All In A Day: baby stuff

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

Whew! I have finally recovered from Emily’s birthday extravaganza and am finally getting around to posting her party!! I am so excited to share the pictures and details with you! I put a lot of ~~blood~~, sweat, & tears into her party and it turned out almost exactly how I wanted it!

About 50 of our closest family & friends came over on Sunday, November 6th to celebrate Emily’s first year of life with us! It really was so much fun.

*WARNING: There are a TON of really cute pictures ahead!!*

I started by making the invitations myself in Photoshop! I went to a really awesome local shop to have the invitations made for me, but the budget just didn’t allow for them. So I took my vision and got to work trying to make it work myself. I am super happy with how they turned out. I thought they set the tone for the party perfectly. Here’s what I came up with:

Just about everything that I did and/or made for the party was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest! I had a whole board that I dedicated to ideas for Emily’s birthday party. What would we do without that site???

The foyer was set with ceiling to floor pink with white polka dot curtains. I hung her “month” pictures from the curtain, along with a “1” that I made. I also hung a glitter paper lantern from our regular foyer light fixture. Yeah, it’s still hanging there. I just haven’t felt like bringing the latter in to take it down. I took the square table out of the breakfast nook and put it in the foyer. I put a white tablecloth on it, and wrapped it with a table tutu I made. I made a welcome sign using Photoshop. I found the awesome oval frame at Goodwill in Destin and used Krylon’s Glitter Blast to spray it with pink glitter! It turned out awesome. I put one of my favorite pictures from Emily’s 12 month photo shoot in it. I had a ton of Mason jars and I used half to put pink roses in, and the other half to use as votive holders (complete with pink “gems”, pink sparkle ribbon, and topped with a pink “diamond” scrapbooking brad). I also put one of her 12 month pictures in a large mat for party guests to sign and write sweet words to Emily on.

Outside, I hung pink tissue paper poms from our porch. I also made a custom wreath for Em’s b-day (available in the Etsy shop soon)!

We set the food up in the breakfast nook. We put white linens on two 6 foot tables and put them in front of the windows. One table was the main food table. In hindsight, we probably could’ve used another table for the food. It was a little tight on that table. Oh well. We used the 2nd table as the dessert table!

For food, we did a burger bar. I had Publix pat out 100 hamburger sliders. Do you know how hard it is to find slider buns?? Fortunately, I have a friend whose husband delivers bread for Pepperidge Farm. So I gave her a ring to get the scoop on these slider buns. I had to go to 2 different Publix stores to get enough buns. Let’s just say, I cleaned them out of all their slider buns! We also had pasta salad, baked beans, macaroni & cheese, fruit cones, and deviled eggs. Yum!

The dessert bar was my favorite (and I don’t even like sweets that much)! We had a candy bar (with all pink candy, of course), chocolate dipped pretzel sticks, chocolate dipped marshmallows, cupcakes, cookies, and of course Emily’s smash cake! The candy came from a website called Economy Candy. They had the best prices, by far, that I found! Thanks to my bestie Amber for recommending them to me! The owl cookies came from Tasty Pastry, a local bakery. I got the cupcakes from…..are you ready for this??…….SAMS!! And let me just tell you, I had some cupcake critics/connoisseurs at the party and everyone was raving about how awesome the cupcakes were! They really were super yummy!! Sams was super accommodating too! I wanted some vanilla, some chocolate….no problem! I wanted some light pink icing, some hot pink……no problem! And the best part? They were only $13 for 30 cupcakes!!! So I got 2 orders of 30!

I made all the labels for the food. If it’s on paper, I made it! I used some of the amazing Pattern Pieces that Aimee at Sprik Space created! She’s amazing! I did the candy bar labels, the cupcake toppers, the stickers on the candy bags, and the Happy Birthday banner all using the print & cut feature on my Silhouette! Sooooo much easier than gluing 3 or 4 different layers of paper together! Gah! I also made the water bottle labels. I just printed them on regular cardstock paper and used double sided tape to secure them to the bottle. For favors, we had candy and caramel apples! I made the favor tags using the print & cut feature again!

Have I mentioned that I want the new Silhouette Cameo for Christmas?? Or anniversary. Or New Years. Or Thanksgiving. Any holiday, really. Or just because on a random Tuesday would be great too! * I hope the hubs reads this!! Hehehe*

I also made the table runners. I made them using fabric and ribbon! I found the cute cupcakes at Michaels. They are iron-on's so that part was easy! I used some Heat N Bond and my Silhouette to make the monogram for the middle blue runner. I love how they turned out!!

I knew I wanted a vintage high chair for Emily’s party! I wanted to paint it pink. I searched Craigslist and our newspaper for MONTHS and never could find anything. One day I finally found something! It was $15 and the girl selling it was so sweet! Score!

I forgot to take before pictures of it, but here is a before picture that was on the listing:

A little sanding and a few cans of Krylon primer & spray paint later…..

I love how it turned out. I used my Silhouette to cut the vinyl for the back of the chair. For the “EWP”, I literally sprayed the vinyl with the Glitter Blast spray paint before I applied it to the chair. Oh – and I also made her birthday hat! The bib I found at a local children’s boutique.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we were having a deck built and boy am I so glad we did! It was perfect for the party! We also bought a gazebo and put out back, with tables and chairs! It was perfect! We also had a bubble machine & cornhole going outside for the kids! They had a blast running through the bubbles! I got the bubble machine at the end of the season at Target for $4!!! And it came with the 6 batteries that it needed. The batteries alone were worth the $4!! I love it when I find a deal like that!

All in all, it was an amazing birthday party. And even though it was way past her nap time, Emily did amazing! She had so much fun! It was a blast and I am grateful everyday for her!