All aboard!

We just celebrated my son's first birthday.  We were so excited that we actually celebrated twice...2 parties...2 weekends in a row!  My son is in love with Thomas the Train, so it seemed only fitting to have a train themed party.

After finding tons of ideas on pinterest, and a few of my own, it all came together really nicely...and only slightly overboard :)

 

Cupcake Train and Snack Table

I made the chex puppy chow to look like cinders and ashes from a steam train and the chocolate no bake cookies to look like coal and color coordinating cupcake toppers.

Easy way to make letters for cakes or cupcakes:
1.  Make a stencil by printing letters out in a cool font.  I created a mirror image of the letters before printing them out, but you can print them out normally, flip the paper over and trace the outline.
2.  Cover stencil with wax paper.
3.  Melt colored candy melts in piping bag.
4.  Cut a tiny hole in the piping bag and slowly fill in the letters from the stencil.
5.  Allow to dry (should only take a couple minutes).  Then peel off the the wax paper.  Letters should be smooth side up.

Baggage Claim Favor Table

I used burlap and seer sucker fabric for table cloths.  I found these great lanterns at Ikea for only $4! I used them as centerpieces at the 2nd party and tied balloons to them.  They are adorable, so I'm sure I won't have a problem finding a use for them around the house.  For favors for the kids I used this suitcase shape from the Silhouette Online Store.  For the adult favors I made cookies and cream popcorn.  I'm not a big fan of popcorn, but this stuff is delicious!

We tried to keep the food simple.  We served hot dogs and easy sides such as small bags of chips.   I created a topping train using tin pans from the dollar store and created framed signs for each food station. 

Water bottles with Chugga Chugga labels, crockpot hot dogs and strawberry lemonade.

Fueling Station

Bandana covered high chair, polka dot balloons and 1 year old crossing sign.

I think the framed station signs  added a little something-something to the party, and they were simple to make.  I spray painted dollar store frames and used turquoise wooden scrapbook paper I found at Hobby Lobby as the background.  I even added a little personal touch by using our last name as the name of the railway.

And what kid party is complete without a bounce house?  We even found a train one!  Score!

We even made masking tape train tracks from the front door to the back door.  It was a cute touch that the kids got a kick out of!

Here are some more pictures from the 2nd party.

For the second party I made a smash cake (that did not get even close to being smashed) and my husband made a Thomas the Train out of diaper boxes.  He did an amazing job!

I had so much fun planning this little man's birthday party.  My only recommendation is to start early and enjoy the process!

Meet Reggie

Keeping up with a crawling baby is hard work...trying to keep up with household chores on top of all of that is nearly impossible with a  full time job!  If I can finish a load of laundry per week I'm doing pretty good!

So a couple months ago we went on the hunt for something to make our lives a little easier.  Laundry and dishes were already taking a back burner which left no room on the stove for thinking about sweeping...plus I despise sweeping :)

That's when we started toying with the idea of getting a Roomba.  I didn't really know anyone who had one and there were a lot of mixed reviews out there on the internet.  So after debating it for a couple months we decided to just do it, as Nike would say.

Meet Reggie the Roomba: (he really is like another person in our house)

 

Roomba 770 Vacuum Cleaning Robot (Google Affiliate Ad) 

The price was definitely scary.  The Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupon was amazing for this purchase though.  We were still skeptical though...seriously how well could this thing work anyway?  Would it pay off in the end?  Let me tell you.  It is a game changer.  We absolutely LOVE it!  Especially with a crawling baby and the amount of tile/wood we have on our floors.

We opted for this model because it was best for pet hair.  We run it on a daily schedule and it is full everyday.  It's definitely gross to think about how much dog hair we used to live in...

There are definitely some cons, don't get me wrong.  Does he make it to every inch of the floor everyday?  No.  The pattern is actually quite random.  I'm not quite sure how they came up with the vacuuming algorithm, but he usually makes it to all the rooms and does a decent job.  Using him everyday ensures that most of the house is always clean...and that's really all I strive for these days!

I was quite impressed with how it is able to climb over obstacles and even vacuum our shaggy rug without getting hung up.  Sometimes, however, he does get stuck in a room by closing the door behind him.  Luckily I work from home though and I can oversee the whole cleaning process.

Anyway...just thought I would share in case someone was on the fence about buying one.  I definitely recommend one.  We hardly have to sweep anymore, and when we do it's not as big of a chore.  I wish they would make one for doing laundry...

I hearth safety

We've been obsessed with over-childproofing our house lately.  With our little daredevil, it is a 100% necessary.  Our latest makeover victim...the fireplace!

I absolutely love the natural stone of our fireplace and after we installed hard woods in the living room, it became my favorite feature of our entire house.  I could not even relish the thought of hiding it underneath a layer of wood and foam.  I fought it as long as I could, but in the end, safety won.  For being such a big advocate against anything and everything that would cover up this beauty, I'm actually very pleased with how it turned out.

This project began much like the rest of our projects...a lot of research on Pinterest and pinning like crazy all the fireplace covers I could find.  I was actually surprised at the lack of fireplace seat pins out there.  We found a couple tutorials, but in the end we decided to make a design of our own.

First step is to measure out the fireplace to determine how much materials you will need buy.  Make sure to write all of the measurements down because you will need them quite a few times!

Supplies Needed
Wood for frame -- we used about 25 feet of 1x4 furring strips and 1/2" MDF for the top
3" foam for top
1" foam for sides
Fabric  -- We used around 5 yards.  I tried to find a fabric that was close in color to our fireplace.  I found a burlap print cotton at JoAnn's and thought it was perfect!  

My hubby did an amazing job creating the frame for the seat.  I wasn't involved much in this step, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

First step build all the sides

Next create the top for the seat.  We decided to make the seat as flush with the stone as possible.  And since we actually wanted to use the cover as additional seating, we cut a piece of MDF to fit on top of this frame as extra support.

After we finished the frame we remeasured and bought the appropriate amount of foam.  This was the most expensive part of the project.  We found the foam pieces at JoAnn's and it was conveniently 50% off that week.  I highly recommend waiting for them to be on sale.  Even with 50% off, it was a little painful at the register.  If you are a little more prepared with exact measurements they can cut them to size for you.  We were not so organized, so we had to use a kitchen steak knife to cut through 3 inches of foam.  Needless to say, our cuts are a little jagged.

We covered the top with fabric first.  We glued the foam to the wood with a little hot glue to keep it in place as we stapled the edges of the fabric down.  It's really important to make the fabric super tight to get a nice smooth look.  Our staple gun was a little junky, so we had to hammer the staples all the way down.

We really just winged the whole wrapping process.  I think as long as it looks good on the outside it doesn't really matter how the straight the fabric is cut or if all the staples are lined up or not.

 

The top was pretty easy to cover.  I was so not looking forward to foaming the sides of this beast at all.  It just seemed daunting...which is probably why we put it off for a couple of weeks...but in reality it was not as bad as it looked.   Amazingly, we were able to knock that part out in less than an hour.

Again, for sanity reasons, we glued the 1" foam to the sides of the frame so it would stay in place during the fabric covering.  Unfortanately we were unable to get one continuous piece of foam that was long enough, so we had to have 2 separate pieces.  We matched the pieces up the best we could and glued the seams together.  We were a little worried how it would look, but once the fabric was on it was not noticeable at all.

We then wrapped the entire frame with our fabric, stapling it into the frame.  We then glued some of the fabric edges down for extra support.

 

After both pieces were finished, my husband nailed the top seat piece to the frame so there is no way the little one can pull it on top of himself..at least I hope so!  And that's it.  Easy right?

All in all, we spent around $150 total on this project.  The foam was the biggest chunk at around $75.  Fabric costs were around $35 and the wood was about $40.

In the beginning it seemed like a big price to pay for something that I didn't even want!  But we are really excited with how it turned out and the fact we don't have to worry about bumped heads or stitches is priceless!

My chevron obsession

Chevron is my new obsession.  I can't get enough of it!  I don't know what it is about it, but I'm in love.  It all began last year when I started working on the nursery.  It was literally love at first sight. 

{crib skirt}

Since then it has slowly made it's way into almost every room of our house!  Next it was our bedroom.  The curtains were an easy transformation and it makes it feel quite tropical and tranquil.  I also made a matching pillow from an idea on pinterest.

{curtains and pillow}

Next it creeped into our dining room.  Our dining room walls were already teal, so why not right?

{tablecloth}

I tried my hand at making my own chevron pattern for this menu board in the kitchen.  I used masking tape and spray paint to transform this muslin fabric.

{menu board}

I even have bought chevron fabric without a project lined up just yet!

{fabric}

So as you can see, I can't get enough.  I would seriously decorate the whole house in chevron if my husband would let me!

I have seen a lot of chevron vases online and of course I had to have one.  But geez, they are pricey.  So naturally I decided to make one!  How hard could it be?

{Just a fair warning, if you are one of those people that needs perfection in your life, this project will drive you insane}

Let's get started!

Supplies you will need:
Vase
Masking or painters tape
Primer spray paint
2 colors spray paint

First step was to scope out my makeover patient.  I just happened to have this vase hanging around the house.  I actually love everything about this vase, but I was having problems finding flowers that looked good in it.

So I'm not a huge fan of priming.  It is the worst step of any painting project.  Why go through all the effort if you aren't going to see it right?  Well in this case it is a necessary evil.  The primer sticks better to shiny surfaces and gives it a uniform color before adding the paint.  So I sucked it up and primed the vase using a white primer.

 I really love this brand of spray paint from Home Depot.  It has a big nozzle so your finger isn't dying after 2 minutes of spraying!

So after a couple coats of the primer, I added another couple coats of white in a semi-gloss finish.  Make sure it's covered really well.

So here comes the fun step!  I knew from my last chevroning project that it's almost impossible to get the lines completely straight and even, so I didn't even attempt to do that this time.  I pretty much just eye-balled the entire taping step. Just have fun with it.  Remember all the money you are saving!

I used two strips of masking tape side by side to cover where I wanted the white stripes.  I taped off the top and bottom really well so I didn't have to worry about over spraying.  Sorry I forgot to get a picture of the vase after the taping was done, and by the time I realized it, it was a little late!

So after you are finished taping it off, it's time to paint with your accent color.  I chose teal.  Make sure to do a couple of coats so you cannot see any of the white coming through.

Let the color dry really well.  I let it dry overnight just for good measure.  Then slowly peel off the tape and wha-la!  Chevron vase!  You can add a glossy clear coat if you want more of a shiny look, but I preferred the flatter look in this case.

 

Is it perfect?  No.  There are a couple spots where the tape didn't quite seal properly so the lines are not perfect.  It gives it character though...perfect for my rustic beachy house theme! 

 

I love how it turned out.  And I love that it has character!  Anyone else in love with chevron?