Happy Valentine’s Day from our little guy!
Happy Valentine’s Day
Palette Wall and Plank Sign
Valentine’s Day has given me motivation to share my “Love Me” painted wood sign, which means I also need to share photos of the palette wall in our bedroom since we made the sign from it’s leftovers.
After watching pin after pin of palette walls last year, I had to have my own wood plank wall. Since I was prego, there were some definite precautions I needed to take. After reading this post from Funky Junk Interiors about the hazards of reusing palettes for home projects, I decided to play it safe and headed to Menards to buy untreated cedar fence posts. I got them on sale for a total of $75, but if you wait until summer you can also get cheap ones from their discard pile, and the imperfections make perfect imperfections. Yup. I bought cedar for two reasons: 1. it’s untreated, meaning no chemicals where I sleep 2. it’s untreated, meaning it will take stain instantly. A light sanding and a few days in the garage to acclimate and I was ready to go.
Next came the stain. Again, since I was pregnant, I was eager to try my own home concoctions of coffee, tea and vinegar stains. I mixed a variety of jars trying out different vinegars with bits of shredded steel wool adding some coffee grinds to one. 24 hours later and I was set to go. One jar was just super strong brewed black tea. I literally rubbed the tea bags on the bare wood. The key is to try all sorts of different things so you get a good mix of light and dark boards in the end. Some boards I went over two or three extra times. I also wish I did the sides of the boards since every once in a while an edge showed on the finished wall. I really loved how they turned out!
We painted the whole room a muddy grey, including the palette wall. Then we literally took a nail gun and went at it. We started at the top and alternated sides. To make sure it had a lot of variety, we cut a few boards down to odd sizes to through in the mix. We also alternated boards of different widths. Everything went quick and smoothly, and to make it easy to make cuts we just passed the boards through the window.
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- Step one–find help!
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- Make your cuts outside and pass the boards through the window.
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- Don’t forget to pull out your trim and apply on top.
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- The left side of the window was a little tricky, but don’t sweat it!
The only challenges were cutting around the outlet and the small area to the left of the window. The window just kind of worked itself out–we had to cut two pieces down on a fancier saw (thanks, Dad!) but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. Most other people just kinda cut around the outlet cover and place the wood on top, but I wanted a more tailored look so we pulled the outlet socket out, screwed it to the wood plank, then placed the plastic cover back on. Much better looking!
Overall, a major thanks to my Dad and Hubby for doing this project for me. I majorly HEART my palette wall! I had a few boards leftover, so that’s where this wonderful beauty came in. We made an accent sign by nailing together some of the boards and freewriting “Love Me” in matching paint. Next up is new furniture and bedding, along with crown molding!
Lovin’ the Bun in the Oven
Several of us gals helped pull together a baby shower for our friend Kim to welcome baby Kennedy. Lots of love was poured into her theme, “Bun in the Oven,” partially because how great of a friend Kim is and partially because we’re all vouching for our sons since Kennedy is one of the few girls born amongst many boy babies recently.
We started with some custom invitations, which are now available in my Etsy store. It made perfect sense to use pastry bag envelopes to go with the baking theme, so after sending a few testers through the mail, the invite was tucked in a glassine bag and completed with matching address labels and sewn shut.
We chose a red and gray modern theme to match the swanky location at Hotel Indigo. Red cutlery and a napkin were tucked away in more pastry bags which the guests used to take home cinnabuns afterward. And what 2012 party is complete without stripey straws and chevron, LOL?
The centerpieces included chevron fabric and framed photos including matching subway art. The posters each had a bible scripture highlighting the word aBUNdance somehow, celebrating the birth of baby Kennedy. These make a perfect freebie printable so scroll down to the bottom of this post to download your own aBUNdance posters!
Shower activities included “Recipes of Love” advice cards that guests left in a recipe box for the mom-to-be. We also had a “Meal Tree” suspended between two mug tree towers with bakers twine. Different dinner ideas hung from the line and interested guests took a card and left their contact info so that someone could coordinate meals for the family once baby arrived.
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- Cards featuring different dinner ideas hung from bakers twine
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- Instructions for the Meal Tree read, “Please take a meal card and leave your contact info if you’d like to bring the Coys dinner once baby Kennedy arrives.”
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- Guests were gracious when signing up for the meals and leaving behind advice for the mom-to-be
To make the room pop, we filled giant round balloons and put one on each table, anchored down with gray crepe paper fringe. 
Of course Kennedy was showered with plenty of frilly pretties–remember, the majority of our friends are having boys so we all had to shop for our lace and ruffles somehow!
So happy for Baby Kennedy–I hope she remembers that I would throw her fabulous parties as her future mother-in-law!
Now enjoy your own printable aBUNdance scripture posters!
Custom Bun in the Oven Invitations Now Available!Guess what? You can order your own Bun in the Oven party invitations like the ones above on my Etsy Store.
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Halloween Camping is a Circus
We made the sign by spray-painting cardboard red, printing the letters out with a nifty font, glue them to the cardboard sign, then poke white lights through. So simple, yet big impact!
We have a family tradition of heading to Lake Rudolph in Santa Claus, Indiana for their Halloween Camping weekends. I know it sounds crazy–I really didn’t understand the hype until we finally went. What a blast! We are hooked!
Each weekend not only features site-to-site trick-or-treating, but competitions for the most elaborately-decorated campsites and Halloween costumes. People even decorate the rented golf carts! This is a full-blown Halloween family extravaganza. There’s also tons of activities for the kiddies, including a dance party that us 20-somethings love to crash (somebody’s gotta teach these kids some moves, right?).
Though we’ve not won a grand prize for the best-decorated campsite, the last three years in a row they’ve actually created a new award category to give us recognition for our unique setup. Our secret is that we focus on setting up games for the kids. Last year we did a Price is Right theme and this year we did a circus.
As you can imagine, setting up circus games was easy. We just used our camping pop-up tents, lots of lights, and rolls of plastic table clothes as back drops and dividers. We do most of our crafting at the campsite Saturday morning (nothing like a little Martha Stewart Campsite Edition). Our games included a witch hat ring toss, a ball toss, balloon pop, and a fortune-telling table.
A circus setup can be cheaply done–alternate red and white plastic table clothes as a back drop and add some large bulbs. Add some bunting flags made from the extra table clothes for extra measure!
The bigger challenge each year has been to come up with a theme that lets 12+ people come up with a group costume. This year we had lots of special guests…
Of course you have to have a clown
No circus is complete without a ringmaster!
Jen and Bugs didn’t bother dressing up–they just came as themselves
Aunt Kathy went as the bearded lady
Jackie (aka “Jack”) rocked a creative maternity costume as the creepy balding guy with the beer gut
My favorite–Robyn went as the bird lady! She made her costume by hot gluing feathers and wings to gloves and feathers all over her clothes. She even mod-podged feathers to her face!
The husband did a great job as a carny–we found all the perfect gear at Goodwill: a velour red and black striped shirt (comfy!), vintage high-waist dress pants, completed with a top hat, suspenders, and a homegrown mustache that I couldn’t wait to wipe off his face!
My maternity gypsy costume let me sit while telling fortunes, but I looked more like a purple-clad Mary with my belly! But it was a comfy choice!
New Etsy Store
Guess what, I opened at Etsy store! It’s called The Creative Erb and features a few of the handmade decor and designs from many of my parties and events.
Life’s been busy–way too busy–and sadly I haven’t blogged as much as I’d like. But I was determined to get my Etsy store up and running before the year end. I wish I could do more, but at least I’ve accomplished this!!
Some of my favorite store items for fall include:
This printable fall flag banner features autumn colors and the word “GRATEFUL”
This printable 5″x7″ subway poster features all of fall’s favorites–and only for $3!
Another 5″x7″ fall printable that matches the “Grateful” banner perfectly!
This handmade felt “FALL” banner makes the perfect autumn decor!
If you visit the store, be sure to leave me some Etsy lovin’! And I take custom orders, so if you see something you like on my blog then ask me about how you can get one!
