Hospital Visitor Treats

Everyday that Denver doesn't come - I figure out something else to do to keep myself a little busy. If not, I'm way too anxious and kind of wander around the house looking for something to do. The last time I was at Hobby Lobby I picked up a plain paper gift bag for just 50 cents. I already had some treat bags and some "It's A Boy" ribbon. I just needed something to put in the treat bags! I really wanted something to pass out as people come to see us at the hospital. I decided to make shortbread cookies with royal icing. I made the dough up but had trouble with it when rolling it out (in hindsight I probably shouldn't have been trying to do it at 11 at night) so I got frustrated and just threw the dough away and decided to buy something. I called the bakery and depending on what I was looking for, they wanted anywhere from $1.50-$3 per cookie and you had to order at least $50. I wanted something cute but didn't want to spend a fortune on anything so when D and I were at Wal-Mart the next day we found some of those soft sugar cookies with blue icing. Each container was $2.50 and had 10 cookies so I picked up 4 containers for $10. Much better than the bakery alternative!

I just made a label to match the wreath and used spray adhesive on it to attach it to the bag.

And then I put each cookie in a treat bag and tied them with a piece of "It's a Boy" ribbon. Something cute and cheap to hand out to our visitors!

39 Weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights: How Far Along: 39 Weeks Size of baby: Watermelon (19 - 22" long, 6 to 9 pounds) Total Weight Gain/Loss: +12-15 pounds (depending on how swollen I am that day) Maternity Clothes: Just the one dress I bought and the one shirt that was a hand me down. Everything else is regular clothes (mostly pjs these days). Gender: It's a boy! Denver Ray Fountain Movement: I can feel him rolling around in there - to watch it looks like my stomach is possessed. It's pretty cool and creepy all at the same time! Sleep: Not sleeping that great here lately. It's VERY hard to get comfortable! What I miss: The occasional glass of wine or margarita! Cravings: Not craving anything, but I've been eating a lot of sweets lately! Lots of ice cream! Symptoms: Nausea, headaches, backaches, hip pain, pelvic pain, heartburn - I'm a barrel of fun these days. Best moment this week: One week closer to meeting our baby boy! We had a Drs appointment this afternoon and all went well. We are dilated to 2cm and 100% effaced, so Denver should be making his arrival soon. If he decides he wants to hang out a little longer, we're going to look into scheduling an induction on the 15th. Until then, we just wait!

It's Fall

It's a lot cooler today and the wind is blowing like crazy. It's so nice outside so Coco and I have spent most of the morning outside enjoying it and putting out some Fall decor. Then, we headed inside to put some things out in the house.

I got this cute little sign for $3 at Hobby Lobby this week.

The two big pumpkins are actually salt and pepper shakers.

Pumpkins in the dining room floor. I bought these for my front porch last year but the wind gets so crazy out here on the "prairie" that I kept having to walk all over the hay fields gathering my pumpkins back up. I'm not dealing with all that this year - I'm just keeping these inside. I'm going to see if D will buy me a couple of real pumpkins for the front porch. Those shouldn't go anywhere!

My dining room table. I actually made that arrangement about 6 years ago for my kitchen table when I was in college. Still looks pretty good!

Rug going from the kitchen into the living room.

Placemats at the breakfast counter.

Some Fall potpourri and leaves on the breakfast bar.

Iron pumpkins - I just need to pick up some candles to put in them (I have one on each end table).

A glass lantern I just wrapped with leaf garland.

The sofa table with leaves and scarecrows.

A pumpkin hanging from the pantry door.

The front door.

The front porch.

My dollar store wreath from last year.

Fall flowers!

On one side of the sidewalk.

And the other side. Happy Fall Y'all!

Hospital Door Hanger

I bought a little door hanger at Hobby Lobby for 79 cents and decided to make something for the door at the hospital. In case you haven't noticed, I've had a bit of energy lately I took it outside and spray painted it Heirloom White and then just made another scalloped piece to match the jar, wreath, etc that I've been making. I used the last tiny bit of ribbon I had to make a bow. I just glued the bow to the top of the hanger and then used Elmer's spray adhesive to glue the scalloped piece to the hanger.


Because the wreath says "Oh Joy, It's a Boy" I didn't want something else on the door that said that so I put "Welcome Denver" instead.


Here's what it looks like hanging on a door. I can't wait for (someone) to get pictures of everything up at the hospital.

Wreath for Hospital door

My sister-in-law made a wreath for us to take to the hospital but I hung it up in Denver's room and was worried that the trip to the hospital and back might damage it some (while we're trying to lug everything else around) so I decided to make another one that would be cute but I wouldn't be heart broken if something happened to it. So, I sat down with some rubber bands, a styrofoam wreath base, a package of size 1 diapers (I used about 25), a hot glue gun and some ribbon.


Diapers and rubber bands. At least one end of the diapers should be white unless you don't mind seeing the decorations on them. These are Pampers.


Lay the diapers out flat and start rolling them from the open side first towards the closed (bottom) side of the diaper.


The key (I learned the hard way) is to roll the diaper in a slight cone shape.


It should look something like this - not a noticeable size different from the top to the bottom but it makes a big difference when you're attaching all of the diapers to the wreath. Just trust me on that one!


Then just secure them with a rubber band.


Then I started laying them out around the wreath frame to see how many I would need. In hindsight, I would wrap the wreath frame with ribbon. You can't see it once it's hung up but it does look a bit unfinished when you're just holding it.


I forgot to take pictures of putting the ribbon on. I just wrapped it around one diaper to see how much I needed then used that cut piece of ribbon as a template for all the other pieces I needed to cut. I cut them all out and then just wrapped it around the diapers and hot glued them on. Just pull the ribbon tight and put the hot glue only on the ribbon and you won't mess up the diapers (you especially want to do this if you're making this for a gift). Then I tied ribbon around the wreath base to use as a hanger and then I went around the wreath and hot glued all the diapers on.


I bought a little wooden sign at Hobby Lobby and spray painted it antique white. I knew that I wanted the wreath to match the "Oh Joy, It's a Boy" stuff I had been making so I decided to make the same thing I had made for the nurses' gift jar. I used Elmer's Spray Adhesive to secure it to the sign and then just ran baby blue ribbon through it to tie to the wreath. I hot glued it to the back of the wreath and then just made a simple bow and hot glued it to the top of the wreath.


And here it is all done! I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I'm not going to lie - it was much harder than I thought it would be and took me about 4 hours. Will probably be the last time I make one!

Oh Joy, It's a Boy Nurses' Gift Jar

A couple of weeks ago I saw this picture online of a little gift jar to give someone when they have a baby (boy). I had been looking for something to do for the nurses when we go to the hospital, and so I really liked this idea. It's very similar to the Turkey Toes I made for Thanksgiving so I knew it would be quick and easy to put together.

I went to Hobby Lobby and got a large jar (not the mason jar kind) with a screw on lid. I couldn't find any blue and white polka dotted ribbon, so I got a white ribbon with blue and green polka dots.

I just put a line of hot glue down the seam of the jar, made sure I had enough ribbon to cover the lip of the jar, and then pressed it down.

I was able to find a light blue ribbon that I liked, that was smaller than I needed so I decided I'd use the larger white ribbon as a base and layer the blue ribbon over it. I just put a dot of hot glue at the top and one at the bottom and pressed it down.

Then I made a label on my computer, in Word and printed it, cut it out and then measured it. Then I went to my Silhouette machine and made a scalloped shape just slightly larger than the circle I had just cut out. I used light blue card stock and cut away! I used Elmer's Spray Adhesive to attach the label to the cardstock and then the cardstock piece to the jar.

Here it is attached. I made one for each side of the jar and for the top of the lid. I attached them all the same way.

Then I took the light blue ribbon and hot glued it around the lid and made a bow with the larger white ribbon. I just hot glued the bow at the seam of the blue ribbon, so it would hide it.

I cut the ends of the ribbon and heat sealed them with a lighter and it's all done! I haven't decided what exactly I'm going to put in it yet (something that doesn't melt if D leaves it in the car until after the baby is here).

But I thought that was a cute, easy way to say "thank you" to all of the nurses that help us at the hospital. I'm thinking it will be cute on their nurses' station!

Cheap Bathroom Update

I've been meaning to do a little something to our guest bathroom. I don't have any decor in there because I'm not sure that I want to stick with the color scheme that I have in there (brown, gold, tan, and cream), but I'm not sure what I want to do so I don't want to spend money on things that I'm just going to turn around and get rid of.

So, on a trip to Wal-Mart I picked up two 88 cent soap dispensers (I have two sinks in that bathroom), and decided to come home and spray paint them Espresso. I figured it would add a little color to the white countertop.

Then, I found some leftover beige vinyl and decided I'd cut out a couple of pieces to put on each one of them.

I dug around in a drawer and found some leftover gold ribbon to tie around them.

And this is what I wound up with. Not too shabby for 88 cent soap and a bunch of leftover craft pieces.

The next day, while I was out, I stopped by the Goodwill store and found a canister for $2.99 and two candle holders for $1.99 each.

I came home and cut another piece of vinyl for the canister.

Here it is.

I got a couple of candles at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and stuck those on the candle holders, put everything else out and here it is.

Don't mind me and the broom in the background - I'm nesting - lots of cleaning going on around here these days. But here is the countertop now. Not too shabby for spending less than $20 total. It's a little something to make it feel "homey" until I can figure out what I really want to go with in there.