Easy Artwork for a Little Ladies Room

I told myself that this year I would kick butt on writing posts.  At least three a week, if not more.  I am officially breaking my resolution on January 10th.  I am that person.  Life happens, I won't make excuses, although we have valid ones.  Mainly, I haven't really done much lately.  A mermaid birthday and Christmas in the same month have wore me out.  I put my sewing machine away for the party and haven't taken it out yet.  

Today I have a simple art project that I whipped up in, oh, five minutes for Little Misses room.  

All you need is a small canvas (got mine at Michael's as a two pack and with a 50% off coupon it was only 3.50), a cute-shaped hole punch (also at Michael's in the dollar bins), a ruler, and those wonderful paint color cards that when you swipe them you feel as if you are stealing and look around to make sure the workers are not watching you as you stuff them in your bag.  Or make your kid swipe them as I did.  And a pencil and some glue.

The most time consuming thing about this project is punching out the shapes you want.  I only had the little tiny butterfly punch on hand so that is what I used.  I decided instead of lots of colorful shapes to do an ombre effect.  I used a color swatch card that has the three different colors on it for mine.  I only needed four cards total so in hindsight, the 50 plus cards I swiped made Little Miss swipe, were not needed, but I'm sure I can find a good use for them sooner or later.

Using your ruler, mark out where you want each shape.  Or if you are a boss, you can just eyeball it.  I'm not that good....yet.  I will be a boss one day. Then just glue your shapes down.  Ta-da! Told you it took about five minutes.  I honestly thought my punch was ten times bigger than this, but Little Miss thinks it's cool and thats all that matters.  

I'm working up my nerve to post pictures of what my house actually looks like (even though most readers are my family and they know already) because I'm trying really hard this year to not compare myself to others, and to covet what they have.  So I want to be realistic for you guys, because the majority of America is not rich, does not have a perfect house, and most likely the way the economy is, never will.  So I vow this year to be realistic and show how "normal" awesome people like me live and try to make their house a home (you know, what I set out to do in the first place here).  So this weekend I will be psyching myself up to post those horrendous photos.  Watch out!!  

Y'all have a great weekend!

xo Stacie

 

DIY Pom Pom Winter Wreath

                                             

What's the first thing you do when your weatherman predicts a polar vertex (I learned that term last night by actually watching the news and not just learning things from Facebook, go me!)? What the crap is a polar vertex you ask?  Well, it's when over night the temperature drops from 40 degrees to ZERO.  That's right, it is currently one degree outside with a wind chill of negative eightybillion.  So what was the first thing I did? Go get provisions, a space heater? Nope, I went to the craft store and loaded up on more projects that I probably won't finish.

First up on my list of what I wanted to do before Christmas was my Pom Pom wreath.  I saw that one at Anthropologie and fell. in. love.  Then cried silently to myself when I saw the price tag and like a million others, decided I could DIY this.

Seriously, I spent $7 on yarn, but if you have a bunch in your craft hoard closet, then you could essentially make this for free.  I didn't even buy a round wire wreath maker (that is not their technical term, I totally made it up), I just used some wire that the hubs brought in from the freezing garage (that's what husbands are for you know) and formed it into a circle.  If you make it yourself, definitely make two circles and then add bits of wire between them to stabilize the wreath.

All the supplies you need are:

*yarn (I used two packs (?) of white)
*wire wreath
*scissors
*a piece of cardboard
*a good movie (or the Best of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

Cut your piece of cardboard into about a three inch long rectangle.  Or whatever size you want to make your pom poms.  I wanted fairly big because I've made pom poms before.  They can be a pain in your rear end and your hand goes numb from cutting.  Back to the wreath....

Wrap your yarn around the cardboard about 40-60 times.  The more you wrap, the fuller the pom-pom.

Wrap your hand around the middle of one side and slide the cardboard out, keeping ahold of the middle of the yarn.  Wrap a single strand of yarn around the entire middle of the pom pom and tie it into a double knot.  Make sure your string is long enough that you will be able to use it to tie to the wreath.  This will leave you with loops on each side.  Cut through the loops carefully without pulling the yarn (or it will just slide out).  This will leave you with a straggly looking pom pom.  Here's where your thumb gets a huge blister like mine.  Trim your yarn ball into a ball shape.  I suggest making a practice one before you begin.  It took me a little bit to get the hang of making it look like a ball shaped pom pom.

You will get completely covered in yarn trimmings if you do this anywhere other than a table, but Jimmy Fallon is a pretty funny guy so I just plan on vacuuming and washing the blanket I put on my lap so I thought it was worth it to sit my butt on the couch and make this.

Tie your pom poms onto your wreath and pat yourself on the back, you just outsmarted Anthropologie (which really isn't hard, who actually buys that stuff??).  Hang on your door and ta-da, a wreath that is perfect for winter time.  It reminds me of snow balls.  And don't worry, I did buy milk and bread like the rest of the area, so we are fully prepared to not leave the house until this polar vertex is gone.

What do you do when you can't leave the house lest you want to get frost bite and your nose fall off?

xo and stay warm!
Stacie

An Under the Sea Mermaid party

*warning, I just photo bombed the crap out of this post!*

Over the summer our family went on an awesome vacation to the Florida Keys.  And we drove there.  From Kentucky.  All 17 hours.  It was a wonderful time spent with my entire side of the family all on the beach together.  On the way home we stopped in Tampa and spent time with my grandmother.  The kids were awesome in the car on the way to Tampa.  So we decided not to chance it and bribed the then three year old.  What did she want? An Ariel party.  Her birthday is in December so I (being one who hates all things characters splashed all over the place) just figured she'd forget about the whole thing.  We're talking six months.  Did she you ask? No.  Not. At. All.

  

Can't have an Ariel party without a "dinglehopper"!

A hand drawn giant Ariel coloring sheet kept the littlest kids entertained while the older ones played together.

Please ignore Ariel's horrible mouth and hand, I finally realized the kids would not care so I shouldn't either.

So enter a Little Mermaid party without being oppressively Ariel-ified.  I know she wouldn't of cared either way if there were pictures of Ariel everywhere you turned, but I just can't do it, just can't.  It's my own preference and I'm okay with it, and the family is beginning to understand too (although they loaded her up with some Princess shirts at Christmas and I've even been nice enough to let her wear them, to bed).  We choose the theme of Under the Sea Mermaid, it encompasses the movie without me having to print off ten thousand Ariels.

We made some super easy and tasty "sea glass" using this recipe.

homemade salt water taffy was a big hit with the younger crowd (very sweet)

purple pearl sixlets were often swiped by the younger brother *can't say I blame him*

I let her pick the colors for the party because I'm not a complete control freak (yes I am, who am I kidding).  She picked teal and purple, which might of been because she was holding an Ariel doll at the time and that's what she was wearing.  I added gold because I am slightly obsessed with that color right now.  I took it and ran.  Literally.  These kids just follow me everywhere so I have to run away and hide a lot if I want to play on Pinterest all day.  (totally kidding, sorta.)

a tissue paper garland that was super easy to make decorated the dessert table

So I was blessed with six months to plan for this little misses birthday party (to which I only actually did any planning the last month).  Having that much time to think about pin ideas on Pinterest and then forget about, gave me time to shop cheaply.  I'm happy to say I spent WAY less on her party by planning a little earlier than I would of.  I also made almost everything that I possibly could, including the party favors and candy!

oh look I finally finished that gallery wall I've been talking about for months!

blue kool-aid served as "sea water" which the kids loved!

barnacles, get it? :)

I completely forgot to save an invitation to post on here.  They were a true labor of love and I will probably never make invitations again.  We used card stock and cut out a billion sea shell shapes.  Add some glitter and a puff paint pearl, some ribbon and you have a beautiful shell invitation.  I used this picture from Pinterest for inspiration.

I always go slightly overboard on the dessert table and this party was no exception.  Homemade candies, cupcakes, cake, chocolate covered pretzels, oreo balls.... we feasted on some sweets.

A gift table decorated with paper garlands and goodie bags.

super easy paper garland.  Seriously these are going to be a stable from now on.

 Party favors were simple but fun! Hand painted Prince Eric and Ariels all around!  And let me tell you, these took forever to make but I was lazy about it and laid in bed watching Hallmark Christmas movies while painting these bad boys.  Little Miss still plays with her Ariel (Prince Eric is not cool because he is not a princess).  Parchment paper bags with gold polka dots contained all the goodies (including the array of candy on the dessert table).

Although this party took a while to plan, I had so much fun pulling it all together.  We had a blast during the party, I never even picked up my camera!! And clean up was actually very easy compared to past parties so I was one happy momma.  And the smiles on Little Misses face were priceless.  She loved it all, especially when all her friends showed up.

Little man's birthday is in a month.  I just got started with ideas.  But he's two, he doesn't care.  He just wants to lick icing off cake and open presents (it's the little things in life ya know).  I promise I will take better pictures of his party ( it is one of my New Year's resolutions you know!) and hopefully we'll have this computer fixed up so I can actually edit them!

Thanks for making it through this long photo bombed post! Hope you have a great weekend!

xo Stacie

Happy 2014

 *this post has no pictures because I took two weeks off with my family and never once picked up the fancy camera. Sorry!!*

I ended 2013 on a great note, with my loved ones and embraced by my husband. I hope that yours ended very similar. 2014 brings a new beginning of sorts (except for bills. They don't care that it's a whole new year). 

A new year is about redefining your goals. It's unattainable to say "I will reinvent myself" because you are who you are. No, a new year lets you look back at what you did that worked, and undeniably, what didn't. 

2013 was a long ride of ups and downs. Our daughter turned four, our son one. The love each other to death. And I mean it. Affection turned deadly. I know it's a phase, part of life, etc, but man, when does it end? When does the playing together and enjoying one another's company without hitting occur? Oh wait, never mind. I have sisters. It never ends. 

This new year I hope for many things. Number one on my list of goals (and yes I write that list and tape it to the fridge) is to become a better "us" with my husband. Kids and life drain you, they really do. All I want to do as soon as the kids are in bed is go to sleep and so does the hubs (who works way harder than I do). This year we are going to try to reconnect, with communication, with more date nights, more fun just the two of us. I'm looking forward to this goal. 

Next on the list? Stop yelling. The kids fight so much I feel like a ringleader. Yelling "to your own corners" multiple times a day (don't worry they don't actually fight this bad, yet). I want to try to work on my own patience. Kids are sponges and they absorb our own behavior and dish it back out to us. Working on myself will only benefit them, and the dogs too. They get yelled at a lot too. 

I want to be selfish in 2014. I want to put some of my own needs before others. Sure, this sounds really bad, but moms, when was the last time you went to the grocery and bought yourself a treat? Or went to Target and bought yourself something (other than toilet paper, that totally doesn't count). I want to make myself happier, because by doing that, my whole family will be happier. 

So 2014. I will make you mine. I have dreams for this year. Sure they might not all happen (like convincing the hubs that the kitchen would look better with white cabinets) but a girl can dream. And dream I will. You should too, because what are we without dreams? (The correct answer is robots.)

What are you plans for the new year?

xo Stacie