Emily’s Minnie Mouse 2nd Birthday Party

 

Hey guys!

Do not adjust your computer screens!

Yes I did just post twice in two days!!!!  Holy bananas!!!!!

Well ya’ll know I just couldn’t wait to share with you my sweet baby girl’s 2nd birthday party!!!!

I had so much fun planning this party!  Although I have to admit, I was pretty stressed out about the whole thing.  That whole “full time job” thing will really put a damper in your party planning ventures!

Anyway, when Em voted for a Minnie Mouse party over pink ruffles & roses, my heart nearly shattered into a million pieces.  I mean…..Minnie Mouse is cute and all, but I’m not a huge fan of character parties.

So what’s a girl to do?  Well, I started planning a non-character character party!  And here’s how it turned out.  Are you ready for picture overload!?!? 

Good!

Like I mentioned in my last post, Lauren from Simply Inspired Mama is amazing and she took all of the gorgeous pictures!

I started by creating an invitation that would set the tone for the party.  Still TONS of pink, polka dots, and a little Minnie here & there!

 

Despite being a little under the weather and having a fever the night before her party, Emily had a BLAST!

 

         

        

       

         

       

       

       

 

And Heaven forbid…..I touched her cupcake!

    

What a little diva!  It literally was just a little itty bitty scoop of frosting!

All in all we had a blast and it was worth all the stressing! 

And might I add…..my house still hasn’t recovered from the party!  I better get it together before Thanksgiving so I can bring in all the Christmas stuff!!! 

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed my baby girl’s birthday party!

 

New Family Room Curtains

You guys may or may not remember in my Home Goals post, I mentioned that one of my goals for our family room was to buy/make new curtains.  You know, ones that weren’t high waters.
 
These curtains used to be 96”.  Then they got washed and they shrunk to 88”.  We have super tall windows so 96” barely sweeps the ground.  After the wash, they shrunk up about 8”.  Gross.  I was really missing those 8”.  Highwater  curtains don’t really tickle my pickle, ya know?
I lived with it for a long time though.  I guess I was just waiting for the right “deal” on curtain panels to pop up or for me to find the right fabric.  But let’s face it, curtain panels are ridiculously expensive and fabric can be too.  Especially when I needed about 12 yards of fabric. 
Enter Black Friday.
My cousin and I decided to brave some of the Black Friday sales.  There was something at Sears that she wanted to buy for her son.  While there, some sheets caught my eye!  I liked the design and they were gray so they would match our décor.  They were on sale for $10 (for the whole set).  So, I bought 2 sets of sheets.  They sat in a closet since then.  Until yesterday. 
I finally busted these bad boys out and sewed them up.  I just cut the flat sheets in half to create my 4 panels.

I really love that they were super cheap sheets (like 100 count kinda cheap) so they are nice and flowy and sheer.  They let in tons of light!  But best of all……THEY’RE NOT HIGH WATERS!!

Oh….and I moved that bookshelf into the family room.  I’m not sure if I love it there.  I think I might slap some white DIY chalk paint on that bad boy (everything’s a “bad boy” today.  weird.) and see if it makes a difference. 
Anyway, I’m not totally in love with these curtains but they are LOADS better than the high waters.  So I’m happy….for now.    And you can’t really beat 4 new curtain panels for $20!
So that’s that!  New curtains.  $20.  Happy mama!
Thanks for stopping by!! 

Playroom Update {Pt. 2}

Hi friends and HAPPY FRIDAY!!

What are you up to this weekend?  Any big plans for the Super Bowl?  We usually have a BIG party at our house each year for the Super Bowl, but I just really did not feel up to it this year.  We usually go all out and I make tons of appetizers and desserts and we have food catered in and there’s usually about 40-45 people here.  I just didn’t want to deal with it this year so we’re not having the party.  Which, I guess is a good thing since the Giants are playing.  That’s Scott’s team so he’ll be glad he gets to actually watch the game!

Anyway….on to the reason for today’s post!

As you know, most of the rooms in our house are a constant work in progress (isn’t that how it is for everybody?!?).  I made a tiny little update to the playroom.  The last time I showed you guys the playroom, I had just painted it and we installed rain gutter bookshelves and set up a little desk/art area for Emily. 

The wall above Emily’s little desk (which also used to be mine when I was a baby) was blank and needed something.  I thought since the space was right above her art area, it would be a perfect place to display some of her scribble scrabble art.

A while back I was browsing in a thrift store that is right down the street and I found this HUGE gold mirror.  It actually used to be the front of a fancy medicine cabinet.  It was super heavy but there was no way to hang it up, since it was just the “face” to the medicine cabinet.  Weird.  Anyway….I snagged it for $10 and brought it home simply because I loved the frame.

And here is where I’m kicking myself……

I cannot find my before pictures of this mirror!!!  ARGH!  They must’ve somehow gotten deleted off my camera.  Just picture a huge, gold framed mirror.  Got it?

I had to unscrew about 25 screws from the back of the frame in order to get the mirror out.  But I popped it out and was left with just the frame.  I cleaned it up and went to town on it with some white spray paint.  It took a ton of coats (about 4) to get the coverage I needed.

I needed something for the middle.  Hhhhmm…..styrofoam!!  Yes!  I had a huge sheet out in the garage so I simply cut out an oval to fit inside the frame.

I then used some spray adhesive and fabric I already had on hand to cover the piece of styrofoam.

Then I just hot glued the styrofoam to the inside of the frame.

{See the back of the frame in all it’s gold glory?  And all those dadgum screw holes??}

I was stumped as to how to hang it up for a few minutes.  Then the lightbulb went off and I simply took a piece of sisal rope and tied it to 2 of the screws that I had taken out and then just screwed the screws right back into the frame.

And here she is all hung up in the playroom:

 

There’s no art on it yet, but we’ll get there!  It really makes a big statement in the playroom and I love that the fabric matches some of the fabric in the bunting on the wall to the left!

Now I need to make some cutesy, bling-y pins so I can pin Em’s artwork to the board.

So what do you think?  How do you display your kids’ artwork?  I’d love to hear ideas as I’m sure this isn’t going to be a permanent solution.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

I am linking up to many of these great parties:

M: DIY Showoff Project Parade, Metamorphosis Monday, Made by You Mondays, Just Something I Whipped Up, Today’s Creative Blog, Making Monday Marvelous, Polly Want A Crafter T: Get Your Craft On, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A to Z, Homework, A Bowl Full Of Lemons W: Uncommon, Twin Dragonfly Designs, Creative Spark , Not Just A Housewife Th: 36th Avenue, Just A Girl, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, Every Creative Endeavor F: Sassy Sites, I’m Lovin’ It, Remodelaholic’s Anonymous, Frugal Friday, Friday Fun Finds, Feature Yourself Friday, Pity Party, Weekend Wrap-Up, Weekend Bloggy Reading S:  I Heart Naptime, Be Different, Act Normal, A Little Lovely,  Su:  Under The Table & Dreaming, Remodelaholic, Homemaker On A Dime

DIY Mini Pallet Valentines Art

Hey, hey, hey!!  Happy Monday!!
I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!  Our weekend was great!  We just hung out a lot as a family, grilled steaks, tried new recipes, played at the park and on the golf course, and just enjoyed time together as a family.  That’s what it’s all about, right?!? 
I also made this super easy and super cute Valentines Day art!  I don’t really get all crazy with my Valentines decorations.  I hang a wreath and a flag on our porch and I put one or two things on the mantel.  But definitely nothing extravagant.  I love how this sign is so simple and subtle and that it doesn’t look too “Valentine-y”!




I love, love, love the look of pallets in the home.  Pinterest is full of yummy ideas for using pallets in your home from restructuring them to be coffee tables, to beautiful art!  My recent favorite is Jen’s Valentines Pallet Art!  So pretty!
Although I love the look of pallet art, let’s face it…..I don’t have the time or patience to hunt down a pallet, clean it, sand it, paint it, blah…blah….blah!  If you’re new here (hi! and welcome!! and thank you so, so, so much for following along!!), you’ll soon come to realize that I love projects that are 3 things: quick, easy, and cheap!  Oh and it’s gotta be pretty!  Ok, so 4 things!
So while browsing in Hobby Lobby one day, I found these pretty little packages of wood pieces.  They were just wood strips and there were 4 in a package for $2.  I bought 3 packages, came home, and got to work!
Here are the supplies:

• packages of wood strips from craft store
• white paint & foam brush
• vinyl
• wood glue

I was a little impatient and didn’t get a picture of the wood strips in the actual package, but you can at least see what the package looks like. 
So I just laid out all my wood strips to get the size “pallet” that I wanted.  I saved 2 of the wood strips for the back.


Then I just used the wood glue to glue all the horizontal strips to the 2 vertical strips.  Can you see the “mini pallet” coming together?!
Once they were all glued on, I let it dry for about an hour while I did other things.  I came back and got busy painting with some plain white acrylic paint.
It took a few coats to get the coverage I wanted.

I don’t have pictures of this step, but I created my saying in Silhouette Studio and cut it out with vinyl on my Silhouette.  Nothing better than a little Jason Mraz lyrics for V-day!

I used transfer paper to transfer my vinyl onto the “mini pallet”.  And here’s the end result:









I love how it looks on my console table and is just the perfect touch of Valentine’s!
What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by!

I am linking up to many of these great parties:

M: DIY Showoff Project Parade, Metamorphosis Monday, Made by You Mondays, Just Something I Whipped Up, Today’s Creative Blog, Making Monday Marvelous, Polly Want A Crafter T: Get Your Craft On, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A to Z, Homework, A Bowl Full Of Lemons W: Uncommon, Oopsey Daisy, Uncommon, Twin Dragonfly Designs, Creative Spark , Not Just A Housewife Th: 36th Avenue, Just A Girl, Gluesticks, House of Hepworths, Every Creative Endeavor F: My Repurposed Life, Sassy Sites, I’m Lovin’ It, Remodelaholic’s Anonymous, Frugal Friday, Fingerprints On The Fridge, Feature Yourself Friday, Pity Party, Weekend Wrap-Up, Weekend Bloggy Reading S:  Positively Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Be Different, Act Normal  Su:  Under The Table & Dreaming, Remodelaholic, Homemaker On A Dime

Thanks for reading! 

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