Decorating the nursery

I whipped up this little flag bunting while my husband was on his latest trip. I don't know why I always end up crafting or painting a room while he is gone, I should sleep extra instead! The nursery was first decorated 5 years ago, I liked it then... I never got around to personalising it for either kid. I guess I found it was time. I was over the "little bear" decor. I love the cheeriness this adds to the room. I feel like this is a more updated "name on the wall" project than the wooden letters seen everywhere.

Scrap fabric and blanket binding made this project come together easily in one evening. The one issue I had was my poor, not sharp hand-me-down pinking shears.

Things I like

I thought I would share my recent love for these silicon Wilton muffin cups. I received these for Christmas several years ago, and frankly I didn't use them. I broke them out last year when I had extra muffin mix and already had filled my one muffin pan. I used these stand alone on a cookie sheet and they worked perfectly. I have started using them regularly as liners in my muffin pan. They are so easy, I spray them with a little cooking spray, and the muffins fall right out. They clean up in the dishwasher or with a little Dawn. They are also fun to fill with snacks for the kiddos, think bento box fun. And they are green!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday

On Oct 8th you can Read for the Record. Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar to help set a world record. Did you know The VHC is celebrating it's 40 birthday all year long. We helped our little fan with her third birthday in theme as well.
The invites were made by us. Ink and thumbprints made the caterpillar. We put a hole punch through the cake, and had the detail info on the back, along with a sticker of a butterfly.

The cake

Yum, it was inspired by this one.


A craft, we had all the kids participate. Eric Carle actually used collage to create the artwork in the VHC. We took a spin on that idea. We provided paper plates, glue and lots of cut up tissue paper for each kiddo to make a body segment for the caterpillar. I made the face. We also made caterpillars into butterfly's. Coffee filter, clothes pin butterflies. I had prepped the clothes pins with googly eyes and antenna, my husband hid them in the grass. The kiddos had to search for a clothes pin caterpillar. They then brought it to the table to get a coffee filter and decorated the wings with markers. We attached magnets to the back of the clothes pin so it could be displayed on the fridge. We also read the book! We happen to own three versions, two board books, big and small and a wonderful pop-up (which we read). I also checked out two puppets from our local library, one a caterpiller and one a butterfly. Don't forget your librarians, they are wonderful resources.

I am finally on the spray paint bandwagon

Walmart spray paint $0.89 where have you been all my life? After replacing our front door, I decided to keep sprucing. Why it never occured to me to just clean the glass in the light fixtures four years ago when we moved in I will never know!
You can see our front door and mailbox(tucked behind the overgrown shrub) in this picture, the day we bought the house

The light here, we have four, two on either side of the door, and two on either side of the garage.

Spray painted matte black

Mailbox wanted in on the action too

Fabric covered knob pulls

When creating a big girl room for our daughter, I picked up a dresser and vanity from craigslist. I painted them bright white, the existing hardware was not the whimsical, fun look I was looking for. I searched high and low for fun pulls, but eek, I was not about to pay $9/knob for hand painted flower knobs! I needed 13 total.

This idea came to me, and it is so easy

Items needed:

Mod Podge

Fabric of choice, I chose a small pattern that I didn't have to worry about centering (1/8 yard was enough for 13)

Rubber band

Unfinished wood hardware (I found mine at Walmart, a pack of 8 was a little over $8.00)

Coat your knob with Mod Podge




Take your fabric, I cut mine 3.5" square, and place on the knob.

Wrap the fabric around the knob, smoothing as you go, and gathering around the base.

Coat with Mod Podge again, over top the fabric

Secure with the fabric with a rubber band around the base. It will get sticky with the Mod Podge. After it dries you can cut or remove the rubber band. Trim the fabric at the base of the knob. I coated my knobs a second time to make them shiny and durable.

Attach the knob, and you're finished!

A peek inside the dresser

I did this a while back, but thought it was share worthy. When my daughter moved into her room, I grabbed the furniture from craigslist. I painted it white added some fun pulls (more on that to come), and decided to line it. Since the dresser and vanity were used I wanted to line the drawers, I think it warranted something a little more substantial and fun than contact paper. Scented paper was a little spendy and not readily available in my town. I ended up using fabric.

This fabric was found in the sale section at JoAnn's I think it was $2/yd, I grabbed two yards for four drawers. This is also a cotton with a little stretch to it, but I don't think that is necessary.

I took a large piece of cardboard, placed the drawer on top of the cardboard and traced around the drawer. Use an exacto knife to cut out your cardboard, you can keep to the inside of the line traced as you want it to fit inside your drawer.

Cover the cardboard in glue (I used plain crafters glue, but I think this would be a great place to use spray glue). Place the cardboard on top of your fabric. Cut the fabric to size leaving enough to fold over the edges.

Fold over the edges, nothing fancy as you can see here. I was pretending I was upholstering a seat, so I would keep the top side nice looking.


Once your fabric is glued on, insert it into the drawer. It should fit snugly. Here is the top drawer with all of those lovely hair accessories!

Vacuum review, Part 2

This is what I have determined so far

Pro

-Hepa filter

-Lots of suction

-Loved the attachment for upholstery, picked up hair off of the furniture really well

-Loved the attachment for doing crevices

-Bagless

-Long cord

-Comes in colors :)

-Quiet, oh so quiet

Cons

-$$$

-Doesn't get up to the edge of the wall or furniture

-Using the attachments was difficult, it seems like there is almost to much suction, it is hard to keep the attachment hose stretched because it is being sucked in.

-I have to use the attachments on the stairs, my bissel is small enough I can vacuum the stairs

-Head of the vacuum is to tall to fit under much of my furniture, my bissel could scoot under furniture and cabinets

Vacuum review, Part 1

I need/want a new vacuum. I have a Lab who sheds (we love him) , and a busy family that goes in and out although we always take off our shoes. I am not strict with eating snacks in the living room and our dining room is also carpeted, so I do need to vacuum daily.
*this post might get a little gross for you, hopefully I won't scare anyone into not coming over anymore!
I am currently using a 6 year old Bissel Clean View. I have been super pleased with its performance until recently. It is beyond loud, it hasn't always been, but something has changed in the last half year. I hide the kids upstairs if I am vacuuming downstairs. Once I put them in the car in the attached garage, all doors shut and it still woke up my newborn! Lately it also seems that it does its fair share of pushing the dog hair around instead of picking it up.

First order of buisness:
I want to know if the Dyson is worth the price, or could I just upgrade my Bissel to the new model or even go to the Bissel Animal model. (most everything I have read about animal versions of vacuums is it is the basic vacuum with a special attachment)

I have borrowed a friends Dyson to play with for a while...

Dyson DC07 Pink; Day 1, after cleaning the whole house minus the guest room

Dyson DC07 Pink; Day 3, cleaning just the living room

-Lots of Dog hair/lots of dust. I think I will unpack my pro/con list in a later post.