Back in the Game!

We've been busy.  I decided to give blogging a break and focus on more important things.  Like healing from cancer (what?!), perfecting egg-in-the-holes for Grantie:

Playing with my bubba: 

And finishing our first reupholstery job!!  (Nevermind that this project started in FEBRUARY...)

We went with the first fabric back from the ones we were looking at months ago, Bedazzle Silver Lining by Waverly.  We are stoked with how it turned out.  Just one more to go!

Little Will's Sock Monkey Birthday Party

We rounded up all the monkeys (both literal and figurative) for Will's 1st birthday party.

A giant monkey (on loan from a friend) greeted guests at the door...

Where they signed Will's birthday book:

Will loved having so many friends at his house, although I doubt he realized the party was for him...

The food turned out great: Caprese salad skewers, tortilla sandwiches, monkeys in a blanket, cheesecake strawberries, frozen chocolate bananas, root beer and cream soda, and of course, cake!

Everyone enjoyed the Tanner version of "Monkey Baggo" and the kids colored their very own sock monkeys.

Guests helped themselves at the treat table: 

And filled goody bags to take home:

It was a great success and our sweet little man is one!!

I feel a party coming on...

I've been an online purchasing queen today...  It's almost July!  Birthday month!  

Will turns one on July 14th.  I can't wait. We're throwing him a party.  Can you tell what the theme will be?!

Sock monkeys!  My parties usually consist of two basic things and nothing more: food and guests. 

This time, I'm getting out of my comfort zone and tackling details.  I ordered special straws for Pete's sake!  I'm even going to attempt making bunting... pray for me.

Beginning Home Projects

We love our new house.  We are certainly the definition of "house poor" right now.  Moving from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom house left us quite a few decorative holes.  Luckily, those holes left room for decorative projects!

We spent a week or so ripping apart the first of our two wingback chairs.  We are planning to reupholster them both, but haven't decided on a fabric yet, but have a few choices: One, Two, or Three. Any thoughts?

But for now, our dining room/family room is a reupholstery-in-progress room.

What a Turkey

We cookied for Thanksgiving.  After finding a tutorial here, I convinced a few family members to help me out.  

They turned out pretty darn cute, despite my 4,000 mistakes.  (No really, the first time making anything, I unintentionally sabotage everything.)

This time, the main issue was frosting consistency.  An attempted rescue by the microwave only made things worse.  Don't microwave.  Just don't do it.

But like almost any project, the little flaws created in the process become minimal when the cuteness is finished in its entirety.

Just ask Elaina...

Building Baby's Room: Part 7

Will loves his room.  (Well, he hasn't complained...).  The bedding turned out great.  I love how all of the fabrics look together & the colors work well.  The bumper turned out a little too big... and I've been too lazy to fix it, hence the overlapping corner.  But that corner allows Catan, Will's sock monkey, to look over him while he sleeps.

Thrifted!

I have officially decided that Pinterest has saved my decorating life as we know it.

I rummage through other people's genius ideas.  I find new websites full of images of great design.  I don't know why they're great.  I don't really know why I like them.  But I keep track of them.  And I copy them.

Yesterday we found this sweet mirror at Goodwill.  Two bucks.  Yes, that's a 2... I saw it and immediately knew it would be great in our bathroom.  (This whole "immediately knowing" thing is new... thank you Pinterest).

I'm digging the girly-lacy feel around the edges.  I want to find some cool apothecary-like jars to put on here as well.  I also need to fill those vases with something... any ideas?

Yay for small successes!

Building Baby's Room: Part 6

The dressers are done!  Being our first true refinishing job, we learned a lot along the way.  But we are really pleased with how they turned out.

Building Baby's Room: Part 5

Today, in an attempt to not think about being 9 months pregnant, I began a little mobile for T's room.  I found pictures and even a free pattern (yes!) at Spoolsewing.com

So I chopped some fabric scraps into bird parts:

Building Baby's Room: Part 4

For the next major part of Baby T's room, he needed somewhere to put all his cute teeny clothes!  We wanted to find a medium-sized, counter-height dresser to turn into a changing table as well as a small dresser that can act as a sort of nightstand in the corner.  

After scouring Craigslist, Goodwill, and every antique/thrift store I could find for multiple weeks, we ended up with just what we were looking for.

We've been busy...

The last few weeks, we've been quite busy.  Not just Grant and me, but a long list of household items have been kept busy as well.  For example...

The kitchen has been busy pretending to be a craft room:

Building Baby's Room: Part 3

My book finally came!  After figuring out which patterns I wanted where, I headed back to Snappy Quilts to buy the fabric.  If you recall, I originally picked out these fabrics for the baby's bedding.  But of course, as life goes, half the fabric I picked were out of stock and un-orderable... of course.

But I found some great substitutes that I actually like a bit better than my original choices!

Baby Walls

I went to Home Depot.  By myself. Woot for me.  Jumping off of a nursery blog post found here, I went to get a paint sample that would closely match Restoration Hardware's color Silver Sage.  I ended up leaving not only with a Glidden sample made up to match Silver Sage, but four other grey Glidden samples. 

Building Baby's Room: Part 2

Yesterday I bought all of the fabric & notions & such needed for the nursery's bedding.  As of five minutes ago, I have successfully finished part one of T's bedding: a fitted crib sheet!  Woohoo!  Instead of uploading pictures right now, I'm going to be responsible and take a shower :)  Yes, it's almost 5PM...  Just wanted to revel in the glory of success...  Pictures coming soon.

Building Baby's Room: Part 1

Believe it or not, Grant is really the decorator in the family.  He has been saving pictures on his computer of home design ideas since we got married.  Recently, I discovered Pinterest where we've both started collecting fun ideas we find here & there on the net.

But now that we've got "T" to get ready for, I've had to take the reins a bit.  I'm usually hesitant to do anything drastic in our home because it's not my "thing" and Grant usually has stronger opinions than me.  But this time, I've said, "I'm doing it myself.  If you can be around to help, then I want your opinion.  If not, I've gotta man up and do it!"  Take that universe.

So, I did lots of research online picking out nurseries I liked and deciding which elements were most important.  After deciding that most of the bedding offered in sets didn't appeal to me, I'm venturing out and making my own!!  I ordered Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones, and headed out to Snappy Quilts, a local quilt shop that carries designer fabrics.

I picked out about five fabrics and got little samples of each.  The main nursery colors will be grey and white with green and orange accents.  The actual orange is a bit lighter than this picture shows- more of a creamsicle.  When my book gets here (finally), then I'll decide which fabrics to put where and I'll get started on the sewing!!

Also on the agenda for T's room: dresser, curtains, crib, walls... everything... hah.  This kid will have a killer nursery... eventually. Luckily (sort of) this kid won't let me sleep, so I'll have lots of extra work time between 1 and 5AM.  Excellent :)

A Dora Day

One of the girls in my Sunbeam class at church is turning 4 this week!  In fact, Emily and I are exactly 18 years and 1 day apart!  I told her mom I would like to help with her party and so today I baked cupcakes!  Dora cupcakes to be specific.  I found the directions here.

First, I made some hair out of candy melts

Then I skinned some cupcakes.  It was an anxiety filled process figuring out how to get this color.  (Not to mention wondering how many extra cans of frosting it would cost before I would get it right).

I cut out some fruit roll up mouths.  This was tricky because the fruit roll up wouldn't unroll.  It was a sticky mess.  Thank you Texas humidity.... How many times can I say that?!

And Voila!  Dora was born.  Well... a few hours later.  I became quickly aware that Dora's hair was taking over her face so most of the Dora's got a smart bob.

Unfortunately, she kind of looks like the Berries & Cream lad.... 

How unfortunate.... I'm pretty sure that video won't work... so just in case, you can see it here.

So anyways... there were also so eye issues.  The directions said to use chocolate chips for the eyes, but that made Dora a little googly-eyed...

Unfortunately, I'm afraid my eyeballing skills weren't too much better...

Little eyes.. big eyes... oh man.  

But really, they are for 4 year olds and I don't think they'll notice my bug eyes or Berries & Cream lads.  And when you put them all together, these little Doras don't look half bad!

Slipper Family

Yesterday was a day of sewing.  I got out my old Singer but it was acting up.  The bobbin thread was getting all tangled up and since I have no idea how to fix that.... so I put the machine away and got my newer one out.  I'm an excellent problem solver...

At the end of my sewing spree I had a family full of slippers!  And since I've been in such a creative mood, I decided to name them.

This little pair in front is named Stewart.  Stewart is the first child of the Slipper family.  Amazingly, he was born before his father, the stuffy looking pair in the back there.  The Slipper family defies the natural process of reproduction.... 

Standing just in front of her dad is Valentina.  She's a simple pair but being the youngest in the family, she tends to get a lot of attention.  Right now, she's trying to decide how to do her hair... Maybe some flowers in the back? 

Oh, Valentina has short brown hair... see?  Flowers? Buttons? Headband ribbon?  Ahh the choices.

And here is Sybil, the little chillens' madre.  Sybil is old.  And I mean old.  Like two weeks old.  Considering that the rest of the family was born yesterday, this is quite a feat.  This also means that she has the most haphazard stitching and construction.  My beginner skills improve oodles with every pair I make.  So sorry you were first Sybil...  

And the father of this charming little Slipper family is Boris.  Boris is tough.  And stoic.  (It took me 3 minutes to think of the word stoic.)  And shorter than Sybil.  I always thought that was a funny combination: when the husband is shorter than the wife.  Probably because my personal experience is so opposite.  Anyway... Boris is a good guy.  He is actually a clone of another pair I made named Leslie, after my mother-in-law and for my mother-in-law.  Strange that Boris is a man and Leslie was a woman...  I think it's the interfacing that did it.

Well thank you for venturing over to meet the Slipper family.  I apologize for the utter pointlessness of my blog posts and the random names that accompany them.  And I apologize for the time you spent reading when you could have been doing something worthwhile... like eating sugary goodness or something.  Farewell!  I'm off to chase down Stewart... he's got fast feet...