DIY Nursery

If you've been following my blog since its inception, you know that I love DIY projects.  After I got pregnant with Emily and the morning sickness (all-day sickness) began, I put all of my DIY projects on hold.  I only had a certain amount of energy in me, and I needed to conserve it for Blake.

Once I got into my third trimester, I got a tiny bit motivation to begin working on some DIY projects, solely for the nursery.  My goal was to buy as few "pre-made" pieces as possible, and instead showcase some of my creativity in my baby girls room. I kept telling myself "When Emily is older, I can tell her, mommy made that just for you!"

While I am at it, I might as well show what the room looked like beforehand. There were yellow sponge painted walls and ceilings, making the room feel very closed in.  The nursery is a bit odd-shaped, with a slanted ceiling and not a ton of space.  I envisioned a very bright and super girly room without feeling too "diva" like.  I picked out 6 different white/off-white samples until we found this one.  There was no overhead lighting, so we picked out a crystal chandelier to brighten up the room and give the nursery a touch of elegance.  I was always drawn to a pink-grey-gold color palette and tried to pull those colors in throughout the room.  I also have a slight obsession with hearts, so where I could, I threw those in for good measure.

Previous Homeowner

Room Makeover

Here are a few pictures of my favorite room details and DIY projects.  I didn't want to break the bank, so I mixed in a few select pieces from Restoration Hardware & PB Kids along with essentials from Target. Also, I found the white crib and Pottery Barn rocking chair second hand, which saved us a ton of money.

DIY Accessory Wall

DIY Heart Hanger; spray painted to match the decor

DIY Wall Art, inspired by an item at Restoration Hardware

Pretty pop of hearts to hold my Wildbird sling

DIY Dream Catcher and crystal knobs

DIY Wall shelf; purchased raw wood and painted white
DIY Initial "E"

Hope you guys liked seeing pictures of our baby girls nursery.  I truly believe the room is a good mix of store bought & homemade items that make it tailored but also homey. If you are interested in any of DIY items, I am more than happy to discuss with you! Just comment here or send me an email. 

Holiday Wreath

You can buy a pre-made wreath pretty much anywhere this time of year.  But what fun is that, right?

I follow a few DIY blogs and came across a country-chic buffalo check fabric wreath that I was determined to make.  Unfortunately, I was limited in the supplies available at the craft store (and I am too tired to run around Westchester) so I couldn't quite replicate this one.  However, I put my own spin on it to make it fun and festive.

What you need:
1x large Styrofoam circle
25 feet of holiday ribbon
Pre-made coordinating holiday bow
Glue gun

Directions:
1. Secure the ribbon to the Styrofoam with hot glue
2. Begin wrapping the ribbon around the circle, making sure to overlap the pieces so that no white shows through
3. Secure the last piece with hot glue
4. Tie the pre-made bow to the wreath

Given these extremely simple directions, you can tell that this is pretty much the easiest holiday project you can do this season. 

Estimated cost:
Estimated $20 (Michael's was having a massive holiday sale today)

Time Spent:
About 15-20 minutes

If you are looking for wreath inspiration, check these guys out.  Maybe next year I will step up my DIY game!

First Moms Craft Night

The Backstory
All of the stars aligned one afternoon when I met a fellow Pleasantville mom, also named Jenifer.  We hit it off instantly - bonding over our love of all things DIY and throwing get-togethers.  We were both new to the area, and spent a few months hosting play dates and moms nights out to get to know each other (and other local moms) better. 

One day Jen approached me with an idea to co-host a Moms Craft Night where I come up with a featured craft while Jen organizes the party.  It would allow us an opportunity to meet even more area moms while doing something fun and creative for the evening.  From the moment I heard her idea, I was sold.  We started tossing out dates and craft ideas that same week.

We posted about this new idea on our local Facebook group, and within a few days, we were at full capacity.  We spent 2 weeks ordering supplies, doing a test run of the craft, and creating excel spreadsheets to track our expenses (gosh I missed working in excel!!). 

The evening turned out better than expected in my opinion.  It was large enough to have various personalities mesh, but intimate enough to get to know everyone.

The Craft
As a DIY junkie, I stalk Hometalk on a regular basis.  Most of the projects come with detailed tutorials on how to replicate at home.  I came across this idea for watermelon painted coasters using wood slices.  If you have been following my blog, you may remember I went through quite a wood slice phase so this was totally up my alley.  It also ties in perfectly with summertime, and we knew we could build a party around a watermelon theme. 

Click here to see the full tutorial from the blogger herself.

The Evening
Guests were greeted by an adorable chalk sign welcoming you to the party.  Candles were lit and light music played throughout the house. The table screamed watermelon with the cutest themed tablecloth and perfectly laid out paint settings. Mini jelly bean mason jars adorned with each moms name were placed at the top of her paint setting, functioning as a favor and an assigned seat.

Moms sipped on the most amazing watermelon cocktails, white wine, and cucumber mint spa water.  Chocolate truffles and mini cupcakes were also on display, along with flat bread pizza and dips.

The night started at 8p with a light meet & greet and then we spent the next 2.5 hours crafting and chatting.  Being on my feet for that long was a bit tough, so I wasn't probably as much help as I could have been.  I hope if nothing else, that all the local moms got to enjoy an evening out meeting other moms.  Pleastantville (and Mt. Pleasant) is such a small community, it is so nice to mingle and bond with fellow moms in the area.

Future Plans
We modeled the evening a bit after the popular Paint Night, and we hope to continue this with even more moms down the road.  When Jen is not party planning or taking care of her 2 kiddos, she finds time to pursue a hobby of hers.  Check out Jen's site to see some of the amazing hand-painted letters she sells for Bedrooms and Playrooms!!

Fabric Garland

I always loved the idea of making a fabric garland for the nursery.  Problem was, I managed to fill up all of the walls in Blake's new room.  I decided to make one anyway, and worry about placement later.

Fabric
I used complementary cotton fabrics, and a few lace pieces thrown in for fun.  I have seen this done so many times with lace, burlap, ribbon, etc. that the options are really endless.  The one thing to keep in mind is that a satin ribbon knot doesn't keep tight like a cotton knot, so it may come loose once you are finished.

Length
I purchased each fabric to measure 4ft long.  I wanted the garland to hang 2ft on either side, with an option to trim it once I found a place to hang it.  My best recommendation is to err on the side of caution and buy it longer than you think you need since you cant add-on length once its cut.

Cutting
After a little trial and error, I found the most efficient way to cut the fabric is to fold the fabric over into quarters.  Then lay a sample size strip on top and make your cuts.  This made the cutting step speed by. And don't stress about the strip not being a perfect straight line as it will blend in once its hung up.

Knotting
Fold the fabric strip in half over a rope.  I used a 1/4in thick white rope, but you can really use any type of rope, twine, or even a straight piece of wood.  Loop the long end of the strip thru the circular part of the fabric that is resting on the rope, and then pull the strip thru making a knot.  Make sure to pull each strip tight, and keep all knots facing the same direction.

Finished product
I brought the finished garland to Blake's nursery to see where it could work best.  First, I draped the garland over a window, but realized it covered up too much of the natural light.  I then considered hanging it on the front of the crib, but had nightmares of Blake unhooking it and choking himself with it.  I even considered rearranging the furniture and décor in his room until I realized that was just plain crazy.  After weeks of the garland collecting dust in my room, I finally found the perfect hanging spot -- the back of the door.  I hung it high enough out of Blake's reach (for now at least) and its visible from all 4 corners of his room. 

I hung some additional décor inside the garland to add visual interest.  I painted a letter B the same color as our DIY Alphabet Canvas, and then hung a cute ceramic sign from a star to complete the look.

DIY Photo Album

Nowadays its rare to actually print out photos.  We take them on our phones, we publish them on Instagram, and only save them to our computers once our phone memory gets full (which seems to happen every other week). 

However, big events like weddings bring out my inner photo-obsessed self, and I want to print out everything.  One of my oldest friends (literally of 22years) is getting married in July, and I thought no better reason to create a custom photo album for her.

What you need:
1x corrugated cardboard ring album
3x pages of hard stock scrapbooking paper
Fun floral embellishments
Gold paint and brush
Gold-wrapped twine
Pencil
Hole Puncher
Scissors
Glue Gun and glue sticks
12x 4x4 pictures

Directions:
1. Flip the scrapbook paper over and trace the outline of the square album pages.  You should be able to fit 4 squares per scrapbook page.

2. Cut along the line you just drew.  You should have 12 squares to work with.

3. Create the layout you want for the scrap paper, making sure to mix-up the various prints to add interest to the pages.

4. Once you have the lineup you like, flip the piece of paper over again, and line up the holes of the album.  Draw a mark in the circle so you know where to make the hole punch.

5. Using the hole puncher, make holes in all 12 pieces of paper

6. Using a hot glue gun, place glue around the edges of the paper, and place on the album pages.

7. Once complete, you can use the silver rings (they come with the album at Michaels) to secure all of the individual squares together.

8. I then painted the "Love" sign gold to match the cover of the album. 

9. I used a gold-wrapped twine to make little bows on the silver rings.  Because the edges were fraying, I hot glued the end of the string to keep them intact.  While the "Love" sign was drying, I hot glued the floral embellishments to the cover of the album.

10. Last step is to glue the pictures into the album. I first used a glue stick, but found that the picture looked rippled once the glue dried.  I then tried using hot glue in small amounts on the corners and then lightly along the edges, and this seemed to work best.

Estimated Cost: $30
1x Album that includes the rings ($3)
3x heavy card stock scrapbook paper ($9 total)
Cover embellishments ($8)
Gold-wrapped twine ($4)
12x 4x4 pictures ($6)

Time Spent:
Because I already knew what I wanted the final album to look like, this project was pretty quick.  It took about an hour and half beginning to end.

Mercury Vases

My latest crush is on mercury vases.  I recently bought one at this antiques shop, and fell in love.  I started researching how I could make this on my own for a lot cheaper.  From everything I read, it looked fairly simple, so I gave it a go.

What you need:
Looking glass spray paint
Spray Bottle
White Vinegar
Water
Glass vases/mason jars
Paper towels

Spray paint outdoors or in a well ventilated area

Directions:
1. Make sure your glass vase is clean and dry.

2. Shake equal parts white vinegar and water into a spray bottle.  I started with 1/4 cup because that was the smallest measuring cup I had. I ended up throwing a lot away, so you could definitely start with less.

3. Standing at least a 1 foot away, lightly spray the vase making sure that the vinegar-water solution doesn't get drippy on the glass.  If it does, (it did for me the first few times), immediately wipe it off with a paper towel and start over.

4. Spray the looking glass spray paint right on top of the vinegar-water solution.  It should have a bubbly look. Wait at least 30min to dry before handling.

5. As an option, you can use the paper towels to wipe or rub some sections of the vase to give it a really old mercury feel.  I decided not to since I really liked how it turned out without wiping.

6. Once the vase dries, you can repeat steps 3-5 until the vase looks exactly how you want. I repeated it 1 additional time to get the mirror glass look that I wanted.

The taller vases are great for long stem flowers

Mason jars and bottom heavy vases are great for candles

All of the mercury pieces together

Enhanced the tablescape by adding pitchers of hydrangeas and spider roses

Time spent:
Approximately 45minutes (excluding dry time) for 3 vases

Estimated cost: $25
The biggest cost will be the Looking Glass Spray Paint that retails for around $13.