gettin' crafty

It seems the craft projects just pile up and up while I can find very little time to actually create some of the crafts I so badly want to make.

However, I've had some time lately to actually create!

My first project was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest from this site. I recreated this with Adeline's sweet little hands and feet! I love that I have her handprints and footprints preserved in such a fun way!

I simply used canvases from Wal-Mart, tempera and acrylic paints, and "googly" eyes from Wal-Mart.

So simple and so fun!

My next project was inspired by the painted burlap signs you see. I LOVE the look of those but just couldn't get myself to spend the $30 or so dollars on one!

I've been wanting to create a fun birthday sign for Adeline's upcoming 1st birthday and to have one to hang on our front door each time we celebrate a birthday in our home!

For this project, I recycled an old burlap bag (or you can just use purchased burlap material).

1.  I sketched the outline of my design (a cupcake with icing) twice, in order to have two sides.

2. I cut my design out and pieced it together to make sure it matched.

3. Next, I used tempera (you can also use acrylic) paint to paint the icing white on top for each side of the cupcake. (Make sure to put the burlap over a lot of paper when painting...it leaks through.)

4.  I then painted stripes on each side (I did each side in different colors to have a more "girlie" side and a "boyish" side.)

5. Let the sides dry - this takes about half a day.

6. Use a Sharpie to write on and decorate as you wish.

7. Use a glue gun to glue the two sides together and secure wire for hanging. You will want to stuff the inside with newspaper.

I'm loving how this turned out too!!

A third project I wanted to accomplish was another idea I found on Pinterest.  I love, love having framed pictures in the house...but with as many pictures as I take of our family now and of Adeline by herself, I don't want to commit to placing a picture in a frame.  I would never get around to changing out the pictures! I loved the idea I found of have a clip within a frame to clip a picture and to easily change it out whenever.  I found a couple frames at Homegoods, used some canvas material I purchased at Wal-Mart (this is a textured fabric that we now have in a lot of places throughout our home!) and hung them above our new living room chair (that I adore!).

  I love the way it pulls the little nook all together!

memory keeping

I am guilty for a few things.

One.  I am a memory hoarder.  Seriously.  I try to hang onto every moment and memory.  Having a baby has taken this to a whole new level! ;)

Two.  I am always looking for ways to change and add/update our home.

Three.  Pinterest is an addiction of mine.  I pin and pin and pin.  And then pin some more.  It's like a drug for creative people.  I have a "memory keeping" folder, an "our home" folder, and a "photo ideas" folder that often get filled up with pin ideas for our home.

So, oh my was I happy when I was recently able to make some of my pinning happen in "real life"!

My first project is a silhouette of Adeline.  I so love the whimsy and charm a silhouette adds to the wall.  Not to mention the beauty of having Adeline's sweet little profile captured at 9 months! 

I found the oval frame at a yard sale for $0.50! A little spray paint was all it needed! I simply used a silhouette tutorial online and am so, so pleased with how it turned out!

The silhouette became one of a few things that I added to our hallway.  I added it to a collage of frames.  One frame to go around the thermostat (Pinterest idea), a newborn photo of Adeline, the silhouette, and then a quote I printed that I found on Pinterest that I love..."i wouldn't trade you for the world".

Another memory keeping project I did recently was actually a gift for Father's Day for Justin.  It's a collage of pictures of Adeline that I finally got it hung in our bedroom.  I so adore it (and so does Justin ;)!

The final project I completed recently was corralling two years of cards.  Yes, I save all the cards we receive for birthdays, holidays, etc.  We have a bunch of cards for 2011, one for 2012, and then I have started a bunch for Adeline of all her cards from her first year.  I grouped them to include the Christmas cards from the December right before (so the 2011 bunch has 2012 Christmas cards) and I plan to start a new bunch at each Christmas and collect as the year goes.  I used an automatic whole punch and binder rings you can get at any store with office supplies.  I love having our cards organized and a plan for where they are going.  (I keep a card display on our foyer table of the current cards.  They will now get moved to the ring of cards once a holiday passes.)

Whew! Feels good to get this accomplished and in our home to enjoy for years to come.

what I'm loving!

Linking up with the sweet Jamie today!

Today I'm loving...

*This new Pandora station I heard about for babies...Caspar Babypants.  Seriously cute!

via

*My amazing bible study I'm doing on Thursday mornings....James by Beth Moore.  I have always loved the book of James and how convicting and raw it is.  Beth Moore is seriously amazing at enlightening you to see scripture in a deeper way to closer to connect to Jesus.  One of my favorite parts of this is that we're handwriting the books of James throughout the study. How cool is that?  It makes it stick in a whole new way to visual person like myself! One part of James that's stuck in my head right now...

"Consider it all joy!" 

James 1:2a (paraphrased)

*That it's still summertime.  That's all I need to say about that! :D

*This article I found on Pinterest.  Definitely worth the read! So full of common sense, easy ideas!

via

 *All of your kind and encouraging comments on my post from yesterday.  I am so, so filled with joy over the fact that God was able to use my story to bless and encourage you.  You are such encouragement to me as well! Praise the Lord for how He works!

*That we just took an amazing family beach trip to St. Simons Island, Georgia. (I really hope to post pics eventually about this trip when I can find some time! I've got a crazy, mobile, pulling-up-on-everything crawler, y'all!) It was so fun to watch Adeline play in the sand and fall in love with the beach!

Happy Wednesday!

pillow talk

We recently purchased new living room furniture that I love! Our couch was a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law which they had gotten used from my brother-in-law's parents. Needless to say, after us having it around for 4 years of marriage, it was on its last leg.

At the furniture store, we pieced a couch and chair together from different lines. So the pillows that came with our couch had the couch material on one side and another fabric that didn't match our chair on the other. We could have bought a set of pillows that match the chair for $50. Um, no thanks.

For the meantime we've had the fabric side of the pillows facing the couch to hide the mismatched colors. I have been shopping around and hadn't fallen in love with any pillows that match our couch and chair...especially at a price I'm happy with.

Well as you know (and probably do too)....I love Pinterest!

I found a great tutorial for a no-sew pillow cover simply using fabric and folding and knotting it around the pillow. My kind of project!

I also really liked the pillows that came with our couch--they are large and really cushiony. I was having a hard time thinking that we would just throw perfectly good pillows down into the basement, replacing them with others.

So without further ado, with a whopping $9 at Wal-Mart and literally maybe 5 minutes of time...we have new couch pillows that match our chair (and so happen to also match our living room curtains...love when decor details just fall together like that)!

Here's the direct link to the tutorial (I'm on my phone, so no fancy link):

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/31-insanely-easy-and-clever-diy-projects?s=mobile

i love you because...

I have been working on getting our master bedroom into a bit more of a retreat (as much as you can with a bassinet and baby monitor in it ;) and less of a "throw things down and walk away" room.  Besides removing clutter, I've also been looking for ways to add a bit more romance into things.

I have always loved the idea of leaving notes for each other as husband and wife.  I just think it's so important in a relationship to let each other know why you appreciate and love each other.  If you don't say it or show it in some way...how does the other person know? We have a "Praise Board" in our dining area that we love to leave notes on so when I saw a couple ideas on Pinterest, I knew a place to leave love notes was exactly what we needed in our bedroom to add some fun and romance to things!

The inspiration was of course found on Pinterest.

via

via

 Here was what I came up with for our bedroom wall using a frame we had on hand, a fun font I downloaded, and a simple word document...

Now it's hanging on our wall under one of my favorite pictures from our honeymoon.

I'm looking forward to Justin being surprised and finding his first note (I did this when he was at work).  Hopefully this adds a little more romance and gratitude into our busy days!

pinterest-inspired

If you're like me at all, you have gobs of pins on pinterest and the best intentions to actually get around to making/doing all those things you've pinned...but it just doesn't happen as often as you'd like.  I've found that my craft-time has gone from here and there...to almost non-existent with a newborn.  I'm okay with that...the trade-off is pretty sweet.  However, I have just completed one project that I found on pinterest and have piles of craft supplies on my kitchen table to work on some other projects that I'm excited about.  So here's my most recent pinterest-inspired project.

Inspiration:

via on pinterest

Completed project:

color version

my fave--black and white

So I'm not a professional photographer and I was working close to nap time which meant a slowly melting baby...we were very near a meltdown...but I'm so happy with how this photo turned out! I'm picturing it framed on the wall for sure!