La La La La, La La La La, Miss H's World!!!!!!!!

On November 3, 2008 my little angel graced us with her presence in this world! I can not believe it has been two years since Miss. H was born!!! My little baby is growing up! But, it means it is time to start planning another party! WOO HOO!!! Since she is obsessed with Elmo what better route to go than sesame street. I didn't want to just do elmo because it limits me. haha I may be crazy but at least I will admit it. She is just SO special to me and I always want her to have the BEST! I'm still on the job hunt so the budget is limited and I decided to make as many of the decorations as possible. I came up with the idea to get some foam board and cut out the sesame street characters. I cut out two elmo's, one holding blocks spelling out her name and one holding a #2 as well as big bird, Grover, Cookie Moster, Oscar, Zoe, and Bert and Ernie. I also decided to cut out a "sesame street" slash "MISS. H Street" sign.





They all turned out really well. I made a "Miss H's World" sign to go over the mantel and cut crayon's out of construction paper and put Happy Birthday Miss H on the to hang from the mantel as a banner.


For other decorations I went to the dollar store and got primary color tablecloths, plates, napkins, balloons etc..
For the Spred I made Oscar the Grouch's Green Punch and all the other characters each had an item as well. My sister made some cute place cards to put in front of each item. I found a mini trashcan at World Market and made a felt Oscar to stick out of the can and filled it with "Slimmy's Sour Gummy Worms". I also bought a cookie jar from wal mart and put cut out Cookies from construction paper and glued it on it.



For Favors I found some elmo buckets in the dollar section at Target and filled them with Dorothy's goldfish, Elmo's Crayons, and Cookie Monster's Chocolate Chip Cookies.


As for the attire, I found an Elmo dress online that I love but it was $56 so my talented mother said she would make it for me. It ended up being under $15.


The Party was a Success! Miss. H had a blast along with all the other attendees.

Flower Power

The other day my mom and I were garagesaleing (story of my life) and I found a round end table for $5. It has two bookshelves built into the base. I figured it would be a GREAT table for Miss. H's room. Since the top is round I decided to paint a flower on it. I started with the darkest color in the center and worked my way out to lighter colors on the outside petals. I then painted the base white. I had all the paints so the overall total was only $5 and it is ADORABLE!!!
I have a white lamp to go on it and it has a blue and white gingham shade, which definitely doesn't go with the pink and more pink color scheme. I decided to wrap some ribbon around it to make it match the rest of the room. Overall this inexpensive task turned out to be a tremendous success!

(pictures to come)

Teen Dream

I have been VERY busy since my last post. My cousin (we can call her A), who lives with us, (she is basically my little sister) has been wanting to redo her room. Of course, I took the idea and ran with it. She had a pottery barn wrought iron bed with mattress and box spring set that we sold on craigslist for about $500 so we were working on a budget. She wanted a day bed (so it would be like a couch and give her more room) and I found one on craigslist for $59. We got her a mattress for around $100 and it is actually really comfy. Paint was around $50 dollars and accessories (including curtains and a shag rug) around $200. So we came in right around $400. Pretty good if I may say so myself.
B and I bought her a comforter set and sheets along with a few zebra throw pillows for her birthday. We got it all at walmart and I think spent around $30 each. That is not included in the $400 total bc it was a bday gift. It is a light pink color. She wanted pink walls so I went to home depot when they were having a paint sale and got a darker fuschia color. It is SO pretty! To tone down the pink we got her black panels for her windows (also from walmart) for around $20 a pair. She has two windows so it came in at a whopping $40 for window treatments. My friend K came up with the idea to paint an A on her wall so I came up with doing it in chalkboard paint. The A is over her bed and on the opposite wall I painted black polka dots in chalkboard paint. I used a protractor and just painted them in. I was afraid the chalkboard paint would not go on well but it was easy as pie! chalkboard paint is only about $10 for a quart and is a super cute and cheap artwork idea. We bought colored chalk so her friends can all sign her wall and write little messages etc.
Her desk top was looking a little rough so I came up with the idea of decoupaging it. I went to michaels and got about 12 pieces of scrapbook paper and just layered them on to decoupage it. It only cost about $6 total and looks super cute!
She wanted a bulletin board (which I thought would be tacky) so I bought some cork board squares and hung four up and framed them with black and white small polka dotted ribbon.
Over the A we hung some wire and used small clothespins to hang up pictures we printed off from walgreens. We bought a 5x8 pink shag rug at bed bath and beyond for about $40. She wanted a zebra room but instead of going crazy with the zebra theme we just used a few zebra pillows and incorporated other coordinating pillows. I figured she would probably get tired of zebra so it would be easy (and inexpensive) to trade out a few pillows. S0, for a total of about $400 (but basically free bc we already had the pottery barn bed we sold to redo the room with ) we completely transformed a drab room into a fab room! She is completely exstatic about it and barely ever comes out. Yes, we made a teenager happy!!!! WOO HOOO! Mission accomplished!

(pictures to come...)

How 'Bout Them Dawgs

B and I came up with the idea to create my Dad a man cave for his birthday. We are all die hard UGA fans so we took that theme and ran with it. We painted the walls red, the trey (in the trey ceiling) black, painted a bookshelf, re-covered some pillows, made some curtains and end tables, drew some murals on the wall and called it a day. I have NEVER worked so hard for someones birthday, not even Miss. H's and I made her a castle! All the hard work is worth it in the end after seeing the end result.


My Mom and I were at one of her favorite stores that is going out of business and came across a fixture for sale for only $10. It was GA red and I thought it would make a cute end table. The only problem was there was only one base. It had three baskets that were stuck on a pole to create a tree fixture. I went to home Depot and had the nice men help me to create another base out of PVC pipe. We decided to paint them all black to set off the red walls. I also bought some plexi glass from the said store and created some really cute, sturdy end tables. Below are some pictures.


We had an extra basket that we be put on top of a spinning platform to create a lazy susan for the coffee table.


My friend, K (who is an art major and who's mom is an artist) came over to help me paint the murals on the wall. We decided on a big Georgia G over one couch and "How 'bout them Dawgs" over the other couch. Her mom has a projector that is used for making murals which made it a lot easier since the G is such a clean shape. We knew if it wasn't perfect it would look AWFUL! So, this was a HUGE help!!! Thanks, K!!!


We took all our Georgia Memorabilia and put it in the room. We put different pictures of the family at the games and framed them. B had a GA rug made at the Mat company she works at. My mom helped me make some gingham curtains, and to re-cover four huge pillows we have down there. We made the window treatments straight (with no pleats) because that is more masculine. It is also a lot easier! Win,win! We covered the oversized pillows in solid black fabric and hand appliqued the G, in the same fabric we used on the windows, onto the pillows.


The best part of this entire project was that we spent below.........wait for it........... $200!!!! That includes all paint, fabric, knickknacks, and the rug B had made (which is on the way). We did good!!! Beat that HGTV!

Shelves, Shells, and Summertime

WOW! It has been awhile since I have been able to post. Since my last post I have graduated from College!!! WOOO HOOO!!! I have a Bachelor's on Business now! Thank God that is over with. Now on with the job hunt (the hard part). There are absolutely NO jobs and the ones I do find and apply for I "don't have enough experience for" Well, DUH! I have been in school. What do these people expect? All the other jobs you have to be bilingual...Don't even get me started on that! Anyway, that is what is consuming the majority of my time right now.

In my last post I was talking about the dreaded job of organizing the play room. I am happy to say it is complete! I re-arranged the couches and some bookcases etc. and I am VERY pleased with the outcome. Once the couches are out I plan to make a craft corner and a dress up section. The dress up section was inspired by a shelf. Yes, a shelf! I was garage saleing and found a white $3 shelf. You see a white shelf, I see a princess dress holder for the playroom. I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up four already made (cut out and painted) wooden die-cuts. One is a castle and one a crown. I also picked up some appoxy glue (smelly but sticky). I appoxied the castle and crowns to the shelf. I am going to add some faux crystal cabinet drawer knobs to be the hooks to hold Miss H's Dress up clothes and create a section of the playroom dedicated to dress up! $3 Garage Sale venture=Success yet again! Below is a picture of the completed shelf!


This is such a simple and inexpensive way to create a dress up section fit for a princess! I still need to add some hooks for her dress up clothes to hang from. I am thinking about using faux crystal cabinet knobs. I'm going to put them in between each picture. I will post a picture of the completed shelf soon!

My Uncle was kind enough to let us use his condo in Amelia Island. Miss H, my sister (B) and all my girl cousins and I went down there and had a BLAST!!! It was so relaxing and much needed for all of us. Miss H went on her first beach trip last year and loved it but I was a little concerned as to how she would react this year. She LOVED it again! She ran straight to the water and probably would of kept running if I would of let her. I have a water bug on my hands! It's great to take a vacation but it's nice to come back home. We have a lot of projects to get done this summer so it's time to stop playing and get to work!!!

Princess Paradise

So, for Miss H's first birthday I made her a cardboard castle. I used boxes from my sister's southern living orders (she is a consultant) bought some oops paint and was able to make one for fairly cheap. That is a whole separate post in and of itself. The castle is HUGE! It will take up a whole wall, easy.

(This is a pic of the castle from her bday. Excuse the tutus. I made them as well and will post about that later too!)

That is my inspiration for her playroom. Since she already has the castle, I am just going with the whole princess theme. Her playroom is long and rectangular which is already an issue and she has a couch and a love seat in there as well. So, there is a lot of furniture and an odd space. My goal is to re-arrange it to make it more cohesive and create a TON of storage so it is hopefully not always a wreck. Here it goes. We will see how it turns out!

And so it begins...

I have decided to start blogging about all of my new craft projects I do as well as just life in general. I am a single mom of a beautiful 18 month old angel! Miss H's (my daughter's) life is already flying by me and I want to remember EVERY moment. We are currently living with my parents while I save up money for a house. Needless to say space and sanity are limited. I am totally grateful for everything my parents have done for me but it is hard to live under their roof again. I am trying to make the most of the little space we have. Soon enough we will be on our own and I can decorate a whole house and you can read about it! (Lucky you)
The first project I will be taking on is a step stool. Miss. H is brushing her teeth "alone" now so I figured it was time to invest in a step stool. Plus, we will be starting the whole potty training venture soon (Lord help us). A step stool will be needed to get up to the potty. Anyway, I was garage saleing (is that a word?) and found this one for $3!

It has storage and it is really sturdy so I figured it was a pretty good deal. I knew I wanted to make it super cute so I invested in some pink and purple acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby (I already had all the other colors). Miss H's bathroom has a butterfly theme so I knew I wanted to incorporate that somehow. So, for a total of $5 I created This...



Pottery Barn has this step stool for $69 and all it has is a name on it!!!
I think I did a really good job for $5 plus it is an original! Eat That Pottery Barn and your expensive prices!!!

My next venture is to take on her playroom and make it super cute and functional. Stay tuned to see how that goes...DUN DUN DUN!!!