amara

PARTY HAT TUTORIAL – FREE DOWNLOAD

Here’s a quick and easy party hat tutorial for you. If you want a solidly constructed hat with the string and everything (so you can force your baby to wear it like I do) but have it match your decorations, this is my fav way to go. Scroll down for the tutorial and download.
Ari’s third birthday party HERE
Ari’s second birthday party HERE

 PARTY HAT TUTORIAL:

1. Start with any store-bought hat
2. Unfold the hat, design-side down
3. Trace around the hat
4. Cut out traced shape, a little outside the lines to leave room for error
5. Put double stick tape on the two straight edges of the traced shape
6. Start with the “tab” side and tape on the hat, wrapping around the paper as you go
(If you want to do a little fringe or pom pom add this in before you close up the hat)
7. Decorate! 
Download party hat numbers HERE
 And here are my babies in their birthday hats! Oh how I love to torture them.

Jenni covered her hats with chalkboard paper and wrote with chalk. Amara’s first birthday party HERE

We’d love to see your party hats! Email us!
 -L

VALENTINE’S DAY PROJECT FOR THE LITTLES

Ari and Amara looooved this Valentine’s Day candy necklace project! They both got into it and surprisingly only ate the treats after their necklaces were finished. We loved how hard the kids concentrated stringing on the cereal and candy. This is a great play date activity – fine motor skills trump sugar, right? Candy necklaces taste best served with pink strawberry milk. Have fun! 

We found it was easiest to tape one end of the string to the table. 
Take a much deserved strawberry milk break.
Eat your beautiful creations before this happens…
Cheers!

AMARA’S SIMPLE WHITE TODDLER ROOM

I just recently did a wall of gold dot decals from urban decals. I am totally in love with all of their designs. The customer service is awesome as well! (my product plug for the day! 😉 Moving on…. 
This is not the room we started with when my daughter was born. She was in a different room in our house, there was a lot of pink, a chevron wall, and it was right at the top of our staircase with two french doors. As Amara grew, I realized it wasn’t the most practical room to have her in. So, I decided to start fresh in a new room with white paint (Glidden’s parchment white color matched in Behr). It is the “perfect” white. I even have it as my dining room color. I love fresh white walls with pops of color.
Overall, I just wanted to create a simple, sleek space for her. It is one of my favorite rooms to be in!
^The kitchen was a DIY gift from our dear friends for Amara’s first birthday! I fell in love with Vivi’s kitchen from Lay Baby Lay , so that is what they mimicked! Amara loves it!!! ^

Gotta have a place for tea parties 😉
^ There is no really great shot of the curtains due to the lighting in this room, but they were my first real sewing project that I did on. my. own! I splurged on some of the most beautiful white linen fabric and some seafoam pom pom trim. I even lined them with a blackout liner. I followed this tutorial if you are ever interested in giving it a try. Take it from me…I can’t even sew a straight line. You might surprise yourself! There is no way I could have afforded the curtains that my little beginner skills made me. ^
^ These wooden photos from Picture Bungalow are one of my favorite things in the room. I love these photos so much, and was so happy with the print quality! ^
^ I found a pedant shade at West Elm for $15 dollars. I knew I wanted something yellow against all of that white, and I scooped it right up. My husband installed it using a light kit and I simply wrapped the cord in fuschia pink yarn! ^
^ I ordered a pack of felt balls and strung them myself to create this garland. Easy Peasy, and half the price if you do it yourself. I don’t remember who I got them from, but they are allllll over Etsy! ^
^ Amara’s first piece of artwork she created at the top is my favorite! ^
^ I saw this idea on Pinterest and totally copied it! 😉 I just cut some little plastic animals in half, spray painted them, hot glued them to card stock and voila! ^
^ I wanted something with Amara’s birth details on it, and I found this cute little alphabet print (you can customize your colors) on Etsy! ^

^ Found this old french provencial looking dresser on Craigslist. I painted it gray and added my own handles. I lined the drawers with Snow & Graham wrapping paper from Rock Paper Scissors ^
^ Hooks for hanging and a toddler height mirror, which I found at Goodwill and spray painted! ^

-J