Baby doll bed

I'm pretty sure that I have adequately covered the adoration that I hold for Ana's blog. This plan isn't from her blog, but the ideas now forming in my hubby's head, I will gladly attribute to Ana's brilliant idea-sharing blog. She has plans for a doll bed on her blog, but I didn't neccessarily want the farmhouse doll bed. Ours is a more simple version. It came from a rough little 15-minute plan. He put it all together for me in 2 hours the night before my shoot. I painted it and sanded it and prettied it up. We work well together.

I had been dreaming of a newborn shoot with a little doll bed. My sweet hubby killed 2 birds with one stone here. Photoshoot, check. Happiest little daughter on the earth, check.

You see, in my 1600 square foot house, my photo accessories have to fit into the decor. I don't have storage room for these goodies, so I make them work around the house.

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3 year old birthday party {water fun}

We had a great little party for Morgan on Saturday. Her birthday was actually on Sunday. On Sunday she was so confused when people said "happy birthday" or called to sing to her.

Saturday morning she got to go to Mabel's birthday party. They were born 4 days apart. Then in the afternoon, Mabel came to Mo's party. Pretty good trade off I'd say. She loved her water party. . . especially the crab cupcakes. tutorial found here. The other kids loved the watermelon shark. Tutorial found here. Mo was afraid of the picture of the shark online, so I tried to make mine smile. Let's just say that things could have gone better. Overall, it turned out really cute though.

watermelon sharkcrabby cupcakes - I was wishing that my sister, Marilyn could come help me save my runny butter cream. Apparently 110 degrees and butter cream don't really get along.

loving every minute of the happy birthday song.blowing out the candledevouring those yummy cupcakes

There actually were adults at the party too, but who wants to see that when you can see endless photos of cute kiddies with blue frosting faces!

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tween boy room redo

Here was the sad sad before. My boy has been neglected. Ruffles and daybeds are just a little more fun. It's his time now. He's not a little boy anymore. Time for the little boy toys and dress-up box to take a hike.

Thank-goodness for evolution. I was so proud of that little "T" on the wall back then. pitiful.

He went out one weekend with his dad on a camp out. I had been gathering items for several weeks in preparation. I had even made a little idea board. I'm such a wanna-be!

I wanted a combo of his two favorite things right now. Football and guitar. I love that it all came together. . . and on a budget. The paint came first, then two flat sheets were sewn together to make a duvet cover for the old green comforter.

I love the clean lines of subway signs. The canvas was purchased at Michaels on a smokin' sale. 15.00 for a 40-dollar canvas. Some people have fancy schmancy cricuts and such. I do it old school. How 'bout a paper stencil and an exacto knife. It works for me.

I made the stencil in photoshop and printed it out to the right size on several different sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Then I taped the papers together in sets of two to span the width of the canvas. I told you I was old-school.

A little bit tedious. A lot pleased with the results.

I found the little chair at Goodwill 1/2 off day. 99 cents. 2 coats of krylon paint. The globe and Battleship were also from Goodwill. Bought long ago. Not necessarily for this room, but now they belong.

The black chair under his guitar was found at Goodwill also. 5.00. A bit of hounds tooth fabric made it as good as new.

I'll never grow tired of finding these little lego men built all over the house. Pure creativity. He has some sets. . . Harry Potter and such. He never uses them as a set. He always makes up his own little guys out of random pieces. Legos are brilliant.

The dotted sheets and the black square pillow are from Wally World. The other 2 are from Ross. Love Ross. The little yellow chevron pillow was purchased on etsy. Just imagine that you would like to sew your own little yellow chevron pillow. Now imagine yourself searching high and low for that fabric. It's out of stock every place imaginable. That's when etsy comes in handy.

The little jointed ruler came from an antique shop out in Memphis. I picked it up while visiting some friends on a little girl trip.

The shelves are from Lowes. Cheap and easy to install. Just right for all of his trophies and nick knacks. Cube photo holders are from Michaels clearance bin. The @ sign also came from Michaels.

He was so surprised when he came home from camping. He loves his room. I love it too. Mostly I love that he wants to keep it clean now.

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beach robe - pattern by Dana of MADE

Here is the first little robe that I sewed for one of Morgan's little friends. We gave it to her on her birthday with this matching swimsuit. I love this pattern. Next time I will go with a much thinner towel and elongate the hood pattern. For some reason the hood was a little tight on Mo. Maybe she has a long neck :) I love the option for the long sleeves, but I knew that Morgan wouldn't wear it if the sleeves were long, so I made them short for her little friend too. It's just too hot here for long sleeves, even if you are wet. The pattern can be found here.

Candle stick apothecary jars

The idea has been floating around the web for a while now. My friend Hollie told me about it and I went to her house one morning to make them. I love the green. . . because I'm obsessed. It was perfect timing to make them right before Easter.

Just find 3 candlesticks. Mine happened to come in a set at Ross. 10 bucks. I spray primed them and then spray painted them green. The jars were old Fry's salsa jars soaked in bleach solution and labels peeled off. The lids were spray painted to match the candlesticks. We glued the jars onto the candlesticks with gorilla glue. Easy peasy.

Apothecary Media Console

We've been working on another one of Ana White's amazing plans. The Apothecary Media Console. I originally wanted it in green, but after the amount of work that I forsaw with the painting, I went with a safe antique white. I don't regret it. It's a lot easier to change accessories than to repaint a massive piece like this.

The Golfer modified it to fit our needs. It's longer than Ana's plan and the center cubby in the top is wider to accomodate a sound bar in the future. Also, we went with 4 cupboard all the way across, mostly because he didn't want to tackle drawers. He used wood and mdf. I love that the top portion is hardwood so that we had the option to stain where the baskets and sound bar will go. The top is made of 4 beams stained to match the interior.

I painted the outside with white paint that matches our baseboards. The glaze made it look a little more creamy.

The faux drawer fronts were painted, then lightly sanded. . . this process repeated twice and then twice more with the polycrylic. They're as smooth as butter!

Take a look at the pb version, then ours. Can you tell the difference? I can't.

I love ana-white.com!

Softest Blanket Ever

I made a blanket.

From the tutorial here.

Except, it was much larger.

After I made it, I didn't want to give it away. . . but I did anyway.

It was soooo soft.

If you choose to make a blanket like this

Please do yourself a favor and invest in one of these:

Or risk losing your mind.

I have to admit, I was scared to wash it.

It looked so pretty, but it wasn't soft at all.

I wanted it soft.

So I washed it like the instructions said.

It came out of the dryer all fuzzy and warm.

That is when I considered driving to the store to buy something for the inlaws for Christmas.

No one would ever know.

MWAAA HAAAAA (evil laugh)

Don't worry your pretty little head.

I did the right thing.

I handed it over to the kids to wrap it, before I got too attached.