Matt and Marci who have been in Oregon studying it up in graduate school. There were tons of laughs all around and it was a close to perfect evening!

Tonight we're heading up to the Davis' house to have dinner with them and the Snyders and see baby Addilyn! We're so excited about this. She was looking totally adorbs at my baby shower and I just want to squeeze her (gently).

Saturday we're headed to the McHenry's (now) Annual Christmas party. Sure to be a blast. I can already taste the delicious food that I will be eating there. Plus, I found the perfect swap gift that better arrive in the mail today!

4 :: Baby Shower Goods

So now that i've had the opportunity to go through the things we received at the baby shower, we have a small pile of exchangables that I have been waiting to make a trip to good ol' Target with. With the busy-ness of this week, no such luck. I'm struggling a little bit with where to put things/store things/how to organize things. This might wait until the week I have off after Christmas so that I have more time to figure it out.

5 :: Baby Shiz

I've decided that I'm going to be making my own baby sling, like this one. For more than one reason.. A. way too expensive to buy for a piece of fabric and two rings.. even on Etsy. and B. it looks convenient and I found some nice jersey stretchy fabric to use in a lovely purple color. I've also decided that I won't be purchasing one of those hooter hider things that you put around your neck when you're breastfeeding. I'm going with something more like this. I mean, it's really just a piece of fabric with a hole for your head to go through. And I couldn't pass up the flannel-ish pink hounds tooth fabric I found for it. I will post about these when they're completed.. which will have to be the week after Christmas.

6 :: Daycare

This morning actually, we had an appointment to tour a day care facility that was pretty close to our house. Now it's my hope that I can work out my schedule with my place of work so that I can move to part time for a while and maybe even work from home a bit so that we don't have to go full on full time day care. The center was nice. Honestly, a little messy and it smelled like onions and diapers. The ladies in the infant room seemed caring though so that was nice but it kind of broke my heart. Please don't judge me because I know that day care is the only option for some people and it's really one of our only options but the thought of dropping my child off to other people, that are currently strangers, for more than a 15 minute time period was just too much to handle. Therefore, when we left, I cried. Looking back on it now, we definitely need to look at some other places because I think maybe the atmosphere there (or something) was just off-putting. The people were very nice and it's also totally possible that I completely underestimated how emotional looking at day cares would make me. Oh, and i'm pregnant by the way (obv) so maybe my hormones are a little wack? There's a first time for everything, right? So the plan is to look at some other ones too and get a better idea of what we're looking for / what we're comfortable with.

7 :: Christmas

Let's get back to focusing on what's really important right now. Christmas. (i'm so funny). Anyway, I get a kick out of tracking the packages that I've ordered every morning. I'm tired of things coming from California via USPS though. Takes for-ev-er. Next week will consist of wrapping gifts and cleaning the house for visitors. Also, something exciting (for me anyway) is that I'll be eating a Christmas Ham two days in a row. Real ham, people. Not water packed ham. Real -straight from the piggy- ham. I'll probably even get to have it two different ways. This is a christmas miracle in my book. The gift of real ham, two days in a row is all I could ever ask for. I will take a picture with each ham to mark the occasion.

How sad is it that i'm really excited about ham?? wait, don't answer that because if you say it's sad, i'll just assume that you're jealous!

Oh and Christmas is only 9 days away. Did I just rock your world? Each day, I think about this and each day, my own world is rocked... hard.

8 :: Baby Update

The little darling is just living it up, breech style. Most people who know me personally know that I don't really get stressed out very much. I don't worry about things that I cannot control, it's a waste of time and energy. Having said that.. this is stressing me out! If she could just turn and stay there I wouldn't want anything else for christmas (except ham, obviously). However, I do know that if she flips/turns.. it's totally possible that she could just flip/turn back to breech at any time. I am also aware that we have tons of time (so they say). I'm only 34 weeks and 4 days. My next appointment where thye'll do the ultrasound is on the 27th. That's 12 days away. Then i'll only be 36 weeks and a day. Still another couple weeks for her to turn around and face the ideal direction. I would've been much better off assuming that the thing I was feeling was a baby booty and not her head. Why did they have to tell me?? What's the point of this paragraph? Oh yeah, to stop stressing and give a baby update! She's doing good! She moves a lot.. she does bladder dances.. she hiccups, normal baby stuff.

9 :: Breastfeeding

If you don't want to read about babies eating from boobs, skip this paragraph. I had a BF class on Tuesday evening that was super informative. How is there so much to know about breastfeeding? Luckily they gave us a booklet that had all the information discussed for when I promptly forget it. All I know is, the whole nip goes into the mouth basically, like eating a big hamburger from Red Robin that you don't think will fit into your mouth, but you make it fit. I wish I could insert the animation they showed in the class. Interesting stuff, I tell ya. This is where I'll stop talking about it.. I don't want to bore/gross anyone out. Oh wait, I probably already did.

10 :: Congrats!

I can't believe you made it the whole way to number 10! Through all of my rambling and almost zero pictures! Good for you! Also, i'll share this congrats paragraph with new baby girl, Harper Hix. I hope we get to go see her today or tomorrow. I still have a hard time believing that I'm growing a baby but this is proof that there really was a baby in there! We're so excited for Matt and Britt and just know they're going to be kick butt parents!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

It's Christmas Time!

I absolutely cannot believe that Christmas is in 11 days. These last couple weeks at work have been so busy that it makes the days fly even faster than normal.

We put up our Christmas tree this past Saturday and I don't have any formal (as in not iphone) photos of it yet but here are a couple of the tree and ornaments that we made at craft night last Friday night!

Wow, blurry! We got a canaan tree and it looks so good that it looks fake. I will try to replace this with a real photo soon!

There's so much you can do with empty glass ornaments!
 
I love this one!

Santa!

How pretty are these babies? I hope they last all month!

Alex and I have a little more shopping to do for the holiday but we're almost finished! Then I need to get to wrapping! I can't wait until next year when we have a little one to share Christmas with. Then Santa will officially start coming to our house and I'll probably have to be way more organized. Things will definitely be different next year (in a good way!)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Very Merry (Pinterest) Christmas :: Decor Edition

Check out this decor inspiration, courtesy of my Pinterest boards. :)
So glad I can finally share these since I pinned a bunch of them months ago!

Mantle Decor
{pin}

Marshmallow Wreath
{pin}

Snowflake 'Wreath'
{pin}

Festive Floating Candle
{pin}

Hanging Candy Canes
{pin}

Santa Key (for those without chimney's)
{pin}

Easy Glittery Candle
{pin}

Felt Circle Wreath
{pin}

Ruffled Tree Skirt
{pin}

Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Project List :: Completed Tasks

So I got done 5 out of 9 things.. not bad, right?

Putting the felt backer on for black-out purposes!

Finished!

Wish I had bought more of these to hang, but this will do!

Spray painted Sunday. So no chance of hanging it up the same day!

Glued, but not hung. I don't know where it's 'spot' is quite yet.

Hung!


I couldn't hang the small frames because I don't know where they're going yet. I found a decal set on pinterest that I think i'm going to try to paint myself onto the large wall that is currently blank. I don't want to spoil it by showing it ahead of time. :) But it's going to be awesome. I need to sketch it first on a regular sheet of paper to know I can do it on a larger wall. (If you follow me on pinterest, I pinned it.. oops!)

What else was I supposed to do? Ohh that's right, buy some fabric to make a crib skirt. Well, I didn't make it to JoAnn Fabric.. so that didn't get done. However, I think when it does get done it's going to look great. That's a project for December I think. I also didn't choose any pictures for the wall because I want to wait on that as well, especially with the new 'mural' idea.

There's plenty left to do, luckily I still have 9 weeks to accomplish these things!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Project List :: I think I can

Things I need to accomplish this weekend:
~Finish the wall decor that I started weeks ago. All I have to do is find my hot glue gun and glue it together.. is that so hard?? apparently it is, because i do not know where the glue gun is and i don't even know where to start looking.

~Put up the decor that I got from Urban Outfitters above our bed and then take a picture. Shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming, right? I might as well add in here that we desperately need to move the bed and vacuum under it (the cats love it under there and i'm pretty sure it's covered with hair) and clean the whole room. It gets messy so fast!

~Buy some more of the magenta fabric and create the bed skirt that will match the roman shades. Oh and finish the roman shades! There's only one left to do.

~Spray paint a shelf that I got at a yard sale a few years ago and then hang it.

~Hang the other frames while i'm at it.. after i figure out what to put in them.

~Choose the pictures to hang on the wall. I think this is going to be a tough one and I might just have to wait until we get our maternity pictures done.

That sounds like enough, right? I have lots of other non-baby related things I want to do, like Christmas decor but I figure I have plenty of time for that after Thanksgiving. Not to mention the extensive list I have going of things that need to be cleaned prior to the baby's arrival.. most notably, the refrigerator and the master bathroom. Where will I find the time? Oh, let's say the first week of December, prior to some guests arriving!

I wonder how many things I can check off my list on Friday night? :)

And for an extra challenge.. can I manage to take a picture of all of these things on my list??!?!!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Weekend Happenings

Friday after work, Alex was attending a beer tasting at a friends in Manchester, so I headed up to my Grama's for a visit and then over to my parents for a visit. Quite an eventful Friday night!

Saturday morning we slept in as long as possible before Domino just wouldn't shut his meowing mouth up anymore. Alex went to work on the farm and I went to Kauffman's for apples and cider (and some other groceries) and then to JoAnn Fabric for some paint and some glue that would actually work. Later I completed one of the roman shades that you saw yesterday. Alex and I got subs (yum) for dinner and while he watched The Wire, I put together the mobile that you also saw from yesterday's post.

Sunday, Alex started early prepping his garlic cloves for planting. I cleaned the house, cut some apples (trick: after cutting, put the apples in some ginger ale to soak for a couple minutes, this helps to keep them from browning and it totally works!) and made sure all the craft stuff I had was ready for friends coming over. Courtney, Jen, Laurel and Jen came around 1pm and we ordered some yummy dominos and got down to business. We painted pumpkins (big and small) and created candles with leaves attached. It was super fun and we're planning to have 'club meetings' every month or so where we can get our craft on!

I stole these pictures from Jen! (thanks Jen!)






After everyone left and I cleaned some things up, I just relaxed on the couch for a while. I was pretty tired for some reason and there was nothing on TV. Alex came home from watching football at Dan's and while he watched The Wire some more, I took some pictures and wrote a couple blog posts and then headed to bed. I slept pretty terribly due to allergies and uncomfortabness (yep, i just made that word up). I was awake from 5:00am to 6:20 where I fell asleep for about 30 minutes before my alarm went off, lovely!

Thus starts another week, week 27 of pregnancy! Keep flying time, I do not mind one bit!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Teaser: The Quilt

Just a teaser photo of the quilt that Alex's mom, Charmayne is making for our baby girl.

Charmayne was telling me yesterday how intensive quilting is, which I wasn't aware of. I didn't realize that after you sew all of your squares together and put the batting in and sew the back on that you have to go through by hand and sew on top of all the squares again. I repeat, by hand. I guess I didn't know much about quilting but I have to say, not that we weren't thankful for this before, we are, definitely, but there's a lot of love, time and effort going into this quilt from Grandma Charmayne. I hope our baby girl will grow with it her whole life and when we explain to her how much love went into it, she'll treasure it forever.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

The Nursery {Part 3}

Part 3 is all about DIY.

I will probably have multiple parts to this "Part 3" since I have a bunch of projects going and a bunch in the queue.

For now, I'll show you the one I completed this weekend.

I saw this on Pinterest and liked it. I only recently thought about adding it to the nursery.

So here's my mini tutorial if you want to create your own.

Supplies:
Canvas (mine is 12 x 12)
White paper
Wax Paper
Puffy Paint
Mod Podge (or homemade version*)

Steps:
Step 1, put your design on your piece of white paper, what you want to trace with the puffy paint. Since I liked what I saw on Pinterest, I just copied it. It may not be identical but I did the best I could free-hand.

Step 2, put the white paper under the wax paper and use the puffy paint to trace the outlines. Since i'm right handed, I went left to right to avoid smudging what I had already done. I probably didn't make as thick of a bead as I should've but it turned out fine.

Step 3, let it dry. The puffy paint said 4 hours. I just waited until the next day.

Step 4, peel it off the wax paper, carefully! Today, I spent time peeling and placing the pieces exactly where they would go but on the table just to make sure I had it down.

Step 5, apply one coat of mod podge to the canvas where you'll be sticking the puffy paint peels to.

Step 6, move each peeled piece over to the canvas, this wasn't the easiest thing but it surely wasn't difficult. Piece by piece I recreated the same design by staring at my original sketch.
Sorry, this is probably hard to see.

Step 7, after each piece is laid, put another coat of mod podge onto the canvas work area.

Step 8, let it dry. Test it later and if it needs another coat of mod podge, do it.

Ta dah!

This would also look cool with a different color puffy paint. I liked the white on white but it would really stand out in a different color.



*I created my own mod podge by combining one bottle of elmers glue and then filled the bottle with water, shook it and added it to the old sauce jar, then I shook that. Easy peasy. {I found the 'recipe' here}