Happy 1st Birthday Harper Girl!

Our little Happy turned 1 on the 14th & we had an absolutely wonderful day.  

Harper girl showing she's one, sitting in the rocking chair I had as a child, & wearing a beautiful Baby Gap dress I got at a garage sale for $1-- my idea of a perfect trifecta.

We woke up, went to church, Harper screamed her head off in the nursery (that part was not wonderful), came home & had a lovely party with good friends, my gram, & Aunt Sandra. 

The only problem with having the party immediately after church was Harper was completely exhausted, so while we had pizza, Harper girl snoozed away.   

Eventually she woke up & really enjoyed herself.  She LOVED her cake & played with all of her presents just as soon as Emerson opened them.  

 I made Harper's cake & bear print cupcakes, & was pretty pleased with how they turned out.  Aside from our usual, homemade decorations, I decorated our mantle & china cabinet in the dining room with bears, bear books, & the boxed set of Winnie The Pooh books we gave Harper. 

We gave Harper a "Harper sized" doll &  I knitted it an accompanying doll blanket that matches the blanket I knitted her before she was born (pictured above).

It was a beautiful day to celebrate our happy Harper girl & we are certainly blessed to call her ours!

So Long Slippery Socks

We have hardwood floors throughout our home.  They're beautiful, but slippery, and Emerson is constantly falling down while she's scurrying around.  As we're transitioning from barefoot to sock weather, I started thinking about grippy socks & I figured I could make my own, inexpensively with puff paint.  

I simply took puff paint & applied 6 little dots to the bottoms of each of Emerson's socks.  She tried them out today & didn't fall down once! 

For $1.19 I was able to take all of Emerson's socks from slippery to grippy in no time.  A much cheaper solution than purchasing a new sock wardrobe. 

Recycled Craft Ideas

Country Living put together a list of some ways to reuse items around the house.

Some of the ideas are a little hokey & I can't see ever doing them in my own home, but the above images are two of my favorites.  I definitely think I'm going to do the Ball Jar.  Definitely.  Check it out. 

Easter

I'm not one to be into material things--shocker I'm sure.  When it comes to Easter, we're much more into celebrating Jesus' life & death, & spending time with family, than buying a $20 chocolate bunny for Emerson to eat.  Keeping simplicity in mind here was E's Easter basket. 

Her basket is actually my childhood Easter basket,  complete with a lamb Beanie Baby from back in the day, hair clips I made for her, and the only thing we actually spent money on, a Little Golden Book about a bunny, a duck, & an egg that we bought at a Goodwill in Tulsa for 50 cents. 

 The barrettes were made with clips I've had since middle school, ribbon saved from gifts, flowers & woodland creatures bought with a Christmas gift card, & saved buttons from assorted clothing, & a hot glue gun bought with said gift card. These cost me nothing out of pocket & look just darling on E. 

Of course on Easter morning E mostly cared about her eggs & boxes of raisins that her great Gram gave to her. 

And I was proud that the sweet little Ralph Lauren dress that I splurged on while I was pregnant ($8 at the resale shop) was actually able to be used as an Easter dress as I had hoped while hugely preggo.

 I hope you had a lovely day with your family & loved ones.  :)

Use It Or Lose It--Pillows

My sister is an interior designer, she's fabulous at her job, and she's also generous.  Several years ago she gave me some scrap upholstery fabric.  I've been going through closets trying to keep in mind the motto 'use it or lose it'.  When I found the upholstery fabric I knew I just had to use it.

I pulled out some pillow forms that have been sitting around from the people who previously owned this house (they left us their bedding...weird right?) and sewed over the forms.  Here's the final product:

Three beautiful pillows! (We don't normally keep them all on this chair, I just couldn't bring myself to show you our uber shabby couches.  They were used 20 years ago when my parents got them & they're in sad shape now). 

I particularly love this fabric!  Oh so pretty.  Thanks sister pants!

Card Crafting Continues...Gift Tags

After making banner after banner from my lifetime's collection of greeting cards, I was left with some that weren't suited for that purpose.  In the spirit of trying to use everything I could from the cards before throwing the scraps away, I decided to make gift tags.  

 I just took decorative paper scissors,

  and cut the cuter portions of the cards..

and punched holes at the top. 

Emerson especially enjoyed the project. 

I now believe that I have enough gift tags to last until I'm at least 50. 

DIY Jewelry Holder

My sister gave me this shirt when she was cleaning out her closet.  I didn't try it on until I got back to Arkansas, and just didn't like the cut.  

I also had this frame sitting around.  It actually belongs to a digital picture frame that JC's aunt & uncle generously gave us; it came with two, and this one has been sitting around ever since.  In keeping with the use it, or lose it theme theme this year, I figured I needed to do something with the shirt and frame...like make a framed jewelry holder.

DIY Jewelry Holder Items Needed:

*hot glue gun (how cute is this?  $4 @ Michael's!)
*frame
*scissors
*lace

Steps:

1.  Cut the lace to fit the frame

I taped down any excess lace

2.  Glue the lace to the frame.  (I used a metal cuticle pusher to push the lace into the glue so that it was taut)

3.  String up frame--Because this was intended to go on a digital picture frame, it did not have any sort of nail hole, etc, so I had to hot glue a ribbon (saved from a gift) onto the back to secure the frame.

4.  Hang & enjoy!

For hanging the necklaces, I simply took a paperclip, unfolded it, and hooked it or the very bottom of the frame.  I wouldn't suggest really hanging a necklace from the lace, as I think it would tear the fabric.

My total cost for this project was $0; and, to avoid any waste, the t-shirt has now been cut up for rags.  It was an excellent day for repurposing if I do say so myself. 

Have you done any DIY projects lately?