Made it on Monday

Just for Fun

2013-06-10T23:15:00.001-07:00

Hey there! We’ve been enjoying some sunshine in my neck of the woods (where summer doesn’t really start until after the 4th of July), so I’ve been working on my tan instead of anything crafty! I thought I’d make a silly request of you today, though…

I’m kind of absolutely in love with this little girl and can’t help but stare at her almost all the time. So I thought it would be fun to enter her in the Parents Magazine cover contest and she could use your votes if you’re up for it. You can vote HERE.

Just a little something completely non- crafting/sewing/creating/inspiring related, but still something dear to my heart.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is off to a good start!

The Circle Dress {Pattern & Tutorial)

2013-05-31T19:17:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in THIS POST my brother got married this past weekend. We had ordered THIS dress (which I LOVE) from Carters for Reese to wear to the wedding, but I figured we should be smart and have a back up dress just incase there was an accident.

Before deciding to buy the Carter’s dress, I had envisioned making something like THIS. And even after finding all the stripey goodness of the actual wedding dress, I had to appease my white lace over colored fabric dream when making the back up dress. I made it similarly to my Sunny Little Miss dress, only this time I perfected the bodice pattern and did one less skirt layer.

The outer layer is a white eyelit I found at Joann’s (I couldn’t find it online, but it runs about $19/yard, so my coupon came in handy!) and the lining is a navy lining material. I used navy bias tape to finish the arms and neck and grosgrain ribbon for the sash. The lining skirt is 1.5” longer than the outer skirt and I love the way it peeks through.

I originally planned to secure the back using buttons, but then didn’t want to bother with button holes and sewing buttons on, so I used snaps instead. I love that change since it makes it much faster to get this dress on my very busy 8 month old!

The skirt is a circle skirt, so there is a wonderful fullness and movement to it without bulkiness where it attaches to the bodice. I went ahead and made a pattern for size 6-9 months and you can download it HERE. Otherwise, if you need a different size, I’ll tell you how you can make a pattern of your own. As far as materials go, I bought a yard of each fabric (and had lots of leftover, but wanted to be sure there was plenty to work with since the skirt needs to be a full circle’s worth), a pack of double fold bias tape, grosgrain ribbon, snaps, and coordinating thread. You could easily just do this in one solid layer and not worry about the double skirt, but I love the contrast.

I made my bodice pattern by tracing an existing 6-9 month size dress that I liked the shape of (actually, Reese’s real dress for the wedding). The back is the same as the front only I added an extra inch to the center so there will be the overlap for the snaps.

1. Cut out your front and back bodice pieces in both layers of fabric.

2. (If you are doing a different size of dress, or wanting detailed instructions for making a circle skirt, check out Dana’s tutorial HERE.) Cut out your circle skirt layers. My pattern is for 1/8 of the circle, so you’ll want to fold your section of material in half 3 times. The pattern is for the length of the outer layer. Just add an inch and a half on to the lining layer.

3. Using a rolled hem foot, hem both layers of the skirt. (I have a tutorial for using a rolled hem foot, my favorite foot of all time, HERE.) Unfortunately, my rolled hem foot is missing in the chaos that is my craft closet, so I had to do a regular small hem, which gets so tedious on the length of a circle skirt!

4. Because I was finishing off the arms and neck with bias tape, it made assembly of the bodice really simple. Just sew, right sides together, the shoulders and straps of each layer using a half inch seam allowance. Then turn the lining layer wrong side out and the outer layer right side out. Slide the lining into the outer layer and baste stitch the two layers together around all the raw edges. Because I was using 1/4” bias tape, I had to stitch very close to the edge.

5. Pin bias tape around the arm and neck holes, continuing it down either side of the back opening where the snaps will go. Top stitch the bias tape onto the bodice. I did two rows of stitching to make sure it was fully attached.

6. Baste stitch your two skirt layers together. I very slightly gathered my skirt at this point as well. With right sides together, sew your skirt to the bodice. Baste stitch the waistband of the bodice. When doing this, overlap the back two pieces by one inch. I finished the final seam off with my serger, but if you want all raw edges hidden, just skip the earlier step of basting the waist band of the bodice, with right sides together stitch the two layers of the skirt to the lining layer. Then fold the outer layer under, pin it to the skirt and top stitch around.

7. Attach your snaps or buttons.

8. Cut a length of ribbon to your desired length and stitch it to the front of the dress in one vertical line at the center, and in a vertical line under each arm.

Try it on your baby, love it and feel so proud whenever she wears it! I paired Reese’s dress with a Big Bow Headband that I made out of matching wider ribbon. I love the way this dress turned out and I’m excited to make more of them for Reese!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:
Thrifty Decor Chic Creating with the Stars, Made with Love, The Sunday Showcase Party, Weekend Wrap Up, Real Momma, Real Style, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Take a Look Tuesday

A Wedding, A Preview & A Summer Round Up!

2013-05-30T18:38:00.001-07:00

This past weekend my family had the joy of celebrating my baby brother’s wedding in Lansing, Michigan. It was a beautiful wedding, the bride is perfect for my brother, and my kids didn’t have any meltdowns! My brother is a pilot in the Navy, so the military aspects of the celebration were very special.

Nolan and I were both in the wedding party and Jace was the ring bearer. The thing that made the whole weekend so great was that my sister-in-law came along to help with the kids and whisked Jace and Reese back to the nursery once Jace made it down the aisle.

Welcome to the Navy, Ma’am!

Reese’s dress for the wedding was ordered from Carters, but I figured a back up dress would be a good idea since baby diapers are so unpredictable. I made this dress with eyelet lace and a navy lining and LOVE the way it turned out! I just need to take final pictures of her in it, scan in the pattern, and I’ll post it to share with you!

Summer hasn’t quite arrived in our area yet, but I’m feeling pretty anxious for long days, warm weather and vacation. I had some fun going back and looking at previous years’ summer posts, and thought I’d put together a little round up for you.

Last summer we took a 12 hour road trip and I put together a basket of activities for Jace to do along the way. I loved the system we used and the activities in it. Check out Road Trip Activities for 2 Year Olds HERE.

I love wearing maxis in the summer time! Last year I lived in them since I was pregnant, and I’m hoping to enjoy the loose dress even more this year without the big belly. The two maternity style dresses also come with suggestions for making them non-maternity. Check them out: Simple Maxi, Sunshine Poured Out Maxi, Tank Style Maxi.

It’s hard to believe it’s already time to get patriotic! I love my past Americana projects and look forward to adding some girlie projects to the list this year! Patriotic Inspired Mantel, Fireworks Shirt, Plaid Shorts (no actual tutorial for this one), Yankee Doodle Romper, Star Scrap Wreath.

And in case you’re just wanting some other fun projects that are great for nice weather, bbq’s and relaxing—Painted Flower Pots & A Front Porch Makeover, Little Smokies Wrapped in Bacon (great for gatherings!), and an Iced Caramel Latte.

I hope your May is finishing well! Thanks for stopping by!

Mombo Nursing Pillow {Review}

2013-05-15T02:00:00.001-07:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Comfort and Harmony for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was recently sent the Mombo nursing pillow by Comfort and Harmony. I'm a big fan of nursing pillows--for the support while breastfeeding, as a place to safely and comfortably lay a new baby, and as a support pillow for the not-so-confident sitter. I love this pillow!

Mombo has a unique shape and a two-sided design called Firm2Soft™. One side is more firm and I found it supported Reese perfectly while nursing her. I loved how it held her higher than other nursing pillows I've used--causing less strain to my shoulders and back. The other side is really soft--Reese loved petting it! Another cool feature that I would have loved when Reese was teeny tiny is that it comes with a vibration feature--it would have been been perfect for soothing her to sleep!

As you can see, the slipcover I was sent with the pillow is adorable. It actually matches Reese's swing, which I thought was great! There are other options though--the mombo nursing pillow has a huge selection of other adorable slipcovers. The cover fits so well on the pillow--no tugging at seams. I feel like even my three year old could have some fun with this thing without worrying about him damaging it. And the pillow will definitly keep its shape even with lots of use.

If you're expecting a new baby, or looking for a good shower gift idea, I highly recommend this pillow. I am so glad to have it now, and would have loved to have had it since Reese was born. Mombo products are available at Toys R Us, so stop by to check out their great selection of infant nursing pillows. You can also keep up with their products through Comfort & Harmony on Facebook and Comfort & Harmony on Twitter.

The BEST Coffee Cake

2013-05-13T21:34:00.001-07:00

I made my FAVORITE COFFEE CAKE for the moms group I’m a part of last week. And after eating it, loving it, and hearing from everyone else how much they loved it, I thought maybe I should remind you all about it. After all, it has been a year and a half since I first shared it and, in blog world, that’s like a lifetime. I would have taken a prettier picture for you, but got too distracted by the deliciousness to do so.

The recipe calls for 1 1/3 cups buttermilk/sour milk. I had everything mixed and ready to go when I realized I had less than 1/4 cup milk in the fridge. And since I timed making the coffee cake to the last minute possible for it to bake enough before leaving, there was no time to run to the store. So I subbed 1 1/2 cups sour cream instead, and the results were just as good.

I highly recommend you make yourself this coffee cake. And invite some friends over to share so you aren’t tempted to eat the whole thing yourself.

Thanks for stopping by!

Red Buffet & Bar Stools {Homemade Chalk Paint}

2013-05-09T23:21:00.001-07:00

As we’ve been working away at our downstairs makeover I’ve loved doing a few furniture painting projects because I was able to actually label something as finished.

I’ve always loved this antique buffet. It was bought by my aunt and uncle thirty some years ago, then passed along to my parents and it was in our home when I was growing up. Before moving across the country seven years ago, my parents passed it along to me. The stain hasn’t been my favorite, but I never really felt like committing to a color.

Since we’ll be installing laminate wood flooring soon, I finally had the motivation to paint—I felt like keeping the buffet as is would just be too much similar toned wood. I absolutely love the way it turned out and am so glad I made the change!

I made some homemade chalk paint using THIS recipe and Glidden flat paint in Candy Apple and finished it off with furniture wax paste. I really do love the results of chalk paint, and liked the process in that I could be sloppy and it didn’t matter and didn’t need to pre sand or strip the finish on the buffet. My paint did get really thick as I worked with it, though, so I just kept adding a little bit more paint and a little bit of warm water as I went along. My hardware came from Home Depot. The beauty of this technique is that the buffet looks like it has been painted this way for years and years. You wouldn’t think it just got refinished a few weeks ago.

While I had the paint mixed, I figured it would be fun to re-do my barstools as well. In the picture above you can see what the paint looks like in the three stages of use—the top stool is just painted, the middle is after giving a light sanding to even things out and distress a bit, and the bottom stool is post waxing. It really was amazing how beautifully the wax brought out the color.

Here you can see the contrast mid-waxing.

A look at the barstools in action. They make me smile.

One last look at the beautiful roses Nolan gave me for our anniversary, with my cheery buffet in the background. I’ll be using the same chalk paint technique on the buffet in our entryway, as well as on an old door I’ll be hanging above the buffet. I can’t wait to tackle that project!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kitchen Reveal! {Painted Tiles & Decorative Signs}

2013-05-04T00:29:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it? I’m finally showing you my finished kitchen! [Granted, we do still need to install the flooring, but hey, for now it’s close enough.] And I am so pleased with it!

My before wasn’t bad—we did have nice counters and cabinets. But now, I feel like we have something beautiful. It has certainly been a lot of work. Read about our counters HERE and the cupboards HERE. The walls are painted Versatile Gray by Sherwin Williams in their Cashmere paint. I love the color—during the day it’s a really pretty gray color and then it transitions to a bit more of a beige tone at night. I love the way the white of the cabinets pops off of it, and our red couches look BEAUTIFUL against it. I went with the Cashmere paint because it has primer in it, so the paint looks the same whether it’s going on the plane white walls or covering our previously painted tan walls. And just one coat with minor touch ups did the trick.

My barstools are now painted red, and I’ll share that with you later this week.

One of my favorite transformations in this space was our tile backsplash. They began green and now they’re a beautiful, bright white.

They weren’t a high-gloss ceramic tile to begin with, so I was confident a simple makeover wouldn’t be a problem. I simply scuffed them up with sandpaper, primed with Kilz oil based primer, did three coats of SW Pro Classic in Pure White, and the sealed with a few coats of polycrylic. We also caulked between the tile and counter to give it a clean finish. I LOVE the contrast of our paint and tiles. So far they’ve held up really well with being wiped down to clean up, and I’m confident they’ll continue to last. From the research I did for painting tiles, if you have a high gloss ceramic tile, you should probably use a tile/cement primer first.

I also loved decorating the space above my cabinets. I had some great pieces to work with from before—old tins, cookbooks and utensils my MIL had given me, but I needed a few new signs to finish off the look.

I thought a chalkboard would be great for this side of the cabinets.

I used a sign I’d made before from a cupboard door, removed the vinyl word that was on there, and painted the center with chalkboard paint. I love the verse that’s there for now, but will also enjoy being able to switch up what it says throughout the year.

On the opposite side I made two new signs. The Fresh Produce sign was inspired by THIS one, and is made from a wooden seat from my old kitchen chairs. I painted it with chalkboard paint, distressed it with sandpaper, and then painted the red lettering on. The price is written with chalk.

The other sign is also made from an old cupboard door and was inspired by THIS sign. If you make one too, just don't be like me and spell premises wrong ;)

The beverage box in the center came from my in-laws, and I have another one just like it that I can’t wait to find the perfect way to incorporate it into my house.

One last detail that I want to share with you is this fun caddy I got for holding pens, scissors and paper. (I got it from THIS seller on Amazon, but they are out of my item. A cute comparable would be THIS one, it’s just a little more than I spent.) I love that it’s decorative, fits with the style of the rest of my house, and big enough to be completely functional.

I’m loving my new kitchen and can’t wait until we get the new flooring installed. But that’ll have to come after we’ve finished painting. We’re through with the dining room and part way through the living room. I’ll be back to show you my finished painted buffet and stools soon. For now I’m searching and searching for the perfect rug and curtains.

Thanks for stopping by!

Life Lately

2013-04-30T22:09:00.001-07:00

Um, so I didn’t mean to go almost an entire month between posts! So I thought maybe I should pop in here to say hi, see how all of you are doing, and share a little bit of what I’ve been up to. Last time you heard from me I shared how I painted my cabinets. I keep meaning to share a full kitchen reveal with you because I did paint the walls and decorated above the cabinets (with a few new signs that I LOVE)… but that would require some finished product pictures. And that would require a clean kitchen. Oops! Did I just admit that my kitchen has not been completely clean in almost a month?

This past weekend we continued painting and finished the walls in the dining room. Here’s a little dose of reality—when we’re in project mode, my house is a DISASTER. I am absolutely LOVING our new wall color though! I’m feeling pretty motivated to get cleaned things up because my mom will be here in two days. So you can realistically expect some reveal pictures soon.

I painted our buffet. You can see what it looked like before in THIS post. This picture doesn’t show the true color. I used a DIY chalk paint recipe and then waxed it loved that process!

In fact, I loved it so much I then painted our barstools too. I just need to finish sanding them and waxing them (what I’ll be doing after I hit publish on this post), and they’ll be done as well. I’ll share all the details with you soon. I’m going to paint our entry way buffet black using the same technique. Wow, I bought that buffet over two years ago and am just now getting around to painting it…

And when I’m not working on a project, and clearly not blogging, I’m having a lot of fun with my babies. This little girl is just too much fun to want to put down most of the time.

And we’ve done some carousel riding as well.

I’ve also done some pondering and praying that lead to some writing on my devotional blog, Satisfied with Adequate. My recent posts are about feeling heavy hearted, finding contentment, delighting in creation, and how easily we condemn ourselves.

And one of my biggest distractions? Reading. I LOVE the Kindle ap on my iPad. I can’t even begin to guess how many books I have read this year already. And most of them have been free. I love a well written book, especially when it’s a beautiful story. Most of what I read is Christian fiction. I follow Christian Ebooks Today and Inspired Reads for links to the latest free or greatly discounted books. I’ve gotten pretty good at judging books by their covers/descriptions, so I only download about 25% of what is offered, and then only half of those probably capture my heart. But still, that’s not bad for a free book!

So how have you been? What’s been going on in your life?

Thanks for stopping by!

Hand Painted Cabinets

2013-04-03T23:29:00.001-07:00

A little over a week ago I shared with you how I resurfaced my countertops, and today we’re going to talk about how we repainted the kitchen cabinets.

That before and mid-way makes me happy. I’ve since painted the walls in the kitchen and decorated above the cabinets. Want a sneak peak at the final product?

I just need to do a little more cleaning (again) and I can take the final pictures to show you!

I am loving my white cabinets! I’ve heard from a lot of people that they’ve wanted to paint theirs, but they were worried it was too much work. We painted ours entirely by hand, and I’ll be honest here—it is A LOT of work. I’m very happy with the results though. If you look closely you can see a few brush strokes or a spot or two where we didn’t sand between layers as well as we should have, but 95% of the surfaces are really, really smooth. And from more than two feet away, you don't see any of the imperfections.

The products we used are a Sander/Deglosser from Home Depot, Kilz Oil Based Primer from Walmart, and ProClassic Alkyd Interior Enamel from Sherwin Williams. The color I chose for the cupboards is Pure White. It’s a bright white. I chose it because I wanted to be able to use the same paint on the cupboards as on the baseboards when we redo the floors. And the doors and the trim around them in my house are bright white, and there are two doors in the kitchen. I didn’t want there to be a big difference between the cabinets and doors. Once we were done painting but the walls were still the dingy original white, I started second guessing myself. I was worried it was too white. But then I got the new wall color up and I now LOVE it.

A tip for you when choosing white—see if they can put a smear of the actual paint in that color on some paper for you. The color swatch looked a little blueish to me in the store, and the lady working at Sherwin Williams explained that sometimes it can take on a slightly different color because of the paper it’s painted on. The actual color was as the name describes—pure white.

After reading several tutorials for painting cabinets, we settled on a method that seemed like it would work well for us, and I am pleased with how it went. My favorite thing about our method is that we didn’t have to do any sanding before priming and painting.

1. Remove All Doors and Drawers

Pretty self-explanatory, right? We didn’t mark which doors came from where and I wish I had with the few doors that were the same size as each other. Luckily, we have baby locks on the lower ones, so it was just a matter of matching which ones lined up correctly when we put doors back on.

2. Clean/Prep Surfaces

We began with first cleaning our surfaces to make sure there weren’t any leftovers on the cabinets. Then, we didn’t do any sanding! We used a liquid sandpaper product, soaked an old t-shirt with it and wiped everything down twice. This product was great. Our doors are just veneered with a very high gloss finish. To sand enough for the primer to grip the doors and boxes would have taken SO MUCH WORK.

3. Prime & Sand

I started with all our cabinet bases/boxes/frames and gave them a somewhat light coat of primer. The lady at Sherwin Williams recommended using an oil based primer, so that’s what I went with. I used the spray form when we refinished Reese’s dresser but rolled/brushed it on this time. After letting it dry completely, sand it to make sure you have a smooth surface to paint on. This is key! If you don’t get your primer coat smoothed out you’re going to have to do so much more sanding after the first coat of painting.

4. Paint & Sand

I went through and used a brush on all places that a roller would have a tough time reaching to begin with. Use a NICE brush—like a Purdy. The nicer the brush, the nicer the results. Then I went over the larger surfaces with a small foam roller. Don’t skimp on these either. I used a nicer roller on the lower bases than on the uppers, and there was a visible (to me) and feel difference. Once the paint is dry, go through and give it a light sanding with a fine sandpaper. Feel what you’re sanding. Sand and then run your fingers over it. If it feels super smooth, you’re set. If you feel some grit, sand some more. Repeat. I did 3 coats of paint before I was happy with the finish.

Nolan set up 2x4s across sawhorses in the garage and we painted all the doors out there. We started with all the lower doors and then when they were completely finished did the uppers. We primed the back, primed the front, sanded. Painted 1 coat on the back. Painted, sanded, painted, sanded, painted on the fronts. I used the same method as before—going around the detail work with a brush and then all the flat surfaces with the roller. Drawers used the same steps.

And then all the doors were hung and drawers back in place. Hardware was bought from Home Depot and then installed. And then I fell in love with my kitchen. I can’t wait to see how it looks with the new flooring, but that will come after we’re done painting way.too.much wall space. The beauty of painting before you replace flooring is that you don’t care if you drip or make a mess.

The hardware makes me so happy. And I’m so pleased with the quality of the paint/finish. Because it’s an enamel, you don’t have to use a top coat. When I bought this kind of paint for Reese’s dresser it was described as drying first, and then over the next two weeks curing into a really hard finish. It’s easy to wipe down and cleans up so nicely without wearing out. Reese’s dresser stands up to Jace scraping his footstool against it on a very regular basis.

It’s a lot of work. It’s exhausting. But it’s so worth it. We did everything while the kids were napping or in bed at night, except for one Saturday when Jace spent the night with his cousins. It is a good project for doing it in sections—obviously we couldn’t just work at it straight through to completion. I’m happy with the finish, but it isn’t the same as having it professionally sprayed, or probably even spraying it yourself if you have a good enough sprayer. But I am looking it with the most critical eye (just ask my husband!). If you’re worried about the grain of your wood, or have a more flexible budget to work with, my suggestion would be to paint the bases yourself and hire someone to paint the doors.

Check out how we painted the tile backsplash and the full kitchen reveal HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Big Bow Headband

2013-04-02T20:40:00.001-07:00

***Before I get to telling you all about how my love of big bows on babies keeps growing, hope on over to Designs by Sessa where I guest posted as a part of her Front Porch series… sharing a bit of what’s been on my heart lately and what I’m learning about being content.***

I’m just slightly obsessed with big bows on my baby. I really would have thought I’d be a huge flower mommy, but these bows have captured my heart. It started with the soft and comfy big bow headbands. And then I saw THIS headband on Etsy and knew it was exactly what I wanted to make to go with Reese’s Easter dress. And I am in love… mostly with the baby, but definitely with the big bow on her head too.

I followed THIS tutorial from eighteen25 for making the bow, just made it bigger. I think my first piece (the one that’s the actual bow) was 10x2” and then I just cut the other pieces proportionately. Glued it together and it was done! I bought the elastic lace for the headband HERE. I love how easy it was to make and need to make more colors since this baby has a bit of a big head and has outgrown her other accessories.

Oh how I love to look at this baby.

And just for kicks, one of my favorite pictures from Easter. It’s like she’s saying, “What? I wasn’t supposed to dig into my Easter basket yet?”

Thanks for stopping by! I just need to take a few more pictures and I’ll be back to share my painted tile backsplash, cupboards and new wall color in the kitchen!

Parties I like to link up with:

Made with Love, The Sunday Showcase Party, Weekend Wrap Up, Real Momma, Real Style, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Take a Look Tuesday

Kitchen Makeover: Faux Granite Countertop Tutorial

2013-03-24T20:49:00.001-07:00

We’ve been making great progress on our downstairs makeover! Phase 1 & 2 were refinishing our kitchen countertops and painting the cupboards. It has been an exhausting process but I am loving it!

My kitchen wasn’t bad to begin with, but now that I compare the before and mid-way (the after will come once we’ve painted the walls and installed new flooring), the before suddenly looks much less attractive.

I am LOVING my new countertops! For years we’ve talked about painting our cabinets white and how much we love the look of black granite with white cabinets. But granite is way out of our price range, not to mention installing it would probably upgrade our home beyond the value of our neighborhood—we just wouldn’t see that great of a return from it. And even the cheaper counter top options were just too much for us at this time.

Then my brother and SIL did a faux granite treatment on their counters about a year ago, and we knew it would be the perfect solution for us! We got a lot of tips from them and appreciated the instructions in THIS tutorial and THIS tutorial. I think reading several tutorials for this process is helpful so you can get a more complete picture of what to do, and adapt the technique different people used to make it your own. And the best part about all of this—it only cost about $120!

Before I get to the how-to details, I thought I’d share some of what I love about the counters, and some of what you should be aware of before doing them yourself. The finished product is high-quality. The resin we use to top everything off and give it that high-gloss finish is hard and durable. This isn’t a project that will loose its quality and durability in a year or two or even five. The surface is easy to clean. Things like dried pancake batter scrapes off so much easier than it did on my previous laminate. The surface is smooth and I find myself regularly drumming my fingernails on it because it makes me happy. They look beautiful. These pictures aren’t just showing the best angles. The counters really do look amazing in person.

For the negatives, most of them can be avoided or easily fixed. No matter how careful we were and how closely we inspected after the final sealing step, we did miss a few spots. Those spots are all very small (think quarter of a dime size), but they are little indentations without any gloss on them. The vertical surfaces (front edges) don’t get the same finish as the rest of the counters because the product gets poured on, and gravity keeps the product from staying there as thick. And there are drips under the edges that are mostly just noticeable when you look for them. I keep meaning to sand them off but just haven’t had the motivation yet.

Ok, now that we’ve gone over those details, let’s get into how to do these counters yourself. From what I found online, there are three methods for doing a faux granite/stone finish on your laminate counters. Rustoleum makes a Countertop Transformation kit, but it costs more than I wanted to spend and I wasn’t as into the look of the chips for giving the granite affect. Plus, I wanted more artistic control over my colors, etc rather than having to go with one of their set looks. The second method would be to paint the counters, do a sponge painting like technique for the texture and color variations, and seal everything with several coats of polycrylic. The third method is the same as the second only you finish it with a pour on resin. We went with the third because I liked the thickness that the resin provides—it’s the equivalent to 50 coats of polycrylic.

1. Clean your surfaces REALLY well. Make sure everything is scraped off. 2. Lightly sand your surface and then clean it again. 3. Tape off anything you don’t want to get painted/sealed. 4. Give your entire surface a good coat of primer. We painted our backsplash tiles as well (I’ll post on that another time), so we primed them as well. You could either leave your backsplash as is if it’s tile, replace it, or use the same method on it as on the counters. Check out the two tutorials I linked to early in this post for how they did their backsplashes.

1 & 2. Paint around the edges/trim of your counters using a sponge or smaller brush. I wanted my counters to be like a black granite, so I did mine black. But your color options are endless. I just bought the cheapest flat paint at Walmart for this. 3. Using a roller brush paint the rest of your surface. 4. Tape off anything you don’t want to get the resin on it. I did the taping after the painting because my tiles were fairly recently painted as well. You might want to do the taping before the painting. You’ll also need to cover your cabinets and floors in plastic because once your pour the resin, it’s permanent.

The next step was one of the most fun parts. I used 4 colors of craft paint (only 3 shown here)—metallic silver, gray, pearl white and black. I also used two colors of super fine glitter—white/iridescent and black.

1. Pour your first color of paint (mine was the gray) on a paper plate. 2. Scrunch up a plastic grocery in your hand (I liked using this as opposed to a sponge because it makes a more organic pattern) and dab it in the paint. 3. Blot the bag on a new paper plate to get excess off so your pattern doesn’t have globs of paint in it. 4. Randomly stamp the bag on the counter, repeating steps 2 and 3 as your color gets too light. Remember that you’re using multiple colors so you don’t need to fill the entire surface with the first color. Repeat steps 1-4 for your remaining colors (my order was gray, silver, white and black. The black ended up being my favorite layer because it was a different shade than the original black and added some cool texture). As your painting, randomly sprinkle glitter on, being careful to not lay it on too thick. If that happens, though, just gently blow on it to spread it out.

Here are some examples of what the pattern looked like when we were all done. Make sure you go over the edges as well.

The next step was the most nerve wracking because it was permanent. Had I messed up with the paint, I could have just repainted over it. We mixed up our resin in batches. Once you’ve mixed to two ingredients you only have 20 minutes to work with it before it begins to cure. Nolan would mix while I would be pouring it on the counters. The hardest part going into this was gauging how much resin we would need. As you can see, we had a pretty good amount of counter space to cover—a long bar and a wrap around counter in a decent sized kitchen. We ordered the 1 gallon kit off Amazon (found HERE). The kit plus shipping was under $80. We were able to cover all of our space with it, but probably went a little thinner and were worried about it fit would stretch far enough. I would have been happier with the gallon plus another 16 oz so I would have had some left over to fill in the small spots I missed.

After you mix the resin, just pour it on and start pushing it around with a sponge brush. Work in smaller sections and just keep spreading the resin out. The product is meant to be poured up to 1/8 of an inch of thickness, so don’t treat it like paint and try to spread it too thin. Just push it and spread it so it’s evenly coating your surface and it will level itself.

Some spilled over the edges and then I went over it with more with a sponge brush. I went through sever sponge brushes because I noticed after about 20 minutes with one, the product in it would start curing and it would get gunky.

Nolan followed after me with a blow torch to pop small air bubbles. For all of this, I HIGHLY recommend reading the directions that come with the resin thoroughly. I also went back to wipe drips with a sponge brush. Within a few hours the resin has hardened enough that dust won’t stick to it, but you have to leave it alone for 72 hours to let it cure. This was the hardest part of the whole process.

I love my new counters! I’ll be back in a few days with details about how we painted the tiles in our backsplash and our process for painting the cupboards.

And, in case you were wondering about the color we’ll be using on the walls, I chose Versatile Gray by Sherwin Williams.

***Read about how we painted the cabinets HERE***

Thanks for stopping by!

Pinned Food that I Love

2013-03-22T23:33:00.001-07:00

I was about to say that I feel like I’ve been working on my kitchen for three weeks straight, and then I realized I feel that way because we have been working on the kitchen for three weeks straight.

We are officially done with phase one of what will feel like a never ending project. The counters are refinished, cupboards painted and hardware installed and oh how I love it! I can’t wait to show it to you, but that will mean that I need to actually clean my kitchen. Perhaps tomorrow?

We’re taking it easy this weekend (and it feels strange to take some time off) and next week we’ll start painting our entire downstairs, vaulted entry way, staircase and upstairs hall because they’re all connected.

And even though we’ve eaten out more than usual this month thanks to all the projects, I have baked and cooked a little here and there. These are all recipes I found thanks to Pinterest, and they’ve all been in fairly regular rotation at our house. Follow along with the recipes I think I’d like HERE.

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This Korean Beef recipe is super simple to make and I almost always have ground beef on hand, so it’s the perfect go-to recipe when I’m short on inspiration/motivation/time.

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I made this sweet and sour chicken and fried rice again tonight and I love it every time! Other times I’ve made just the chicken and serve it over white rice. Delicious either way and it makes a good leftover.

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I first tried out this cake recipe when Reese couldn’t handle me having chocolate. I then made it three or four times in one month. And I took it to a Christmas party where the recipe was requested by everyone who had it. And we had it for dessert on Christmas and Nolan’s birthday. Yeah. We like it that much. Unfortunately for me now, though, Reese can handle chocolate again (yay reflux meds!) but not dairy… and there’s butter and evaporated milk in it. But you can pretend it’s healthy since it has oatmeal in it too.

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Also during the no chocolate phase but before no dairy, I fell in love with this recipe. I may have celebrated the loss of 5 pounds by eating almost an entire pan of these sugar cookie bars. Be very careful to not let them over bake. Mine never really turned golden, so the first batch I baked were a little dryer than I like. So I made them a few more times just to be sure I had the timing right. I also topped them with THIS buttercream frosting.

Mmmm… this is making me want things I can’t eat. Oh how I look forward to the day when I can drink a glass of milk and smear butter on something without knowing I’ll hurt my baby’s tummy because of it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Some Pie for Pi Day!

2013-03-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

I was pretty excited about the opportunity to review a Marie Callender’s frozen pie for Pi Day. See, Marie Callender’s and I go way back… the night before I was born my mom ate one of their pot pies. And then my freshman and sophomore years of college I was a waitress in one of their restaurants. I ate a lot of pie during that time.

Jace and I picked out the Dutch Apple Pie—found in the freezer section of your local grocery store—and I was pretty eager to eat it so we baked it as soon as we got home. I was curious how it would compare to a homemade pie.

For the Dutch Apple Pie you have to bake it for about 55 minutes, add the crumb topping, and then bake for another 10 minutes. My house smelled so good while it was baking! And the pie tasted even better than it smelled! Jace was quite the fan of his “apples pie.” I’m pretty picky about my pie crusts, and this one was so good. And the filling and topping were even better. Nolan and I were later talking about how it tasted just as good as, if not better than, the apple pies I have made from scratch. And, in my opinion, not having to peel my own apples was a BIG deal!

I wouldn’t mind picking up another pie to eat on actual Pi Day (March 14)… maybe this time I’ll try a cream pie? You can find the retailers in your area that carry the pie you’re craving by entering your zip code at the bottom of Marie Callender’s website. They also have a blog with party ideas, how to’s and more found HERE.

And just to sweeten things a bit more, they’re offering you a coupon for $1.50 off a Marie Callender’s frozen pie at a national retailer. You can get your coupon HERE and then enjoy your pie for Pi Day!

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your pie!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Kitchen Progress

2013-03-06T20:24:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in THIS POST we’re doing a bit of an overhaul on our downstairs. I’m pretty excited to say this is one of those times where we’re actually doing as opposed to dreaming. After a day of [what felt like] a lot of spending and bringing home at least 8 gallons of paint and primer, we spent the weekend re-doing our kitchen counters!

We went from this…

…To this…

…To this! I’ll share all the specifics of refinishing our counters later. I was going to take pretty pictures of everything put back together. But then nap time didn’t happen like I hoped it would. And then we took all the cupboard doors of and started prepping them for painting. Tonight we’ll prime them and then tomorrow night make them a pretty, bright white. And then we’ll paint the walls. And all the walls in all of our downstairs. And then we’ll install the floors. I feel like we’re going to be in project mode for at least a month. But I’m LOVING it!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Casually Chic Lace Top

2013-03-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

This was a guest post that I shared over at Kojo Designs back at the end of January. In case you missed it, here you go!

I’ve been somewhat redefining my style and rebuilding my wardrobe since having a baby four months ago. My shape and size are different than before. And even though my days are consumed with nursing, potty training, wiping the dog’s paws and attempting to keep some order in our house, I want to look put together when running errands. This top finds a balance between practical-mommy-wear and trendy-cute with its lace front and jersey knit sleeves and back.

Supplies needed: lace, matching lightweight jersey knit, thread, bias tape. I picked up all my supplies at Joann’s for less than $15.

I used two existing tops to create my pattern. The one on the left had the lace front that I wanted to recreate, and the one on the right had the sleeves I wanted.

I started by tracing the lines of the lace on the first top and created a pattern for that portion of the top. I then lined it up on the second top, as well as another piece of paper and traced the sleeves as well as the back.

I ended up with five pattern pieces—the the sleeves front and back, cuff of the sleeve (the width of the hem of both the front and back sleeve pieces by 4”), the front and back. If you don’t have an existing top like the ones I used, you can use another shirt that you like the fit of and just create the pattern pieces with the angled line from the armpit to the collar.

Then I cut my pieces from the lace and knit.

Sew the sleeve fronts to the lace, right sides together. I used my serger, but you can also use your regular machine with a small seam allowance. If you aren’t familiar with sewing with knits, I wrote a post about it HERE.

Then sew the sleeve backs to the back, again right sides together. Follow that with sewing the front and back together, right sides together, first at the top of the sleeve up to the neckline, then from the sleeve cuffs, under the arms, down to the hem.

The next step is one of my favorite ways to make a homemade top look professionally made. You can read a more in depth tutorial HERE about finishing touches on homemade clothes. But a quick overview—On both cuffs, fold it width wise and sew the two short ends together, right sides together. Fold in half length wise so the raw edges line up and the seams are hidden inside the cuff. Slip it over the right side of the sleeve with the folded edge going over the sleeve and the raw edges lining up with the shirt. You should have three layers of material around the whole sleeve.

Sew the cuff on the sleeve.

Fold it over and admire your beautifully made cuff.

I then serged around the raw edge of the lace at the neckline, but you could either use a rolled hem or zig zag stitch on a regular machine. This is just to make a little something extra to attach the bias tape to since the lace isn’t a very strong/sturdy material.

Sew the bias tape around the neckline. And you’re done! The lace already had a scalloped edge that I used at the hem, and the jersey knit won’t fray, so I didn’t worry about hemming the top.

And now I have a neutral top that will look great with jeans or slacks. I can layer it with a white tank or I can mix things up and use a colored tank. The lace dresses it up while the knit keeps it comfortable. And I love the way it looks under a cardigan!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:

The Sunday Showcase Party, Weekend Wrap Up, Real Momma, Real Style, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Take a Look Tuesday

If you give a mouse a cookie {Or, if you give a girl some flooring…}

2013-02-25T15:59:00.001-08:00

I feel like my mind is a little caught up in dreaming about projects these days, so I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve been pinning and what I’m hoping to do with it. I’d also love some input from you about what color/colors to paint the buffets I have pictured at the end of this post.

This is what my KITCHEN and LIVING ROOM look like currently (well, these are cleaned-up versions of what they look like and I’ve added some extra decorative elements to both spaces). For the last several years Nolan and I have been wanting to replace our very low-grade carpet with laminate flooring. The carpet is falling apart and we regularly get poked by carpet tacks. When Jace was crawling he had little pin point size bruises all over his knees from pressing on those tacks.

It’s a bit of an “If you give a mouse a cookie” scenario though… if we replace the floors we’ll want to paint the cabinets. And if we replace the cabinets we’ll want different counter tops. And if we’re doing all that work anyways, why not finally paint all of our downstairs walls? Currently, we only have three walls painted and the rest is a low grade, flat white paint that is in horrible shape. So with our tax return on its way to us, we’ve been making some plans…

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I’m liking the idea of a light, neutral greige for our entire downstairs. I think Behr’s Wheat Bread is my favorite so far. The floors will be a little lighter than Pergo’s Highland Hickory and all our trim will be white.

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I love the look of white cabinets and black granite counters. A Thoughtful Place’s kitchen perfectly shows the floor/cabinet/counter/backsplash look I would love to achieve. Granite counters aren’t in the budget for us, so we’re planning on refinishing our current counter tops.

My brother and sister-in-law refinished their counter tops a few years ago and they turned out beautifully! They followed a tutorial similar to THIS ONE. They are in the process of selling their house now, and they’ve fooled three different real estate agents that they have granite (don’t worry, they’ve fully disclosed what the counters really are). We can do all of our counter space, including the bar, for about $100. And as much as I’d love a new tile backsplash, it kind of comes down to being able to paint all of the downstairs, or do the tile. So I’m going with paint. I’m going to try painting our current backsplash. Anyone have experience with that?

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And I wouldn’t mind painting our front door. Right now it’s just white and shows scuff marks and dirt like crazy. The only details I have left to really figure out is a rug for the living room and a change in curtains. But shopping around for those will be fun. What I’m really happy about is that aside from the flooring, we’re thinking we can pull off the rest of the upgrades for around $300-350.

I also have two buffets—the one on the left is in the entryway and holds Jace’s toys, and the one on the right is in our dining room and holds miscellaneous dishes and décor items. We’ve planned all along to paint the buffet in the entry way, and now that we’re putting in the wood floors I think they’ll both need a coat of paint. I’m just not sure about what color/colors to use. I think the one in the entryway would look nice black with a little distressing, but I also think it would be really cute in a color. But I’m worried about painting the one in the dining room black. I feel like we’d just have too much black in there at that point. The wall behind it will be painted at that point, and it’s right next to the kitchen which will have the white cabinets and black counters. As far as other colors in the space go—the couches are a dark red, the recliner a faded sage green color (seen in the picture of the living room above), and a black coffee table. In the kitchen I have different shades of red, black, and stainless steel.

I’d love your ideas for what color/colors you think would be best for the buffets.

Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Bibs {Tutorial}

2013-02-22T19:07:00.001-08:00

Between spit up and drool I can pretty much guarantee something is pouring out of my four-month-old’s mouth at all times. And even though we keep our Perfect Burp Rags within arms reach, sometimes (or should I say most of the time?) Reese is sporting a soaking wet onesie. I picked up some flannel and cuddle fabric at Joann’s to make a bib that could rival the simplicity of my favorite burp rags.

These bibs were so simple to make and you could easily whip out several of these drool-catchers for your little one, or make a bunch and combine them with the Perfect Burp Rag for a great baby shower gift!

You can download the pattern HERE, or trace you favorite existing bib to make your own pattern.

I cut out my bibs in the flannel and cuddle fabric. (My ideal backing material would be the chenille that Joann’s used to carry, you could also use terry cloth but it doesn’t hold the original shape as well. I’m hoping this cuddle fabric will be a good alternative to chenille, but we’ll see how it does with absorbing.) Something to note: I decided to save myself time by folding the fabric in half and cutting out two bibs at a time. Since the flannel is only printed on one side, this means I have two bibs that are mirror images of one another. I did the same with the cuddle fabric. If you’re cutting all the bibs so they’ll go in the same direction, you’ll need to flip your pattern over when cutting the backing material (cuddle fabric in my case).

I then just serged the flannel and cuddle layers together, wrong sides together. If you don’t have a serger, just go around the edge of the fabrics (no seam allowance) with a serge-like stitch. It does take some practice to go around the tight corners, but it wasn’t bad. The best part about making your bibs this way is you don’t have leave an opening, turn them right side out and then close up the opening and top stitch around the bib. This way is just simple!

Because I didn’t want to deal with sewing velcro on (keeping it simple, right?) I used my snap tool and put them on in just a few seconds each. Side note: I think this is one of the best sewing tool investments. They’re regularly about $27, but you can use a coupon on it. Snaps are so easy to put on and once you have one of these you’ll find all sorts of ways to use it (I’ve used it for baby shoes, The Ultimate Activity Book, Onesies, felt book, and interchangeable headbands).

And that’s it! You could easily embellish them with ruffles or flowers, but I wanted to make them quickly. Plus, I figure these will get a lot of wear, which means a lot of washing, so they need to hold up.

Aren’t they cute?

I couldn’t resist making a few more burp rags with the left over fabric. In our house you can never have too many!

And then I put them to the test. I’d say Reese is happy with her newest accessory!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:

The Sunday Showcase Party, Weekend Wrap Up, Real Momma, Real Style, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Take a Look Tuesday

Lola Bea Diaper Bag

2013-02-19T23:28:00.001-08:00

One of my good friends had a baby in December. She and I were due ten weeks apart with our baby girls, which was especially fun because Jace and her older daughter are six months apart and best buddies. She’s also crafty and an excellent seamstress, so preparing for babies at the same time was a lot of fun. There were a lot of in-process and finished-product pictures texted back and forth between us. She made me a beautiful blanket for Reese (seen in Reese’s pictures HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE), and I offered to make a diaper bag for her Leah.

I actually made this diaper bag for her back in November, but didn’t get pictures taken before giving it to her. So when she was over for a play date the other day, I snapped a few pictures. She chose the Lola Bea Diaper Bag pattern from Sew Much Ado and I surprised her with the fabric choice.

I chose a very fine ribbed corduroy with a woven cotton lining. Both fabrics were bought at Joann’s. The bag is beautifully designed and has great pockets—both elastic and zippered. The ruffle and magnetic closure are two of my favorite touches.

It was fun to follow another pattern and see yet another way a bag can be put together. The instructions were simple to follow and I loved how the pattern set me up to create a quality product. The only thing complicated about the project was that there are so many layers to sew through—almost every piece of material had heavy-weight interfacing fused on it, and many of them also had fusible fleece. All these layers mean the bag is very sturdy though—it holds its shape and stands up on its own quite beautifully. I loved seeing the bag in use this week!

It’s so fun to have our girls be just 11 weeks apart, and will get even more fun as they are able to play together.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I bought this pattern purely because my friend liked it. It was not provided to me, and I have been completely honest about what I thought about it. I really did love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:

The Sunday Showcase Party, Weekend Wrap Up, Real Momma, Real Style, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, Whatever Goes Wednesday

A few of my favorite things…

2013-02-13T23:03:00.001-08:00

I spent some well-needed time sewing the other day. I’m realizing just how therapeutic the creative process is for me, and some pink, ruffles, and simple baby girl dresses did just the trick. I just need to sew some buttons on and then I’ll share them with you! In the mean time, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve been enjoying lately…

This summer my mom gave me an early “stocking stuffer” and surprised me with a Gel Nail Polish starter kit from Ulta. I’ve loved having it. The polish only lasts a week on my nails before starting to peel/chip, but that’s way better than the [at most] 12 hours regular polish lasts for me. I’ve found that I can have fun with more colors by doing the structure and brilliance coats followed by regular polish and topped with another coat of brilliance. Today I’m wearing Sand Tropez by Essie with a bright pink heart on the ring finger nail. I like pretty nails.

I’m very confident Reese has reflux (Jace did too as a baby) and her poor little tummy just can’t handle it if I have dairy, chocolate, coffee, pop, or too much tomato based food. So my diet has become pretty depressing. That was, until my mom discovered that Golden Oreos are chocolate and dairy free! I struggled with my first cookie because what I really wanted was a chocolate Oreo. But since then I have fallen in love with this treat. I may have even sent Nolan to Walmart just for them the other day.

I haven’t really jumped on the chevron boat for my own wardrobe, but after I made THIS scarf for my shop with coral and white chevron and solid coral on the other side, I had to keep one for myself. The jersey knit is super soft and light weight, so I love wearing it.

I don’t remember when I started following along with The Macs blog, but I absolutely love it when Jess shares from her heart. Their family has been honoring the heaven anniversary of their baby girl, Cora, this week and her words have truly pulled at my heart’s strings.

Reese’s right thumb is one of my absolute favorite things these days. Aside from how adorable she looks when she sucks it (note the pointer finger curved around her nose), it has brought us some beautiful sleep! Once she finally mastered sucking it a little over a month ago we all started sleeping through the night. She forgot about it for two weeks while sick in January, but has rediscovered it since then. Thanks to this thumb, she will sleep for 11 hours straight at night!

And while she’s sleeping I get to watch her cuteness via our video baby monitor. Nolan got me one when Jace was just a few weeks old and I would panic every night when I didn’t hear anything over the audio-only one we had. Being able to see him brought me some relief. Since then, we’ve loved it for being able to gauge if Jace actually needed us to get him when he cried (if he was laying down he’d go back to sleep, sitting up we needed to go rock him), it helped with knowing when he was getting out of bed when moving up to the big boy bed, and now with Reese we have a camera on each child. I love that the Motorola has some extra features like telling you the temperature in the baby’s room and you can talk to the kid through it (great for telling Jace to get back in bed).

And I think my most favorite thing is being mommy to my kids. I was working on scarves the other day and Jace insisted I wear his police hat.

How about you? What are your favorite things these days?

Thanks for stopping by!

Lace Top

2013-02-05T23:24:00.001-08:00

My computer and I haven’t had much quality time together lately (I was a little preoccupied with putting together a Police Birthday Party), so I’m late in sharing this with you. Kirstin from Kojo Designs and Delia from Delia Creates are doing a fun Winter Whites series. I joined the party by sharing a tutorial for this Casual Lace Top.

Hop on over HERE and check it out, as well as all the other fun posts in this series!

Police Birthday Party

2013-02-04T23:57:00.001-08:00

Jace turned three this weekend and we had so much fun celebrating his birthday! A while back I started asking what kind of party he wanted and the response was always, “A square cake with frosting.” His favorite things these days are trains, fire trucks, tractors and Dora, so I would have thought we’d end up with something along those lines. But after suggesting a fire truck party he said, “A police car party!” And that’s what he stuck with.

Thankfully Pinterest quickly connected me with a few bloggers whose sons also love to celebrate law enforcement style and I had my inspiration. I designed the invitations using Publisher and had them printed as photos at Costco.

For the past two birthdays (1 & 2) I’ve made Jace a special shirt to wear for his party, so this year was no exception. I used my Silhouette to cut out a stencil from freezer paper and painted a police car on a Garanimals shirt.

My favorite part of the shirt is the lights because I used glitter paint for them. When I showed Jace the shirt, he instantly touched them. So he must have liked the sparkle too.

The proud birthday boy wearing his shirt.

We later realized that when Jace was saying he wanted a police car party, he really meant he wanted a police car cake. (I guess the rest didn’t really matter to him?) I started out looking at the Wilton car cake molds, but read a review that said you’d be better off just putting a square cake on top of a rectangle cake. How simple and affordable! I dressed up a box cake mix (recipe HERE) and made my favorite buttercream frosting (recipe HERE), and portioned out amounts of frosting to color for the detail work and then used an entire jar of black food coloring for the majority of the car.

It wasn’t until about 10 pm the night before the party and I was almost finished decorating the cake when I realized I didn’t have any red food coloring. So we improvised and I used two packets of Cherry Limeade Crystal Lite to color the frosting. And we made sure no one tasted it because it was STRONG!

The birthday boy blowing out his candle on the “Police Car Party!”

The favor bags for the cousins who came held a bag of “Cop” Corn and crayons and were sealed with a shield.

I ordered a policeman set candy mold and used it to make crayons for the kiddos. I think this was my favorite project for the whole party because they turned out so cool!

I followed THIS tutorial and template to make police hats for each of the cousins that came and put them on them when they arrived.

I also had little note pads and pens for the kids to use to write “tickets” for everyone. It was pretty cute… they’d walk up to an adult, say, “You’re under arrest” and then have the adult sign a piece of paper and write that they are under arrest.

The decorations were simple but fun. I bought a roll of Crime Scene Tape and taped some to our front door.

A garland of balloons and strips of crime scene tape was hung over the buffet and fireplace. Check out my tip for easy balloon blowing HERE.

We also strung crime scene tape around the fireplace and Jace’s special seat for opening presents.

During the party we played a Cops and Robbers game where the kids had to find the bad guys—ping pong balls with masked faces drawn on them. It was Easter Egg hunt style and the kids had a blast with it—especially since they noticed some of the hidden robbers when they arrived at the party.

Another fun activity was a photo booth. I attached on of the police hats, a mask, and a mustache to skewers for props and had everyone at the party get their picture taken.

The kids especially had fun with it!

We also had to do a craft! I picked up a pack of wooden stars at Walmart and some glitter glue and the kids got to decorate “badges.”

I loved how much they all got into it, especially my 6 and 8 year old nephews.

We had the party at 11 am so it would be over in time for naps, so the food was brunch style. The table was decorated with cheap plastic table cloths and a police toy set of Jace’s. We also bought a Police Beacon Light (which Jace called the siren and LOVED) and had it on the table. And I may have had to turn the light on every day since… We served broccoli quiche, breakfast bake, fruit, muffins and…

…what police party would be complete without donuts?

It was so much fun celebrating our fun, crazy, silly, smart, creative, stubborn little boy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parties I like to link up with:

Transformation Thursday The Sunday Scoop, The Sunday Showcase Party, Made By You Monday, Making the World Cuter Monday, Weekend Wrap Up, Just Something I Whipped Up, Get Your Craft On, Real Momma, Real Style, Tutorials and Tips Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Make it, Wear It, Show and Tell Saturday, Weekend Bloggy Reading, I’m Crafty Party, Take a Look Tuesday, Simply Link Party, Whatever Goes Wednesday

DIY Play “Mail” Kit for Kiddos

2013-01-22T22:58:00.001-08:00

This past week we attended a birthday party for one of Jace’s friends and her sister. Elli was turning three and Lilli one. Jace and Elli’s relationship is actually pretty comical. They were born two days apart and had very similar birth experiences. They’ve been in the same class at church since they were first checked into the nursery. And now, Jace annoys Elli like crazy. One Sunday after church I asked him what he did in his class and he said, “I ran around and said Aaaaahhh!!! And Elli told me to stop.” I’ve heard from Elli’s mom that on several occasions she has expressed a strong annoyance with Jace. So when it was time to come up with a gift for her, I though it might be helpful if Jace gave her something really fun. And since my son, who is practically the exact same age as Elli, things mail is just about the coolest thing ever, I thought maybe a mail kit would be fun.

This mail kit comes complete with a fabric pouch, stationary, envelopes and “stamps.” The pouch came together so quickly!

You can use all of the same or coordinating fabrics (like I did). I cut two pieces that were 13x10 (for the main part), 1 13x6 and 1 13x4 (for the pockets), and two pieces of ribbon for the ties.

Finish off the top edge of both pocket pieces by folding over and stitching. You could do it really well and iron, but I was too lazy to get out my ironing board, so I just folded and stitched.

Lay out all your pieces how they’ll be assembled—inside main piece right side up, 6” pocket, 4” pocket, and ribbons.

Top it off with the outside piece, right side down, pin, and stitch with a 1/2” seam allowance, leaving a 3” opening.

Turn the pouch right side out and stitch around the whole thing (I used a 1/8” seam allowance), this will close off your opening. Stitch a straight line down the middle. And all your sewing is finished!

Using Publisher (although you could use any publication program) I designed stationary with “From the Desk of Elliana” at the top and an E monogram at the bottom. I made them to be 5.5 x 8.5 so I could print two to a page. I printed a chart of “E” for stamps on a sheet of 8.5x11 mailing label.

Then I just cut everything to its correct size.

Then all it took was slipping the stationary in one side, envelopes in the other, and stamps in the shallow pockets.

See how nice it is folded shut and tied? (Side story—my ribbons were long enough to tie a bow until my cat decided to eat off half of one of them. So I had to trim them down to just be long enough to tie in a knot.)

And that’s all it takes to make a personalized mail kit for kiddos! I think I might need to make one for Jace. I’d love to see all the “letters” he’d write!

Thanks for stopping by!

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A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

2012-12-30T21:23:00.001-08:00

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are excited for the New Year! We loved our time as a little family and with our extended family. I have been enjoying seeing so many bloggers post their “Top __” posts. But when I started looking back at what I created over the past 12 months I found lots of gaps thanks to pregnancy and a new baby. I was feeling like I’ve done so little beyond enjoying the daily mommy moments (which are a great use of my time!) until I was looking back through pictures on my phone and realized I’ve actually done a lot of creating, or used a lot of what I’ve created, over the last three months! So here you have it, a little of this, a little of that, phone pic style!

This was my nightly view during Reese’s feedings. I have absolutely LOVED spending time in her room. I think the best reason for making your baby’s nursery a space you love is so you don’t mind being in it at the awful hours of the night. On a side note, I got really familiar with those awful hours for a few weeks when Reese decided her ideal bedtime was between 2 and 3 am. Since then I’ve become that spoiled mom that everyone else hates because Baby Girl now is in bed by midnight and doesn’t wake up (not even to eat) until almost 9 am. You can see more about Reese’s nursery HERE.

I love this picture of my little boy. Jace found a piece of chalk in some art supplies one day and immediately went to the chalkboard on my GALLERY WALL, pushed his car garage toy under it to use as a stool, and drew and drew and drew!

I once again made the PERFECT PIE CRUST, this time for a caramel apple pie for Thanksgiving with Nolan’s family. I would have loved to fill it with my favorite chocolate cream pie, but sadly, Reese doesn’t like it when I eat chocolate. Or coffee. Or caffeine. Or dark colored soda. Or… we’re still working on the list.

All that sensitivity leads me to loving and utilizing THE PERFECT BURP RAG a lot. Anytime she’s laying down she has one under her head. Any time she’s held one is on your shoulder. She is a spitter. Her hair is in a constant state of crustiness and her neck is stinky. But I still love her. I guess I’m just doomed to babies who spew.

A friend got married in November and I didn’t really have anything that fit well to wear, so I used some ruffle fabric and made a cute tunic dress. One of these days I’ll get a better picture of it than this and show it to you.

For her first two months Reese was only happy while being held. So I’ve spent a lot of time with yarn crocheting. I made these adorable boots for Reese using THIS PATTERN that I bought. It was more than worth the $5.50 I paid for it. I think I need to make a pair in every color.

And as you can see, Reese likes wearing them and they stand up to her constant kicking test.

This picture has nothing to do with anything I made aside from the little boy. Jace did this three times in one day, each time with his eyes closed. He told me he was sleeping. I call it planking two-year-old style.

The other day Jace was watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (I love that show!) and they made strawberry pancakes in the episode. So guess what we had to have for breakfast?

And finally, Reese loves sleeping in her crib. Her favorite part is the BUMPER. If she’s awake, she’s staring at it. If she’s asleep, she scoots toward it while sucking her thumb. Don’t worry, I know about suffocation hazards and bumpers. She also loves the BIRDS hanging over her changing table and the flowers on her MOBILE. She smiles at them and tells them stories.

And finally, the thing I’ve made the most of lately has been over 120 infinity scarves to sell in my SHOP. It was pretty exciting to know that my little business was able to pay for all of our Christmas gifts this year. I’m getting pretty excited about adding some new items to the inventory in the next month—specifically the Soft and Comfy Big Bow Headband (yes Samantha!), crochet boot cuffs and some more burlap table runners. I’m also playing with a few other ideas, but those are the two that I know I could make ahead of time easily so they’re ready to ship when ordered. Oh, and a tip for those of you who want to do a crafting business where you sell what you make but are worried about the stress level around the holidays? Don’t do made to order items. Create your inventory, list it, and then all you have to do for each sale is package it. I know there’s the risk of making something that won’t sell, but not having to worry about whether or not you’re able to make things as they’re bought is so worth it! At least, that’s the way I like to do my business, and it didn’t make my holiday season more stressful.

So that’s a glimpse into our life lately. I hope you have a wonderful time celebrating the new year and that 2013 is full of blessings!

Thanks for stopping by.

Sugar Cookie Sandwiches {Great last minute Christmas treat!}

2012-12-22T15:10:00.001-08:00

I was all set and excited to make sugar cookies with Jace the other day and then realized that I don’t have any Christmas cookie cutters. I was pretty happy when I remembered that my mom gave me a cookie press last year.

I made a batch of cookie dough using THIS recipe (and it is now officially my favorite recipe ever). I didn’t chill my dough at all, just rolled it into a log like the cookie press instructions said, and started clicking away. I even had a little helper at one point.

The press made things go so quickly! I remember my mom’s press being really difficult to use when I was growing up, but this one was so easy. Seriously, one click equals one cookie. I just held the press to the cookie sheet with one hand, clicked with the other, lifted and repeated. I clicked out an entire batch of dough, four cookie sheets worth, in a matter of minutes. After they all baked and cooled (also quickly since the cookies were small), I realized I didn’t want to frost them like typical sugar cookies since half the fun of these is in the design. But I also don’t enjoy the cookies without frosting. So cookie sandwiches was the perfect solution. Just smeared some frosting (using THIS recipe that I also LOVE) on one, topped it with another and then rolled it in sugar sprinkles. Again, this was so fast since I didn’t have to worry about how pretty the frosting looked.

I whipped these out so quickly and they tasted amazing! We took a plate to Nolan’s office, and another one to the mail store where I send off my shop orders. I was left with a lot of frosting, so I made another batch of cookies and have been munching on them ever since. I think I might make some more to give out to friends at church this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope all your Christmas preparations are going well!

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Simple Sparkle Top Tutorial

2012-12-21T16:20:00.001-08:00

We’re dedicating Reese at our church this Saturday evening, and Jace and Reese have adorable coordinated Christmas outfits to wear. My post-baby-body options were pretty limited, so when I saw this black, sheer, sequined fabric at Joann’s for 50% off, I knew I had to make myself a top so I could look nice with them. It was so simple to pull together and took, at most, an hour to make.

I wanted to make sure it would be easy to slip on and off, and didn’t want to worry about buttons, zippers or anything else to ensure a nice fit, so I made the back with knit from a maternity skirt I cut up. Plus, I like the contrast.

While I like the way it looks all by itself, I know I’d freeze in our church without a sweater on. I LOVE the way this mustard cardigan looks with it. I played around with it belted, too, and clipped a gray leather bow from Stacy’s Bow Envy on the ribbon I tied around my waist. I took a few pictures with my phone along the way, just in case you want to make one too.

I used a top from Quincee’s Boutique as my pattern. I like the shape and sleeves so it made the perfect pattern. If you’re trying to figure out which top from your wardrobe to pick, choose one that has some shape but fits loosely, preferably one that either isn’t stretchy or only has a small amount of stretch to it, that way your sparkle fabric will sit well.

For the back I cut up a maternity skirt that was a hand-me-down when I was pregnant with Jace, but I never wore it during either of my pregnancies. It was the perfect fabric for this shirt because it was light weight with a little bit of a sheen to it, which non of the knits at Joann’s had.

I used the front piece I cut out as the pattern, but made the back considerably smaller (as seen above) because I wanted it to fit more closely.

The knit fabric wasn’t as long as the front, so I also cut a piece of lace from the skirt to put around the hem.

Then I sewed the lace to the back, then the back and front together (right sides together) at the shoulders and then sides. I used my serger so it went really quickly, but you can also use your regular machine. See THIS post for tips on sewing with knits. The lace/sequin fabric doesn’t really fray, but I wanted to finish the edges to help keep the dressiness factor for the shirt, so I serged around the arms, neck and hemline. You could easily add bias tape or do a double fold and stitch to finish things off.

I paired it with a black tank top, but it would be fun to play with different color tops under it. And I LOVE the way it turned out. I’m thinking I should try this style with a few other fabrics I’ve bought but haven’t used yet because I didn’t want to put the effort in to make it fit well without using buttons/zippers, etc. I love the contrast, similar to color blocking, of dressy or sheer in the front and casual knit in the back. Kinda like a mullet?

Just another shot to give you a close up look at the sequin pattern and the adorable leather bow that I love. (And, in case you were wondering, I bought the bow. It was not provided for review. I just liked it so much I had to share it with you.)

Thanks for stopping by!

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