Baby boy’s nursery.

Back when I originally planned this room’s paint color, I didn’t know whether the little one was going to be a boy or a girl. I loved the idea of a navy blue with bright white accents, regardless of the gender of the baby. Well, that decision played to my advantage this time around as well. If you remember, this is what the bedroom looked like when we bought the house, and then what the little one’s nursery looked like after some work:

I loved how her room turned out. It fit her well – bright, colorful, and happy. Once we found out we were having baby boy, we decided to keep the nursery as a nursery and move the little one into her own new big girl room. We had two main reasons for this: the bathroom in the nursery is really convenient because we use cloth diapers, and because we wouldn’t have to repaint, rebuild the crib, or re-do much of anything for that room. I love the navy, orange color scheme for a boy, so I was excited to get to use it this time around. I added in some grey and green too.

Here is baby’s boy nursery in its current state…

My mom bought new rugs, so I scored her old one for this room. It’s so nice having a soft rug in there…especially since the old wood floors are super creaky without it! I removed the button crib skirt I made and opted for no crib skirt this time around. I bought the little trash can at Big Lots for like $6 because it was perfect colors. We’ll use that for wipes, and we’ll keep the bigger white trash cans for the used cloth diapers. I also swapped out the Katie Daisy prints that I based the little one’s whole nursery on, and I used clip boards and prints I found either online or made myself. 

I bought the kelly green pendant light from Ikea for – get this – just $14.99. I was nervous it’d be too green, tut I think it adds nice variety to the space.

I kept the same orange changing table that I originally found on the side of the rode & painted. I used new scrapbook paper and modge podge to update the shelves to from flowery to stripes.

I loved how the little one’s colorful mobile turned out, but this time around I used scrapbook paper to make pinwheels, glued them to some twine, and created a new mobile for our little guy. {Just Google how to make a pinwheel. It was super easy!}

 

 

I had some extra pinwheels, so I made a little garland with them. I still need a lamp and some new decor items on the shelf.

    

I still have some ideas of things I’d like to add to the room, but for now, I’m happy with the results so far. :)

We are getting quite excited to meet baby boy. I can’t wait to see what kind of personality he has, how he looks, and how he and his big sister will interact. We have some exciting times ahead of us, that’s for sure!

A bridal shower brunch.

This weekend we threw Eugene’s brother’s fiancé, Kelsey, a bridal shower brunch. This shower was definitely a team effort. I had great help from Eugene’s family with the food, Eugene’s mom graciously allowed us to use her house, and his sisters helped me decorate. Whenever I get to help plan a shower, I usually try to have it in the morning as a brunch. First, breakfast is my favorite meal – the food’s amazing, and there’s something special about enjoying the first meal of the day with friends and family, starting completely fresh. Second, it’s really nice to still have most of your day free after a shower. Many showers are in the early afternoon – twoish – and that usually means you can’t really do much before the shower, and afterwards it’s too late to have any other plans. As an Event Planner, I think it’s nice to your guests (and you usually get a better turn out) if your event is at a convenient time. I know not everyone’s a morning person, but most women I talk to love and appreciate early showers. Just my own little opinion on that! ;)

Here are some of the details from the bridal shower brunch…

I used some chalkboard paint to make the wine glass favors for everyone. I had some extras which went home with the bride for her party stock. We filled the glasses with Mock Mimosas, which I made using orange juice and ginger ale. Turned out pretty yummy!

Eugene’s grandma stepped up to the plate to make us a donut cake for the shower, and she hit a homerun! How deliciously amazing does that look? I imagine heaven may look {and taste} a little like that!

I got a little creative with weddingchick.com “sweet love” wedding template and used it for a menu, invites, and food labels. You can find the info on how to make tissue paper flowers on my blog here. {Super easy!}

We had a coffee bar, egg casserole {this recipe except with a few modifications, mainly doubling the eggs}, banana bread, and the fixings for fresh yogurt parfaits.

The rest of the decor was pretty simple with Circut cut hearts made using paint chips, a monogram, tissue paper balls.

We played a game with movie quotes from famous romance movies. Most of our guests failed miserably at this game, so we thought it might be better to have a word bank of sorts to make it a little easier. It was still a fun game and gave us lots of laughs as everyone tried to figure out the answers.

 

I love this picture of the little one and my mom. She really wanted to just spend the whole morning showing Grandma the baby birds that are in the nest outside her Nana’s house.

The bride-to-be opened some lovely gifts, while answering questions her about her fiancé as she thought he would answer, i.e. what did Dillan say his pet peeve is? We hoped the questions would be a fun distraction during the opening of the gifts {which can get uncomfortable for the bride with all that attention!}

 

The other activity we had involved a Jenga game. The instructions for the active were as follows: “Grab a block from the tower, sign it, and write a special message to the soon-to-be newlyweds. Return the block to the bowl. Your happy thoughts, advice, and date night ideas will help them BUILD their lives together as husband & wife!” We had Kelsey draw a couple blocks and gave prizes to the winners. We also offered the opportunity to share the message with the group. We had some very wise advice ranging from working to be selfless in marriage, each spouse giving 100% {not each giving 50% to make 100%}, writing down the little things you love most about your spouse regularly so you don’t take those for granted and remember to be thankful for it all, and more. Now when the couple has a game night, they can be reminded of advice/date ideas/people who love and support them.

It was kind of a lot going on for the little one, but all things considered, she did pretty well through the shower.

Eugene’s sisters, mom, and Kelsey & me. I love these women…even if I am way taller than everyone else! Kelsey and I are certainly blessed to get to marry into this amazing family! :)

 

I hope Kelsey enjoyed her shower and felt super loved and encouraged. We’re excited for her to begin her new journey as a wifey!

Curious George Second Birthday.

The little one enjoyed a fun Curious George themed birthday party a week or so ago. She loves Curious George  so she was pretty excited when she found out her party was about the “hoo hoo haa haa, Goge.” I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest and pbs.com actually had a whole bunch of printables and ideas for the party too {link is here.} I printed some coloring pages, George cut-out masks, and DIY party hats from the PBS site for the kids at the party to play with/take home.

Here’s a bunch of pics from the day…

We served Hundley’s hot dogs, Chef Pisghetti’s mac and cheese, Farmer Renkin’s veggie salsa {recipe here}, popcorn, Curious George gushers, Twizzlers, The Man In The Yellow Hat lemonade, red velvet cupcakes, and George’s banana split bar {with homemade ice cream…thanks, Mom!}

 

 

 

 

She had all her favorite people there…

And she kept sneaking Twizzlers. I made a pillow case dress for her using some Curious George fabric I found from – of all places – Wal-Mart. {If you want to make a similar dress, just Google pillow case dress; there are tons of tutorials online.} Ironically, I thought she would love the dress, but she actually hated it. I may or may not have had to bribe her with a Twizzler to get her to let me put it on her. So odd!

The pic below about sums up her attitude about the dress. Grrr.

 

I had a little extra fabric, and the pup was much more willing to wear it as a bandana than the little one was to wear her dress. Go figure.

 

Her buddies showed up dressed perfectly themed with the party!   

 

I managed to sneak in one quick photo with my two-year-old. Love her.

Even though the invites said gifts weren’t necessary, she received loads of lovely things from her friends and family…

 

 

As a side note, my best friend & I are both due with baby boys just 11 days apart. This will be her 3rd boy, so she’s the expert I’ll call as I try to navigate the unchartered territory! 

 

The little one was on her new “cell phone” the whole time everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. Go figure. She’s two and already using the phone too much! Silly girl.

I love that I have a similar picture of her on her Daddy’s lap with her birthday cupcake one year ago at her Cute as a Button party. Gosh, how quickly time flies!

She seemed to enjoy her party…mainly the people who were there. Below is our 91 year old neighbor, Miss Ruth. The little one and Miss Ruth have a very special bond. They both look for each other outside all the time. The little one yells “Miss Roof!!” from inside our house, and I know that simply means she spotted the very active neighbor doing yard work again. It’s a necessary follow-up to put our shoes on and head over to her house to say hi. Miss Ruth loves the little one dearly; you can just see the joy on her face the moment she gets a hug from my girl. I’m telling you, these two have something very special going on.

It makes me so happy that the little one’s favorite part of the party was the people there. It’s a beautiful thing watching her get so happy to see her family and friends. She is so loved, and so loves others too.

 

Happy birthday to my sweet little monkey! :)