Valentine's Day 2014

This year we had a really nice, low key Valentine's Day. While I want to say that Tim and I never "go all out" for Valentine's Day, when I sat down to write this post I realized we have had a few exciting Valentines in our history together.

On Valentine's Day 2010, Tim asked me to marry him.

Last year, we announced to our family that we were expecting.

This year, we have a beautiful little girl!

Photo by Constance Avellino Photography 

Since Valentine's Day was on a Friday this year, we decided to stay in and make fondue at home. We LOVE Melting Pot but unfortunately it gets expensive! So I made a cheese trio with baguette and green apple. We also shared a shrimp cocktail. A few hours later, we had chocolate fondue with sliced banana, strawberries and red velvet cake.

Tim and I previously decided that we would not exchange gifts this year. However, a few days ago I decided to make a last minute gift for Tim. It's rather popular on Pinterest so I can't take credit for the creativity on this one!
 Basically, its "52 Things I Love about You" the whole project cost $4. All you need is a deck of cards, some embellishments, a whole punch and some glue.  I had the HARDEST time finding regular old red playing cards. I check the Dollar Tree, Party City, Publix and Target... no one has red! I ended up finding this back of pink/black cards at Target and I am so sick of looking for cards that I decided they would work.

I started by hole- punching all of my cards. I typed up all of my "52 things" into a word document. I just made a table 4 wide by 4 long and they fit perfectly onto the cards. I used black font with a red outline. I did print them on card stock to make them a but sturdier.

 I just mainly stickers to embellish the cards. I picked up a few different packs for .99 at CVS. I glued all 52 things onto my cards and then embellished them. I used a regular old Elmer's glue stick. I had planned on using Mod Podge but mine was tried up. I did not keep the same placement on each of the cards but varied them so that I could fit some of the larger stickers on the cards.

After every thing was dried, I assembled my "book". I could not find binder rings at Target so I simply used some black ribbon to hold the book together. Here is what the final product looked like.

 

The hardest part of this project was coming up with the 52 things! Obviously, there are more than 52 things that I love about my husband however,  you don't often sit down to write them all out! I tried to use a good mix of serious things and jokes between us. Here are a few examples in case you are struggling too!

Tim seemed to really like the gift! He says he is "working on" my list ;)

We also made the grandparents Valentines this year since it was Charlotte's first. We had professional pictures taken the last week of January. We simply purchased two 8x10 frames ( Buy one get one for $1 at Kohls). Then I used a small sponge applicator to apply red paint on her feet to make the V in Love. We used Crayola Tempera paint because it is nontoxic, washable and generally baby safe. I added one of the professional pictures and a few stickers to the frame. The grandparents LOVED them :)

 

Oh and while I was at CVS picking up stickers, I grabbed a tube of red lipstick for 99 cents with the sole purpose of capturing this shot...

Because what is cuter than a chubby baby covered in kisses?

Hope you too had a great Valentine's Day!

Tulle Turkey Wreath

A few weeks ago I came across this pin on Pinterest. I LOVED the wreath and decided I had to make my own. That very day, I loaded up the baby and we went to Joann's. On a side note: The carts at Joann's are not car seat friendly!!

The supplies were pretty minimal: foam wreath form, tulle, brown yarn, a Styrofoam cone and balls, and one sheet of red craft foam. You would also need craft paint if you didn't have any on hand.


Before beginning, I prepped my supplies. First, I painted the cone yellow with craft paint and a sponge so that it would be dry but the time I finished my wreath.

I also did the same for the eyes. I used a smaller foam circle and it worked out perfectly! Since you will be attaching the eyes to the wreath with toothpicks, I went ahead and used those to help keep them from rolling while drying.

Before starting, I also prepped all my tulle. When I first went to Joann's, the only tulle I could find was in the fabric section...the kind that would be used to make tutus. This would work and may be cheaper but I found it much easier to use the spools of tulle ( located down the wedding aisle). It's the perfect width and requires less work.

I purchased 3- spools ( red, yellow and orange) which each had 25 feet. 75 feet of tulle provided me with enough for 2 wreaths! My method for cutting this was also easy. I had a treatment planning book I was using for work. I simply wrapped the entire spool around the book and then cut both edges. Then I repeated with the remaining two spools.

Now that all the prep work was done, I was ready to start my wreath. While watching TV I simply wrapped 1/3 of my wreath form with yard. Very much like my H "wreath" only a lot less hot glue. Next you will start tying the tulle around the remaining 2/3 of the wreath.

I used 4 pieces of tulle before switching to the next color. I used a double knot to tie on the tulle. Keep repeating...

I found the tulle tying to go much faster then wrapping the wreath with the yard. I like to start and end with the same color. I made two of these now and it had worked out perfectly each time.

The last thing you have to do it attach your eyes and nose with toothpicks. Then I just folded my red craft foam in half and cut out a gobbler. That I used hot glue to attach. To be honest, I tried tacky glue first and it did not work so go straight for the glue gun.

Relatively easy to make and adorable!

Refinished Dresser

I mentioned here that I ended up getting a second hand dresser off Craigslist to use in the nursery. I went to Babies R Us and was shocked to find that most of the dressers were in the $700 range. I had always planned to use the dresser as the changing table instead of purchasing a stand alone changer but I was not anticipating the price for that quality of furniture.... a lot of it was particleboard!

I really love the look of two-toned furniture so I decided to start skimming Craigslist for a used solid wood dresser. The very first day I came across one I liked but thought I was rushing into it. A search a few days later showed that it was still available so I sent over an email and made plans to look at it the following day. It is a solid wood Thomasville Dresser with dovetails and hidden "jewelry drawers". It has a small blemish on the top which  didn't bother me in the least since we had plans to refinish it anyway. We quickly handed over $140 and took this guy home with us! 

The first thing we did was remove all the drawers and hardware. 

As you can tell by the stacked boxes, this was in the middle of our lighting project! 

The hardware was very unique and I contemplated keeping them and giving them a coat of ORB spray paint.  But in the end they got donated to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. They did leave us with two sets of holes in each of the 6 regular drawers. 

Next step was to get supplies. Since this was our first time refinishing furniture, we opted to borrow a sander as opposed to purchasing one. My dad let us borrow his Dewalt sander and luckily he had a ton of sandpaper as well so that was another savings. I did purchase a few 2 inch drawer and cabinet rollers, 2 trim trays made for the smaller rollers, primer, paint, wood filler and spray poly.

Since I knew I wanted a two tone look, we had to strip the top of the dresser and the two hidden drawers of all the stain. The bottom portion was only getting painted so we really just needed to rough the surface up so that the paint would have something to grab on to.

Tim started the sanding but quickly got bored and opted to go fishing instead.

 Meanwhile, I patched the hardware holes in the drawers. I just used basic Elmer's Wood Filler. I put on one thin coat, let it dry for an hour and then added a second coat.

While the filler was drying, I took over the sanding. The pregnant lady had to take lots of breaks but eventually got it done!

I started with coarse sandpaper and gradually worked my way down. On the top I used coarse, medium, fine and very fine sandpaper until a reach a nice even texture that would be ideal for staining. On the bottom portion I skipped the coarse and very fine paper. The worst part of sanding... the dust. It was EVERYWHERE. I waited for Tim to help me clean up the dust so we could get a coat of primer on the dresser that evening.

I purchased Zinsser primer since I heard good things on other blogs. I wasn't impressed and actually prefer my usual Valspar primer. I purchased this stain blocking primer. I purchased good paint that supposedly didn't need primer however since I opted not to sand it down to raw wood, I thought primer would work in my favor. The coverage was very inconsistent and although I only used one coat of primer, it probably needed two to be a good base for the paint. We rolled a quick coat of primer that evening and let it dry overnight. Since it is oil based, we opted to throw out the roller and pan and start over with fresh the next day.

On to paint. I have heard AMAZING things about Benjamin Moore's Advance paint. I went to the local Ace which carries Benjamin Moore since there isn't a regular Benjamin Moore Store near me. They didn't sell the advance formula but gave me the name of another retailer locally that did.  He also gave me a bunch of paint samples to go home and color match before heading to the other store. I held the samples up to the crib and selected "Super White".
Let me tell you, the paint ain't cheap! I purchased a gallon and it cost me $50! I opted for the gallon because I have some other upcoming nursery projects that will need it but I definitely could have gotten away with a Quart. After 4 thin coats on the dresser, I still have almost a full gallon. It is a self- leveling paint with alkyd so it hardens and has a really nice finish. It is recommended for drawers and cabinets, really anything with movement. Definitely worth the extra cost!

Like I said, we opted for 4 thin coats because we still had a lot of stain showing through the primer. They recommend 24 hours of drying time between coats and 4-5 days of dry time after the final coat before attaching drawers, doors, etc. So we simply did a coat a night after work, which maybe took 10 minutes?

Next up.. staining! We actually didn't have to purchase any stain for this project. Turns out the stain I purchased for this project was a dead match to the crib we selected. It is Minwax Red Mahogany.

Years ago, my dad used to professionally stain cabinets for a living. So he asked if he could stain the top of the dresser. Here he is hard at work.

He used cheesecloth and we applied two coats of stain to get the right finish.

After the stain dried completely, we were ready or polyurethane. I purchased three cans of Rustoleum's spray interior poly in gloss. We made sure to protect our white paint by taping a plastic tarp around the bottom portion of the dresser.

In between coats of poly, he used extra fine steel wool to remove any dust traces that bubbled to the surface. I think we used 2 1/2 cans of the poly for a total of 4 thin coats... which got us a really nice sheen.

Back to hardware. I selected two knobs from Lowe's.

The top knob was the cheaper of the two but I really felt like the size of the dresser called for something a little larger. Ultimately, this guy won the race:

Installing the hardware officially wrapped up the dresser project. Here is what the final product looks like:

 Oh and because I love comparison shots. Here is what we started with and the how we ended.

 I am in love with the way it turned out. I originally thought about  staining the drawers too but I am SO glad I decided to keep the whole base white. It looks so much better that I could have imagined and ended up being significantly cheaper that its $700 Babies R Us counterpart. I think we probably spent around $100 on supplies ( would have been less if not for the Advance paint but I have SO much left over). Not too bad for $240!

Mini Homemade Chalkboard

I know I am totally late to the game on this but I just used chalkboard paint for the first time! I got an idea to make a small decorative chalkboard for messages and such. At first I started pricing them online and then remembered that I could make one with chalkboard point that would better suit the size and look that I was going for.

It started with a trip to Joann's. I skimmed the wooden crafts section for a more unique shaped piece that could be made into a chalkboard. I ended up going with an 11 X14 plaque. I also picked up some white acrylic paint, a pack of colored chalk and a small tub of chalkboard paint. I made sure to bring coupons so my total was pretty minimal.

When I got home, I gave my board a good sanding to remove any rough spots. I really liked the shape of this plaque because it allowed the edges to be painted a different color that would still be visible. I went with a basic white because I am not 100% sure which room this will end up in. However, it would look super cute with a teal or yellow edge. So first I taped off the front of my board to allow me to paint the edges.

I used an X-acto knife to cut the tape where needed. Then I added two coats of white paint to the edges of the board.

I let it sit in the garage overnight just to make sure that everything was fully dry. My next step involved taping over the outer edge in order to apply the chalkboard paint to the front of the plaque.

I went with a basic black chalkboard although they do have a lot of fun colors of chalkboard paint now.  I applied it with a 1.5 inch foam brush.

I did three thin coats, let it dry 24 hours and then rubbed a thin layer of chalk on the board to condition it. Wipe it off with a damp linen free cloth and you are good to go!

The tape lines stayed crisp and I got the effect that I was looking for on the edge. I am so glad I made my own instead of going with something more traditional. Now I just need to figure out where to hang it!

Butterfly Baby Shower- Decorations

This will be my final post on the baby shower. It was two months in the making and I am really pleased  with the way everything turned out.  Since Lee Anne's nursery theme is Butterflies, we wanted to carry that over into the shower. I search Pinterest and Etsy for various invitations that could be customized for a baby shower. I narrowed it down to three and then let Lee Anne choose. We ultimately ended up purchasing this party pack from Pixels N Ink's Etsy shop. Melanie, the owner,  was VERY helpful and offered suggestions on wording since Lee Anne did not want to disclose the baby name at the shower. I would highly recommend purchasing from her! 

We printed everything on card stock with the exception of the candy bar labels ( we just used regular computer paper for that). Every night while watching TV, I would sit with my cutting mat and X-acto knife, cutting everything down to size. There are several different ways to construct the banners. I originally purchased brads and then thought about using the double sided tape method. Ultimately, I used ribbon and a regular old hole punch ( as demonstrated here) to hang the banners.

The party pack also came with several "signs" ( Food, drinks, gifts, etc). I planned on using 4 of the 6 signs in the pack. I just purchased $1 8X10 frames from the Dollar Tree. They only came in black so I simply sprayed them either white or pink to go with the corresponding sign.

This punch was AWESOME! Recipe found here. 

The gift bags were also fairly simple. I purchased small gift bags in mint and pale pink at Iparty. They were on sale for .53 cents each. I also picked up some hot pink tissue paper. Our party pack came with "Thank You" tags. I simply used my 2-inch punch to cut them to size and attached them to the front of the bags using glue dots. Inside the bags went..chocolate bars, hand sanitizers, mints and a homemade pink and green cake pop.

As for games, we played two free games I found online. First we played a game called "Baby Sweets". Someone reads out a common pregnancy word ( ie: Baby Giggles) and the guests have to come up with a candy for that particular phrase. So the answer in this case was "Snickers". The prize? You guessed it. A snickers. We played this with about 10 different candies.

The second game is a free online printable Celebrity Baby Name Game. Its was harder than we thought for most of the guests. I think the most anyone got right was seven. In sticking with our theme, First place got a Butterfly Plug and Sweet pea air freshener from Bath and Body Works.

The last little thing I put together for the shower I used both as a decoration and a gift. I know that the "monthly onesie stickers" are very popular. Well I wanted to do a clothes like type of decoration at the shower. So I decided to combine the two. I found this adorable monthly onesie printable ( for FREE). I mirror imaged the numbers and printed them on transfer paper. I then purchased 12 onesies and adhered the decals onto the onesies. I hung three up at the shower and wrapped the remaining as a gift for the mom-to-be.

A few other pictures from the shower I wanted to share before wrapping up. We actually ordered this cake from Sam's Club and they customized it to our theme for no additional cost. It was only around $17 for half a sheet... it was both beautiful and delicious!

I used the labels in the party pack to label the food ( types of sandwiches, dressing etc). 

The water bottle labels...Call me a ditz but I struggled with this one. I made water bottles for my wedding and purchased the expensive water bottle labels you print on and adhere. To keep costs down, I didn't want to order more supplies. Then it hit me...Contact paper. I picked up one roll at the Dollar Tree. I cut the contact paper slightly larger then my label(again just printed on card stock) to form a water proof seal when adhered to the bottle. Worked out perfectly... no leaking and the labels stayed attached!

I just got this "cooler " of sorts with a Chrsitmas gift card and coupon to Pier One!

I promise this is the last Baby Shower post... I think I have over shared enough for everyone! :)