Wednesday, February 29, 2012

To Leap...

John taking a leap in Tuscany 2011
Happy Leap Day, everyone!  Do you have any amazing plans for today?  What about this leap year?

First, I'd like to wish everyone born on this day a Happy Birthday!  It must stink to only celebrate your birthday once every four years...

Anyway, on this day, February 29th, I'd like to make a resolution of sorts.  




To leap, to jump and to soar without care.  To feel the wind in my hair and the air under my feet.  To feel the weightlessness and find comfort in it (not fear).

Marilyn leaping on the beach (pinterest)
To say what I'm thinking or feeling even if it may not be a popular opinion.  To chose the path last travelled.  It is my goal to try more things this year.  To make more connections. To be more creative.  To write, to paint, to dance, to sing (possibly even karaoke), to snorkel, to paddle board, to take more mini adventures.  Most of all to find more time to spend with my husband and kids.

I hope you will take a leap this year and take some risks (even if your leap is to try a cappuccino for the first time or to pull that bikini from the back of your drawer).

Oh, and if you haven't already seen the movie Leap Year - today is the day you should watch it!  It is very sweet.  I do love my rom/coms.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Bonjour, Antoinette!

(After)
Meet Antoinette!  Isn't she lovely?  A vintage table painted in Old White mixed with Annie Sloan's brand new color, Antoinette.  When I saw this pale pink I knew I had to have it for this table.  Nancy at the Sea Rose Cottage sent me one of her sample pints:


It is the most beautiful pink with a hint of brown to make it look more like the color of old roses or plaster than bubble gum.

This table needed a little TLC when I got her.

(Before)

She had some drink circles and some other blemishes.  Nothing a little clear shellac and chalk paint couldn't fix.  First, I coated the entire table in clear shellac and let it dry:


Then I painted two coats of Antoinette.  I knew Old White would bring out the lovely carved detail of the legs.



Two coats of old white was applied to the legs.  Oh, and did I mention that I love stripes?  I thought fun, broad stripes was just what my little table needed.  


They remind me of the pink and white cakes that Mother Goose served at her tea party or the lovely stripes of a circus tent from a fairy tale.



With three shelves there is plenty of room to store the odd shell, trinkets and books.  This sweet little table would be the perfect addition to a little girl's bedroom as a bedside table or a big girl's living room next to her reading chair.  


Antoinette is looking for a new home so if you know any big or little girls who  love pink send them my way.

Linking to:

Miss Mustard Seed's Creative Blog{Primp}French Country CottageFunky Junk's Sat Nite SpecialtoomuchtimeTip Junkie handmade projects



Monday, February 27, 2012

Lego Birthday!

John's 6th birthday!
I can't believe our son is 6 years old!  Crazy how time has flown by so quickly.  The early baby days seemed to go so much slower... Now, he's growing up so quickly...  To celebrate this very special day we had a lego party at our house.  In previous years we had parties at various places with loads of friends, but on his 5th birthday John was in tears twice.  So this year we decided to do a smaller affair with only a few friends and loads of legos (because he loves them).

I'm so excited to share the party with you.  First, I made his invitations using Picnik.  I found a great image on the internet (John loved all the mini figures) and then added the text and printed on card stock:

The invitation
For the goodie bags we used brightly colored bags I got on sale at Target and glued circles onto them to look like legos.  I also used the lego font for the labels:


The bags were filled with a little creator toy set from lego,  a mini figure, a hand tattoo puppet and candy lego blocks (these were a big hit):


Upon arrival our little guests were greeted at our front door by a giant red J with legos on it.  I painted it red because that is John's favorite color:

John's lego J
The table was set up with crayons and little books of lego coloring pages I found on the internet.  I covered the table in brown paper from Staples, figuring that they could color on it and it didn't matter.  The loved this!  The kids colored until everyone arrived:


Also, on the table were extra lego blocks for fun play and chocolate dipped marshmallows.  I saw this on pinterest and thought it looked so cute.  Conor and I made them using the yellow candy melts from Michael's and, unfortunately, they didn't look as good as the ones I saw on pinterest (I think the edible pen I got at Michael's had dried out or something - it was hard to draw the faces on).  Anyway, some of the kids liked them so that was cool, John said they hurt his teeth.

John loved coming up with some games for his friends to play.  We played find the lego guys - we hid several duplo lego men around the house and the boys had to find them.  We played "how many legos?" where the kids had to guess how many legos were in the jar and the winner went home with all of them. Finally, we played pin the head on the lego man:


Luke found this great image online and photoshopped the image to make the lego man lose his head.  We printed it out on card-stock.  I spun the kids around three times blind-folded, but they all pinned the head right where it was meant to go.  I think there was some peeking even though they all denied it!


Here is what the kitchen looked like.  The balloons were tied to mason jars filled with legos.  Conor and I made the banner "Happy 6th Birthday John!" using card stock, the lego font and yellow glitter:



I used a lot of yellow for the table settings.  Yellow plates which I drew on with a sharpie, to look like lego faces, and polka dot napkins, both from Target.  I did a different face at each chair and the boys laughed at the funny faces.  The paper chain of lego men was from a template from this website.  




John made the center piece himself:




The boys enjoyed pizza: 


But most of all, I think they enjoyed playing with the legos.  They played:



and played:

and played:

The only reason they stopped was it was time for cupcakes!


We all sang and John made a wish.  It was a great party.  There was no mess or meltdowns and the birthday boy loved it.

John making a wish
When everyone had gone home, he told me, "it was the best birthday ever!"  Music to a mother's ears!

Linking to:

{Primp}French Country CottageFunky Junk's Sat Nite SpecialtoomuchtimeTip Junkie handmade projects