Cool Tub

Love this tub. Would look amazing in my beach house... if I, uh, had a beach house...

{via The Water Monopoly}

Hello

I'm not going to call this a comeback. I won't even say that I'm back. Ha! But I hope that I am. Life seems to be humming along nicely. Maybe I actually have time... wait. I guess I always had time. But maybe now I'll spend less time being lazy and procrastinating. In between scraping squished raisins off the floor (compliments of my 19-month old) and catching up on my shows (thanks Hulu), maybe I'll squeeze in a post or three. Probably more about toddlerhood and less about crafting, but a post nonetheless.

Catch ya on the flip side!

"Be the Good"

I need this in my house.

So often I find myself getting discouraged by things seen on the news, overheard from conversations amongst friends, actions amongst strangers. I do believe there is good, yet I always need to remember ~ and a lesson I want to teach baby E ~ is that sometimes it's not just enough to believe. Sometimes we have to tune out the negative and be the positive we wish the world to be. It just might be the poke that tips the line of dominos, causing an irreversible chain reaction in the right direction.

DIY Towel / Hat Hanger

Another project from the early baby days. I wanted a cute towel and hat hanger for baby E's room, but couldn't find one that either (a) matched his room or (b) didn't cost more than the towels / hats themselves. So I thought I'd make one.

I found a white wood piece on sale at Michael's. My initial thought was to paint it to match his bedding and other room decor... but, decided on using good ol' Mod Podge and scrapbook paper instead.

I measured out the pieces of paper, cut, and started Mod Podgin'. It took a LOT of coats to get the corners to stay down and seal the cracks. If I do it again, I'll probably use tissue-style paper.

I then screwed in three silver hooks (Target), and had the hubs hang it in baby's bathroom ~ perfect size for baby's towels! It also doubles nicely as a hat hanger for now -- a real one is my next project!

Baby Room Wall Art

I can NOT believe that I never got around to posting the cute wall art I hung in baby E's room! He's only, like, 14 months now. Think I need to do a post on finding balance here soon...

Anyway, my dear friend Brit made the cutest wall art for her son's room using her Cricut. I just HAD to have some for E's room, so I picked a cow, hippo, fox and frog to match some of the things we already had for his room.

She did such an amazing job!!

I knew I wanted white frames, so I found some chunky ones on sale at Michael's, along with four corresponding pieces of scrapbook paper.

I simply used sticky tabs on the animals (incase I ever wanted to use them elsewhere) and framed them without the glass.

I had the hubs hang them in baby's room -- one on each side of the window, and one on each side of the door.

Now E's old enough to recognize the animals, so it's become a morning ritual to say hello to each one. Love 'em!

Super Easy Gift Bag Re-Do

Yeah... so, that was about as good of a comeback as, say, New Kids on the Block.  Ohwell.  Take #357!

I'll just cut to the chase with this one. I have a closet full of gift bags. Yet somehow, I needed -- and couldn't find in my stash -- two gift bags for two little girls' birthday gifts.  To keep the hubs from saying "I TOLD you we needed gift bags while at Target," I decided to just re-do a couple that I had on hand. And it took less than 10 minutes, using stuff I already had.

I grabbed two bags, paper flowers and rhinestones that I had from an unfinished project.

I only needed to cover up an old tag that I couldn't get to peel off, otherwise the bags were in great shape.

Since my craft glue was dried up (of course), I simply stapled the flowers on...

Then added a rhinestone to the center of each flower to cover up the staples.

Not too shabby, huh?  Then I did the same for bag #2.

I made individual tags by cutting out each girl's initial using scrapbook paper, then tying to each bag.

Definitely a pretty way to save a few bucks!  And, hopefully it won't be another month before I post again ;)

The Big One

My sweet baby turned the big O-N-E today! It's SO hard to believe a year has come and gone so quickly. We celebrated with a trip to the aquarium today, and his party with the rest of the family's on Saturday. Needless to say I'll be scrambling over the next few days to get the house clean... or at least look clean...


Also been busy making decorations (including the super easy pennant banner below), so will share those over the next week. It's amazing how easy it is to get caught up in the decorating side of things, especially since there's really no "baby friendly" birthday activities. If they can't really do anything, guess the house should look pretty, right? ;)