30 minute nursery lampshade

In the midst of all my unpacking and organizing a new home, I'm also hurrying to finish up Baby G's nursery! (Which is by far way more fun than unpacking!)

I put a low bookcase next to the glider in her room, and I wanted a small lamp on it for things like reading books and seeing those cute baby cheeks. I had an old lamp that has been stored in our basement for the past 2 years which I pulled out and cleaned off. I liked the brushed nickel & sparkly glass base but the white lampshade was looking a little dingy and definitely missing something.

I found a pillow at Marshall's a month or so ago on clearance for $7! I thought it fit perfectly in the room with its little sewn on flowers of lavender felt, and decided that it would make a great "inspiration" for my lamp shade project.

I picked up a stem of little silk lavender flowers at Hobby Lobby for $2.25 and pulled out my little hot glue gun.

I just hot glued the flowers randomly as I wanted around the lampshade. Easy peasy. It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Now we have a much more suitable lamp for our little girl!

I'll post a big reveal of her nursery soon but I still have a few looming projects to finish up! 

I'm going on 37 weeks and counting so I guess I had better hurry up...eeek!

Double the Ruffles Birthday Dresses

My good friend Jennilee has the most adorable twin girls who just celebrated their THIRD birthday.  Every year she has had their birthday party dresses hand made. And this year she asked ME! ME!! The chance to make not one but TWO girly party dresses?

I obviously said yes!  

The only request was that they have ruffles (woohoo!) and not be completely matching...coordinating, but not identical. Just like her girls. :)

Can we pause for a moment and talk about how stinkin' cute they are? Ok, moving on...

The white top of the dresses I made out of the pre-shirred fabric that you can buy by the yard at the fabric store. The ties at the top are made with store bought white bias tape sewn around the arm holes.

I gave one dress a fabric bow, the other a fabric flower...

...and of course a matching hair clip.

And each dress had 4 layers of delicious ruffles.

Jenni originally wanted chiffon. But without a serger, I am not that cruel to myself. I just couldn't foresee hemming all those slippery edges! So I found this cotton fabric, that was kind of opaque and embroidered with sparkly thread.

Perfect for swinging in the sun...

Or checking out the view from your new clubhouse...

Or just enjoying being three.

Happy Birthday to these sweet 3 year olds!

And thank you to their Mama for giving me such a fun project! I loved being part of their special day!

Summer in Maine

Hi world...I'm alive and well. Greg and I have had a busy couple of weeks, but I'm happy to say we are finally getting back into the swing of things again...at least until the baby comes. :)

We just got home from a week in Maine. I think it's safe to say there is no better place to be in the summer than in Maine. And there's no better place to be in the summer in Maine than on the coast! We headed down to Sand Beach (which is in Acadia National Park, for all you non-Mainers) for an afternoon with Greg's sister, brother in law, and adorable kiddos.

A few brave souls were crazy enough to go swimming (the water was probably only about 55 degrees!) 

We stayed a little closer to shore, wading in the waves and crab hunting on the rocks....

And taking in these mountain views...which are gorgeous and surround the entire beach.

Living in Central PA I get a little nostalgic for my time in Maine, because a day at the beach is a 4 hour drive away now. Sitting here smelling the salt air, the wind in my face, the sand in my toes, it was a recipe for instant happiness. No, it really doesn't get much better than this! 

Unless you get to spend your beach afternoon with these cuties!

 I'm telling you...there's just something special about the Maine Coast that you wont find anywhere else.

Thank you, Maine. You're beautiful. Don't ever change.

Normal craft blogging to resume tomorrow. :) I have lots of nursery projects to post, so stay tuned!!

One Year

One year (and one day...oops :) ago today, I married the most kind & handsome man I've ever known...

and today I couldn't imagine life being any sweeter.

Happy 1st Anniversary and so much love to my sweet husband! 

Home Sweet Home...again

Cricket....cricket....

Yes, I know...my first post in weeks! What can I say, sometimes life just gets in the way. But I have exciting news. We're MOVING! Again. Yes, again. This will be our 3rd move in the last year. No, we are not nomads, or gypsy travelers, or convicts on the run. (Although at times I feel this way!) It's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Job transfers, job offers, and apartment changes were the culprits of most of these moves. But yesterday we closed on our new house here in PA!

I'd like to say we are staying put for awhile...because I absolutely love this house.

I can't wait to get my DIY hands on it! It is only 2 years old, so there isn't too much to be done, but every wall is white, a total blank canvas! And you can see from the pic...some serious gardening needs to be done! I can't wait to paint, organize, decorate, and set up our Nursery for Baby G. But most of all I can't wait to let the dust settle...to unpack for "good" and to call this house a home as we start our new family of three.

Needless to say, the sewing and crafting might be put on hold for a while, but you can expect a lot of decorating posts to come!!