Preparing for Baby

Not mine! No no! That ship has sailed. But my sister-in-law, my husband's only sister, is having baby #2 tomorrow. Oh how I love babies. I cannot wait to sniff her little head. I've been working on this project for a few months now. I know, shouldn't have taken that long, but that's what happens when you have so many projects and alterations to do.

Apparently I'm the car seat lady. Which I'm ok with. Especially when I have such great fabrics to work with and a new machine to use! This one is from a vintage sheet set that my sister-in-law has had for a few years, but never knew what to do with it. Must have been divine intervention that she didn't use it in all that time because she was destined to have a little girl!
The brown is the fabric that I bought to recover those wing back chairs I got last summer. I never even got a chance to do that project because when we moved our garage around the chairs had become home to more spiders than I could even count, so we took them to the dump. I don't do bugs.
I just love how this turned out and to be honest I was a little emotional when I finished it. This is the car seat that brought home both of my babies and now it gets to bring home one last bundle of joy. I will post pictures when I can of baby Emma!

Flower Girl Debut

Today my daughter made her debut as a Flower Girl. My mom has a friend/co-worker that was so sad as her family would not be able to make it to her wedding and so she didn't have a flower girl or a ring barer. Well, my mother told her not to stress because she has plenty of granddaughters and grandsons that could take the job. Thanks mom for volunteering my kids for a wedding that I didn't even know the people. Oh well. It was nice that we could help this sweet couple out and it was such a fun experience.

This is the bed and breakfast that the wedding was at. No, you do not need to adjust your screen, it is THREE shades of pink. Yup. I thought this was the Peptobismol headquarters, but no, it's a B&B. Aside from the color, I could totally live here as it overlooks Lake Pend Orielle and was so charming inside and out that I would take over in a heartbeat... after I painted the outside.

My son, the little angel that he is, was fine as long as he had command over the bag of Goldfish Crackers that I had packed. However, during the ceremony he... "broke wind" rather loudly a few times and made the bride and groom as well as the rest of the attendees giggle. Ah boys, gotta love them. I made his little bow tie using this tutorial. I also made one for my nephew who was the ring barer.

These are my nieces who were a little offended that they were not asked to be flower girls, but they were big helpers for me with my son and it was a fun day being with them.

Here they come! My nephew was so terrified of dropping his white pillow that he carried it like a full bucket of water. My daughter on the other hand stole the show, not that I'm bias at all, but she made sure he was right next to her and other than us having to remind her to drop the petals, she did great. It was so cute as she took one petal at a time out and threw it on the ground.

Here she is ditching her cousin as he was walking to slow. She really did so well! The best was that she continued to drop petals during the ceremony, on her way out, while waiting to get in the receiving line and then when she ran out of petals, she started picking them up off the ground and putting them back in her basket so she could drop them again.

Here is the bride. She is so cute and was utterly gorgeous!

Zoe stood so nice during the ceremony. I had to remind her several times at the rehearsal that she needed to stand still and I said the same thing to my nephew but during the ceremony he got bored and started to toss the pillow up and down. I couldn't get any pictures of him from where I sat. It was pretty funny though.

The dress she is wearing is one that my mom got for her from Mexico a few months ago. I had forgotten that it was a little low in the front, but I did make an under skirt so you couldn't see her panties... that should count for something!

Congrats Lynn and Nick!

Here they both are waiting for the receiving line to start. Everyone kept asking if they were twins, but they are 4 months apart. However, could you blame them with their names of Zoe and Xander?

Showing me that she threw all of her petals out of her basket.

I wanted her to have "special hair" for the day but I wanted it to look natural and relaxed. I did a French Twist crown for her and kept it loose.

This is the hair pretty I made for her out of the same material as the boys' bow ties. I love how it almost looks like antique lace.

And here are all the five cousins together. Last time we took pictures of all of them it was a disaster, but this time was a piece of cake.

What did you do this weekend?

Cabinet Door Uses Part I

A month ago I came into a giant loot of cabinet doors. My Aunt and Uncle bought a house from a guy that made custom cabinetry and left behind dozens of doors! So, she said I can have as many as I want, which of course the hoarder in me squealed with joy. I have several projects that I have been working on with these, some to sell at a craft fair I'm doing this fall and some just for fun.

Here is one that is a very easy and fast project. Add handles to the sides of your cabinet door to make a serving tray.

We live outside during the summer and carting all our plates, silverware, and condiments outside gets a little waring as you have to make several trips in and out. So, we use a big door with handles and can carry everything out at once.

How simple and fun is that?! You can always paint it and make it festive if you want, but I loved the finish on this one and the size made it perfect!

Hope you all have had a great week!

The Plague

Well, we are alive... barely. My kids have been horribly sick for the last few weeks with "The Black Lung" as we call it. They both sounded like chain smokers as they coughed their guts out. Three trips to the doctor, two ear infections later and weeks of interrupted sleep and I think we will make it. When you have sick kids, you know that time to do anything other than wipe snot, be a short order cook, have super human hearing to tune out the constant crying and not putting on makeup for almost 2 weeks has made my crafting come to a complete stand still.

So I am posting something that I did about a month ago. I saw this project in a Family Fun magazine about a year ago and loved it! The link is here. It was so fun to make and turned out so cute!

There you go! Easy, cute and fun!

Now onto my daughter's birthday party that is next week. Stay tuned for all the fun eye candy that I have made for it and yet another cake!

Little Man Turned 2

Have you ever looked at your kids, knowing they aren't babies anymore, but you can still see a little glimmer of their baby selves? Well, I have been searching for that with my kids lately and what makes it harder is that my baby boy Cooper turned 2 on Friday. I know he's getting bigger, but is it so wrong to want to shrink him down to be my baby again?

I mean, why does this...

Need to turn into this?

Well, in true Kelsee fashion, I wanted to do a big fun thing for the little man. And due to the fact that his birthday is so close after the holidays, I waited until the last minute to do everything... again, in true Kelsee fashion. So I enlisted the help of my dear friend Chelsea from Reese's Pieces and Me to come and teach me the art of cake decorating! Ok, it wasn't so much as enlisting her help, it was bribing her with an apron and begging a bit. So she was kind enough to come over and help me, and by help I mean she did the majority of the hard things and I looked on in awe of her mad skills.

She found a great picture someone did of a tire cake with a monster truck on it, which was my original theme for the party. However, after getting "Cars" the movie for Christmas, the Lightning McQueen obsession started and I quickly changed the theme. But the tire was the same. We used the Duff brand fondant frosting, which actually doesn't taste too bad. I made a pound cake using this recipe that my mother-in-law sent me and has been using for years. It turned out really nice!

Pound Cake

6 eggs
1 cup cold butter
8 oz cream cheese, cold and cut up in small pieces
2 3/4 c sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups sifted cake flour


Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes or until at room temperature. Generously butter and flour either 2 loaf pans or 1 bundt pan. Beat cold butter approximately 2 minutes on low speed, add cream cheese, beat on low 3 minutes (until waxy and well blended). While still mixing add sugar in slow continuous stream. Add salt. Continue creaming for 5 minutes (scrap sides of mixer bowl halfway through). Increase mixing speed to medium, continue 2 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 20 to 30 seconds after each egg. Beat vanilla in with last egg. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups flour on low speed, mixing until just blended. Turn off mixer. Fold in rest of flour just until combined. Turn batter into prepared pans, shake and drop pan on counter to release air bubbles. Place on center rack of cold oven. Turn oven to 300 degrees. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours without opening oven door. Test for doneness. Transfer to cooling rack, cool for 10 minutes before removing.

*1 hour and 45 min for bunt pan

Here is the finished product of the tire cake!

I loved the "Cooper's Tires" on there. Our little Cooper couldn't read it, but it was fun to see it anyway.

The best part about the cake was the kids excitement when the black fondant turned their tongues black.

Another fun thing I did for each of the kids was we made cars for each of them out of diaper boxes. We covered them in packing paper, cut out the bottoms, spray painted the backs of paper plates black, glued white paper in the centers and then secured the plates to the boxes with paper brads.

I got a bunch of stickers, got out the crayons and let the kids decorate their own cars.

They had so much fun!

Thanks again to Chelsea for coming over to help me with the cake and your apron will be done this week.

And happy birthday to my little man. No matter how big you get, you will always be my baby.

Decorating on a Shoe String Budget Part I

I guess, technically, this should be Part II with the canvases for my son's room being the first installment. However, this one was almost so cheap it was silly! I found this tutorial on making a wreath with paper lunch bags. I loved it! However I didn't have the fun paper cutter that she had, I had to get a little creative in what I used. I took the lid to my Crystal Light and traced it, then cut out the circles. I layed each bag out and stacked them, so I could cut out many at a time. Now she says to use 8-10 paper bags, I, on the other hand, used about 30. I guess I figure that if you do something, might as well go big! Lol I also used the Dollar Store wreath like she did and her template for the butterflies. This project cost me... (drum roll)... $0.00!!!!!! I already had everything that I needed! SWEET!!!!! Hope it inspired you!

My next post will be about our "wonderful" carpet experience. And by "wonderful" I mean holy smokes of a nightmare! That's why I haven't been posting lately. When I am in a bad mood, I stay away from blogging because I tend to be really negative, and who wants to read anything from a crabby mom? Not I!!!! Hope you all are enjoying your summer so far!

Easy, High Impact, Cheap Canvas Wall Art Tutorial

Hello there! I have been a busy little bee as of late! Making things for the kids rooms' and repurposing clothes for all of us (more on that later). One thing that I have been wanting to do is some wall art for the little man's "Route 66" room. I have painted it a... well, I guess the only way to really describe it is to call it "Cookie Monster Blue." No joke. But when all the furniture and new carpet is in there, you will love it as much as I do! And even if you don't... I love it, so that's all that matters. My poor children have to suffer because I grew up with only white walls at all times. So I go a little crazy in the color department at times because I want lots of color in my house. Onto my post!!!

Material Needed:

*Canvas (I got mine at Michaels as a 2-pack for $4.49! Score!) Use whatever size you want.)

*Craft Paint

*Sponge Brush and Fine Tip Brush

*Freezer Paper (You can also use Contact Paper if you wanted as well. You just need something that will stick onto your canvas.)

*Cricut Cutter (You don't have to use it at all! I just did because I can. You can also print off the image you want and use a razor cutter to cut along the outside.)

*Iron

Step 1: Cut out your image you want out of the freezer paper. Easy.

Step 2: Place the Freezer Paper (waxy side down) onto your canvas, then with your iron set on the hottest heat setting and NO steam iron your image onto your canvas.

** Tip: Because the canvas has an empty back it is hard to get your iron to evenly go over the wax paper. So I took a hard back book, placed a towel/fabric over the top, and put the canvas over the top of the book. I'm sure there are easier ways or more proper ways of doing it but I had to think on my toes and used what I had on hand!

This is the towel over the book.

Step 3: After ironing, being very careful not to burn your finger tips off, run your finger or the back of a butter knife over the edges of the wax paper to make sure that the edges are on tight. If they aren't, just take the iron over it again.

Step 4: PAINT! Take your brush and move out from the center of your Freezer Paper, making sure not to lift the edge of your paper. This will allow your edges to be more straight, however you will probably have to go over it with a fine tip brush after you lift your stencil up.

Step 5: The hardest part.... wait. Make sure your paint is completely dry before lifting your stencil up.

Step 6: If your edges aren't real straight, go over it with a fine tip brush. I have the most unsteady hand in the history of the world, so if I can do it, so can you! Just go slow and make small strokes with your brush. Work from the inside details and work your way out. Then wait for it to dry and then you are done!!!

As you can see the edges are a little spotty here.

Here are my finished products for the little man's room.

Here are all three that I did with the same technique.

The next one I am making is for my daughter's room and I'm thinking I'm going to use spray paint! I will keep you posted!

Old Navy Inspired Headband

My sister-in-law went to Old Navy a few weeks ago and bought this adorable headband. It was $5 and she said the only reason she bought it was because she knew we could mass produce them and make millions! Then we both came back to reality and decided that we could make them for ourselves and that I would just spread my knowledge on how to make them! So here goes!

Supplies:

* Glue Gun (with an extra stick, just in case)

* Fat Quarter or a scrap of fabric about that size

* Scissors

* Plastic Headband (I got a 6pk for $2.50 at Walmart)

Instructions:

*Start with your Fat Quarter. Cut 2 slits into your fabric about an inch apart, down the longest part of your fabric. Rip your strips, this is going to be the fabric that you wrap around your headband.

* Fold the torn ends in, glue them together so they don't move. Then glue your strip onto the inside of one end of your headband. Then begin to wrap your fabric around your headband, making sure to continue to fold the torn edges in as you wrap and glue all around the plastic. Make sure that you are not wrapping your fabric too close together, you only need the edges to overlap. ** Note: As soon as the first strip is done glue the next one right onto the fabric and continue in the same direction as the previous strip.
* This is how it should look once you are done.
* Next you will rip 3 strips from your Fat Quarter. You can decide how wide or thin you want, the wider the strip, the bigger the flower and so on. I did two strips at about 1" and then the third I did about 2".
* Tie a knot at the end of one strip, leaving a small tail at the end. You don't want too big of a tail, so try and get it about a half inch long.
* Start to twist your strip of fabric, while you twist it begin to wrap around the knot, using small amounts of glue to hold it on there. Please be careful that you don't burn your fingers!!!! Just hold it on there long enough for it to stick together.
* Continue to twist and wrap around your knot. I like to leave one edge a little loose and then take the long end and pull it under the flower and through the little slit that you left open. It creates more interest and then doesn't look like you just have a swirl on your head. Continue with all three strips. Make each one different! The beauty of this method is that each one can look different and yet still the same. It takes a lot to mess this up.
* Here are my three finished flowers!
* Next, cut three circles from your fabric that are just a little smaller than the bottoms of your flowers.
* Smear lots of glue all over the bottom of the flower and stick it onto the headband a little off center, then place your circle over the glue, with the headband in between the flower and the circle.
* Do the same to all three flowers.

Here's the finished product! What do you think?

I did a few more, just because I love them!

(Sorry this one is so blurry!)

This one is just tule that I twisted and folded and glued. Then I made the center flower and glued/stitched it onto an alligator clip.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you make one, please share it with me! I would love to see everyone's variations on them. I think they would be adorable with beads, buttons, vintage broaches! Love it!

You can also use ribbon to wrap around your headband, here's an example of how that will look over at my friend Chelsea's blog. She made hers for her daughters and they turned out so cute! The possibilities are endless!