Baby Nursery Wall Letters

Right now I have close to 20 friends that are pregnant right now...I know, that's a LOT! Talk about a baby boom. In my Sunday school class everyone is also pregnant except for me and the girl who is engaged. The church calls our class "the Breeders" because we are repopulating the church! HA! I know, so when one of those super sweet, and super preggo friends of mine asked if I would help her with a project for the nursery I was SO excited!!

Karen is expecting a baby girl in like....1 day! I'm not kidding, the latest update sounds like her little bundle of joy will be here either tomorrow or Friday {I'm hoping Friday so we'll have the same birthday}. The project at hand was for wall letters to spell out her name above the crib in the nursery. So, what do you do first ladies? SHOP! Yes, we met each other at Michael's after work one day and shopped for the paint, letters and ribbon. With some of the letters missing we had a minor panic but were saved by her sweet sister who visited another Michael's the next day and found them all. Can we say, super sister? Yes!

I was so excited to get started on the letters that I forgot to take a before photo, forgive me. But the letters were just painted plain old white....but we wanted a yummy chocolate brown. So, I started spray painting away. And then, there was another minor disaster that I might have thrown a little tantrum over. This happened to the letters:

Eek! The horror! The paint pooled in some places and ran right off in others. And as you can tell it just went plain old funky in some other places! Of all the things I have spray painted this has never happened to me.

So, I went back to Michael's and bought sandpaper, acrylic brown paint and got out my paintbrushes for a redo. I prayed really hard that it wouldn't be screwed up.

And I'm pleased to say after the sanding and re-painting that round two looked nice and clean like this:

Now it's time for the fun stuff...decorating with polka dots and ribbon!!

I dotted them all in varying sizes with the opposite end of a large paintbrush. After I used the white paint as a primer I went back over every dot with a pearl finish so it would shimmer in the light....very girlie.

The ribbon is a pretty pale pink with tiny white polka dots as well {we've got a theme, can you tell?}. As you can see I broke out the trusty hot glue gun {it works on everything} and once I measured all the ribbons so they would roughly be the same length I hot-glued them to the back of the letter and made a bow at the top. We chose a wired ribbon which turned out to be really handy in re-fluffing {so not a word, but it works here} the bows after tying them. 

After all of that was completed there was only one thing left to do before I delivered them...a photo-shoot on the kitchen floor! Also, have I driven you nuts by not telling you the baby's name? Here it is:

And I don't know what was up with Phoenix but he must have thought he was Julianne or something because he just wanted to sit next to those letters the whole time I was doing this!

So, that was it! The pictures changed from day to night in here, sorry for that but I had to allow time for the layers of paint to dry. It was such a fun project to do for such sweet and generous friends of ours.

Brad and Karen, it was so much fun for me to help decorate your baby girl's nursery, thank you, it was an honor. Julianne will be here before you know it and big brother Jaxson will be such a great help to you. Daniel and I love you both!

Today I...

- Had the best day at work that I've had all year long.
- Dropped off a project {that I'll feature on here} to a sweet friend.
- Had a nice lunch with some really nice ladies I got to know better.
- Kissed my little dog a whole lot {he's curled up next to me sleeping on my pillow right now}.
- Daydreamed about my upcoming trip to Savannah.
- Laughed and smiled a lot....and cried just once.
- Went to a new woman's bible study, "Stepping Up" by Beth Moore and I'm really excited about it and how God is going to grow me through it in the coming weeks.
- Went grocery shopping at Harris Teeter with all my coupons for Super Doubles week and saved over $86!
- Snuggled with my Mister on the couch and had a nice evening together.
- Enjoyed the warm air and thought a lot about easy summer days and warm summer nights and particularly about some of those spent on Topsail Island.

What did you do today?

Happy Valentine's Day-All the Single Ladies!!

Hello, Lovelies! Happy Valentines Day to each and every one of you! Mine has been splendid thus far. I woke up the Mister with breakfast in bed, gave him his love letter made by moi, and have returned home to a sweet letter for me and a lovely gift that was very thoughtful. It has been a swell day. 

Although, now I play for the married team on this day, I totally have full empathy on all my single friends out there. I remember aching over this day as a great big stamp of my singleness-in case I wasn't already aware. So, just to let all my single ladies know just how much they are loved and cared for I made love letters for them this year as well and wanted to share them with y'all.  

All the single ladies, all the single ladies!!!

FYI, I just drew the designs with my favorite pens ever: Pilot G-2 10mm. The envelopes were done with a silver metallic Sharpie marker and the gorgeous card-stock and envelopes were from one of my favorite whimsical little stores, Swoozie's.

I'm really tickled at how these little beauties turned out but I wish I could have spent more time on them. They were done at like, 10:00 at night before bed one night. You know how it is, once you complete a project you always think of every way you would or could do it differently. Ugh, sometimes it's so self-defeating to be an artist...ha ha ha, just kidding people! 

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's night and that my sweet friends get their cards today! And honestly, if I were single, I would do EVERYTHING that I wanted to do tonight, such as:

-no cleaning

-no cooking-take out at home or order some delicious and expensive meal for me or some friends too.

-get a mani/pedi

-rent all those movies I've been wanting to see

-read all those magazines that have been piling up

-buy myself beautiful flowers and a present for me, just because I wanna!

And that is just the beginning of my list! Love y'all!

 

Big Plans!

Well, I mentioned on here for my February goals that my birthday is this month! I have been getting less and less excitable over my birthday the last few years and not because I'm depressed about aging or anything, it's just not the same as when you were a kid. It tends to be just another day that you have to wake up, go to work, do the dishes, yada, yada, yada, with a birthday cake or dinner thrown into the mix. No biggie, that's just life, most people don't throw huge birthday parties for themselves every year as an adult unless you are one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills {not-that-I-watch-every-single-episode-including-the-two-reunions-and-the-two-upcoming-lost-footage-specials-starting-Tuesday-night or anything}.

But I digress. This year, however, is exciting, because I will be 25 years old on the 25th of February!! Ever since I was little I always thought that would be my coolest birthday ever. I used to wonder where I would be and who would I be when I was turning 25? Married? Children? Dolphin trainer at Sea World? Some of those have panned out, some will, and sorry Flipper, it's not you, it's me. 

With all that said, I always knew I wanted to have a party for that birthday. Well, after giving my husband reminders of this infamous party he was going to have to throw for the past 6 years my tune kind of changed this year. We have so many friends scattered far and wide and I knew it would be complicated for him to find places for all of those people to stay so I just told him that we could either have a party or we could do something just us, but still special. My sweet husband loves his time alone with me {we have a weekly date night that we don't miss} so he opted out of the party. 

It started out with him letting me know I would be going away with him on a trip for 3 days and to not book anything on those particular days. But where was I going?! He wouldn't tell me, for weeks! Oh, but he teased me. Finally, after my excellent skills of coercion-I should have been a lawyer-he told me. He's taking me somewhere I've always wanted to go. I am going on a surprise trip to Savannah, Georgia!!!

We will take turns about Forsyth Park {seen above}, tour the historic district, walk the streets filled with gorgeous southern, historic architecture and eat really good food! I cannot wait to see all the homes and streets covered with that sleepy, romantic Spanish Moss.

And I cannot tell you how happy I am that I get to go to The Lady and Sons restaurant-a Savannah landmark now.

I probably won't bump into her there, but I will be stalking keeping an eye out for Paula Deen all over Savannah! It sure would make my whole birthday if I got to meet this sweet, sassy, southern lady that I love.

So, I do not write this whole post to boast about my trip, but to ask for suggestions. Daniel nor I have ever been to Savannah and while he has a few things planned that he won't tell me about-yet-I was wondering if any of you my lovely readers have any suggestions? Hole in the wall restaurants, activities, shopping, hidden nooks in town somewhere, a place for a romantic stroll after dinner, anything! So please, if you do, leave it in the comments and I will be eternally grateful. 


Now, I'm off to make some potato skins for our Sunday school class' Superbowl party.

February Goals-The Love Month

Happy February!! It's the month of LOOOVVEEE! February is also my birthday month {I'll be 25 on the 25th this year by the way....it's a big deal, just sayin'.}. January began well and then was a whirlwind the last half which is why I was essentially non-existent on here. I'll try to do a better job this month.

As always, the first day of a new month I always post my monthly goals. Sometimes they get accomplished and sometimes they don't. But I don't beat myself up over it, there are enough days that we feel like a failure at one thing or another and I'm not about to add more pressure to myself. These goals simply keep me focus, give me a guide as to what I'm aiming for that month and are here to reference anytime I feel myself becoming unproductive.

If you don't make goals for yourself I know one we can ALL do this month. Tell the people that you love exactly how much you love them on Valentine's Day! Start thinking of really sweet ways right now that you could surprise someone with a kind card or letter, maybe you want to bake something or buy them a fabulous gift? Whatever it is, we all have somebody to love and we all have something to give. So, since I started your goals for you this month {you can thank me later....or with a Starbucks gift card} go ahead and finish them then leave a comment saying you made a post about it. Onto the goals.......

{February Goals}

Replicate a home accessory from Pottery Barn and post on it.

Finish my book that I didn't finish last month ;)

Continue to motivate myself to work out on these cold days at least 3 days a week.

Finalize a cleaning routine and then do it!

Plan a sweet DIY Valentine's card for my sweet single girlfriends.

Attend the Art of Marriage-our church's marriage weekend.

Celebrate my 25th birthday on February 25th in gorgeous Savannah, GA!!!!! 

Practice guitar more than ever to help out with worship-at least 45 minutes a day.

Read ebook on making slipcovers and at least gather a plan how to make my own.

Plan something really sweet for my Mister for Valentine's Day!

Pick out a book for Daniel and I to read together.

Well, that's all folks!