should I keep going…

My goal in 2012 was to write a blog post every thursday with fun craft/DIY ideas I had been accumulating.  Well obviously when I started the year off I had no idea I was pregnant so I didn’t quit make my 52 post goal.  I did however manage to have a baby and still post 35.  There are some great fall projects I didn’t post on with Carson’s birth as the leaves started to fall.  I would at some point love to post those.

My question for you is should i keep going?

What did you like best?  The parties?  The wreaths?  The baby headbands?

I know for sure I don’t have all the content stored up like I did last year at this time but I do believe I could come up with a couple a month if people we interested.

Let me know!

Last Minute Gifts & Pictures

Since it’s less than a week before Christmas I know you are scrambling to find one last gift for just about everyone in your family.  Last year I asked everyone to wear jeans and a black shirt.  Then I made the ladies, including my doggie Lola, simple scarves.  I also went all out and bought the guys $5 hats!

I bought yards of fabric, cut them and wrapped them.  Then I got my friend to come take some fun pictures with us all.  It was a great way to remember one of the rare moments when we had all our families together.

I hope you can think of some great ideas for you and your family.

Winter hanging basket

I found a picture online of a great winter greens hanging basket, so I enlisted the help of my Aunt (who is a florist) for some help on this.  We gathered greens and berries from the grounds of a historic home in Louisville.  I think it’s a great way for you to teach kids about nature as well as get their help to put these great baskets together.

Chalkboard Wall (guest post Corey & Cambrey Little)

Chalkboard Wall

When building our new house, my husband and I knew we wanted a chalkboard wall that we could draw on, have our guests sign their names, create cool holiday messages, make grocery lists, etc. We can thank Pinterest for the inspiration! Lucky for me, my mom’s a teacher and my husband is a designer. So we had this one in the bag. My mom is an old school at that. It is 2012 and she still uses chalkboards in her classroom. She swears they are better than any white or smart board on the market. So thanks to her advice, and my talented husband who is a graphic designer/web designer/architect/creative extraordinaire (shameless plug – www.coreylittle.com), we were able to come up with the perfect Christmas chalkboard design.

Here are the steps we took to achieve it:

1. After we chose the wall we wanted to paint (that took some serious contemplation), we set out to buy some chalkboard paint. We found a can at Home Depot for about ten bucks.

2. Paint the chalkboard wall (a no-brainer, right?). Quick tip – we didn’t use a primer. Just used 2 coats of chalkboard paint. The wall was light grey before.

3. Buy some good chalk. Any kind will do for the “seasoning” (see step 4) we got some really good colored chalk from Michael’s. The brand is Artist’s Loft (blue box) and it had 24 pieces in it.

4. After the paint has dried, you’ll need to “season” or prep the wall (think like you’re prepping your brand new cast iron pan). Basically all you need to do is cover the entire wall in chalk and then wipe it down w ith a damp cloth. This makes it easier to erase any future design and keep it erased for good. Remember in trigonometry class when you could faintly see the unit circle on the chalk board even though it had been erased weeks before? Anyone? Maybe that was just me. Moving on.

5. I mentioned earlier my husband is a graphic designer. He whipped up a really cool Christmas design in photoshop then had it printed on a transparency at Fedex Office. His dad happened to have an old light projector lying around and gave it to us. We used that to project the design onto the wall and trac ed it out with chalk. Voila! A fancy looking (but super easy) Christmas message on our new chalkboard wall.

I can’t wait to see what we come up with next!

Christmas Gift Wrap

Last year I decided I was not going to give into the Christmas wrapping paper.  I really don’t like 99% of it and I wanted to spend my money on something creative rather than wrapping paper.  I found some butcher paper (or you can use craft paper).  Then I discovered that I could use my scrap booking tool, Cricut machine, to create a wonderful gift tag.  I got some great festive gold, red, white & silver scrap booking paper.  Then I made all the cuts I needed to  and used my sticker maker.  Some of the gifts I used initials and others I used the whole name.  Then for the final touch I used different textures of ribbon and yarn to create bows.  These gifts ended up looking more like my christmas decorations than cluttered gifts below the tree.

Thanksgiving Traditon

Thanksgiving Day has become a big deal with our extended family.  My Aunt Alice and her mother-in-law started a great tradition.  I hope that one day I will be able to also create a tradition like this one.

Many people have a festive table cloth they use for this special holiday.  Well Alice stepped it up a notch a many years ago.  She took our harvest table cloth and asked every guest to sign the table cloth.  She would set aside a certain area and label with the year.  After every guest had signed the table cloth she would stitch every name and then wash.  Over the years when you come back you see names of friends of the family who were special guests.  One of my favorite things about this table cloth was when my boy friend came, then he became my fiance and then my husband.

 

I’m sad that this is her last year as host of thanksgiving and that I won’t be able to be there.  But I do want her to know what a great memory she created for her family and how she inspired me to start some memories like this for our family.

Carson’s room!

Ladies & Gentleman

This has been the post I have been preparing for this whole year.

I worked hard to make my son’s room a reflection of our style but also what is trendy at the moment.  I wanted to be able to give him bright colors and bold patterns mixed with a classic grey.  Many people’s favorite part of the room is the ceiling, I’ll admit it I stole it from another blog, nonetheless it does look awesome (and it was a lot of hard work for my husband!).

The elements of the room came together over time, most made by my friends.  I’ll link up their Facebook pages or blogs so you could contact them to get a tutorial! Also my friend Adam took some of these great pictures, be sure to contact him for your newborn pictures.

Barn Window

vintage KY barn window. by iPhone

We have flat paint in the room and with the having a little boy pee all over the place I figured we needed some sort of splash guard.  Well… in comes the barn window.  My dad found this in KY and painted it to match our room.  It looks perfect above the dresser my dad and I stripped and painted together a few years ago.

Rocking Chair Cushions

rocking chair cushions. by iPhone

Getting a rocking chair from parents was such a blessing but the wicker bottom and back were a little warn and were not very comfortable.  I looked all over the place for weeks for the right cushions but nothing would work.  Then I had a great idea, my friend Rachel has done some great work with recovering chairs for me in the past.  So I took her to my favorite fabric store, The Fabric House (I admit it, I splurged), here in Nashville.  I picked a totally new pattern in the same line of fabrics that the rest of the bedding is.  She volunteered all her time and talent, if you need someone to carry out a vision and you just don’t think you can do it yourself, ask a friend.

Book Crates

wood crates make great bookshelves
iPhone

This room doesn’t have a whole lot of square footage so I decided I’d ditch the book shelf for now.  Since he had several books I wanted to feature them somehow but cheap.  I took some great crates from hobby lobby and painted them.  I have a orange one and a turquoise one.  I used the ceiling paint so I didn’t have to buy more paint either!

Art

painting by Amy Dillon Azevedo
Photo: https://pinterest.com/abphotonash/

I endured many art projects in college, brushes & canvases all over my dorm room, even a wood project with soda bottles, thanks to my roommate Amy.  She took on the task of recreating a great painting I found in a nursery online and make it exactly what I wanted, espically the unique dimensions.  Amy is so gifted and I love that she has such a significant part of his room.

Tangerine Shaggy Rug

fun shaggy rug. uptowncountryhome.com
photo: https://pinterest.com/abphotonash/

This is one of my favorite pictures of our sweet Lola and baby Carson.  She loves him and he has never been scared of her!  This rug was one of my splurges.  It may not be for you but I just had a hard time buying a $150 rug!  It really is one of my favorite pops of color to the room.

Crib Quilt & Bedding

Crib quilt. iPhone

I found a great Etsy site, Modifiedtot for my bedding & diaper changing pad.  I just love the bright colors and multiple patterns.  The quilt hanging on the back of the crib was a great gift from the talented Jennifer Ensor.  She said she picked out the patterns before seeing our room!

Wood Block

beautiful wood block from Jennifer Robertson http://www.craftefamily.com/crafts.asp
photo: https://pinterest.com/abphotonash/

block http://www.craftefamily.com/crafts.asp
photo: https://pinterest.com/abphotonash/

My beautiful sister in law, Jennifer, gave us this great wood block that has all of Carson’s birth information displayed in a creative way.  It’s one of my favorite surprises I received in the mail the week after his birth.

Framed Verse

handwritten verse by Cathy Jones Forman
photo: https://pinterest.com/abphotonash/

Another great gift from a friend!  My dear friend, Cathy, from Middle School, made this great print by hand.  I love that she wrote it all out and it has her character all over it. I also use this as a reminder each time I get him out of his crib that he has been set apart by God for big things.

I hope you have enjoyed some of the fun elements Carson has in his room, I hope he can spend more and more time in here as he gets older.  I know he will love all the bright colors and textures.