Painted Crib: Part 1, how to transform a $20 crib into a $3600 masterpiece...

This beautiful crib can be yours with the bargain price of $3600... I love the handpainted details... so I started shopping online, craigslist that is...

this one had a lot of character for the bargain price of $20.  I love the details on this one, and had a project in mind.  I needed the flat, solid sides... 

I am painting this one gray with a Restoration Hardware finished look, so the gray primer is a good choice.

My husband like the gray primer color... but I have bigger plans.

I added moulding to frame the interior and painted it white, then started to sketch a scene... 

Father's Day Cupcakes... make them special!

Of course, Pinterest inspired... hey, any excuse to start baking and we are on it... found this pin... and we were off...

It is so fun when your kiddos can express themselves  in words.

 You need just a little bit of fondant, roll it out, cut in strips and create long rectangles.

Fold the rectangles into collars...

Cut out tie shapes and use one for a template.

And there you go.  All you have to do is decorate them.

My 3 year old got into the action too.

So colorful and fun.  We would have had more ties and collars, but my kids have a sweet tooth... but you get the idea. In a Pinterest world, everything looks perfect... in my mommy world- this is perfect. Enjoy!

Making Fairy Gardens: Upcycling broken clay pots... Pinterest Inspired

The other night, the entire family was in the car on the way to ice cream... "Stop!" I said, and my husband backed up the car.  I had this "pin" in the back of my mind that was perfect for my boys... these are the pieces we found in our neighbors "treasure" by the curb.  My son, J, says... "Mommy, did you hit the jackpot?" YEP!

here are the pieces we found...

This was inspired by a few pins found on pinterest... we created this one trying to "copy" and then the boys got creative...

I found that filling the pots with sopping wet soil was the easiest rather than filling with soil and sprinkling to get wet... but really that is the fun of it.  just keep adding pieces and soil and see what you get... the steps are easy to make, take long rectangular pieces and press into the soil.

The boys like breaking up pieces for steps...

we added some sedum and plan on adding other details, but for now... this is what we have.

The best part was being creative and creating with my boys.

Painted Striped Curtains

I have the Pinterest bug... bad, and even worse, I have been "nesting" and bugging my husband with tons of Pinterest ideas.  Painted curtains was one that I figured I could do on my own during my little man's "snooze" time and preschool preoccupying my toddlers.  I wanted to make a change in my children's bathroom, so this link really inspired me. M.E. Beck Design is brilliant. I love her style and everything she does. Check her out!

Cutest little helper resting peacefully.

What you need? 

curtains

paint

roller

tape measure

painters tape

pencil

My curtains are from Target... but I bought them new at GoodWill for $3.99 each!

These are 84" panels... I marked along the sides every 6" and then matched each mark with the tape.  I painted every other space with the roller and gray paint.

I really like how they turned out... especially for a whopping $7.98! I thought I wanted 96" panels, but these are perfect.  Since they have grommets that fit on the pole... you will have to tack or sew a liner in, but totally worth the extra step if you go the grommet route!

Now for the rest of the house!

Easy Sugar Cookie Decorating for a Special Occasion

I love food writers, especially for my little artists, and what could be more fun than writing on cookies!  For Birthdays and special occasions, I love an eye popping dessert table more than anyone, but sometimes it takes that fun out of the party and changes the focus.  For my son's 5th Birthday, I made our favorite sugar cookies and covered them in fondant cut outs with the same cookie cutter.  The fondant creates mini canvases for the kids to color and draw.

You can find food doodlers or food writers in the baking section of any craft store.

 Everyone had fun decorating the cookies.  We wrote special birthday messages for the birthday boy... we drew pictures of our most recent FAVORITE movie, "Wreck it Ralph" and just created for fun and they taste good too!

Make these for any special occasion.  Try them... 

for the kid's table at Thanksgiving... they can draw what they are thankful for.

Valentine's day... draw Valentines

an art party

Christmas-

any Birthday party

for a rainy day and the list goes on... my infant is ready for a feeding, so I am signing off!

B. Inspired!

Dawn

Special Stuffed Animals for my Sweets double as Tooth Fairy Friends!

In my previous post, I highlighted my daughter's secret pal.  I have been working on little lovie pals for my children while on bed rest in the hospital.  They have recorded messages from me on the BAB "Say it with Sound" recorders.  When my children feel blue or miss me, they have their soft friends they can cuddle on, hear my voice, and they have little pockets so they can double as tooth fairy pillows! A multi-tasking mom creating a multi-use stuffed animal!  Each pillow friend reflects my children's personality, meet them and the tutorial that inspired them...

Here is my mini craft room in the hospital.

It all starts with a sketch... The robot is for my son, Matthew.   This robot was inspired by this tutorial.

I wanted to make a doggy for my son, Joe... when I gave him a clue to his special pal... he excitedly squealed,  "A DRAGON!" Yes, of course.  This little guy was inspired by this stuffed dragon I saw on ETSY.

This was for my little girl... Her favorite colors are pink and purple, so Jennifer Paganelli fabrics had to be the way to go!  This bunny was inspired by this tutorial...

These little pals were fun to make... there are details that are hand-stitched that I could do while in bed. The majority was sewn on my machine. They have made the time go by quickly, and now each of the kiddos have one of a kind pals.  My husband says that my 2 1/2 year old daughter played hers the car ride home from the hospital laughing!  He says my son, Matthew, slept with his and kept playing his message over and over.  Joe got his today and he hugged on him.  I love being a mommy and am grateful God has blessed me with them.  We will soon add one more blessing to the clan. I wonder what kind of pal he will have?  

A Little Lovie to Lift the Spirits: DIY Stuffed Friend

At 32.2 weeks, I was hospitalized for high blood pressure, which has since then turned into preeclampsia which means the hospital is my "home" until we deliver our sweet little blessing, Jacob Thomas.  Our goal is to get to 37 weeks and I have 2 1/2 more weeks to go.  The biggest hurdle is missing my children... my 6, 4, and 2 year old are pulling my heart strings.  I have many special people praying for me, so the majority of the time I am here, a blanket of peace has covered me which lead me to the idea of making some little loves for my kiddos with recorded messages in them.  I started to search Pinterest for some inspiration.  This link was the inspiration for my daughter's doll.

Pink and Purple are my dd's favorite colors, so Jennifer Paganelli's vibrant fabrics were the perfect fit .

My sewing nook. Thank goodness my hubby is so good to me.  A few trips to my room and I have a good selection of fun fabrics to light my sewing fire.

My Home away from Home.

This is how we personalize the lovie.  I recorded a special message for each of my children into these voice recorders.  You have 10 seconds of recording time.  My mom drove to the mall and picked them up for me... we get ours from Build a Bear (BAB) and they are the best.  $8.00 a piece, but priceless in terms of the peace of mind and smile they can bring to my sweets.  We use these for Christmas ornaments too, and putting up ornaments is a ball when listening to them.  

These are the main pieces that I have... I added a pocket to the back so that these can double as tooth fairy pillows.  Hoping those toddler teeth stay put, they are special pockets for now.

I embellished it a bit with some quilting, handout felt flowers and a scrap of lace from my Baptismal dress that I couldn't throw away, and now I am happy that I didn't.

I am happy with how she turned out.  I love the colors, and she is so soft.

She loves it! Yay!!! My husband says she listened to it in the car on the way home giggling away and that is how I want to think of her and my boys while I spend a month in the hospital awaiting their baby brother.  A few weeks here in terms of a lifetime for the baby should be a piece of cake and it is when I have peace of mind.