Big Girl Mobile

I love to make crafts for my adorable niece. When my sister started talking about her plans for a big girl room for my niece my mind started working. I thought of the perfect big girl mobile to hang in her room.

My inspiration come from two place. First, when Courtney and I were shopping at Pottery Barn Kids we saw this beautiful mobile.

Pottery Barn Kids

And second, I found this beautiful picture on Pinterest.

Style Me Pretty

These mobiles were both perfect because they are feminine and bright with natural elements. It was also important that the mobile wasn't babyish and could be with my niece as she grew up.

I started my going for a trip to a local thrift store. I found the perfect lamp shade. I was worried that it might be too tiny, but I think that it ended up working for my project.

After I removed the fabric from the lamp shade I saw that it had lovely fabric wrapped around the top and bottom circles. I decided to keep this on my mobile.

I found a perfect flower punch for the mobile and punched out yellow and cream flowers to hang from the lamp shade.

Mr. Firefly had the great idea to hang the mobile from the tripod. This helped me as I put the flowers on the mobile. I used a needle and thread to attach the flowers to the lamp shade. I also got some glue and glued on some fake flowers to the lamp shade.

This was so easy and looks very cute. The lampshade cost $2.99, the flowers were $5.99 and I only used half of them. I was lucky to find some scrap paper for the flowers. This project couldn't have turned out better. 

Happy Crafting,

PS: Here's where we link up.

Glass Etching

Remember the bottles filled with candy at the Peep Anniversary Party? Here's how I made them.

But first, some quotes to start off the day.

 I think you know where this is going. I love glass etching. I think it is amazing and beautiful. So I went to Michael's to find what I needed. I found this.

Maybe I should have read it better, but the price was right and I was in a hurry. So off I went. The directions seemed different than what I was used to. I was amazed that it didn't say it was harmful to your skin or that you should wear gloves.
I used some old frappuccino bottles.

I love these drinks and the bottles look very cute too. Here's a little tip for getting off sticky labels. Fill up a sink to cover the bottle and pour in a good amount of fabric softener. Allow to soak for a bit and then, when you come back, the label will be much easier to take off. You'll also be able to get the sticky glue off the bottle.
Now I set to work on the "etching." It took a couple of coats to even show up and you have to wait about an hour in between each coat. It took a little while. This is the end result.

The lines are crooked. I didn't have any painting tape, so I used packing tape. That was a big mistake. It was impossible to get it straight and perfect. I don't really care for how it looks, but it did the trick for our Peep Party.

I am now on the hunt for real etching supplies. Hopefully I can find something good and Mr. Firefly will let me etch our drinking glasses. I have so many ideas!
Because this project didn't turn out I thought I'd share with you some pictures that made me happy after the fiasco.

Merlin loves to help me out. Here he is helping me testing the lighting in the light box. Sometimes I take a while and he just falls asleep. I don't mind because he's just so cute!

Happy Crafting,
Kristin

PS: I linked up here.

A little rec-room TLC

While I don't have my own house to renovate just yet, I do like to dream up projects for my parent's house. Lately my mom and I have been talking about what could be done for their rec-room in the basement. They've already done some work to it, mainly taking out the wet bar that the old owners had there and putting the washer and dryer in its place. But it has been sitting untouched for a while now, so I thought I'd come up with some ideas.

Here is what the room looks like now:

And here is a little handmade room layout so you can see how the room is really set up.

Two big projects my mom has in mind are first enclosing off the laundry area with a wall and a pocket door, and second to get a new ceiling installed. I also want to hopefully soon paint the brick on the fireplace white.

I also came up with this little inspiration board on Polyvore. I'm thinking a light grey colour on the wall would be nice, as well as a big dark sectional couch where the whole family can pile on to watch movies. Across the back wall where the desk is I can see a lot of white/cream bookcases where my parents can store all of their books and accessories. I also included a large piece of colourful art to make a punch as well as a statement chair (not necessarily that fabric or colour). And finally I thought I nice cream carpet with a little bit of a pattern would be nice as well as a metal and wood coffee table to go in the centre of the room.

I know my parents, besides closing off the laundry area and working on the ceiling, want to fix up above the fireplace so that they can hang a TV above it which would be a nice focal spot in the room.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for my mom on how to bring some more light and colour to this room, without totally breaking the bank?

Happy Decorating,

Courtney

I linked this post up here:

Peep Anniversary Party: Part 2

As promised here is the rest of our peep party. Feel free to turn on Shaggy's Angel again to set the mood. It really is a fun song. We listened to it a couple of times throughout the day.

Here's a nice look at our table. If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here. There I showed you our peep garland, the beautiful cake, our lovely cookies, and the candy jars.

Of course, no peep party is complete with a lot of peeps. Who knew they were so photogenic.

Now for a part that I've very proud of; the egg candles. This wasn't an Easter party, but the eggs went with our colour scheme and the discount candy we had on the table.

These were so much fun to make. Even Mr. Firefly had to come and take part. I used eggs that I was already using for baking. I carefully tapped on the top of the eggs and just took off a little to get the egg out. Then I rinsed them out so there would be no egg left in the shells.
I didn't have any vinegar so I used lemon juice, water, and food colouring. I really thought it was neat how the purple turned out a little specked because I mixed red and blue.

I found some old candles, took out their wicks, and melted them down. The wicks were the perfect height to fit in the egg shells.

I poured in the wax and I had egg shell candles. If I were to do it again I would buy my own wicks. They sort of toppled over when I poured in the wax and weren't centered anymore. When we lit them the shells started to burn and smell like rotten egg. But they were very pretty unlit.

Last week I had mentioned that I made some hair bows for my niece. These were in a basket with some bunnies I made from here. She loves to have stuff off the grown-up table, so this way she could have something from the table.

I hope you loved our peep party! I had a lot of fun planning for it and the party was a success. Of course it helped that my niece started walking! We had a lot of fun trying to get her to walk to each of us.

Next weekend we are celebrating our grandparents' 12.5th wedding anniversary. In Dutch tradition this is a big anniversary because it is half of 25. It is so inspiring to have so many people in my life with strong marriages. I love to be able to celebrate with my family.

Happy Crafting,
Kristin

Just wanted to let you know that we will be participating in a Trading Blogs Party! There is still time to sign up so head over to Serendipity and Spice.

PS: I linked up here