Playroom Round 1

I am finally getting around to decorating and making a great playroom for Emma.  Taking forever since we have been so busy!  I think it took me 2 months to finish sewing her pillows.  Oops!

Pretty sure I bought fabric when Emma was about 4 months old and she is now 1!  Finally talked Jeremy into helping me make a simple window treatment this past weekend.  He and his dad got to work (his dad basically has a hardware store in his barn so we go there instead of Home Depot or Lowes).  Here is what we started with.

Basically get a thicker piece of plywood and cut it into any shape that you want.  I kept it super simple since it is for a playroom.  Then nail in the same thickness on the sides so that it will stick off the wall a tad.  I am pretty sure we only did 4 inches.  Here is why!

We took a piece of 2x4 and cut 2 rectangles out for each side.  Then, we cut each of those at an angle.  We nailed the ‘top’ to the two corners of the valance.  The other piece we put two L mounting brackets on.  It will make perfect sense soon.  Next step is to staple on batting.  Make sure that you don’t cover the bottom of the 2x4 because you will need it flat.

Now do the same thing with your fabric of choice.

Here is where you need to get a little smarty smart.  Figure out where you want your valance, then you will screw in the half of the 2x4 with the brackets on.  I took a picture of this close up but my computer is acting all cray-cray so sorry Charlie.

Since you did that at an angle your valance will slide on PERFECTLY!!  Super easy huh?!  We use this technique anytime possible.  Thank you to Kendra’s mom for showing me this a few years ago!

Next on my playroom DIY list.  Disney princess inspired wall art.  Sounds adorable huh?!  Well, in my head it is!  Hopefully it all works out.

Another Shower!

Wow.  Has it really been that long since I blogged?!  Life is crazy and goes by too fast for sure.  My best friend, Staci, is having a sweet boy in early October so myself and two other friends threw her a shower recently.  And, I would love to share about it!

We saw some inspiration of a nautical theme shower on Pinterest, so we went ahead and went with Ahoy! It’s a Boy! theme.  I had my sister, Jen, make the invitations that you purchase here.

Can you see the coasters in the picture?!  Well, one of the hostesses, Kendra, just started her Etsy shop and made the cutest coasters for the favors for our guest.  We also had them out for people to use throughout the shower.  You can purchase the coasters here.

Next came the adorable diaper cake!  Thankfully my sisters and I share a Cricut and I have a friend that let me borrow the Life is a Beach cartridge and it had the perfect cutouts!  We got SO much use out of the Cricut!  We used it to cut out his name, all the anchors, the life preservers, the sailboat, the boat wheel, EVERYTHING!  Anyways, I think this is my favorite diaper cake thus far.  Love how it turned out.  On the net we put baby safety pins and we cut out lots of squares (thank you cricut) and people were asked to write their blessings for Barrett on the cards.

The food table was simple.  We just did a few light items since it was an after lunch shower.  The napkins rolled around the silverware is all thanks to Pinterest!  Super easy too.  Kendra made mini-cupcakes and we, again, used the Cricut to cut out small anchors,B’s, and flags and used those as our cupcake toppers.

We had this grand idea of making adorable cookies that we saw on Pinterest as an additional party favor.  After Kendra and I spent a few hours working on them we quickly realized our anchors looked like a male body part and we had to throw that idea out the window!  We are still happy with our the others turned out, but good gosh that was a lot of hard work!  Hilarious night!

I am lucky enough to know someone that let us borrow these antique baby bottles and it turned out adorable.  Only one broke, I will take that as a win! :-)

I love wreaths.  I should go to Wreaths Anonymous meeting about it.  So I wrapped white yarn all around it.  Using the Cricut I cut out all the letters and used zots for the yellow ones.  Then we  painted the BOY letters blue since we bought those are Hobby Lobby.  Hot glued them to tooth picks and poked them through the wreath to stay in place.  Then using twine just wrap four areas.  Easy!

Using the Cricut I cut out circles, his name, and then all the other symbols and hung them using twine to be our center banner for the gift area.  Staci sat right there to open everything and she got a TON!

Finally, I made this as part of my gift to Staci.  I saw the quote on Pinterest (SHOCKING, huh?) and knew it fit her perfectly.  My sister was nice enough to get it into pdf and size it right for me.  I then ordered it as a poster from Walmart and used Mod Podge to glue it down.  Once it was dry I sanded it lightly and covered it with another coat of Mod Podge.  I love how it turned out!

I cannot wait to meet Barrett!!  Only a few more weeks to go!