Nimble Notions: Father's Day!

I just wanted to say happy father's day to all you dads out there!  I hope that you get to enjoy your day with maybe a little less DIY and a little more play for once.

We are hoping that the weather will cooperate around here on Sunday (it's supposed to rain for part of the day :( ) so that we can go bike riding.

Front

Back

Anyways, I wanted to see how crafty I could get without spending any money for father's day.  Here is what I came up with.  My thought is that Steve can put this on his desk at work.  Of course, it would have been nothing without Ben's help.  He was nice enough to pose for a profile shot (more like I happened to catch him in that position while he was playing) and finger paint a masterpiece for dad.

It was really an easy project

1. I first found an old scrap of wood in our garage that was about 6"x10".  This piece has holes because it happens for be from an old shoe rack.
2. Next, I let Ben go to town painting with some tempura paints.  I first tried finger paints but those dried a little transparently so it was difficult to see all the colors and they more blended to be a big brown blob.
3. I copy and pasted the profile shot of Ben into Word and then re-sized it to the size I needed.  I printed it in black and white and then cut it out along Ben's profile.  If you do this with a girl, it looks very cute if you have her in a pony tail when you take the profile shot.  Otherwise, it will probably make her look like a him.  Unless, of course, she does have enough hair for a pony.
4. I then just took a thin sharpie and traced around the cut out onto the wood.

5. I then googled a couple quotes on dads.  I love quotes so had to do it.
6. Then I took some of my favorite pictures of Ben and Ben & Steve together from the last few months, copied them into word, re-sized them and printed them out on regularly old paper.  After cutting them out, I laid them out on the back side of the board.  I used regular old Elmers to glue them on and Mod Podge to seal them on so that the whole thing wasn't ruined the first time it came into contact with a bit o water. 
7.  I then copied the quotes onto the board-one on front and one on back.
8. Finally, I wrote down Why I Love Daddy.  I wish that Ben could have really answered this question on his own, but when I asked him, he basically said something along these lines: "Daddy at work, daddy at work, daddy workin.  Daddy ride bike to work."  LOL  Guess that is what Steve is currently up to.  I also wrote My favorite things so that Steve can always remember what Ben's favorite things were when he was 2.

Any other great, free and fun father's day crafts or activities.  Any great father's day traditions to share-we have yet to develop any around here, but I like the idea of created a free gift each year.  Happy Father's Day!

B is for Bubs

 or Ben or booty-licious. 

 

I think I have written a bit about being in the process of slowly turning Ben's room from a nursery into a big boy's room.  Well, this weekend, in lieu of organizing our attic, I decided it was high time to work on his room.  I have many little projects in progress, but here is a quick one that I finished.  

I have seen so many cool things done with maps on pinterest and of course, letters are all the rage right now.  So I decided that I would take the plain B from Ben's nursery and make it less baby, more boy. 

 I first took the letter and places it on an old AAA map of Oregon that I had laying around.  I was sure to align it so that I would capture Portland (where we live), Hood River (we like visiting that area and go camping near there each year) and Eugene (where Steve is from).  Then I just traced the letter in pencil onto the map and cut it out.

I then used some blue paint that I already had and brushed it on haphazardly.  I like the sort of worn look of it.  Be sure to get a little on the top in case your map doesn't line up just right. 

I let the paint dry for about 15 minutes give or take a few before using good 'ol Elmers to glue on the map.  I let that dry another 10-15 and then mod podged it to seal it all in.

Anyways, I love how it turned out and can't wait to get it up in the big boy room.

best stool for little ones-nice and tall Ikea $8

great little potty stool-especially the nice high guard in front for boys Ikea $5

I think Ben is enjoying running around the house in just his Thomas skivvies

B is for booty-licious you ask?  I couldn't help myself.  We are fully immersed in potty training over here at Rose City Bungalow and I just think Ben looks so booty-licious in his little Thomas the Tank underwear.  And while he hasn't yet told me he needs to use the potty, he has gone several days now with only 1 accident.  While I feel like a repeating record "Ben it's time to go to the potty.  Ben, do you need to use the potty?  Ben, when the timer goes off, it's time to use the potty", it's not too shabby being that he just turned 2 in April but we'll see what happens-he could decide he's over it tomorrow.  Cross your fingers and please send any great potty training tips my way.

Big as a Whale's Tail

our backyard pussy will is starting to bloom and I couldn't help but play around with our new camera...also cut some for a vase

This post might be fast as I have been having some trouble logging onto blog in the last two days.  Well, earlier today I logged on, wrote a whole post, thought it was all saved and then went to publish and poof! it was gone.
Gist of the story is that we have a lot of work ahead of us before Thursday.  The craftsman who built our dining/living room built-ins e-mailed looking for some projects and we were able to agree on a great price provided that we supplied the furniture grade ply we have left from my dad building the basement cabinets earlier this month, I was home to help with install, we provided hardware (already purchased from Restoration hardware when they had a sale last month)
and we did the painting.  DONE!

the design I drew up and initially e-mailed to our craftsman

I would have loved to build it myself in woodworking class but there will just be no time with our plans for a kitchen remodel AND we would love to have my dad build it but he won't be up to Portland again until next year (more on that in a later post).
Anyways, after meeting up with Alan for about an hour yesterday morning after many e-mails back and forth, we had a great design all talked out and (of course) a list of projects we needed to get done (but weren't planning on doing for quite awhile) before he comes over Thursday afternoon for install.  Of course I am ecstatic at the thought of getting closer to having a finished bathroom and having a place INSIDE the bathroom (As opposed to an old ikea cabinet in our already narrow hallway) to hold our toiletries, some towels, t.p., etc.

Projects to get done:

1. finish outlet wiring for hallway outlet that will go in baseboard-Steve is accessing wires/drilling where the built-in will go.  We didn't install in the wall portion because reinforcing the plaster would have been quite the chore and we are short on time.

2. patch in wallboard where it is missing in the nook where the built-in will go
3. Plaster it-yikes!  we have never plastered a large area before-any tips?
4. patch small ceiling area where built-in will not be but butt up to
5. grind down tile that is uneven-built-in will butt up to this area.

Other happenings:

on the ferry to Bainbridge Island-we visited our friends the Burke's last weekend and decided to go out to the Island for the day-Ben loved the ride

 but loved his little friend Evan even more...they were cracking each other up all weekend

our friend Aaron turned 30 (it seems to be the year of the big 3-0s) last night

made gifts for our friend's baby that will come in June...she is doing the room a sort of nautical theme so I thought the whales would be cute

my first try at needle felting a couple weeks back-my sis-in-law Amber showed my how and I thought I would hate it but it is strangely satisfying to poke about 10 needles at a pile of felt for a few hours and have a whale come out of it.

there is no stitching or glue, simply piling the wool with a tool and forming the shape...also for our friend's soon to be born boy

Luv Birds

I am totally and completely obsessed with pinterest.  Oh, the hours that I have wasted....
However, I also have actually pinned and then made/carried out/done many of the things on there.

One project that I completed about two weeks ago in honor of valentine's day was a little love bird pillow.  It is actually sold on etsy and looks gorgeous, with all the birds being hand stitched, but at $55, it was well out of my price range.

Plus, I enjoy crafting so took a couple evenings and one nap time putting two of these bad boys together for Valentine's Day!
I started off by picking up some linen material from the bargain room at Fabric Depot for just $3.50 a yard (compared to $10.50+ normally), washed and ironed it.  Next, I measured the two pillows and free cut (too lazy to bring out the rotary cutter that I typically use) out fabric to fit.  I made the back pieces 6" longer on one side and then cut it in half.  This allowed me to form a pocket that the pillow could come in and out out of when the pillow was all sewed up and saved me the extra work of putting in velcro or a zipper.  Easy Peasy.

I then made a little template (~1"x1") for the bird using a piece of cardstock I had lying around, cut it out and traced about a million birds onto several different colors of felt.  I then cut those out, flipped them over and drew eyes with a sharpie.  To make the "wings", I used a white paint marker.  However, next time I would nix the paint marker and just use some fabric paint and a small paint brush.  The fabric marker tip got destroyed and ran out of ink while using it on felt.

After all of that, I stuck some cardboard in between the front and back of the pillow fabric pieces to protect from bleed thrus.  Then I just started playing around with layouts (using the picture I found on etsy for most of my inspiration) and color on the square pillow.  On the rectangular pillow, I used a tape measure to make lines with my trusty sharpie and thought it would be cute to add "love" in the lines as well as "est. 2006" because that is the year we got married.  I then used craft glue to spread glue and stick on all the birds.  I love them, especially when I only spent about $6 for 2 pillows!  not sure how they will hold up but should store easily and work well enough being that I will only use them about 1 month per year.