The Little's Rooms Got Some Love

Last week I was thinking about how much creating I do for custom orders or for volunteer jobs. I spend a lot of creative energy on people outside of my family and so I suggested to David that it would nice to spend some creative energy on the littles. I had some ideas brewing and when he gave me the thumbs up, I went into full design mode. We settled on a gallery wall for each room plus curtains, hooks for their towels, shelves for each bedside and an art hanger for each little. I made a list of elements I wanted to include in each room.

1. something sewn/fabric element
2. woodcut element
3. string art
4. monograms
5. photograph
6. printable art/quote
7. scripture verse

Then I narrowed down to specifics as to what that looked like. So for the girls' room it ended up like:

1. kite
2. heart (inspired by HEart by CC)
3. crown
4. cut out of foam board
5. siblings picture
6. "Dream Big" (source)
7. I will add a verse to the heart woodcut at a later time

The boys room:

1. deer head
2. arrow
3. sword
4. cut out of foam board
5. siblings picture
6. fox
7. I will add a verse to their arrow art later

David shopped, cut and stained wood during the daytime. He was in charge of the woodcuts, string art, shelves, towel hooks and art hangers. I painted the clothes pins (for the art hangers) and the frames plus rough cut out the fabric elements during the day. The rest of the projects were done in the evenings after the littles went to bed. That meant late bleary eyed nights, but I'm really happy with the results. Last night I planned the gallery walls, but putting them on the floor. I took pictures to give to David for hanging and while I took the children out on a playdate, David re-arranged the girls' room and hung all the elements we crafted. What a thrill it was to reveal it all to the littles!

The deer head was made from a pattern found here. I found the wood plaque at the thrift store and a with a bit of paint it made a great mount.

David cut this based on a few pictures I showed him on Pinterest. I didn't want to tell him exactly what to make, but I knew I wanted an arrow. It turned out great. His favourite piece.

Again, I asked for the sword, but I left David to do the style he wanted. He found a sword image on google, added a cross in the middle and enlarged it to make the template. Screws were an easier choice and he just went with it. I like it a lot!

The monogram "M"s I printed out on the computer, taped to foam board and cut out. I painted them and that's it! Super easy and a great and cheap monogram! We enlarged a photograph from our last family pictures in 2014. The same picture for both bedrooms. 

I thrifted and painted this cute frame and got the printable from here. 

Here's Malachi's art hanger in action (sorry for the dark picture). Just clothespins painted and glued to a board. Each little has one, though we haven't hung Hannah's yet. We are saving it until she is a bit older.

Michaels had these cutlery clothespins in a bin and I simply glued them onto this little board, also from Michaels. Cheap and funny, considering the boys are always thinking about food. This wasn't planned for, but added on a whim.

I found this wood pineapple at the thrift store. It was varnished and worn, but I saw its potential and snapped it up. I painted it and glued an oversized clothespin on it and it's adorable! My favourite piece in the girls' room!

David did the crown the same way as the sword and he did a great job!

The girls' monograms were done the same as the boys. I found the birdhouse and bird at Michaels and threw it in. 

The kite I made up as I went. I drew a pattern and did a basic quilting pattern on it. Then simply tied jersey bows onto a ribbon tail.

Each little got a shelf on their bed. They all needed a place to put water bottles and treasures etc. Here's Abby's in action. David made simply with two boards, painted white and attached right to the bed frames.

David made this based on a picture I showed him. Abby thinks it looks like a minecraft heart.

I used flat sheets from two of the littles' bed sets to make quick curtains. Not too difficult as I cut them in half, finished the two cut edges and voila! Curtains! I hate sewing curtains, but this wasn't too bad. We are exhausted, but happy with the results!

Checking In

Phew! What a crazy month April (and into early May) turned out to be. Let's get to it...

• April is my favourite month to throw a party! My birthday is as good of a reason as anything else, right? I knew that I wanted to have another My Favourite Things party and when I asked a few people what they thought, the resounding answer was "YES!" It's such a great party and it almost throws itself. You can read about the last party here and here. How it worked is I had everyone bring 4 of their same favourite item/s (under $10) and every one went home with four others' favourite items. My favourite items this year were a carton of Tazo Chai Latte mix, fun socks, a pen, a soap sample, straws, an essential oil sample and a couple of dishcloths (Compliments - microfibre - seriously the best dishcloth EVER). I had so much fun with this! By the way, if you didn't get invited, please don't be upset. I wanted to invite so many more of you, but my place can only hold so many. In my heart, you are all welcome!

My favourite things package

• Here's a list of what everyone brought.... Soy candles, journals, Starbucks gift card, jellybeans, pens, mugs, hairspray, lip balm, cuticle cutters, jar mugs, drink tumbler, napkins, chocolates (store bought and homemade), soaps, homemade laundry detergent, collapsible bins, zipper storage bags, a pansy plant, various stationary items, mesh laundry bag, socks and candy. I think that's everything. It was so great to hear things about the gals that I didn't know as each person had to answer a random question about something that was a favourite. I also had everyone bring a favourite drink or food to share and once again - the BEST party food!

London Fog cupcakes from my friend, Sugar Momma and her truffles, too!

• I chose to set up an Italian Soda Bar as my favourite beverage to share. David and I enjoyed testing these and David made the strawberry, orange and butter rum flavour syrups. I'm a big fan of "help yourself" so I doodled instructions and let everyone do just that.

Italian Soda Bar

• I could've easily spent a month on the plans and preparations for a party, but thankfully I didn't need to because I spent the month sewing and crafting for my first craft sale. Our church hosted a craft sale fundraiser for some missionaries who will be going out with Wycliffe. David and I spent every spare evening and weekend working on growth charts, (David did the bulk of the work on those. I just lettered them) scrap buntings, mini scrap buntings and cake toppers. I had a goal of 12 growth charts and 40 each of the other items. We spent many evenings late into the night making. It was fun and tiring and my poor house got pretty neglected. I met my goals! David's amazing growth charts sold really well. I came home with three and they're now all spoken for, too. I have most of the rest of the products still. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm so relieved to have it all finished that I'm okay to just put it aside for now. Sadly, there wasn't a whole lot of customer traffic at the sale, but we recovered our costs and were able to make a small donation to the missionaries. 

Buntings!

Craft Sale Booth

• Michaels Arts and Crafts are moving into my neighbourhood! It's going to be nice not needing to drive across town to shop!

• Mothers' Day was a quiet and relaxing day finished off with my favourite family "date". We call it Pajama Van. It's usually a Saturday evening tradition, but I'm glad we saved it for last night it was perfect. (pajama van is where we load the littles up in the van in their pjs, put on a movie for them to watch, grab tea and timbits from Tim Hortons and go for a nice long drive).
• I got quite spoiled with mail lately! I love my dear pen friends!

Top pictures are my birthday package from dear Annemarie and the bottom two from dear Donna!

• I was crazy spoiled for my birthday, too.

L-R ink and pens from David's family, essential oils from my family (card signed by my Daddy - a big deal for a partial quadriplegic) flowers from friends and a drawing book from my David.

• And in case you needed a reminder of how adorable my David is...

 

Abigail's Princess Bed

Ever since Abigail earned her top bunk on David's amazingly built bunk bed, she's been "fixing it up" and making it special. David and I thought she might enjoy having it really done up and put a bug in the ears of her Grandmas. The word spread by the end of her birthday week, she had a lot of wonderful things to make her bed special. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa McCoy, Auntie Kate and cousin Ethan, Grandma and Grandpa Blanchette and Auntie Tabitha and Uncle Isaiah for making our dolly feel like royalty!

Posing on her princess bed (We adjusted and turned the canopy into curtains and dressed them up with her birthday garland.

She was so excited!

"Look, Mommy. You can see me this way, too!"

cuddling up

Princess sheets, princess blanket

Bear looks good there!

A lamp is a must for a princess bed, especially one with a pull string!

Micah itching to get in on the photo shoot "cheese"

Yes, this is my little monkey climbing ~ we can't stop him, so we taught him how to come down.

Party Post Part Two

The surprise ball, the decor, the mix CD and the swag!

I love Pinterest! I have been collecting ideas for this party for sometime. I love decor items that have a large impact for little cost. I bought 2 rolls of wrapping paper and used what I had around the house, plus the few flowers from the dollar store. The paperwheel is a great trend right now. I love how this wall turned out. I think it will stay up for awhile. Grand total $3.

Tissue tassles are another cheap decor item and they look cute. I do wish I would have put in a bit of gold, though. Tutorial found here. Grand total $2.

The surprise ball I saw on the Design Mom blog and knew I wanted to do one. Super easy, super cute and fun. Simply using streamers, wrap items in layers until you have as many layers as you'd like.

As my guests responded that they were coming I asked them to give me a song that would be considered a favourite. I then made a mix CD for everyone to take home. I've been loving this. I have a happy emotional connection to this playlist on my computer and the CD copy in my car. Love these ladies!!!

click to enlarge

What did everyone bring as their favourites? (blue ones I received)

1. Style at Home magazine
2. mini glass spice containers
3. an almost favourite spatula - we heard a great story with this one!
4. makeup bag with lipgloss
5. Rocky Mountain bar soap
6. zipper pouch and pen
7. nail polish and Bible verses
8. body wash, nail file and photo fridge magnet
9. glass bowls and lip balm
10. lip gloss
11. tomato plants
12. spa items and tea
13. apricot scrub, flower seeds and tea

*sigh* It was great and I'm sad it's over. Oh well, there's always next year's party to plan. *wink* *wink*

PS Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Checking In 2013

Hello, January! Welcome, 2013. I am sure looking forward to a year full of new adventures. We do need to look back a bit to catch up, though.

•  We have a shelf in our bedroom that I put a few things on, but hadn't really settled on what to use it for. I found my David styling it with significant things in our marriage. I LOVE this man!

• We did make some handmade gifts that I love! David made and bottled coffee syrup. I made labels and we included bistro bottle pour spouts. We made almond and vanilla...yum! If you're not a coffee drinker, you can still use syrups for drinks like steamers or tea mistos (a London fog is a common misto). We used this recipe for the basic syrup and just changed the extract.

• I made Abigail and Malachi giant reading pillows. They like to drag it around by the handle and stuff the pockets with treasures. They both got new books with their pillows for Christmas. Tutorial here.

• I whipped up some mulling spice packets for my girlfriends at my Ladies group. I had shared this crock pot punch as one of our family favourite recipes at Christmas and then gave the recipe with the spice packet. We love brewing this over the holidays.

• I also made obi style hot/cold wraps, but forgot to take pictures. I made them two for friends, but I'm sure I'll be making myself one at some point. They look something like this.
• My David hunted long and high for the perfect snow globe for me for Christmas and he NAILED it! Love this. It's a simple Christmas tree in silver on a pedestal with a light and a fan that blows the snow inside. It's so beautiful. Truth be told, i am a picky snow globe person and he totally got it! This picture doesn't do it justice.

• New fabric! New project in progress... any guesses? 

• Road test tomorrow...finally! I am excited and nervous, but as my friend said yesterday, the worst that could happen is I fail. If that happens you try again. I am looking forward to little things like taking my littles one on one for dates and sneaking out for little Mama breaks.
• We got a new camera for Christmas... thanks to our family for the Christmas money. I am still learning it, but you can see it here.
• Micah was sick over Christmas and quit the soother. This is new ground for me. Learning.
• We cut down our Christmas card list. Postage is brutal! Sorry, if you didn't make the cut, it's not because we don't love you. You can print it out if you like. I got the inspiration here.

• Oh, and here's our return address label. Actual address not included. I like the maple leaf, not that that is a surprise.