Sam’s 2nd Birthday & Car Cake

Sam turned 2 yesterday!

I always think the year between ages 1 and 2 goes the fastest!  

Sam's been acting the part of a 2 year old for a while now--most of the day looked like this:

I wanted to make him an awesome cake but didn't want to eat it all ourselves so we invited all the cousins! They helped us put a nice big dent in that massive cake. 

Speaking of cousins...it's pretty hard to get a good picture of 7 munchkins...

Sam kept trying to blow out his candles even though he already did...

Let's rewind a bit...

He definitely loved his cake!

He got all shy when we were singing to him. 

My one regret was not taking a video of him blowing out the candles because it sure was cute!!  It took a few tries, but he did get them blown out at the same time!

Then like I said before, he kept trying to blow them out after they were out!

The funniest part about me spending all day making him an awesome cake?

He does even like to eat it.

So he had ice cream instead!

Here is what I worked on ALL day...

I used m&m’s to make the borders, and I cut out the number 2 from a black Wilton sugar sheet. 

Then for all the cars, I used the butter cream transfer technique that I used for Luke’s Avenger cake last summer.  I just did it for a bunch of little cars and trucks. If I were to do it again, though, I would skip the butter cream transfer technique and just draw cars and trucks on the cake itself.  It was tricky getting them to stick to the side of the cake and they were so small that they melted really fast and were hard to work with.  I do have to admit that I’m pretty proud of my cake!  My kids may not get a big party every year, but they will always get an awesome cake made with love!!

I did take videos of Sam opening his presents—he kept saying “Ohhhh Woooowwww!!”

He got a big ball from the cousins--he pretty much was in love with it.

He liked his other presents too--puzzles, an interactive book and a really fun flashlight.

Happy Birthday munchkin! We sure are glad you are around!

Valentine’s Day Porch Decor & Wreath

I don’t know about you, but my house is down right depressing after I take down all the Christmas Decorations.  So I put up some Valentine’s Day decor up—starting with the porch.  Something fun to come home to when I run errands.

I’ve never had a good Valentine’s Day wreath, so I started with that.  I love yarn wreaths and I had the perfect thick purple yarn in my stash. 

Things didn’t go quite as planned. 

I just wanted to do a big cute bow—but I thought it looked too plain. 

A few days later I found some pink and purple glitter stems marked 90% off (making them like 14 & 19 cents each!) at Michael’s so I took down the wreath to add them for extra embellishment. 

And well that’s when things went really wrong…

Oops. 

Lots of hot glue and duck tape later I had fixed it and then I could add my extra embellishments.

Ta-Da…  

And now I love it!

But then my porch pots were looking sad without anything in them so I got this crazy idea to make a heart pillow and put it on a stick…

   

I don’t have a pattern but this is a picture of how I cut and stitched it together…

Stitch two pieces of your fabric right sides together.  Leave the bottom open so you can flip it right side out and stuff it.  Then stuff your dowel in it and tie it together with ribbon.  I used pinking shears on the bottom raw edge.

Thanks for stopping by!

IKEA RAST hack – Teal and Tacks

I started making over our Master Bedroom in September--I got busy with Family Trees so I haven't finished all the details in the room enough to show it off.

But I've been wanting to show off these nightstands for months now!

When I started the Master Bedroom overhaul I decided we needed nightstands that had more storage space.  I immediately thought of all the cute IKEA Rast hacks that I've seen and knew that I wanted to do one of my own!

When I was choosing the paint color for our bedroom I ended up buying a whole gallon of a really dark Teal color.  I decided not to put it up on the walls, but then I was left with a whole gallon!  So I chose to paint my Rast nightstands with it instead!

Then I got some cute knobs at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off (this happens all the time--do NOT pay full price!) And I got some upholstery tacks for the edges and I love love love how it looks!

And with a little fake staging, here's the final result!

You'll have to see them in their final nightstand glory once I finish the rest of the room, but for now I'm happy to show them off like this!

So what do you think?

Sunday Scrappin'

I got three pages done this weekend!  One more page (probably do it today) and I'll be done with Sam's first month! Phew!

I have to vent for a minute.

I keep looking all over Google & Pinterest for scrapbook page inspiration.

My problem with a lot of the pages I see is that you'll have one big page, one single small photo and a lot of embellishment.  It seems that a lot of the pages I see, the photos are not the focus, but the paper and embellishment.

I got so annoyed last night when I was looking through the quick-pages and templates I have because the spots for the photos are tiny in comparison to the whole page and I hate that!  I want my photos to take center stage.  When I flip through my scrapbooks I want to say--"Cute Pictures!" and not "Cute Scrapbook Page!"

Like these:

They are cute pages, but the photo spots are so TINY.  There is so much blank page and it's such a waste.

I can't seem to find any good sources where people feel and scrap the same way I do.

If you know of any digi-scrappers that focus on their pictures more than the pages they are placed on let me know! I'd love to follow them.  

Digital Scrapbooking---back at it again

Welp.
I am still not done with Sam’s first year baby book…and I really need to finish that. On the upside—Luke was about 2 when I finished his first year book so I guess I’m right on track :)
Here’s two pages I did tonight:

I’d like to finish Sam’s First Year, and then work on my Family Yearbooks.  I have a some pages done in random years and events for those, but nothing substantial.  There is a lot to do this year on the My Branches Website, though, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to work on scrapbooking.  Thankfully I do keep a blog so when it comes to the ‘journaling’ part on the pages, I can find the blog posts where I posted the pictures and find what I wrote there to help me on the scrapbooking. 

Sam's Room Update

The last time I showed you Sam's room was October 2012 and at that point it still had about 5% more changes that needed to be addressed.  A few details had yet to be addressed--like the lamp, the changing table and the shelves above the changing table.

So here I am over a year later and I can finally say Sam's room is completely done.

Here's what it looks like now:

Not huge differences to this viewpoint--

I've added curtain hold-backs to the window, taken out the bumper from the crib and switched out 2 of the framed art pieces in the gallery.

However, this side of the room looks quite a bit different.

Here's what it looked like before:

The floating Shelves have finally been styled in a way I like enough to leave it be.

Sam LOVES cars and trucks, and he received cars & trucks sticker/decals for Christmas.  I wanted to put them up so he would have something to look at during diaper changes.  I didn't like too much random with the cars just plopped on the walls wherever.  So I designed and cut out roads on black vinyl with my Cricut and then made this:  

Other changes on this side of the room include a new/old dresser I found in the classifieds, a new lamp (relocated from Luke's room), a crate for books, and new stylization on the floating shelves.  I like the way the dresser looks in the room, so for now I will leave it be and not paint it.  If I ever get a new crib I will probably want the dresser to match it so I'll probably paint it then.

 The confetti wall and the entry of the room are the same, but here is what they look like:

 

Probably the only room in the house I consider to be D.O.N.E.

It's a happy room!

 Cloud Mobile Tutorial
Changing Pad Cover Tutorial
Confetti Wall

Baby Room-More Details
(before this room was completely updated)