Home-made Ornaments

I really wanted to buy one of those footprint/handprint ornament making kits for Sawyer's First Christmas but saw the price tag and decided against it. BUT thanks to my bestie Megan who shared the  easy ornament making tutorial she found, I was still able to capture his cute little hand and footprint on an ornament for almost no money at all. Here is her blog on all the wonderful ornaments she made: http://johnsonblurb.blogspot.com/2012/12/salt-dough-ornaments-1-of-2.html
http://johnsonblurb.blogspot.com/2012/12/salt-dough-ornament-2-of-2.html

My mom and I made the dough on Christmas Eve and since they need to bake for 2-4 hours, we finished the painting last night. We only made a couple, his hand and foot prints and then stockings for Mommy, Daddy, Sawyer, Grandma and Grandpa. Next year, he will be able to make his own!

DIY: Baby Wipes

Almost a year ago at my work baby shower, one of my co-workers was kind enough to give me the ingredients to make my own baby wipes. Him and his wife swear by them. I am a little embarrassed that it took me 8.5 months to get to making them! It was mostly because we were given so many wipes as presents that I thought I would use them first. We are finally out of wipes so I thought it would be a good time to try it.  It is so simple and made a lot!

We won!

Sawyer's Nursery won Project Nursery's Reader's Favorite Nursery of the Week!!!!
Thanks to all our friends and family who voted. His room had 87 likes and 2,151 views. Holy Cow!!
Also thanks to everyone who helped makes his room what it is!
Check out the site here: http://projectnursery.com/projects/71574/

Project Nursery

Woohoo!! We are in the running!

One of my favorite websites, Project Nursery, has picked Sawyer's room as a "Nursery They Love"this week. There are five finalist and they will reveal the winner Monday afternoon.
We would really appreciate it if you could visit the site and click on his nursery and "like" it at the top of the picture. You can also "rate" it with 1-5 stars.
Here is the site: http://projectnursery.com/2012/04/nurseries-and-parties-we-love-this-week-2/
Thanks!!
j+k

Nursery Planning: DIY Baby Hamra's Mobile

While designing our nursery, I knew I wanted a mobile above our crib but really despised the ones I found in stores and online. I wanted something simple and gender neutral. I found some awesome ones on Etsy but they were super expensive (ranging from $50-80) for something I knew I could create on my own. I googled pouf ball tutorials and found a few helpful sites and decided to just try it on my own. I am very pleased with the result and saved a ton of cash. It took about 6 hours total to create and cutting was the most time consuming part.

Here are the helpful tutorials I found:

http://first-time-fancy.blogspot.com/2011/06/diy-fabric-pom-pom-mobile-winner.html

http://www.oncewed.com/24140/wedding-blog/diy-wedding/diy-fabric-poms/

MATERIALS

Styrofoam Balls (1.5 inch) – $1 (for 9)

Embroidery Hoop (just need inside) – $1

Acrylic Paint – I bought white from a craft store – .69 cents

Fishing wire, Rope, Yarn, Ribbon (I used Fishing line)

Fabric – I got a yard of white and a yard of yellow and it was more than enough - $6

Glue Gun - $3

Glue Sticks - $5

Scissors – already had

Something round to trace - already had

Ceiling hook - already had

Total cost: less than $17 (and I even had to buy a glue gun)

STEPS

Step 1:

I painted my embroidery hoop with white paint first so it would be dry when I am done, it doesn’t take very long to dry so really you can do this step at any point

Step 2:

Find something round to start tracing your circles onto the fabric. Trace a ton of circles, I am not exaggerating either each individual pouf will need about 30 circles.

Step 3: 

Cut out all your circles, this doesn’t have to be perfect because they will be folded so don’t feel like you have to spend extra time making them flawless.

Step 4:

Take your circle and fold in half, apply a small dab of hot glue in the middle of that half and then fold over again (see picture). Do this for all of your circles.

This is enough to make 2 poufs

Step 5: 

Apply dab of hot glue to one of the Styrofoam balls and apply the folded fabric. I found holding them in the center and apply the point to the ball was the easiest and then you could fan it out to the way you want it to look (see picture)

Continue this step until your ball is filled with no Styrofoam showing and until you have enough poufs for your mobile. I made 6 total fabric poufs, which was about 180 cut out circles.

Step 6:

If your paint is dry on your hoop, tie fishing line across the top to make quarters. I applied extra hot glue on the inside of the hoop against the line to make sure it was secure. This is how you will hang your mobile to the ceiling. Set aside.

Step 7:

Apply fishing line to your individual poufs, I left my string really long so I could adjust when I hung them. I found a trick to attaching the line to the pouf was applying hot glue to the inside of a piece of the fabric on the ball and then sandwiching the glue and line in between it.

Step 8:

Tie fishing line securely onto a ceiling hook (like the ones you use for plants). Make sure you have extra string so you can adjust to the height you want. 

Step 9:

Screw the hook into the ceiling into the place you want to hang.

Step 10:

Tie line from ceiling to the middle of your quartered hoop securely to the height you want above crib.

Step 11:

Apply each individual pouf onto hanging hoop at the height you want. After they are all attached you may need to move them to get it to sit evenly and balanced.

Ta-Dah! You have a super affordable mobile!!
j+k

Nursery Planning: Painting

I am very pleased to say the Nursery painting is complete (well a little door & trim touch up is still needed but no sweat)!! John and I went back and forth on whether to do wallpaper, plain walls or a pattern and we ended up getting inspired by a nursery that was featured on ProjectNursery that used a lattice type design. While it was time-consuming it came out exactly how we wanted it. We couldn't have done it without the help of our amazing friends Tim & Megan Johnson, who have a little more experience in the paint department than we did. The DIY project saved us a ton of money with the only cost being paint, supplies and of course beer, pizza and snacks for our painting party. Only water for me of course!

BEFORE PICTURES

Approx. Cost for paint & supplies: 

$150 (bid from a couple local painters for the same job = $300-450 before supplies)

Approx Time: 10 hours

Details:

I won’t bore you on the exact proces of how we did it (you can find some instructions here) but basically we painted all the white trim and primed the walls first. We let that dry for a few days and then painted soon-to-be lattice wall that the pattern yellow. We also allowed that to dry for a few days since it was going to be taped off. When that was dry, the boys painted the ceiling yellow and the walls grey, while Megan and I (and Tim when he was free to hold the lazer level) measured out the diagonal lines, marked reference point from the level and taped. We did the same thing going the opposite way. After all tape was applied and rubbed down very firmly, the boys painted over it in grey (2 coats). Before it had dried we ripped the paint off to expose the yellow lines. Megan and I touched up any spots that stood out.

Pointers:

1. It is worth it to buy the expensive tape! The $4 tape we got from Walmart ripped off the white from the baseboard. The Scotch blue painter tape (retails at $10-13), ripped off clean. It also has sealed edges so paint doesn’t get in. We had to buy 2 rolls of it to make it through the lattice pattern. We did 2 inch stripes but it comes in a variety of sizes.

We have bought all new door knobs, hinges and handles for the closets and cabinet and also are updating the ceiling fan and blinds. I will continue to post our progress. We hope to have everything done in the next 4 weeks in preparation of Hamlet’s arrival.

John and I started by painting the whole room white

doors and all

no more yucky fading wood, everything is white

getting ready to paint the ceiling

Look at that teamwork!

First few stripes down, a lot more to go.

First set done now on to opposite diagonals

Tim finishing up the last few lines and John finishing the Grey

Megan trimming the edges

Time out for a little Peter Paul & Mary "Lemon Tree"

Stripes painted over with grey, now time to peel and pray!

First peel....and phew, looks good!

So much quicker to peel than place

Finished room! Yep, it's dark outside (we started at 10 am)

DIY: Old Patio Chairs

When my parents bought their house 3 years ago, they discovered a plethera of old patio chairs in the shed. A couple years back John and I adopted some for a bbq we were having and we decided these bad boys needed a face lift. My love of  yellow and chevron/strips were our inspiration. They certainly brighten up our front porch.

Chairs Before

John adding a base of white

the legs getting a new coat of bronze

All taped and ready

Finished product a chevron stripe mix

our new brightened porch

DIY: Cupcake Toppers

When Megan decided to throw Josey & Thomas a baby shower for their soon-to-be new edition Kingston, I immediately wanted to make cup cake toppers. How can you not incorporate some fun crown decor with a regal name like that? This was my first attempt at DIY cupcake toppers so I thought I would share how fun and easy they are. For all the wonderful shower pics from more pictures go to Megan & Tim's site

Materials:
Scissors
Circle Cutter - or you can just use scissors if you have a steady hand
Card stock or scrap book paper (I had books of paper samples from college I used )
tooth picks
glue stick
super glue or hot glue gun

Steps
1. Pick a design. I designed my own but if you aren't a graphic designer, no worries you can always do a simple Word monogram or find something online (or ask a designer friend). Mine are 1.5 X 1.5 square.

2. Print as many on a page as you need - I did 30 to be safe for my 2 dozen cupcakes

3. Cut out your designs and set aside.

I used a circle cutter but you can also just free style cut them with scissors.

4. Cut out the cardstock into 2 inch square pieces in double the amount of designs you printed. You will need 2 pieces per design.

5. Cover one card stock piece with glue stick and put super glue (or hot glue) in the middle. Place the toothpick down the center. Then top with the other piece of card stock.

6. cover the back of your paper design with glue stick and adhere to your cardstock/toothpick sandwich :)

7. Let dry for about an hour and Tadah you have some toppers!

Lay out to dry until you are ready to use

8. Now just make some cupcakes and ice them (I used my icing bag and tips to give the icing more depth) and put your new toppers on.

The Sky is the limit on paper size, shape and design and my instructions are just a starting point, have fun!

Shoutouts to Megan Weaver (for the circle cutter), Megan Johnson for pics and hosting and Thomas & Josey for getting preggers!

j+k