Child's Reading Bag

Awhile ago at Joann's (with a diaper bag full of coupons) I picked up a few of the dollar tote bags in the children's craft area.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but baby girl is all about shoes and bags so I knew they would come in handy.  Fast forward to this week, I need a birthday gift on the cheap for a little friend of baby girls.  This friend L.O.V.E.S Elmo and lucky for me I found a handful of Elmo books at Target in the dollar section and scored another book from TJMaxx for a few books.  I was just going to wrap them up and be done but I had the time (meaning I didn't want to unload the dishwasher, do laundry, vaccum....) to do something more.  So I grabbed a green tote, some embroidery floss and a button and went to town.  The finished product is a personalized reading bag full of booky goodness all for about $7!

ashley

Oversized Chalkboard

So it's been a busy few days around here, with cramming projects into hubby's long weekend, Easter Dinner Party, lots of baking and some mud pies as well :)
But we found some time to finish up the humongo chalkboard that's been living in our garage for a few weeks and hung it yesterday, love it!  Not going to lie though, I was terrified to write on it at first but I got over it quick and baby girl has already created some master pieces as well. Side note: I've been taking photos of those masterpieces with her proudly posing by to make a little book that documents how big she's getting :(  Can't we start over and go back to being a tiny little thing....)

Supplies:

4x4 birch board

4 1x4's (2 will need to be cut down to 3 ft 10 inches)

chalkboard paint

desired paint color for frame

finishing nails

wood glue

2 nuts, bolts and washers

picture hanger wire

I painted about 5 layers of chalkboard paint ( probably a little overkill) allowing each layer to dry before painting the next.

Paint out trim boards.

Once dry, adhere trim to chalkboard with a thin line of glue and 4 finishing nails spaced evenly. (The nails are so small you can just paint over them and they disappear) The longer boards trim the top and bottom.

We bumped out the bottom trim board to create a ledge to hold the chalk.  If we had thought of it earlier we would have used a wider board to make the bottom flush but it was a last minute addition.

Dixie or "Dee" according to baby girl thought she was getting a treat and had to get in on this one :) She's just 6 months old and 45 pounds...her paws are fat, plump things so we think she is going to be H.U.G.E

Since the birch board is so light and thin, the nails we put through the back of the board to hang the picture wire kept pulling out of the wood so we screwed bolts with washers through the top corners and used nuts to secure.  

Attach picture wire to the back of screws and hang.

thanks for reading!

ashley

mudpies...yummm

 

Coming up....

A ginormous chalkboard! So far it looks pretty awesome in my head :)  Hubby was sweet enough to get the materials last night (although I think he will take any excuse to go to the improvement store) and they are sitting in the garage. My mom is coming in town this weekend so hopefully this thing will be done within a few days!

ashley

Yarn Eggs

One package of plastic eggs,

one package of multi-colored yarn,

a bottle of white glue,

and 3 episodes of The Office later you get 2 dozen of these beauties:

Easy peasy; cover the bottom of the egg with glue and start wrapping, and wrapping and wrapping...

Since we're trying to eat better around here, there's no treats on the cookie stand but there are fake eggs :)

Ashley

Chevron Table

I am loving the chevron pattern thats everywhere these days but since I don't have the time, patience or math skills to paint my foyer in beautiful chevrons I had to find something easy and quick.  I found a dingy two tier side table (I think its an old school telephone table, ps. how wierd that our kids won't really ever know a heavy handheld homephone...) at GW for $4.99.  Sanded it down and painted the base coat a creamy milk color.  I found this template at sunset.com and as soon as baby girl went down for bed I headed out to the garage.  It only took me about 30 minutes and since I used paint I already had, the total cost was the price of the table, $5!  I didn't take photos but it's super easy.

Print and cut out chevron pattern.

Tape and traced it onto the table with a pencil. 

Paint, I found that the width of this pattern was the exact size of a small foam brush so that made things super easy.

Done.

I want to do this to all my furniture, dresser tops, bookcase backs...but one piece of furniture is all the hubby can handle.

A wood and brass lamp on top and a basket full of toys that fits perfectly underneath, don't you love when that happens :)

But for real, this is what it looks like most of the time....

                                          Ashley


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