Birthday Numero Uno! Part 3!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! Go get your green on!

Welcome back to 1st birthday celebration time! It was the simplest celebration you can imagine. So, you may wonder why it takes me 3 posts to finish it up. Because that is the way I roll people; that's the way I roll. 

In our first glimpse into Cora's birthday party, I showed you the things that were not at her party (creepy clowns, above-ground swimming pool, chocolate pizza). In part 2, we took a closer look at what actually did happen at her party. Now, in the 3rd edition of Birthday Numero Uno, I am going to show you the decorations aka BANNERS GALORE!


I made a fancy contact-papered Happy Birthday, Cora sign that I will put up every single year forever... even when she is out of the house. That sign will be up and I will spend the whole day looking at The Etc. Lists and all of my favorite photos of her. #creepymomtakeachillpill

Let's get on with the show. 
Here is how I made the contact-paper-infested banner:

• My best friend, scrapbook paper, entered the scene and got cut to pieces. It took me forever to decide what size each piece should be. Finally, I decided to choose what size I wanted the letters to be and then it was easier to choose the paper size. I made a template of the triangle, traced it, and cut it.

• For the letters, I looked at some fonts online and just hand drew them on thick pink paper. I played around with them a bit and realized they looked better with one more layer. So, I cut out a piece of letter-shaped white paper that was a bit bigger than each pink letter. FYI- when I say "I" I mean me and my wonderful mom who gave up her evening to sit on the floor with me and cut out letters.

• The layout was the trickiest part, but also the most fun! I spent at least an hour moving all of the papers around until I found the perfect order.

• Next, I added the contact paper so it would stand the test of time! Then I punched holes in the top corners of each triangle and looped some green ribbon through the whole thing. I added a pretty yellow ribbon to each end and Bam Boom Bam! It was done... about 10 minutes before the party!

Hold your horses, folks, there is more! THERE WAS ANOTHER BANNER! Craziness, I know!

I took a weekly photo of Cora during her first year. I picked about 20 of my favorites and turned them into a banner. I cut scrapbook paper into thirds. Then I glued each photo on a sheet and added a little title box that said what week the photo was from. Contact paper time. Then hole punching and ribbon stringing.

Tada. All done!

Here are a couple close-up shots of the banner.

There was also crepe paper streamers and tissue paper balls! Check it out!

As a favor, we gave out coloring books that we made with a bundle of 5 crayons wrapped in green raffia.
This was the cover:

And that wraps up Cora's very simple numero uno birthday! Less than 6th months left until Cora hits numero dos!

The Nursery Chronicles: Step 4a: Book Slings

Welcome back to the 4th fabulous edition of The Nursery Chronicles! Today, is a fun one. I think so, anyway! We are going to be talking books and how to hold them. 

Let's get this party started with a look at the awesome book sling that inspired me.

Anyone who has read this blog more than a few times ought to know that I am a major lover of kid's books. So, when I saw this awesome book hanging fantasticness I knew that Cora had to have it in her room. I followed the tutorial that Megan posted on her blog, Penny Carnival, which is also where I got the image above from.

My little how-to is not nearly as complete as hers, so if you want to make these yourself please follow her instructions.

Step 1: Buy your supplies: double curtain rod brackets, wooden dowels, and fabric. 

Put up the hardware. We mounted the brackets with anchors rather than in studs because I wanted the slings in a specific location and there didn't happen to be any studs there.

Step 2: Cut and iron your fabric. We used no-sew tape because I am the worst sewer in the history of the world.

Step 3: Push your dowels though the holes in your fabric slings and then put those fancy things on the brackets.

Step 4: Admire your work! 

Did anyone happen to notice that I only wrote steps about the photos I had and skipped some of the important parts? Lucky for you I gave you a link to someone who did a much better job explaining it. Don't forget to read Penny Carnival for better instructions!

Here's the finished product! 

And, a couple more:

We have made it through 4 whole steps in this baby abode. 6 steps until the grand finale! 

Step 1: Get rid of the old furniture and try out some more baby-centric duds for the room. Crib, bookshelf, and daybed.

Step 2: Convince my husband to do more painting than anyone would ever want to do in their whole life. Start the painting spree by painting over the headboard on the wall. Get a dresser/ changing table and refinish it.

Step 3: Get some more furniture. Start the decorating: Wire display for pictures.

Step 4a: Put up the book slings.

We  made it 3 whole steps before I divided one up. Yes, I'm very sorry. I had to add a part a and part b to Step 4. It was getting a bit long. So, now you get to enjoy it in 2 parts.

Step 4b: More decorating: Floating shelves.

Step 5: Decorations, Part 3: Hang art above the crib and all around the room

Step 6: Refinish side table and get a few more pieces of furniture

Step 7: Paint the chalkboard and mirror and hang them.

Step 8: Put up the curtains. Line the inside of the dresser with some of my extra fabric

Step 9: Paint the mailbox/ stuffed animal house. Finishing touches.

Here are some photos of the rest of the nursery!

Do you need a little more Chronicle in your life? Check out The Living Room Chronicles, The Bonus Room Chronicles, and The Master Bedroom Chronicles!

17 Cool Growth Charts (And 2 Fairly Lame Ones)!

It is time to talk about documenting your height! For the last 18 months I have been keeping track of Cora's height on a freebie growth chart from the hospital I delivered at.

It is kind of cute, but I started thinking about how much cuter it could be.

My mom gave me the old chart that Kelly and I mapped our height on (at very random intervals). A few of my friends even made it onto the tallness keeper.

I found tons of awesome growth chart ideas. Don't you worry! I am going to share them with you.

As soon as I began to write this post, I noticed a blog called Bower Power that I check every so often just DIYed one of my favorites!

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If you don't want to DIY one, don't you worry. I found some pretty neat height charts that you can buy.

Left: You can find at Ecojot for $12

Middle: Buy it here for $49

Right:  Sorry this red fella is no longer for sale, but you might be able to find something like him here.

You could turn your growth chart into a scapbook of sorts with photos and maybe even a few notes.

Here are some more great growth chart rulers. Isn't that a fun idea?!

Right, Middle, Left

You still don't see what you're looking for? I HAVE MORE!
Sorry the cute little teddy bear is so fuzzy!

Left, Middle, Right

Here is another take on the scrapbook-type growth chart. Go get yourself a shadow box!

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Now, the fish painting below isn't exactly my taste. But, I love the idea of taking a painting (hopefully one that you made yourself so you don't ruin someone else's artwork) and marking heights on that. That little boy loves it.

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For the growth chart below, you could leave the name off and use it as a bulletin board or magnetic board. You could even paint it with chalkboard paint.   

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This one is one of my favorites! I love the idea of marking a piece of furniture and keeping track of the height that way. 

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When I started writing this post, I thought that I would want to have a growth chart for Cora that looks really awesome. But, after spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME with growth charts I realized that it is all about the memories and traditions that come along with recording the height. So, you will probably not see me DIY a fancy growth chart down the line, but keep your eyes peeled for a marked up piece of furniture or some random lines on the wall of my house.

Happy Friday! I hope you all have a spectacular weekend. Go start some new traditions and make a few new memories (growth chart related or not)!

The Living Room Chronicles: Introduction to Step 3: New Coffee Table

Things are getting crazy around here again. It's Thursday and there is a post up! Let's just call this an introductory post. I want to prepare you for the awesomeness that is going to happen in tomorrow's post. I will just tell you that it involves a car packed full of shipping pallets at the drive-in movies about 5 years ago.

I was in the market for a new coffee table and I went looking high and low to find one. But, it turned out that finding a reasonably priced 36" x 36" wooden coffee table was impossible.

I checked out a dozen or more thrift stores in the area and went to town with Google.
The closest thing that my Google-mania produced was an Ikea coffee table that was just the right size, but only came in white or black. It is now on sale for only $99.99!

Ikea has since come out with this beauty of a coffee table for $199

Here are the rest of the coffee tables I found that inspired what I came up with and will reveal tomorrow. Or... surprise ruiner... you could just check out the after photos that I posted at the end of this post. Remember that this was before the days of a Pinterest-infested world so the inspiration pictures were pretty stinkin' hard to come by!

This is before the day that the world decided to use shipping pallets to make every single piece of furniture in the world. So, I thought I was pretty clever coming up with the idea of stacking a few pallets on top of each other to make a coffee table. I don't know how to make furniture (despite the awesome benches that my BFF Mali and I made in about 5th grade. You had to sit on them at just the right angle so they didn't collapse). So, I consulted with my Handy Man Extraordinaire. He thought I was more than a little bit crazy, but he agreed to do the job. 

I will continue this thrilling saga tomorrow!

Do you want to check out all of The Living Room Chronicles steps?

Here you go!

Step 1: Move in. Put in whatever furniture we had. Hang art.

Step 2: The Craigslist deal of a lifetime

Step 3: New coffee table (Step 3 Introduction found here)

Step 4: DIY remote control holder. A tiny, tiny step, but we are still calling it one.

Step 5: Should we change out the fireplace?

Step 6: The plant table and the plants

Step 7: Finishing touches

The Master Bedroom Chronicles: Step 7: Make Some Wedding-Related Art

Last week, we jumped back into the Master Bedroom Chronicles with headboard-making in process.

Waaaahoooo! I know it didn't take all that much work to put a rug behind the bed, but man oh man was I excited to get that crossed off my list. 

With the headboard started I was on a roll to make the master bedroom better looking. I set my sights on some lovely art to go above the bed. At all times, I have at least 1,000 options of things I could hang up in the house. So, I consulted my stash of the goods and a few lists of other wall hanging ideas. And, I landed on wedding related art. Vague enough for you?

Scott and I got married almost 5 years ago and people do not lie when they say that time flies!

In the wedding invitations, I included a hand drawn map.  A friend of mine was nice enough to draw a picture of each location that needed to be included on the map (the hotel, the reception site, and the ceremony site).  He did an unbelievable job and I have always wanted to do something with his drawings.  

I scanned them into the computer and played with them a bit in Photoshop.  In the end, I used just one of the drawings (the ceremony site).  I colored three prints differently to bring in some of the colors in my bedroom.  I used yellow, blue, and brown.  

I bought a few different pieces of fabric that went with the color scheme in my room.  I put mats in the frames and I figured out which fabric looked best with which print.  The fabric got introduced to the ironing board so I could be sure it was looking its best. 

Mom, I know you're going to comment that I need a new iron and ironing board. 

It seemed like something was missing. Construction paper to the rescue! I made  little border of construction paper matting around each piece print. Then I glued the print onto construction paper so it would stand out a little more. Yep, construction paper was the first thing I thought of to use and I had plenty on hand because I am a 3rd grader. 

It turned out to be a little tricky to get the construction-papered prints to stay on the fabric.  So, I cut a hole in the center of the fabric (making sure I did it in a place where it wouldn't be seen).  I put a piece of paper behind the fabric and glued that piece of paper to the back of the construction paper. I am 100% positive there was an easier way to do this, but that was what I came up with.

I measured and hung them. It is never perfect on the first try so there may be an extra hole or two behind the paintings.

We are just a few steps away from crossing a Chronicle off our list!

Here are the steps from the whole process:

Step 1: Move in. Throw a bunch of random stuff into the room and live with it for a while to figure out how we wanted to use the space.

Step 2: Rearrange the furniture and add a seating area.

Step 3: Redo a desk with a funky chevron pattern.

Step 4: Redo an old chair for the desk.

Step 5: New comforter and lamps.

Step 6: Headboard, Part 1

Step 7: Make some wedding related art.

Step 8: New entertainment center.

Step 9: Add some new art

Step 10: Headboard, Part 2. Finishing touches. Try to bring it all together.