Fancy Picture Frames

Well, at least I think they're fancy.

My little girl will be a big sister in about four months. From the beginning we always said we would have one nursery and the children would use it until they were either a.)too big or b.)the next baby came along and needed it.

We had a twin bed for my daughter for a long time knowing that whether another baby would ever come she would not sleep in a crib forever. A few weeks ago she forced us to put her in a 'big girl room'.

She won't sleep in a crib anymore :( I was not emotionally prepared and we certainly were NOT physically prepared for this.  Her room looks like a prison. The only thing in it is her bed and our printer/printer stand (looking for a new spot to put that one!). Most of our free time is now spent redecorating her big girl room.

I have been storing away ideas for this magical, sweet, youthful room and in all honesty most of the supplies have been in my basement for MONTHS. I just needed a good kick to get them started. Well, my daughter is growing up and that was the 'kick' I needed. But, it feels so good to be crafting anyways.

My husband is painting some furniture from my old bedroom at my parents house to put in C's room. I never thought I would end up with white furniture anywhere in my house but when I found her (white) bed for a STEAL at Salvation Army I couldn't pass it up. Until that is done, she will have no place to place things other than the floor but I will be ready.

On another visit to Salvation Army I found some picture frames and wooden candlesticks. The picture frames came to about $2 total (I had my mom with me and it was senior discout day-she was so happy to help!) and the candlesticks cost another $2 total.

We had wonderful weather this past week/weekend and while my husband sprayed the furniture with primer I got a can of pink spray paint and turned this:

And with the help of my handy-dandy glue gun I turned them into these:

As soon as she has a dresser in the room these will be on top. They both contain pictures of the three of us but as soon as the baby is born I plan on changing them out.

Easy, cheap and incrdibly cute. I like that combination.

I have more projects done for the room and will be adding them in the coming weeks and hopefully have one big final reveal :) It feels great to have this energy back!

Olivia cupcakes

As I have mentioned before, my sister lets my two nieces choose the theme for each birthday.

And, let me assure you that these themes are well thought out and chosen MONTHS in advance. So, I wasn't surprised that this year my oldest niece wanted an Olivia (the Nick Jr. pig) party for her big 5th birthday. If you don't know what I'm talking about here is Olivia:

It was decided that we wouldn't theme the food to match the party even though my mom and I thought serving hot dogs and pulled pork would be kind of funny :) My sister bought some Olivia themed items from online-cake plates and balloons. But, everything else was just red and white everything since those are Olivia's favorite colors. My niece even wore her Olivia t-shirt and of course she had to wear the Olivia tutu and hair bows from her dress up set and requested white and red striped tights like this one picture of Olivia she has so my sister bought her some leg warmers.

I have made EVERY birthday cake for her since year one. I am very proud of this. My other niece could care less who makes it as long as she gets it but my oldest niece won't take anything unless I make it. Of course she saw a picture over my sisters should on-line one day and it was the most ridiculous and time consuming two layer fondant covered cake and I somehow managed to say NO to that one. I am not that talented or patient either! I found these cupcakes on nickjr.com and we convinced her they would be great. You should have heard the squeals of excitement from both nieces when they saw the finished product. I didn't make the cupcake recipe but rather used a funfetti box mix which is what the birthday girl requested. I also used canned frosting and tinted it myself. The one thing I should have done but didn't read the recipe at that point was to make this in MUFFIN tins. They need to be a bit bigger than a cupcake for the template of the nose to work and still have room for the rest of the face. We made them work, mistake and all...Olivia just couldn't have a mouth and the ears had to go straight in the cupcake and stand up in the air instead of kind of off to the sides as in the pic on the website. It didn't look exactly like Olivia but it looked like a pig who may resemble Olivia :) Everyone loved them and enjoyed the extra bit of chocolate that the ears and nose provided.

A successful birthday treat if there ever was one!

Fall is on the way...

and I have spent most of the summer not updating my blog :)

To be totally honest though I haven't done that much crafting. I've been vacationing and getting ready for a baby and dealing with a whole bunch of little complications with this pregnancy while chasing after a toddler who seems to be growing up SO fast. I have done a few things to get back on the bandwagon recently but dont' have pictures of them yet. Or, the project is still in progress and thus unfinished.

I am spending time with my mom this week to help her out. She had surgery last week and can't do much on her own. We have the windows open today! The weather is sunny but we have a great cool, crisp breeze blowing through. It's a big difference from the chilly, wet weather we had yesterday. It really is starting to feel like fall is on the way :) I love fall; it's my favorite time of year. I go all out and decorate my whole house and do all sorts of fall related things.

I always hate finding a project I would like to make two weeks (or less) before the holiday actually gets here. I'm lucky if I can find the time to get the supplies together much less get it done in time. So, I am jumping the gun with this one because I am excited about the change of season approaching :) I made this last year and it was able to hang on my door from September until I took it down at Thanksgiving to put a Christmas decoration up.

This is entirely a dollar store project. I got the wreath form, the leaves, the fall floral pics and the Harvest sign all at dollar tree. For $4  and my handy glue gun I had a cute piece of decor.

I can't wait to start hanging this stuff around the house and showing off my Halloween decor too!