..A New Home = New Fun..

So one of my very very best friends just moved back into town and I could... NOT..BE..MORE..EXCITED... obviously by the words in caps and bold so my husband and I got to work right away thinking of something fun for their new digs.. :) Here's what we came up with... boards and bags!!! :) So easy to put together... well that's me speaking and really the hubby did all that work sooo.... I will try and explain this as simply as I can IN CASE you want to make them for around your house or as a gift... I mean Christmas is coming... Also makes a great college gift for someone who is moving out of the dorms and into a house.. that's when I got my first set... :)

Materials:

1 Sheet of Plywood (this will make you tops of four boards so you could technically make two sets)
4 2 X 4's (8 if you want to make four boards :) Don't know why I just wrote that... sorry to make you
                 feel like a dumbass....
Wood Glue
Screws
Spackle
Sandpaper
3 1/2 in. carriage bolts
paint
polycrylic

Tools:

Drill
jigsaw
Table Saw
Circular Saw
Sander
tape measure
Coffee Can

Before I get started.. I am just banking on the Hubby reading this and telling me I don't know the real names of the tools we used.. and he would be right...so I MAY be updating this shortly.. :)

First, we used the circular saw to cut the plywood into the right size to be the tops of the boards, so along the width of the board measure every 3ft on both sides... connect the lines across from each other and cut... you will end up with four large rectangles, these are your tops...

Now we are NO carpenters, so next when we framed out the boxes I measured each side individually and then cut a 2 X 4 to that length. So now, I have the rectangular piece of plywood and 2 X 4's cut to go around the very outside of the box, outlining the shape.

While I was doing this, the hubby was cutting the circles out of the plywood to make the hole. Rather then trying the hole compass deal.. I mean who has those laying around anymore? We used a large coffee can, its the perfect size and centered it on the board, 6 inches from the top. Then the hubby used a jigsaw to cut the circle out..

We glued these pieces to the board with wood glue and then flipped them over and drilled screws threw the top of the plywood to securely attach the top to the sides. Now there will be holes on your board if you do not spackle them in! So take a second to do that now. :)

We were fortunate enough to have a sander so the boards got a complete sand down and then two coats of primer before the real painting began. :)

As for the legs.. they were a pain in the ass to start.. again.. I say this but I really didn't have any part of them :) (There's a lot of thinking involved here.. I'll post this part later:)


Painting Party:

THIS is the fun part! You get to make your boards your own! We were making a set for my friend and who doesn't love chevron so here is what hers looked like:

Disregard that I took this picture in the garage on a painted tarp.. I'll have to sneak over to her place and take a better one. :)

I'll tell you how to paint the chevron pattern as well in a different post. Oh and how to make the bags. ;) You'll be needing those...
















My Hubby made a set for a Bears fan as well.. (do I not need a course in taking pictures? It's terrible!!!!)


So these were super fun to make and not too difficult actually.. if you have all the tools.. we lucked out and did.. but without them some of the parts of this project could get tricky.. but ask around.. we always have a family member or friend who happens to have just what were missing.. :) Unless your planning on getting lots of use out of them.. then by all means.. go crazy buy yourself some tools..

..Giving the Gift of Work..

Well sort of...

One of my lovely girlfriends had her baby shower this weekend and it was ADORABLE! I mean there was too much to take pictures of! Ill have to ask her if I can share some of the photos here.. her Mom is a serious party planner.....

But ANYWAY... I have been keeping track of the Small Fry's Monthly birthdays (hehe) ...They count ok! on a chalkboard I had hanging in my kitchen. So yes, I am one of those Mom's, you walk into my house and you know EXACTLY what my four month old can do.. you can judge.. :) Its going to be a great way to remember his first year and I knew this friend who is just as crafty as her mother would be all...over...it! So I gave her a huge chalkboard and chalk at her shower.. oh and work for every month of her baby's first year.. hehe...

Here's what it looked like:

Baby R's Monthly Birthday Board :)

I couldn't resist getting her started! I hope she has as much fun with it as I do... And doesn't hate me for avoiding the five hundred things on her baby registry that I know she actually NEEDS.. :)

::Monthly Chalkboard Updates::

Little ones change so much.. even in the short time of a month! I am learning this quickly with our Small Fry and I knew that I would begin to blur on when he could do certain tasks or at what point he enjoyed different things...enter the chalkboard... monthly stickers.. wardrobe changes.. and photo shoots.. :)  Now what I have been finding out is that chalk on a chalkboard really doesn't work.. I know that sounds funny... but I mean that you don't get vibrant colors and it really can be difficult to write nicely, illustrate, whatever.. For me anyways.. so this month I decided to head to Hobby Lobby and get some artists chalk... I cannot wait to make his board and see how different it looks.. I usually take some pictures of him with his board and some pictures of the little guy just with his monthly sticker. :) It is usually a day long activity because we take lots of breaks so he doesn't get too angry with the paparazzi (umm me) in his face. :) But we have a lot of fun! Here are the first few months and Ill keep adding as he gets older.. (tear :'( )

::Month 1::

OK.. OK.. don't judge me on this first board.. I know.. it is the worst.. but you know how it is.. baby #1 equals overwhelmed Mom.. equals no time for creativity.... I promise it gets better... :)










::Month 2::

 Month 2 was a lot of fun! Small Fry was beginning
to smile so it was fun to capture that in some of his
pictures! :) I told you the boards would get better..
I tried to incorporate an illustration with each
comment. :)

::Month 3::

 

 

Mr Personality now.. :) and a few furry friends wanted in on the camera action as well.. they are pretty consistent photo bombers.. I don't think this will be the last time they make an appearance... :)



 ::Month 4::

........ under construction....well sort of... I have the board done.. now I'm just trying to choose a time when get the peanut in there as well. :)

::Thank You Gift Dr Suess Style::

When I was preggo with Small Fry our families threw us a super cute Dr. Seuss themed baby shower. I am crazy for elephants and Horton in particular so it was just perfect. :) But I'll share the photos of that in another post.. there are just too many to show! :) But I always feel like saying thank you for a great party thrown in your honor is a MUST so this was really no exception.. but I wanted to do something along the Dr. Seuss theme as well and sometimes inspiration just hits you in the dollar bin aisles at Target! This spring and nearly EVERY spring, they have plant seeds in really adorable bright buckets, which got me thinking about the Lorax.. another great Seuss story. :) They also had mesh drawstring bags to hold produce in so it isn't rolling all over your crisper drawer of your fridge. Soooo... I picked out some plant seed buckets where you could grow different produce producing plants (try that ten times fast) like strawberries and tomatoes, put each bucket in a mesh bag, tied it with tulle and made little tags, using you named it, FREE FONTS, and there you have it! A super perfect thank you gift complete with a Dr Seuss saying and all..

Adorable! For you teachers out there, wouldn't this make a GREAT parent gift to those who help A LOT throughout the year? I would have done this for them if Small Fry didn't happen to show up three weeks before the last day of school.. things got a little hectic to say the least.. :)

Now I had about ten lovely ladies helping with my shower.. so you know that can get pricey quick when you are thinking of gifts for everyone! :) But since all of these supplies came from the dollar bins (caution: this doesn't mean everything is a dollar.. it may be a few of your dollars) each gift ended up costing me about $7.. and that I like, Sam I am. hehe

::Making your own invites... Fabulous::

So I mentioned I have been working on my Small Fry's baptism and PAR-TAY.. and what starts a party? invites... duh... and how great is the internet these days? You can download fonts for free ALL the TIME! I am obsessed with fonts.. just ask my family.. ANYWAY I decided I wanted to try and make the invites myself.. and here is what I came up with:

 

I just love the tie! :) The hubby got me a Cricut for Mother's Day but I couldn't find a tie cutout so I created a stencil and traced it on a blue and white chevron scrapbook paper and cut it out. I printed the invite on cardstock, I just created it in Word, come on now, I am Nooooo computer brain.. so I am sure there is another program that might work better.. but I tend to stick with what I know.. :)

 

But I am telling you fonts make all the difference! Sometimes the easiest place to get started is Pinterest. I find that free fonts get pinned there all the time and I can usually get some inspiration for my invites from there also. Isn't Pinterest great?  Get out there and DL some fonts... like now.. the ideas are endless... 

::FABULOUS burlap planters::

So this week I have been scurrying around during Small Fry's naptimes to get ready for his baptism and party here after. :) So one thing I HAD to tackle was our front door entryway... can you say.. bbbooorrriiinnnnggg.. I had nothing going on. It just so happened that this week Menards had Mums on sale for $2.88! So I quickly snatched up five and placed them around the door, but I just hate looking at those plastic pots they come in, so ugly. But buying new pots for my five mums was out of the question, so instead I thought I would wrap the pots in burlap and TADA the result was an adorable planter on the cheap. Burlap at JoAnn's was only 3.99 a yard. :) (A side note: I LOVE burlap! But it sheds and gets everywhere and the hubby hates the smell of it.. don't ask...so putting it outside seemed a great compromise) Here's how they turned out:

Burlap Planters

I'm in love!! <3 and so easy you guys! Here are a few tips that will make getting started even easier.. I used a yard of fabric for each pot and placed the pot in the middle and because I had no other hands to help me, used a binder clip to hold up all of the corners, it looked like this:

 

Now I wrapped the ribbon around the PLANT not the pot.  I felt around through the burlap to find just above the pot and wrapped and tied the ribbon there. I found that if I tied the ribbon around the burlap and pot, it slid off.... no bueno.

Then I just cut around the mum, getting rid of a lot of that excess fabric and here is the BEST thing about this project.. it doesn't matter how nicely you cut the fabric, I really did a hack job on mine, but in the final product you can't tell! So no worries if your cuts are looking jagged as you go, no one will be the wiser! :)

These took a half hour TOTAL! Leaving my little one sleeping long enough for me to complete two desserts for his party too.. and that my friends... is truly fabulous..