Happy February everyone! The month of love :).

I hope this month is great for you and I also hope you like these calendars that caught my eye this month.

Click on any below to be redirected to the download.

Enjoy!

caroline johansson

Agathe Altwegg via Smashing Magazine

jennifer squires

Insight Magazine

studio of mae

love notes by lauryn

webgranth

penelope and pip

I have a tray table – let’s call her Sally. Sally and I go way back, about 10 years or so. She used to live on the deck in my old condo but moved inside once we moved to our current place about five years ago. She hangs out in the ‘family area’ off the kitchen and is used daily. That Sally, she’s a keeper.

But she wasn’t a looker. Maybe once, but not anymore.

The grass cloth inlay was in okay shape but a closer look at the wood and it was easy to see that Sally’s years were showing. Read that as wrinkles and sags (sorry Sally).

source

My task? The favours. And what better favour for a tea party than some tea!?

Pink and girly? check. Tea bag holding? check. Tags that look like the end of tea bag? checkity check.

Interested in how I made them? This could serve as invaluable information should you ever find yourself lunching with the Queen or hanging poolside with Wils and Waity Katey KMid. What? It could happen.

First off was the contents. One of my other shower planner gals picked up the tea and chose a nice assortment of a great brand. We wanted to give them a tea that could be as good as what we had at the shower and this variety is Mighty (ha, get it?) high on the yummy-scale.

Each guest got a selection and they were placed in to the pink pillow boxes that you see in the top pic. Which, by the way I found for steal. $5 on clearance at Michaels for a pack of 20! They were in the wedding favour section but I think they work just perfectly to celebrate a pretty baby girl.

Next up was to design and print the label tags. I designed them to look like the ends of tea bags (the part at the end of the string that hangs out of the cup). On them they say “Thank you for attending Julia’s first tea party” along with the shower date.

For those wondering, I designed the tags in my graphic design layout program – Adobe Indesign – but I’m sure you could mock up something similar in your program of choice.

Once printed, I began trimming. First the flat horizontal and vertical cuts on my small cutter. A cutter like this can be found in the scrapbook section of a craft store.

And then I simply freehand cut the little notched edges with regular scissors.

Then I was on to creating the ‘string’ part of the tea bag tag (say that five time fast – tea bag tag. tea bag tag. tea ba…). Knowing that I wanted the ‘string’ to have some life (more on that later) I used pink wire (again, found at the craft store for $5 – deal!). Yes, you read that right, pink! And it must have been meant to be as I got the last roll. Somewhere Molly Ringwald is smiling down. Did I just date myself? “Pretty in Pink”… anyone? <crickets>. Dang.

To create the hole I needed something small. It was at this point I decide that in the future I was going to buy a teeny tiny hole punch because this project marked the 537th time that I wished I had one. But I don’t so I came up with ‘plan B’.

Yes, cardboard and a picture hanging nail. And a very complicated trades skill known as “poking nail through paper in to cardboard”. True story.

After my highly technical hole making I needed to loop my string wire in to the tags.

I used to make jewellery so have some old tools from my teenage bead days. To make a wire loop you:

a) start by bending your wire at a 90° angle (with pliers is easier than by hand)

b) grasp the end with some round nose pliers (like the ones here – I got mine at a bead store) and begin rolling in towards your bended angle (you will be rolling counter clockwise). Only roll the pliers, hold the wire still.

With your loop almost closed you will want to slip in your tag and then tighten up your loop by gently squeezing the outer edges with your pliers.

Now, back to the part about giving the string wire some ‘life’. The reason I used the pink wire was so that my string wire could have some curl and ‘flow’ to it. I didn’t want it to lay flat on the pillow boxes but rather have a little flair – as if the tag had just floated down and landed on the box.

To do that I stole the wooden dowel from one of Chace’s toy flags (What? He was sleeping. I returned it before he woke up) and twisted my wire up the dowel.

Then I slipped the dowel out and pulled/loosened the curl so it wasn’t so rigid and uniform looking.

Then I used a ‘glue dot’ and stuck my tag to the top of my pillow box full of tea. For those not familiar with what a glue dot is you can see some here. They are basically little strong adhesive dots of glue that roll on like tape from a tape runner.

I placed the tag off centre and on an angle.

Then I simply bent my string wire and tucked it in to a corner of the box.

And faster than you could say ‘orange pekoe’ we were done!

The tea party was a great success and everyone seemed to really enjoy the favours.

However, no matter how cute they were, they paled in comparison to the whole reason we were gathering to celebrate…

HOW CUTE IS SHE!? adorable. … squishy, sweet, serene, breathtakingly adorable.

It was a great afternoon.

A few more shots of our fancy little tea party.

So, I have a bit of a confession. I’ve been keeping a secret from all of you. It’s true. My secret? Well, that I happen to be best friends with one of the most talented cake designers in the WHOLE FREAKIN’ WORLD (sorry to yell, I just get kind of excited about this sort of thing).

Jennifer at Harmony Cakes is not only ridiculously sweet in person, but her sweet creations are just… well, ridiculous. Jennifer does it all, cakes, cupcakes, cookies. And they are good. SO. SO. GOOD. Not only to look at, but eat. SOOOOO good.

This lady is crazy talented and she doesn’t need me to tell you, her work speaks for itself.

I however, will make the introductions.

Bloggy friends, feast your eyes on these beauts (get it, ‘feast’ – see how I did that)?… ah, moving on…

wedding cupcakes! And, side note, Jenn’s hubby made this stand. Love it!

these monogram wafers look delicous! And how sweet is the peach and brown combo?

I love this one. It’s called ‘600 blossoms’. Not sure why…

I may be partial to this one as it may be my wedding cake. And we may have designed it together and I may have loved working on it with her. Maybe.

such a sweet light blue fondant. And look at that detail. Gorgeous.

Can I get married again so that I can have these cookies?

This one blows me away. Look at that ‘vintage lace’. All cake. Did I mention that she was talented?

Look at this attention to detail. So this is me – on the cake. I had just cut my hair and Jenn made this for my baby shower – complete with me ‘new’ hairdo! I still have the topper of this cake. Love it.

I’m Captain Obvious here to point out that Jenn is amazing. Look at how cute that guy is! She. Does. It. All.

More attention to detail! This is the topper for Chace’s first birthday cake! She made all of animals based on a paper plate design that I had fallen in love with. Awwwwww!

No words. Okay one – AWESOME.

She gets kids… and kids cakes.

SPLAT!

And she gets shopping too. She has done some amazing ‘girlie’ ones. Chanel, MAC make-up, Visa Cards. So cool.

Pretty. Dainty. Detailed. Detailed. Detailed.

Ditto.

And this might have to be the coolest cake ever. Um… seriously?  Cake shaped like coffee? Yup.

So the secret is out of the bag and I appologize for keeping her from you all for so long.

If you’d like to see more of her work, please check out her website at www.harmonycakes.ca. You can also contact her via email here and to keep posted on her amazing creations as they happen, please ‘like’ her on Facebook!

Thanks for inspiring me Jenn! xo

My little guy’s new ‘big boy’ room!

But let me back up a bit.

For those of you just tuning in, I’m working on turning my little guy Chace’s nursery into his big boy room. He’ll be three in a few months so time to de-crib and welcome him to twin bed-ville. As well as update to his older taste (‘sniff) and activity level.

His nursery was sweet. Decorated when I was preggo eggo and we didn’t know what we were having. As a result, we kept it neutral. A light celery shade and white made their way up on them thar walls (why the pirate?).

Furniture placement was functional for a newborn but as Chace grew and we had to make some changes (baby proof by moving the crib away from the blinds, move a tall storage unit to our family room for toys etc.) As a result, the ‘cuteness’ of the nursery started evolving. Throw in some toddler gear, a toddler bed that we were hoping to transition him to (“no mommy, crib”), random things on his bookshelves, a new toy bin and we had this…

Not horrible but definitely not functional for a growing two and a half year old! No room to play, an outdated palette (for his age) and decorative items that are too ‘feminine’ and/or baby for him (the mirror, rocker etc.)

And don’t even get me started on this closet…

A functionally-challenged closet. And I’m a neat freak (oh the shame).

However, as mentioned in detail here, I had a plan! Here is my design layout ideas and mood board to refresh your memory.

As mentioned previously, my real ‘jumping off point’ was the bedding (and using existing pieces of furniture) and I am pleaseed to report that ‘step one’ has been executed is complete.

WE HAVE PAINT PEOPLE! Ah, ‘er, Operation-Step-One-In-Chace’s-Bedroom-redo is done.

As part of my plan was to turn Chace’s (can we say’ underused’) closet into a cool dude ‘nook’ I began by removing the doors and emptying his closet of the ‘stuff’ and the shelving (except the top shelf which I am reserving for some storage).

I was left with a lot of these pretty craters.

Oh, and some nice scuff marks.

Since I was on a roll I removed the shelving, mirror, art print etc. from the walls as well and began patching those holes.

Then I got my patch on and did the same to the closet/future nook.

My plan for this future reading/chalkboard/inspiration gallery nook was large horizontal stripes (refer to this post for details. So, once everything was patched, sanded and ready to go I did a fresh coat of white and then I measured the closet from the floor (excluding baseboard) to the roof. Then I played around with 6, 7 and 8 stripes. I decided on 7, making each stripe 13.3″ tall.

To make measuring these out uber-easy I used a tape measure which I had marked at the notch past 13.25″…

and my fave DIY tool – my laser level (clouds parting, angels singing).

This puppy is redonkulous. If you’ve never used one of these, let me break it down for you.

a) Turn on and line up the laser beam on the mark you made with your ruler
b) find the ‘level’ spot by using the water/air levels built within the main unit. You can have the laser pointing horizontal (in my case) or vertical.
c) Once the little water bubble tells you that you are level apply light pressure and this amazing gadget suctions to the wall!
d) make your pencil marks in intervals along the laser line that is projected
e) yes, it bounces around corners and keeps going!
f) to do the ‘other side’ of your level line, rotate the middle section, re-level your water/air thingy and repeat.
g) turn off and release.
h) genius!

That bubble doesn’t look level but it’s just the picture I promise.

Next I lined up my painters tape along my pencil marks. I taped on the ‘inside’ of the white stripes since I would be painting grey over the fresh coat of white.

Made a pencil notation of which stripes were to be grey (so I didn’t mess up and paint the wrong one!)

Then I started painting the stripes! The colour was chosen to coordiate with the cute owl bedding as seen here.

I applied two coats and then removed the tape. In between these steps I also did two coats of blue (again, inspired by the new bedding) around the top part of the main room.

And now for the ‘ta da’ moment.

Here are is the closet nook all painted (yet unadorned)…

(does anyone know how to remove that gross stain in the closet? It was from a candle – wrapped in tissue, IN a box). Holy die transfer Batman. Crickey). Suggestions welcome…

But back to the stripe action. Here’s a tip. I took the tracks for the door down BUT left the little holes as they were when patching the others so that future re-installation of the doors would not be a nightmare. You can see one in the corner here.

And how did the room turn out? Just peachy bluey.

Oh, and I must mention that Chace does not sleep in an empty crib. He was just taking part in the toddler relocation plan that I was running while I let the room air out for a few days. Blankies went with…

Your crib days are numbered kiddo (but I not so secretely love them). Next on my Operation Big Boy Room hit list is a new bed (gasp).

And how did the new paints work with the bedding? Here is the bag it came in held up to the wall in the room and stripey nook so you can see for yourself.

I think it’s a hoot hit.

Yes, I just went there.

Having so much fun with this. Can’t wait to work on the next phase!

UPDATE – see all the Big Boy Room upgrade posts here!

link party

Sigh, where does the time go? It feels like just yesterday we welcomed our little guy home and in a few short months he will be the big 0-3! Three? Really? sigh…

BUT, one of the perks of little boys turning into big boys is that their nursery needs to grow with them!

Over the next little bit I’ll be working on converting Chace’s room into his ‘big boy’ haven and will be sharing it on this blog as I do. Let me share what I have planned…

It all started with this bedding and my romance with it.

Dwell Studio

My parents bought it for me for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!)…  Yes, I got bedding for my son as my Christmas gift. And I was really happy about it. Either my folks know me really well… or just prefer their grandson over their daughter (both very likely scenarios). Either way, my ‘jumping off point’ for the bedroom inspiration was in my hot little hands.

So, with that, I began dreaming up some plans of how I could convert Chace’s room. I came up with this mood board based on what I was thinking. I wanted to make sure I could reuse some of the things we already had and wanted to have a plan of what to buy as fundage permitted.

I will go into further detail in a moment but first you need to see my plans for where all of these things go. This is the part where you laugh (or nod your head understandingly) at my “type A”ness.

Behold, a ‘to scale’ diagram of what I have in mind… What? That’s not crazy, I ‘er, ah, had to make sure everything would fit…

A fun thing I am planning to do is to turn Chace’s current closet into a ‘nook’ (more on that below). My plan for painting this space is to do white and grey large horizontal stripes.

Modern Jane

1. Thrifty Decor Chick   2. Little Hell Raiser   3. Home23DuncanBoys

As mentioned above, I plan to paint deep horizontal stripes in grey and white. I also want to create a reading corner so will have some forward facing and traditional book storage.

Myers Three – how adorable is that pup!?

For seating I was thinking of having a beanbag chair but they’ve been challenging to find so I’m leaning towards creating my own ‘soft zone’ by hooking a pillow to the wall (as a back rest) and perhaps using a pillow or circle rug on the floor. 

ikea

Of course every little nook needs some lighting…

ikea

And a chalkboard area! I plan to paint some chalkboard paint on one wall (see diagram above for where it will fit in the closet nook).

Bloesem Kids

I also want to create a little ‘gallery wall’ along the back long wall of the closet nook. I plan to feature cute art, sayings etc. Bright, cheery and inspiring!

I’m also planning on having a table and chairs for art as well as some fun toy storage, shelves and a little area rug by his bed – which will also be new. Bye-bye crib, hello Big Boy Bed! I also have some plans to update his curtains from ‘basic’ gender neutral nursery ones with some little boy flava.

And last but not least, every little artist needs a place to hang their creations so I plan to have three little ‘gallery stations’ where Chace can clip (and change out) his mini masterpieces.

iheartorganizing

So that’s the plan. Should be simple right? (what have I gotten myself in to?). No, but in all seriousness, I can’t wait to get started and create a fun little space for my fun little dude.

And I’ll share it all right here on this ‘ol blog for those of you who’d like to follow along :).

UPDATE – see all the Big Boy Room upgrade posts here!