Semi-Homemade Invitations

Like each year before, I've got lots of plans for Charlotte's birthday party. I'm sure you remember that Miss C requested a flower party and I found what I believe is the perfect invitation to link the flower theme with the backyard event we were planning. These "Let's Picnic" invitations are downloadable for free from Amy Moss of Eat, Drink, Chic. I love them so much! So much that I may still use them for a different party. Yup, not for this one. Even though they're perfect for the event, I just didn't have time to print and assemble them, not when I was running low on both cardstock and ink. Not to mention time.

Invitations were still a necessity though, so I went on the hunt to see what I could find in stores. My mom and I hit up Target and Michael's with no luck. And then we stopped and Kohl's and hit the jackpot with these cute flower-themed numbers.

First things first, ignore the quality of the photos. I worked on these during my lunch break and left my camera at home, so cell phone pics is what you get. Second, I too realized that these invitations did have a drawback. They aren't invitations. Minor detail, right? But that little 'Thanks A Bunch' on the front can totally be remedied. I started out by turning the once blank interior into your typical fill-in-the-blank invitations. This is super simple to do. Just measure the interior of your card and use Microsoft Word to make a page in that size. Then create a text box with your wording and run the invites straight through your printer. You could even write up party specific wording instead of the fill-in-the-blank version.


With the inside completed, I turned my attention to the front. I found a piece of cardstock in a coordinating color (really simple since there were so many to choose from) and ran it through the printer to create little tabs that say 'You're invited..." A little bit of adhesive later and I'd covered up that pesky 'Thanks A Bunch' with something more invitation appropriate.

And then all that was left to do was address and mail them out! Have you been tweaking anything premade to be semi-homemade in order to better fit your needs lately?

Too Short Slipcover Solution

Like tons of people out there, especially bloggers it seems, I have some Ikea furniture. I'm not a big fan of all the store's stuff, but I do love my Ektorp Jennylund chair. You just can't go wrong with a comfy armchair and its slipcover that can be washed at a moment's notice. Especially with an afforable $200 price tag. I do have one complaint though...


It's a little hard to see in this photo (taken just after we first painted), but the slipcover is so darn short. Ugh. That floodpants length really ruins the look of an otherwise nice piece of furniture. It's irked my nerves enough that I decided I needed to do something about that 2 or so inches of empty air. Wanna see my solution?


Do you see what I did? Need me to go in for a closer look?


I snagged some white pom pom ball fringe (from this Etsy seller) and added it to the bottom hem of the slipcover, going all the way around. I love the result! You really don't see the gap any longer, and it's such a fun addition. And since it only took about 1/2 hour from start to finish - taking the cover off, sewing the trim on (I didn't even pin) and putting the cover back on - and cost less than $7 including shipping, I'm left asking myself why I didn't do it sooner. I'm ready to add pom pom trim to just about everything now!!

Have you found any quick and easy solutions lately?

Thankful Tree

I've seen lots of variations of it all over blogland and decided a Thankful Tree was needed in our house. In case you haven't seen them before, the idea is to make a tree (out of sticks, paper, drawn on a chalkboard - anything, really) and use the leaves to write down things you're thankful for.


To start ours, I gathered together some of the artwork Charlotte made back when we did our apple print painting and cut out leaf shapes. That combined with some branch clippings from the yard and a ceramic pitcher was all we needed for our tree to take shape.


Charlotte came up with most of the items on our leaves. I just wrote them out, strung them up with a little string and helped her place them on the branches. And I made sure to put some extra leaves on a plate near our tree so we can add more as we see fit.


Yup, that one on the top left there does in fact say underwear. And I didn't even have to prompt her to include it. :) The Thankful Tree and that little Lego turkey that Mark and Charlotte made are really it for Thanksgiving decorations around here, but they're sweet enough that I think they're plenty!

Apple Print Painting

This past weekend I babysat for my brother and sister-in-law. Charlotte was thrilled to have a pair of playmates in Elijah and Caleb! I always try to plan an activity for when we have little ones over - partly because it'll take up time and keep them occupied and partly because I think Charlotte enjoys these activities more when she has someone to share the fun with. Last time we made marshmallow sculptures with Penelope. This time we did some apple print painting with Elijah.


I put a tablecloth on the dining table, gathered my supplies, and stripped the kids down to their underclothes.


As the guest, Elijah got to do the first couple prints. I just dipped the apple in paint each time, wiped a bit of paint off so it wasn't too drippy, and handed it over. The kids did the rest.


The apples were quickly set to the side in favor of fingers. No surprise there. Each of them began by just using their pointer fingers, but that quickly changed to whole hands. Charlotte was the first to really get messy. No surprise there either.


You can see my method, since I couldn't find paper plates, was to put the paint on paper towels, all situated on a baking sheet. This actually kept things pretty well corralled and made for easy cleanup. Note to self for future painting endeavors.


It was bedtime before we got around to taking after pictures, hence the change in lighting. We decided to make the orange pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns using construction paper based on this pin. Charlotte told me she's giving her masterpieces to Elijah (she's infatuated with him lately) and Gramma. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to keep some for myself though!

Have you taken on any fun fall projects lately?

Shoes Off Please

A few months back I shared how I turned a blank wall into an entry space that works for us, complete with coat hooks and a ledge.


I love the new set up, but have long felt that I needed to add something to the area below the ledge. I contemplated wallpaper or tone-on-tone paint treatments, but still haven't decided what to do to jazz up this space. I figure it's best to just let it be and allow myself to be inspired sometime. But, I did move forward with a project I saw a while back (on a blog I'm sure, don't remember which). I grabbed some wooden letters (mentioned that on Monday) and got out the same latex paint I used on the walls (Behr's Valley Mist) and started painting.


Each letter got two coats, which I allowed to dry fully before flipping them over and applying some modge podge to the back. Then I pressed them into the wall for about 30 seconds each before moving on to the next letter.


It's silly I know, but this little phrase makes me smile every time I see it. And, even though she can't read, Charlotte knows what it says and has done a better job of putting her shoes where they belong when she gets in the door. That'll be short-lived for sure, but I figure it's still a good reminder.


P.S. I'll probably go back and caulk around the edges of the letters, where they meet the wall. At the very least I'll slap another coat of paint on to try to cover the small gaps. But for now I'm content to leave it as is.

This Week's Menu {8/15} + Quilting

At the time this post goes live six members of my family (my parents, my sister, Mark, Charlotte and I) will be prepping for an 11 hour road trip back home. On Friday we did the same road trip in the reverse direction, in order to get to a wedding reception for my cousin. Our trip to Michigan went very smoothly, perhaps due in part to the fact that we left during the wee hours of the morning and Charlotte slept for half the ride. The return journey won't begin until about 9am though, so Charlotte will probably be awake for the entire ride. We've got a boatload of toys and activities packed for her and have our fingers crossed that all goes well. We'll probably spend the first few days of this week recovering from our trip (and Charlotte and I are both recovering from strep throat and ear infections too), so the menu will be pretty basic. Who am I kidding? The menu is always pretty simplistic, but at least I have an excuse this week.

Monday - On the road
Tuesday - Spaghetti
Wednesday - ??? (whatever we grab while grocery shopping)
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Pork Chop Skillet
Saturday - Chicken Tacos

Before we left for the trip I was working on my packing list when it occurred to me that my laptop, which was making the journey too, had no protection. It's new and I wanted to make sure that nothing happened to it along the way. So I lugged out the sewing machine and whipped up a laptop sleeve (it holds just the laptop, not the power cord or any other paraphernalia) using a modified version of this tutorial.


There was a teeny tiny bit of quilting involved, so I decided to mark "make a quilt" off my 30 Before Thirty list. I recognize that this is cheating, but it's my list and I'll cheat if I want to. Hehe. I don't know what I was thinking putting "make a quilt" on that list. While I love the look of the quilts, the process doesn't sound fun to me at all.

Are you a quilter? Or into sewing in general? I'm not really that into either, but I'm not afraid to bring out the sewing machine for a simple project.

Marshmallow Sculptures

This past Saturday Penelope, Charlotte's cousin, spent the night at our house. As soon as she arrived we started in on a little craft. Here were our supplies:


Long before I pinned this great image of marshmallow animals, I'd planned to make marshmallow sculptures with Charlotte. They even made the cut for our summer fun list. (Note to self: go check that off the list.) I knew that making actual animals was a bit too involved for a 2 year old and 3 year old, so we opted to just make whatever we felt like - mostly triangles, snowmen and butterflies.


Our little craft time ended pretty abruptly. Once they got a taste of those marshmallows they didn't want to waste a single one by poking a toothpick through it. No surprise there, right?!