Plant Stand Party

A few months ago I fell in love with a DIY (Do it Yourself) plant stand on an interior designers blog. Soooooo, I decided to have a party with my friends and make them! As you can see - they turned it pretty cool! 

DIY - Ikea Bookshelf

Andrew's birthday is quickly approaching and I wanted to get him a beautiful custom bookshelf for our bedroom. Unfortunately his standards are pretty high - and we haven't been able to find one that we both like. Having one custom made is also problematic because it can be very expensive. And what if we don't like the finished product?!?!

Today I was researching online and an ikea hackers website popped up with a really cool looking low bookcase that is easy to make! Click here to see how.

I showed Andrew and he agreed it would be fun to try and do this together. I promise to post lots of pictures of us attempting to make this!

DIY - Shells

Every morning we wake up and take a walk along the beach in search of the perfect sea shells. Olive usually finds the best ones. Since the color dulls when they dry - I decided to do a fun project to make them look bright and pretty all the time.

Here's all you need: Sea shells, mod podge spray, and wax paper.

After cleaning the shells - put them on the wax paper and spray. It's THAT easy. And look how amazing they look after.

* we bought the starfish at a cute little store on Balboa Island.

Crochet-a-thon

As most of you know - my mother in law is pretty amazing when it comes to crocheting and knitting. She can whip up something special in about 2 seconds. I've always been amazed at her skills so a few months ago she taught me a few things. I realized I wanted to spread the love and have a party so that my friends could also learn a few basics!  Sunday afternoon I had 10 ladies over for lunch, wine, and lots of crocheting. Thankfully Carolyn is a fantastic teacher and most of the ladies got the hang of it in no time!  

Rainbow Flowers

The finished product!

Colorful Carnations

What you'll need:

- white carnations

- food dye

- scissors

- water

- cups

I'm always trying to find fun things to do with Olive that are quick and easy. I remember doing this exact thing when I was kid! It's always amazing to wake up in the morning to find that the flowers have soaked the colors up. Especially when your 3 - it seems like magic!

I'll post a picture of our colorful flowers soon.

*note: use 20-30 drops of dye for bright colors. 

Blanket Made With Love

As most of you know - my mother in law is AMAZING when it comes to making homemade blankets, toys, sweaters, etc. It's been my goal for the longest time to have her teach me how to crochet. The thought of being able to make baby blankets for my grandkids is pretty exciting. 

This year for Christmas Carolyn got me a set of crochet needles and all the other things I would need to get started. Next up - she found a sweet granny square patterned blanket, gave me some old yarn, and a lot of pointers. I have to admit - my blanket is really quite good. Of course after all my hard work, I gave the blanket to Olive. I wanted my little girl to have the first thing I'd ever made. This is what she said to me when I was finally done and let her hold it for the first time, "Mommy, It's so beautiful!" It almost broke my heart it was so sweet. She sleeps with it every night which makes me so so so happy.

*the blanket above is the one I made - can you believe it!!!

Do It Yourself - Bookends

I saw this cool DIY on one of my favorite blogs here. Seems easy enough, right? All you need is metallic gold spray paint and some rocks! Olive and I did it this afternoon, and I have to admit our new bookends look pretty sweet. I'll post a picture of them in our office as soon as they dry.

Easter Egg Time

Now that Olive is a full fledged toddler, everything is much more fun. She gets excited over the smallest things. Case in point - we dyed Easter eggs yesterday and it completely changed her world. 

It helped that we had been talking about it for weeks so she was extra excited. She sat patiently and even helped pour the vinegar into each cup. 

I'm also proud to say that Olive did most of the egg dying all by herself! Of course most of her eggs ended up being her favorite color - BLUE!

There were no messy disasters until she decided to pour all the glitter into each cup of dye. But who doesn't LOVE glitter?

All in all - it was a blast and Olive absolutely loved it. Now I can't wait for her to have an Easter egg hunt and Grandma and Grandpas!

*note: I know it doesn't look like Andrew was there - but he took all the awesome pictures!

DIY - Cool Notebooks

The materials:

- Moleskine Kraft notebooks

- Scissors

- Washi Tape

I got the idea for these notebook here. This project is so simple and easy - it only takes about 5 minutes! Just place the tape in any design style you like and make sure it goes on both the inside and backside jacket of notebook.  

(Here's how mine turned out - not too shabby!)

DIY - Crowns

One of the girls that ran the blogshop class has a cool website that I love to check out.  The other day she posted a Do-It-Yourself Crown project and I knew that Olive and I had to try it!

Our crowns didn't turn out as perfect as hers - but I think Olive loved them anyway!