Newest Obsession

It's been awhile since I've blogged yet again.  I have been bad this past school year! You would think that only having one child at home would make it easier to blog... But that one child at home is like a little leech when Missy isn't home! 

So, I'm breaking nearly all of my previous promises to blog about Missy's birthday party and other such happenings over the summer. If you are DYING to see snippets, hop on over to my Instagram feed and check it out... Though you'll have to scroll back a ways. :/ Sorry about that!

My grandmother was very generous at Christmas and sent some money for us to buy "wants" for ourselves. The kids received re-decorated rooms, Hubby received a Nook, and I purchased my very first sewing machine! 

For YEARS I have been terrified to sew. I figured that if there was a way to sew your finger to a blanket, I would do it. This coming from the girl whom almost chopped off her thumb with a massive paper cutter... And there WAS a guard!! But I collected the courage, pushed back my fears, and ordered one!! I then ran out and bought fabric for a few projects and waited. Then the ice storm hit the day it was scheduled to arrive and I waited a few more days. 

It FINALLY came in and rather than busting it out immediately and sewing something, I was smart about it and took it to my "professional" friends to teach me how to use it. (They are not actual professional seamstresses... But one knows how to sew the cutest little dresses for her daughter and the other knows her stuff as well. So in my book... "professionals.") 

One of them took the lead since our machines are similar. It's like she KNEW me! She threaded the bobbin... And then UNthreaded the bobbin and said, "Now YOU do it!" Then she showed me how to thread the needle, and then again UNthreaded the needle and had me do it!  Visual Kinesthetic learning at it's finest!  

Missy has been growing inches in her legs recently and pants that we just bought were too short and rather buy her new jeans when these fit everywhere else, I wanted to sew on ruffles to the bottom! So this became my first project! My second project was to simply sew up the back of smocked fabric to make a dress and then to sew button holes into ribbon so that I could add removable straps to the dress.  She is in love with her "new" pants and new dress and I am in love with my sewing machine!  

I even managed to sew a coordinating dress/top for Masha!

The sewing machine rekindled my Pinterest obsession and I found more easy projects that I could do! Baby gifts! Easter gifts! I am so excited and Missy is just as excited to watch me sew as I am to sew! The Hubs is taking the dining room turned sewing room "renovation" rather well too!! Just kidding... I set it up and take it all down when I'm done... most of the time.  I'm thinking the next home may need a sewing/craft room. ;) 

Do you sew? What do you like to sew?

New Home... New Wreath!

I'm BAA-AACK!!

I've missed you!  We are in our new home.  And all the boxes are unpacked!  I told myself that I would not take my computer out of its bag until everything was unpacked.  :)  DONE!

We live in a cute little home with four rooms.  That means we can have a playroom that can convert into a guest room when needed!  YAY!!!  Guests no longer have to feel like they are in the way as they sleep in a room filled with action figures and cars and little boy stuff.  Actually, I guess they are sleeping in the playroom... so still surrounded by toys and therefore they still may feel like that... but they can KNOW that they aren't.  :)  Both kids will be sleeping in their own beds rather than one sleeping on the floor somewhere.  And that makes for a perfect compromise to me!  

The night we finished unpacking, I ran to Hobby Lobby (I am so excited to live near a Hobby Lobby!!) and purchased materials to make a new wreath for the front door.  I was itching to do something crafty, but like blogging, was waiting until everything was unpacked first.   I had a coffee filter wreath at our last home, but I was having issues with how I was going to transport it safely to the new home.  Then, the night before we left, a friend was dropping me off after a farewell dinner and inquired about it.  So... I gave it to her!  Problem solved!  

At Hobby Lobby, I purchased a foam round wreath, aqua colored yarn, 4 different colors of felt (red, pink, ivory, and white), and a large chipboard letter.  It wasn't much, but I spent about an hour slowly walking around the store looking at all the goodies!  Missy would absolutely love this store!!  :)

Anyway, that night while catching up on Grey's Anatomy, I wrapped the wreath with the yarn.  It took FOR-EVER!!  It was glued on one side with tacky glue so that it stayed put.

This is what it looked like about 2 hours in.  See!  F. O. R. E. V. E. R.  The next two nights, I worked with the felt.  I found this tutorial on Pinterest.  It was super easy, but also a little time consuming.  I measured and cut mutiple squares in different sizes in the colors I chose.  Then each square was rounded on the corners, then cut into a spiral.  Then the spiral was rolled from the outside in, and then glued with tacky glue.  I hope I'm explaining it well.  If not, the tutorial contained more pictures than I thought to take.  :)

Once all the rosettes were made, I painted the letter.  

As I was putting the wreath together and playing with placements, I changed my mind on having a plain solid black letter and added polka dots. :)  Then I hot glued it all together, added a weight to the back of one side (anything small and heavy will do) so that it hung more evenly.  As you can see in the pics, it still doesn't hang perfectly straight... I have to find another thing to add a little more weight.  Finally, I added some ribbon to hang it from! 

I love it!  Its bright and cute.  :)  And easy!!  Although very time consuming.  :)  

Until next time!

~Monica

I Felt Like Being Crafty

I think we had a moment of insanity back in the fall when we asked different family members all to come to visit us for the holidays.  His mom and her husband came to visit from December 22nd until 26th.  His brother came to visit from the 24th through the 29th.  Our family from North Carolina came for the night of the 23rd.  And finally, my mom, dad, and two brothers came from the 29th until January 3rd.  Crazy, right?  

It was all fun and although hectic at times, it was less stressful than we thought it was going to be.  Plus, everyone survived!  Always a good thing.

Before everyone came, though, I felt it a good idea to destress as much as possible.  So I got a little crafty.  :)  

While making a Michael's run for black frosting dye for Bub's Mickey Mouse cupcakes, I checked out the canvas prices.  I really wanted to do a Mistletoes canvas that I had seen on Pinterest here and it looked easy enough.  Then I saw the sale!  4-5 canvases (depending on size) for $19.99!!  I didn't even have to ask the Hubs.  He saw my face and said yes!  So I threw in the pack of 5 16x20 canvases!  

Ok, so I just lied a little.  I didn't exactly grab the 16x20 canvas pack quickly.  I actually stood there at the rack of canvases for quite some time.  Remember back on my Liebster Award post?  I'm indecisive!  I hemmed and hawed over the 12x12, the 9x12, the 16x20, and some much larger... well... let's just say ALL of the size offerings.  The Hubs had time to go back to where the other single canvas options were and picked out a 12x12 just for the Mistletoes piece and left me to my thoughts and lack of decision making skills.  In the end, I knew in my head the art piece I wanted to create... so I laid them all out.  Yes... I made different sized groupings of 4 so I could see how big or how small my final product would be.  All in an aisle.  A few employees were nearby and kept staring at me.  What can I say?  I have to make a decision somehow!  In the end, the grouping of 16x20s won.  :)  And THEN I threw them in the cart... while the Hubs rolled his eyes at me.  

A few days later, I wandered to the acrylic paint section and laid out different groupings of paint colors... because again... I could not make a decision.  I knew the color yellow I wanted... and the color red.  But did I want a greenish aqua color?  Or maybe a more bluish aqua color?  I even texted my mom some pics of the groupings... but she was busy and didn't respond.  After 5-10 minutes of standing in the aisle surrounded by little groupings of paint, I made my decision and purchased the paint.  

NOW... I was ready!!  So the next day during nap/quiet time, I laid out my painting sheet on the floor in my living room and got to work.  It had been a LONG time since I had painted anything... so I can't really give a good tutorial.  I'm not even sure any of you would look at my finished work and would say, "I MUST make that!!"  So I'm not going to go into a lot of details.  

First, I covered all 4 canvases in two different tones of yellow, one more gold and one more mustard.  I didn't want one flat color, so I made sure not to mix the colors completely.  

Once they had dried, I put some of the aqua on my palette and began the lettering.  I free-handed an "L," a "V," and an "E" each on their own canvas.  I added a little charcoal grey to the aqua paint and added some shading along the edge of the letters to give them a little dimension.

After the letters, I painted a heart on the 4th canvas.  I had the same charcoal grey paint and some white so that I could add some dimension to the heart.  Then I let them dry!

Being this was the first large art piece I have made, I was super excited!!  I even ran into our room to wake the Hubs up to tell him I was excited!  He was not as excited as I was.  :)  Once they were completely dry... and the Hubs was completely awake... we he hung them up on the wall!!

In real life, they are straighter than they appear... they move every time Bub shuts our bedroom door.

I really love how it turned out.  I think it fills the wall nicely!! 


Until next time!

~Monica

He's 2!!

Just before Christmas, my baby boy turned 2 years old!  I can't believe it!  

Birth

1 year

2 years ("Chandler Smile")

2 years (real smile)

This past year has been full of ups and downs with him, but he is back on track developmentally and thriving!!  He was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy and is on a dairy-free diet, which can be frustrating, but the changes that we have seen in him make the effort worth it!

Bub doesn't like having a lot of attention placed on him.  Last year, he seemed to melt down before our eyes during gift opening time.  So we have small family affairs.  Even though his parties are small, I still want to decorate and have the party atmosphere for him to separate his birthday from Christmas.  His birthday is only 3 days before Christmas, so doing as my parents did and not decorating for the Holiday until after his birthday is not as feasible... so this is how I am giving him his day for now.  

I gave him six options for a birthday party theme and let him pick which one he wanted.  He chose Mickey Mouse!  I was so excited for this theme as I figured I could DIY most of it!

For the banner, I hung a yellow table cloth and hot glued a felt Mickey silhouette to it.  I used two different sized oatmeal containers to trace circles onto black felt and free-hand drew a "2" onto red felt.  Super easy.  Super simple.  

We wanted to keep as much as possible dairy-free when it came to the food options.  I wanted him to pretty much be able to eat anything that was offered.  It IS his party, after all!  :)  Going with the Mickey Mouse theme, we served hot dogs & mini corn dogs to allude to the "Hot Dog" song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  To expand on that, we also had a chili bar.  There was cheese and sour cream on this bar, but that was all the dairy at the party.  :)  For dessert, we had marshmallow pops dipped in dairy-free chocolate that I found at Trader Joes (semi-sweet chocolate chips) and had my mom ship to me.  (Thanks Mom!!!)  I should note that if you are highly allergic to dairy, these "MAY CONTAIN DAIRY" because they are packaged in a plant that packages milk chocolate chips.  Bub is able to handle things that are produced in facilities that handle dairy, so this was not a concern for us.  

I also made mini-cupcakes using almond milk and vegan butter with cake mix.  To darken the frosting, I used Wilton black icing dye in classic chocolate frosting.  For ears, Mini Oreos.  

I kept to the yellow, red, and black scheme for the table and added balloons because Bub LOVES them.  And to make it easy, I hung licensed Mickey hanging decor found at Party City from the lamp over the dining table.  

Everything was super easy.  Frosting the cupcakes probably took the most time!  FYI, one box of cake mix makes a bit more than 50 mini cupcakes... I stopped at 50 and threw away the rest of the batter.  :)  There were WAY more than enough for 10 of us.  :)

Bub approved!!  He did much better this year than last!  He was still slightly overwhelmed with 9 sets of eyes being on him, but he didn't hide this year!  Progress!!!  Maybe next year he can have friends over!  

Happy birthday, Bub!!


Until next time!

~Monica

A Microwave Cart and a Dress-Up Station

You are probably wondering why those things are in a title together. They have nothing in common and don't even belong in the same space of a home, right? Well, read on. :)

When I was 4 or 5 years old, my parents bought a microwave cart. My mom originally re-purposed the microwave cart to be used as a TV stand. She cut holes in the back of the cabinet so that the cords could come out and the electronics could be hidden. The kitchen in our first home in northern California was a good size, but oddly laid out with not a ton of counter space, so converting the cart back into a microwave cart was necessary in order to have a space for the very large microwave that we had. Over the years, the microwave cart was used again as a TV stand.  I apologize for the poor quality of the "before" picture... but digital cameras were not around... and this is a picture of a picture because, quite frankly, I didn't have the time for it to be scanned. :) You get the idea though, right? 

The glorious "before" picture... circa 1986-1987.

Fast-forward to when the hubs and I got married. We had practically no furniture and not a ton of cash, so we gladly took any hand-me-downs that we were offered. This microwave-turned-TV cart had been temporarily sitting in my parents' garage! We were using an antiqued dresser as a TV console in the living room, but needed something in our bedroom. It didn't match any of the furniture in our room, but we figured that no one was really going to be hanging out in our room anyway, and took it! :)

Once we moved to the central coast of California, we used the cart in the hubs office to hold a TV and DVD player in case he wanted to watch a movie in there while studying or working. The great part about it having wheels was that we could easily roll it into our room if we wanted to watch a movie before bed!

Now we are in Georgia and for the first few months it sat in our garage. I didn't know what I wanted to use it for, but for some reason or another it made the move with us across the country. One day last year, it came to me! Missy desperately needed more storage in her room. So we the hubs sanded it and spray painted it white. Then I used some hot pink and neon green craft paint and painted the little grooves in the doors. Voila! A cabinet that kinda matched the decor in Missy's room!

Excuse the nicks in the paint and a the few stickers... its been in her possession for a little while now.

Originally, it held coloring books and crayons on the shelf and the striped storage bins held puzzles and stuffed animals underneath... but today, all of that changed!

She has been in dire need of a new way to store her dress-ups. The cardboard trunks that her original sets came in were breaking (she was stacking them and then putting her step-stool on top so that she could reach the top drawer of her dresser) and therefore, oodles of tulle and other shiny material were exploding all over her room! So, I emptied the stuffed animals into a plastic storage box in her "baby's room" (ie. her closet floor) and also found a new home for the puzzles. In one storage bin, we put all of her hats and purses and other make believe play toys. In the other bin, we stored all of her play makeup and her Strawberry Shortcake wig and her fairy wings. On top of the cart we have her tiaras, a tin purse, and her piggy bank displayed and an old train case that used to belong to my grandmother. In the train case we housed all of her costume jewelry and gloves. The piggy bank opens by removing the nose, and it is crooked because Budboy has recently learned how to open the bank and Missy is not a fan of him stealing her money... so it has to be turned very tightly now. 

Those bins fit perfectly on the shelf and inside the cupboard we folded all of her dresses and skirts and tops and stacked them... I do realize that they will not stay folded for very long... but I can hope, right? And as you can see... we ran out of spray paint before we could finish the inside of the cabinet and finishing that part has not been at the top of our priorities. Eventually, her dresser will get a face lift and the cabinet will be finished then. :)

There you have it!! A microwave cart turned dress-up station!! Missy is beyond thrilled!!


Until next time!

~Monica