Isaac's First Birthday

My newborn is now a one year old, and I absolutely love it. This age is so awesome, he is so smart and interested in life! To celebrate my baby's first year of life, we had a small party at our home. Although I wanted to keep his party fairly simple and small, I couldn't wait to decorate and set up! I started working on decorations a few months in advance. The fabric garland hanging above the dessert table is the first thing I made. I filled pretty glass jars with blue and red candy, and framed a few of his one year photos. We went back and forth on just having cupcakes, or ordering a big cake.. In the end I am so happy we went with the cake from a local woman who bakes out of her home. The cake was so pretty and exactly what I had wanted, she did a great job! I'm a little sad it's gone. I had ordered a few cupcake toppers months prior, so although we had more than enough cake, my full term sister-in-law was still sweet enough to bake a batch of Reese's cupcakes for my boy's party, so that I could use my toppers. ;)

For the "1" canvas I just made a few pompom's and hot glued them on.

 This little hat was the most difficult thing I had to make, it took a lot of trial and error, but it ended up coming out so pretty! The only problem is that my boy did not like to wear it! I would try putting it on him weeks before the party and he wasn't having it, same thing the day of his party! But it was still pretty cute.

 This red and blue banner is made with wool felt and burlap. It's my favorite party decoration I made, and it's now hanging over Isaac's crib. I love it! The felt pieces are sewn on with a pretty zigzag stitch, and the banner is threaded with red and white twine.

 This sweet "Happy Birthday" banner was ordered from Bekah Jennings Etsy shop, It's well made so I hope to use it each year for birthdays!

 The highchair banner and fruit cup wrappers were made with my silhouette cameo machine.

I had Isaac's shirt made at a local screen printing shop called Artistic Stitches, it turned out perfect!

My baby had a lot of cake to eat! I thought it would be a little hard to watch him dig into a big sugary cake, but I loved it. He will just have to wait until his next birthday before experiencing something like that again. :)

It was a great day. My baby was in a really good mood throughout the party and really enjoyed it all.

Happy First Birthday, my darling boy!

I guess I still have a wee bit of craftiness in my bones after having a baby.

I bought mixed paint first but the color came out looking similar to vomit, and it was impossible trying to paint the curves and details on this shelf anyway, so I went back to the faithful Krylon spray paint.

I forgot to take a before picture, but luckily I found this one in my phone sent from Emily while her garage looked over this shelf for me.

AFTER

My husband has since rearranged and made things even better, but I wasn't going to take new pictures :)

I love my green shelf. It's even lovelier in person!

The old:

THE NEW

<3

Love me some chairs.

I haven't come across a single project that I love more than a simple chair in need of fresh paint and a new cushion print.

I picked up this lonely fella for a beautiful $3!!

 I used an old houndstooth fabric that I already had on hand.

Small Projects

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We went with a powder detergent for simpleness.

Here are the ingredients:

Pretty simple! & cheap.

Grade the bar of soap, mix in 1/2 cup of the borax and 1/2 cup of the washing soda. (I add a little extra of both just to feel like a winner, it's a habit)

It looks just like graded cheese, but the smell is pretty strong so don't worry about wanting to eat it :)

Mix everything together and voila!

I stored my mixture in a tupperware container, and only a tablespoon or two is required when washing, but I use about four.

We have been using it for a week and it really seems to be working well; The loads come out smelling delicious. The Fels-Naptha soap it pretty hard core and wont mix in all the way, but if you wash with warm or hot water it works just fine. If you wash with cold water I would say use a soap like Ivory.

Enjoy<3