Invites for little C's 1st

My Sons invites turned out so cute :) Since it was his first birthday I killed myself to get these done along with all the other house projects I am working on. I am crossing my fingers I finish painting the half bath by his birthday Just had to have a new color...whats wrong with me? Don't answer that :)

Washi Tape :) My new obsession

The first circle was altered to not show my sons name, it doesn't really look that crazy :)

Front Facing Car Seat

We went with the Evenflo Symphony 65 e3 All-In-One Convertible Car Seat (Hamilton) at $160 after coupons and ebates cashback from babies r us. 

Ebates is awesome by the way, I already have received $56 back for shopping online and refering a friend. all you need to do is sign up then when you want to shop online go to ebates first and search for the store you want to shop at. Click on the stores shop now button to go to their site and make a purchase. Ebates tracks that you got to lets say gap from clicking on the link from ebates and will reward you if you make a purchase. I like to see who is paying out the most and buy what I need from them. 

So $160 is still a lot of money but I figured I buy most of his clothes cheap at target so I can spend a little more on my big purchases.

It is extremely safe and easy to use. The seat reclines into 3 positions, has the sureLATCH system and easy adjust for height with the slide harness (my favorite part). No more fighting to get the shoulder straps through the seat base.

You can look into it further here

He loves it so very much

$5 target shirt

FYI, My little man has 8 teeth and working on the molars! They grow so fast. 

DIY Grip Socks

I recently upgraded little C to bigger socks and found that they were way more slippery than his old ones. Having wood floors made it hard for him to walk around....so I busted out the puff paint.

Do you call it puff paint? My husband has no idea what that is and thinks I made it up. 

I opted for the tulip slick glow in the dark paint. It was slick enough to still be able to get his shoes on but also have just enough grip to be able to walk around.

A simple and easy fix. 

It's coming up!!

This little mans birthday is coming up in the next week and with all our other renovation projects in full swing we are still crazy enough to throw a party. It's his first birthday! We have to do a party..even if the floors aren't all the way finished.

I am trying to lift the burden on myself by making it a late afternoon party and eliminating the need to prepare a meal. I will still have to make snack foods and of course cupcakes and a smash cake but it will be far easier to fit in our schedule.

I have been working on his decorations for some time now and am excited to show everyone the finished project. The hubby and I will have to be multitasking VERY SOON and watch tv while cutting out some of the pieces. I am sure he will be thrilled when I tell him he has to help cut things out :)

Here is a little sneak peak at some of the pieces. I went for a circus theme and simply updated a pack I already have and added a few things here and there.

I took my sons name out of the welcome sign. My husband is still a little unsure of if he feels comfortable having his name on the blog. I am not sure if it matters but am going to refrain from names for now.

My favorite thing right now is the straw flags..which I wasn't planning on having straws, so I may have to add a dish just to be able to use them.

New Hair for Baby and Me

C's hair was getting a bit long and started to naturally form into a Mohawk. I love it but it was time to have his first hair cut! He looks like such a big boy now with his hair cut and all his newborn strawberry blonde is gone and its straight platinum blonde left.

A glimpse at our new hardwood floors

As for me, I decided it was time to give doing my own hair a try. I used Revlon frost and glow and it turned out so AMAZING! I am just itching to do it again. The worst part was doing the back of the head and would suggest asking someone to help out. I decided to do this while my hubby was gone and had no help and it still turned out awesome. At the $10-$15 price tag it far exceeded my expectations.

Baby proofing

It's been a while.... sorry. We have been very busy with large scale projects. While working on staining our kitchen cabinets we decided to also install wood floors all downstairs. While raising our little man it has been very time consuming. The floors derailed my cabinets for a little bit but are now just about done.

Our little man has gotten so big he decided it was time to play with his toys on the entertainment center and to grab the tv corner. After first needing to put on doors to our entertainment center.

Yes it is from Ikea. Sometimes you just have to buy cheap and thank goodness we did because it was so easy 2 years later to go and pick up some doors for it at $15 a piece.

After about 2 mins C figured out how to get the doors open and pulled our dvd player right out of the shelf..again. Then the blue tape went up.

Our next step was getting the mount up on the wall high enough to be out of reach of the little one. This was one ordeal as we had three adults that all had a different way of doing it. In the end It was put up and that is what matters.

We got our mount at Monoprice and at a great price!! it was under $50 dollars out with taxes and shipping for a fulling adjustable 46" mount. They offered great overnight shipping for $9. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing a tv mount.

We have not yet installed the wood floor under the tv

Yes..I may have been watching Glee and Little C's favorite thing is to play with his toys on the entertainment center

It took a little bit to get used to the height but now that I have had a few days I am loving it. I still need to get the cords all worked out but that can wait until after our floors are finished.

I apologize for the horrid pictures my camera battery decided that it no longer wanted to work.....

Tunnel Time

My growing boy is all about getting into things. I wanted to try and find a new outlet for him instead of climbing in our shelves. (Which he still loves to do still) For the $15 price tag this tunnel was a great find. My little man wasn't afraid to go through it when we got it open and figured out how to do it on his own in minutes. Now after having it for a few weeks he loves to just go through it on his own or play peek a boo with us.

Positives:

It closes up and opens easy

Small and easy to store once closed

Soft with no sharp edges or hard spots

Negatives:

Makes my house seem messy..er when it is out

You looking at me mom?

Halloween 2012

It's a little late but here are a few shots from our Halloween.

Yes I am that short next to my hubby.

Little Man C was Popeye. It was really easy to make his costume :)

Loving walking around at night.

I got my new iPhone 5 in the mail on Halloween . I left the film on so it had a weird glare in the pics and little man C wasn't used to the flash yet :)

Update on Cabinets

Remember way back when I posted on refinishing my kitchen cabinets?! yes about a month ago now. Well.... I am sad to say I am still working on them. Gasp!! I know it is taking forever. I attribute it to needing to wait for things to dry and a baby boy that always wants his mommy. I am hoping to have everything done by thanksgiving, then I will have a kitchen to be thankful for. :)

Here is our bathroom that I did before the kitchen... It went a lot faster.

So I figured I could at least give an update for now and some tips for those of you that are trying out the same thing.

Tips:
1. Use a liquid sandpaper (Citristrip gel) on the drawers and doors. I found that it was a lot better at striping the wood than just sanding. I really want to get a good even smooth stain on the most noticeable parts of my cabinets. I did not use it on the frame as I didn't want to deal with the mess. Just did it on the large sides that were built in and sanded the rest.
2. Use the mineral wash recommend to get all the leftovers off the wood before and after sanding. It helped just to make sure the all the citristrip was off before the stain. It was also very helpful to get stain and topcoat off my hands.
3. Use larger tape then 1". I use 1" painters tape to tape off areas and I still got paint on the walls. It was hard to get my tools in the small areas.
4. Use a smooth sponge. Now there are others that say to use a sock but I found that a smooth sponge worked so much better to get a smooth coat on the wood. The sock wood leave marks where the toe stitch was and was hard to get an even coat.
5. Remove all hardware (cabinet hinge's) and appliances. I asked mt husband to do this for me and he said it would be fine and I may have gotten stain on stuff ...oppps I know you may not care about stain on your hinges but I kinda wish I had taken the time to do it cause it isn't very clean of a look.

Guest Post by Twist Me Pretty (Formally known as My Yellow Sandbox)

Hello!  I'm Abby from My Yellow Sandbox Twist Me Pretty.

My blog started out as My Yellow Sandbox.  It was originally a place to compile all the crafts and interior decor I saw and loved online.  Yes... before Pinterest!   As I happened upon a love of hairstyles and found my niche in this online world, I decided to change the name to Twist Me Pretty.  To celebrate the new name and look I've teamed up with my favorite shops and bloggers to bring you a massive giveaway.  A giveaway to top all giveaways.  There will be over $1,500 in prizes and over sixty five winners!  

 To enter the rafflecopter and see what exactly is up for grabs visit twistmepretty.com

You might find a little of this over there too... :-)

The Fall Season is coming up

It may be a little early but I am huge on preparing ahead of time.

Here is a free printable for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Sili Squeeze review

I normally don't normally buy products and end up hating them... but this is one of them. As it is a newer product (I think) and there were not many product reviews out there for me to read I decided to take a chance on it. I thought "Oh yes this will be much better than the Little green bag I want to get" ... Boy was I wrong.

The spill proof nipple is way to hard for my 7 and a half month old to get anything out of. Then when I tried it it was way to hard for even me to get anything out. The company says that it is harder for me to do as it is designed for little mouths and that little C just needed to learn how to use it. After using the squeeze with ease nipple I still have complaints. Yes Little C likes it for the first few bites but then after the silicone bag is no longer full he cannot get anything else out. It was too hard for him to suck the bottom portion out for the container because of the shape.

He has used the regular store bought pouches that come with food in them and has had no problem getting the entire portion out of the bag. Yes the Sili Squeeze may be better for an older child but at that point a child can have slices of apples and not need apple sauce.

I would say this product was a major let down for me and not worth the money at all. I wish I had more pictures of the extremely fussy baby with this product but as I said he was EXTREMELY FUSSY!! I would be too if I was hungry and the food would just not get in my tummy. :)

Baby Boy Boots

I really want something for my little mans feet during the semi cold season. I know that when I have just socks on my feet are still cold so why would he be any different?!

I have a box full of old clothes that are no longer wearable and decided it was the best place to go for fabric. YEP! that old flannel shirt from high school is perfect!!

After taking off the sleeves and cutting out my pattern I pinned my inner and outer fabric together.

I am not the best at sewing so I try to make things a little easier when I can. The proper way to do this pattern is to sew the inner fabric all together to form the liner and then sew it to the top of the outer liner..I have tried this before and I find my two pieces didn't fit well together and it was very difficult because of the size of the shoes.

I sewed the inner and outer pieces together and then sewed the boot/slipper together. I decided I wanted the fabric seems on the outside of the boot to make it a little more rugged for my boy.

I didn't want him to look like he was wearing girlie shoes.

Add a little elastic to the heal to keep those bad boys on and TA DA ... done

The stretchy jersey fabric on the inside is nice and soft on his skin and the flannel on the outside will help to keep in the warmth.

Next I shall make some for when it gets really cold. :)

**We have carpet in most of our home right now but hope to upgrade to all wood very soon. When that happens I am going to add a design in hot glue on the bottom of all the shoes I make so my little one has a some grip.