personalizing a tote bag

i love personalized things. especially for caroline. there's just something about having a blanket or bag with her name or initial that just draws me in.

so, when i saw {this tutorial} over at lemon tree creations i planned a way to tweak it and make it a personalized bag for caroline.

so, here's what you will need and what i did.

supplies:
- canvas tote bag
- freezer paper
- spray paint (i used watermelon from Krylon)
- iron
- scissors
- a marker
- painting tape (optional)


first, i found a font i really liked over at {kevin and amanda's free fonts} and printed them at a font size of 200. i also found a really cute doodle of a little bird. i also printed that at 200.

from there, i traced the letters onto freezer paper and cut each letter out.

shaun had to help me with the a, o and e and used an exact-o knife. he used it for the eye and the wing of the little chick too. once all the letters were cut out i placed them shiny side down and ironed them to the bag.

i also used some painters tape and taped the top of the bag to add an edge.

then i took the bag in the backyard and spray painted the entire front

once the paint was dry, i easily peeled off the freezer paper

and....TA-DA!!!


i LOVE it! i need to do some touch-ups on the bottom and the next time i will probably tape the sides to prevent paint from getting there, but overall i'm very pleased.

C is ready for vacation and the beach with her new bag!

you need to try this. it's pretty easy and cheap!

enjoy!

our story

i've been having fun with my blog lately and adding new features that i'm sure have been around for awhile, but that i'm just now finding.

i've added some pages at the top of my blog.

and one that i decided to add was one about mine and shaun's story.

this is how we met and the story of how we came to be.

you can go to the 'Our Story' page or click {here}

enjoy!

a flower barrette

there have a few times that i have seen cute hair barrettes for little girls that i really want to get for C. but then i see the price and i just can't do it. $8 or $10 or $12 for 1 hair barrette? and the really cute ones are online so i still have to pay shipping? no thanks.

so, i decided i could make one. i googled how to make one and don't even know where this tutorial came from. it mostly just had pictures. but i got the basic idea and made my own rendition.

supplies:
- 5 pennies for a template
- paper
- 2 different colors of felt
- needle and thread
- scissors
- hot glue gun
- hair barrette

first, lay out 5 pennies on a piece of paper in a flower pattern and trace making a template.

using the template, trace 4 flowers on felt

cut out each flower, making sure you cut on the inside of the trace lines


fold each flower in half and then fold the four flowers halfs together. it seems tricky, but you're basically folding them together like the top of a cardboard box.




then, sew to hold together


next, pick your color for the center. cut out two small circles that are the same size and will easily cover your stitch on the flower

sew those two circles together


then, sew the bottom circle to the flower


once all the pieces are sewn together, hot glue your barrette to the bottom of the flower.


once the glue has cooled and is dry, put it in your babies hair and admire how cute she is.


i also made one using quarters for the template instead of pennies. same concept, just a bigger flower. with the bigger flower, you could put in an older girls hair, or add a pin instead of a barrette.

enjoy!

the farm

last weekend went by fast but was laid back and just what we needed. it was great to see my grandmother and hang out on the farm. and somehow i convinced everyone to go to the nearby outlets. huh? i know. i'm not really sure how that worked out, but i thought i would try. they have a j.crew outlet and being that close and not trying to go was too hard. we went. i shopped. i found things i needed at a good price and it was awesome! they also had a gymboree outlet. c's grandma and great-grandma spoiled her!

we didn't really do much else, which is actually one of the reasons i like going to the farm. lunch and dinner are early and the time in between is spent sitting outside, taking naps, walking around and talking. it's slow paced and quiet there. it's nice.





there was a lot of looking at ladies like this

and even though she is still pretty little and he's kind of a city boy, i thought these two fit right in



(shaun actually fits in great! although most of the weekend was laid back, we did have a big storm saturday night that knocked out some fencing. shaun and my uncle had to fix a gate in about 4 feet of rushing water. i married a good one. not many guys would be willing to work so hard on their in-laws farm.)

and this fall, i plan on stealing some more of these for our landscaping at our new house


that's it. i hope you are able to have a quiet and laid back weekend soon.

Lands' End

Lands' End was catalog that my mom used to get. it always had pretty nice stuff, but it was all pretty "momish". well, today i was looking for a momish bathing suit top and found out some wonderful things about lands' end. they have evolved and they have some great features on their website. so, i thought i would share.

first - my best friend told me to check out their overstock department. it's seperate from their sale. i went and found a pretty cute top for $10! check it out {here} i was really pleased with the selection and the prices. notice how this top was at one point $52! and they actually had my size! most of the time when you look through really reduced sale items they are out of the most common sizes like 6 or 8. well, i'm an average girl and those are my sizes. but i was able to get the top in my size. i am really excited! i hope it works.

second - after i purchased the top, i decided to check out their Lands' End Canvas section. i originally thought i was going to be looking at their totes. (have you ever had one of their totes? very sturdy and very useful. i use mine all the time.) ok - so i went to the canvas section. check it out {here}. when you see this what do you think of? j.crew right? young girls in comfy cute clothing. well keep looking, because...you can! the prices are not as high as j.crew. they are not dirt cheap, but a polo shirt is like $25 or $30. and tops are like $20. now, don't get me wrong - I LOVE J.CREW! i just can't always afford j.crew.

third - after i looked through most of the clothing, i realized i needed wanted some of their cute tops. but i had already ordered my bathing suit top. and i don't want to have to pay shipping for 2 orders from one place. i figured i could call them really quick and add the shirts, but i'm at work. i shouldn't really be shopping right now (or blogging for that matter), so calling them might give me away. so...i tried the live chat feature. SO COOL! annette came on and asked me how she could help and then added my two shirts to my existing order and then sent me an email confirmation before she left. it was amazing!!

this picture might be kind of small. but basically this is my chat with annette.

so, i just wanted to share this new knowledge with you all. as you can tell, i'm pretty excited.

i'll let you know how things work out.

oh wait - reason four why i like lands' end. anything you order online, you can return to a sears' that sell lands' end. that's awesome! i really hope that everything works out, but just in case...

have a great thursday!

a whirlwind of a weekend

there once was a time that i blogged about things such as weekend plans and fun events that were approaching or had passed. and then i got boring. or, at least my ability to re-tell things got boring. i guess my ability to recap things may not have improved, but i'm going to jump back on the wagon. i'm just going to blog.

this past weekend we had a busy and fun time. our wonderful friends, the warnings, came to visit. and when i say warnings, i do mean ALL the warnings. at one point, i had the whole warning family in my living room. including their spouses and children. it was fun - and chaotic!

for the majority of the weekend, cami and i sat around and watched kids doing this





but we also:

- ate yummy pizza (it was just papa johns, but it was SO good for some reason)
- talked about our upcoming vacation and what to do if the oil infiltrates our beach.
- we woke up early to take care of babies or to take brad on his multiple sclerosis bike ride.
- we had a cook-out with just about everyone in a 12 mile radius
- and we watched little kids water my plants with toys and tea.

it was really a lot of fun, and it went fast!

by sunday at 2 our house was empty.

at 12, we had 3 best friends, their husbands, one husband's parents, his sister and brother in law, and 6 kids under the age of 3 dancing around our living room, running up and down the basement stairs and crying over white cheese. (at one point shaun thought it would be a good idea to bring kona into the mix. it was not. he ran away quickly!) so were you able to count how many people that is? 16. yep. 16. all in our living room. it was fun and nuts!

Speaking of nuts - take a look at one of my best friends that i was referring to above.


yep - that's right, she is holding her 2 week old! uh! but honestly, i'm proud to call her my best friend. she is strong and beautiful and can pop out a baby and look totally hot in a bathing suit 3 weeks later! aren't they all beautiful?!?

this coming weekend is going to be very.low.key

we are headed to sardina, indiana. never heard of it? no surprise. it takes less than a minute to drive through. pretty much the only thing in sardina is my grandparents farm, their house and my uncle's house. (yes, this is where i find all the old furniture. i will probably be looking for more this coming trip) going to indiana is like stepping back in time. we just sit around, eat big meals, walk in the woods, watch random shows like jeapordy. my grandfather passed away when i was a sophomore in college, but i have grown up on this farm. it's fun to take shaun and caroline and it's nice to relax and do a whole lot of nothin'!

{this is my little brother and i with poppa on the farm. i'm probably about 8 here}

and i hope to reveal another room soon. shaun actually just asked me what room would be next. i think our living room looks the best now. i'll photograph it soon.

have a great week and low key weekend. if you want...

a room to reveal

So, you know how it takes a really long time to film a show and then go back and edit and piece things together and make sure all the right shots go in all the right order? Well, let’s just pretend like that’s what I’ve been doing since the last time I blogged. I really am pretending like this is a show about us moving into a new house. So, why not take just as long as it would for a show to come out, right?

Ok. Ok. Get on with it already!

I’ve got a room to reveal!! It was the first room finished in the house and probably my favorite room so far. It’s Baby C’s nursery.

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to have a pink and yellow little girl’s room. But when we decided not to find out the sex of our baby before it was born, that idea kind of went out the window. I could have painted the nursery yellow and it would have been perfectly gender neutral. But I ended up falling in love with some fish bedding that didn’t use yellow. So, our baby’s first room was green and aqua. I still really love that bedding. I’ve kept it and plan on using it next time.

So, when I had a girl and we decided to move 8 months later, I jumped on the chance of designing and decorating my little girl’s nursery. I searched high and low for a yellow and pink combination that would be perfect for my baby's personality. And I found just what I was looking for at Pottery Barn Kids. Of course I did! Everything they have is so cute and so sweet. And so expensive…. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don’t need much. We already had a bumper, we don’t need a crib skirt b/c the crib is so low, and we don’t need the quilt. They are always more decorative than usable. So, I just got a sheet and a little “stroller blanket”. Perfect! Just what I wanted and within budget. (Oh yes, I had a budget and followed it very strictly. I might talk more about that another day.)

So here it is. My jumping off point:

It's the Penelope collection.

I couldn’t have been more excited when this sheet came in the mail! I think Shaun was a little worried that I was getting so excited about little birds on a crib sheet. But, once I had this sheet in my hands I was able to see the exact colors and then I could pick the wall color and curtains and accessories and everything else! So, I started with the sheet and in the end got this:



And this:



Do you want to know about some of the stuff? Ok. Let’s start with that blanket on the back of my rocking chair. Shaun had a student about 3 months ago that was raising money for a mission trip to Haiti. She said she made baby blankets, so I purchased the material and told her what I wanted and then we gave her money for her trip. I LOVE THIS BLANKET! Mostly because I got to pick out exactly what it would look like. And when I bought the material, we had no plans of moving. But I still new I would want it to be yellow and pink for C’s future room. It’s a soft yellow fleece on one side and then pink side is cotton and has little yellow turtles on it. So sweet and perfect.

I’ll also mention the curtains here. I looked EVERYWHERE for affordable curtains. They are really expensive, you know? $20 per panel? And I needed 4 panels! That’s nuts! And honestly, these curtains made me go over budget. But, they are so cute. And they match PERFECTLY!

Curtains - Target



And now that cute print in between her rocking chair and crib. I love this print! It’s perfect for her room with the little bird on it, and I just love where the words are set and what they say. My baby is a pretty little thing and I want her to have fun in this room playing with pretty little things one day. The frame is a vintage frame I found in my uncle’s basement. (you’ll notice as we tour through my house that there are a lot of old things I have found in my uncle’s basement) It had a neat painting in it that was given to my great aunt a long time ago, but the painting didn’t really fit anywhere in our house. So, I popped it out and put in this print. I instantly loved the combination.

Print – Etsy



Do you see a little glimpse of her initials in there? I made these for her old room and explained how to do it in this tutorial. For her new room I just found different scrapbook paper and re-glued the letters on. Each piece of paper cost .30 cents at Hobby Lobby and gave the letters a whole new look!



These little block shelves are kind of behind her door, so I don’t think the above pictures show them. But they just add a little bit to the walls. I bought the little pink birds at Hobby Lobby when I bought the scrapbook paper. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them at the time, but knew they would be perfect in her room. I finally just hung them a couple of days ago and like how they turned out. The little pink booties in the top right shelf where give n to me by my favorite aunt at C’s first baby shower. We had no idea at that point that she was going to be a girl, but aunt said she just knew. They are vintage and although C never wore them, I love how dainty they are.



One of my favorite things in her room is the print next to her changing table. You’ll notice it says, Suzanna Jade Streetman. That’s me! Someone drew this for my Mom back in 1981 after I was born. It hung in my room all through childhood, and I found it a couple of years ago in my Mom’s attic. When we moved I found it again and knew it would be perfect in C’s room. The little girls hair is yellow and her bows are pink. Plus, it was mine and that makes it extra special. (sorry for the flash glare…)

Also in this picture are these little baskets that I am crazy about! I found them at Home Goods and once again had no idea how I would use them, but knew they would go perfect. The colors match everything so well, and I loved the paisley design. They came in a set of three and I’ve got two on her dresser/changing table holding diapers in one and lotions in the other.



And lastly, the wall art above her changing table. I found some cute scrapbook paper and simply put it in some nice white frames. (Pay no mind to the big gash taken out of the bottom right corner’s frame. Somehow when Shaun was changing C’s diaper she leapt over there and knocked it down. I’m still unsure how this happened because every time I have her up there she hasn’t come close. Whatev…) I’ve had the idea to do something like this for a long time, but never really had anywhere to do it. I passed the idea onto my friend Kari, and she did another rendition of it here. This idea has so many possibilities and can be really inexpensive. That is if the frames can last more the a week on your wall and you don’t have to replace them…



I really, really love her room. Word to future Mommy’s: make your baby’s room a place you enjoy hanging out. You will probably be in there a lot. And make sure that rocking chair is comfy and enjoyable too. I have a beautiful old antique rocking chair (that I found in my uncle’s basement) that I NEVER considered putting in her room. It’s not comfortable. I fall asleep in her rocking recliner all the time. That’s right, rocking recliner. It has come in handy quite often!

But one last thing - she does have a pint sized antique rocker in her room. Shaun’s step-dad refinished and painted his childhood rocker and gave it to us before C was born. She had a fish themed room at the time, so he found cute little fish stickers and added them to the back. They don’t exactly go now, but the chair is so cute. She has only sat in it once, for a picture, but it will be perfect soon I’m sure.

Hope you enjoyed the tour! I’ll get more rooms photographed soon. The house is coming together nicely, but pictures are hard when you have this cutie coming towards you!


(See mini-rocker in background)

And just in case anyone is wondering - the wall color is Lemon Chiffon by Sherwin Williams.