Handmade Gifts...

I've got a couple of birthdays and a baby shower coming soon in my family. I love to give handmade things! Thanks to pinterest these days and a talented blog world of tutorials, literally anything is giftable/craftable/makeable, etc.! I've decided to try and make the handmade scrubs, lotion and deodorizing disks. While I wait for my shipment of essential oils, I'm crafting cute labels!

It's a Birthday Series: Custom T-Shirt

I've been busy sanding down my dresser! The finish was so rich it's been taking quite a bit of time to sand off, especially in the tiny areas!!

In the mean time, I'll be posting about my son's birthday party...

Today, I will share with you one of the first projects I tackled after deciding my son's second birthday party theme...a no-sew custom birthday t-shirt!

 

The first thing I started with was a t-shirt and fabric in the color of my son's birthday theme: Under the Sea...blue, green and orange.

 

 

I found a whale template on google images. It was perfect and cute!

 

 

I cut out a number 2 freehand and took a few minutes to place my cut outs. It took some rearranging, but after they were set I was really happy with the design!

Once everything was set where I wanted them, I used liquid stich to glue them on. After allowing the glue to dry 24 hours, I went around all of the edges of the fabric with puff paint to seal the edges.

 

 

 The front of the completed shirt looked like this...

 

And the back like this...

For my son's name I actually used an ABC puzzle as a template for the letters. I freehanded the 2...not perfect, but it worked!

 

I never got a decent picture of Emerson wearing his shirt at his birthday party, but he sure was a handsome little guy!!



 

 

 

Children's Dresser....Part I

We are expecting another boy in a few months and have been slowly re-organizing, transitioning and awaiting his arrival in April! :) I found Emerson a toddler bed on a Facebook Buy/Sell page for $40...we couldn't go wrong. He transitioned well. The crib has been sitting empty for the time being however we still use the changing table with baskets for his diapers and clothes. I'd like to have a place to put all of baby boy's things just as I did for Emerson. That said, I've been searching for a dresser to move Emerson's things too. I looked on craigslist sporadically, had ideas from Pottery Barn Kids, and had been putting off taking a peek for something at the local Goodwill, Habitat ReStore and Salvation Army Thrift Stores. It just so happened that we were driving past the Salvation Army Thrift store and we had the truck so we stopped in. So happy we did! For a $25 investment, we snagged this...

 

I removed the hardware and started sanding....stay tuned for more updates! I'm so excited to finish this dresser and choose a stain that matches E's toddler bed so he will have a matching furniture set just like his little brother!

Birthday Party! The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This post is a flashback to 2011 when we celebrated my son's first birthday! He is big into books...loves to be read to, page through books, read the same books over and over and over again...

Searching pinterest for the perfect birthday party theme, I knew The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a good fit for his first party!

It was a simple first party with a very few special things!

I made Emerson a custom birthday t-shirt out of a plain white onesie and green, red and purple scrap fabrics. This was a no-sew shirt...thanks to liquid stitch! I used puff paints in the same green, red and purple to help seal the edges of the fabric. Yellow and green paint made the eyes and mouth and brown made the caterpillar's cute little legs. This was a completely free-handed project. I just cut things to size and rearranged them as needed. I didn't follow any sort of pattern only a little inspiration from my son's finger puppet book! He enjoyed the shirt many times after his party too! It held up great and we always got nice compliments! :)

I set pretty high standards for myself as I was preparing for his party...there are so many talented bakers out there who could've knocked the socks off of my son's caterpillar cupcakes, but I told myself I'd make all of my kids their birthday cakes/cupcakes!  Pretty easy for me to say now as I only have one son (so far) and this was his first birthday party! Gasp! It took two batches of cupcakes and two batches of frosting. A lot of supplies and time however to me there is nothing more special than something homemade. I arranged the cupcakes in a caterpillar shape and frosted them accordingly using a simple wilton decorator. I took the picture too soon as I added purple spirally antenna and black feet out of pipe cleaners to complete Mr. Caterpillar's look.

Emerson has five cousins so far and with kids jello is always a big hit. Especially jigglers...why the jello gets eaten when cut into cute shapes over being molded in a bowl is beyond me! Actually, I'm sure it's the fact that the kids can say"we can eat with it our fingers"!  I made green and red jello (a couple boxes of each) and let it set in a 9x13 pan and then used a round cut-out to make the shapes for the body and the head. A few pieces of black, purple, green and yellow jello and the caterpillar was complete.

And last but not least, for that personalized touch, a custom banner!

I had so much fun doing this and it's so hard to believe, my little boy will soon be 2!

Stay tuned for his 2nd Birthday Party: Under the Sea!

 

Goals for the blog!

Let me begin by saying, this is my third attempt at "blogging"...I hope my third time is a charm! white house, red barn will be an attempt to mesh everything together in our life: our family, home, farm and homemade goodies! I have a creative side to me, I could get lost for hours searching pinterest, reading blogs and being that typical person saying, "I could totally make that!"

 

My goals for the content of this blog are the following:

 

Share things that are helpful to our family as we live our simple, but very busy, everyday life

Serve as my creative journal as I craft/make/cook/create things for our children, the holidays, parties and family

Inspire others to create their own DIY things that work well for them

Share our weekly meal planning ideas

Keep our home office organized/functional/workable

Be our renovation notebook as we tackle our dream home and small hobby farm

 

I hope you will find my things interesting, creative, helpful, etc. I hope to inspire others, just as I have been so in awe over the years. I figured this was my shot at the blog bandwagon too!