Newest Chalkboard Ideas

Does anyone out there love chalkboard accents as much as I do? I don't know, I love them! :) Maybe its because I'm a teacher; I grew up wanting to be a teacher, dreaming of writing on a chalkboard one day. Too bad for me (or maybe not) all chalkboards have been replaced with dry erase boards and now SMART boards. Oh well, more chalkboard love for my house!

My two newest chalkboard accessories are below:

Individual Chalkboards for Baskets: creating using small thin pieces of scrap wood, painted with 4 coats of chalkboard paint. They are connected with thin twine hot glued to the back and tied through the basket. I love them on my porch!

Don't mind the mess underneath of the baskets!

Next are my new chalkboard canister labels!

Did you know there is Chalkboard Contact Paper?!?! Yes, there is! I was VERY excited to find that out! I read about it on a blog somewhere, some day (can't remember either) and found it at Micheal's. I believe it was $4.00? or about that.  I had thought about painting my canisters with the liquid chalkboard paint I already had, but I didn't want to commit to it forever; even though they are inexpensive Ikea canisters, I just wasn't sure I would love the idea as much as I thought I would. I used my Creative Memories scrap booking cutting circles to pick the shape and size, cut them out and stuck them on! 

Before

Cutting the circles

Sizing it up

All Done

In the cabinet in their actual home

And, I realized I have one more recent Chalkboard item. I painted a galvanized Ikea planter with a chalkboard rectangle. We use the planter on our porch to hold flip flops since we have a TON! 

Notice my Vera Bradly diaper bag behind, which I love!

There you go, three ideas for Chalkboard paint! I am sure I will come up more! I just love this stuff! I have read about this "Chalk Ink" pens, I need to find those! I want a much neater look to the chalk writing.

Happy Mother's Day Tomorrow!

First Diaper Cake

We are throwing a baby shower for a colleague. She is having a boy and this is her first child. We wanted to make this shower very special for her. She deserves it, she has helped with lots of other work showers over the years. 

 I decided to try my hand at a diaper cake! I am very happy with the result! 

I started with a pack of Size 1 Pampers Swaddlers (the best diaper in my opinion for newborns). I used Goody clear hair bands to hold the rolled diaper in the tube shape. At one of my baby showers someone used tape and that was NOT fun to deal with! So, these clear hair bands worked MUCH better. I used an old paper towel tube down the middle to keep some structure. I also used sporty headbands to hold the bottom two layers together around the paper towel roll. This was a last minute idea, I had a few new headbands for another project so they were perfect. 

Created the bottom two layers. Then folded flannel recieving blankets ($7.99 Gerber) into long rectangular pieces and wrapped those around the bottom two layers of the cake. I didn't center the blankets, but had them along the bottom of the layers. For the top layer I was stumped but finally decided to wrap one of the other recieving blankets around the rest of the paper towel tube. I had thought about tieing the 4 little hand rattles around the top layer as well. I like the blanket better. The diaper cream at the top was actually an good accident by the hubby. He was watching me do this and just stuck it in there playing around and I thought it worked. So I left it :)

I found spots for the four hand rattles (awesome deal-Garanimals $1.00 each at Wal-mart). I also strung two pacifiers in the middle section of each layer. Overall, for less than $30.00  and my first attempt, I think it looks GREAT! Check it out!

Diapers wrapped with clear bands

Best view of the head band hold each layers together

Hanging pacifiers

Garanimals $1.00 hand rattles

Diaper Cream Cake Topper

Pacifiers

Side view of cake

Finished Cake

So Cute!

Again, very happy with the final result! A little different shopping for baby boy items with my sweet princess at home. Hopefully it puts a smile on the mom's face :)

 Linked Up To:

Tatertots and Jello

30 Minute Living Room Make-over

After Ella's afternoon nap it looked like May outside but didn't feel like May so we were stuck inside for the rest of the day. With the sun shining in, it was giving me a little spring fever! We have been talking about rearranging our living room for a while now. We know we need a new paint color on the walls and have been saying for 2 years we were going to start looking for a leather sofa for the room, but still haven't. 

What we could do in an afternoon.. rearrange furniture! So, we did! 

Take a look at the before and after and let me know what you think! 

Before: View from kitchen

Before: View from dining room

Before: View from hallway

Before: From hallway facing north wall/front door

Before

After: sofa moved to old TV wall

After

After: north wall

After: doorway/window

After: south wall from doorway

After: view from kitchen

After

 

So, what do you think? Yes, I know we have A LOT of toys! We have a basement of toys too, but what do you do when you have a 15 month old?  I think its a BIG improvement that cost $0.00, can't beat that! After doing all of the moving, I realized, WOW I HAVE A LOT OF BROWN STUFF! Brown furniture, brown shelves, brown loveseat, brown chair, brown picture frames, brown brown, brown! At dinner Hubby said, "Yes, I've been joking about this for years, you didn't realize it until now?" So, its time to start looking for some different accents for the room. In a quick internet shopping spree I found the following. 

Possible Pillow Fabric-Amy Butler Fabric

We WILL be getting a new sofa similar to this one, but not with the hefty Pottery Barn price tag

Another Pillow Fabric option - Amy Butler

More Pillow Fabric-Amy Butler

More Pillow Fabric- Amy Butler

Possible accent chair-IKEA

Throw Blanket-Target

Another Throw Blanket option-Target

Paint color for lamp

Wall Paint

We have a wonderful slip-covered sectional sofa that was in this room when we moved in. Once we remodeled our basement, we felt it was better suited for that area. So we bought the love seat from a friend to use until we were ready to buy a leather sofa. The paint color was already on the wall when we moved in. We can't wait to paint it a lighter tan shade and add beautiful white trim! We are painting the trim one room at time, 2 down and 5 more to go??? I think the throw for the sofa and the painting of the lamp can happen this week! The throw pillows could happen soon too! I am already searching out the sofa! Give me a few weeks for a better After! :)

May Day Part 2

 Happy May Day! Our  baskets are done, are yours?

We ran out yesterday after afternoon napping was done to get all of the goodies for our May Day baskets. We shopped the dollar sections at Target, Joanne's, and then when I didn't find enough, walked over to Dollar Tree as well where we got some great freezer pop molds and bubbles. I also picked up the clear jars for Ella's teacher appreciation for her daycare teachers (will post later this week). 

These May Day baskets are not a super "crafty" project.. no sewing, hot gluing or painting involved but they are so cute and hopefully will brighten the day for the recipients. (since today is a terrible miserable day in Southern Minnesota). 

We decided on recipients. Shopped for goodies and baked some goodies. Then created the super simple baskets using 12 x 12 scrapbook paper in cute spring colors. Also involved was invisible tape, tags (from a scrapbook tag pad), ribbon, marker, card stock, and decorating scissors.

Here is the process in photos (sorry they are terrible, I am NOT a photographer :))

Cute scrapbook paper with wavy edges cut on 2 sides

Make a cone shape from scrapbook paper (decorative edge on top) I used invisible tape to hold together.

Make handles from card stock, I folded over and glued to make stronger.

Again I used invisible tape to secure handles to cone.

Add your tag.

Fill with goodies!

Happy May Day!

 A few more photos; some May Day Baskets for Ella's friends and some for our neighbors with baked goodies inside. 

Happy May Day! If you didn't make May Day baskets this year, think about it for next year. What a wonderful way to surprise friends and family and secretly thank them for all they do for you! I can't wait to deliver ours after morning napping is over. Happy Sunday to all!