My anniversary gift from Jeff

I totally forgot to share what Jeff made me for our anniversary gift this year.  We celebrated 5 years of marriage earlier in September and the traditional 5 year gift is something made from wood. 

So Jeff made this plaque for me.

 

Desk to Nightstands with Concrete Tops

I mentioned earlier this week about the nightstands Jeff made for our bedroom update.  He got a free desk from goodwill because it was in such poor condition, that even they wouldn't sell it!  I had been looking for a desk to make into nightstands ever since I saw this post by Sugar Bee Crafts last year. 



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 The one Jeff found was perfect. Of course I don't have a good before picture because Jeff was too eager to rip the old desk apart and start on the project, but I managed to have him snap a few before he made too many changes. The desk had a lot of water damage, so Jeff ended up replacing the sides of the drawers with 1/8 inch plywood.  After, he basically rebuilt the shell, he sanded and painted them white and gray.

The top of the desk was so water damaged that it also could not be used, so we thought of different options for the tops.  More plywood, marble, laminate....and then Jeff had the brilliant idea of making his own concrete tops!  He built a "mold" using a piece of plywood as the base and then left over pieces of 1x2s that he clamped together.  He realized after a couple of cracked tops, that the best concrete to use is actually mortar.  It dries incredibly fast and left no bubbles on the top.

To seal the concrete he used this stuff.

Then he adhered the tops to the base using construction grade adhesive.

 

We chose these glass knobs from Home Depot to finish them off.

And here they are in our bedroom.  Its starting to come together!

(bonus sneak peak of our new headboard!)

 

A good article on "Attachment Parenting"

I have talked previously about our decision to not let Wesley "cry it out" here and told you it was largely based on my attachment parenting style.  Attachment parenting has a bit of a bad rep and I think this article does a good job of clearing it up.  Check it out, you might be an attachment parent without ever knowing it.

Attachment Parenting Pros and Cons

Bedroom Update

Our current project is updating our bedroom.  Jeff and I have already diyed a new headboard and night stands, which I will share later this week.  But I am so excited to share my recent purchase for the room.  I was tipped off that www.rugsusa.com was having a huge sale this weekend and ended up getting the perfect rug in a 6x9 for less than 200 bucks, including shipping!  We had looked all over and I was so sad because I new a nice rug really wasnt in our budget and was getting ready to settle for something subpar.  So yay for rugsusa.com and seriously check them out.  They have everything you need. Most of their rugs are 35% off right now, but keep checking because when I bought my rug this weekend it was 50% off and people on the site were sasying things about the rugs being marked off 70%. 

Here is the picture of the rug I purchased:


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There were so many choices for me to pick from.  I wanted something bold, modern and in a navy blue.  I ended up with this rug because HGTV's Emily Henderson has the same one in her apartment (actually a more expensive version of the same design) and I love her and i decided that her living room is my inspiration for our bedroom. 

See:

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Call me a biter, I dont care.

Here are some other awesome rugs www.rugsusa.com has:



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Happy rug shopping, but seriously, if you have patience, wait for their sales!!!

and check back here for more bedroom updates!

Nukie at it again

This time he escaped. I kinda wish he went further than the front yard.

What to do with this dog!

Celebrating five years!

Jeff and I celebrated our fifth year wedding anniversary earlier this month and Jeff wisked me away to Palm Springs for a fun, relaxing, kid-free weekend.  We stayed at a swanky resort hotel, took the air tram up to the San Jacinto mountains where we got a break from the heat, and hung out in the hotel pool.  I am so lucky to have this wonderful man for a husband.  He is truly as great as I make him out to be on this blog.  He is also an amazing father which makes him an even more amazing husband.

*I made the card :) My one contribution to our weekend.

Look what Nukie did 2.1

Are you kidding me?  What kind of crazy dog does this?  It looks like our house got broken in to, but its just our pup, Nukie.  He managed to move the bookcase out from the wall, knock over a vase, and chew up the blinds.  Presumably, so he could look outside.  I have no more words.

 

 

 

 

 

Doily wrapped inviations

Here are the invitations I designed and put together for my parent's anniverary party.  I chose yellow and lace for the party because of my mother's lace wedding dress and yellow bouquet.  I thought the paper doilies added a romatic touch.  I added a sticky paper heart that I cut out of circle labels using my cricut.  And used my new letter stamps that I found at Walmart of all places for $.99 to add their initials. 

I made the invitation using PicMonkey. If you havent discovered picmonkey yet, you need to ccheck it out. Its a free online photo editing program, but you can also use it to design your own creations, by just covering your photo with a plain background.

 

I look exactly like my mother... :)

Oh Boy! Mustache Baby Shower

This summer I had the privilege of throwing my friend, Randa, a baby shower. I joined forces with her sister-in-law, Caitlyn, and friend, Rachel, and it was a great trio. The party was beautiful!

 

The beautiful mom-to-be loves to have fun, so this theme was perfect for her.  We stuck to the colors and patterns that she picked for the nursery.

 

For lunch, we served bow tie pasta, pretzel cigars with beer cheese dip, and mustache fruit skewers among other dishes.

 

 

 

The mama's gorgeous maternity photos were the perfect backdrop for our food table. 

 

 

 

Fun onsies made by using HeatnBond on left over fabric scraps were used for decoration.

 

For activities we had a onsie decorating station with fabric markers, paint, and iron on decals.  The decals were made by printing images on to iron-on transfer paper.

 

 

We played two games at the party.  For the first game,  guests guessed which parent would be most likely to...

The guest of honor choose her answers by holding up the photo of dad or mom.

  The second game was "Name that Stache" you can get the gist by from the photo below. :)

 

Mason jars with striped straws gave a nice touch of class. 

 

Grandma made outfits for the kiddos in attendance.

 

 

Favors were chocolate mustaches in chevron paper bags.

 

It was a beautiful and fun event for a beautiful and fun mama :)  Thanks to Caitlyn and Rachel for making this blog worthy.  Seriously a good idea to team up with other creative people!