I Love Young House Love

On Saturday, my mom and I got to meet some of the most famous bloggers in the land: John and Sherry Petersik of Young House Love.  They were as sweet and cute as they seem online, and they signed their awesome new book for us.  I haven't had a chance to really dig in to the book yet, but I'm sure it's full of fun ideas, just like their house.  I just love reading about their sweet family having so much fun working on their house.  (I almost wrote "loving their house" - I guess their blog title has me convinced.)  Here's a pic of us all (boo to the blur) - I wore my favorite earrings (that Sherry also wears all the time), hoping she would have them on too, but she didn't wear them that day. 

Some projects from their blog that inspire me to get to work:



Paint the back of Built-ins.

Stencil a wall.

Paint my front door.

Line my dresser drawers.

Met any famous people lately?  I get really geeked out and do not act like myself when it happens, but I love it!

Snail Mail Your Email

We've professed our love for snail mail many, many times here, and it looks like there are some folks who took that love to a new level.  I just learned about an awesome project called "Snail Mail My Email."  Here's a quick description from the site:

"Snail Mail My Email is a worldwide collaborative art project where volunteers handwrite and artistically interpret strangers' emails and send these physical letters to the intended recipients, completely free of charge.

In 2011, 234 volunteers collectively sent 10,457 letters to over 70 countries, the content of which inspired 'Snail Mail My Email' - the book.

This project aims to reignite the lost art of letter writing, reminding us of the power of personal connection in a digital world."

Through Sunday, you can email your letter and the address of where you'd like it to go, and someone will send it, via snail mail, for free!  I just emailed mine to Nora, I think this project is so awesome.  If you visit the link, you can also see some examples of what has been sent, so fun.  I wish I'd thought of this!

Baby Boy, You Stay On My Mind

Over the weekend I was so lucky to hang out with my great friend Megan and attend her baby shower - it was so fun!  I also got to visit with her lovely Mama, her husband Alex, and their pug, The Captain.  Megan and I share a love of TV, and within the first 30 minutes of being together, we were already discussing how much we love the new show "Nashville."  It's so great!  And Megan then led me to my new favorite Youtube video, of two sisters who are on "Nashville":

Aren't they AMAZING?  They have a lot of other songs you can find on Youtube by searching "Lennon and Maisy" (love their names too!)

Megan's condo is really nice and she has done some cool decorating - I grabbed pics of a few awesome ideas:

This is a framed tea towel (of Chapel Hill landmarks, so of course I love it) - what a great idea!  The mat and frame make it really look nice. 

This is their office (love the pug art and the bright yellow lamp).  Megan picked out this awesome stick-on wallpaper that looked amazing with the wainscoting in the room.  This might be something I could talk Henry into because it just peels right off when you're done loving it.

She made these cool jewelry frames!  She just painted the plain frames around 3 little cork boards and added fancy paper to the cork (I think glue or tape would work for this) and used push-pins to organize her awesome jewelry.  I really need some of this organization/action at our house.

Close-up.  You can see that she used special push-pins too.

Me, Megan, and her Mama before her shower.  Wish I had some pictures from the shower, it was so cute!  My favorite party details were the book plates with The Captain on them, the one-of-a-kind Friday Night Lights onesie she was gifted, and the blue nail polish favors (it's a boy!).

Thanks for such a fun weekend, Lady O!

Baptized Baby

Back to reality after Superstorm Sandy hit DC the past couple days - we are so thankful to be safe and warm.  Sending goodness up to those areas hit harder.

Before we came home to Sandy on Sunday, we had a WONDERFUL weekend in Indiana to celebrate Nora's baptism.  We are a lucky little family, to be so loved.  Grhonda and Grandbob hosted a fun and delicious brunch for us and the whole family before the ceremony.  Here are some highlights of that party:


I ordered a glitter garland from "The Flair Exchange" - LOVE IT.  I plan to use it at all of Nora's parties.

Cake from Joy Ann's bakery in Richmond, IN - our favorite!  I love that it said "Bless Her Little Heart" - something we actually say all the time.



My mom had framed tons of pictures of Nora and used them all over the place.  She also took pink and orange ribbon and pinned it into the top and bottom of white pumpkins for centerpieces.  She made it look really easy, and it turned out so cute for a Fall party!



I bought this beautiful garland at Paper Source - you can make it say whatever you want!  I also plan to use this again and again.

Party favors from Nora - smiley face cookies (again from Joy Ann's).

 

I used this little bow punch on the tags for the cookies and a little program at the church.  I also plan to use it on the Thank you cards I send out (later this week...?)

And the baby of honor:

This gown has been passed down in my family for over 60 years - my Dad was baptized in it, I was baptized in it, and now Nora was too.  The Chuck Taylors are new - but her Godfather, Uncle Sam wore Chucks when he was baptized (in this gown) too!

She wore this dress from Zara Baby when she wasn't in her gown - it was SO CUTE on her!

The ceremony was perfect.  My great uncle, Father John (who also married Henry and I) performed the baptism, Aunt Jayne read "On the Night You Were Born", and then  Aunt Jayne, Godmother Tia Mia and Godfather Uncle Sam led everyone in singing "Tell Me Why."  We are so thankful to everyone who was there to help make it such a special family gathering!

Day by Day

As I mentioned long ago, I had some great plans to take amazing monthly or weekly photos to document our sweet little babe.  Turns out that especially in those first couple months, arranging Nora in some hilarious costume on a little customized set and then taking a great photo weren't feasible for me.  I was sad that I had already "missed" the first couple months when I realized that I had taken about a million photos, many that I loved...maybe I could bring them all together after the fact to document the growing NJ.  I was able to figure out which photos I had taken on Mondays (by going through emails and texts I had sent out with pics), and I just put a little label on each of them with the "Labelbox" app on my iphone (side note: I think the iphone is my #1 most important baby item.  I use it daily to take photos and video of Nora and then share them with family and friends.  It takes awesome pics and it's almost always with me.)

I don't LOVE the Labelbox app - I think there's probably something cuter out there.  I could also do something better looking with photoshop, if I knew how to use photoshop (oh well).  So this will do for now, and I can always go back and re-do, now that I know which photos are from which week.  I have saved 2 photos labeled from each week like this:

And then I've put every 4 weeks together in little blocks (using the Foto Frame app on my phone - sorry, can't find a link to Foto Frame) to make it easier to see her grow:

As you can see, she is sleeping in most of my pics of her from the first 4 weeks of her life.  She's turned into quite the little ham.  I love the Foto Frame app, and also recently got the "PicFrame" app, which also seems great!  I plan to use these for something special for her first birthday.  I can't believe she's 15 weeks old!  She's the best.

Celebratreats

You would never guess that I made that up, right?  WELL, I DID.

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CELEBRATREATS

So, you know about Pinterest, right?  If you don't, more power to ya, but I sure do love it.  The main problem with Pinterest is that it can make you feel bad about yourself and your skills.  Any kind of skills.  Stuff on Pinterest is AMAZING.

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Well, this is where Celebratreats come in...to make you feel good about yourself!  Everyone can make these, in about 5 minutes.  That's not much of a commitment.  Creating these Celebratreats is about the maximum amount of time/energy/etc. I am willing to spend right now to make something fun/cool/special/pinteresting.  I made these to take to some friends who just had a baby (Henry made them super-delicious enchiladas, I will share that recipe soon).  So the next time you feel like getting crafty or doing something nice for someone but lack true motivation, hop on the Celebratreats train.

I just sprinkled a boatload of sprinkles into the treat mix after the rice krispies.  Magic.

The Best of Intentions

Thought I would share an idea I had...but never made happen.  I decided that thank you cards for baby gifts would be so much more fun if they had a little photo of Nora in them - saying thank you herself!  This is what I had in mind:

I made the onesie using Crayola Fabric Markers.  I just didn't get around to taking a picture of her in the onesie til I had already sealed a lot of the thank you card envelopes, and I still hand't even printed them!  The straw that broke this camel's back was the fact that the envelopes for the thank you notes I sent weren't big enough to hold a 4" x 6" picture.  Game over.  (I also don't love the photo, she wasn't feeling it that day).  But I still think it's a great idea that maybe someone else can put to use.  If you do, let me know, I'd love to see your sweet little baby saying thanks!

Here's a couple of Nora Jayne from over the weekend - this girl has got personality for miles, and we can't get enough.

A Whole New Animal

Gold spray paint has really been a game changer. Even a plastic animal figurines (cut in half, nonetheless) can become classy/interesting decor - as magnets, mounted in a frame, or even as a coat hook. I have to give Dac credit. He actually had this idea way before it hit the Pinterest world.

As Magnets. Source

As art. This girl says she bought the figurines in the party section at Target for a few bucks. Source

Animal inspiration gets me every time. Looks like we're going to be starting a zoo at our new house (don't worry, we won't charge admission).

IKEA Makeovers

I absolutely love Kansas City, in pretty much every single way. Its only real downfall is that there's no IKEA. There are rumors circulating though... fingers crossed. There is no better place to get inexpensive stuff and make it your own.

I will definitely be doing this one in the new house - maybe two of them in the office? The $40 Vittsjo shelving unit and some gold spray paint can get you this:

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I think this girl also had a mirror shelf cut for the bottom and another glass shelf cut for the very top, where there was maybe wood before? Looks pretty, but may look just fine without that step too.

Or this is another contender for the office. The Expedit shelves are totally awesome.

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And then there's always the trusty Rast hack. Can't beat a $35 dresser that ends up looking like this with a little handiwork:

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Lil Gallery Wall for My Homey

Henry and I put together this wall o'fun in Nora's room, and we love it!:

The wall includes:

1. Personalized Zodiac Constellation Print
2. "It is Only With the Heart" - Little Prince Print
3. "Up" print from Aunt Jayne
4. Funny Girl Movie Poster
5. Little Penguin Print
6. Rifle Paper Co. "Ant" print
7. Rifle Paper Co. Poodle card
8. Gorgeous original art by Jenny at MFAMB (see post about winning that here)
9. Card from inside a Kate Spade purchase

We just used IKEA "Ribba" frames for the whole wall.  I will post (better) pictures of her whole room soon!