Rustic 1st Birthday Photo Shoot

     I am so excited to finally be able to share the results of Ethan's 1st Birthday photo shoot! Everything turned out perfect and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I spent hours planning his photo shoot, trying to figure out exactly how I wanted it and collecting everything I needed for props. I knew from the beginning it would be in a rustic setting with Ethan wearing his overalls, sans shirt and shoes. I was surfing Pinterest  for inspiration, when I came across this adorable smash cake session from On To Baby. I immediately fell in love with it and knew I would be making a boy version for Ethan's photos.

      I have a friend whose family owns a wedding venue in Odenville, Alabama. There is a fantastic old barn on the property complete with old wagon wheels and bales of hay. It was the perfect spot for our pictures and my friend's Mom was kind enough to let us use it. Once I had the location, I started collecting my props. I used the chalkboard I painted a few weeks ago to write Ethan's name on and found an old wicker chair at my grandmother's house. I went to the local flea mall and found a great deal on an old Radio Flyer wagon. I bought some cardboard letters, spelling "ONE" at the craft store to put inside the wagon. I really loved the idea of the mirror, so I had my handyman/husband build me a rustic frame and tarnish it with our homemade stain. Brian's work boots were the perfect finishing touch.



   As far as the cake went, I HAD to have a giant cupcake! I bought a silicone pan that makes a cake 25x the size of a regular cupcake. I used boxed cake mix and a tub of icing and covered it with TONS of sprinkles! It looked perfect and it was so much fun to watch Ethan tear into it.

    One of my favorite details of the pictures is the giant moss-covered E. It was not part of my original plan. But, when we pulled up to the barn, the 'E' was hanging from a window. It turns out, my friend had gotten married there the day before and her new last name begins with an E. They had simply forgotten to take it down when they cleaned up after the reception. How great is that? It was the perfect accompaniment to Ethan's pictures.

    We used anything and everything we found laying around the barn. There was an old wash bin, hay bales, and 2 huge wagon wheels. Ethan is a ham in front of the camera and he had a ball walking around and playing. He carried his favorite wrench around with him almost the whole time. (He already gravitates towards tools and is very interested in how they work. Like father, like son.)

DIY Chalkboard

 

   I haven't made any craft posts recently. It's not because I haven't been crafting....I have...a lot. I've been feverishly working on tons of projects for Ethan's 1st Birthday party next month and I don't want to unveil anything until after the party. I have 7-10 projects I'm working on right now! I'm very excited about Ethan's party and I can't wait to show everyone all of the wonderful things I've been making. But since that is still an entire month away, I scrounged up something to post today.
   A couple of weeks ago, my friend Meghan and I went to the flea mall to find props for Ethan's first birthday photo shoot. I came across this old fireplace screen and thought it would make the perfect chalkboard. Its a great size and I love that it stands up on its own. And, best of all, when Ethan gets a little older it will be perfect for him to doodle on.


   Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my fireplace screen before I painted it. :/ But, it was just solid, bare wood. Nothing special to look at. I spray painted it my favorite antique white. It took about 3 coats. Next I started to tape off the edges so I could paint the center. (This is when I realized I hadn't taken any pictures.)

 
   After taping  the edges, I took it outside and painted the center with the chalkboard paint. I used Rustoleum chalkboard paint. I've had better luck with the roll-on kind, but I've used the spray kind too.  Next time, I think I'll try to make my own!
   MAKE SURE TO READ THE DIRECTIONS! This is a drawn out process because you have to wait a few hours in between coats and then 3 days before writing on it.

   After my chalkboard was completely dry, I removed the tape and lightly sanded the edges so it would look distressed. I love the look of distressed furniture and it is really nice on projects like this because the wood is already imperfect.

   This is the finished project. I hate that my pictures are so bad, but my phone was the best I had to work with at the time. I'm really excited to draw a HUGE #1 on it and have Ethan next to it in his pictures! One year photo shoot post coming soon!!

Modern Whimsy Nursery

    This is the most fun I've ever had decorating a room. I'm sure the excitement of a new baby had something to do with it, but being able to do something colorful and full of whimsy was a blast. We knew right away the traditional baby blue and pastels wasn't happening. We also didn't really want a theme, but more of a color story.  I decided on a bright orange, lime green, and electric blue. We toned the colors down by painting the walls a light neutral color and balanced it with dark wood furniture. We did kind of end up with a zoo animal theme, but that wasn't planned. I still think the color is what stands out the most. Every last detail of the nursery was well thought out. I didn't purchase anything that didn't have a specific purpose or place in the room.

    It is very hard to find baby bedding that isn't pastel or have a major theme plastered all over it. I wanted each piece to have a different pattern on it. I seriously thought about spending hundreds of dollars to have it custom made. Then I came across this set at Babies 'R' Us, on clearance, for less than $100. Score!! The convertible crib also came from there.  ( I wish I had cleaned out some of the clutter around the crib before snapping pictures.)

    This is the crib now, without the bumpers, mattress lowered. The mural on the wall was painted by my stepfather. I wanted something very simple with no shading, as if it had been torn out of a coloring book. It turned out exactly as I had imagined! It is a great focal point in the room. The giraffe in the corner is Henry. Brian's stepmother gave him to us. He started out in her nursery when she was a child, then her sister's, then her niece's, and now he is Ethan's little mascot. The sign hanging off his ear was a gift from a client. She hand painted it to say "Shhhh Ethan is sleeping". These three elements are so special to us because they required so much thought and time from people we love.

    We striped the far wall in the room using the color from the other 3 walls and a lighter shade that we used to paint the ceiling. The glider was given to us from my Aunt. She covered it in the cow print when my cousin was a baby to match his cowboy room. I threw a pillow from Urban Outfitters on it. The shades came from Budget Blinds and they are AWESOME! The chocolate curtains are room darkening and a must since the sun comes up on that side of the house.

   My father-in-law built this toy chest. My husband stained it and I made the cushion for it. We found the wooden letters at Michael's. We stained them the same color as the chest then wiped them so they'd be a little lighter. The 'H' looks lighter than the rest in this picture, but it isn't.

    The changing table it made from an antique secretary that belonged to my mother. We gutted the top portion of it, stained it to match the crib, and put more modern hardware on it. Now the fold down desk holds a changing pad and there is plenty of room in the cubby to hold diapers, wipes, etc. 

 
    We painted the shelves above the changing station the same color we used on the ceiling and striped wall. I painted each of the letters from Michael's the colors used in the room.  The owl lamp came from Urban Outfitters. If you've never shopped there, they have really fun and different stuff to decorate with, on top of cool clothing and accessories. Check it out!

   Finally, my favorite part of Ethan's nursery! We have very small closets in our house so I knew we were going to need lots more storage for all of those little things babies accumulate. I didn't really want another chest or dresser in the room. I wanted something different that allowed easy access to burp clothes, blankets, and bibs. When I was little, my brother had some shelves that fit all of his toys in little cubbies that seemed to fit each toy perfectly, like they were cut to the size of specific toys. I was always so jealous of those shelves. He finally gave them to me when I was a teenager, but they ended up being too big to keep when I moved into my first place of my own.
   So, I designed my own more modern version for Ethan's room. My husband then drew it out and built the shelves for me!  He built them out of high quality birch and trimmed the edges with poplar. They are immaculate! I bought colored storage baskets to hold Ethan's things and filled in with books, shoes, pictures and more. These shelves will last forever and Ethan will be able to display all of his toys on it as he grows.

Ethan playing in his room. (6 months)

Salvaged Wood Crosses

    

     Over the years, Brian and I have sort of become pickers. We go to estate sales, yard sales, even pick things up on the side of the road. We have piles of salvaged wood and tons of old furniture begging for a face lift. Brian is very talented and can build pretty much anything out of wood. (He built me a pallet coffee table for Christmas that I will be posting soon.) Sometimes I get tired of only being the design eye and want to get my hands dirty. This is the perfect project for us to do together. We have made these wooden crosses on a couple of different occasions and plan to again in the future.

   We have a trash can full of old trim and crown molding that we have collected over time. Brian's dad has given us a lot of scraps left over from various jobs and we bought a room full of scrap wood at an estate sale recently.

    These are very simple to make. We picked through the old trim and paired up pieces that we liked. We decided the various sizes and angles we wanted to use and Brian cut them to size. We then painted them using different colors and techniques. We painted some solid, some whitewashed, etc. After they dried, we sanded some of the edges so they would look distressed and old.

    The final step was to to go through all of the old hardware we have collected and choose what we wanted to use for each cross. Some of them were easier to attach than others.

  

     The possibilities are really endless with this project. We have made key holders, coat hooks, and used old jewelry. I also think it would be fun to paint them bold colors or modge podge fun papers or photos onto the wood. I love doing projects that have so many possibilities to be creative!