Pottery Barn Kids Copycat

I found these decorative oars a while back at Pottery Barn Kids.  I thought they would be adorable in Grant's big boy room.  Not willing to pay the $69 a pop price tag I wanted to make this a fun "do it yourself" project.  All it took was finding some sensibly priced oars.  I searched and searched and couldn't find anything worth buying, everything was in the upwards of $30, $40.  Finally, Wal-Mart received a new shipment of wooden oars and at $10 each I knew I had found what I was looking for!

 I purchased the two large oars at Wal-Mart and then found the two paddles at Michael's for $6 each.

 Last Saturday as it rained cats and dogs outside, Grant and I embarked on operation oar

 Grant is a wonderful helper, he is very independent and wanted to paint everything himself with no help.  Of course, what I allowed him to do was very limited and I eventually had to correct many mistakes.  Overall, it was a fun activity to do together.  I taped off the sections of the oars that I wanted to paint different colors and used cheap craft paint found at Michael's for $1.

 and here is the finished product!  I couldn't be happier with how they turned out and with only spending around $25 for the entire project.  They just "make" Grant's new room and add so much personality.

 In the end, we decided the two other paddles were just too much.  I'm going to put those up in our playroom eventually.  I attached the oars to the wall with 3M Velcro strips.

 My favorite part, adding Grant's initials to the bottom of one of the oars with yellow stickers. 

Potty Training: Mission Complete

On Saturday all of my BFF's got together in Raleigh to celebrate one of my best friends, Brittany with a baby shower!  Brittany is due with Wilson Wade in early April and I was just miserable over having to miss out on such a special occasion in a friends life.  I wanted to share with you some recent "craftiness" I was quite proud over, things I had prepared for Britt's shower.  I made her dividers for her babies closet to divide the different sizes in baby clothing using just the products below.

 This idea was of course found on beloved, Pinterest.  The pink ones are for my pal, Jackie.

 I was in charge of the favors for the shower so unsure of what would be easy to ship and not cost a fortune in freight costs, I made these little bird favors filled with wildflower seed.

 Grant was ever ready to help Mama scoop the seeds into the bags.

 I coordinated the colors with the colors from the shower, navy, green and yellow.  I was happy to hear that they shipped beautifully and were a hit!

 On another note, Grant is potty trained!  Praise the Lord!  I took the boot camp approach and enrolled him in a 3 day, no nonsense, not leaving the house or Mama's side training program.  One of the first things we did before starting the program was go out and purchase his "big boy" underwear.  He was very proud of them and carried them all around the house for a couple of hours.

 and for 3 days, Grant looked like this... The book suggested that he wear just a shirt and the underwear around the house for the entirety of the process.

 The ebook I used as a guide was:  3 Day Potty Training by Lora Jensen and can be found HERE.  The first day was miserable, I cleaned up accident after accident and wanted to pull my hair out.  He awoke twice that night with soiled sheets.  The second day he had two accidents and soiled sheets the next morning.  The third day, no accidents and slept through the night and woke up dry!!  He has woken up every morning since dry and we couldn't be happier or prouder of our little man!

 and here I am 27 weeks, Baby James is kicking up a storm and I'm starting to feel all the aches and pains that come with carrying around all that extra baggage.  Good news is, I'm diaper free for 3 months, (and then, it starts allllll over again!)

Carnival

Mardi Gras is in full swing here in Alabama.  We look forward to the fun, festivities and moon pies every year!  Last Saturday we joined some friends for the MMOR parade in Fairhope.  The Mystic Mutts of Rivalry is a walking dog parade and one of the more fun ones to take Grant to.  Dog Lovers unite and dress their beloved companions up in their best Mardi Gras flair.  We first took Grant to this parade in 2010, you can check that experience out HERE.  The parade did not dissapoint, Grant caught tons of loot and moonpies for Mommy and he even got to hang out with his gal pal, Chatam.

Grant and I with close friends, Joni and Chatam waiting for the parade to start!

 and now I'll let the mutts steal the show...

 This year's theme was "The Wizard of Pawz."  The black poodle in front was dressed as Dorothy and even had on a braided pigtail wig, it was darling!  Do you spot the wicked witch and tinman?

 Ballerina Lab

 Daddy helped Grant get a better view of the puppy dogs

 I loved this little guy

 Grant really excited about that little maltese in the corner that came over and gave him a lick!

 This dog sported the collapsed Wicked Witch of the West on his back

 Joni's hubbie caught this shot of us watching the parade

 This bull mastif was larger than life and made quite the appearance in his tutu

 And if one parade wasn't enough, we stuck around to catch the Knights of Ecor Rouge parade later that evening.  We were joined by even more friends and enjoyed floats that were modeled after the theme, "Giants."  Clifford the big red dog, Jolly the green giant, Eli Manning and the Giants football team were some of the floats that passed us by, sorry for not having any photos of this one.  Left my camera in the car by accident.  The two below are curtesy of Joni.

 Grant enjoying cheese puffs before the parade started up.

 Just wanted to share this little cute story before I leave you... the other morning Grant was digging through a kitchen drawer and discovered a sucker!  He begged and begged me to let him eat it.  I repeated over and over that he had to finish his breakfast before Mommy would let him have this sucker.  A little later, I went into my room to get dressed, he came in a few minutes after me and proudly boasted his empty cereal bowl with the sucker in his other hand.  "Look Mom, all Gone!"  I knew better and said "Grant, Where did you put your cereal?"  He said, "I threw it in the trash!"  At least at this age, he's honest!

 This is the trash can from the upstairs bathroom I had just brought down and emptied and also where he decided to discard of his breakfast!  Pretty smart, huh?

Last Weekend...

Last weekend, my pal Lindsey hosted a Cookie Swap Brunch.  It was a great way to get friends and neighbors together on a Saturday morning to just catch up and relax.  Everyone brought a batch of cookies and treats to share with the group and at the end of the party we took home various goodies to share with our families.



 Lindsey outdid herself with the yummy food.  She even had a waffle maker so we could make our own waffles and top with off with whip cream and strawberries.  This all was very agreeable to this pregnant gal.

 On to the treats.  Lindsey served cupcakes meant to look like Starbucks Fraps.

 I made Rice Krispy Treats dipped in chocolate and sprinkles!

 This was an awesome white chocolate cookie concoction.

 Laurie made these swirly delights.  Tasted like peanut butter, not sure the ingredients but were delicious!

 After the cookie swap I let Grant have at the goodies.  He was so excited and exclaimed, "Ooohhhhhh, Yummy!"  "Good!"  He picked up each one of the treats, took a small bite or a lick and put them back.  It was hilarious to watch.

Later that day I hosted an open house at a property in our neighborhood.  Grant accompanied me for a good ten minutes and then the phone call to Daddy was made to come and pick him up.  He would not stay out of the red dirt and exclaimed, "I a Pirate, I'm digging for treasure!"



 This pile of dirt was another story, Momma was about to lose it...

 Sunday we went to a Superbowl party at my friend Allison's.  She served the most awesome food selected from the two competing teams regions.  We had pizza in honor of the Giants and New England Clam Chowder in honor of the Patriots.  We had a great time hanging with friends and playing with all the kiddos...

 Nathan, Joel and Ron cutting up

 Grant loved playing with this huge shovel in the small sand table.

 Grant, Scarlett and Hugh

Playroom Progress

I need to be pregnant at least once every two years.  Being pregnant is a HUGE deal but to me it means bringing total organization and revitalization to my surroundings, ie, my home before the baby comes.  My home gets the overhaul it desperately needs after taking a beating from a two-year-old and a busy life/work schedule.   My nesting instinct started early this go around and for the past few weeks I have been cleaning out, rearranging and getting rid of old furniture and redecorating like a ninja.  Martha Stewart is out and about in our household and can be spotted at least twice weekly in our local Michael's and Hobby Lobby.  We have primarily completed Grant's big boy room, I'm just waiting on a back ordered bedside table to arrive and also to find some decently priced wooden oars to paint.  We moved onto the playroom last weekend which brings me to my latest projects I wanted to share.

Grant pushed the lamp belows twin off an end table in early 2011, leaving this guy pretty lonely and getting the boot to the playroom a few months ago.  It clashed with pretty much everything up there so I knew a change was in order.

 First, I spray painted the base silver which I don't have a picture of...

 and then I covered the boring white lampshade with fabric that matches the curtains I recently made for the room.

 All it took was a can of spray paint, a can of spray adhesive and a hot glue gun. 

I took this lamp from drab to fab, it looks super cute and playful in our playroom.

 I also spent one afternoon making curtains for the two playroom windows.  The room now looks lived in and adds so much personality to the bare walls.

 I still don't have them at an ideal length.  I need to hem them up a bit, they're dragging the floor a little too much for my taste.

 and here's a sneak peek of Grant's big boy room progress.  He loves playing in this under utilized (until now) space.  I made his window valance as well and I'm excited at how the room has turned out thus far.  I'll share pictures of everything when it's complete.

 I hope you all have a relaxing weekend.  Gosh knows we all need it, I have a feeling there might be a few projects still to complete!