my blog

fall bookcases.

I still have a lot of blog catching up to do from the summer, but I just can’t get motivated when everything around me is turning all the beautiful colors of fall and the air just feels different, ya know. So I’ll do what I promised myself I wouldn’t and jump ahead to current blog time and share with you my fall bookcases.

Nothing fancy, and most of the stuff is a permanent fixture on my shelves year round, but I just took out the turquoise and yellow (my living room scheme) and added in my fall décor stuff.

The baskets on the bottom hold the baby’s toys, but I’m slowly moving that stuff out of my living room (finally). I still need to get 3 more baskets to finish off the other shelves, but I buy one a month just to keep the cost spread out.

I love this little orange owl, and had plans to spray paint him to match my living room color scheme, but now I know exactly where he belongs… with my fall stuff.

My favorite thing on my bookcases, our family picture. I love, love the frame. Now I just need to take an updated picture.

And that’s it. I’m really late getting my fall stuff out and poor Halloween will suffer because of it. Thanks for being so patient with me… I have SO, SO, SO many pictures to edit, it makes me mental, crazy, postal… you get it.  Slowly but surely I will get back on track and hopefully inspire you with something creative.

ETA: Since I know I will probably get asked, and I’m not very good at getting back to people and their questions, the back of my bookcases are covered with wallpaper. It’s a white almost puffy dimensional paper that I picked up from Home-Depot.

silhouettes.

With older homes, comes charming older features, and we have this sweet little window on one of our walls, that I absolutely adore, but the problem is that it sits about 5 feet off the ground. With a ton of un-usable space under it. Well after 3 years of having no ideas what to stick there, I finally found the perfect (well I think…) solution.

I know silhouettes have been very popular recently, and I just love the idea of having them done of my children. And honestly EVERYONE that comes over asks how I did it, and I mean everyone. So just in case you’re curious, here’s my process.

Start by taking a profile picture of your subject. Use a nice clean light colored wall so that you have a lot of contrast between person and wall.

Using a photo editing program, fill in the outline of your subject in black. I made Darren do this part for me, because he has more patience for this fine detail work, but I assure you, it's not hard to do.

The next part is not necessary at all, but because I’m cheap when it comes to my printer ink, I took an erase tool and made the inner black part of my silhouette white, so I wasn’t using as much ink when I printed it.

(I know, it looks funny now…)

Next up. Print your picture. And grab some supplies.

-An exacto knife, a self healing cutting mat, black cardstock, removable adhesive and your printed picture.

Using the removable adhesive apply VERY generously on the back of your picture. I used Dotto, and it literally rubs of when you’re done. I love it!!

(I really darkened this picture, so you could see the adhesive, make sure to get the edges, as you don’t want them lifting off when you’re cutting)

Stick your picture to your black cardstock. (I trimmed around my picture, so I didn’t have so much bulky white to cut away)

Using your exacto knife, cut all the way around your picture. You can be as detailed as you want (i.e. cutting out strands of hair) or really just make it a simple outline.

You’ll be left with your image and your left over cardstock.

Peel off the printed picture, and just rub away the extra adhesive, and because you used black cardstock you can flip your image either way if you want them facing left or right in your frame.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I did for mine was back each picture on some white cardstock and used some really cheap frames from Wal-Mart ($1.99).

The finished result is so adorable!

You can see a little of the baseboard in this picture, so you can see how high up this darn window is.

That lonely silver hook is patiently waiting to hold the newest little Workman’s silhouette.

And here he is…

Your Welcome. ;)

a baby shower.

I had the pleasure of hosting a surprise baby shower at my house on Friday night for a very deserving friend of mine, who just gave birth to a sweet baby girl named Bailey. I was very excited to do this, since I love throwing parties, and once I found my inspiration piece for the party, I couldn't stop the excitement from coming.

In my case, the theme of the party was born, when I fell in love with these paper plates.

I am zebra print obsessed right now. And I think you would be surprised how easy it was to find things that matched and coordinated with this plate. Anyways, lets get started.

Because pom pom's are so easy to make and have such a HUGE impact on a room. I started by making 3 big white ones, and when I found some zebra print tissue paper, I almost died from sheer delight.

So I made two little baby ones from the zebra print by cutting sheets of 20x26 tissue paper in half and using 5 sheets each per pom pom. Aren't they darling?

And from there, I found black and white chipboard letters, that included some in zebra print. I figured a banner with Bailey's name would be just the perfect touch.

I cut scalloped circles and plain circles using the big shot, and then just mix and matched each letter base. Each letter is attached to the next using zip ties.

As for other big decorations I bought helium balloons in pink, black and white, and just had them floating all around my living room.

 
 After I had planned the decorations, next up was the food. I started by planning a menu. I knew I wanted to do desserts in pink, black and white colors. After making some food, and buying some food, I think I found the perfect balance of pink, white and black.

I started by putting my black velvet photography backdrop on the table. It was long enough to cover the front and back of the table, but not the sides, but it wasn't a big deal. I added a couple boxes underneath the backdrop to create layers. And put a white decorative shelf on top.

Here's the finished product.

(the picture quality is horrible, since it was already 8 o'clock at night before we got started. And you know how much I hate taking pictures without natural light. I really don't think these pictures will do it any justice, but at least you can get the idea of what it looked like)

 
(Starting left to right on table)
Imagine my delight, when I found Jones soda with pink and black labels; the exact color of my pink plates. 

It's hard to find a lot of desserts that are black (usually black desserts = burnt) So I settled for dark chocolate brown for most of my baked goods.

Brownie bites. I debated frosting these with pink, but since I did cupcakes, I decided against it.

 

Below the brownie bites were salt and vinegar rice crisps, for the non-dessert eaters. I forgot to snag a pic.

Next up. Hershey's chocolate nuggets. I took paper in coordinating colors of my table and wrapped each chocolate in paper.

 

Much to my surprise, everyone commented on this next treat. Pink pop rocks. They were so much fun!

Behind the pop rocks was a dish of strawberry cheesecake jelly belly's and to the side watermelon flavored tootsie pops!

Shifting down a bit. Cotton Candy sticks.

And right below them. Juicy red strawberries. (I had planned to make a pink dip, but I figured, we should probably not add more sugar to the table, and just eat the berries as is)

I just LOVE the dish they're in. So beautiful!

The next plate was full of pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate and coated with pink sugar sprinkles.

 (Phew, we had A LOT of food)

Next up, the back corner kinda...

Strawberry malted milk balls, white powder donuts and pink m&m's.

 To the right of that... CUPCAKES!! (of course)

Pink butter-cream frosting with white sprinkles. (I added a tiny little plastic baby to the top of each cupcake, not pictured)

 
 
 Almost done, hang in there. So the most obvious black and white food choice for me was of course, Oreo's.

Okay, last food I promise...

I went to Bulk Barn and bought any and all candy that was either pink, black or white. I ended up with a diverse selection, although most black candy is licorice flavored, but thank goodness we had lots of licorice fans at this party.

I filled my martini glasses with little portions of the candy's.

 

In the cups I had, 2 different flavors of jelly belly's (3 total), 2 different flavors of salt water taffy, licorice allsorts, yogurt covered raisins and pink and white gummy teeth.

And so, for the finishing touches on my table, I added some candles. The two here on pillar stands.

And the checkered one here, next to the frame.

 As for the frame, I went onto facebook and found a picture of Bailey. Printed it off and pinned it to the frame.

 I wish so bad that you could have seen it. I really do mean that it is just one of those things you have to see to appreciate. I had a blast putting it together, and I love how fantastic it turned out. (If I do say so myself)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. Hope you enjoyed reading this post. 2 in one day... to make up for my MIA status lately. xoxo.
 

pictures from my kitchen.

Today will be nothing spectacular, or maybe even that interesting, but I got some cool new kitchen stuff in the last couple months, and I wanted to show you how awesome they are.

First up, in a post back in June I talked about getting some huge flour and sugar containers to sit on my counter. I am constantly baking, and I was getting sick of running downstairs to fill up tiny little jars. I wanted honkin' huge ones.

And I got 'em.

But how boring are these?

So I spruced them up with a couple vinyl stickers.

They totally rock now. And it wasn't because I couldn't tell the difference between flour and sugar, I just love labels and I love vinyl.

  
Jars from Walmart. Labels from Once Upon a Design.

So the next super cool thing in my kitchen is this.

No, not a giant jar of Fruit Loops.

Cereal dispensers!!

Because I like to teach my kids independence and making their own cereal is very important to me... (the real truth is, I like to sleep in) And every morning I would come downstairs to crunchy cereal all over my floor. Not only were they wasting it, but I was sick of stepping all over it. So our solution was this.

The kids know that three turns of the dial, fills their bowl perfectly. The milk however is a whole 'nuter story. (have I mentioned lately that I hate milk in a bag)

(excuse the cord it was my crock pot plugged in for dinner)

Of course we have other choices of cereal than Fruit Loops and Rice Krispies. But I put the most popular kinds in the jars, and the others are in the cupboard below.

I got my cereal dispenser from Target . But a quick search on google, popped up lots of different options, if you're looking for one.

Lastly, the third awesome thing in my kitchen is this little guy.

Remember how I was just talking about him backing himself under chairs and then not being able to go anywhere... well now I have photo proof that I'm not lying.

 
  
Of course there are a million other things that happen in my kitchen, because it's the hub of our home. But I'm sure I don't want to bore you with what I've been baking and making lately...

And on that note, since I'm all Halloween decorated out, (well, not really, but time and money are not on my side) So instead, I want to share with you some Halloween food/treat ideas. Every day for a whole week before Halloween (starting this Saturday) I'm going to be posting a gross or awesome treat that you can serve to all the little goblins's or ghouls in your life. I am so excited!!

ghostly things.

Okay, I promise not to bombard you with Halloween decor posts anymore, except that it's only 2 weeks away, and I need to share, in case you wanna play too.

Alright, so I saw this super cute idea online from a picture in a random search on google, and I decided to make some too.

Start with some black fabric. I used felt, cause it's cheap and easy to work with.

Make an oval shaped template and pin to your fabric.

Cut out two. (I layer my fabric so I only cut once)

Next take a white pillowcase. (I found mine at Walmart, sold in a pkg of 2 for $1.98)

And pin one black oval near the top.

 Stitch around oval.

Repeat adding the 2nd black oval.

Press and you're done.

Any guesses yet?

Yup, it's a ghost chair cover!

 

 

Cute hey? I planned on making enough to do our dining room table, but once I got a couple on, they sort of reminded me of a group of people that used to wear white things on their head and it really bothered me. (not mentioning it okay) So I moved it to our desk in the living room, and it looks quite cute there all on it's own.

After looking around for a link, I found out that this idea came from Rachel Ray. Next year when I have more time, I might look at the idea of making different looking seat covers, like bats, monsters or Frankenstein. How fun!
  

bats.

Okay, in the post below I mentioned that I had more Halloween decor to share with you, and Grey did eventually wake up (he always does for some strange reason LOL) But now he's back down again for another nap, and I'm taking the opportunity to show you more.

In the last post I talked about OEYC, and I promise to tell you what that is.. just not right this second okay. But anyways, I was at OEYC and I saw this cute bat template, just like the ghost one below and I had this super cute idea to stick them to my wall as decor.

And so I did just that.

They are stuck on with painters tape, so they won't peel off my paint or damage the wall. I just randomly stuck them to the wall. I wanted them to look like they were flying out of the roof.

Before they were cut out, I laminated the whole sheet of paper to avoid having to cut them out by hand. So I can use them again next year, or outside even.

 
 
 Because I like to add cost into stuff like this, they were again free. (Thanks to OEYC)

Another really cost effective decoration is my HAL- LOW- EEN picture frame.

All I did for this one is took some lacey spiderweb fabric (cost less than .50¢) And stuck it into the picture part of my frame. The black Halloween letters are vinyl, but you could use stickers or cut out words on your cricut. I stuck my letters to the outside glass (I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, so I wanted to be able to peel it off easy if I hated it) But it's growing on me. Just another really inexpensive way to decorate for Halloween.

I hope you're not getting bored with my constant Halloween stuff. I don't even decorate this nice for Christmas, especially since this year we will be in Alberta. Tomorrow I'm hosting a Stampin' Up party at my house, and I'm tempted to make it a mini Halloween party. haha!

Won't my guests like that...

Alright, so I guess I should explain OEYC before I forget. This is going to be long, so I apologize.

 So here in Ontario we have some awesome programs for parents. They offer tons of classes for free (baby massage, how to talk to your kids etc.) They also have a giant daycare like room filled with early childcare educators, where you can go with your children and play. They have sandboxes, water tables, a full house with play bathroom, kitchen etc., computers, reading corners, play-dough, coloring. They even have baby stations with bumbos, carpets to lie them on, mirrors, toys, dollhouses and the list goes on and on. They even provide snack at certain times of the day. They do themed crafts each month, and will bring in animals (spiders at Halloween, bunnies at Easter) for the kids to watch and learn about. 

It's a great program and it's all free. Drop in when you can (you have to stay with your child of course) But you don't have to entertain them. They have College students that are working on their degrees that will help look after your kids. A friend of mine would go and let her daughter play while she nursed her new baby. They have couches set up for moms and so much more. They even have health nurses come in on certain days and you can get your baby weighed and ask any questions you have about their development. It's amazing as you can see.

Phew. You may be wondering what this has to do with cut out ghosts and bats. Well another part of this whole free system in the OEYC (Ontario Early Years Center) They have a room set up for Moms (or Dads) to use and everything in it is free. They have huge cupboards filled with die cuts for sizzix type machines. The paper is all free, they also have felt, fun foam, cardstock, leather, buttons, beads, velcro tabs they have it all. Did I mention that it's free!! You can also bring your laminating from home and they will do that for you too. They also provide free babysitting on Thursdays in the play room while you go and "cut paper" as I like to call it. I've done some really cute projects for nursery using these supplies, and my friends have made some adorable books and cards too. One day I will take my camera and secretly take pictures so you can see it. It's way cool.

Alright, enough blabbing for today. Ta!

more halloween decor.

Yesterday I was feeling a little blah. You know, the big let down after a major event. Thanksgiving had come and gone. The kids were at school, my house was relatively tidy and I just felt kinda icky. Does that ever happen to you?

So to bust myself out of my funk, I decided I needed to do something crafty. But what?

For awhile now I've been collecting tree branches. We have this HUGE tree in front of our house, and every time a branch falls, I put it in a garbage can sitting outside our house, waiting for inspiration to hit. Well yesterday I finally decided to do something with these branches.

I started off picking the best ones out of the bucket. I arranged them in a tall glass candle holder that usually sits by my front door. Still not too sure what to do.

Awww, look little baby Grey's head, well that's too cute not to post too...

If you notice, he is sucking on my foam brush that I was about to use on my branches. When I tried to take it away, he screamed. So of course being the pushover sweet mom that I am, I went and got another one instead. 

I figured if I'm going to use these as Halloween decorations, then they would have to be black.

So I painted them all black. And tied a little black ribbon around the branches, just to hold them together better. (they all wanted to go their separate ways) And popped them back into the glass candle holder. (what are those things called?)

 
Once that was done, it still needed something to jazz it up. I really, really wanted to paint them with black glitter paint, but I didn't have any on hand, sad. So I needed to use glitter somewhere else.

Well, just the other day I was at the OEYC (more on that later) and I had cut out 20 of these little paper ghosts. I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but cut them out anyways. So I thought, how about a ghost tree?

I glittered the edge of each ghost and hung some ribbon from them.

For the glittery part, I just took my glue pen, ran a bead around the outside of the ghost, sprinkled the glitter on and brushed off the excess.

 
 And the rest is history.

 
Now I have a cute little spooky tree in my entry way and guess how much it cost me? Nothing!!

Tree branches were free. I already had the paint and brushes. The ghosts were free too. Ribbon from my stash. I don't think I will save the branches, but I can always paint more if I really want to next year.

I really want to share all my Halloween decor ideas here. I have another super easy and fun one, but you have to wait until Grey wakes up from his nap so I can take pictures of it. (He's asleep in the living room and he is a VERY light sleeper)

On another note, we finally have all the kids costumes. I can't WAIT to do a photoshoot with them all. Unfortunately it is very chilly here already, and I don't think we're going to get a Halloween without jackets this year. Here's a little sneak peak at their costumes.

 

  

halloween candles.

ETA: I just found these candles on Martha Sewarts website. Wanted to give credit. Thx.

So one of my favorite things to do while I'm waiting in the grocery store check out, is flip through the magazines.  I try to absorb as much information as I can before it's my turn to check out. And since I'm cheap when it comes to buying magazines, I do this often. (okay, every time I go shopping)

Well the other week, I was flipping through a magazine (some country harvest halloween edition) and I saw in the background these teeny tiny candles sitting on a desk. Honestly the picture was so small, I wasn't too sure what it was, but they looked cool. And since I love cool stuff, I decided to try my hand at making them.

I already had this glittery black candle stand and I loved my black candles in it, but not cool enough, right.

So I bought some white candles and one red one. (Make sure you put some protective paper or something under this project, it gets messy really quickly)

 
Place one candle in a jar or something tall enough to hold it upright.

 
Light the red candle and give it a minute to get good and hot.

 
Start dripping the hot red wax onto the white candle.

 
And keep going...

 
until your candle is covered in red melty wax. (can you see where I'm going with this?)

 
Ta da! Bloody candles for Halloween.

 
How easy was that!?

 
I think they look really spooky, and Halloweenish.

 
   Total project cost $2.50.

While I was taking pictures of this for you, I had a bad Momma moment, lucky for you I just happened to have my camera in hand when I saw it.

So, Grey was sleeping in his swing, and I didn't buckle him in, because he was wrapped in a blanket and I couldn't get the straps around his chubby blanket wrapped legs. No biggie right.

Until I came around the corner and saw this...

I would like to also mention that his swing was still going. He was giggling and swinging back and forth, dangling his little legs in the breezy air.

My first instinct was to grab him, but that wouldn't make for a very good story would it? So I turned the swing off (safety first right?) And snapped these pictures instead.

Bad Momma. tee hee hee.

And my last point for the day, sometimes I get asked questions about various things I do, and I'm horrible for getting around to answering them, until today when I discovered that I can answer you back in the comments section (thank you typepad) So If you've asked a question in the last couple posts, I'm going to go back and answer them, or any future questions check there. Okay?

 

eek craft.

So yesterday I promised you a tutorial (next post) and a super cool boy idea. Well, as luck would have it, I could not find a certain piece I needed to make it yesterday, so it's on hold, but I do have something else to share. And I suppose you could do it for a boy if you wanted...

I'm grasping at straws here....

Okay, no for reals. We had our craft day for our Church on Saturday, and I was teaching a fondant cupcake class, so I didn't really get a chance to sign up for much, but I managed to sneak in a class and make something (which I then ended up helping teach... how does that happen)

Anyways, it turned out really cute, and REALLY cheap. So when my mom was asking me for ideas for her ward's craft day, I promised I would post pictures so she could see what we made.

Okay, long winded, lets get to the pictures.

We started with some wood blocks that were cut from 2x4 posts. I think they were about 3.5 inches tall. (I'll double check that) Anyways, each person that signed up for the class got to choose a word they wanted to use. Most people picked things like,

Love, Family, Blessings, Home, Adore, Cherish.

And then I come along, and I just happen to LOVE Halloween, in the worst way, so I choose to do the word eek. And added an adorable spider to complete it.

And really that's all it is.

Wood blocks cut to size.

  

And then you painted them the color you wanted. Sanded the edges (or not)

And the letters we used to stick to the wood was vinyl. (remember major vinyl obsession growing here) Which we cut using the Cricut.

 

I  still want to add a black string to the spider or paint a line for his web. But you get the idea.

Now go home (well, you're probably already there) and make this adorable little set of blocks. Okay. Oh, I forgot to mention, that you can buy the vinyl sheets at Walmart in the craft section. Have FUN!

pom pom instructions.

ETA: Each pom pom takes about 5-7 minutes, if you're really picky like I am, maybe 10.

I've had a couple requests to show how I made Lily's pom poms for her birthday, and since I was planning on making some more for Halloween to hang, I thought I'd take some pictures of the process.

Okay, if you want them to be big and jumbo sized, then you have to buy the larger sized tissue paper. The biggest I've found is 20x26.

Take the tissue paper out and separate colors. Or if you want to make multi colored ones, you would take tissue paper and layer the colors (ie. pink, purple, pink, purple, etc- or however many different colors you want)

(Hindsight, I should have showed you with the orange one, but hopefully you can see the process okay with the black.)

Start by taking 8 sheets of whatever color tissue paper you are using.

And smooth it out and start folding it accordion style. Back and forth, until you reach the end.

once you have gone to the end, it should look like this.

Then take a ribbon, or string or whatever, and tie it around the center of the tissue paper.

 You don't want it be pinched, but tight like this.

If you were to fold out your tissue it would look like a fan.

Next you want to clip the ends of the tissue accordion.

This time I choose to do pointy tips. (little more scary Halloween looking) But for Lily's I rounded the ends. Like this.

Once you have both ends cut how you want. Start separating the tissue paper one sheet at a time.

all 8 sheets should be single ply and puffed out. The other side will still look like this.

Then do the same to the other side.

Once you have it all separated, I like to hang it from somewhere high, so I can "fix" it and make it nice and puffy and even. If you're lucky enough to have beautiful drop ceilings like we do in our kitchen, (vomit) then you can hang it from there.

To fix and fluff, all I do it make sure that the tips (or rounded corners) are pointing out and not folded over.

 Make sure the sheets of tissue paper are evenly spaced all the way in between. And you're done.

It's a really forgiving craft, and it won't matter if it's not perfect, but it fills up and room and has a really dramatic effect for super cheap.