31 January 2013

Valentine's 2x4 Decor

As prizes for the games at the yellow & gray
baby shower, I made some
Valentine decorations to give away.

And I ended up loving them so much that I was sad to see them go.
But I made sure to take some pictures so
I could remember how they looked when I get out to the garage & cut some wood.

Since my husband was working on the table during the week
leading up to the shower, I had to choose some wood from the scrap box.
But it turned out okay.
Just not okay enough to have more that are the right size.

Bummer, man.

 I think this LOVE sign is a 1x4, about 7 inches long


 This conversation heard was a 2x4, about 3 1/2 inches tall


And the Be Mine sign was a 2x3, about 12 inches wide

I don't have a way to cut vinyl, and my painting skills are very lacking,
at least when it comes to writing clearly and cute-ly.
So what I did for the letters was:
-- open PowerPoint
-- make a box the size of the wood (for instance, a 1x4x7 rectangle)
-- insert a text box into the rectangle and type the word I want on the block (LOVE)
-- choose the font & change the size so it fits in the box
-- move the text box to the side, delete the rectangle, and do the next one
-- when done with all desired text boxes (3 in my case), print it out
-- I cut the words out so there was one word on each piece of paper (I ended up with 4)
-- use painter's tape to secure the paper to the painted/dry block
-- use a ball-point pen to trace the outline of the letters
-- remove the paper and carefully trace the imprint of the letters left by the pen (I used a Sharpie)
-- love and enjoy the result

**It's a good idea to make sure that the paint on your block is dry;
otherwise your Sharpie will stop working**

29 January 2013

Gray & Yellow Baby Shower

I hosted a baby shower for a friend a couple weeks ago.
It was awesome.

I wasn't sure what theme I wanted to go with, so I snagged the theme from
my friend's plan for the nursery for her new baby,
gray and yellow.

And it was GREAT!

Here are some pictures from the party.

I hung a pennant banner across the front of the table,
and some gray & yellow paper things
hanging from the ceiling.

 I served rice krispie treats,
lemon cupcakes, and vanilla pudding in baby food jars with
two mini nilla wafers on top
 The cupcakes were pretty good.
I used the recipe here.



 I made a circle garland from several sheets of scrapbook paper
 And I made some tissue paper puff balls.
It was my first time making them.
They were pretty easy, but need a lot of paper per ball.
I was a little skimpy with the paper, so I probably would have been
more pleased if I hadn't.
But tissue paper can get expensive.  So I just had 7.
But it was enough.

 I also bought 1/8 yard of three different yellow and gray fabrics
from JoAnn.  Then I cut them into strips and tied
them onto some gray ribbon.
I thought it was pretty cute.
And the whole thing was about $7.


 Entry table; 
here's a close-up of the chalkboard
 And I had these cutie elephant sugar cookies
in the little basket on this table as a favor, so the guests could
grab one or two on their way out the door.
 It was a lot of fun planning this party,
and it seemed that everyone who was able to come had fun.
So it's a complete success in my book.

Also, did you see how great the table looks in use?!
I had asked my husband to try to have it done so we could use it
for the party.  And it was done and dry with enough time to spare.
Thanks, Honey!

28 January 2013

Kitchen Table

Back in 2007, when we had just one child and my husband
was in Afghanistan, I found a great deal on a new table at a sidewalk sale.
It was a round black pedestal table, with four chairs,
for about $150.

It looks a lot like this one.
And it served us well.
Except for when I wanted to cut out a lot of fabric,
spread out anything, serve food on the table at the same time that we ate,
or have company over for dinner.
Especially as our family grew.

So after we finished our tv console, we started working on a table.
And it's finally done!!!

Woohoo!

And here are some pictures of the process, well I guess just
the staining, since I can't find any of the actual building.
You'll just have to take our word for it that we built it in the garage.


 So beautiful!
And one of the best parts? 
It was less than $200.
And very easily seats 8 comfortably.

If you are interested in making one for yourself, you can find the plan
here, from Ana White.
We did make a few changes to the plan.
We used three 2x12s for the top, with 2x3s between them.
I think the rest is pretty much the same as the plan.

If you've made one of these, or another of Ana's plans,
I'd love to see it.

24 January 2013

Painting the Living Room

You may be wondering how our Christmas was.
It was great. 
Short and sweet and just our little family.
Very relaxing.
How many of you can say that?

Well, it was relaxing until the kids went to bed.
Then we took down all the decorations and cleared out our first living room.
It's the room that you enter from the front door.
Since the other living room is adjacent to this one, and you can basically see both rooms
completely when you are in the other, we haven't yet decided on what to
call each room.  Sometimes one is the 'fireplace room',
or the 'circle couch room', or just 'the other one'.
One of these days (or years) we will nail it down.

So here are some before pictures, so you know what a white wall looks like.
You can see my husband prepping the window with tape.
He put a bunch of plastic sheets on the floor, but instead of taping them all down,
he used a putty knife to tuck them under the baseboards.  It worked great!
We weren't too concerned with the baseboards, because they are of some sort of
laminate material that the paint wipes right off.  And if it dries before you 
notice it, it takes less than a minute to get the paint off.
Easy peasy.


 Front corner

 He's so far away...the room is 27 feet long!


 The girlies were occupied upstairs with a movie,
which is a super rare occurrence around here.
At least for the kids.


 The color we used is Pistachio Ice
It's a Valspar color (which is available at Lowe's),
but we took the sample over to Home Depot and bought Behr paint.
We didn't really have a reason, that's just what we did.


 He really was excited to paint, even if he doesn't show it.


 Here are two after shots.  I tried to include the arch, since we left that white,
so you could get an idea of the change in color.

I'm sitting on the circle couch and looking at the walls right now, and the green 
in the picture is not the same green that are on the walls.
Maybe sometime I will take another shot of the wall and it will be more accurate.
Probably after we get some more work finished in here.

15 January 2013

In a Funk

I wish I knew what to say, but I don't.
I'm in a funk when it comes to blogging and it is tough to get out.

But I'm trying.
And this is a good sign, right?

I sure hope so, because I've got some great stuff to share.