Valentines from Miss P

Peyton was hard at work spreading her Valentine's cheer last weekend! I wanted to send some special valentines to our family and out of town friends who don't get to see Peyton very often, and as usual Pinterest and the Walgreen's photo department got the best of me. I got a little ambitious this year, which resulted in some Pinterest worthy successes and some equally as worthy fails.

Pinterest success #1...Valentine's photo card. Pinterest success #2...DIY Heart Garland that I used for the backdrop (DIY blog post here!).

If I had unlimited funds, I would send out photo cards to every person I know for every holiday. After being so pleased with how my Valentine's photos of Peyton turned out, I just had to do something with them. Alas, these adorable photo cards which I managed to send out last minute to some of our out of town friends and family.

And now on to my Pinterest fail...footprint Valentine's craft. Red paint and a wiggly 8 month old, this was clearly a recipe for disaster.

I had some pretty grand ambitions for this craft. I was going to make one for myself, as well as all of Peyton's grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncle, and maybe even a few special friends too. However, twelve pieces of cardstock and a big ole' mess of red paint later, I managed to only get 3 of these which were fairly decent enough and didn't look like a slaughtered my child on craft paper. Goodbye grand plans for spreading the love this Valentine's Day. I was defeated, thanks a lot Pinterest. So I packed up my art supplies and my dignity, and sent one to my mom, one to Jared's mom, kept one for myself, and called it a day. While I'm ready to swear off art projects with 8 month olds for good, this craft still came out pretty cute and Peyton's grandmas really did love it.

At least Peyton, and her red feet, had fun attempting this endeavor. I feel like Pinterest is every mom's worst nightmare. It's full of adorable ideas that look so fun and easy, but are always a thousand times more expensive, messy, frustrating and involved than they let on, and nearly impossible to execute. Welcome to my love/hate relationship with Pinterest. 

Valentine's Day with Daddy...as you can see, it's February and football season never ends around here. Daddy in his Bobby Bowden shirt and Peyton practicing her best Heisman pose. 

We hope your family had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

DIY Heart Garland

I decided that I wanted to take some special photos of Peyton for Valentine's Day this year. Rather than just sitting her in her regular chair or outside, I wanted to get a little creative and make my own backdrop. I saw a lot of cute ideas on Pinterest, so I found one that I already had all of the materials for at home and just went for it. I am pleasantly surprised at how well this came out! Plus, it was fun and easy to make. Here is a little DIY on how to make your own heart garland...

Even Peyton enjoyed my little props for her photo shoot!

Step One: Cut out heart shapes using a craft punch and cardstock paper. 

Step Two: Attach heart shapes to some type of string that matches your backdrop. I wanted to create the illusion that the hearts were floating in the background. I used white thread since I was using a white table cloth as my backdrop. You could also use fishing line. I used scrapbook mounting squares to stick the hearts to the string, but you could just use regular tape as well. I used two hearts on top of each other and ran the thread in between them because I didn't want the thread to be visible and since the hearts would be hanging, I knew they would spin around so hiding the thread on the back of the hearts wasn't an option. 

Figure out how many strands you need and how long you want your garland to be. It depends on what you are using it for. I made 6 strands with 7 hearts on each strand. Measure out the string in your desired location ahead of time so that you know how many hearts you will need. You can use all one color of paper or different colors. I used all red, but I wanted a little subtle variety so I used 7 different shades of red paper.

Step Three: Hang the strands in your desired location and then enjoy your adorable garland!

Here is the set for Peyton's little photo shoot! I didn't want my strands to lay flat again my backdrop, so I tied a string between two chairs to suspend them in the air and then tied my strands onto that so that that they appeared to be floating behind her. 

This garland was the perfect accent to some adorable photos for Valentine's Day!

DIY Planner Stickers

I'm know I've discussed my love for planners on my blog before, but in case you weren't already aware, I'm a paper planner kind of girl. Yes, I'm basically still back in the dinosaur ages with my paper planner that you actually have to write in. The thought of not having a real tangible planner to physically write in, color code and cover in stickers makes me sad. I simply cannot make the switch to the electronic calendar. I'm sure it's much more convenient and efficient, but it's the same reason I can't switch from real books to a tablet or Kindle. I just like paper. There's something about having real paper I can touch that makes me enjoy it more. I basically look at my planner as a year-long project, almost like a scrapbook. I spend all year long decorating it, doodling in it, making lists, writing goals and accomplishments, planning meals and exercise, keeping up with events and special occasions...that planner is like my entire year in one little book. And at the end of the year, I can look back at this little masterpiece that I spent all year creating.

Not only does my planner keep me organized, but it's a fun project that I seem to really enjoy for some reason. I get super excited when someone gives me a date for something because then I get to write it in my planner! And if it's a really special occasion (like a wedding for instance) then I decorate the whole day with different colored pens and stickers. I just love it. I'm basically an overgrown kindergartner. And don't even get me started on my to-do lists. I make to-do lists for myself every single day in my planner and then check each item off as a do it throughout the day. It makes me feel so accomplished getting to check the little box in my planner next to each item. Even if it's something that I will probably remember to do whether I put it on my list or not, I write it down anyways. For example, I could look back in my planner from last year and tell you exactly how many times I went to Publix throughout the entire year. Because every time I needed to go to the grocery store, I would put it on my to do list for that day. I realize that this may sound insane to some of you, but if you are a list person or a planner person like me, you get it. 

I know what you're thinking...someone as crazy and obsessed with planners as me probably knows what the best planner out there is right? Well, I've tried a lot of different ones and it just depends on what you are looking for in a planner. My personal favorite is the Life Planner by Erin Condren. The name itself is exactly what makes this one the best for me. It truly is a life planner, not just a calendar. I don't need "just a calendar". I need something that I can record my entire life in everyday. This planner offers me that and I love it. I am currently on my 3rd Erin Condren Life Planner and it is still my favorite thing ever. My sister-in-law and I buy them for each other every year as a tradition and its always my favorite gift of the year. I get mine on Christmas morning every year and when I go to start opening my presents, my planner is always the one that I look forward to opening the most. 

These past couple of days have been so fun for me because I have been setting up my new planner for this upcoming year. My dining room table has been covered in stickers and pens and highlighters and markers. I've been having way too much fun. Which brings me to the actual purpose of this post...my DIY Planner Stickers. 

The EC Life Planner comes with stickers in it and in the past I've always just used those and that's it. Well those stickers are kind of small for my big handwriting (and they are just basic rectangles) so I wanted some bigger stickers possibly in fun shapes. Well, I didn't want to spend a bunch of money and it was hard to find exactly what I wanted, so I decided to make my own! 

My stickers obviously work best with an Erin Condren Life Planner, but you could always alter the size and shape of the sticker to fit whatever space you have available in your planner. Here are step-by-step instructions as to how I made them!

Here is what you will need...

2x4 inch White Mailing Labels

Craft Punch (any size less than 2") 

Computer and Printer

Your Planner!

Step 1: Design the background for your stickers on your computer. I used a template on Microsoft Word for 2x4 inch mailing labels. All I did was color the background of each label a solid color. You could use patterns too if you want, but I just did solid colors so that it would be easy to read whatever I end up writing on the sticker.

Step 2: Print out your labels and cut the pages in half so that it's easier to reach both sides of each label with your craft punch.

Step 3: Use a craft punch to cut out your stickers. You can use any shape that you would like, as long as you get a size that will fit on the label. I used the 1 1/2 inch scalloped circle and the 1 3/4 inch quatrefoil shapes. I wanted to use as big of a shape as possible (because I have large handwriting) without being too big for the spaces in my planner. I happened to already own these craft punches, but if you are going to the craft store to buy one just for this purpose you might want to measure the spaces available in your planner before you choose a size.

Step 4: Use a sharpie pen to write on your sticker, peel the back off and stick it into your planner!

If you turn using your planner into a fun, craft project, then you will enjoy it much more. I find that the more effort I put into making my planner fun, the more I want to use it and the better organized I stay all year long! If you are looking for a great planner to get you organized this year, check out Erin Condren's Life Planner. 

Here is my new Life Planner for 2015...

Hope you have fun getting organized for 2015!

Everlasting Mistletoe

I saw this idea on Pinterest and just had to try it out for myself. I was looking for a cute handmade gift idea for Peyton to give to her grandmas, and I just thought this was too adorable to pass up. Presenting Peyton's "mistletoes"...

This was such a fun craft project for Peyton and I to do together. Plus, what a sweet little keepsake to remember her first Christmas by. I made one for myself as well and framed it so that I can display it every Christmas as part of my decor. I've decided that I want my kids to make one keepsake Christmas craft every year that I can incorporate into my decorations. So here is the very first one!

*Disclaimer: Getting a 6 month old to make nice looking green footprints is so much harder than they make it look on Pinterest. I used the water-soluble kids poster paint, but I would still recommend wearing something that you don't mind ruining on yourself and on baby because we were covered in green paint by the end of this. Smiling and giggling, having a grand 'ole time together, but still covered in green paint nonetheless. Perhaps doing this while she was asleep would have been a better idea to try, but I didn't want to risk ruining one of her naps for the sake of the project so we did it while she was wide awake. I made a few extra mess up ones in the process, but she had so much fun getting her foot painted that I loved the experience anyways. Also, if you are going to do this, do one foot at a time. So I painted her right foot and then went along my papers that I had laid out and did all the right foot prints first. Then I washed her right foot and repeated with the left. Finally, I did the writing and decorating last. A simple, yet priceless keepsake.  

Peyton with my mom, Jared's grandma, and his mom

This was such a cute, easy and super cheap gift for the special people in your baby's life. And I promise it's guaranteed to get some tears out of those grandmas too :)

Jared's 1st Father's Day

Peyton celebrated her very first holiday at only two days old, Father's Day. We were discharged from the hospital that day, so we got to take our baby girl home that afternoon. What a special way for Jared to be able to celebrate his first Father's Day. I know she is the best gift that he ever could have asked for.

Of course, we had to have an adorable onesie (gift from Grammy Gina) for the occasion. 

We spent the morning in the hospital being discharged and getting Peyton all ready to go home.

Her going home gown was made by family friends of ours, The Wallace's, and it just wouldn't be complete without her monogram of course!

We took some photos of our new little family of three before leaving the hospital. 

 So in love with our baby girl!

We spent the afternoon getting Peyton acquainted with her new home (and dogs!) and then enjoyed our evening with family celebrating Jared for Father's Day!
 

Although bringing home Peyton was plenty enough of a Father's Day gift for Jared, I wanted to start a new tradition for our family as well.

I had a friend in high school who did this with their family and I always thought it was the coolest idea, so I decided to start the tradition with my family as well...

Each kid has their own two books, one for their mom and one for their dad. Every year on Mother's Day and Father's Day, they write a letter to mom/dad in their book instead of buying them a card. Obviously, mom/dad have to do the writing for those first years until the kids are old enough to draw/write their letters on their own. As the years go by, the kids add letters to their books and this way the parents can see them grow up through the book and keep those letters and memories forever. I loved looking through my friend's book and seeing the growth over 18 years. It's so sweet to see the changes in what they think of as important in their lives and their relationship with their parents each year as they grow up.  

I started Jared's book for him this year for his very first Father's Day. It was a surprise and he had no idea, but he absolutely loved it. I can't wait to see what Peyton chooses to add to this book over the coming years.

Happy 1st Father's Day Daddy!

DIY Diaper Cake

I see people post these crazy looking diaper cakes on Pinterest, and I've always wanted to make one mostly just to see if I could actually do it. However, I never really had a reason to put all the time and effort into making one. When I volunteered to be in charge of the decorations for my best friend's baby shower, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to try out my diaper-cake-making-skills. Challenge accepted! I probably should have read or watched a tutorial online before attempting this creation, but I'm pretty crafty so I just decided to wing it. I'm sure there are plenty of other and probably much better ways of making a diaper cake, but this is the way I came up with for doing it and I must say I was pretty pleased with the results. Presenting, one way to construct a diaper cake...

Step 1: Go buy a whole bunch of diapers. This cake took exactly 160 size 0 (newborn) diapers to complete. I used a foam cone, like the ones you get in the floral section of the craft store, for the main structure of my cake. I used a 14" cake circle as the base. Secure the foam cone to the cake circle with hot glue, making sure that the cone is directly in the center. You will build your diaper cake around this structure.

Step 2: Start rolling diapers. I was going for a fuller look so I decided to use 2 diapers per roll. Roll the diapers backwards so that the front of the diaper ends up on the inside of the roll. That way you don't see the design on the front of the diaper exposed. Secure the rolled diapers with two small rubber bands, one at the top and one at the bottom. Using two rubber bands will make it so that you don't have edges of the diapers poking out as much.

Step 3: Begin placing the diapers rolls around the cone, standing upright. Yes, I realize that the diaper designs are exposed in the photo below. After I completed this row, I figured out that if I just rolled the diapers the other way the design would be hidden. Remember, I was just winging it so I learned as I went along. Once you have filled up the entire row all the way around the cone, secure that row with a large rubber band to hold all the diapers in that row together. The most important thing to know when making a diaper cake is that you want the diapers to actually get used after this is all said and done; therefore, you don't want to ruin the integrity of the diaper. Alas, you can't use any glue or adhesives to attach the diapers to each other or the structure because that would ruin them, so instead we use rubber bands to secure the diapers. Make sure you get a giant bag of rubber bands in a variety of sizes because you will definitely need them.

Step 4: Repeat step 3 and create another row of diapers around the outside of the first row. Repeat again until you have 3 rows of diapers on the bottom tier. Yes, you will need a really big rubber band to stretch all the way around that final row of diapers.

Step 5: Continue to attach rows of diapers, stacking them in tiers until you have a pyramid. My cake had 3 rows on the bottom tier, then 2 rows on the next tier, and then one row on the final tier. I had some left over foam at the top that wasn't going to be covered so I cut off the top of my foam cone using a box cutter and made it level with the final tier of diapers. For the top of the cake, I rolled up 4 diapers and secured them with two rubber bands. Then I stuck a wood skewer (yes, like the kind you use for cooking kabobs) through the diaper roll and into the middle of the foam cone. This secured the diaper roll to the top of the cone well. Now, you have a bunch of diapers in the shape of a cake! Time to start decorating it!

Step 6: Assemble the layers of ribbon to each other using hot glue before attaching it to the diaper cake. This makes it easier to wrap the diaper cake in the ribbon.

Step 7: Wrap each tier of diapers using your assembled ribbons. Make sure that when you hot glue the ends of the ribbon together to secure it that you only glue ribbon on top of ribbon. Do not get hot glue on the actual diapers.

Step 8: Create something as a topper for your cake. I used extra ribbon to make a big bow. Attach the topper to the cake with hot glue.

Step 9: Attach other decorative pieces to your cake using hot glue if you choose to do so. Remember, only hot glue these pieces onto the ribbon not onto the diapers. I used painted wooden pieces from the craft store and I made a sign out of cardstock.

Voila! Your diaper cake is finished and ready to be displayed. It makes for a prefect centerpiece, decoration or gift for any baby shower! The best part of all is that once the baby comes you can take the cake apart and actually use all the diapers. It's cute and practical. Mommy perfection.

DIY Nautical Banner

Last week, I crafted a fun nautical banner for a baby shower for my best friend, Casey. Of course, I took photos along the way as I created this banner because I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity for a good DIY tutorial here on the blog. Alas, here is how you can make a banner just like it...

Step 1: Go to Hobby Lobby and buy a plain pre-made banner. Yes, this may seem like a cop-out, but buying one of these babies for $4 is so worth saving yourself the headache that it is to actually assemble a banner from scratch. They carry them in white, black, brown and burlap. I wish they would have carried these in store two years ago when I had to construct a burlap banner from scratch for an engagement party. Trust me, the less cutting of burlap you have to do on a project, the better. This pre-made banner is a nice sturdy foundation for you to decorate on.

Step 2: Choose a scrapbook paper to use as the background of your banner pendants. Flip the paper over so that it is back (white) side up and trace an outline of the banner pendant so that it will be the perfect size. Cut those out. I decided that I also wanted my letters to be matted on two different colors. I determined how much of the background I wanted covered by the lettering and cut out matting squares (using a paper cutter) from (red) cardstock. For my second, inner layer of matting I also cut squares of the exact same size from (navy) cardstock. Then, I used fancy scissors to trim the edges of these navy squares to make them a little smaller than the red squares and give them a decorative finish.  

Step 3: I designed the lettering that I wanted to use on my computer and printed out the letters using (white) cardstock. I purposely put each letter inside of a circle shape on the computer so that it was easy for me to cut the letters out the way I wanted them. There's no way I could cut out a perfect circle without a line to guide me. The banner I was making had 12 pendants and my wording only had 8 letters so I also printed out some nautical clip art for the extra pendants.

Step 4: When beginning to assemble all the pieces, first, assemble the lettering using the cut out letters from step 3 and the matting squares from step 2. I hate using glue of any sort, so I always use double sided tape. It sticks well, it's not messy and it leaves a flat, smooth finish. Next, attach the lettering to the background papers from step 2 also using double sided tape.  

Step 5: Next, attach the assembled pieces onto the plain pendants using double sided tape. Make sure you line them up perfectly so that they completely cover the plain pendants. The plain pendants make for a good clean, thick backing for your banner so that you can hang your banner where ever you want (even with the back exposed) and it will look nice.

Step 6: Finally, attach a decorative ribbon to the banner by hot gluing on top of the already provided ribbon attached to the top of each pendant. This will give the banner a nice finished look.

Voila! All finished! Now, you can hang and enjoy your banner. Obviously, my banner was created for a baby shower, but you can basically follow these simple steps to create a banner for any theme or occasion. Happy Crafting!