Homefront: The Nursery of Elisabeth Rose

 Miss 'Liss is 10 months old and I am finally getting around to posting nursery pics! This was a fun and rather simple project, full of collecting and thrifting and creating, and yet I still have more ideas. This isn't really her room. This is her corner, in my room. We are short a bedroom so she stays in our for now. There are plenty of perks in that... for now anyways. Turquoise seems to be a theme with me, even my boy's nursery was turquoise and blue. I guess I either a) really like the color or b) it's always available and since I thrift a lot, I get what I find!

Wooden chandelier is from uncommon. I draped the turquoise beads on for fun. I have finally replaced the changing table knobs with faux mercury glass ones from Hobby Lobby, so just imagine it ;)  Pillows are thrifted vintage, chair was a free roadside find.

I made this rag garland, and it's about 6 feet long. Some of the fabric in there is from pajamas that my big ole pregnant belly ripped open. I kid you not. Sentimental, maybe, or just plain weird? I talk about how I made this here. I love a little touch of metallic and would like to incorporate more in this space, but for now, I hole punched gold circles out of a gift bag and hot glued them onto a white ribbon. Glittered star was a garage sale find. I totally love this project, and it was practically free and a large centerpiece for a wall.

These IKEA curtains were perfect and on sale for $4! I wish there were more. I didn't want to hang curtain rods, so I tied them up with twine. Stuffed bird is thrifted, the lamb rattle plushie and is the first official baby toy gift to Elisabeth.

This IKEA crib we bought from a friend. We sanded it down and spray painted it, because I was just *so* desperate for a white crib. Crib linens and that adorable owl are also all thrifted.

Miss Rose. This was two months ago, and she has grown several inches of fluffy hair and a tooth since!

I pulled out my 80's vintage toys! Of course, they weren't vintage when I had them as a kid! Hugga Bunch, Kermit, Miss Piggy (my sister's actually), yellow Honey Bear, white Popple, Ellaroo from the Wuzzles, Pluto, and some other little sentimental ones. The pink and ivory lambs were mine and my sister newborn gifts. (awe). And the little thumb sucking money I got the day my little brother was "born" into our family! (He was adopted from South Korea, so we had a special ceremony.) The white wicker shelf is a garage sale find.

I see you!  That is the corner of our bed and Elisabeth's favorite spot to play. That is where I sit in front of the mirror to do my make-up, and she loves jumping all over me as I struggle to do my eyeliner. Fun times! Now, I simply give her some baby treats in the crib until my eyes are done.

 They loves each others.

 It's always puppet time. Speaking of our old toys, this was my husband's rat puppet as a kid.

 And here is what we usually look like in this room. Sleepy! But having her so close makes it easy to quickly take care of her at night. So that is it. Eventually, I will get around to showing the room in its entirety, after finishing up a few other projects in here.

 

Linked to Everything Etsy's Crafty Girl Linky Party

 

Homefront: A Balloony Birthday

I wanted Caleb to have a little surprise for his 5th birthday when he came home from school, so I made a balloon doorway for him. There were balloons laying around his room so he could play with them, before his brother came home from school. He really had such a blast!

 

 

He is so excited to be a 5 year old big boy!

I have my mom's cake decorating box from when we were kids, so we have a lot of vintage pieces there. These dinosaurs once graced a cake of my brother's when he was a wee kiddo.

Caleb has been asking for a monster truck for years now, and he has gotten lots of cheaper

 remote control cars, but this was the real deal that he tested out when we went to Bass Pro Shops.

 

And of course, no party is complete without balloon popping belly fights! And no pants.

 

Homefront: Monster Birthday Party and Tie Dye Cake Tutorial

This monster party was mostly for me. My boys would probably choose an Angry Birds/Avengers/Minecraft party, but I still have motherly influence while they are young, so I can only do these cute themes for so long.

 

The tie day cake was a hit and super easy to do. Make your cake batter as directed. Separate it into bowls and color each one. Gel food coloring is brighter than the liquid drops. The more dye you use, the brighter the colors. Drop the colored batter in your pans, then take a toothpick to marble them around.

Once baked, the colors lose a bit of their vibrancy, but once you cut into the cake, the colors really pop. Slice off the round top of the bottom tier and place on cake stand. Frost the middle layer, than add the next cake on top. Use foil strips under the cake sides (as I show here) so the frosting is easy to clean off the stand.

For the monster, the edible method is to skewer two large marshmallows with a toothpick (as in this cupcake I learned to make a while back). But I was out of marshmallows, so I used a cake pick and wrapped it in foil, than just gooped frosting on it. The pipe cleaner antenna is best to wrap around a toothpick, than wrap the foil around it before frosting. I forgot about this step and added it after the frosting. So, my monster looked more like a melted alien after messing with it. For the cool fur texture on the cupcake, I used the star/grass piping tip, and a denser icing. The neat eyeballs are little monster eye candies sold in the cake decorating aisle.

These little pipe cleaner kits and monster masks were about $1 from Michael's. I let the boys glue them together with regular school glue, than I hit it with my glue gun for staying power, since we all know how they would fall apart in seconds otherwise. The boys had lots of fun making these. This was his first birthday he got to invite a non-family member. We made english muffin pizzas for dinner, though Isaac insisted on chicken noodle soup with stars. (He even asked me if he could sleep with the can.)

 Turning 7 and blowing out trick candles is lots of fun!

My 5 year old recently had a birthday in which I made a fun, sprinkle filled cake with vintage dinosaurs and we hung up tons of balloons in his doorway he could run through. Sadly, those photos got lost :( Sorry sweetie, if I ever find them hidden in a folder somewhere I will post them! When he blew out the candles, his wish was for "Jesus to come down so we could all see him and know he was there."