The Not-So-Halloween Decoration

I frequent Target stores a few times a week. Like many, I spend plenty on each trip. That is why I kept passing the opportunity to buy this cute black-framed square Halloween art. It was only $3, but I waited, and now it's gone from my local stores. They don't sell it online. I don't even have a picture of the original decor.

It was a stand alone square with what appeared to be book page collage on the front and "trick or treat" printed in black over the book pages.

For the price of free (because I had all of these things already) I made my own. It started out as an idea of replication, then evolved into something better. I selected some of the best moments from HP The Deathly Hallows. Then after debating between trick or treat, thankful, fall, and boo, I decided on "Always". Duh right?

Now I have year-long decor but it looks nice for October too. :P
[ My actual HP book was not harmed for the project. It was a used copy from Goodwill ]

Halloween Wreath DIY

I found a Halloween wreath on Pinterest that I knew I would actually take the time to create. We all pin things to our boards and promise we will follow that same genius idea, then we don't. Today I went to Michael's and spent about $20 on materials. The whole process took me about two hours but I took a couple of breaks to grab my son. You know, so he didn't reach the kitchen knives. It would have taken three times as long if I wasn't at Grandma's house. I recommend doing this when the kiddos are gone or asleep. Although, if you have a cat, you'll have to tie a piece of tulle in a knot for them. Otherwise they sit and paw at your stuff constantly.

What You Need:

12" foam ring

2 spools black tulle

Assorted flowers and decor of your preference

Scissors

Hot glue gun

To find the right length, wrap the tulle around the ring twice to fully cover the green, and leave the ends to stick out at the desired length. You can cut the pieces all the same length like the original creator mentions on this blog post. I started making them the same length but then found I liked a random mix of lengths. Wrap each piece around twice, tie in a knot, and scrunch them together. 

Wrapping the ring completely took about an hour. I liked having the ends stick straight forward toward me rather than out to the side like the original tutorial. 

Fluff it up however you'd like.

Add the pretty pieces. I got lucky at the store today. The flower is a clip and the owl and pumpkins are both picks. I was able to attach them without hot glue simply by tucking them into the tulle wraps. At the end of the season I can take them off and store them separate.

Add some ribbon and hang it on the door. Voila! Easy. I don't tie pretty bows so I didn't try it. Happy Halloween!

The Book Themed Baby Shower

Library Book Inserts as Invitations

I had a big hand in my baby shower planning. My mom and aunt who were the actual planners would tell you that it’s because I’m a control freak. True that may be however mainly it’s because I love party planning. I haven’t done it professionally, and I’ve never done it with a huge budget or with my hours being paid for. The events are always bigger and better in my brain than when they are executed. My baby shower was an exception however.

 

I’ll start with the theme. Before I knew he was a boy, and therefore would be named Grayson, I knew I wanted to have a gray baby shower. The name Grayson is coincidence I swear. I had googled party images and the grays were always my favorite. So now I needed an accent color and I just loved the idea of orange. Many months ago I saw some pictures of a Harry Potter party and absolutely loved that idea. However it was revised because one, that’s not a baby book, and two because not everyone attending would understand.

So we decided on a book theme shower. There were hardly any touches of “baby” to be seen. I wanted to skip the typical baby bottles and carriages used for décor. I’m just not into typical anything ever. The touches of “baby” were tiny gray baby blocks stuffed into the napkins at each setting, as well as baby photos of me, dad, and our own kids. Everything else was made from books: heart confetti from pages, stacked books as a vase for flowers, book “fans”, book page placemats, book page name banner, book page vases, and other tiny touches. A lot of the ideas came from pinterest and can be found on my board here Shower Inspiration Board.

Like I said, it turned out better than I had thought. I put off doing anything baby shower until after my friend’s wedding. I didn’t want to switch gears in my brain until it was over. So that left us with one month to DIY everything. In that month I was pregnant and going to school on top of caring for two kids. Little time was left for me as well as my mom and aunt to meet together and craft up the décor. While facing those challenges, the fact that it still came out so beautifully leaves me so pleased.

I painted Harry Potter on the Cake.

My friend Brittany baked a two layer stack of books cake. I painted a Harry Potter for the cover. It was the pose from Order of the Phoenix if you’re curious, one of my favorite books. I am lucky to have a friend who likes to bake.

The games were a hit! We only played two because I’m not big on the games, but they were great. One was alternate book titles. I made them up to look like books for each guest however there is a free printable of it online Alternate Titles Game. We also played a game of “Mom or Dad”. I had my mom and mother-in-law tell me stories about me and dad. The cards were made to look like bookmarks and  guests had to guess he or she for each story. Some of the stories were hilarious and some were embarrassing. It was funny to see their faces when they learned that I was the one who used to trade toys everyday on the playground in second grade.

Can I say again I’m happy with how it turned out? I am so happy with how it turned out. I had a great turn out of family and friends in attendance. Appearance wise it was awesome. The games were fun. We received plenty of needed items for Grayson, and I was able to destroy and then re-use books that were wasting space in my closet in a box. I’m a proud kindle owner and therefore was happy to use my books for something more useful than sitting. (Of course I have kept my HP books. Those are special.)

The book vases were so pretty that I kept one as décor for fall in my home.

 

 

 

 

 

                                     

Grayson's Baby Suite, Part One

You may already know that I’m having a baby and that it’s a boy. We had his name picked out long before this pregnancy which makes me think that he was destined to be. Due this November is our son Grayson.

Feedback for his name has been amazing. While I didn’t ask for opinions, because quite honestly since we love Grayson it doesn’t matter if others do, it seems that our name choice is adored by many. Plenty of people have said that they love our name. To those people I say “Thank you” we love it too. Credit is due to my husband for picking it out. I don’t remember why he thought of it, but I instantly knew when I heard it that it was perfect. SO perfect, that I kept trying to convince him that if we spelled it differently that we could still use it for a daughter. He never went for it.

Something else that was decided long before we knew it was baby boy Grayson is the nursery theme. I am not a “girly-girl” so if baby had been a Jadynn she would have had a very neutral setting. No pink, no purple, no fluff, and no tiaras. Boy or girl, this baby’s room would be done in shades of black, grays, and white. Coincidentally his name is Grayson and his room has grays. Ironic I know. If you know me well I know what you must be thinking. You think the color choice is based on the fact that mom’s favorite color (shade to be technical) is black. True as that is and an awesome coincidence to boot, that is not why we (I) choose this. I didn’t want to do sports, princesses, trains, or jungles with many animals. I instead wanted to incorporate something baby-esque that both dad and I love too. So what do I love most at the zoo? Giraffes, monkeys, and penguins are my favorites. Dad’s favorite is the penguins. So it seemed like an easy no-brainer, use a penguin set. Well it wasn’t an easy answer after all.

I challenge you to find a cute penguin infant bed set. I saw two. One was ugly prints and the penguins were far from adorable. The other included penguins but other arctic animals as well which wasn’t what I had in mind. I’ll quote Barney from the show How I Met Your Mother when I say, “Challenge accepted”.

Fabrics for Quilt

I’ve made significant progress in developing Grayson’s suite though I can’t share much of it in photos just yet. I purchased a used glider from a friend and had the cushions covered in a soft gray material. My dad will paint the glider black at which time I can take a picture. I purchased a white changing table from another friend and plan to alter it as well. I have a gray bed skirt that I don’t use on my own bed and plan to trim and sew it to be used as a crib skirt. I am registered for awesome gray chevron crib sheets, and my friend Katie’s mom is making the baby quilt. I picked out the prints for the quilt myself. The pattern for the quilt can be found here.

Penguin Pillow by Katie

On Pinterest I found a penguin pillow that I thought was adorable and would help tie my theme together. I don’t plan to sew penguins on the blanket; it’s more about colors of a penguin. This pillow would help tie the theme together. The pattern can be found and purchased here. My friend Katie decided to make the penguin herself without using the purchasable pattern. I love her penguin so much more, and it will be special because it will remind me of her always.

I’ve also created three 8x8 pictures that I plan to frame and hang on the wall opposite of his crib. The pictures are of penguins from the movie “March of the Penguins” with captions at the bottom from the movie. I altered the photos in Photoshop from the original state to appear more artistic and sketched. I’ll share these later when I’ve printed and framed them.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love and trust me when I say that I LOVE it. My creative side needs projects like this. Don’t be discouraged from doing this yourself. With attention to details, and inspiring ideas you could come up with something amazing and also surprisingly cheaper. Already I have spent less money total than I would have on just the crib bedding set alone. Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more as I progress.

Toilet Paper Rolls Re-Used

I really... really... don't enjoy cleaning my house. Who enjoys it anyway? We have around 970 SF and I can't keep up with it all the time. What will I do when we move to a bigger house one day. EEK!

I told myself I'd fold towels, put laundry away, wash laundry, and put the kids laundry away, all after I got off work. This is on top of cooking dinner and cleaning up the mess I left in the kitchen this morning. Wishful thinking.

Instead I decided to do something fun with my daughter today. There will always be a new mess to clean, but I don't always get to sit outside and do something fun with the kids. I'm trying to build good memories for them. So, about an hour before I got off work I decided to hit up the craft store for some supplies. I set up a table outside in the shade and we made pictures. She was a little surprised to see we were using toilet paper rolls. She asked why but I couldn't explain that I saw it on Pinterest. She doesn't understand Pinterest yet. Maybe next year.

Here is the start of our adventure.

You can see my long canvas on the table. I painted it black before Halle got home from her grandma's house. Her smaller white canvas is ready. I folded the toilet paper rolls in half and then cut them in half inch strips. I pre-painted them for her and I so that she wouldn't be too impatient waiting for them.

She was very surprised to see a craft set in front of our house. She was pleased.

She's painting the sky on her canvas. Then she adds grass with green. At this point I have glued her pink toilet paper roll pieces together. I couldn't snap all of the steps because paint and glue don't mix with a digital camera. I can just imagine what my husband would say to me if I broke it, "See this is why we don't have nice things". LOL

I used crazy glue to make sure it would stay for the long haul. It wasn't easy to do with the pipe cleaner. It kept sticking to my fingers. (I found plastic gloves in the garage when I was cleaning our mess)




We started to lose sunlight and of course my girl wasn't going to be patient forever, so I didn't get far on my own project. I will have to finish it when she isn't home.

Halle's art turned out GREAT and it is now hanging in her room. I look forward to keeping it for years. Every time we see it, we'll remember the day we had fun doing something new instead of going inside and cleaning the house.

Burning Bottle Bottoms

My girlfriends and I burned the bottoms off of glass bottles last weekend. We saw a picture of them on Pinterest with pillar candles inside. It’s quite pretty actually. We had a good time and were pretty mesmerized by the fire, or possibly the fumes from the acetone. We learned that some bottles are just too thick to be cut. Pelligrino sparkling water glass bottles were the ones that cut best. (Good marketing angle there.) We also learned that you have to use a cheap cotton yarn, nothing fancier than that or it won’t work.

What you need:

Glass bottle

Cotton yarn

Lighter or matches

Acetone nail polish remover

Sink full of ice-cold water

Here is the YouTube video that taught me how to do it. It’s pretty simple to follow. Have fun! YouTube Video Link

A Year of Memories in a Vase

I found the idea for this on Pinterest (oh how I love that site). There they had a jar with different colors and sizes of papers folded inside. The papers have written memories from throughout the year and you wait to read them at New Years.

I was fortunate to find this pinned idea just after NY 2012. My husband and I spent our 2012 New Years at a dive bar last minute. We still had a great time and we got the midnight kiss with champagne and balloons dropping, but we could have just as easily enjoyed the holiday at home. With that in mind I pitched this memory idea to my husband. He agreed it was a great idea and we've been writing memories since. Though I imagine I out number his memories four to one. :)

Instead of a jar I used the vase from our floating unity candle at our wedding. It has our A and wedding date inscribed on it. It holds the memories and I get to display the vase! Two birds one stone, eh? I am a little bit of a freak when it comes to things matching or coordinating so we use a single white pad for writing. That way they look the same. When we are done I plan to put the papers in a book or collage them in a vintage frame. So come back next year to see.

I anxiously look forward to New Years 2013. We definitely have made plans for the holiday!