Trip To Incline Village, Lake Tahoe

Summer has officially arrived and we kicked it off with a family getaway to Incline Village in Lake Tahoe. It was fun and tiring at the same time. We had a few days of June gloom that could have put a damper on the mood of the trip however we made the best of it and had fun anyway. When the sun came out, we were very happy. Nothing beats the crystal blue waters of the lake and the crisp clean air in Lake Tahoe. It's a beautiful place to be. The best part of the trip for me was that it was an O'Connell family reunion (my Dad's family). My Dad and his four siblings were all there with a number of my cousins and their kids. I grew up spending Summers in Lake Tahoe with my cousins and aunts and uncles and it had been a number of years since we had a get together in Tahoe. So it was great to be back with everyone. I'm bummed I hardly got any pictures of the group but here are a few. Sophia with my brother Billy and his girlfriend Chelsea Sophia and Dada Loving the sand and frigid lake water Sophia, Bailey (Brandon's girlfriend), and Lauren Brett and I My cousin's wife Brynn and their daughter Cici Brynn with my cousin Matt's kids My aunt Karen and cousins Mike and Sean My … [Read more...]

Fabric Flowers

You have probably come across these rolled fabric flowers on Pinterest or maybe you have seen them in a store. They aren't the easiest flowers to show you how to make. I tried to learn how to make these through a tutorial I found on Pinterest and couldn't quite follow it. So, I'm going to try to show you the most basic way I found to make them. I apologize the pictures are terrible. I'm on vacation. I took these the night before I left and rather than wait until I get home to re do the pictures, I thought I would go ahead and post them now. Step 1 I would practice with some fabric you don't care about. I cut a two and a half inch strip of fabric about a foot and a half inches long. You can play around with the length of the strip of fabric. The longer the fabric, the larger your flower will be. Step 2 Fold the strip in half. Step 3 Fold the end of the fabric to create a ball shape. This will be the starting point and center of the flower. Use hot glue to secure it. Step 4 Twist the fabric around the ball. As you twist, use hot glue to hold the twist in place. Continue around and around until you are satisfied with the size of the flower. Glue the end of the fabric to the … [Read more...]

An Eventful Weekend

It was an eventful weekend for our family. There is nothing more rewarding and valuable than spending time with people you care about. That was what this past weekend was all about. First we celebrated Brandon, my stepson's high school graduation and Sunday we enjoyed Father's Day together. The graduation was great. All of Brandon's family came to honor his big day. There was a lot of excitement, joy, and celebration. It was an important milestone for Brandon and I'm glad we could all be there for him. Father's Day was another great day of time spent together. I wish I would have taken more pictures. The boys played golf. Sophia and I played at the park and later we had a great dinner and opened presents. … [Read more...]

Wood Pallet Sign

This last weekend my husband and I worked on another project using what was left from the wood pallets we used to make the pallet shelves a couple weeks ago. We decided to make a wood pallet sign with our last name on it. This wasn't hard to do. My husband did what I would consider the hard part. He pulled three pieces of wood from the pallet. He measured the wood to the length we decided would fit well on the wall. He cut the wood according to the measurements. He nailed three post on the back of the sign to hold the three long pieces together. He applied two coats of dark red spray paint. Once the paint was dry, he sanded it to give it a rustic look. I picked a font I liked from my computer (I used baskerville font, size 600), printed out the letters, then cut them out. As you can see, I messed up the e. Using a pencil, I traced each letter on the sign. This part was a little tedious but not too bad. Next, I painted the letters an eggshell white color. I had to go over the letters a couple times. This is what the wall looked like before. There was a framed collage of pictures. Here is how the wall looks now. I'm going to do a post on the chalkboard I made that is below … [Read more...]

Pallet Shelves

Pinterest is full of awesome ideas for using wood pallets. I had never really heard of wood pallets before I started looking at Pinterest. Or maybe I had and just not payed attention. Anyway, ever since coming across these great ideas on Pinterest, I've been wanting to make something out of wood pallets for a while now. Where do people get wood pallets? I had no idea. I asked my friend whose husband is a contractor and he brought 3 wood pallets over that were in really good shape. Once I had the pallets, I had to figure out what to make. I've been wanting to put shelves up in our living room, so I thought we could try and make pallet shelves. And if they didn't come out good, we could just buy them. So I recruited my husband to help me make shelves from wood pallets. I shouldn't say, "to help me" . He did all the work! First, my husband used a hammer to take apart the pallets. He laid the wood out that he would use for the shelves. He used two slats for the top shelf and four for the bottom. He measured how long the shelves would be and cut the wood accordingly. He cut smaller blocks of wood to use as support for underneath the wood slats he put together for the bottom … [Read more...]

Decorating with Succulents

Have you ever tried decorating with succulent plants? I think succulents are cool to look at. They grow well in containers, are low maintenance, and add color, beauty, and interest to any room or space. They aren't expensive either which I like because I'm not good with taking care of plants. You may even have some in your yard you can use. Of course succulent plants look beautiful in an outdoor garden, but have you seen succulent plants incorporated in mixed flower bouquets or table arrangements? Try bringing some of the natural world indoors to make things interesting in your home. Or add succulents to flower arrangements for table centerpieces. Below are some pictures of ideas for decorating with succulent plants. Line up various size hurricane vases with candles and pieces of succulent. This is a quick and easy way to decorate a table. Simple and understated I love this idea from thesweetestoccasion.com of using a succulent plant as escort cards and as a gift for guests. This is a beautiful table arrangement for a wedding or baby shower from acharmingoccasion.com Another beautiful arrangement for a wedding from bearflagfarm.com. Since I found so many great ideas … [Read more...]

Felt Bows for Baby

Felt Bows are another simple do it yourself project. As I've said before, all the DIY projects I do are simple. There isn't much to them. This is what makes it fun for me. I don't spend hours trying to make something. If it's going to be too complex or take a lot of time, I would rather buy it. But simple projects like these felt bows are fun. I get a lot of gratification out of making flowers and felt bows for my baby and friend's babies and I think you will too. The other point I want to make is that I get inspiration from Pinterest, magazines, catalogues, and when I go shopping. Most of the things I make are not totally original. You have probably seen them somewhere before. I usually change something about the project to make it a little different from wherever I saw it. Back to felt bows for baby. You will need scissors, felt, a needle and thread, and then you can attach it to whatever you want with hot glue. I attached mine to hair clips. Felt Bows for Baby {Steps} 1. Click on the link below to get an idea of the 3 shapes you will need to draw to make felt bows Steps {Note-these shapes are not perfect. They will give you the general shape.} 2.Draw the 3 shapes onto … [Read more...]

At 14 Months Old

  At 14 months old, Sophia is happy as ever. She’s getting into everything. She loves to play, clap, laugh, dance, kick her legs vigorously, and wave her arms with enthusiasm. She’s a mover and a shaker and doesn’t like to sit still! She has a little personality that is all her own. She cracks us up! At 14 months old, Sophia has several words she’s saying regularly like, “mama,” “dada,” “ba”(ball), “baba”(bottle) “oh, oh, oh” (her way of saying hi to new people). She understands many words. I'll ask her to give her baby a kiss and she kisses her baby. Or, "Can you bring me a block?," and she brings me a block. "Let's play ball," and she brings me her ball. It amazes me how much she can comprehend at this age. She also communicates by handing me things like the remote (which means she wants to watch Yo Gaba Gaba)! At 14 months old, Sophia enjoys taking the tops off of things and putting them back on. This includes caps to pens, the lid to the yogurt tub, or top of a lotion bottle. It doesn't matter what it is, if it has a top, she wants to take it off and put it back on. If it needs to be screwed off, she hands it to me to unscrew and puts it back on. I don't know if … [Read more...]

Drop Cloth Baby Banner

After browsing around on Pinterest and looking at cute little girl's rooms, I was inspired to make a baby banner for my little girl's room. This was a simple project to do, but I have to admit, it was time consuming. I prefer quick projects with immediate results like the clothespin magnets I posted the other day! However, I did have fun making the banner, especially once I saw the results. I decided to use drop cloth to make the baby banner. When I say drop cloth, I'm referring to the material painters use to protect the floor. In a previous post I showed you how to make a drop cloth table runner. I like using this material because it looks a lot like linen and it is sturdy. Drop Cloth Baby Banner Supplies you will Need to Make Banner: enough drop cloth or whatever fabric you choose for front and back of flags (I made 10 flags) scissors pencil ruler or some sort of straight edge (I used a magazine) hemming tape or ribbon sewing machine, needle and thread, or fabric glue stencils or you can make your own paint and brush Steps to Make Drop Cloth Baby Banner 1. Measure out one flag. As you can see above, I used a magazine to measure the sides of one flag to make … [Read more...]

Clothespin Magnets

Clothespin magnets are another very simple do it yourself project. This is the kind of project that would be fun to do with young kids. It doesn't take many supplies and there isn't any skill involved. It's a quick project so they won't need any significant attention span and they can see there results right away. Plus, they can pin up their projects with them. If you don't have a stainless steel refrigerator, maybe you have a fridge in your garage you can put the clothespin magnets on or I like a magnetic board. All you need are clothespins, magnets, hot glue, and whatever you want to decorate them with them. I used buttons and rhinestones. You can paint them or cover them in glitter. They look great however you want to decorate them. There is not much too this. Glue a magnet on one side of the bottom of the pin. On the other side glue whatever you like to give them some spark. These took about five minutes to make. Sometimes it is fun for me to do a quick and easy project like this. I get some sort of gratification out of little DIY projects (even if they are this basic)! I think they look cute. At Christmas time I use clothespins to clip and hang my cards to a chain … [Read more...]