I pinned and I made…

I pin a lot of stuff on Pinterest and I do actually get around to trying a lot of those recipes and making some of the crafts. Here are 2 I did for Christmas: 1- the ornament wreath. I didn’t take pictures of the progress but you can see it all here if your interested: http://matt-and-becky.blogspot.com/2009/12/12-days-of-christmas-crafts-day-5.html I used the glittery plastic bulbs from Target. They are in the $1 section for a tube of 10! I had the foam wreath left over so I spent about $10 on this total.

Next 2- The Ruffled Tree Skirt. It’s so pretty and maybe one of my favorite projects I have pinned and made. It was pretty easy too, just took a few nights of gluing and some patience. If I ever do it again I will cut my strips thicker so the ruffles are larger. I used a cheap quilting fabric I had for the base part and then cheap $2.99/yard muslin fabric from JoAnnes. I followed these instructions:  http://mycrazylife-lauren.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-pinned-it-i-did-it-ruffled-tree-skirt.html

Here are some pictures of mine:

 

I love the smell of a real tree! Happy Holidays!

Baby Cooper’s Nursery

36 weeks! With only 4 weeks left I am happy to say the nursery is DONE! We converted our guest room into a nursery/guest room. We wanted to have a place for someone to sleep if they come visit (mostly my Mom!). Here it was before:

So we ditched our king sized bed and night stands and replaced it with a pop-up trundle day bed & crib. I bought the frame for the trundle bed off craigslist and sanded and painted it the pale yellow. My sister Amy is awesome and bought me 2 new twin mattresses as a shower gift:

Here is a close up of the sunburst mirror above the bed (home depot $35) and the little boy plaques are antiques off etsy:

I had this small dresser from my Mother-in law that I re-painted to use as a changing table:

Another view:

I made the curtains from some yellow polka dot fabric I got from JoAnne’s on sale and added pom poms to the bottom:

I mounted some wire baskets on the wall to hold burp clothes and diapers:

The dog “Tutu” was mine as a child and the blue bunny blanket was my husbands when he was a baby:

More views:

On the wall above the crib is a mirror my husband bought me for mother’s day last year and to the left is a picture of our 4 dogs & a letter ‘A’ I made for ‘Anthony’ out of some old buttons.  To the right is a Renoir painting my Mother-in law gave me that hung in my husbands room as a child and a framed picture of baby Anthony inside my belly at 7 months.

The crib skirt was made by my very talented friend’s mom out of my Grandma Mack’s fabric. The bumper is from babybedding.com and the crib sheet, blanket and changing pad cover are all Aden & Anais “The Brave Dog”.

The wool chevron rug is from overstock:

The mobile I made out of felt. Talk about a long & tedious project. No wonder people charge $80+ on etsy to make them!

And on the wall by the closet I hung a wire magazine rack I got for $7 at home goods for books. I printed out old dog book covers and framed them and hung them around it:

And that’s it! Now time to continue my nesting…. re-finishing kitchen cabinets… decorating for Christmas… have to squeeze as much in as I can before I have 2 babies that take up all my time

Linking up to:

Happy Halloween!

I love this time of year. Would love it more if Florida actually had a fall, but oh well.  I decorated for Halloween last week and wanted to share some of what I did.  I made this banner for the entry way table.. got the idea from Cassie at Primitive & Proper.  I did something similar last year with the spray painted branches. They are from some type of palm tree outside. I just added some black birds and cheese cloth to the mix.

For the  banner: I used old book pages, cut them out and glued them with mod podge to black construction paper. Then I drew some bats and cut them out on thinner black glitter paper and glued little orange buttons on each of them.  I strung it all with twine.

I decorated the kitchen table with the same branches and added some spray painted pumpkins.

Linking up to:

Guest bathroom updates

This is our bathroom on a budget project! Here is the bathroom around when we first moved in (I had already painted it that pale yellow color)… not sure why I didn’t take any pictures of the corroding slab of mirror that hung on the wall or the corroded nasty yellow faucet. Wish I would have so you could have seen how ugly it was – that’s well water for you!

So we:

Ripped out the old tile & ripped off the ugly towel bar

Replaced the vanity with one that was never used from my brother-in law

We got a nice new white toilet from my in-laws for Christmas to replace the pink one with.

And we added a slab of granite to the vanity & got a new sink & faucet

I spray painted a $30 mirror from Marshalls

and lastly, Stu tiled the floor the same tile as the rest of our house and added new base board and I added some white stripes on the walls with paint.

And I hung this antique iron sign I got from the flea market:

It’s been busy around here trying to get ready for the new baby – but a lot more posts to come!

Anna’s play kitchen

I can’t believe Anna will be ONE next month. This year has flown by too fast. For her 1st Birthday I wanted to give her something meaningful. I loved the idea of a play kitchen but didn’t love the plastic store bought ones. So I found Ana White’s amazing website with DIY plans to build your own play kitchen out of wood.

Luckily I have an amazing Father-in law who is very handy and was able to build me the frame with no problem:

Then came the fun part for me, picking out paint and accessories for it! Here she is all complete. Now if I can only wait 22 more days to give it to Anna on her actual birthday!

The ribbon thing in background is something I made for decoration for Anna’s one year pics next week, it’s just cut fabric tied to a ribbon. I used an opps paint mixed with some stuff I had at home to paint it that seafoam green color.  After I painted it, I sealed it all with a waterproof polyurethane.

Breakdown of parts:

Sink is a kitchen bowl I got for $6 on amazon

Faucet was a little pricy – $32 on ebay. It’s a bar facet so it’s made smaller

Handle for oven was $5 on amazon

Stove skirt was made from $10 worth of fabric from JoAnnes and lil pom-poms, and I hung it with a 14″ curtain rod I had to order online for $8. Hard to find one that small!

Stove burners were $1 each – little wood basketball decals from JoAnnes

Knobs were a little pricey, but I was in love with them from the start – from Anthropology $8 each

I spent about $55 on the wood…. so just over $150 total but I am a sucker for handmade gifts and this one is worth every penny!

And of course she has to have some food ready in her panty! These are wood toys made by Melissa and Doug toy co.

Can’t wait to give it to Anna!
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baby BOY!!!

Baby BOY on the way! Due Dec. 16th. We figured life was not busy enough with work, 4 dogs and a 10 month old baby girl

Now time to start planning HIS nursery, the fun part. We have a 3 bedroom house so his room will have to double as a guest room (sorry little one you have to share) here are some ideas I found for inspiration:

 

So I am thinking the theme will be “Vintage-Dog”. I made a little style board already for some bedding/decor:

 

1. Aden + Anais Flying Dog crib sheet

2. Plain white crib bumper

3.  Crib skirt – fabric by Annette Tatum

4.  Curtains – fabric by Amy Butler

5.  Idea for wall art – old children’s & dog story book covers

6. Idea for shelving – old books

I also love this dresser and want to paint one similar and use it for a changing table:

 

Ooo and I love these baskets mounted to the wall for easy access storage, perfect!

And since it goes along with the theme… I must get this hat for newborn pics:

 

I want to get a trundle bed for in there. But they are soooo expensive. So hopefully I can find a frame for one on craigslist, spray paint it and then buy new twin mattresses.

Anna is oh so excited about being a big sister too!

 

0-8 Months – Anna’s Favorites

Anna is just over 8 months old now, I can hardly believe it! Here are just a few of her favorite things that have helped us get through some tough times.  Explained below.

1. Dr. Brown’s glass bottles. Love love these bottles. They drastically reduce the air intake, which results in a less gassy, less fussy baby.

2. Green Sprouts teething keys. I have a few toys for Anna made by Green Sprouts and they are very safe. BPA, PVC, Nitrosamine and phthalate free. Which is important to me because she’s chewing them. She loves these still at 8 months and shakes them like crazy when she’s excited.

3. Hyland’s Natural teething tablets. These little tabs dissolve right in the babies mouth, fast and seem to instantly comfort Anna when she’s cutting a tooth. I’ve also used their gel.

4. Green Sprouts stackable cups. I can’t get these out of her hands! They are great for the bathtub too because they have small holes in the bottom so they drain the water.

5. Avent Pacifiers. BPA free and supposedly orthodontist approved, not really sure what that means. We tried a few different brands and these are the only ones Anna liked!

6. Sophie Giraffe. Sophie dates back to 1961 where she was made in France out of an all natural tree rubber. Anna loves to gnaw on Sophie and she’s very light so at 2 months she was able to grip and hold her. Plus the dogs love her too, she squeaks!

7. Summer Infant bathtub. I love this bathtub, it’s soft and filled with little beads. Not hard plastic like a lot of ones I see.

8. Laugh & Play Puppy. For whatever reason this dog can always make Anna smile or laugh. She loves the cheesy songs it sings!

9. Tommee Tippee. Anna’s first sippy cup. It’s non-spill and BPA & Phthalate Free.  She loves to shake this cup around!

10. Boudreaux’s Natural Butt Paste. Really helped sooth Anna’s bottom when she got bouts of diaper rash (from teething).

Anna’s current favorite activity, is sneaking over to the dogs water bowls and playing in the water: