Turquoise Dresser for Violets Nursery

As happens regularly with me, a small redesign becomes me spending days rearranging and redoing my daughter's nursery. As a heads up all of my furniture is second hand and upcycled. I decided I wanted to redo my changing table/dresser. I had decided I wanted turquoise to go with her color scheme. Upon leaving the house to go get some paint, a quick trip to the salvation army turned into an amazing discovery.
This great dresser was originally priced for 89.99 crazy! But it was half off day, so 45.00 still out of my budget. But.... I had a Groupon for 30 bucks so 15 bucks is totally different. I was stoked!
Quick run to actually pick up paint.
I dragged it home and whew it needed some love.
I sanded and cleaned.
I took off all the handles and used a spray primer...heavily
I hate waiting!
I decided on spray paint for this cause I wanted a really shiny finish.
I got a silver hammered spray paint for the handles.
Did I mention how much I hate waiting.
Finally all finished and put into the nursery.
I couldn't love it more! !

Baby Food Brilliance

When doing all of the insane research I delved into when discovering I was creating a human. I decided to make all of my own baby food. There are so many reasons
- Cost, it really is silly how much money you would spend buying baby food. A few dollars of vegetables equals an insane amount of grub.

- Knowledge, I am a control freak and I want to know EVERYTHING that goes into my little humans body is healthy. Organic veggies are reasonable when you are making baby food.

- Convience, instead of spending hours researching all the brands and ingredients. I decide what she eats and thaw a few cubes of food.

- Teaching healthy food habits, this way she learns to love food and enjoy the eating process. She watches her food be made, she becomes a part of her food cycle which I feel like our country has lost completely. (Rant for another day)

- Waste, all of the packaging and processing that goes into manufacturing baby food is just plain crazy! The glass and plastic is just looney, after making her food and watching how little it takes I can't imagine the recycling bins of households that don't.

With all that being said, I pre-made all the basic veggies by steaming and blending. I started right after she was born. Each grocery store run I picked up a few items and put them away. Meaning I made them then vacuum sealed them and put them into a freezer. Nothing escaped my blending, not even the Halloween pumpkin. Which made an insane amount of baby food.
By the time violet was eating, we have a stock pile.
Then came the research on how to make it use able. Each vacuum bag holds quite a bit of blended goodness and I didn't want big liquid bags in the fridge so I decided to go with the ice cube method.
I purchased ice cube trays from the dollar store and figured out quickly how brittle they become...fail
I thrifted some great Ikea silicone trays in fun shapes for .25 each. They worked great however filling them was a monster mess and made them really hard to get out...fail
Next was plastic bags with  the tips cut off kinda like an Icing bag. Well the holes stretch and you end up wasting so much food in the bag. Plus you toss the bag after...fail
Finally I had a brilliant idea, I'm sure lots of mom's have figured this out but it was amazing for me. TURKEY BASTER! I fill it up, it doesn't drip, or leak. No wasted plastic and it's so easy to get the cubes out....tahdah
Finally an easy way to get perfect mixing sizes of food, I pull out a bag from the freezer make a few trays. Reseal the bag and voila, easy no mess baby food. We recently went on a five day trip and thanks to some dry ice, had frozen baby cubes for the whole trip. No need to buy any or make any while we were out there.
If you've been debating on baby food hopefully this convinced you, a few hours, a few dollars and voila.

Vintage High Chair Update

I inherited this amazing family heirloom.

It served three generations of meals to some of my family. I respect this chair but I didn't love it. So I did what I love to do and I painted it! I started by lightly sanding it.

I chose an off white that is stain resistant and a water base, incase the Missy decides to chew on it. I also chose white so that it will be easy to repaint it later if I want.

I started by cleaning and lightly sanding it. So it had a better surface to adhere to.

I decided to brush paid to instead of sand because I wanted that thick farmhouse style paint instead of spray. Three coats later and it looked fabulous and so fresh.

I then took black paint and highlighted the cut in accent lines to make them more noticeable. It also made it seem more retro.

I couldn't leave it alone so I made a high back cushion and seat that tie to the chair. And for sure I had to make ruffles on it.

The finished project is epic! Just rad enough for our little princess.

New years and resolutions. I wanna be awesome!

A year of Awesome

As if there isn’t enough pressure with the holidays, we have to end the season with a whole new outlook on a new year. I don't know where this custom started but I'm not a big fan. I feel like I'm just coming up for air and then BOOM, New Year’s Eve happens. Initially we all start to worry. We need somewhere to go to drink and party. The older I get the less appealing this becomes. I hate the crazy herds of people and god only knows I can't handle a DUI. Then we all reminisce about the year that's over. I spent some time looking through photos to try to remember all that happened this past year. 2014 was one hell of a roller coaster! I got to witness one of my best friends marry the love of his life and one of my sisters married the man she adores. I made some amazing new friends and reconnected with some old ones. As for me, I created a person! If this translated into school credits, I did enough study to earn a bachelor's in baby making. With all the adventures of daily life in a beautiful city, I still found myself ready to shed 2014 for the new year. That's when I realized why we all get so excited for New Years Eve. Hope. Hope for change? We all see the New Year as a kind of blank slate, like when we move or change jobs, it's a new beginning. I still couldn't think of a resolution, a promise for myself for the New Year. I had some good ideas like; actually cook all the recipes I've pinned; get my baby body back in gear; meditate every day, etc. None of them encompassed the overall hope I have for this year. I want to breathe deeply all the joys of being with my daughter and sleep each day with a sense of peace and fulfillment. I want to blossom into the wife and mother I know I can be. I want to enjoy the city I live in and explore my surroundings more often. I want to maintain my relationship with social media and expand my presence. I want to make my crafting into a business that actually makes money. How do I wrap all that into one resolution? I guess I just wanna be awesome this year! Yup that's it. My resolution is to be awesome this year.

E.

Handmade wire and bead toasting glasses

Check out this item in my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/162337056/toasting-glasses-red-black-and-white

Hairclips always need feathers

Check out this item in my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/217137119/feather-and-brass-hair-barrette-in-brown

Hairclips always need feathers

Check out this item in my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/217137723/lady-on-pink-cameo-in-brass-with-peacock