A Hot Air Balloon Baby Shower

Hello friends, it's been a while since I've checked in.  Pregnancy has certainly taken its toll on my productivity!  I'm a week into my third trimester, so only 11 weeks to go!  Which means I had better get the nursery finished (I mean started, haha!).  This past weekend my family had a baby shower for me, where I received lots of beautiful things for our new baby girl.  My sister and my mom tried to exclude me from all the planning and prep but since I am a party-obsessed control freak I forced my way into the project!  I did most of the decorations and I also made the cookie favors.  The jumping off point was the nursery theme-- hot air balloons and colors of pink, aqua and yellow.  My friend Nick designed the invitations for us.  He is a true graphic artist and drew all of the graphics himself, unlike some people we know (ahem.. me!).

The party was held at my mother's house.  The decorations followed the theme with paper hot air balloons in pastel shades and fluffy white clouds.  Pink and yellow flowers in the centerpieces completed the overall look.  Two of Mama's gifts for me were the gray glider chair and the white Jenny Lind crib.  They were set up in the main room and the presents filled the crib. :)  We decorated the bookshelf with my baby pictures.

I designed paper hot air balloon decorations using a tutorial I found on I am Momma, Hear me Roar.  I couldn't find striped double-sided cardstock so I printed my own stripes on pastel cardstock.  Then I cut out the hot air balloon shapes and sewed them down the center before unfolding them into a dimensional balloon shape.  I found a little box template online and printed it with basketweave and taped them together.  Then I hung the basket from the balloon with kite string.  We made some clouds using the same concept.  These were hung along with colorful pom poms.

Michael's mom shared some baby pictures of him, too, so we hung those on the banister.

For the centerpieces, I designed hot air balloon arrangements with helium balloons tethered with nets that I made from kite string.  The baskets we found in my mother's collection and filled with roses and daisies.  I think these turned out super cute!!

In the dining room we had the table filled with fruit and veggies, mini cheesecakes, sausage balls, ham biscuits and pasta salad.  On the buffet there were pink rose cupcakes and cream puffs.

Another centerpiece with a tiny basket of flowers! :)  

My sister made the scrumptious chocolate cupcakes (from scratch!) and yummy buttercream frosting.  She piped them with pink roses on top.  So pretty!  They are displayed on my pink Moser glass cake stand that I got from a friend a few years ago.  Any excuse to break out the pink cake stand!! :)

I made hot air balloon cookies for everyone to take home as a thank you.  It was my first time using royal icing to flood fill a cookie and I think they turned out pretty nicely!

After we had a little snack and some cake, we all settled in the living room to open the gifts.

I received an array of adorable baby things, some very useful baby supplies and equipment, and a beautiful quilt handmade by my friend in all the nursery colors.  Thanks Andi!  

My sister crocheted the baby a tiny hat with a flower. :)  Thanks Hannah!

After all the presents were opened, we made our way to the parlor for some crafting fun!  My sister bought lots of cute onesies for guests to decorate and she cut out tiny appliques for everyone to iron on the fronts.  We also had fabric markers for embellishing the onesies.  My brother-in-law Josh cut out and sanded a bunch of tiny wooden blocks for everyone to decorate with Sharpie markers.  We got a lot of cute designs.  I plan to seal the blocks with water based sealer so the designs don't get scratched off (eaten?) by the baby.

Another activity we had was "wishes for baby" for the guests to fill out.  I enjoyed reading everyone's responses, especially the kids who were so thoughtful and sweet. :)

Some of my favorites were:  "I hope you see the Disney castle."  "I hope you aren't afraid of Bandit."  "I hope you have red hair."  "I hope you learn to ride a horse," and "I hope you become as creative as your Mama."  I wish all of those things for her, too!  :)

Thanks to everyone for coming to the shower, for the wonderful gifts and the many thoughtful wishes and words of wisdom.  I am so lucky to have your love and support as we begin the journey into parenthood!  

And thank you to my photographer sister Hannah who forgot to be in a picture with me!  :)  

So now that the baby shower is past, you know what's next on my project radar... the nursery!  I will be back with progress reports as soon as there is some progress.  Aside from laundering clothes and blankets, I have made no progress. Haha!  I am hoping to start painting this weekend.  :)  Yippee!!

Stay tuned,

Baby Girl Pink, Aqua and Yellow Nursery Mood Board

I can't believe I'm already five months pregnant!  Time seems to be flying by!  At our last appointment we had our big gender reveal ultrasound which revealed that we are having a baby girl!  She is due in June.  So, that leaves me four months to get her pretty pink room ready!  As soon as I found out I was pregnant I started dreaming up design plans for a boy nursery and a girl nursery.  (The boy version was going to be airplane themed.)  And now that we know what we're having, I have jumped into project nursery with both feet!  I have been fabric hunting locally and online to find the perfect prints for my baby girl.  I give you, a pink, aqua, and yellow nursery:

1.  I was inspired by this coral and gold nursery at Project Nursery.  While I love the Jenny Lind crib, we will be using my nephew's old crib that he has outgrown.  My dad is going to paint it white for me.  I love the white crib with the peachy pink crib skirt.  See #11.

2.  Of course since I'm having a baby girl, I'm going to paint her nursery pink.  My favorite color!  I like this soft shade from Sherwin Williams.  It's called Angelic.  Just like my baby will be. :)

3.  Instead of a hamper, I'm planning to make a laundry bag with a pillowcase and embroidery hoop.  Lighter than a basket and washable.  See #14 for fabric.

4.  My Mama bought me this glider for the nursery.  I'm so excited to have a special spot to rock the baby.  I'll have to whip up a cute pillow for the chair... not sure what yet.  Probably something pink. ;) And for a footrest...

5.  I like this knitted pouf ottoman from Land of Nod.  I am slightly obsessed with knitted poufs.  This aqua one will be perfect for the nursery and later on baby girl can use it for a fun spot to play or perch.

6.  We have an antique cherry dresser in the guest room/nursery already, and a matching cherry wall shelf.  Those will stay.  The dresser will be the changing table as well.  

7.  I want a cute white nightstand to go next to my chair.  I'm currently on the hunt for a secondhand version to paint.  I love the fun painted pulls on this one by Melissa Esplin.

8.  I have selected a lovely variety of pastel printed cottons for my crib bedding.  This one is Florals and Paisley in shades of pink, aqua, yellow, and lavender from Joann Fabrics.  I'm going to make it a crib sheet.

9.  Another crib sheet will be this mint rose print cotton Brambleberry Ridge Rosemilk Metallic Mint by Michael Miller.  This one is my favorite!

10.  This beautiful butterfly print, Winged Wingspan Melon by Art Gallery will be a third crib sheet.

11.  And since I have designed three totally different crib sheets, I want a crib skirt that coordinates with all of them.  For that I picked this soft pink quilter's cotton from Joann with little white flowers.  So sweet.  I'm also going to make a scalloped teething guard for the crib rail from this fabric to coordinate.  Like this one.  I like this instead of bumper pads to introduce another fabric in the crib.

12.  This adorable Michael Miller print, Birds & the Bees Love Bug Coral is for a changing pad cover.  It's so cute!  Some of the colorful hearts are little ladybugs!

13.  I also love this minky butterfly fabric (Flowerly Cuddle Paris Pink) for another changing pad cover (or maybe a blanket?)  It's perfect!

14.  This fabric is for my laundry bag (#3).  It's Bed & Breakfast Floral from Joann Fabrics.

15.  My original design inspiration for the pink, blue and yellow theme came from this nursery by Craftiness is Not Optional.  I love this chevron quilt!  And my quilter friend, Andi, has offered to make it for me! :) 

16.  For some wall art, I am planning a gallery wall of embroidery hoop art and various prints.  I love these embroidery name ones from KimArt on Etsy.  I can get started on that right away since we already know what we will call her... ;)

17.  And I already made an embroidered hot air balloon, like this cute one from an Etsy seller.  It is sold out, so I made my own version! :)

18.  I also love this Katie Daisy print for my little one.

19.  And last but not least, I want to make this cute felt hot air balloon mobile to hang over the crib. 

I'm so super excited to start some of these projects.  I have all of my fabrics purchased and washed, so I'm all set to start sewing up some baby bedding!  Can't wait!  For now I'm off to dream of more pink accessories for the pink princess room.  Hope you enjoyed my design plan...  come back soon to check out my progress!

Living Room Curtains!

For Christmas my mother decided to make my sister and me new draperies for our houses.  Yay!  I have been wanting to replace the curtains in the living room for a while now.  It's on the list.  Anyway, I can never decide on fabric and of course when I do, the one I pick is $30/yard embroidered linen.  Not exactly affordable.  So, I put the curtain project on the back burner for a while.  Then when Mama asked me what I'd like for Christmas I decided now would be the perfect time to pick a new fabric and have her sew it for me!  Hooray!  Mama is an experienced drapery maker, and I was happy to hand this job off!  :)  I picked a lovely neutral floral print cotton from Fabric.com.  It's Waverly's Barano Bliss.  It has a nice gray/beige background with a slate blue, golden yellow, brown and ivory floral print.  It looks perfect with our couches and the wall color. :)

The yellow chenille pillows are from Ikea, I had my friend pick them up for me while she was there over Christmas break.  Thanks Marissa!  They are a bit brighter than the yellow in the curtains, but they certainly bring some cheer to the room!  :)  And they'll look especially nice come Spring!

We had some extra fabric leftover from the draperies so Mama made me this matching pillow with fringe trim for my chair.

Here's a good view of the curtain fabric.  I think it would look nice in the dining room, too, with my new color scheme.  I might end up buying a bit more to make coordinating drapes in there.  We'll see.  These curtains are lined with Roc Lon thermal suede lining so hopefully they will help insulate our old windows against temperature extremes.  It's been pretty cold lately, so I've been keeping them closed at night to block the chill.  I'm really enjoying my new curtains.  Thanks Mama!

Well, it's another snow day for me, so I must get back to my knitting. :)  At least until I have to go out and help shovel the driveway.  Boo!

Stay warm!

Dining Room Refresh

I've been planning to repaint the dining room for a while now. The first time around I used flat paint which shows every scuff and smear.  After five years of wear and tear the walls were looking a little worn.  Despite my best efforts I couldn't get the walls clean.  So I decided to repaint with satin paint.  And now that I'm four months pregnant seemed like the best time to paint, haha!  I figured I'd better get it done before I start working on the nursery!!  :)

So after a pow wow with my sister about paint colors (she painted her bedroom and bathroom a beautiful green that I love) I went off to Lowe's to get some new green paint.  It's barely different from the original color (Bayou Shade by Olympic).  The new color is a bit darker and has a bit more yellow in it.  It's called Jekyll Crane Cottage Green by Valspar.

I blasted through the project in one day by prepping the room a week ahead of time.  I cleaned the room from top to bottom and even washed my drapes and the rods, too.  They were filthy.  I think all the spiders that don't live in the garage live behind the drapes in the dining room.  Ick!  I vacuumed the ceiling and walls and trim before starting to paint, too.  No more cat fur and spiderwebs!

I rolled on the first coat, did the trim work against the ceiling and the baseboards, and then rolled a second coat.  I only did one coat on the trim because I am lazy and they tell pregnant people not to climb ladders. ;) It looks good anyway!

Here is the result:

I took these photos with my new Canon Rebel that Michael got me for Christmas.  I'm still learning how to use it, but it's really nice! :)

I decided to ditch the burgundy accents I've had in here for the past eight years and go for something lighter and brighter and more akin to the rest of the house... blue.  :)

Since I got new curtains in the living room (reveal coming soon) I thought I might try the white linen ones in the dining room for a while and see how I liked them.  The cream floral curtains were nice, but these go with the rest of the house better.  I'd really like to make some new drapes for this room that are a bit less "white."  But that will have to wait until after the baby's room is done!  :)

And while I was at it, I stole a bunch of accessories and artwork from the den.  This print was my new addition to the den last year, but we have since put a TV in front of it so it needed a new home.  It's certainly more inviting than the two little dinky art prints I had on this wall before.  

I think it looks really nice with the paint color and it flows with the adjacent living room color scheme as well.  

I'm really enjoying the fresh new look and since we just got a snowstorm, everything outside is bright, bright, bright.  Makes for good photos! ;)

Here is a final look at the before and after transformation (in which you can't even tell I've painted, haha!)

                     Before:                                                                      After:

I'll be back soon with an update in the living room!  Stay tuned!

Winter ONEderland Birthday Party!

This weekend we celebrated my nephew Barrett's first birthday with a Winter "ONE"derland party.  He is such a happy baby and loves everyone, especially me. ;)

So I pulled out all the stops for his first birthday shindig!  Hannah came up with the Winter Wonderland theme since he's a January baby.  Here is the invitation I designed:

My sister took the adorable photo of Barrett and I superimposed it on a snowy background for the invitation.  :)

We decorated the party room with snowflakes and white pom poms and woodland animals and trees.

We had soup and sandwiches for lunch with fruit and veggies, and cupcakes for dessert.

For the centerpieces I arranged some wooden trees, pinecone trees and assorted woodland animals on the tables.  Ruger helped me sprinkle "snow" and blue confetti to finish off the scene. :)

Behind the food buffet, we had a photo display of Barrett's first year in pictures. :)

For favors I made these polar bear cookies.  They were actually pretty fun to make. The recipe can be found at Everyday Dishes.

Then I packaged them up in little bags with a tag that read: "Thank you BEARY much for coming!" They are so cute!

We also had hot cocoa favors for guests to take home after their trip to our Winter Wonderland! 

I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and decorated them with white chocolate snowflakes and edible candy pearls. 

After lunch, big brother Ruger helped Barrett open his gifts.

 Then it was time for his first birthday cake!  Ruger helped him blow out his candle...

Barrett wasn't so sure about the cake part, but he did have some icing. :)

 We all had fun celebrating our big boy Barrett!  Happy Birthday Buddy!