Someone thinks I'm Stylish!!

A BIG "thank you" to Toni for awarding me with the Stylish Blogger Award!! I feel so honored, since I am pretty new at this and this is my very first award!!  Check out Toni's blog, she has some really cute stuff all occasions!

To accept this award the recipients are asked to do a few things.

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 10-15 blogs you feel deserve the award
4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

7 Things About Me:

1.  I am currently 7 1/2 months pregnant with our first born babe!
2.  I L-O-V-E to decorate my home!
3.  I am addicted to the tv shows Friends and Modern Family.
4.  I have been with my wonderfully loving husband for 11 years, married for 5 and many more years to come!
5.  I am crazy about my doggies, Starrla, my dear companion and Nova, my BIG goofball.  They won't know what hit them when our little one arrives and they are no longer the center of attention!
6.  I love to cook and am pretty darn good at it! 
7.  I actually enjoy running and working out!

Some blogs here that I follow (and you should too) that think are also worthy of this award...

The Curvy Life
I like it, I love it!
It's A Wannabe Decorator's Life
Dear Lillie
abode love: a man's home is his wife's castle
Spearmint Baby
Blue Cardinal
A Bloggy Mom
Just So Scrappy
Trend Setting Mom

Mantle Madness!

My husband and I have been the proud owners of a cute custom home for 6 years this June.  Lately, we have been doing several (and I mean several) projects to update and personalize our home.  It's something we've been needing to do for a while and the anticipated arrival of our first born son, it was just enough to kick us into gear and get the ball rolling on these projects.

First up on the list: the mantle!  We have one of those fireplaces built into the corner of our living area and the mantle that was originally on it was awful!!  For some reason the previous owner thought it would be cute to glaze it, not the cute way most people glaze their kitchen cabinets, no she had so much glaze on there it almost looked stained. 

One weekend while I was away my husband painted it white for me and it looked much better!

Don't worry I had it decorated, this picture was taken right before it was torn down.

Now as you can see on the right I have windows, this created a big problem as to how we could get a new mantle to fit if we extended it around the corners of the wall it's on.  But my brilliant father figured out a way!  This friends is why it's a perk to be the daughter of a man who is an insanely talented carpenter/trim and cabinet builder!

Good riddance!!

Now it was time to get a template built and get all the little extras I wanted.

The trim

My dad got to work building the template and put it together, then took it over to my house to see if it fit...

(Sorry for the blur)

Now that we know it fits, the extras need to be added!!

It even looks beautiful without paint!

All mounted, painted and decorated!

The detail:

I think it turned out great!!  Thank you daddy! 

We have alot more updates to do and I will be sure to keep you all updated on them!

Nursery D.I.Y. - Wall Art

Well, I have searched high and low for the perfect "quirky" piece of art to go on the big, bare wall which Zane's changing table sets up against.  Not an easy task when I am an extremely picky pregnant person and also a bargain shopper!  I had many requirements to which this piece of art must meet!  First, it had to be big enough to hold its own on this wall!  Second, it had to go with my theme and colors and most importantly it needed to be within my budget! 

I had set on the theme of owls, they seem to be all the rage right now.  The colors of Zane's nursery are black, cream, and an apple green.  I didn't want the traditional blues or browns. And when it came to this piece of art, I decided the only way I was going to get what I wanted was to make it myself!  And that terrified me because I am my own worst critic!

Luckily for me, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law recently bought a Cricut.  This nifty little machine cuts out all sorts of designs, animals, letters, you name it!  I headed over to Hobby Lobby and bought several sheets of scrapbooking paper, felt, a large blank canvas (all on sale I might add) and some Mod Podge.  

My sister-in-law and I met at my house and got to work! First up - the owls!  She bought a cartridge that had many to choose from and I would pick the paper I thought would make the cutest owls.  That took some trial and error but we finally got it right!  Over the next couple days I sat at the dining room table experimenting with fonts and their size and all the little "extras" that would go on my creation.  I decided this canvas could not stay white since the wall was a light cream color.  I chose a light blue/grey color and got that sucker painted! (Ok...my hubby got that sucker painted).  After I got all the owls and extras cut out along with the letters I went to decoupaging everything on my painted canvas.  I also wanted a little depth and dimension to my work of art so I opted for button eyes on the owls and felt beaks and clouds.  All this combined I thought would give me the quirkiness I envisioned!  See what you think??

Meet My Zane!

This year for my husband and my 5 year Anniversary we decided to do something fun and for the whole family.  It's not too often this chance comes around to have a 3D sonogram that falls on the date of your anniversary, so we took advantage!  Supposedly the best times to have this done is around the 28th-32nd week of your pregnancy, this is to allow the fat to accumulate on your growing little baby! 

There is this fabulous little spa in Rockwall just for preggo's, La Bella Belly.  I have visited once before to get a prenatal massage and loved it!  They also offer facials, pedicures, manicures and my fave 3D sonograms, and much more!! 

I invited the immediate family to share in the fun, unique experience and I can speak for us all that we loved EVERY minute of it!  Here are some great shots we got of our son, Zane!

So peaceful!

He definitely has my husband's lips!

Here with his hand over his eye, LOVE it!

Pondering life...

Resting his face on his little hand

Sticking his tongue out, I believe he is trying to get to his thumb here!  Taking after his mommy and may be a thumb sucker

His father makes this face too!  I love those lips!



Of course I am a proud momma!  And just can't get enough of these pictures!  We also received a teddy bear that when you squeeze it's tummy you hear Zane's heartbeat, it's a wonderful little gift!  In addition, we went home with a dvd, set to music of the entire sonogram and the cd with all the still pictures.  I will be honest this experience was a little bit pricey, but it is worth EVERY PENNY!! 







Nursery Project

One more nursery project down! 
I finally ordered Zane's mobile for his nursery.  It goes with his bedding and I just love the colors, what I didn't love was the danglies that came on the mobile:

Be my guest as to what those are supposed to be??  I did not think they looked "baby" nor could I decipher what in the world these things were, so I wanted to add my own touch of course!

I got to shopping on, that's right you guessed it, Etsy!  Since I am incorporating owls into his nursery I had the perfect thing in mind!  I found a wonderful page called Purty Bird, they didn't have the exact colors I wanted so I contacted the seller and asked for a custom order. In no time at all she had created just what I wanted.



It's hard to see here, but the stitching is that light green as is in the bedding.

So all I had to do now is get that mobile ordered and get to work!  I bought some loops at Hobby Lobby to thread through the plush danglies and attach to the mobile.



Then I was going to remove those random danglies and use the already sewn on ribbon and loop it through those hoops!  I originally bought some permanent fabric glue to adhere the ribbon to itself.  However, that didn't work so my hubby came to the rescue and got out a needle and thread (I don't sew) and sewed the ribbon together!  What a guy!!

I have to say it looks pretty cute!!!!  I am very pleased with how it looks! 

I hope Zane likes it as much as we do!

Nursery D.I.Y. - Plus a Sneak Peek!

Baby Zane's arrival date is quickly approaching, so I have been working away to getting his room ready!  The hard part is FINALLY over!!  Meaning the walls are painted and the centerpiece on the main wall is done!  Hallelujah!!  So here is what I envisioned:

Stripes!

 I wanted to create something fun, so I decided stripes would look great since there are stripes in the bedding too!  First we painted the entire room the cream color you see.  Next, thanks to my ever so handy, construction savvy dad, he measured and drew out the stripes in no time flat!  Then we taped it off and went to work!

Here it is all painted!  There were some areas that needed some touching up, so I got started straightening those lines up!  Talk about teadious work, especially with my very keen eyesight and perfectionist nature!

What I envisioned next was a wall vinyl with his initial, Z.  I wanted something classy yet not feminine, so off to Etsy I went on a mission to find the perfect decal!  Done!

Not just that, it needed a little something extra so I decided an open black frame would do just the trick!  So I headed to my local Hobby Lobby in search for the perfect frame!  It had to be big and it had to be perfectly square and also detailed to bring some elegance.  As luck would have it, I found it!  It was exactly what I wanted and there was only 1 left, not to mention 66% off!!  What a steal!!! 

On the agenda next was to hang these fabulous finds and they have to be perfectly straight, again there's that perfectionist in me!  My dearest hubby thought he was up to the task to please his hormonal and picky wife.  I have to say he did great! 

He very kindly painted the frame solid black and I looped some ribbon through to hang it by, and also giving it some extra cuteness!!  Here he is holding it for me so I could determine how high it needed to be and if it was centered etc.

Next came strategically placing the decal, again perfectly in the center.

Ready for adhesion!!!

Voila!!!

 

 View walking in

 

Ok, as if that weren't enough, I wanted to replace the knob pulls on the dresser/changer.  The ones that came on it were rather plain and I wanted something more. 

Before:

(Ignore the random accessories)

 

So again, off to the trusty Hobby Lobby! I found some that were the right colors of the nursery and striped, and also 50% off! What luck!!  

This picture does not do them much justice, but in person it looks GREAT!!!!

And closer up....

My projects are completed for now, I have another on the way and I will let you in on that fun activity soon!  Hope you enjoyed my project adventure and the sneak peek into Zane's domain!