House Tour - Ava's Room

Now that the house is finally done (is any house really ever done?) I'm excited to show it off to all of you! Ava's room is definitely one of my favorites; it's bright and cheery, and I just smile every time I walk in there. I think I had the most fun doing this room, mainly because it was the first time I got to do a little girl's room. Up until now Ava has always shared a room with us, so it was fun to do something different.

The focal point of this room (and what was the most time-consuming) is definitely the walls. I originally had it as just pink and cream, but I actually thought it was too girly and just lacking something, so I added the blue and green. I'm so glad I did because I love how it turned out!

I made these paintings when we were still living in the townhouse, and I reused some of Ava's birthday party decorations in her room.

 I found these cute vintage illustrations years ago and never knew where to put them, now I do!

My sister-in-law, Anne made this adorable barrette holder (and most of the barrettes too!) for Ava's birthday.

I love this rug from Target. It is so soft, and it's pretty darn adorable when I walk in to find Ava and Riley laying down on it reading books.

I like having a lot of Ava's toys out where she can easily get to them herself. This Ikea shelf is perfect because it's short enough that she can reach the stuff on top, and the cubes are great for hiding the smaller, messier toys. I also really like the totes because they make it easy to rotate her toys. She usually only plays with what she can see, so every once in awhile when it seems like she's getting bored with what's out, I put those toys in the totes and pull out other ones, and it's like she's got all new toys again!

 

So, there's Ava's room. I still want to make some drapes, and I'd love to find more cute little vintage treasures, but I'm really happy with it so far.

Ava Turns Two!

Well, it has been absolutely insane around here lately! This little munchkin turned two last week! Which meant that we were running around crazy trying to get the house unpacked, painted, and decorated. Even though we've been here for over three months, when we sent the invitations out less than two weeks before the party the house still resembled an episode of Hoarders, but we somehow managed to get it all done (we've found that we work better with a deadline)!

Of course, during all of the craziness this little blog has been completely neglected. But, I have a ton of ideas for it, and now that Ava's birthday is over, and we're finally finished with the house I am so excited to get started on them. I hope to be making some changes around here including a much needed blog makeover, and some fun new features, including one that requires me to really step out of my comfort zone - eek!

But, before we get to all of that I wanted to give you a little peek of Miss Ava's birthday party. She is crazy about Sesame Street, so picking a theme was pretty easy. I had a lot of fun making the decorations - even if I was still finishing up an hour before everyone got here!

 

 

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Ava's New Chair

Awhile ago (according to this post, it was back in August) I found this cute little chair at a a garage sale and knew it would be perfect for Ava. It was a in pretty rough shape and needed a new paint job, but that would be easy enough. So, instead of immediately gathering supplies and getting the job done, the chair got taken down to the basement in the townhouse and then moved to the new house, where it sat in the dining room until this past weekend when I finally got around to painting it!

It was pretty fast and easy, and I'm embarrassed by how long it took me to get around to doing it, but it's finally finished. And I think it's pretty darn cute too!

Do you have any projects that have been sitting in a corner for an embarrassingly long time? Have you started working on any of them? I'd love to see them, leave a link in the comments so I can come check them out!

Fish Scale Christmas Ornament D.I.Y. Tutorial

I was looking at Christmas ornaments at a store a couple of weeks ago and came across a really cool one that was covered in little discs making it look like fish scales. I loved it, but they only had it in silver and I wanted it in a few different colors so I decided to try making it. It ended being really easy!

What I used:
- foam ball
- glue that works on foam - I found this one on clearance at Michael's
- 12 x 12 scrapbook paper
- circle punch (5/8")
- small piece of wire (ornament hanger might work even better)
- paintbrush (optional)

1. I started by cutting out lots and lots of circles, around 100.

2. I used the paintbrush to put the glue on the discs to try to keep it a little cleaner. I started by gluing one circle down, and then glued six circles around it, each one overlapping the previous one as well as the first circle.

3. Each row will end with the last circle being completely uncovered by any other circles, that's where I started each new row.

4. Once I got closed to being finished I put my wire in the top. An ornament hanger would work perfectly for this, I had some extra wire close by so I just twisted that into a loop and used it instead. Before pushing the wire into the ball I fully covered it with glue to help ensure it stays in place.

5. Then I continued with the rows until all of the white was covered.

And there you have it; a little time-consuming, but super easy and so pretty! Let me know if you give it a try!

We have these weird cutouts in our living room wall, I hung the ornaments and used the leftover paper to cut out bigger circles; it filled the space nicely!

I Totally Made... er ... Wrote That....It's Nanowrimo Time!!

Have you heard of Nanowrimo yet? In English that means National Novel Writing Month, and that month happens to be November! The goal is to write an entire novel of at least 50,000 words in one month... yep that sounds completely crazy, and it is, but it's also a lot of fun. I found out about this two years ago and have done it the last two Novembers, but I have yet to win. The first year I found out about it right before it started and gave up pretty early on. Last year I was doing okay, I got to about 30,000 words, but then life got all crazy and I just didn't have time to finish. This will be my year though! Actually I hadn't even thought about it until a couple of days ago, but it's sucked me in again, and this time I'm determined to win.

They've already explained the whole thing on their website a lot better than I ever could:

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2010, we had over 200,000 participants. More than 30,000 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To give yourself permission to write without obsessing over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To stop being one of those people who say, “I’ve always wanted to write a novel,” and become one of those people who can say, “Oh, a novel? It’s such a funny story–I’ve written three.”

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins 12:00:01 November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at 11:59:59. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

This is a completely free, fun way to challenge yourself. If you find this intriguing at all you should definitely check out the website, there's a bunch of forums, videos, pep talks etc. You can also check out the calender for your region to see where the write-ins are if you want to get together with other wrimos.

Let me know if you decide to take on the challenge, I'd love to hear how your month goes.

Birthday Bunting Banner D.I.Y

Last weekend we had Riley's family party for his birthday (because one party wasn't enough?!). I've been loving all of the adorable bunting banners that are pretty dang popular right now and decided to give one a try. There's about a thousand different ways to make these; this was super easy, and I think it came out really cute!

What You'll Need:
 - Felt
 - Yarn
 - Embroidery Floss
 - Needle
 - Scissors

I can't believe I've never really used felt much before, it's so inexpensive and easy to use. I'm definitely going to use in more projects in the future.

For this I found these 8.5 x 11 sheets at Walmart for $.20 each. The first thing you need to do is cut them into triangles, I got two triangles per sheet. I cut a total of 30 triangles to make it double-sided.

Then you cut out your letters.

  

  
Stitch your letters onto your flags and then stitch the back on.

String some yarn through (it's a lot easier to use a safety pin to guide it through then a needle - my brilliant hubby recommended that when I kept getting the needle caught!) and then it's ready to hang. What's great is you can slide the flags back and forth on the yarn so it stays completely adjustable.

As soon as Riley told me he wanted his party colors to be red, white, and black - the same as his bedroom - I knew I wanted to make this double-sided so after the party was over he could hang the side with his name on in his room!

These buntings are so cute and easy to make, I think I'm going to do another one for above Ava's crib. Leave me a link if you decided to give it a try!

I Totally Made That -- Except that I Didn't

So, there was a project I was going to attempt to make for this weeks "I Totally Made That," but I wasn't completely sure how to do it. Obviously the only solution to this problem was YouTube (what did we ever do before YouTube? Figure it out for ourselves I guess, but where's the fun in that?!). And well, YouTube being YouTube, and me being me, I quickly lost track of what I was originally looking for and click after click led me to RachO113 and instead of making anything myself I spent the next hour (or two) watching her create some seriously cool stuff.

I have so many more videos of hers to watch, but here are a few of my faves so far:

Mixed Media Foiling Technique / Tutorial

Altered Dominoes

Mixed Media Journal Page - Dance In The Rain

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Aren't they amazing? I just love watching these kinds of videos; I find them to be both very relaxing, and yet incredibly exciting and inspiring. Now I feel like making stuff!

I Totally Made That -- My First Plushie

I've been kinda drooling over all the super cute plushies I've seen lately and really wishing I could make something similar. But, since my sewing skills are crap, um let's go with lacking, I figured that was never gonna happen.

Until I found the book Plush-O-Rama: Curious Creatures For Immature Adults by Linda Kopp. I love these little guys so much! And I really love that they don't have to look "perfect." It is completely acceptable for them to have three eyes, misshapen ears, (or no ears at all) or weird patches of hair.

So, I decided to give one a try. There were two in the book I really liked so I kinda "meshed" them together.

Now, obviously I carefully measured things and used only the finest, most expensive materials for this project. Yeah right! I used some old shirts for the fabric, and made my pattern out of a paper bag.

He didn't come out exactly like I had planned, apparently his legs wanted to be different sizes and shapes, but I think it just makes him cuter. Oh, and I ditched the skirt, and somewhere along the way he became a he instead of a she.

He has been named Fred, and Ava loves him already (and Riley is asking for one). It makes me feel all gooey inside watching her play with something I made for her.

Have you made anything cool lately?

I Totally Made That --Faux Zinc Letters

I've seen these faux metal letters lately and thought they were pretty cool, and I came across this website Knock Off Decor which features tutorials for making your own versions of decor from places like Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. I found a few different tutorials for these letters similar to those found at Anthropologie (ranging from $18 to $98), most of them are done by just painting them, but I really liked Becca's version that uses aluminum foil instead.


Anthropologie



 Gardners to Bergers


Mine is slightly different because I didn't have a preformed cardboard letter (and I'm cheap and lazy and didn't feel like running to the store to get one). So, I improvised by cutting up a cardboard box into eight 8 x 10ish pieces. Then I just drew my letter on the top one, cut it out, and traced around it for the other pieces.

After all my Rs were cut out I taped them together (I just used duct tape because it was the first tape I saw when I opened the drawer, though Riley pointed out that it was silver so if there was any showing it wouldn't be as noticeable...clever kid!). I didn't have any Mod Podge so I just used regular ol' glue, and then dry brushed it with black paint.

I think it looks pretty darn cool! I might make one for Ava too, but if I do I think I'll go a little bigger, and probably pick up some Mod Podge.

Thanks for looking!