a vintage-themed baby shower {gender neutral}

A sweet friend and I threw a baby shower for her sister over the weekend. It was so much fun to put together because the mama-to-be is as crazy about vintage as I am! My main inspiration came from THIS photography post.

And I designed the invitation, too. Isn't it sweet?

Did I mention how much fun it was? I pulled things from Pinterest, my shop and my own stash and we added lots of vintage and antique family items like toys, clothing and photos.

The "baby" pennant banner idea came from HERE and don't you just love the coffee filter poms?! Gorgeous, easy and fun to make! Invest a little time and have something great. (Find the tutorial HERE.)

There was a bassinet (which my amazing friend, Sarah, found on the side of the road in amazing condition!), a diaper cake, salt water taffy and plenty of food.

Here are the sweet sisters - due about 3 months apart! I had so much fun celebrating with them. And both aren't finding out the gender until baby is born! How crazy, fun and exciting. (And vintage? ha!)

(A quick obligatory photo of my with the sweet mama - and a peek at my party dress compliments of my grandma again! Isn't the neckline delicious?!)

trash to treasure items: {shutters and wooden chair}

I have a couple more "trash to treasure" makeovers to show you! Remember THIS ONE?  (And more coming too... I need to work on them instead of blog. Ha!)

This was a chair I found beside a curb, and wanted to use it around our DINING TABLE. Unfortunately, it was a little bit too unstable. I had a couple of wreaths resting on it downstairs and decided that I loved this look - as porch decor, that is.

Would you put that on your porch?

And another little pair of shutters, found on the same run, got a couple of coats of mint green and an icy white wreath. I think it'd be perfect on someone's mantle. Not mine, of course, but hopefully someone's! (I don't have a mantle, in case you were confused.)

THE DESK is awaiting the final touches as are a few other pieces.

And ... it's party week this week! I'll be featuring a birthday party, baby shower and a pretty party dress.

projects in the works

A couple peeks at what I've been up to lately - five million started projects ... almost none finished!! I promise share some as I finish them.

talk to you soon! :-)

{small} star wars themed gift: death star krispies!

I have 5 piano students these days and I try to celebrate holidays and birthdays with fun little gifts/treats. Asher is the lone boy, and I admit to having issues trying to make piano interesting to an 8-year old boy. I'm not super high-energy or competitive or just amazing with boys in general.

Regardless, he loves a couple of things (Legos, soccer and Star Wars) so, his 8th birthday came last week and I looked up some Star Wars themed party ideas on Pinterest. Some were way too involved (I wasn't throwing a party), and others were just too much.

Finally, I came across "Death Star Krispies"! I actually took that idea and combined it with a silver colored cake pop idea because I couldn't find black food coloring. They were simple, fun and yet personal to him. 

DIY - make a rice krispy treat recipe (crispies, marshmellows and butter), while warm roll death star spheres with wet, not sopping, hands and then roll them in silver cupcake sprinkles to channel "death star" vibes.

Serve on black galaxy plate with a personalized Star Wars perspective text card (Photoshop tutorial HERE).

a DIY square pallet wood planter

Did you notice the pretty planter on my cart makeover yesterday?

I originally wanted to mount a wood planter on the kitchen (the room with the most sun = where plants don't die) wall to save some table space, but after it was all said and done, it was too big and awkward to put on the wall. Anywhere. Boo.

Lesson learned. However, this was a big disappointment, especially how much blood, sweat and tears went into this project. Read on for that story because making this planter is actually quite simple.

How to turn this....

into THIS!

What to do: I had gathered some pallet scraps to take to my dad's house so he could help me whip up this planter really quickly. We measured it so the inside was 7-1/4" wide so the plastic insert would fit right into it. Then we ripped (cut longways) several different pieces at different widths to get a staggered (handmade and imperfect) look. Using the air compressor, we nailed up the sides. Then we cut a very thin piece of board to fit the bottom and nailed it on too. Later, I took it home and sanded it down, then stained it.

What not to do: The way to turn this project into a blood, sweat and tears project is to ignore that your dad doesn't have his blade guard on the table saw and watch in horror as he accidentally slices his finger on the blade. Yes, blood, 6 stitches and all.

Oh, and the tears were mine.

To add to the drama, he is extremely squeamish when it comes to blood, especially his own, so he's basically fainting on the floor while we try to see if his finger is gone. You can imagine all of the scary feelings running through my head as I scream for my mom to come help. All for a dumb project that didn't even turn out to go on the wall.

Oh well, it's finished. Thanks for your help and sacrifice for my silly ideas, Dad.

:-)

junk score: Cart Makeover! (and a milk paint review)

While driving to a friend's house one day, we found a large old window and this cart. Any guesses as to what this may have been? Maybe some kind of speaker or stereo? Updated: Or probably like THIS?

Luckily, the weird cut out was easily removable, and my sweet little Vanna White helped me remove all of the screws.

Once it was out, I decided to grab some of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in French Enamel to try out the milk paint craze. 

Here she is:

I painted on two coats of blue milk paint in the kitchen and decided that downstairs or outside is best when using any kind of paint (especially drippy milk paint). The next day I distressed it and used my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White (because I had it) to paint in the details. Then I distressed a little more, sanded down the whole thing with a fine sandpaper (240 grit), and waxed with dark and clear wax to antique and protect it.

While I loved the casters, one was missing and there were no easy replacements to be found online. Forty bucks on 4 vintage casters was more than I wanted to put into this baby. She has pretty legs, so I pulled the caster pins off with my trusty vice-grips and decided to leave 'er at that.

Loving the details!!

~~~~~

As for the milk paint, I had watched tutorials and read online about mixing the paint (you purchase it in powdered form because it is perishable), its consistency, coverage, etc. I still wasn't exactly prepared to have little clumps all over my piece. The color wasn't uniform, especially as I brushed through the clumps, which I didn't mind for this piece, but is good to know if I would want a completely smooth, uniform color on another piece. (In that case, I would use an immersion blender.) However, the clumps and colors worked because I wanted to distress it. I also left out the bonding agent (1) because it was $12 more to spend and (2) because I wanted to see how this piece would distress/chip. The photo above is the chippiest she got - as every piece is unpredictable - and I chipped off all of the little clumps too. I'm not sure I like milk paint as well as chalk paint (which I loved from the start!), but I'll give it a go on a few other pieces and let you know.
**And do I really need to add that I wasn't compensated for this post? I just wanted to try milk paint out. On my own dolla'.

wedding gift: DIY hand-painted established sign

I love these established signs. (Sorry if you don't!) See my other one HERE.I like them because they are classic and personal - plus, handpainting them really makes them special.

I spent quite a while deciding on colors, design, etc. and finally came up with this. (The camera caught some of the nuances of the brush strokes in these photos, but the color is really solid and nice.)

The photo above shows the original finish. I sanded, stained, drew, painted, then sealed the above. The wood grain and color is really pretty.

I had some issues with the paint pen (note to self: don't waste time/effort on a paint pen) splattering all over. I thought it was ruined, but had some encouragement to try to fix it. So I re-sanded spots, re-stained them with a paintbrush, brushed up the blue and then crisped up the over-letters with the pen again. And it worked!!

So, there you have it! Another great wedding gift.

montessori learning: DIY busy-board

I've recently run into Montessori-type learning for children and it really lines up with what I've been trying to do with Ladybug. For the most part, it seems to be practical learning with every day items to refine motor skills and learn. I'm not really into putting tinies in school per say, but I love that she can learn while we live our normal life. And I can do easy, already in our house, activities to keep her busy like pouring beans or rice into containers, washing dishes, helping me cook, learning why things float/sink or are hot/warm/cold, etc. Montessori really pushes have children-sized things to work with (like child sized tables, tools to work with, etc.) and I agree in part, although I think it can go overboard. Plus, we don't have the space or resources right now to have a miniature-sized everything.

That said, here is a project I've been working on for our 6 hour trip to Iowa this weekend.

A DIY Montessori "busy board".

I used all recycled/vintage items except the black plastic buckle and the metal eyelets - so using what I had, in all this probably cost me about $5.

For this I created (from left top, clockwise) large buttons/holes, lacing, elastic pull & button, buckle, hook & loop, a small snap, zipper, bowtie, and a hook & eye.

Some will be simple like the velcro and zipper ... others will take some practice as her skills develop. I designed it that way on purpose.

 Here it is all undone and ready for a busy two-year old!

And a front to back look. I sewed on all of the notions before I put it together like an envelope pillow. Sort of. Then, Jeremy cut me a thin piece of veneer (left over from THIS project) to fit and make it sturdy.
 

If I were to do it again, I think I would've:

1) just sewn it together - the envelope was difficult to fit over wood ... it's not flexible like a pillow. ;-) Luckily the vintage polyester (remember seeing THIS dress makeover?) was a little bit stretchy. I thought I may want to put something on the back in the future - so this was the option I chose.

2) I might've left the eyelets off. You really need a good tool to do them right, not just the little kits you can buy at the hobby store. They're a little rough. And I need to replace the ribbon with a reclaimed shoe lace - I just haven't found one yet.

That's it!! what do you think? I'll let you know how it works in the car.
_________________________________

As for resources, here are some books I've flipped through:

source

source

And I'm going to read these two ...

source

source

Any other Montessori learning fans out there? Any other resources you would recommend?

*************

And here is an Etsy shop full of fun whimsical Montessori learning toys.

source

 Aren't they cute? I think I've just gotten another project brewing on my list...

(And what about these clouds!)

source