Brag About Friday

Ponies!!

We got 'em

DIY - Wall Sayings and Name Plaques

I got crafty! I fed a much dormant side of myself and did these projects before the girl's party.

#1 - The Wall Saying

When the girls were tiny we would rock them to sleep while listening to lullabies. One of the songs was the Dixie Chicks "Lullaby". I would sing it to them every night. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog you can activate my playlist and listen to it. The chorus line is one of my all time favorite sayings so I had to have it on their wall. I priced several different places online and was slightly horrified by the price of custom vinyl letters. So I happen to read this on one of my favorite blogs Thrifty Decor Chick and decided to try it. Notice that she started out with, like, 3 words. Can I do that? Oh no! I have to do a whole blasted paragraph!

So here's what I did.

~First I scoured my fonts. I am pretty much one of those people who have to try out every single one of anything I am looking for. Yes, the 15th one would have worked, but what if the 22nd one was better? I used LibbyScript2 in font size 250 for the first part of the words. The Loved, Forever, Never, and Ever are Palace Script MT. Loved, Forever, and Never are font size 400 and Ever is 500. I printed them on regular paper, but next time (Lord, did I just say I would do this again??) I will print it out on cardstock.

~I used an exacto knife to carefully cut out each letter ( and each middle parts also ). And you must keep every tiny little middle piece as well. It was a long and grueling process. I mean, take a look at all those swirly (sworly?) lines!

I have to stop here and say that I know I should have taken pictures of the whole process. Sarah actually did and that's probably why she has 1400 followers. Yep, she is just that good, folks. Maybe I will take pictures next time.

~I cut and taped each page together to make each line of words. Then I taped it all up with double sided tape. I used white sticky tack for the little middle parts of the O's and E's and such. Those 3 sentences do not do justice to the careful process this took. I used a level and everything! When I was finish I had my own stencil on the wall.

~Then, I used black stencil paint and a stencil brush to dab and hit the paint on right over the paper. Even as flimsy as the regular paper was, there are very few outside-the-lines mistakes and none that you can see across the room. I should have done question marks at the end of the first 2 lines and I should have done Cause instead of because, but...I am pretty happy with the final result.

All in all it was well worth it, especially since instead of spending between $75-$100, I spent about $6 on the paint and brush, both of which I will use again. Most rewarding is the fact that Gary is impressed. I have to say, I shocked the crap out of myself, too.


#2 - Name Plaques

So many things just came together to work for this. I have to give my mom most of the credit here. I had the ideas but she actually did the work while I ran around doing other things for the party.

~I bought the wooden plaques for .50 cents each - half off at Hobby Lobby. The ribbon was also half off. The letters are from DCWV - Once Upon a Wall. And the ladybugs and trim? Those are from a wallpaper border.

They are the same little bugs that are everywhere in their room.

~She painted them blue using the same paint that we used for the wall border. You can see that in the picture at the top of the post with the Wall Saying. She painted the grass on the border so I thought it best for her to also paint the grass on these so it would match.

~We cut out each ladybug, flower, and dragonfly from the border. That black and white trim on the bottom is also from the border. We added that at the last minute for extra snazz and it really made it. We glued them all on with craft glue.

~The letters were white and I was going to exchange them for black, but mom ended up painstakingly painting each letter that pink. (WOW!!) I would not have had the patience for that, but once again, it really made it.

~She painted a coat of Modge Podge over the whole thing to seal it all in.

~Then she hot glued the ribbon on the back

I wasn't really sure what I was going to use to hang them. I was thinking little nails. With pictures, frames, or anything I am putting up on the wall, I always use pushpins first so that if I have to move it then it is not a hole, just a tiny pin mark left behind. I found these ladybug pushpins I bought ages ago in my drawer of pushpins (I love when I am organized enough to benefit from it!)

~So then we used a level again to make sure it was all straight and used the ladybug pushpins and AGAIN, they really finished it off.


LOVE IT!!

P.S. I bet you didn't believe I would ever post this, did you? Hmm?? I know, I have promised so many posts that never saw the light of day. As I said, I am back :-)

Way Back When-esday

Dateline: March 2007
Age: 4 years old

His first hotel stay.

His exuberance about jumping on the bed was priceless.




Wanna see more great pictures from way back when?
Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation

Faux Painting

There were several several things on my list to do before the girl's birthday party to pretty the place up.

Here is my front hallway.
(taken with old camera)

And the wall next to the front door.
(cluttered, ugh!)

So bland! I wanted to try my hand at a faux painting technique my friend did in her house. I used this glaze from Lowes.

I rolled it on and then blotted it off with rags...then I wiped a little...blotted some more...put some paint back on...blotted again...until it looked right. There are some dry lines here and there.

I had to add the iron thingy to cover up a huge line that was there.
It started out black, but I spray painted that bad boy.


This is also a new addition and I LOVE it!

I got it from The Lakeside Collection online, but don't even bother looking it up because I already went to post the link and they no longer have them. :-(

Also a new addition

I love how this turned out. I am REALLY having to restrain myself from putting a saying on every available wall space. This saying is the vinyl ones from DCWV Home - Once Upon a Wall. I actually found mine at Hobby Lobby, but there are others on this site. However, you can do this yourself...AND I DID (!!) in the girl's room and I will SO show you how to do it, too.

Ok...the door...

Yeah, so I totally dripped glaze all the way down the door...all.the.way.down. So as I was frantically trying to wiped it off, the glaze settled into the wood and didn't look half bad. So I just did the whole thing and this is what I got. I really like it and went back later to paint the trim. I am not so crazy about the color of the frame. That may change.

This is the wall that you see to the right in the first picture.

You can really see the lines where the paint overlaped here, but it is all apart of the art of it. At least that is what I tell myself. However, this will be our family picture wall. This is my next project. I am getting all black or dark brown frames to hold the pictures. This was supposed to be done before the party, but well, after staying up to finish cake balls until 4:00 a.m. (oh yes, I did, and no, it was SO not worth it) some things had to wait.

Other things on my list are:

Paint here

I wanted a really bold color like red going up the wall, but I like this leaf hanging too much to have it blend into something. Now I am thinking a nice medium cocoa color (??). I know it sounds like it may blend in too, but actually I think it may work.

Another thing that had to wait -

Can you tell I meant to have this done too?

This will be our kid display area. It will hold art projects, certificates, and other treasures from the kiddos. Right now it has the few things from the dining room that we moved here away from little hands when we baby proofed. The tree, table, and candlesticks will all go away eventually. I am (of course) painting this area. I am not choosing either of these colors, but a chocolate color. I am going to put empty picture frames all along these walls with decorative binder clips inside. This way it can be an ever changing wall of art projects. They want one up? Fine, which one will come down? Believe me there will be plenty. I got this great idea from Family Fun magazine awhile ago. I tried to find the project on their site online, but was not successful.

So as you can see, I will be busy busy for awhile.

P.S. I'm back - full time...pass it on

If you need to catch up, I actually posted some pictures from their party and a video of Olivia walking so check out below.

Makes My Monday

Good-bye old friend.

You...well...you sucked, especially toward the end. Your movies were dark and your flash over zealous. I will have fond...no...can't say that. I will miss...umm...ok how 'bout this; You were there for Zach's first day of school. You were there for Abigail and Olivia's first moments of life. You captured many of our happiest memories. And well, you did your best. ::pat pat:: Alrighty then buh-bye.

Hello gorgeous

Oh your 10.1 Mega pixels, your 10x optical zoom, your 3" LCD screen, your smile detector shutter, your intelligent scene recognition, and oh oh OH your many settings, including a soft focus background one and a food one!!

Aww yeah, people! Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to me!!




Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation

Giveaway

Rachel over at :little bites of heaven: is having a mass of giveaways this week. It all ends on July 10th so hurry on over and check it out!

I am trying to win:
A Blog Design
A Dance With Me Daddy book
A Family Tree

Brag About Friday

Well, she would rather crawl but she can do it. I am so proud to have two walkers!!





P.S. Check below for birthday pictures!

Birthday Party

Ok, All together now, to the tune of Bingo. Ready?

Therrre was a blogger who really sucked and Lame-o is her name-o
L-A-M-E-O
L-A-M-E-O
L-A-M-E-O
And Lame-o is her name-o!!

Yes, I know I have been totally lame-o in my lack of posting. To quote a favorite blogger of mine "Summer is stealing my creativity". Yes, yes it is. And to make matter worse; my camera broke. Wahhhhh!! BUT...I think this is actually pretty good timing since my brithday was on Tuesday and I didn't get my Mother's Day gift yet either. Sooo...I am thinking new camera. Whoo-hoo!

And now on to

Tah-Dah!! The Birthday Party!!! It was a huge success. We had it in the morning and man, it was a good thing since it was a really hot week last week with temperatures in the 100s. We set up a huge water slide that we borrowed from the neighbors and a small jump house we borrowed from a friend. We also had our baby pool and a larger blow-up pool with a slide. Did I get any pictures of these?? Nooo...(::sigh:: Brandie? Did you get any??)

But I did get pictures of the cakes:

Abby had to swipe her little finger through her "ppy" as she was going by the table.
How did she know that was hers??

Yep, I made them. I was super happy with how they turned out.

Here you can see the cake balls I made on the right along with Marshmello Dips. Yum!! Sugar anyone? Pure bounce-off-the-walls sugar?? On the left are the smash cakes. In the center are the pink and purple flowers Daddy picked up at the store. Just the thing to round it all off.
I kind of dreaded present time. I have been to other parties where the birthday kid was so confused by all the toys and then for them to be passed off without getting to play with them?? I was hoping to avoid this and we did. They only got a few toys and they really didn't fuss when we moved on to the next thing.

And then it was cake time. I got these super cute crowns for them to wear. Abby wore hers like the princess she is. She just sat and grinned at all the attention. Olivia, not so much. She only wore hers for a bit and then off it came.

Both LOVING the attention

So then it came time for the cakes. I feel very strongly that each girl gets their own song so we sang to Abby first. And oh, my gosh!! She was so cute! She just looked around smiled. She beamed as if to say, "You're singing to me?" Oh so cute.

She ate some of her cake, but there was not much smashing going on.

When we sang to Olivia, she looked around at us like we had taken leave of our senses. Meanwhile, Abby still grinned.

She ate more of her cake than Abby did and made quite a mess.

Then we all headed outside for hot dogs and water play.

They had a blast and here are my two fav pictures of the day:

Olivia clapping after she finished her cake. LOVE this one of her. Such a happy little girl.
And here is Abby loving her crown and clapping too. Her poor ears are kinda smooshed which makes it even more adorable. Another happy little girl :-)

I know Brandie will have more and I will probably post them soon. Also, I am well aware of the fact that I have not posted about Zachary's party which was 3 months ago! Sheesh! It's on my list, ok??