The Bunk Beds!!!

This week I thought I would post a little something on a project my husband did (but I picked out!) and a little something about him! We have been doing musical furniture around here in preparation for the new little one. I knew we had to free up the crib (which Sienna was using as a toddler bed) so that the new little guy would have a place to sleep. The girls share a room, so we decided make them bunk beds. I found a design that I liked on Ana White's website. She has a bunch of easy DIY furniture, most of which I really like! My husband informed me that he had to tweek the plans quite a bit, so if anyone wants to try it be prepared for reviewing the measurements.

I love how the beds came out. After much dileberation, we decided to paint them white for the room. This part we paid to have done with a higher quality paint and had it sprayed on. No use in ruining the bed now! Since this was my husband's project there sadly are no in process pics :( I know, so sad. I thought I would show you some of the pieces of the bed and then it put together in the girls room!


These are the headboard and footboard for the full and twin ready to be put together.

This is the ladder painted!
This is the bed in the girls room ready to be used ( I actually have fallen asleep in it quite a bit already :)

The whole bed in the room. I love it and am super thankful for my husband doing this! It is a beefy bed!

I also thought I would show you my quick fix to my daughter's craft pile. My older daughter loves to do crafts ( I wonder why ;) and I love her doing them! The only problem is that she has been rather incessant on keeping all of her creations in piles on the dresser. I knew we were changing the room so this was one thing I wanted to incorporate into the new set up. So, we created a craft line. I just took 2 wooden toppers (found at Lowe's) and screwed them into the wall with a piece of wire in between them. I then had my daughter pick her favorite ones to display with clothespins and , viola, a much cleaner art area (and a happier mommy!)



I love all these and the best part is that she can rotate all her art as she makes more!

Ok, so this is a long post, but I wanted also to congratulate my husband on finishing his Master's Degree in Geosciences with an emphasis in Hydrogeology. He not only finished, but graduated with honors!!! I am proud of him sticking to it through 3.5 years if school, 3 kids, owning his own business, serving with our church and being a husband/father! I am super glad he is done and look forward to more adventures with him! Congrats!

Doesn't he look professorial!
After the graduation ceremony (Josiah is 6 days old!)

The best picture we could get of our family, at least they are all kinda looking at the camera, ha!

Car Seat Recovering!

I knew that I would have some crafting down weeks with the new little one's arrival, so I had saved up some of my baby projects to highlight when Josiah had arrived! One of the things that I saw on blogs, as well as on Etsy, was a custom made car seat cover. We have one more good year out of our infant carrier, so I thought the fabric could use some sprucing up. When I found out we were having a boy I found some Michael Miller fabric that I loved and thought that it would be great for the car seat. I didn't take any before pictures of the car seat, but here is one with Brooklynn in it!

The first thing that I did was take off all the bias tape on the original cover. It was not a quick process (but I was able to watch a couple movies while I did it!) This was the scarriest part because I knew I was all in and had to finish it! I know there are many different car seats out there. Mine is a Baby Trend and this is how I did it.

I first made a pattern for my large seat portion adding 1/2 inch seam allowances.

I then pinned it to my fabric and cut it out.


I did the same thing for my headrest piece as well as the buckle cover. Once all the pieces were cut out I sewed the pieces right on top of the original. I also made sew lines right over the original ones using the back as a guide. Once I had the pieces put together, I had a lot of bias tape to put on!!! Now, I was running out of time, afraid baby was going to get here before the car seat was done, so a dear friend offered to do the bias tape and the button holes (where the straps go through) for me. I was SO thankful and this is how my beauty turned out.

I did the canopy later, and was happy with how it turned out. It also was layered on top of the existing fabric and sewn together.


Look at all that bias tape!!!

I love this fabric and am super happy with how it turned out! Until later!

He has Arrived!!!

Last week I was hoping that I could post the birth of our son. We are blessed enough to welcome into this world Josiah Thaddeus Davids! He was born Saturday, May 14 at 10:07 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and is 20 inches long. I was so thankful that our doctor was able to deliver and that my sister was able to make it up for the birth!

My sister's birthday is May 13th, so we celebrated the night before by going out to dinner and had cake and ice cream. The next morning my water broke at 8 am, so Jeff promptly shaved his beard (of which I will chronicle later) and we started walking. I was not going into labor, but knew since my water had broke I knew we should see what would bee the next step. We went to the hospital and started having hard labor at 6 and he entered the world at 10! Not too bad!

The name Josiah means "the Lord saves" and King Josiah in the Bible ruled well in Israel for 31 years and brought the nation back to the Lord. The meaning of Thaddeus is a bit unknown, but some sources say it means "God's Gift" of which he is! Thaddeus is also a family name of Jeff's Great x 5 Grandfather. If you want to check out his namesake check out this link. We pray that he would grow into a man that would be used of God and be a man of integrity!

Etching!!!

So, I have tried my hand at glass etching. I have been wanting to do this for a while. Being the cheapskate that I am, I could not bear to spend $30 at Michaels for a 10 oz. bottle of cream or wait for the $16 one online to come. I finally found a coupon for Michaels and bought the cream! Yeah! So, I entered the land of etching cream with a bit of a love/hate relationship. I have learned a lot and hope to share some of those things!

First, I found these jars at Ross for $1.99. I love them, but definietly saw some potential for personalizing!

I then got my trusty Armour Etch and foam brush out. I read up about the cream online and it looks like it can be pretty nasty stuff, so I did not touch it.

I made my design on the Silhouette software and put my design through the machine on vinyl.

I adhered the vinyl to the canisters. Just an FYI, but whatever letters or objects are exposed will be etched!

I then globbed the cream onto the canisters. This is the part that was tricky for me. These are the second ones that I have done and I was not happy with the first (hence why they are not being showcased on the blog!). I would recommend putting enough cream over the stencil so that you cannot see the stencil through the cream. I did not put enough on the first time and it did not turn out well. I also chose to wait a bit longer than the recommended time so that the etching had time to process. Also, don't put on too much cream so it runs down the sides of the jars onto the sides of the glass (caught that one just in time :) After waiting the allotted time I rinsed the cream off under warm tap water and pulled the vinyl off and viola!


Again, I apologize for my poor photography skills, but thought these turned out nicely. They were quick, easy and could easily be personalized! I think my next etching will be a vase! Since I am about a week away from my due date, I hope my next post will be about a new little man in our household, but we will have to wait and see :) Thanks!

Weddings!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of having my mom, dad, sister, cousins and grandma come up to visit. All the ladies attended a shower for my future sister-in-law, Katie Rystrom! My brother and her are tying the knot on August 13th of this year and we could not be more thrilled. So, of course I had an idea in mind of what I wanted to make her! I have been waiting for a while to make this and had my brother send me some photos to try to be a bit sneaky!

I took the idea from the Shanty2Chic blog that I had mentioned earlier. They had made photo blocks and I thought this would be very fun for a wedding gift. I had already made the blocks according to the Shanty website and just had to cut out my vinyl.

I first cut out the pieces I wanted on my Silhouette from the vinyl. If you do not have the ablility to do this, there are TONS of pre-made vinyl that you can purchase at many stores (Michaels, Target, Joann to name a few) and then adhere to the blocks. I would just recommend buying the vinyl first so you know how big to make the blocks.

I then adhered my vinyl to the blocks that I had made. I followed the directions from the Shanty2Chic site for the photos. I adhered them with a spray adhesive and then put a layer of modpodge over them to dull the look of the pictures. I liked how they turned out and am definitely going to be using these for other gifts!


Also, I thought I would show you the door hanger that I made for the playhouse! As I said earlier, everything in time might be labeled! Yikes!


Our first attempt at a picture of the sign...

Our second attempt at a picture with the sign...

Only a picture with the sign! Brooklynn loves it and I am glad to have it done!