Two Christmases ago, I was really focused on making a handmade Christmas. I had come up with lots of fun handmade gift ideas for my kids, my mom, my sisters, but I was getting a little stuck on what to make for my husband. Until I saw Wit & Whistle's pixel painting. I liked that it was simple, meaningful, and something that I thought he would like. The idea is to take an image, pixelize it, and then recreate it in watercolors. The result is a beautiful, abstract image. I started with an image of the famous arch in Cabo San Lucas, which is were we honeymooned. Since I knew I wanted to frame the finished painting, I set up my grid so I would end up with an 8"x10" painting that would be easy (i.e., inexpensive) to frame. To accomplish that, I scaled my image down to 20 pixels by 15 Continue Reading
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A Simple Lego Party
For my son's 5th birthday party, we decided on a Lego theme. He has really been getting into Legos lately, and there are so many great resources for Lego parties out there that I knew a Lego theme could produce a party that was fun and special for my son, but also easy to put together for me. I got a lot of "Wow, you really went all out," when it was honestly one of the easiest parties I have ever put together.So, want my best-number-one-pro tip on throwing a fun, easy Lego party? Here it is: Have a super nice friend who just threw her kid a Lego party give you all her leftover stuff. Seriously, it's the way to go. My friend loaned me her green bubble wrap for a cool Lego looking runner, her leftover Lego-shaped candies for cupcake toppers, her Lego mold that she used to make crayons Continue Reading
Refinishing Mom’s Hutch
Last year for Christmas, my dear husband asked me for gift ideas, and I told him that what I really wanted was for him to paint a hutch that we had inherited from my mom. It took up quite a bit of space in our garage for a few months, but eventually I got my gift, and here it is all finished up: I don't have a before picture. I know - total blogger fail - but imagine a medium tone wood. Sorry! Step one was to cover that up with some paint. After sanding and priming, it took a couple coats of a soft black paint with a purple undertone, which I think works well in our little dining area. I knew that I wanted a graphic design in the back of the hutch, but it took me a long time to decide exactly what I wanted to do. Initially, I thought I would choose some wallpaper, but never Continue Reading
Origami Bow Decor
I saw some awesome origami bows over at HowAbout Orange (one of the best blogs out there in my opinion) recently. They are not too difficult or fussy and you can find detailed, easy-to-follow instructions at Let's Create. I've been wanting to make some and when I was throwing together a last minute birthday get-together for my baby girl the other day, I decided to fold some up. I really liked the way the magazine pages folded up into pretty bows. I combined them with a few watercolor words for a banner and then stuck others on serving dishes and other places around the house for some quick, free, last minute decor. I should probably mention that you can get the recipe for that delicious icebox cake at Smitten Kitchen (I made my own wafers using the recipe on the site as Continue Reading
Herringbone Painting
In our home we have a tiny little powder room. It's only about three feet by six feet (most of which is taken up by the toilet and sink), so you can imagine that it gets pretty crowded when both of my children inevitably follow me in there (boo). Anyway. For the longest time we did absolutely nothing with it. Builder off-white paint, boring mirror, etc. I got sick of it about a month ago and just bought a gallon of mint green paint on impulse. We threw the paint on the walls, put up a new mirror and light fixture, and it wasn't as boring anymore. But it. was. green. The room has no natural light and ten foot ceilings, so it's like a dim, tall, green box. It really needed something on the walls to break up the green, so I decided to make a big colorful piece of artwork. This Continue Reading
Vintage Disneyland Room
In the next year or so we are planning on moving my son and daughter into the same room, and I've started thinking about how I want to decorate the room to make it fun and cute for a boy and a girl. I also happen to be a slightly insane Disneyland fanatic, and I especially love vintage Disneyland stuff. So, I came up with the idea of using reproductions of vintage Disneyland posters for art, and here's the color scheme/theme board I have come up with so far. What do you think? I am getting super excited about it! Continue Reading
Finished Crochet Along Afghan
Last May, I joined the "Square a Day in May" crochet along put together by Hooked on Handmade. The idea was that you would crochet one 12 inch square every day for a month, put them together, and--Voila!--a finished afghan in just a little over a month.Well.That was the plan.What really happened was I did a few squares in May, got totally behind, and then forgot about it for ten months. In the end, I only finished 20 squares, but decided I didn't need a huge 5 foot by 6 foot afghan. So I crocheted the squares together and added a border to the ends to give it a bit more length.It took me over a year to finish, but I am very happy with the results.It's the first pieced afghan I have done, and I really like it. It is so much fun to take this:and end up with this: Continue Reading
Colorful Valentines (Free Printable!)
I've been wanting to make crayons with my kids for a while now, and Valentine's Day seemed like the perfect  excuse to do it! I bought a couple of silicone heart-shaped muffin pans from the dollar section at Target about a month or so ago, and we put them to use! Rather than give out candy, I thought these colorful hearts would be a fun V-Day gift. I made up a simple topper you can download below, print off, and let your kids color. This is a simple project that the kids can really take control of. The hardest part is this: Peeling off all those papers is not so much fun. My son was not so into it, although he did really enjoy breaking the crayons into pieces. My smart husband thought of using an Xacto knife to slice through the wrapper, which worked really well (that Continue Reading