mustache + lips baby shower

Happy day to you friends!

I wanted to share a few pics + details with you from the shower this weekend-

First, I'll let you see pics of the actual party after people arrived and there was food on the table and whatnot. I'm usually terrible about forgetting to take pics during the party, but actually got a few shots this time.

The basic theme of the shower was mustache + lips = Owen

and boy howdy does Owen's daddy (my bro-in-law) have a huge honkin' mustache right now...

Here's the parents-to-be opening gifts,

And Kent trying to diaper a fauxnotreal babe.

Yes, the babe is upside-down.

Here he is again reading aloud some of the wishes that he has for his son.

All of the guests filled out a sheet of wishes for a keepsake book.

And lemme tell ya, they was some doozies.

Funny, funny stuff my friends.

I thought a few folks might pee they pants.

There was a table in the dining room with this on it:

a few photo props,

a chevron-y diaper cake,

and an 8x8 scrapbook with sheets for everyone to fill out for baby Owen.

You know, sweet things that he could read many years down the road.

And some were just that: sweet.

And some were not so much.

Back to the partay-

here's a few pics I snapped before anyone arrived,

hence the no food on the table

I made the table runner and the banner for the dining room in blk/white, but made a red one for the mantel since I plan to keep that one up through V-day.

I found THIS printable with tons of nicknames for a mustache and strung it up in the kitchen-

Here's hubs and me after the party doing the thing that he loves the MOST.

He said he felt silly having a prop, which is funny since he asked for one

on our first date.

So I held one for him...

And as for O man,

he was only too happy to take care of a leftover chocolate mustache.

I've had so much fun working on projects for this party for the past few months and now...

I jump straight into planning another one.

It's Batman mode now, all the way.

Can't you just see Gotham City in my dining room?

I'm off to the Bat cave, friends.

Until tomorrow!

psssst- I've linked this post to

craft #5: jazz up that bag

Happy Friday, friends!

Today wraps up a week-long craft-a-palooza here on the blog.

(If you're tuning in for the first time today, you can see the 4 other crafts from this week HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. And again, while this is a crafting week series, each post can stand alone, just like those Indiana Jones movies. You don't have to watch them all in order, but who doesn't want to see Harrison Ford four times in a row?

Am I right?)

Since the crafting this week has been all about using things you already have

or

spending the least amount of moolah possible, it seems only appropriate that the last craft of the week didn't cost me a penny.

While doing the great closet clean-up of 2011 a couple weeks ago, I came across some canvas bags-

exhibit A:

One of them is sporting the TCT logo and one of them was plain-jane. I got both for free- one as a gift and one from our church library so that we could use it to transport our library books back and forth.

I figured one or both of them could do with a little embellishment, so I went in search of some ideas...

along the way, I came across bags with:

crocheted flowers from HERE,

monograms and pretty doilies from HERE,

painted leaves from HERE,

and ruffles from HERE.

While each of the above examples is fabulous in its own way,

I decided to go a different route with my plain-jane bag and paint a pattern on it.

What's my favorite pattern at the moment?

Well friends, it still happens to be chevron.

Remember when I made my chevron with techron mantel?

 I pulled out my blue painters tape, and my measuring tape and I got to work.

Using the same tutorial I shared in THIS post, I measured every 2 inches along the top, and every 2 inches along the sides and made a tiny dot where each of those met using my jumbo pencil-

again, for a more in-depth tutorial on how to create a chevron pattern, check THIS post out.

Once I had connected all of the dots with a zig and a zag, it looked something like this:

(and did anyone else just sing, "connect the dots, la la la laaaa..." in their head or was it just me? Good ole' PeeWee)

As you can clearly see, the zigs and zags aren't very neat.

This is when you'll need to grab something very sharp, but do it carefully.

An exact-o is the perfect thing...

See the messy zag?

Take your knife, slice off the messy part, and...

a perfect zag!

Do that to all the zig-zags, and you'll have something like this:

Now it's paint time!

If you don't have any acrylic paints on hand, they are super-cheap at hob lob and Michael's. I just happen to have quite a few, so I looked through the colors to find one that suited my fancy...

Island green it is!

A beautiful turquoisy-green.

Yep, just made turquoisy a word.

It's official.

I also keep some of those cheap little 25 cent sponge painter thingys on hand for just such occasions, so I went to town with it painting in my pretty chevron stripes.

Once an entire side was finished, and my girls were up from their naps, I let it dry for a good 6 hours while we had some fun in the pool. Once the kiddos were in bed for the night, I quickly finished the other side, and this is why the other side went 'quickly'-

I kept the taped chevron stripes in tact when I pulled them off so I could reuse them.

Genius, no?

Genius, yes!!!

Well, ok- so I kept two of the stripes in tact because it didn't dawn on me that I could actually reuse them until I'd already wadded one of them up.

ahhh...live and learn.

Still, it was better than having to measure and mark off all of the zags and zigs.

Once the rest of the tape was in place, I quickly painted in the stripes and left it to dry overnight. The next morning, I had a cute little chevron bag all ready for some goodies!

Doesn't that look cute a-hangin' in our mudroom too?

And yes, that little cut-out area in our kitchen constitutes a mudroom.

I checked.

That's a princess Belle wand in the bag in case anyone was wondering.

So-

if YOU had a plain canvas bag, how would you embellish it?

Fabric or felt rosettes?

Maybe some ric-rac sewn along the top and bottom?

Maybe add a monogram to it?

Or maybe sling paint at it Pollock style?

oooohhhh...the possibilities...

And, because I likes me a good recap, let's take a quick look back at the projects from this week and just how insanely cheap they were to make-

Day #1- Urban Outfitters wallflower knock-offs

1 sheet of posterboard- $1

scotch sticky putty- $2.59

cardboard for the pattern- already had on hand

total= $3.59

Day #2- formula cannisters turned craft storage

formula cans, craft paper, ribbon- had on hand

chalkboard labels- $2.99

white paint marker- $2.99

total= $5.98

Day #3- framed houndstooth monogram

chipboard letter 'M'- had on hand

white posterboard- $1

houndstooth fabric- had on hand

11 x 14 frame- $5 at wal-mart

glue/glue sticks- hand on hand

total= $6

Day #4- fun with iron-ons

tee-shirt for O-man- $3.88

tank for me- $3.88

black makeup bag- had on hand

iron-on letters- free, thanks to my sis

total= $7.78

Day #5- embellished a plain canvas bag

canvas bag- had on hand

paints/paint tape- had on hand

total= 0

p.s.- I hope you've had as much fun as I did with craft week! I actually have a few other, more time-consuming crafts lined up that I'll be sharing sometime in the near future. Also...can't wait to begin sharing the progress we're making in the kitchen. For those of you reading for the first time, we're about to completely gut our 1960 kitchen and I'm oh.so.pumped. Stay tuned...

p.p.s.- the Jackson Pollock site I linked to above actually lets you paint Pollock-style using the curser on your computer! So cool!



what I wore Wednesday and other randomness...

hello friends!

How are you?

It was an extrememly late night for me, so today's post is super-short.

(I blog late at night and in the wee hours of the morn, fyi)

My rehearsal ran late tonight (tuesday) and I went straight from there to the costume shop to chat with my friend and costumer Judy,

so it is oh-so-late.

here's a bit of what I wore this week:
(linked with Lindsey today at the Pleated Poppy)

trying out the mantel mirror that's been relocated to the bedroom-

dress, skinny jeans, flippy-floppies- Old Navy

belt- Target

necklace, earrings- Premiere Designs

let's all just pretend that we don't see that unmade bed, mmkay?

thanks

back in the glamorous school bathroom-

tank- Gap

cardigan- hospital sale (can't remember brand and finding out would require me to get up)

jeans- The Limited

eternity scarf- Coldwater Creek

necklace- Lisa Leonard

top- Belk

jeans- Old Navy

jewelry- thrift store (brand new)

top- NY and Co

jeans- Old Navy

fab turquoise bracelet that I forgot to take a closer pic of- NY and Co

thank you Alisha for the giftcard! I found some lovely goodies!

********

before I go night-night, I must share this free printable I found over at Sprik Space.  They've got tons of free-printable-awesomeness going on over there, and their latest chevron piece is just the bees knees.

They also made it available in 25 colors.

did you hear that?

twenty-five!

Print some of those babies out, pop 'em in a frame, and bam!

You've instantly updated your decor for zero dollars.

holla

so hop on over to Sprik Space and tell them I sent you!

Of course, you'll then have to explain to them who I am because they'll have no clue.

night-night