I am not the best planner.  I'm kind of a take it as it comes, see how it goes kind of a gal. Sometimes this doesn't work out so well. For instance, I had been thinking that maybe I wanted to do newborn photos with my new little guy, but I never really thought about actually contacting a photographer until it was getting to be too late. Oops. So I thought maybe I could pull off some decent photos myself. After little pinterest searching, I was armed with some great tips on taking newborn photos (find 'em here and here) and ready to give it a shot. Well.... Almost ready. Again with the poor planning, I had no cute little newborn photo shoot props! So I had to whip one up. I came up with this simple little earflap hat in a chunky yarn that went from start to finish in a couple hours. Continue Reading
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How to Make Text Look Like the Lego Logo Using Gimp
Learn how to Make Text Look Like the Lego Logo. I will walk you through the steps of turning your kid's name or whatever you like into a lego lookalike. Welcome to Persia Lou! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my newsletter to keep up to date on new posts. When preparing for my son's Lego birthday party, I used a great free font, Legothick, which is available for free here. You can see how I used it in the invitations: Fun, right? The font is great, but to Make Text Look Like the Lego Logo, you need to go through a few more steps than just type it into your word processor. I have laid out the basic steps for you, in case you need help getting the same look. I used the free photo editing software GIMP, but you should be able to follow the same basic steps in Continue Reading
DIY (FREE!) Framed Botanical Artwork
If you've been following along, you know we have been doing some work in our Master Bathroom, which means I finally decided to put something up on the wall. I had decided to go with botanical prints to bring some nature and color into the space. I chose some free botanical printables from The Graphics Fairy (there are several free online sources you can read more about here), and started thinking about how I wanted to display them in the bathroom. I had already purchased a shelf from Home Goods that had a rustic wood look to it, so I wanted a similar texture and look to frame out my botanicals. I immediately thought of the box of extra laminate flooring we had leftover from redoing the floors downstairs. The color and texture were just about perfect. First, I measured my prints to Continue Reading
Hot Air Balloon Mobile
I have been wanting to try to make the beautiful woven paper hot air balloons from PaperMatrix for a long time now, and finishing up the nursery gave me the motivation to give it a shot. PaperMatrix generously provides free pdf templates that you can print off, cut out, and weave into amazing 3D works of art. If you have a Silhouette or some other kind of cutting machine, this project will be a lot quicker for you. However, it is definitely possible to cut this project by hand, and, honestly, it's kind of a relaxing thing to do. Copy paper is a bit flimsy for this project. A slightly thicker paper works better, but cardstock might be too thick. PaperMatrix has videos on their site to demonstrate the weaving technique, which are very helpful but may be a bit overwhelming if Continue Reading
Decorating with Botanicals (and free printables!)
I have been super focused on finishing up our Master bathroom the last week or so. Honestly, it's a little weird. We have lived in this house for almost four years, and the Master bath has to have been one of the most neglected spaces in the whole house. Here's some evidence: Beautiful, right? When we first moved into the house I threw a couple paint colors onto the wall, decided I didn't like any of them, and left them there for years. Yet, this lovely sight never motivated me to put something pretty on the wall? Anyway. I am motivated now. I have been trying to come up with some inexpensive art ideas, and I have settled on an arrangement of botanical prints. Collections of botanical prints are a staple in home decor and a great way to bring some nature and history into a room. Continue Reading
Simple Ottoman Slipcover
Our Master Bath project is wrapping up, and I am working on a few DIY projects to bring some color into the room. We have had this old ottoman floating around the house for a while now, and I thought with a quick slipcover it could find a new home in the bathroom. I still had about half of a shower curtain leftover from my hutch refinishing project, and I thought the pattern would look great in the bathroom. Plus, I still had the bottom hem of the shower curtain, which meant I wouldn't have to hem my slipcover. Score! I recently made my own piping, and it was so simple I wanted to do it again to add a little contrast and interest to the slipcover. If you have never made piping before, don't be intimidated! You can absolutely do it! I followed the tutorial over at Craftiness is not Continue Reading
Installing Penny Tile Floors Part Two and Bathroom Progress
Check out part one of our bathroom floor progress here.  Our Master Bath is really coming along, and I am so excited about the progress so far. My husband claims he will never lay tile again, but I'm counting on him forgetting that by the next time we are ready for this kind of project. ;) The thing about tile is that you have significant wait times between each part of the progress, so it can take a while to finish the job. We were sharing a bathroom with our kids for about four days, but I think it was worth it. Our adhesive had to set for at least 18 hours before we could grout it, and then the grout had to set for 24 hours before it was dry. The picture below shows the flooring partially grouted: It's not necessary, but it can be fun to mix your grout up in a cute little Continue Reading
Installing Penny Tile Floors Part One
This is what my bathroom/bedroom looks like right now. That's real life, folks. Real, messy life. We've been slowly remodeling our Master bathroom over the past couple months. Yay! I wasn't being a good blogger when we started this project, so I don't have an excellent before picture, but I did scrape up this realtor photo from when we bought the house: Yes, ladies and gents, that's carpet in the bathroom. Why, oh, why do they do this? Next to the bath tub? Why?! So, nearly four years later the carpet (and the lovely linoleum in the WC) are no more. (You may notice that the cabinets are looking a bit different from that before photo too. I'll have to do a post on that project soon.) We chose a white porcelain penny tile for the bathroom floors. I have always loved that Continue Reading