Simple Frozen Party

8 years old and this is the first legitimate "friend" party I've thrown her.

I always thought that the big themed parties were expensive, stressful, and unnecessary.

While it still may not be exactly necessary they most deinifiely can be done much cheaper and with no stress!

Now before you send me to Mom jail, know that we always celebrate our kids birthdays. But our normal style has been to have a friend come and do a special activity.

Not invite a dozen friends over and run a muck (amuck? a muck? amoch?)

So I'm here to tell you (2 months later) that I survived a friend party. 

With a dozen girls. 

And no mucks were run.

Simple photoshop work and printed photos at CVS at .19/invite to hand out.

Muuuuch cheaper than buying invitations to mail.

(address & phone were covered cause the party's over folks...no need to show up at my door!)

Now cake is my arch nemesis. I can't decorate cake to save my life.

I can build furniture.

I can tile a kitchen.

But I can't decorate a pretty cake.

We all have crosses to bear.

So a simple blue velvet box mix and white icing. 

The play set of Frozen figurines we gave her just the day before?

I took backsies.

Just for the party.

Bunting flag made from washi tape and pom pom fringe I had in a craft drawer.

Suspended over the cake with wooden skewers.

Thats how I roll.

The menu? snowballs and Olaf noses.

Blue lemonade, and blue rock candy which we passed out as our visitors left (in leu of goodie bags)

Those came from Oriental Trading.

The tables were draped in plastic table cloths from Walmart and a table runner of wrapping paper. 

Silver fringe background was a door fringe that I just cut off the common ribbon and draped across a wire that was already running across the wall (to display art!)

White tissue pom poms are super easy...and mildly therapeutic to make.

One search on Pinterest and you'll find a jillion tutorials. 

A nail polish session and riveting game of "Pin the tooth on Olaf" and the party was half over.

By the time we opened presents and ate cake parents were showing up at the door.

No stress.

No muck running.

A great time was had by all.

Even little brothers.

Kitchen Nesting

The closer I get to my due date, the more I begin to 'Nest'. Which I love btw (as long as the energy to complete the project comes too). Less than 7 days to go!

Yesterday I thought I would take on the 27 cabinet kitchen of mine. (The thinking behind this, not really sure, because I know just as much as you that this project isn't #1 on the list of things to do before baby arrives.) But since I did this I thought I would share with you few tips and tricks I took to along the way.

##1 Everything should have a place (Yes we all knew that one). But I also love to find ways that work out with our busy day to day lives. So everything should be placed on purpose.

With this I strategically place things in the kitchen.

- Dishes in the cabinet above the dishwasher.

- Coffee, coffee cups and drink mixes above the coffee machine.

- These awesome new jars in the photo above were my happy mail today, I filled them up with our cereal we use often(sometimes more than one bowl a day ;)) And I placed them just below the cabinet with the bowls.

- I have a cabinet that keeps a bread basket (for the different types of breads, wraps, sandwich thins we use) right next to the bin holding the PB, honey, you get the picture.

##2 Make it easier on yourself. Okay a lot of the above would definitely fit into this one also.

- I went to the dollar store yesterday and picked up different bins that would fit into my cabinets. Everything fits so nicely into each bin. They are labeled on the fronts with the cute new labels found in the dollar bin at Target. And that helps me to be able to keep track of what we have and will make it a lot easier when I check the cabinets before my grocery store run.

- To make lunching easier, I place a lot of the different items in individual baggies, ready to grab and go. This makes lunch packing a whole lot easier in the mornings.

Okay, I promise it seemed like a whole lot more when my 9 1/2 month pregnant self was in the middle of this crazy mess in the kitchen. But those are the tips I have for you today. Hope this helps somebody out there.

                                     .:Liz:.

Living Room Before/After

 

 

Back when we were looking to buy a house(one of my favorite things to do). We looked online at a ton of homes in our area. We went several days with our terrific realtor looking at the ones that we thought that we would like. One day she said I have this home that I think would be great for you guys. Newly renovated, original hard wood floors. But then there was this...

 

 

 

Please excuse the poor photo quality, I'm pretty sure this is a photo of a photo. But This right here is one of the reasons why we didn't even have this house as an option to look at because the words out of my mouth was "What would you even do with this room". But trusting our realtor we went, we looked, and loved this house.

 

So here is the story of the ugly duckling room.

 

 

 

The Plan for this room did not all come together at once. It was definitely a work in progress for awhile.

 But here are some tips on how to:

 

One thing was the awful flooring. And yes I understand that It could be falling apart and that would be worse but this carpet was stained and ripped. The brick is ugly, just look at it, Scrub it all you want and it looks filthy.

So we ripped all of the carpet out (Heavy! and What a mess!) We researched the plywood flooring and then got to it. The subfloor is concrete. So we had to use a lot of liquid nail along with drilling into the concrete to make this work. And then with sanding (a lot) and staining, and sealing we have pretty cool unique looking wood floors. I actually love them. The photos of this process are currently lost. . . somewhere. Maybe one day I will come across those for a floor tutorial for you.

The brick on the flooring I painted and then hand painted the grout lines in. This is probably one of my favorite things about this room. After painting I did add on a poly top coat and it has held up very well.  Along with the brick floor, I also painted the brick wall, this I painted all white. It took several coats because the brick just really sucks up the paint.

 

 

Again another blurry picture below but check out the difference that this made. My dad came over one day and he helped me with my cabinets. We used the existing cabinets building new doors for them. He also gave me some awesome built in shelving, that are adjustable! Double score on that one.

 

 

 

But check out that difference!!

And here you have it. My now favorite room in my house that was once the room I disliked the most. I love all of the color in here and how bright it is.

 

 

Subway Tile for Dummies

When I last abandoned you I had updated the progress of our kitchen renovation.

Is renovation even the right word!? 'Remodel' is a definite no (I always think of ripping out or knocking down when I hear remodel) 'renovation' still sounds so expensive.

To date we are still under $500 in the project costs. So I dub this my kitchen makeover.

"Cher's main thrill in life is a makeover, it gives her sense of control in a world filled with chaos"

High five yourself if you can name that movie!

So today I share with you the biggest project in the kitchen so far, the subway tile backsplash.

We went with 2"x4" white subway tile by Daltile purchased at Home Depot. I love it. For around $2.50 the 12x12 sheets of tile made for quicker/easier install. I've never laid tile before so this was all new to me.

My favorite purchase though was the SimpleMat tile setting mat. This eliminated the need to spread thin set on the walls (the "glue" that holds the tile to the wall) final cost may have been a little higher due to using the setting mat as opposed to the thin set, but the sanity/time saved/minimal if any mess made it all worth it! Trust me...you don't want to skip this step!

This was the night I got home with everything. Can you tell I was excited to for a visual!? So excited I ripped that cabinet off the wall.

Hulk Smash.

The next day I got to work cutting my tile mat and sticking it to the wall. 

Scissors or a straight edge and blade if you're feeling dangerous. That was all that it required!

If you're a super sleuth you'll notice that I painted the soffits in-between finishing the other half of the kitchen. I ran out of tile and had to make another run to home depot (1hr away) before I could finish the other side. 

My life is a lesson in patience.

I did have to purchase a wet saw for this project. It was the cheapest one we could get and worked just fine. $50 well spent. I tried everything else before we bought the saw: score and snap, tile nippers, Dremmel with tile bit, miter saw with ceramic blade. 

Each one failed in their own special way. Either burning, cracking, or taking FOR-E-VER.

It would've been $50 to rent/day or $50 to own. Hmmmmm.

Thanks Menards!

Incase you are wondering...yes, I did purchase something for this project from every local big box home improvement store. I'm an equal opportunity shopper.

Grout was Mapei in Warm Grey from Lowes (see what I mean about equal opportunity shopping!?) I went with the unsanded. My tiles were 1/8th spaced. Based on the label of the grout I could've gone sanded or unsanded but preferred the look of the unsanded.

Grouting was not a terrible job. Just wear gloves. Your hands will thank you. Spread it on with a rubber float and when you get tired of that use your hands. Let it sit 15-30 min then wipe the wall with a damp sponge. 

I highly recommend buying a $2 tile sponge with a scrubber side. 

My favorite wall in the place. So glad I ripped out that cabinet. 

I made the shelves and tutorial to come in a post to follow!

Until next time!

Tanya