Poor, poor kitty.....

We recently got a new kitty, and I feel bad for her. We have to save her all the time. Between Lily and Emily that poor cat never gets to walk on her own. The girls named her Snowflake. She is quite the mellow, lovable, kitty. I just hope she stays that way LOL I know the girls love her, but damn, give a kitty some space.

My first DIY furniture project

I upcylced? refinished? beautified? my old desk. I have no idea what the crafty term is.

You know those ugly brown metal industrial desks of like the 70's? Yeah I had one looked like this only longer. It came complete with chipping paint and all

I hated it, and I was a little embarrassed when people saw it or I accidentally caught it in pictures of my kids.

It wasn't ME

I decided to do something about it now that we moved into our new house (yes we bought a house and I didn't even blog about it *gasp*)

I went out and got some pink spray paint, some cute wrapping paper to match, some sponge brushes, and some Mod Podge. I got home and got to it!

You can't see the spray paint here because I didn't even think to document this over haul until I had already started painting.  It was Ballet Slipper Pink from Krylon


Sorry :D



First I set out painting that bad boy. I wish someone had told me to sand it down a bit before starting, or at least primer it. If you can't tell I'm pretty new at this stuff. Well here we are phase one in painting. I ended up doing about 3 or 4 coats to cover it all, and I ran out of pink paint. I ended up using some white that I had laying around for the inside part

Please pardon the bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Oh, and forgive my use of a cardboard box to keep the paint off of our deck.




After all of that darn painting I grabbed my scissors and measured and cut the paper. I left a bit on each side so that I could wrap the paper under the edges of the top.

Geez I'm messy. The crap sort of started to accumulate outside as I went along LOL


Any who...... on we go




I just slathered some Mod Podge on the top in 3 inch sections, and unrolled the paper I measured out as I went along. I tried my best to smooth out any air bubbles, but I knew it would still end up wrinkly. I had read that would happen on a Pinterest pin somewhere, but I don't recall what the project was. After all of that I just tossed some Mod Podge on the top, let it dry, and then did it again.

Here is the final product

 

Over all not bad for my first project. I mean it was a $25 desk, so had I screwed it up, it wouldn't have been the end of the world. 

Free Graphics

Since I started my invitation and announcement design store on Etsy, I scoured the internet looking for a few free graphics to help me get started. I didn't want to put too much money into a business until I knew it would profit. I kept coming up empty handed even looking for simple images. I found a couple of images here and there that were actually free for commercial use, and I was ecstatic! I want to give back to some of you out there as well. :)
I know this isn't much, but here are a few images that I put together. These types of frames are commonly used in invitation designs. Here are 5 frames in PNG files that you can download for FREE. You can use them however you want, personal or commercial use is a-okay with me. And no, you do not have to link back to me or show me what you've created. Although, if you respond to this post I may start offering more free graphics in future

Enjoy!
Click here to download: 5 Frames

DIY Baby Wrap

I've actually had tons of people ask me how I made my own wrap, so I figured I would share my super money saving tutorial with the world. 

1. First off take a little trip to your local fabric store.
I chose to go to Joann's since I had a coupon on top of them having a killer sale. I scored my fabric for a grand total of $7!

2. Choose your fabric. This is a little tricky if you don't know much about fabric, so I'll make it easy on you. You want a jersey knit fabric. It's not heavy and it has a good amount of stretch. You can tell this type of fabric by the feel and the look of it. It feels and looks like t-shirt material, and the edges will roll instead of fray. Here are the edges of my fabric

3. Take your selection over to the cutting counter and ask for either 5 or 6 yards, your choice. I only used 5 for mine. I have some slack on mine but not enough to tie it in the front. So if you prefer your tie knot in the front I would go for the 6 yards. Here we go 5 yards of fabric

4. Here comes the hard part. Once you get your purchase home, make some room, and spread it all the way out. We are going to need some scissors here, so be sure to get those out as well. We are going to cut this bad boy in half to make 2, yes 2, wraps out of this fabric! You are going to want to cut it in half long ways, so that you end up with two 5 or 6 yard pieces. Here is a really bad  drawing to show you what I mean. We don't want to cut it wrong and end up with pieces too short. 

Cut along the dotted line

5. Phew that was hard work, so give yourself a pat on the back! If you're like me you are done at this point. If you want to get fancy you can sew a ribbon or tag smack dab in the middle of your wrap so that you can find it easier. 

6. Wrap and enjoy

Happy baby, happy mama!

If I get any responses I can make a tutorial on how to wrap it, but it's just as easy to search for videos on youtube.

2 year olds rock!

OMFG Lily is a riot. She farted really loud, and I asked her if she farted. She said no of course. 

Then I said, "Yes you did. I heard it." 

She starts clapping really loud. I just about died. 

I said, "oh is that what I heard," to which she replied "mmmhmm!"

Ahhhhhh!

Baby Jekyll and Infant Hyde! The transformation takes place somewhere around midnight from what I've gathered. That is when my sweet cooing baby Leena is morphed into a being of unspeakable terror. She screams and cries for a good 5-6 hours. She stops when Lily wakes up thankfully, but that still means no sleep for mama. :(

I want my good sleeper back! She would give me 2 five hour stretches of sleep at night. This craziness started about 2 days ago. I don't know what to do. She is fed, changed, close to mama, and warm. WTH?!?!

My New Etsy Store

That's right, I opened up my own store!

I have some friends that do well selling digital files for birthday invitations and the likes, so I figured I would try my hand at digital files as well. I'm working on birth announcements, graduation invitations, and thank you cards. I figure when I finally get the experience worked up for a photography business I can sell these along side that. That's thinking ahead LOL.

I've got a small amount of product so far, but the ideas are pouring in for the birth announcements. The grad invites, not so much. I'm getting there though.

Now I just need to get more exposure. If anyone at all is reading this...... please share my store!

Here is a sample of my work