From Headboard to Bench by Our Love and Our Blessing.

It's Monday! Which means it's time for the...

Not Your Ordinary Show & Tell Link Party

I love this link-up party.  I can go there and see so many amazing creations from fellow bloggers!  Last week, I linked up my headboard.  

And who'd a thought that yours truly would be chosen as their favorite?!?!  Eeekk!  I'm beyond thrilled that I was chosen!!  

From the creator of this link up party, Melissa @ The Life of A Not So Ordinary Wife:

"I look forward to every Monday because I get to see all your beautiful crafts, diys, recipes, posts and so many other fun things! Each week week it gets harder and harder to pick a feature from the previous week. So as I am sitting there trying to pick one I look at my husband and I'm like YOU pick this week! 

My husband and I's FAVORITE link up from the last week was...

From Headboard to Bench by Our Love and Our Blessing.

Jen and her husband did an AMAZING job, seriously as soon as my husband saw it he was so impressed and immediately picked it as his favorite! HA, he wanted to go out and buy a headboard so he could make one. And then after we pick this, I look in my email and remember that Jen is the co-host for this week! haha..."

The rules for linking up to this party are SIMPLE:

1. Follow your hosts

Host:

Melissa @ The Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife

Co-Hosts: 

Jen from Our Love and Our Blessing

2. Link up ANY blog post that you would like to Show & Tell. From crafts, diy projects, recipes, ANYTHING! 

3. Have Fun and Visit some of the other Link Ups :)

You can also grab a lovely button and help us spread the word!

&<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">lt</span>;a <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">href</span>="http://www.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">thelifeofanotsoordinarywife</span>.com/search/label/Show%20and%20Tell"> &<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">lt</span>;<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">img</span> <span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">src</span>="http://i193.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">photobucket</span>.com/albums/z237/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">melissaenault</span>/<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">linkpartybutton</span>.<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">gif</span>" height=180 width=180 border="0" />&<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: yellow; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">lt</span>;/a>

If you are interested in co-hosting, email Melissa at melissaenault@yahoo.com! 

Let's Make Art....Edible Art

Pinterst Oh Pinterest....you are too cool for words.  Really you are.  Here's another pinterest idea.....

I've been wanting to do this for some time but wasn't quite sure if Boston was ready for it.  So we waited....until just recently, like last week.  I decided to just do it.  

I searched Pinterest for edible paint and got a ton of recipes.  The one I chose seemed to be on the more "tasty" side in case B decided he wanted to eat the "paint."  

Ingredients: 

I wanted to do something a little different.  Plus, I knew I wanted to keep his first piece of art for ever.  So I chose to use a 12x12 canvas so that we could hang his master-piece when he was done.  (keeping my fingers crossed it would turn out decent looking)  :) 

So I came up with this. *the scripture is totally off centered, but what the hay!*   

Using painters tape to make a cross and using alphabet stickers from wal-mart will allow it to not be painted on so that when we peel it off, you'll be able to see them throughout all of the colors.  We chose this scripture for him because it's so so true.  We also put this scripture on his memory box.  

The supplies, paint, Jet and Boston are all ready!

I think I was more excited than B.

He did so good!

The obligatory picture with mom.  Ha.  I think I was messing up his concentration.  "This is serious business, there's no time for pictures right now, mom!"

So while, I was helping B and Jer was taking pictures (luckily he got to join in on the fun since he was working from home that day).....Jet was over there having himself a snack.  Ha.

We caught you, dude.  Your blue lips can't deny it.

The paint was a little on the "watery" side, but it still did the trick.  (next time I'll probably add a little flower to the mixture)

Because it was so watery, it got us, B and everything else around wet with color since B kept slinging his paint brush around half the time (we have a video posted on vimeo).  :)

And now for the masterpiece.....  

We love it and can't wait to put it in his room.

I let it dry outside for a whole day before tearing off the tape.

His first painting was a success!

Much to our surprise, Boston wasn't into eating the paint as much as Jet was.  Silly boy.

Happy Friday!!!

Linking up with Blog Hop!

Let's Do Circles

Remember this picture from this post?
Well, let's talk about those pillows with the circles a.k.a. polka dots to other people.  As I was browsing through the ba-gillion fabrics on fabrics.com, this circled bright aqua fabric caught my eye.  I had to have it.  So I bought it.  2 yards of it. 

I knew it would be perfect for pillows.  My living room pillows to be exact.  And I knew I could make them myself.  Or at least try to make them.  :)  The old living room pillows were too brown for me and I was over them.  We needed something more bold and bright.  Since I had already made a pillow case out of some solid aqua fabric, I knew that the brown pillow cases could be unzipped and I could use them as my insers; which made things much easier and cheaper!

Since I had left over aqua fabric, I used the rest as the backer to my pillow case.  Using the brown pillow cases as my template, I cut my fabric into squares leaving 2 extra inches all the way around. I laid the circled fabric down with the good side up then laid the solid aqua fabric on top of it.  

After I cut the aqua fabric into a square, I cut about 10 inches off the top and added a longer piece of (this would be the longer piece that will overlap the original bottom piece) fabric.  Leaving me with two pieces overlapping.  Then I hemmed the edge of one of the pieces since it would be the one on the outside (the overlapping one). 

I then made my marks about an inch from the edge (all the way around) so that I knew where my hem line needed to be and pinned the two fabrics together.   

Once all sides were hemmed, it was time to turn the pillow case inside out and stuff it with a pillow.  Since I had left over circled fabric I made two pillows.  I love them.  They have made such a difference to our lving room.  Plus, they are so big and comfy and they go great with the $9 Wal-Mart pillow I picked up a few months back.  :-) 

xoxo

~Jeni

Invitations: Part 2

So, it's been over a month and a half since Boston's 1st birthday party and I still haven't shared the rest of my invitation making.  You can read about the packaging of the invitations here.

Around the beginning of August I started designing and buying my material I needed to use to make his invitations.  I knew that I wanted to make them so that they were made with extra "love."  :)  And I knew I wanted something different!  I searched the web and found several invitations that I liked and decided to combine what I liked about them all and created my own concoction.  This is what it looked like when you opened the box.

Boston's 1st Birthday!

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the actual "invitation making" part but basically I used a huge piece of red shimmery card stock for the outside which I got from Paper Planet in Fort Worth...LOVE this place. Every time I go in there it makes me want to make all kinds of stuff. Just for fun. You know, in my spare time.  I'm weird like that. I also got my turqouise envelopes for my RSVP cards from paper planet. I got lucky since they ended up being the exact same size as the pocket that's holding the rsvp and the fun facts cards.

When you opened up the invitation here's what it looked like inside:

The elephant was one of my favorite parts of the invitation.  I loved it so much I included it on other decor for his party.  

(and yes, I made a grammar mistake on the invitation that Jer noticed after they were all done and in their boxes!  can you guess what the mistake is?)  :-)

In the pockets are the RSVP's and the Fun Facts About Boston.

I knew that I wanted a more...I guess you could say, "formal" rsvp. So I made the rsvp's using MS Word. In fact, I made everything using MS Word. I love Word, it's so simple. Then I had seen an invitation (can not remember for the life of me where and unfortunately it was before I joined Pinterest) that had a fun facts page in it. I thought that was the cutest idea for people who don't get to see Boston often and don't know fun facts about him. :)

the return envelope was addressed to Boston Cook. :)

the back of the envelope had Boston's address as well

Boston's Fun Facts

Despite it being A LOT of work, I had an absolute blast making these invitations for our main guy's birthday party.  Can't wait till his next party! 

Since it's a busy week for me due to Thanksgiving, check back next week for all things "Party."  Yup - I'll be blogging about all of the in's and out's of Boston's 1st Birthday Party!  :-)

~Jeni

Halloween 2011 Part 1: baby zebra and painted pumpkins

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Last year Jer carved a pumpkin in the shape of a B for our new little B-man (he was about 3 weeks old).  This year, since we didn't have time to carve 3 pumpkins today, I decided that we would paint them!  I got my idea from none other than Young House Love.  :)  Gotta love that family!

But first we started our day off with a trip to the grocery store...with our zebra in tow.  He actually wore his headpiece the whole time.  He must really love being a zebra.

 First, I used some painter's tape to act as my "templates."

Then I drew the face, dots and B on the tape.  B for Boston, polka dots for my pumpkin and a face for Jer's.

I printed out a B on the computer and used that as my template to draw onto my pumpkin.  There was no way I was going to attempt to free hand a B.  It wouldn't look pretty.

The teeth on the face look a little strange.  Once I drew them on, I decided that they needed to be a little shifted, but I knew exactly where I needed to cut.  :)

Once my drawings were just right, I took my exacto knife and cut around the lines which left the painter's tape exactly where I didn't want my paint.  I always have several (as in about 30) cans of paint stored in our garage so I rummaged through to find the paint colors I wanted.  Jer's favorite color is blue so we used a royal blue for his, B's new rocking chair is aqua so I decided to use that color (plus, I love that color a lot!) and I used white on mine since there was really no other color I thought would go with the blues.

After I painted them, I didn't let them dry (if you let them dry then you risk the chance of paint being torn off when tearing off your tape) before I tore off my painter's tape.  And....

WHALLA....you have painted pumpkins!!

I love them!  The circles aren't perfect but you get the point.  :-)  It was a super quick and easy way to jazz up your pumpkins without having to make a mess while carving them.  Plus, we didn't have the time so this was the next best thing!

We can't wait to hand out our candy tonight to the gazillion kiddos that come through our neighborhood!  Boston will be dressed up in his second halloween costume!  Very excited.

~Jeni